INVENTIONS IN SUMER
The invention of the Sailboat
![Picture](/uploads/8/9/7/8/89783003/ancient-sailboat-mesopotamia.jpg?316)
Transportation by land was hectic and took an enormous amount of time. Sumerians realized that transportation via sea would be a lot easier and more convenient. The first boat was invented and used as transportation in rivers, and needed to be navigated by humans. The sailboat was invented with a primitive design, which ultimately helped the people with prosperous trade and commerce. It was initially used to cross the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for fishing and to explore other areas. The primitive sailboat was square in shape and the sail was made of cloth. The direction of the sailboat couldn’t be changed. If the wind didn’t blow in the direction they wanted to go, they had to wait for a change the wind’s direction in their favor.
The invention of the wheel
![Picture](/uploads/8/9/7/8/89783003/the-first-invention-wheel-by-mesopotamian.jpg?236)
The first wheel wasn’t used for transportation. The wheel was invented to serve as porter’s wheels. The first wheel was believed to exist around 3,500 BC in Mesopotamia. The wheel was not only used for the transportation purposes. It was used widely in irrigation, pottery making, and milling. It acted as the luxurious mode of transportation for rich people. The invention of the chariot and1 other important inventions in history was based on the invention of the wheel.
The first form of writing: Cuneiform
![Picture](/uploads/8/9/7/8/89783003/cuniform-ancient-mesopotamia-writing.jpg?298)
The ancient Sumerians were the first people to develop an actual written language. We call that writing cuneiform. The ancient Sumerians kept records of everything. Written records were very important to them. They needed young men to learn to read and write. Their language began as pictographs just like the Egyptians and Chinese. But pictographs are not easy to form into sentences, so they started to use triangle shapes to represent sounds, which they could then use to spell words.
Agriculture and Irrigation
![Picture](/uploads/8/9/7/8/89783003/agriculture-mesopotamia.jpg?301)
Farmers used to cultivate wheat, barley, cucumbers and other different foods and vegetables. They used stone hoes to plow the ground before the invention of the plow. The Tigris and the Euphrates rivers that surround Mesopotamia made irrigation and farming a lot easier and more convenient. Mesopotamians learned to control the flow of water from the river and used it for irrigating crops. During the main growing season, the flow of water was properly regulated. Each farmer was allowed a certain amount of water, which was diverted from the canal into an irrigation ditch.