The Sumerians developed one of the earliest civilizations on earth from 3500 to 1750BC. Their existence and civilization was not even discovered until the middle of 1800AD. Because the ancient Greeks and Egyptians wrote about the Babylonians most people did not realize that the Sumerians preceded the Babylonians. Furthermore, it was the Sumerians who developed writing, religious and agricultural systems which later the Babylonians continued.
During the early 1800's it was the British, German and French archeologists who began to dig out the earthen mounds of the remains of cities that once existed and flourished thousands of years along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. During the process of translating the tablets written in a Babylonian …show more content…
Another Sumerian contribution is their legal system. They formed and implemented on the first legal and administrative systems along with establishing guidelines for courts, jails and government records.
The Sumerian's cuneiform writing system is second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs and used originally used to keep records of debt, payments and inventory of farming and trade businesses. Much later the use of cuneiform writing was used for messages, mail, recording history, writings of mythology, mathematics and astronomical records.
As the knowledge of writing became known to the majority of the population, it became the responsibility of the religious leaders to established schools and develop the curriculum. A simple form of writing for the Sumerians began with pictograms written on wet clay tablets with a sharpened reed. Eventually this form of writing became out-dated and the use of ideograms began which was more difficult because a different symbol was needed for each word. The next form developed was phonetic writing, similar to what is used …show more content…
Their military leaders created the use of military formations and introduced the concepts of dividing the military forces into infantry, cavalry and archers. The first war recorded with any detail on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures was between Lagash and Umma in 2525BC. Carrying spears, leather or wicker shields and wearing copper helmets the foot-soldiers rode in chariots.
The Sumerians were among the earliest people to record their beliefs in writing and later were a major contributor to the Mesopotamian mythology and religions. Believing in many gods with each city-state having its own patron god or goddess to worship. There were 4-Primary Gods, 4-Secondary Gods, 22- Anunnaki's or children of the god Anu and various patron gods, 3-Underworld Gods and
7-Demigods included with mortal heroes and monsters. According to several Sumerian stories the Primary Gods created human beings from clay for the purpose of doing the mundane labor work that the gods did not want to
During the early 1800's it was the British, German and French archeologists who began to dig out the earthen mounds of the remains of cities that once existed and flourished thousands of years along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. During the process of translating the tablets written in a Babylonian …show more content…
Another Sumerian contribution is their legal system. They formed and implemented on the first legal and administrative systems along with establishing guidelines for courts, jails and government records.
The Sumerian's cuneiform writing system is second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs and used originally used to keep records of debt, payments and inventory of farming and trade businesses. Much later the use of cuneiform writing was used for messages, mail, recording history, writings of mythology, mathematics and astronomical records.
As the knowledge of writing became known to the majority of the population, it became the responsibility of the religious leaders to established schools and develop the curriculum. A simple form of writing for the Sumerians began with pictograms written on wet clay tablets with a sharpened reed. Eventually this form of writing became out-dated and the use of ideograms began which was more difficult because a different symbol was needed for each word. The next form developed was phonetic writing, similar to what is used …show more content…
Their military leaders created the use of military formations and introduced the concepts of dividing the military forces into infantry, cavalry and archers. The first war recorded with any detail on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures was between Lagash and Umma in 2525BC. Carrying spears, leather or wicker shields and wearing copper helmets the foot-soldiers rode in chariots.
The Sumerians were among the earliest people to record their beliefs in writing and later were a major contributor to the Mesopotamian mythology and religions. Believing in many gods with each city-state having its own patron god or goddess to worship. There were 4-Primary Gods, 4-Secondary Gods, 22- Anunnaki's or children of the god Anu and various patron gods, 3-Underworld Gods and
7-Demigods included with mortal heroes and monsters. According to several Sumerian stories the Primary Gods created human beings from clay for the purpose of doing the mundane labor work that the gods did not want to