LIFE IN SUMER
GEOGRAPHY
Ancient Mesopotamia is included in a part of the world that was called "the fertile crescent". Civilizations arose here because it was easy to grow food here. With the relative ease of food production, people settled down in place, population grew, and towns and cities were built. The Fertile Crescent includes the modern day countries of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and others. Ancient Mesopotamia was located in what is now southern Iraq. It was between two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. In fact, the word Mesopotamia is Greek meaning "the land between the rivers".
In Mesopotamia, the land is very fertile. In the Northern part of Mesopotamia, there are rivers and streams that are fed from the mountains. In addition, there is a rainy season that helps water the soil. While the southern region is much hotter and dryer, the two large rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates, allow irrigation. The land between the rivers was filled with wildlife and edible vegetation making it an attractive area for early man to move in to. Once they figured out how to grow crops there, civilization soon followed.
Mesopotamia is divided into two parts: upper Mesopotamia and Sumer. Mesopotamia as a whole had few natural boundaries, and the fact that it was perfect for farming lead to more people and more conflict. Plus the climate was not very good to its people. It barely rained and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded usually at inopportune times like when the food is about to be harvest.
The flip side to this is that it forced its inhabitants to either fight to the death or progress. The people in Sumer had to make new technology and methods to cope with their environments Also with an increase in people you had to develop a more stable government. In short, Mesopotamia was a tempting prize if you could innovate and learn to live with it which is what made nations that could, such as the Sumerians, very powerful and impressive.
In Mesopotamia, the land is very fertile. In the Northern part of Mesopotamia, there are rivers and streams that are fed from the mountains. In addition, there is a rainy season that helps water the soil. While the southern region is much hotter and dryer, the two large rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates, allow irrigation. The land between the rivers was filled with wildlife and edible vegetation making it an attractive area for early man to move in to. Once they figured out how to grow crops there, civilization soon followed.
Mesopotamia is divided into two parts: upper Mesopotamia and Sumer. Mesopotamia as a whole had few natural boundaries, and the fact that it was perfect for farming lead to more people and more conflict. Plus the climate was not very good to its people. It barely rained and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded usually at inopportune times like when the food is about to be harvest.
The flip side to this is that it forced its inhabitants to either fight to the death or progress. The people in Sumer had to make new technology and methods to cope with their environments Also with an increase in people you had to develop a more stable government. In short, Mesopotamia was a tempting prize if you could innovate and learn to live with it which is what made nations that could, such as the Sumerians, very powerful and impressive.
THE RISE OF CITIES
Whenever the Sumerian civilization was first established in the region, by 3600 BCE they had invented the wheel, writing, the sailboat, agricultural processes such as irrigation, and the concept of the city. It is generally accepted that the first cities in the world rose in Sumer and, among the most important, were Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Larsa, Isin, Adab, Kullah, Lagash, Nippur, and Kish.
The city of Uruk is held to be the first true city in the world. It has been noted, again by Kramer, that these names are not Sumerian but come from the Ubaid people and so were founded, at least as villages, much earlier than c. 5000 BCE. Other cities in Sumer were Sippar, Shuruppak, Bad-tibira, Girsu, Umma, Urukag, Nina, and Kissura. All were of varying size and scope with Uruk the largest and most powerful at its prime.
The city of Uruk is held to be the first true city in the world. It has been noted, again by Kramer, that these names are not Sumerian but come from the Ubaid people and so were founded, at least as villages, much earlier than c. 5000 BCE. Other cities in Sumer were Sippar, Shuruppak, Bad-tibira, Girsu, Umma, Urukag, Nina, and Kissura. All were of varying size and scope with Uruk the largest and most powerful at its prime.
ECONOMY
Sumerians would have ploughed with stone and cut with clay sickles, and went on to using metal ploughs with the development of metalworking skills. A significant invention (one of many by the Sumerians) was the wheel, which at first was made of solid wood.
Discoveries of obsidian from far-away locations in Anatolia and lapis lazuli from northeastern Afghanistan, beads from Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and several seals inscribed with the Indus Valley script suggest a remarkably wide-ranging network of ancient trade centered around the Persian Gulf. The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods such as wood that were scarce in Mesopotamia. In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized.
The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters. Sumerian potters decorated pots with cedar oil paints. The potters used a bow drill to produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. Sumerian masons and jewelers knew and made use of alabaster (calcite), ivory, gold, silver, carnelian and lapis lazuli.
Discoveries of obsidian from far-away locations in Anatolia and lapis lazuli from northeastern Afghanistan, beads from Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and several seals inscribed with the Indus Valley script suggest a remarkably wide-ranging network of ancient trade centered around the Persian Gulf. The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods such as wood that were scarce in Mesopotamia. In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized.
The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters. Sumerian potters decorated pots with cedar oil paints. The potters used a bow drill to produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. Sumerian masons and jewelers knew and made use of alabaster (calcite), ivory, gold, silver, carnelian and lapis lazuli.
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Practically all Sumerian sculpture served as adornment or ritual equipment for the temples. No clearly identifiable cult statues of gods or goddesses have yet been found. Many of the extant figures in stone are votive statues, as indicated by the phrases used in the inscriptions that they often bear: "It offers prayers," or "Statue, say to my king (god)."
Warka Vase The Warka Vase, is the oldest ritual vase in carved stone discovered in ancient Sumer and can be dated to round about 3000 B.C. or probably 4th-3rd millennium B.C. It shows men entering the presence of his gods, specifically a cult goddess Innin (Inanna), represented by two bundles of reeds placed side by side symbolizing the entrance to a temple. Sumerian Statuettes, from the Temple of Abu Male statues stand or sit with hands clasped in an attitude of prayer. They are often naked above the waist and wear a woolen skirt curiously woven in a pattern that suggests overlapping petals Ram (Billy Goat) and Tree, Offering Stand from Ur (to male fertility god, Tammuz), 2600 B.C., Ziggurats These Mesopotamian temple platforms are called ziggurats, a word derived from the Assyrian ziqquratu, meaning "high." They were symbols in themselves; the ziggurat at Ur was planted with trees to make it represent a mountain. There the god visited Earth, and the priests climbed to its top to worship. Most cities were simple in structure, the ziggurat was one of the world's first great architectural structures. |