Rise of Sumer

Fertile Crescent

Region of rich soil in the middle east, curving from the Persian Gulf to
the Mediterranean Sea.
The 7 Characteristics of a
Civilization
 Pretest
1. What is a civilization?

2. What are the 7 characteristics of a civilization?

 What is a Civilization?
A civilization is an advanced state of human society. There
are 7 characteristics that define a civilization.
• Stable food supply - Social structure

• System of government - Religious system

• Highly developed culture - Advances in technology

• Written language

Be careful to not associate civilization with civilized and

everyone else as barbarians or primitives.
 Stable Food Supply
• Civilizations need a stable supply of food. Societies

can only thrive with plenty of food.

• Domesticating of animals and agriculture allowed

civilizations to create a stable food supply.

Why is this important?

Agriculture/Domestication v Hunter/Gatherer
 Social Structure
• Civilizations have a complex organization, or social
structure. This controlled through different jobs and
social levels (or status).
• Social pyramids example
1. Ruler
2. Landowners/priests/government officials
3. Common class (merchants, craftspeople, etc)
4. Slaves

• What is the social structure pyramid at

Parker?
 System of Government
• Civilizations need a well organized system of government to
help direct people’s behavior and keep life orderly.

• The government is in charge of enforcing laws, construction,

leading the army, and distribution of food.

• Every civilization has their own style of ruler

-Kings -President -Pope -Pharaoh -Senate
-Oligarchy

How does the government help you?

 Religious System
• All civilizations need a religious system. This includes, set

of beliefs, God(s), and place of worship.

• As we progress through the year, we will see how religious

views evolved over time.

What is religion’s role in society today?

 Highly Developed Culture
• All civilizations must have a highly developed culture
including the arts, like painting, architecture, and
music.

• Culture is a way to show what a civilization values

(important to them).

• What is a piece of culture that is present

in our lives?
 Advances in Technology
• All civilizations create new forms of technology (tools or
inventions).
• These advances prove that a civilization not only
developed, but also provided contribution to
surrounding area and future generations.
Remember Shutruk Nahunte

What is an advance in technology for the US?

 Written Language
• All civilizations must have a highly developed written
language.
• The beginning of history means the beginning of writing.
The first known language was cuneiform, created by the
Sumerians
• An example of writing can also be pictographs

What would your life be like without any writing?

What is a Civilization?
• Each of these steps is a valuable piece of a civilization.

• Working in groups of 3, you will each have a poster for

one of the key characters.
• Must include:
Characteristic
Definition
Big Picture that describes the characteristic
 Mesopotamia
Region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Name given
to this region by the ancient Greeks meaning “between the
rivers”
The Fertile Crescent
How does your environment impact your life? All human
societies are shaped in some way by the environment around
them.
The term Mesopotamia itself refers most often to a
geographical area, that of the “Land Between the Rivers:” an
area which covers modern Iraq and the north and northeastern
part of modern Syria.
This region is part of the Fertile Crescent, a term describing the
arc of fertile land stretching from the top of the Persian Gulf all
the way to the Nile River of Egypt.
Although we use these terms today, remember, the actual
Mesopotamians didn’t.

©2008 TeachersBrunch.com
 City-States in Mesopotamia
I. GEOGRAPHY
A. Mostly dry desert climate in SW Asia (Middle East)
1. Except in region between Tigris / Euphrates rivers
2. a flat plain known as Mesopotamia lies between the
two rivers
3. Because of this region’s shape and the richness of its soil,
it is called the Fertile Crescent.
SW Asia
- the rivers flood at least once a year,
leaving a thick bed of mud called silt. (the Middle East)

Fertile
Crescent
 City-States in Mesopotamia
I. GEOGRAPHY

B. Three Disadvantages / Environmental Challenges

1. Unpredictable flooding / dry summer months
2. No natural barriers for protection
- small villages lying in open plain were defenseless
3. Limited natural resources
- stone, wood, metal

PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.

 City-States in Mesopotamia
I. GEOGRAPHY
C. Solutions
1. Irrigation ditches
2. Built city walls with
mud bricks
3. Traded with people
around them
for the products
they lacked.

Initiated Bronze Age.

PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.

Foci

• “Greater Mesopotamia”
• Water at a Regional Scale
Modern
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia: Geography
Rainfall in the Middle East
Seasonality of Temperature & Rainfall
(Mosul, Northern Mesopotamia)
 Assyria

Northern Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia
April 2003 (MODIS Image)
Red = Vegetation (agriculture) Uruk

Southern Mesopotamia
Northern Mesopotamia: Zagros Foothills
Northern Mesopotamia: Rain-Fed Agriculture
Mesopotamia
3 Nov 2003
 )
e es
Lev
t
elic
(R

Topography of
Southern Mesopotamia
Marshes of southern Mesopotamia
Irrigation in
Southern
Mesopotamia
Why irrigate?
• Quantity of water
• Timing of water
• Higher and more reliable yields
Water Transport
 Mesopotamian
Cities

City of Ur, ca. 1700 BC

Salinization through Over-Irrigation
 The Hydraulic (Irrigation) Hypothesis
(pp. 196-197)
• In 1950s, Karl Wittfogel (Oriental Despotism) suggested a model
for the emergence of the major Asian civilizations (China, India,
Mesopotamia, and also Egypt and others)
• mechanisms of large-scale irrigation closely linked to emergence
of state, including greater planning and coordination (water
scheduling, calendars, construction planning, labor control),
which required strong leadership and administration
• irrigation provided more stable productivity and increased wealth,
and also required defense
• this resulted in increasing differentiation and social inequality
(between leaders, administrators, and other high-ranking
individuals and commoners), ultimately leading to despotic power
by rulers
Mesopotamia as
a Riverine
Civilization

sumerians black
headed people

Settlement and Watercourses

ca. 2000 BC
Upper Mesopotamia

Lower Mesopotamia
 Ubaid: the Roots of
Mesopotamian Civilization
• Ubaid (5900-4200 BC) were generally small farming villages
and towns linked to shared ceremonial centers through kin
relations
• Clear evidence of social ranking as some ceremonial
centers grew in importance, such as Eridu, with significant
differences in amount of wealth in burials and small
monuments
• Craftworkers and artisans lived a short-distance from elite
temples, and food-producers lived farther away
• By late Ubaid, Eridu was urban-scale settlement
characterized by large temples (ziggurats) and
administrative precincts
 Uruk Period (4200-3000 BC)
• Late Chalcolithic; Uruk also widely spread throughout
Mesopotamia and adjacent areas
• Earliest fully urban societies (city-states), by 3200 BC in
lower Mesopotamia
• Specialized production and administration, and early
pictographic writing and proto-cuneiform (“wedge-
shaped”) script by 3000 BC
“War” side

Standard of Ur, Early Dynastic Period (2500 BC)

“Peace” side

Standard of Ur, Early Dynastic Period (2500 BC)

 The Urban Revolution
(see pp. 196-197)
• V. Gordon Childe defined urban societies as a revolution
based on the presence of certain key elements, most
notably: cities, writing, surplus, metallurgy, craft
specialization, and social classes

• he felt that technological innovations (e.g., metallurgy,

writing), craft specialization, and agricultural surplus were
key in the emergence of ancient states

• as in his reconstruction of a “Neolithic Revolution” he felt

that states were an advancement over earlier cultural forms
and given the right conditions a natural development for
humankind
 temples and residential districts
• ;
• intensive agriculture, stock breeding, fishing, and date
palm cultivation forming the four mainstays of the
economy;

• highly specialized industries carried on by sculptors, seal

engravers, smiths, carpenters, shipbuilders, potters, and
workers of reeds and textiles..
• Part of the population was supported with rations from a
central point of distribution,
• This relieved people of the necessity of providing their
basic food themselves, in return for their work all day and
every day, at least for most of the year.
• The cities kept up active trade with foreign lands
Uruk: “first genuine city on the
world”
During the Jemdet Nasr period (3200-2900 BC) the power of Uruk waned and somewhere around
2900 BC a flash flood swept over the lowlands of Sumer, leaving the infrastructure devastated and
leaving the country vulnerable to Elamite raids

The anarchy that followed the Flood and the threat of Elamite raids required a new, more aggressive
kind of leadership. During this period the position of the lugals grew stronger and they started taking
over the ceremonial and judiciary tasks that were originally restricted to the ens.

Between 2900 and 2700 BC the lugals of Kish dominated Sumer, but around 2700 BC Uruk started to
assert its power again under the rule of the legendary king Gilgamesh.
The Uruk World System
THE DYNAMICS OF EXPANSION OF EARLY
MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATION, SECOND
EDITION
GUILLERMO ALGAZE
In The Uruk World System, Guillermo
Algaze concentrates on the unprecedented
and wide-ranging process of external
expansion that coincided with the rapid
initial crystallization of Mesopotamian
civilization.

Guillermo Algaze adopted the World-systems theory of 

Immanuel Wallerstein and theories of international trade
, In his view, the 'Urukians' created a collection of
colonies outside Lower Mesopotamia, first in Upper
Mesopotamia (Habuba Kabira and Jebel Aruda, as well
as Nineveh, Tell Brak and Samsat to the north), then in
Susiana and the Iranian plateau.
For Algaze, the motivation
of this activity is considered
to be a form of economic
imperialism: the elites of
southern Mesopotamia
wanted to obtain the
numerous raw materials
which were not available in
the Tigris and Euphrates
floodplains, and founded
their colonies on nodal point
which controlled a vast
commercial network
• Between 2700 and 2300 BC political power over Sumer
regularly shifted between city states. During this period
the city of Nippur, a religious center respected by all
Sumerian city states, became very important. Whichever
lugal ruled over Nippur and protected the temple of its
god Enlil was seen as the one true representative elected
by the gods to rule over mankind. Thus, the concept of
kingship became religiously sanctioned.
• The city-state was the main political structure of the Early
Dynastic period. This organization reinforces the
importance of the city as the focus of political, religious,
and military activity
• The city-state was governed by a ruler, called a lugal (“big
man”) or an en/ensi (“governor”). The origin of kingship
and the specific duties of these early kings cannot be
determined from the surviving evidence
• The ruler was believed to be chosen by the gods and was
responsible to the gods for the safety and prosperity of his
people. There is no historical evidence that explains how
leaders or kings were actually chosen at this time.
• Their kings were known as ensis.
• The names and the lengths of the reigns of these kings
are preserved in a document from around 1900 B.C.
• called the Sumerian king list.
• we see a common culture in southern Mesopotamia,
illustrated by the importance of Nippur as a religious
center. This common culture enabled the city-states in
southern Mesopotamia to begin to develop a shared
sense of identity
• In addition to the role of Nippur as the chief religious
center, another institution that suggests a common culture
is the kingship of Kish. The title King of Kish conveys
leadership of a military coalition, in which cities joined
behind one ruler in a common cause.
• The Early Dynastic period established the parameters of
the political institutions of king and city-state that would be
a hallmark of Mesopotamian history for the next
millennium
 En, Ensi to lugal
• The Sumerian word for ruler par excellence is lugal, which
etymologically means “big person.”
 Kings and Classes
• Writing also spoke of the
ascensions and actions of
kings
• ultimately Sumerian rulers
became more despotic
forcibly controlling their
subjects and engaging in
costly wars between
kingdoms
• kings and other elites had
a privileged relation to and
control over divine forces
 Uruk

Colored clay cone mosaic

used to decorate the temples

©2008 TeachersBrunch.com The remains of the city, with a ziggurat still towering above the
temple complex
 Uruk
• Important in mythology and real life. the city of Uruk is one of the
first cities in Mesopotamia. It was a huge city with two main areas or
precincts.
– Uruk’s size is still recognizable today even though it’s in ruins and hidden by
the desert.
• One precinct was called Eanna, where there was a temple complex for
the goddess Ishtar (who was the chief goddess of Uruk) and a
ziggurat.
– These buildings were beautifully decorated with painted clay cone mosaics.
• The other precinct, Anu, also contained large buildings and was
named for the god An.
– Also, notice that the name Uruk sounds almost like the modern-day name Iraq
which makes some believe that the term “Iraq” may have come from “Uruk”.
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 Nineveh

The gates of
Nineveh,
reconstructed

©2008 TeachersBrunch.com
 Ninevah
• Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik) is undoubtedly one of the most famous
ancient Mesopotamian cities. It was famous in the ancient world as
well as today.
– It even appears in the Old Testament of the Bible.
• Assurbanipal, the grandson of the great King Sennacherib, built the
famous North Palace at Nineveh, which was decorated with a stone
relief of a lion hunt – a symbol of kingly power and mastery over
nature.
• Nineveh’s dominance and power was forever destroyed when the
Medes and Babylonians conspired to end Assyrian domination of
northern Mesopotamia in the late 600’s BCE.
– The impressive palace reliefs and reconstructed remains of the city’s walls still
stand today.
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