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I. The First Civilizations

⇒ Humans are in the far corners of the globe thriving as hunter-gatherers, however, astime passes the human population explodes decreasing the overall food supply.With food dwindling in some areas of the world, humans are faced with starvation.Homo sapian cro-magnons, however, have another choice. They can alter their life-style and become farmers. Through farming they can grow more than enough foodfor themselves. This ushers in a new era of human culture and development. Todistinguish between the time we were hunter-gatherers and farmers, historians havethese definitions:

Paleolithic: (Old Stone Age) time period when humans lived as hunter-gatherers during prehistoric times.

Neolithic: (New Stone Age) time period when humans build permanentsettlements and farmed.

⇒ Alright so some hunter-gathering groups because of a lack of food are forced intofarming. But where would you farm? Well being that farming is very difficult,arduous work, you would farm where it is easiest and where is that; the world’sgreat river valleys. At roughly about the same time 5,000 years ago or 3,000 B.C.E.permanent settlements are built in the following river valleys:

Nile Euprhates and Tigris Indus Yellow

Why farm river valleys?

1) Flooding brings silt: eroded, fertile soil deposited by rivers.Nearly clockwork these rivers flood every spring bringing lifegiving soil.

2) Irrigation: using ditches and canals to bring water to crops.Who needs to count on rain when the river provides.

⇒ If you look at a map you’ll notice how close the mouth of the Nile is to the Euphratesand Tigris river valleys. In fact if you trace a line from the mouth of the Euphratesand Tigris northwest along those rivers path, and then arch southward along theshore of the Mediterranean and then further arch down the Nile river you have ahorseshoe or crescent swath of extremely fertile, farmable land. Scholars andhistorians call this swath:

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Fertile Crescent: swath of fertile, farmable land including the Nile intoMesopotamia – it is the birthplace of civilization

Civilization: advanced societies with developed religion, science,industry and government.

⇒ While civilization seems to have begun in all these river valleys at about the sametime in 3000 B.C.E. most agree that it began first in the Fertile Crescent area.Therefore our first civilization that we will study is the one that began in theEuphrates and Tigris river valleys. A land more commonly known by the people ofthe day as Mesopotamia.

II. Mesopotamia: “the land between the tworivers” – E.T.

⇒ The land was called Mesopotamia. Today you can find the country of Iraq there.The first civilization to form there we call the Sumerians.

Sumerians: earliest known human civilization in Mesopotamia – 3000B.C.E. Named after the first settlement that archaeologists found whichwas named Sumer, thus we call them the Sumerians.

⇒ Don’t think that the Sumerians acted as a united people or country. The Sumeriansall spoke the same language and worshipped the same gods, but they lived inseparate teeny, tiny countries that were only as large as their cities and theimmediately surrounding area. We call this type of governement.

City-states: cities with their own government and independence.

TigrisEuphrates . Ninevah

. Uruk . Nimrud

. Ur . Ashur

. Babylon

. Sumer . Isin

. Eridu

.Umma . Shuruppak

. Lagash

* The names are accurate, but alas the map is not!

These are just a few of the manySumerian city-states. Each city hadhigh stone walls with bronze gatesthat were closed at night tosafeguard the city from attack andwandering lions. These cities foughteach other constantly over land, butmore often over water rights. If acity upstream was using to muchwater, denying your thirsty crops itcould mean war! Homes were buildto dried mud-bricks as little rainfallfalls here. Cities such as Uruknumbered upwards of 50,000people. Impressive consideringTitusville is just a mere 6,000.

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III. How do we know about the Sumerians? Are theyprehistoric, meaning before writing, or are they historical,meaning we have their written records?

⇒ Fortunately for us the Sumerians developed their own unique writingsystem. They wrote down their laws, their stories and their tax receipts.However, they didn’t have any paper so they wrote instead on claytablets which were then baked and stored. Unfortunately baked clay isn’tas resilient as paper and much has undoubtedly been lost.

Cunieform: wedge-shaped, Sumerian writing on baked clay tablets.

⇒ Much has been lost but much has been found. Including the oldestknown story. A story that is much older than even the Old Testament ofthe Bible. Although old the story is a good one entitled;

Gilgamesh: oldest known story of legendary king of Uruk who was2/3’s god and 1/3 man. He was the Sumerian superman.

The Gilgamesh story is great but tragic story.Gilgamesh, alongside his best friend and equalEnkidu, slay the forest demon Humbaba, andthe fearsome Bull of Heaven sent by the angrygoddess Ishtar. However, the gods decide thecombined powers of Gilgamesh and Enkidu arejust too great and Enkidu is put to death. Aheartbroken Gilgamesh begins to fear his owndeath. Searching to cheat death he wanders theearth meeting up with Utnapishtum who isnearly 1000 years old. He tells Gilgamesh aboutan ancient great flood and how he build an arkto save all the world’s animals, and he also tellsGilgamesh of a flower whose petals will makehim young again. Alas, Gilgamesh finds theflower but a snake devours it shedding its skin,leaving Gilgamesh to await the fate of all men –death.

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IV. Sumerian religion: The Gilgamesh story takes me to Sumerian religiousbeliefs. The Sumerians still believed in some magical superstitions, but instead of animismin which everything has a spirit, the Sumerians came to believe that these spirits wereinstead powerful gods. Before there was a spirit of the sun, moon and stars, well now therewas a god for each of these things. This belief is called;

Polytheism: the belief in many gods

⇒ The Sumerians believed that all things good and evil came from the gods. If cropswere to grow, children to be born and the rivers to flow these gods must be keptpleased and happy. If the gods were not well pleased then disasters could strikesuch as earthquakes, droughts, fires and floods. To keep each of these gods happythe Sumerians had priests to all of these gods who told the people what the godsdesired from them. They also build great temples to them called;

Ziggurats: “mountain of god” Sumerian religioustemples. Each city-state had a massive one to theirpatron or chief god.

⇒ Priests were the only Sumerians who learned the complicated cunieform writingsystem. They kept the records and collected taxes for the god so celebrations andfurther temples could be built for them. Priests were the only ones who could tellthe people what the gods wanted and because of this great power, the priests are thefirst true rulers of the Sumerian city-states. They became the first kings.

Priests:Interpreted the will ofthe gods by readingthe entrails ofsacrificed animals.Only priests couldenter the home of thegod and makeofferings of food,wined and animals.

This is the only part of theziggurat you could enter. Heremight be a statue of the god towhich priests made offerings.

Believe it or not, these would be yourtypical Sumerian mud-brick homes.Why do they have flat roofs?

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⇒ The greatest of the Sumerian kings, aside from the legendary Gilgamesh, of course,were the following men:

Sargon I: 2300 B.C.E. ruler in northern Mesopotamia who conquers and unitesall the Sumerian city-states. Rules a united Mesopotamia for 50 years beforedying and his empire crumbles. Ruled the world’s first empire – collection ofdifferent states

Hammurabi: 1800 B.C.E. he was king of the city-state of Babylon whoconquers and unites the Sumerians under his law for 40 years. Hammer wascool but the reason we remember him is because of his law code.

Law Code of Hammurabi: considered the first fair and just law code.“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” All Sumerians followed hislaw even after his empire crumbled, and his laws still influence ourthinking today. His law was not the first law code, it was simplyconsidered the first good one.

⇒ Many examples of Hammurabi’s laws can be found in the Bible. Penalties forviolating laws were different if you were rich, poor or a slave. Generally yourpunishment was equal to your crime. If you took someone’s eye, they would takeyours, if you took their tooth they took yours, and if you took a life, then they killedyou! Want to see a complete list of all 282 laws? Click here.

http://www.duhaime.org/hamm1.htm

V. What was the average life for the average Sumerian?

⇒ Most Sumerians were not wealthy, and most did not go to school and learn to readand write. The average Sumerian was a farmer who tilled the soils of Mesopotamiato support himself and his family. He grew wheat for breat, barley, tended cattleand sheep and paid a percentage of his crops to the priests and kings to keep thepeace and please the gods.

⇒ Only the wealthy attended school to learn cunieform. After learning cunieform theymight become a scribe which is a professional writer, a priest, or perhaps a merchantand trade goods between city states. Because only the wealthy attended schools, if

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you were born poor you would die poor as there wasn’t any way for you to getahead and attain wealth and status.

⇒ When you died you went to the land of the dead – Kur. If wasn’t great but it wasn’tunpleasant. It’s just where you went for an afterlife.

⇒ Sumerians are also given credit for inventing the wheel, the sailboat, the plow, andthey developed a 12 month calendar based on the cycles of the moon. They alsodeveloped a number system based on the number 60. From this came the 60 minutehour, the 60 second minute, and the 360 degree circle.

VI. What is this B.C.E. and C.E. and B.C. and A.D. stuff?

Oh and one last thing I forgot to mention before we go. Historians needed a way ofdating events and happenings. For instance the year 2000 or 1944 or whatever. If younotice in our years we count upwards 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and so on. Well what arewe counting from? Our time system dates from the fact that the first people to settlethis country were mostly Christian and the time scale we use is a Christian time scalebased on the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

B.C. A.D.

3000 B.C. First Civilizations 2000 B.C. 1000 B.C. 1 A.D. Birth Jesus 1000 A.D. Present Day

B.C. – Before Christ A.D. – “Anno Domini” In the year of ourLord.

B.C.E. C.E.

This is the time system that we commonly use, but other cultures use different ones.Because this is a Christian time scale and many people in our country are not Christianmany historians and scholars are using B.C.E. and C.E. instead. B.C.E. means BeforeCommon Era and C.E. means Common Era, but the numbering system is the same.

The End of Mr. Herman’s Sumerian notes. Be sureto check out the links and the study guide. Nextwe go across the burning sands to Egypt, land ofmystery!