Sumer

has established some of the most important developments in human history including the wheel, cursive, math, and astronomy. Their culture extended out to the Middle East and the Indus Valley. Mesopotamia is considered the beginning of civilization. Sumer, the first civilization, consisted of city-states. Rulers of these city-states of these states were both secular and spiritual rulers. Sometimes they fought over natural resources and sometimes they shared resources. The Mesopotamian city-states…

their territories. Effective political and military organization enabled them to build regional empires. In the sixth millennium Sumer was inhabited by people who began to build irrigation networks. Irrigation increased food supplies which increased the population. Sumerians showed potential which later in attracted migrants. Around 3000 B.C.E the population of Sumer approached one hundred thousand. The Semitic migrants included Akkadians, Aramaic, Hebrews, and Phoenicians. Human number began…

The Story as an Essential Part of Human Knowledge Once upon a time, someone asked a question, and someone else answered with a story. Stories hold many functions in civilizations, from telling us how the world was created like Genesis in the Torah, to explaining natural phenomena such as the changing of the seasons like in the story of Dumuzi in Inanna’s myths, to providing guidance and a cultural legacy like Homer’s Iliad. Stories exist as an essential part of human knowledge to answer our…

Writing is the visual counterpart of speech. While speech can be forgotten and hard to keep track of, writing is the opposite. Once written it remains despite memory or passage of time. Writing may have come to be because priests and clergy in ancient Mesopotamia needed ways to record and keep track of things. They used pictographic drawings on tablets along with very simple tallies in the form of the ten fingers of the human hand. The questions Mesopotamians needed answers to are listed in the…

It is hard to tell when the first established communicative signals of mankind started to exist and it is only known that the primitive writing system was developed by 4000 BC in the region of Sumer in southern Babylonia. One thing that hasn’t changed till these days is the fact that language, as a particular human phenomenon, can be divided into two main forms: spoken and written. Even if both languages bear some similarities, such as the status marking of the sentences (is it a question, a…

The Third Dynasty of Ur The third dynasty of Ur, often referred to as Ur III by historians was a fantastic era of expansion and human advancement in Sumer. Ur III lasted roughly from 2047-1750 BCE and is referred to as the Sumerian Renaissance, (Mark, 2014), which shows the high reverence that historians had for this period. Ur-Nammu the founder being the most remarkable man to come out of the period did many of the things which led to Ur III being held so highly as it is. These include his…

king, priest, and government official. In the Egypt was based on the pharaoh, priest& nobles, and trader artisan. Priests in ancient Mesopotamia were very powerful and important. They told people how to behave to keep the gods happy. Priests in Sumer (and in Babylon) were also the local doctors when people get sick, they sent for priest. The priests shaved their heads so that everyone knew they were priests. Both men and women wore jewelry. Men wore long hair and long beards and wore a skirt…

middle class, and finished off with slaves at the bottom of the economic hierarchy. Lastly, was the oppression of women. The introduction of urbanization and social classes may have provided the entering wedge for the subordination of women. Women in Sumer had basic rights such as being able to own property and engage in business, but were clearly limited by their husbands. Even powerful women were often only pawns. It was clear that women had more power in family groups than they did in the…

WHO COULD READ AND WRITE CUNEIFORM? The act of reading and writing in ancient Mesopotamia was believed to be the work of professional scribes who would assist rulers, merchants, and commoners in their daily economic or political activities (Charpin and Todd 2010:8). Some exceptions to this have been accepted by past historians. Several kings of various Mesopotamian kingdoms and empires have claimed to be literate and have composed work of their own (Charpin and Todd 2010:9). One such exception…

trade efficient because they could produce tools and weapons that were then sold to other nations. Not only were goods transported in the trade network but stories, writings, and art were also spread. Egypt was developing around the same time as Sumer in Mesopotamia around a river as well. The Nile River was the heart of the Egyptian settlement and explained why the civilization was long and narrow. Although the Mesopotamian region was located between two rivers, the Egyptian land was much…