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SUMER
A long time ago, there was a marvelous
civilization of very clever people. They were
called Sumerians. They lived in ancient
Mesopotamia, in the land between two rivers.
The question is: Was Sumer a civilization??
Ancient Sumer was a busy place of three or four
hundred people. (Just kidding.) The ancient
Sumerians built many cities along the Tigris
and the Euphrates Rivers. Archaeologists believe that their largest city, the city
of Ur, had a population of around 24,000 people! This was one of the largest
cities in the world!
Each Sumerian city was the center of an independent city-state. A city-state is a
self-governing city and the lands surrounding it. Everyone who lived there
spoke the same language, shared customs and religious beliefs, and worked
together to meet their basic needs. Each city-state also had its own ruler and
laws. The priests, who were members of the upper class, were responsible for
collecting taxes from the people; usually, the taxes were in the form of crops.
In the cities of Sumer, long docks were built along the
sides of the rivers so that ships could easily dock and
unload the goods they had to trade. Ships brought
food, drinks, clothes, jewelry, and other goods up and
down the rivers.
The Sumerians were wonderful craftsmen. They made jewelry out of precious
gold, fancy chairs, and vases that kept water cool. One of the things they did
very well was to create colorful mosaics in beautiful patterns using little pieces
of painted clay. Archaeologists have found remains of their mosaics, helmets,
harps, jewelry, pottery, and decorated tablets.
The Sumerians built temples to honor the gods and
goddesses they worshipped. These temples, called
ziggurats, were the most important and tallest buildings in
the city-states. The ziggurat was built in the center of
town. It was also the center of daily life. You might see an
artist painting, a boy racing by on his way to school,
someone milking a cow or making a basket.
The ancient Sumerians believed in education. Record
keeping was very important to them so they wrote everything
down. They wanted their sons to learn how to read and write.
Their written language was called cuneiform. The job of a
scribe would be to record the information of a particular
event or money transaction.
There were three main classes of people in ancient
Sumer - the upper class, the common class and the
slaves. The upper class included priests and
landowners. These people had the largest and most luxurious homes.
Members of the common class were hard working people, especially farmers,
merchants, and craftsmen. The bottom of the social pyramid was the slaves.
Slaves worked for the king, the temple and the wealthy and owned no land of
their own.
Gilgamesh (the first superhero): The Sumerians were great story
tellers. Thousands of years ago, they created the story of
Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is one of the oldest recorded stories in the
world. It's about an ancient King of Uruk who may have actually
existed and whose name, Gilgamesh, is on the Sumerian King List.
The Sumerians invented many things that later influenced many
people. They were the first people who were known to have the
wheel and they invented the sail for boats. The Sumerians also
developed an accurate calendar and used geometry.
Because of the Sumerians, people today use the 60second minute, 60-minute hour, and 360 degrees circle.