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Sumerian Notes
Sumerian Notes
Paleolithic: (Old Stone Age) time period when humans lived as hunter-
gatherers during prehistoric times.
Neolithic: (New Stone Age) time period when humans build permanent
settlements and farmed.
⇒ Alright so some hunter-gathering groups because of a lack of food are forced into
farming. 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’s
great 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:
⇒ If you look at a map you’ll notice how close the mouth of the Nile is to the Euphrates
and Tigris river valleys. In fact if you trace a line from the mouth of the Euphrates
and Tigris northwest along those rivers path, and then arch southward along the
shore of the Mediterranean and then further arch down the Nile river you have a
horseshoe or crescent swath of extremely fertile, farmable land. Scholars and
historians call this swath:
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Fertile Crescent: swath of fertile, farmable land including the Nile into
Mesopotamia – it is the birthplace of civilization
⇒ While civilization seems to have begun in all these river valleys at about the same
time 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 the
Euphrates and Tigris river valleys. A land more commonly known by the people of
the day as Mesopotamia.
⇒ Don’t think that the Sumerians acted as a united people or country. The Sumerians
all spoke the same language and worshipped the same gods, but they lived in
separate teeny, tiny countries that were only as large as their cities and the
immediately surrounding area. We call this type of governement.
⇒ Much has been lost but much has been found. Including the oldest
known story. A story that is much older than even the Old Testament of
the Bible. Although old the story is a good one entitled;
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IV. Sumerian religion: The Gilgamesh story takes me to Sumerian religious
beliefs. The Sumerians still believed in some magical superstitions, but instead of animism
in which everything has a spirit, the Sumerians came to believe that these spirits were
instead powerful gods. Before there was a spirit of the sun, moon and stars, well now there
was a god for each of these things. This belief is called;
⇒ The Sumerians believed that all things good and evil came from the gods. If crops
were to grow, children to be born and the rivers to flow these gods must be kept
pleased and happy. If the gods were not well pleased then disasters could strike
such as earthquakes, droughts, fires and floods. To keep each of these gods happy
the Sumerians had priests to all of these gods who told the people what the gods
desired from them. They also build great temples to them called;
⇒ Priests were the only Sumerians who learned the complicated cunieform writing
system. They kept the records and collected taxes for the god so celebrations and
further temples could be built for them. Priests were the only ones who could tell
the people what the gods wanted and because of this great power, the priests are the
first true rulers of the Sumerian city-states. They became the first kings.
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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 unites
all the Sumerian city-states. Rules a united Mesopotamia for 50 years before
dying and his empire crumbles. Ruled the world’s first empire – collection of
different states
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 his
law even after his empire crumbled, and his laws still influence our
thinking today. His law was not the first law code, it was simply
considered the first good one.
⇒ Many examples of Hammurabi’s laws can be found in the Bible. Penalties for
violating laws were different if you were rich, poor or a slave. Generally your
punishment was equal to your crime. If you took someone’s eye, they would take
yours, if you took their tooth they took yours, and if you took a life, then they killed
you! Want to see a complete list of all 282 laws? Click here.
http://www.duhaime.org/hamm1.htm
⇒ Most Sumerians were not wealthy, and most did not go to school and learn to read
and write. The average Sumerian was a farmer who tilled the soils of Mesopotamia
to support himself and his family. He grew wheat for breat, barley, tended cattle
and sheep and paid a percentage of his crops to the priests and kings to keep the
peace and please the gods.
⇒ Only the wealthy attended school to learn cunieform. After learning cunieform they
might become a scribe which is a professional writer, a priest, or perhaps a merchant
and 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 get
ahead and attain wealth and status.
⇒ When you died you went to the land of the dead – Kur. If wasn’t great but it wasn’t
unpleasant. It’s just where you went for an afterlife.
⇒ Sumerians are also given credit for inventing the wheel, the sailboat, the plow, and
they developed a 12 month calendar based on the cycles of the moon. They also
developed a number system based on the number 60. From this came the 60 minute
hour, 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 of
dating events and happenings. For instance the year 2000 or 1944 or whatever. If you
notice in our years we count upwards 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and so on. Well what are
we counting from? Our time system dates from the fact that the first people to settle
this country were mostly Christian and the time scale we use is a Christian time scale
based 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
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 Christian
many historians and scholars are using B.C.E. and C.E. instead. B.C.E. means Before
Common Era and C.E. means Common Era, but the numbering system is the same.