In the past many civilizations have formed and fallen. One of the first and most successful ancient civilizations was the Sumer. The Sumerians emerged at around 5300 B.C.E and lasted for more than 3,000 years. They formed their own language, laws and customs.
Remnants of their once great city states and people still remain today.
The Sumer people settled in the region near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which is known as Mesopotamia, meaning the land between the rivers. The group of people that lived there was not united. They consisted of about 12 city-states that had their own king called an Ensi. The Ensi was king and high priest. He was also in control of and led the military, acted as a judge, presided over religious ceremonies, and he also watched over trade. The one important thing that set the Sumer apart from other rising cities was agriculture. The two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris made agriculture possible in the region. By farming the Sumerians increased their food supply, which not only caused the population to grow, but it also meant people could do other things instead of always
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They made advancements in the quality of their weapons and tools, by mixing tin and copper to make bronze. The Sumerians created a number system based on sixty and divided the circle into 360 degrees and time into 60 minute hours, which are things we still do today. Sumerians also invented the first wheeled vehicle. They were also among the first people to develop a written language, which was created to keep record of their trade with other city-states and cultures. At first they used clay tokens, which gradually evolved into symbols that meant specific things. The symbols turned into a system of wedge-shaped marks and lines called cuneiform. Cuneiform was developed around 3100 B.C.E and because of it we can learn about the Sumerian culture and
Imagine a world without the wheel. Picture a world without math. Now, without knowing time. Well, these are some of the many contributions that the Mesopotamians made to society.
These individual states traded with each other. They would most likely trade things specific to that area. They also had a very multifaceted and planned irrigation system. Last but not least they were all tiny domains that were actually well prearranged. On their own they were fairly solid and had a very organized government. Although they were then all united by King Menes. The citizens were fairly obedient and did what they were told to do by their god, the pharaoh. They felt as if bad things would happen if they went against a god. The government became one hundred percent centralized and they controlled every single last one of the resources in the vast region in which we call the Nile River Valley. Just imagine being a part of this structured civilization. Now the Mesopotamia civilizations were a little different, well a lot. Although they had similarities. They did have slight similarities though. Mesopotamia was made of many independent states. They never became united and stayed this way as to what feels like the end of time. In earlier times this probably seemed like a good idea although later they realize that it is now. This separation made the region tremendously susceptible to attacks. The Mesopotamians apparently never heard the saying there is no I in team! Although, despite all of this separation the region worked together in order to do massive projects which included things like
Ancient Mesopotamian societies had great shifts as cities and rulers rose and fell, rose and fell again, gaining land and enemies as they advanced The area Mesopotamia occupied is an immense, dry plain through which two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, course. These rivers rise from tributaries in the mountain ranges to the north before flowing through Mesopotamia to the sea. As they reach the land close to the sea, the land becomes swampy, with lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks, but in ancient times the sea advanced much further inland; and they poured into it as two separate streams, whereas today they join as one before reaching the sea. A close cultural cooperation was established between the Sumerians (who spoke a language that was more isolated) and the Semitic Akkadian speakers, which included extensive bilingualism in its culture. This took place around the third millennia BC and as the fourth millennia dawned Mesopotamia saw an increase in its population. By aspiring and adjusting to the changing world around them the people of Mesopotamia created government and states. Order began to develop in the territories, and due to the efficiency of its military and political structure their authority began to spread and empires grow. One of these city states Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC. Sumer a city-state coming to power in prehistoric time, prior to the cultures ability to leave much historical record, however in the twenty- third century BC writing came into being which has given historians their first glimpse into some of the earliest Mesopotamian cultures.
In the distant land known as Sumeria, there were four empires that wanted to control all of Mesopotamia. They fought over water food land and many more things to fight about. All the civilization that lived in Mesopotamia rose and fell like the sun.
This Sumerian Government Constitution begins with its preamble, which summarizes the main principles that influence the articles that follow it. There is a few references paying homage to God because of the strong Islamic presence in the country. The ideas of universal suffrage and anti-discrimination are included as a means to show the more prevalent ideas of a democracy. Language of a more unified government is added to show that the central government shall be powerful and not one that allows more power to be given to the states making them prone to disobeying federal law. This idea comes from the weakness of the U.S. central government during the time of its articles of confederation. The states were at war with each other, did not obey federal law, and as a result countries did not trust doing business with such an unorganized state. I wanted to create a sense of nationalism in the preamble that stems from the Sumerian people overthrowing an iron fist authoritarian. Civic nationalism can sometimes be an appropriate choice for binding the people together as one nation;
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
Why was this early civilization formed? There are many reasons as to why the Sumerians established the world’s first society. Many of the reasons evolved out of basic necessity or out of simple convenience. One of the most significant reasons was food, which until early cities evolved, finding food often meant traveling from place to place looking for food. Finding food was also usually done alone or as a group of family members. The Sumerians establishment of an early civilization helped to greatly reduce that burden, by staying in one region as a community and taking advantage of what was available nearby. This created a communal approach to finding food sources as well as significantly reducing the amount of energy consumed by constantly moving from place to place in search of food.
The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of
The earliest writing in Mesopotamia was a picture writing invented by the Sumerians who wrote on clay tablets using long reeds. The script the Sumerians invented and handed down to the Semitic peoples who conquered Mesopotamia in later centuries, is called cuneiform, which is derived from two Latin words: cuneus , which means "wedge," and forma , which means "shape." This picture language, similar to but more abstract than Egyptian hieroglyphics, eventually developed into a syllabic alphabet under the Semites (Assyrians and Babylonians) who eventually came to dominate the area.
Sumerian civilization came from the agricultural advances made by Sumerians, which in turn led to the growth of cities, and the ability of people to work at specialized jobs. Out of all the things that helped build Sumerian civilization, the agricultural advancements made by early Sumerians were the most important. Having surplus crops was one of the
The Epic of Gilgamesh is generally regarded as the greatest literature about tales of a great king. The Epic of Gilgamesh served to show us a lot of things. The time period of BCE is very blurry, and this story attempts to describe many different things in not only Sumerian beliefs, but also Sumerian's culture as a whole. Like many stories from BCE the truth itself is questionable, even though a lot of the information is fact. The factual information that Gilgamesh teaches us about Sumerian Civilization is that had had many craftsman and artistic skills, and also a strong belief in Gods.
Millions of years ago the procreant low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris was probably the home of some animal life, but no great civilizations. However, things change over time, and just a few thousand years ago the same fertile low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris became the home of a very rich and complex society. This first high society of man was located in what some still call "Mesopotamia". The word "Mesopotamia" is in origin a Greek name meaning "land between the rivers." The name is used for the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris and its tributaries, roughly comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. South of modern Bagdad, this alluvial plain was called the land of Sumer and Akkad. Sumer is the most southern part, while the land of Akkad is the area around modern Bagdad, where the Euphrates and Tigris are closest to each other. This first high, Mesopotamian society arose as a combined result of various historical, institutional, and religious factors. The reality of these factors occurring at a specific place within the fabric of space / time indeed established the basis for this first high civilization. Items like irrigation, topography, and bronze-age technical innovations played a big part along with the advent of writing and the practice of social conditioning (through the use of organized religion) in this relatively early achievement of man.
Mesopotamia’s first invention was a form of writing called cuneiform which was written on clay tablets with a sharp reed called a stylus. This permitted for recording events and writing formal laws. The Sumerians, a civilization in Mesopotamia designed the wheel which was used to help transfer heavy objects to and from places. They also began constructing daggers, spears and chariots, which has led to their successful wars. The Mesopotamians were also responsible for the first laws and the discoveries of glass, sailboats, and ziggurats. With interest high in religion and mythology, Sumerians and their successors worshiped gods and goddesses just like Egyptians, Greeks, and Aegean cultures.
...est- king controls the food and trade routes. On the war side the three registers depict the king leading his troops to war and the army trampling its enemy and bring back prisoners for the king. Through the art of the Sumerian culture it is obvious the Sumerians were heavily involve in their religious practices.
Ancient Mesopotamia was one of the first of the ancient civilizations. It formed in present-day northeastern Egypt, in the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region of good farmland created by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The first people to settle in Mesopotamia made important contributions to the world, such as wheeled vehicles, and an early form of writing called Cuneiform. Later, the Phoenicians here developed an alphabet much like the one we use today. Also, the Sumerians of this region developed algebra and geometry. Most importantly, the Sumerians made extensive irrigation systems, dikes, and canals to protect their crops from floods. The Great Hammurabi of Babylon, another empire in the Fertile Crescent, made the Code of Hammurabi. It was the first significant set of laws in history. Also, the Hittites and the Lydians settled in Mesopotamia. The Hittites developed a way to produce strong plows and weapons. The Lydians created a system of coined money. The contributions from the region of Mesopotamia in ancient times are still used today and are very useful.