Compare And Contrast Greek City And Sumerian City-State

The Greek polis and the Sumerian city-state were both equally important to the civilization that it belonged to. Although they both were essentially the same thing, both differed in its operation depending on the civilization it belonged to. A Greek polis differs from a Sumerian city-state because a Sumerian city-state had ziggurats, Sumerian city-states relied heavily on agriculture, and Sumerian city-states differed in how they were run. Greek polis gradually advanced during a period known as the Dark Age. However, by the 8th century B.C.E. it became to be known as a distinct and important establishment in Greek society. Physically, a polis surrounded a city, town, or even a village and its encompassing countryside. The town, city, or village was the meeting point where people gathered for social, religious, or political affairs. In certain poleis, people met on an acropolis (a …show more content…
Along with Mesopotamia, they founded a bunch of cities that includes Uruk, Ur, Umma, Lagash, and Eridu. These same cities increased in size and began to exert their control over the encompassing countryside and city-states were established. One way in which the Sumerian city-state differed from a Greek polis is because Sumerian city-states had ziggurats. A ziggurat was a temple that was dedicated to the head god/goddess. The temple was also the economic and political core of the city-state. Sumerian city-states also relied heavily on agriculture along with some trade (Spielvogel 7). The Greeks relied a lot on trade. They traded supplies such as wine, pottery, and olive oil and they received items such as grain, metals, and fish in return (Spielvogel 56). In Sumerian city-states, priests had all of the power until kings took over and received all of the power (Spielvogel 7). Greek poleis had tyrants, who captured power through the use of force, whereas with Sumerian city-states, citizens believed that kings received their power from gods (Spielvogel