Introduction
Sumer is part of the civilization we call Mesopotamia. It is located in modern day Iraq in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Sumer used to be called Babylon and was home the first written set of laws made my King Hammurabi and King Nebuchadnezzar’s Hanging Gardens. The area consists of the city-states Kish, Laggash, and many more. They were the most powerful Sumerian city-states. Sumer, as a whole was an amazing place, full of inventions and historic monuments.
Orgin of the Sumerians
The Sumerians go way back before Mesopotamia had even began. Before, they would travel all across Asia looking for food. When Mesopotamia first began and was growing, it used to be called Babylon. In Babylon, the Sumerian city-states consisted of Kish, Lagash, Umma, Ur, and Uruk. Those were the most powerful city-states in Babylon and they conquered many littler city-states. The city-states each had their own god, too. Sumerians believed that the gods would bring them good fortune if they sacrificed food and their possesions for them.
King Hammurabi ruled for a long period of time in Babylon, which is old Sumer. During his reign, he created a huge stele with the first set of written laws. Also, King Nebuchadnazzar had The Hanging Gardens built for his wife. It later became of the seven wonders of the world.
Babylon
Sumer used to be called Babylon. In Babylon, a great many things happened. The most important things was Hammurabi’s Code and the Hanging Gardens. Hammurabi’s Code was very important because it was the very first written set of laws. The Hanging Gardens were a huge part of Babylon, too. They were built for a King Nebuchadnezzar’s wife in 600 BCE. So those are two big things that were found in the city of Babylon.
Hammurabi’s Code was the first written set of laws. Before Hammurabi’s Code, government officials would go around telling people the laws by mouth. That could create problems people could keep making up laws and then it would be impossible to live and remember them all. So, in 1792 BCE, King Hammurabi of Babylon made a 7 1/2 foot cone stele. On this stele, there were hundreds of laws and punishments for breaking the law. This stele was discovered in 1901 by Jean-Vincent Scheil, a french archaeologist. It was an amazing discovery.
Another amazing part of Babylon were The Hanging Gardens. They were made around 600 BCE. They were built for King Nebuchadnezzar’s wife. She was homesick for previous home in the mountains. So, Nebuchadnezzar built a huge garden of hanging green plants. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Hanging Gardens became a huge part of Babylon’s history and for King Nebuchadnazzar himself.
Religion
All the people in Mesopotamia believed in mutiple gods. However, each city-state had their own god that they believed to rule the city-state. Sumerians believed in an air god, earth god, sky god, and heaven god. They were believed to live in the top room of the holy temple. All Sumerians called them ziggurats. They had many levels and were home to preists, scribes, and the government rulers.
The key gods of the Sumerians were the god of earth, the god of water, the god of wind, and the god of the heavens. Sumerians gave offerings to the gods in hopes that they would be happy and give them good fortune. One god was often believed to be the king of one or two city-states. The gods were in total control of the Sumerians and the city-states.
The temple which the god lived in was called a ziggurat. It was a multi-level building with homes for the preists, scribes, and government officials. On the top level, there was one room which the Sumerians believed to be their god’s home. The ziggurat was located in the middle of the city-state. The constrution of a ziggurat took a long time. It took many workers and slaves. Ziggurats were very important to the Sumerians and all of the Mesopotamians.
Daily Life
Daily life in Sumer was quite difficult. They had to control the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but they didn’t ever know when it was going to flood. Their irrigation system was complicated, as well. Also, jobs in Sumer were amazing but little pay came in return. The women of Sumer had to do all the chores of the house and keep the family together while the men had the rights of doing real jobs. One very cool job the Sumerians had a choice of was crafting sculptures of their gods.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded all the time without knowledge of it coming. It often happened when the Sumerians just planted seeds for new crops and the rivers would wash away the seeds. But they used the canals and levees to control the amount of water their crops got. They would pull the levees up when they needed more water, then put it down when the crops had enough. Their irrigation system helped them a lot with growing crops.
There were limited jobs in Ancient Sumer. The men of Sumer could be preists, work for the king, be scribes, or be farmers. You could be a slave, too, but you wouldn’t be paid and would not have as many rights as the free people. The women of Sumer were in charge of the normal house chores. They would do the cleaning, the cooking, and be in charge of making sure the children were safe. Women did not have all the rights men did. They could be shopowners, however. But, that was the main job for women in ancient Sumer.
Inventions
The Sumerians invented a lot of interesting things that we use to this day. Sumerians invent the wheel, their own type of calender, and the first system of writing called cuneiform.The wheel helped them with farming and irrigation. When the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flood, preists were able to keep track of it by using a calendar based on the stars. Most of all, their writing helped them commuicate and keep records of important information.
The wheel was the most important invention the Sumerians created. It help them with transportation, irrigation,and daily living.They created the wheel in 8000 B.C. and is a circle with a stick of some sort going through it. The first wheel the Sumerians invented was made of wood. The wheel helped them with their farming and irrigation. The wheel helped them with transportation, too. It has helped us with a lot of things like transportation today and it’s used on cars, airplanes, tranes, and any kind of things that has wheels.The wheel improved over the years, and now it is very important in our lives.That’s why the wheel is the most important invention the Sumerians.
Another invention that the Sumerians invented was the calendar.The preists helped create the calendar. The preists kept track of the stars’ movement and then wrote the stars’ patterns down with the correlating events. While keeping track of these events, they were able to create a calendar based on the stars and the constellations. It took a huge amount of intelligence and time to create something like a calendar.
The other thing the Sumeriains invented was cuneiform.The cuneirform was an important part of there history.There are more than six hunderd cuneiform signs. Cuneform consists of the different writing systems logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic, and syllabic systems. Each of the encompass lines and wedges in their wirting. It took a very long time to learn how to write cuneiform. Scribes used cuneiform to send messages from the king to the people. Cuneiform was very important in the history of Sumer.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, the Sumerians were amazing people. They invented amazing items we still use, they had an amzing writing system, and created a very intelligent calendar. In the history, Sumer used to be called Babylon. In Babylon, the first set of written laws were created and The Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. All in all, the ancient Sumerians were amazing and are still very well remembered to this day.
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