Mesopotamian Civilization
Wedged between the Tigris and Euphrates River, the first civilization and founder of the many methods and ideas we hold today, now lay in ruins under the desert sands of present day Iraq. Mesopotamia is home to the invention of writing, our twelve month lunar based calendar, the wheel, the division of minutes to seconds, and the opening of the first routes to import and export trade. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia were enveloped by environmental conditions that constantly tested their skills and intellect for survival. This need for survival served as the basis that called forth the invention of methods and ideas that overtime increased and spiraled into the creation of a higher human society.
Nature threatened
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Beneath the dominate rule, the large city-states thrived of diverse cultures, languages, and religions. There were constant battles and wars between these cities-state over boundaries, the show of power, and resources. The weak fell and the dominant survived. The Sumerians not only fought amongst themselves but were on attack by outside peoples like the Akkadians. Even though the Sumerians were sometimes overcome, those who were victorious still adopted their lifestyle and systems.
It is here that the monarchy system was developed which was commanded by a priest-king, who ruled through bureaucrats. It was through this system that larger areas were able to be governed and duties such as judging disputes, organizing military, administrating crops, protecting the people, and administrating trade was possible. This was mostly put in the responsibility of the priest who overlooked the state and status of the people.
The main cities of the Sumerian civilization were Nippur, Uruk, Girsu, and Ur. The ancient homes mainly consisted of either mud and brick huts or reeds that were interwoven for strength and stability. The daily life was centered around each city’s main temple where offerings and prayers were brought to the gods. The Sumerian religion was polytheistic, with human-like gods who carried emotional traits such as love, hate, and anger. Each divinity ruled over a city and instilled fear and respect into the
The two rivers had a delta which was called the Fertile Crescent. This was because of its crescent-like shape and because of how fertile it was due to the two rivers depositing rich silk into it, giving it the ability to support agriculture. The two rivers were incredibly important to the ancient Sumerians because it supplied them with water for their irrigation systems. They were able to also dump their sewage as well. The water gave them mud to use as clay for building. The river led them to the concept of regional government, which was used to manage their irrigation systems, consequently resulting in them creating a city-state. Unlike the Chinese and Harappan people, the Sumerians left behind records that we today are able to decipher. Their writing system was called ‘cuneiform’, which they wrote on clay tablets. This tell us that the Sumerians were civilized and organized. Unlike the Chinese, they utilized their time to learn how to read and write instead of fighting
During 3000 BC, Sumerian was the first cyclical empire, even though they came to a fall the Sumerian people made an impact on Western Civilization. This empire kept history alive, but never forgotten. The wheel was one of their many inventions which are still used today for cars, and manual labor like wheel barrels and lawnmowers. The epic poem Gilgamesh is still a book read today in English classes. This epic poem is inspiring and was an actual historical figure. The Sumerians contributed several ideas, the first organized religion temples and priests. The Sumerians also gave us the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, which was a story about a river dividing itself into 4 river heads, two of the four being the Tigris and the Euphrates River. The water supply was an accommodating way of trade. The Sumerians were the first international traders. They also invented writing, the Sumerians wrote of cuneiform blocks, now student can write on paper but it was a start being able to write thoughts down. The Sumerians had countless clever ideas; they also invented the potter’s wheel, which was used for making pottery to store food and goods. The plow was used for farming and the sailboat was used for traveling up or down the river, for trading or
The Mesopotamian era was known as the cradle of civilization. The Mesopotamians were the first to trade, rule, and educate they were known as the first bipedal civilization that rose to power and invented many wonderful items. Most people of the Mesopotamian era were either common folk or rich or traders. The Mesopotamians where located in the land between rivers of Tigris and Euphrates and the name of Mesopotamia was called so because it means the land between two rivers.
It is undeniable that the natural environment of ancient Mesopotamia had a profound effect on the earliest civilizations known to the world. Humankind’s ability to control irrigation waters directly correlates with the rise of mass agriculture. With this mastery of their river environment, early farmers were capable of supporting large urban populations. However, in Mesopotamia the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were both a source of life as well as destruction for early societies. In many ways, the geography of ancient Mesopotamia fostered a sense of catastrophic determinism within the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians. The scarcity of resources as well as the untamable nature of their deluge environment led these early people to
The society of Sumer, as said in a document “ was home to a privileged class of elites who headed households by nearby irrigated land”. Sumer was a growing civilization with a written language, education, government, religion, economy, and family hierarchy. “Sumer was a particular civilization that developed in the region of Mesopotamia.” Due to Mesopotamia being so plentiful, this let Sumer bloom into a great civilization. A written language in Sumer was in the form of cuneiform, characters formed by the arrangement of small wedge-shaped elements.
The polytheistic religion of the Sumerian contrasted with the monotheistic religion of the Hebrews. The people of Sumeria worshipped thousands of gods, and each city-state adopted a god as their protector (Hunt, Martin, Rosenwein & Smith, 2013, p.10). Moreover, the Sumerian built ziggurats, a temple tower, to please their gods (Hunt,
The Sumerians created a civilization located in the Fertile Crescent, or Mesopotamia, which is located in the Middle East. The legendary ruler of the Sumerians, Hammurabi, was famous for his set
The Sumerians received a different kind of treatment from their gods while they were alive. The Sumerians were very
The Sumerians practiced polytheism, but each city had one benefactor god that they built a temple, generally a ziggurat, for in the middle of the city. The Egyptians may have imitated the architectural patterns of the ziggurats of Sumer when they built the pyramids.
In the end, of it all these three empires all had achievements and strength but had all perished and fell to the ground in the end. When the akkadians fell Hammurabi came and took over, and when Hammurabi’s empire died the Assyrians came in. Tho the Assyrians took over they were too weak to fight off all the enemies and also went down in flames. Finally all three of the empires came and took then plummeted and could not fight
Sumer was the first civilization in a region called Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means “between the rivers” because it had two major rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates River Valley. Its advanced cities were Uruk, Umma and Ur and they densely populated with about 50,000 people. Its form of record keeping was cuneiform where a scribe would write down records of business transactions, barters, historical events customs and traditions in soft clay with a stylus. Advanced technology included irrigation, a system that brought water to crops, metalworking and the invention of the wheel plow and sail boat as well as the creation on bronze weapons and armor. Their workers included farmers, artisans and scribes and their complex intuitions included a formal
This “land between two rivers” held a crucial fragment of countless civilizations that came to fruit after its downfall equivalent to Egypt, Greece and the empire of all empires, Rome. Prominent from 3,500 BCE and 2,300 BCE Sumerian culture flourished in endeavors. According to historical text, this civilization of Mesopotamia became the first to institute and organized religion with temples, priests, and creation stories of “the great flood.” Along with religion, a system of government became instituted to hold each city-state or region under a form of law. The government in these times consisted of a kingship of sorts, where a supreme ruler took control of law creation, enforcement, and punishment—which is similar to the monarch system in modern society. In addition to religion and government, inventions of mathematics, education tactics, and trade networks also came to fruit in Ancient Sumerian society (Cole 7-10).
The Sumerian religion was very important to the world in many ways. They believed that after you died, you would go to the underworld from your grave. Some of the rules for entering were:
In the heart of the mesopotamian desert there was a civilization called the Sumerians. The civilization were a prime and firm civilization. They had built Big strong cities. The sumerians were an intelligent race. From the mud homes the civilization built they built huge mountains. These mountains were seen from miles away. These mountains were the homes to the gods. These huge mud brick mountains were called the Ziggurat. The ziggurat was a temple the sumerians used to worship the gods for hundreds of years.
In Sumer, their religion was polytheistic. It was animistic, believing gods were present in life in various forms of nature. Each Sumerian city-states had powerful priestly groups that were responsible for continuing the religious traditions of their city-states and were the linkage between gods and humans. The gods of Sumer were seen in human forms and having human traits even though they were immortal.