How Did The Sumerians Affect Mesopotamian Culture?

During the Vedic Age (1500 – 1000 BCE), the Indo-Aryans, a group of nomadic people, were able to bring their many traditions and practices into the Northern region of India. This migration was done willingly and played a substantial role in the development of the Indian language “Sanskrit”. This language is used today by religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. Within the languages the Indo-Aryans brought forth to Northern India were “poetry, hymns, prayers, and heavily allegorical history” which would later be translated into text (von Sivers et al 71). The effect these new teachings had on the culture was immense because these were not written until 600 BCE, therefore they were passed around by speech thus creating an early form …show more content…
For example, the notion of record keeping was presented which helps people in the century we live in today see the world they lived in with a clearer lens. The Code of Hammurabi was one of the written records that were written on a 7-foot pole. “An eye for an eye” comes from this code, which is significant because it is still used today in many regions of the world. Although the pole was created in the Akkadian Empire, nearly the entire scripture was Sumerian based laws. Von Sivers points out “scribes wrote in cuneiform script on clay tablets, using signs denoting objects and sounds from the spoken language… For the first time, scribes could not only write the language they spoke but also clarify for future generations the meaning of sculpted and painted artifacts which would otherwise have been mute witnesses of history” (38). The migration of written scriptures affects Mesopotamian history not only in the past but also in the present because we are now able to see deeper into Mesopotamian roots. Also, with regards to units of time, the civilization of Mesopotamia became much more organized and modern. Thus, the conquering of Mesopotamia showed to be a great feat in the eyes of the early