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All right, time travelers, buckle up.
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It's time for the brain blaster challenge. Today,
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we're diving headfirst into a mystery that's been waiting for us for thousands
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of years. Here's the puzzle, folks:
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You see these four images?
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There's a secret link hidden between them.
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Can you figure out what that is?
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Time's up.
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Got your answer? Boom! You got it.
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It's the wheel.
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One of humanity's most revolutionary inventions. And guess what?
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This simple,
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but game-changing invention is just one from a civilization that was an
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absolute powerhouse of ideas. Sumer.
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Now, let's roll back in time and discover the wonders of this amazing place.
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Let's go, historians.
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Before we wheel out today's lesson, let's look at our objectives.
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We'll describe the primary advancements of Sumer,
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including their political, religious, cultural,
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economic, and technological achievements. And, as we go,
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we'll explain how those advancements affected later civilizations.
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Are you ready, historians?
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Let's dig into the details of Sumerian society, starting with,
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you guessed it, government.
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What kind of leaders and laws do you reckon they had back then in Sumer?
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Let's see if you're right. Picture this.
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Sumer was made up of a bunch of city-states,
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kind of like mini countries, each with its own boss and rules.
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Imagine each city state running its own show with its own laws, economy,
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and soldiers. Cool, right? And here's the kicker.
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These bosses, the kings,
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were believed to be handpicked by the gods.
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This tied government and religion together.
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They would even have artwork and epic stories made portraying them as God-like
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heroes. These kings ran the show,
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but they were helped by a big team of people called bureaucrats who
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did most of the work.
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These folks made sure everything in the city-state ran smoother than a chariot
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ride on a new Sumerian road.
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And these bureaucrats weren't just desk workers and managers,
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a bunch of them traveled far and wide to talk to people in other city states,
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trading goods and making peace treaties,
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But, just in case, to keep the city safe,
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each city state had its own army ready to defend its home turf.
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Here's the best part:
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These ways of running things influenced other civilizations
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for centuries. Many of Sumer's ideas on governments,
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even though they've been tweaked, are still in use today.
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We said earlier that Sumerian kings were also religious leaders and were helped
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by priests. Together,
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they led religious rituals and ceremonies to honor the gods.
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Now imagine having not just one or even two,
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but a whole bunch of gods to pray to.
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That's what being polytheistic means.
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The worship of more than one god.
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And most Sumerian gods represented forces of nature.
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Take Enlil, for example. He was in charge of the wind and storms.
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He also controlled the rain, which makes him pretty important
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if you are a farmer hoping for a good crop.
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Wanna learn more about Sumerian gods? Then be sure to check out the PDF.
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Since these gods ruled forces which were important in the lives of Sumerians,
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they were usually included in prayers for nice weather and good harvests.
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Honoring the gods that controlled their crops
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made people feel like they were in control of their own destiny.
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Polytheism wasn't just a Mesopotamian thing either.
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Having many gods was the norm for most,
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but not all, early civilizations,
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Sumerians also believed in an afterlife,
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but to them it was a dark and gloomy place,
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which made life on Earth even more important.
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Now, where did they worship these gods? At Ziggurats.
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These were giant temples that were the heart of the town.
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Hmm... kinda looks familiar, huh?
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Picture this: a huge building where people went to pray, and
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around it they could also meet friends and even do a little shopping.
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It was kind of like the ancient version of a mall.
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The Sumerians believed in showing their gods some love by giving them presents.
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These weren't like birthday gifts, though.
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They offered animals, food, and drinks to win their God's blessing.
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And here's a neat fact to wrap things up:
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the Sumerians' way of worship influenced many later civilizations who
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also prayed to multiple gods at grand temples led by priests.
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So, you could say the Sumerians were trendsetters.
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One of the biggest cultural achievements was cuneiform,
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a system of writing where little pictures were etched into clay tablets.
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Here's a question for you: What is so important about a system of writing?
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Pause here to respond.
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Among other things, cuneiform
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let Sumerians write down their laws in government documents and made it easier
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to communicate between different groups. They can write down their history too.
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I mean, just imagine trying to build a ziggurat without a plan written down.
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How would thousands of workers know what to do or where to go?
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How would the people in charge stay organized?
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Even though several city-states had their own spoken language,
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cuneiform was a consistent form of communication across the land.
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Imagine people being grouped by their jobs. That's what happened in Sumer.
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A social structure based on jobs developed in the region. At the top were the
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ruling elite, which was made up of kings, priests, nobles,
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and high ranking officials.
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This group is the one that was in charge of everything in Sumer.
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Below them were commoners. These folks were divided into several levels,
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including soldiers, merchants, and skilled workers.
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And below them were farmers. These people protected the city,
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owned and operated markets,
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made things, such as pottery and jewelry, and provided food to everyone,
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important jobs for sure.
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And at the very bottom were enslaved peoples who were usually
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prisoners of war or people who had been sold into slavery to pay off debts.
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Gender played a big role in Sumerian society.
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Men had most of the power,
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and women were usually limited to supporting their families at home.
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This was common for future civilizations too.
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Sumer served as a model civilization for others, as writing was later
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created in other civilizations as a way to communicate. And, social classes
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like those in Sumer became the norm. I mean, it worked well for Sumer,
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why reinvent the wheel? Right?
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Specialization led to all sorts of jobs, like you saw in the social classes, as
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people tried to make their lives better based on their skills.
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Those jobs also included fishermen, scribes, and artisans,
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or skilled crafts makers, like potters.
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Sumer had a massive trade network that allowed them to swap goods with other
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civilizations, too. They traded
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things had a lot of, like wheat and precious metals, for goods that were more
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scarce, like timber.
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Sumerians were the first people to create a system of banking using clay
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tablets to record the transactions. Cool, huh?
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They also used weights and measures to make sure trade was fair,
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but each city-state had its own system.
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Sumerians collected taxes from people, then used the money to pay for public
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projects, such as irrigation systems and ziggurats.
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A bunch of economic advancements from Sumer were later copied by other
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civilizations: specialization, trade, banking,
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taxes...Just be careful asking your parents about that last one.
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Hey, so far do you see some similarities between Sumer and where you live?
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Take a moment to jot a few down.
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Some of the biggest developments in Sumer involved technology and new inventions.
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One that helped farmers was the plow,
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which broke up the soil and made planting crops much easier.
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Advances in math were important for a bunch of reasons. Now,
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you've already heard that Sumerians used math for both banking and measurements.
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What else might they have used math for?
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Well, the Sumerians came up with a number system based on 60.
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This helped with an early system for measuring time. Think about it:
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60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute... Yeah!
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Sumer did that.
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And they used math for measuring angles.
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Sumerians were able to measure the properties of different shapes,
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which really helped them with architecture and building things.
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They also used their math skills to measure land and long distances,
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and that made travel and trade a lot better.
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And here's one that changed transportation and trade forever:
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that sailboat! It let them easily move goods upstream,
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which before had been really tough, and it meant people,
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goods, and ideas could move faster and farther than ever before.
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And I'm sure you remember that the wheel was invented by Sumer.
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It was used on carts and wagons pulled by animals,
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or sometimes even people, to move stuff a whole lot more than people could
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carry in their arms.
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They used pottery wheels to make clay pots and made mills and used mill
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stones to grind grain into flour.
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All of these were used and improved upon by later civilizations.
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Now, keep in mind, all these things didn't happen overnight.
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It took hundreds and hundreds of years for Sumer to come up with all these things,
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but good thing they did.
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These were huge ideas and inventions, not just in Sumer,
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but for later civilizations all around the world.
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These ideas and others were copied and modified by people for centuries.
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Next time,
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we'll check out another civilization in Mesopotamia that used the Sumerians' ideas
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and inventions and then added a bunch of their own. Until then,
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historians keep uncovering the past and looking to the future.
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And remember to always be clever.
