Sumerian Uniform

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

Wisdom literature has long been part of the Jewish tradition with a large section of the Old Testament devoting itself to it. Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom Psalms make up this literature. Job, dates from the tenth century B,C and has a philosophical and theological reflection on why the righteous suffer. The suggestion is that this is an orderly made cosmos and ultimately all injustices will be turned to good. Proverbs, written in its final form in the third century B.C. is a collection of aphorisms and poems within the relationship between wisdom, righteousness and religious devotion. In tone and form wisdom literature differs from divine revelation and is grounded in observation of and human reflection upon experience. Furthermore, unlike the laws of the Pentateuch, which were proposed in coming from God, and unlike the prophets, who claim to speak the ‘word of the Lord’, on God’s behalf, wisdom does not purport to be truth (Borg: 2001:148). The conventional world-view of some wisdom writings is that righteousness leads to an ordered universe.

However, Jesus refuses to arbitrate their dispute and instead says to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

To begin, the sumerians invented the first form of writing which was called the cuneiform. Instead of using pens, pencils, and paper they used styluses to make wedge shaped symbols on clay tablets when using the cuneiform. Scribers were the ones who would keep track.of business records. His amazing invention also helped with the development of language.

Cuneiform is what we call the first we call the first written language invented by Sumerians. The language was at first composed of pictographs. Later Sumerians started using triangle shapes to represent sounds that they could use to spell words.

However, their advancement in medicine reached its peak during 2500 B.C. Although the Egyptians have made major contributions, there was another existing civilization who were far more advanced. The members of this civilization, which lived in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, were known as the Sumerians. The Sumerians wrote and compiled many scriptures containing information about Sumerian medicine. They were triumphant in recording medical practices, but an invasion in about 2500 B.C. caused a decline of documenting information. They may have been conquered by invaders, but they were still able to reside within the new forming nations.

In spite of what painters, archeologists, or researchers of the nineteenth century believed about the ancient world, cuneiform has since proven its historical mettle. As displayed by Darius and his memorial at Bisitun, the early, crude cuneiform of 5000 B.C.E. adapted itself to culture after culture, and morphed into the dusty forerunner of our modern alphabet.

Rising of population allowed Sumerians to develop in a new type of government system, city-states. Each city-state was independent of the others. These city-states had their own King. The King was the military leader of the city-state. His role was to act as guardian and protector for his people (www.mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu). Sumerians had to obey the King’s rulers which they believed coming from the gods. Religions also controlled Sumerians because Sumerians thought that disasters were the acting of god. They dedicated and worshiped own specific god and temple. That is the reason Sumerians had a lot of gods, goddesses. They needed a leader who worked for them to please gods and protect them. Priests were also accepted as the city-states’

Proverbs parallels The Teachings of Amenemope very closely in Chapter 15, verse 17 by exclaiming, “Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred. Although the grammatical structure differs and the word choice verys, the same concept is being portrayed. Both texts expresses satisfaction in life. Satisfaction is an emotion that is linked to happiness and contentment. It is a position of the heart. The texts both present qualities of a person that are connected to a happy life. Being contempt with one’s situation, no matter how difficult, can make the situation easier to bear. Although the book of Proverbs and The Teachings of Amenemope are similar in these passages there is a distinct difference.

The Sumerians create the world’s first written language, cuneiform script. They used this for business dealings, written records, and making trade easier. These written ideas were written on clay tablets, and baked in a kiln. This writing was a giant leap forward in the development of their civilization. Mesopotamia warrior, Hammurabi, created Hammurabi’s Code in 1754 B.C. This code was written on a huge, stone monument.

Cuneiform is a style of writing that is the earliest known. The oldest archaeological evidence of it was found in the ancient city Uruk in Mesopotamia where they have unearthed nearly 4000 clay tablets. Their estimated age is dated to roughly 3000 BC; any more specific of a time frame is debated. Cuneiform was a style of writing written on clay tablets where the characters were carved into the tablets with a reed stylus. The type of stylus tip changed over time and affected the appearance of the pictographs from straight lines to more curved or ‘wedgelike’. The change in styluses represented advancements in technology as well as the increased use of writing. By making a more specialized tool for carving in clay tablets it showed that the Sumerian people were beginning to write more frequently.

Sumerians were name for their major area of Sumer. They also invented the earliest form of writing (cuneiform) and the method of counting seconds and minutes.

In the Sumerian Civilization, written word was revered and feared. Very few people could read or write and the idea of becoming a literate civilization was discouraged. Because of this, a distinct class of writers was formed. These writers were called scribes and were taught to write what they were told to write, word for word and read without personal bias or elaboration. For the privacy of their masters, scribes were not to add their own thoughts or think about the content they were inscribing.

The Bible is full of wisdom and folly. This essay will evaluate the concepts of diligent people in Hebrew wisdom being wise, while the lazy person is a fool. The major part of the essay will concentrate in Proverbs, but we will review some scriptures from Ecclesiastes. Proverbs was written by Solomon, and he wrote it out of concern for his children. Ecclesiastes is said to have been written by Solomon, but this is not certain. Both books can be used by all for guidance, regardless of their age. Proverbs in general concentrates on moral virtues, and the opposite, their vices. The main theme of the book is the fear of the Lord, as it is seen fourteen times in Proverbs. Ecclesiastes main theme is life without God is empty, pointlessness and without meaning. There are a lot of contrasting chapters and verses comparing the differences between being wise and foolish, the wicked and righteous and the lazy and hardworking. Both books mainly concentrate on the contrasts between evil and good and foolishness and wisdom. So, let’s look at some verses and relate the concepts, describe and compare them to being diligent (wise) or laziness (foolish).

Discovery of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform proved that the Mesopotamian civilization were able to communicate through written pictures and stylized signs, this was used for purpose of record keeping and schools to teach cuneiform.