Ancient Sumer Artifacts

Chapter 5

Was Sumer a Civilization?

StableStable food supply Social structure System of governmentgovernment ReligionReligion Arts, architecture, musicmusic,

literature Advances in technologytechnology Written languaglanguage

5.3 Stable Food Supply• Civilizations need a stable food supply. A

complex society can thrive only if its members have foodfood they need to survive.

• Sumerians invented two things to help them create a stable food supply:

IrrigationIrrigation

PlowPlow

5.4 Social Structure

• A social structure includes different jobs and social levels. People at higher levels have greater statusstatus than others.

• Archeologist found evidence that several classesclasses of people lived in Sumer.

At the top…

• These people had the largest and most luxurious homes, near the center center of the city.

• Their houses were two stories high.

PriestsPriests

Land owners

Government Officials

In the Middle Class…

Merchants

CraftspeopleCraftspeople

•The craftspeople include highly skilled metalworkersmetalworkers.

•They worked with such metals as goldgold, silver, tin, lead, copper, and bronze.

•They made swordsswords, and arrowheads for military.

•They made tools tools like plows and hoes for farmers.

The Common Class Included…

FarmersFarmers

Fisherman

• Farmers often worked to build or repair the irrigationirrigation systems. In times of warm they were forced to serve in the army.

Bottom of the Barrel…

SlavesSlaves

They lived in their owners’ homes and had

no no property of their own.

5.5 Government

• All civilizations have a system of government to direct people’s behavior and make life orderly.

• Sumerian city-states were ruled by kingskings.

• They believe their kings were chosenchosen by the gods to rule in their place.

• This belief made their kings very powerfulpowerful

• It also helped strengthen the socialsocial order.

5.5 Sumerian Kings

• Enforced lawslaws and collected taxes

• BuiltBuilt temples and made sure irrigation systems were maintained

• Kings led led his city-state’s armyarmy which was his most important job

5.5 Sumerian Army and Official• Included both professional professional soldiers and

temporary citizen-soldiers.

• Some of them were footfoot soldiers

• Others drove drove chariots, wheeled vehicles pulled by horses.

Officials

• Under the king

•GovernorsGovernors ruled over outlying towns

•ScribesScribes helped record laws-Sumerians were the first people to develop a system of written laws.

5.6 Religion• A religious system includes a set of set of

beliefsbeliefs, usually in a god or gods, together with forms of worship.

• In Sumer, religious beliefs influenced every part of daily life.

• Sumerians tried to please the gods in all things, from growing crops to settling disputes.

5.6 Religion Continued…

• Sumerians expressed their religious beliefs by building temples and religious towers called zigguratsziggurats.

5.6 Religion Continued Again…

• It was the king’s duty to build and maintain the zigguratsziggurats.

• The towers were made of mud bricks and located near temples.

• They were so large that they could be seen from 2020 miles away.

• Some were as high as eight stories and as wide as 200200 feet.

5.6 Religion Continued Again and Again…

• Sumerians believed that the gods livedlived in the ziggurats, and they built special temples at the toptop of them,

• Outside of the ziggurat, they attached a long staircasestaircase so the gods could climb down to Earth.

• PriestPriest and kings stood inside the towers to ask for the gods’ blessing.

5.7 Arts

• There were many kinds of artists and craftspeople in Sumer.

• Metalworkers made practical objects, made practical objects like weaponsweapons and cupscups.

• They also made mirrors and jewelry.

• Sumerian architectsarchitects designed temples and ziggurats.

5.7 Arts Continued…

• Music was another important art in Sumer.• The Sumerians believed that music brought joyjoy

to the gods and people alike. • Musicians played instruments and sang during

temple ceremonies. • Instruments such as drums and pipes• The favorite was the lyre.lyre.• Lyres were wooden instruments made of a

sound box and strings.strings. • Lyres were often decorated with precious

stones.stones.

5.8 Technology• The Sumerian’s most important invention was the

wheelwheel. The earliest wheel dated back to 3500 3500 B.C.E B.C.E

• They used this discovery to create wheeled carts for farmers and chariots for the army.

• Before the wheel, people had to drag their goods on flat-bottomed carts called sledgessledges. Sledges often got stuckstuck in mud, and could not support heavy loads.

• Wheels made it easier to go long distancesdistances

5.8 Technology Continued…

• Another technological advance was the archarch.

• Sumerian arches were upside down in a UU- or V- shaped structure build above above doorways.

• Arches add strength and beauty to Sumerian buildings. They were a common feature of templestemples entrances and upper-class homes.

• Some historians say the arch is the Sumerian’s greatest architectural achievement.achievement.

5.9 Writing

• Sumerians created a written language called cuneiformcuneiform.

• This name comes from the Latin word for “wedgewedge.”

• The Sumerians used a wedge-shaped

stylusstylus, a sharp pointed tool, to etch

their writing in clay tablets.

5.9 Writing Continue

• The earliest examples of cuneiform show that it was used to record information about the goods goods Sumerians exchangedexchanged with one another.

• At first, they may have used as many as 2,0002,000 symbols to stand for ideas and sounds.

• Over time, they were able to reduce this number to about 700700..

5. 9 Writing Continue Again…

• Cuneiform was based on an earlier, simpler form of writing that used pictographpictograph.

• Pictograph are symbols symbols that stand for realreal objects, such as a snake or water.

• Scribes drew the symbol with a sharpened reed reed on wet clay. When the clay dried, the marks became a permanent record.

Sites• http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/First_

Cities/firstcities_splash.htm

• http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/geography/challenge/cha_set.html

• http://www.richeast.org/htwm/cune/cune.html