The Sumerians

February 17, 2016

Sir Leonard Woolley

• British archaeologist who between 1924 and 1934 uncovered ancient ruins in Southern Iraq, at the Sumerian Capital, Ur

• Area called “Royal Cemetery of Ur”

• Discovered a tomb that was unique because it had been hidden and was thus untouched by grave robbers.

Lapis Lazuli

• Inside the tomb, along with the body of the Queen, Woolley found:

– 60 female skeletons

– Skeletons of armed soldiers

– Remains of oxen chained to carts

– Skeletons with instruments (lyres of Ur)

– Clay cups scattered over the floor

• What happened and how can this be explained?

The Tomb of Queen Puabi

Mesopotamian Religion

• Sumerians, like other Mesopotamian civilizations, were Polytheistic– Polytheism – Belief in many gods

– Monotheism – Belief in one god

• Different gods were in charge of different things– An - god of heaven; Enlil - god of air; Enki – god of water

and fertility

• People tried to please the gods by making offerings in Ziggurats

• Believed in an afterlife which consisted of spending eternity as a ghost in a gloomy underworld.

Ziggurat of Ur

• Made of mud brick

• Shrine at the very top

• Place for sacrifices and offerings

• Priests would perform rites and rituals

• Ziggurats were often the center of a city

US soldiers climb the Ziggurat of Ur in 2010

Sumerian Achievements

• Invented the wheel

• Developed irrigation canals for farming

• Developed cuneiform writing

• Established trade and trading routes

• Produced the world’s earliest known work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh

Cuneiform

A reed stylus was used to scrapeCharacters into a clay tablet

Tablets could then be baked toharden