Why do historians classify ancient Sumer as a civilization?

Why do historians classify ancient Sumer as a civilization?
Chapter 5
Civilization is a society that has developed arts and
sciences and organizations.
Until 150 Years ago, Archeologist had no idea that Sumerian People had
lived at all.
Mid-19th century archeologist began finding artifacts in the area of the
Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia)
Scientist uncovered: Tablets, pottery and the ruins of the city.
They found written language that they had never seen before
• By studying they have been able to
find out a lot about Sumer
Standard of Ur
• Made of wood and decorated with pieces
of shell and lapis lazuli (semiprecious
blue stone)
• Shows Sumerians in times of peace and
• Shows Sumerians had a complex society
• Inventions: Plow and writing (are still
used today)
Characteristics of Civilization (5.2)
Sumer was a challenging place to live:
Hot summers, little rain, and rivers that flooded in
the spring
Built complex irrigation systems and large cities.
By 3000 B.C.E. most Sumerians lived in powerful
city-states: Ur, Lagash (LAY-gash), Uruk (Uh-Ruhk)
What makes a civilization?
1. A Stable Food Supply
Ensures that people have enough food
Sumerians invented two key things to help
them create stable food supply
Complex Irrigation System
1. Invention of the complex irrigation
Irrigation system
that provided their
crops with regular
water supply
Invention of the plow
• Plow- Tool used for tilling or turning the soil
to prepare it for planting.
• Before the plow farmers would use animal
horns or sticks to poke holes in the ground
and plant seeds. This process was very slow.
• Sumerians invented the plow out of wood.
One end was bent for cutting into the
ground. The Sumerians pushed and pulled
the plow along the ground, or used oxen to
pull it.
2. Social
(5.4) –
levels and
lived in
Priest, Landowners and government officials
Lived in large homes & lived near the center of the city
Merchants(sold goods) and Artisans(craftsperson-metal workers)
Worked with gold, silver, tin, lead, copper and bronze. Made swords and arrowheads for
army. Plows and hoes for famers. Mirrors and jewelry for upper class(luxury items)
Farmers and Fishers
Lived in small mud-brick houses at the edge of the city
Worked to build or repair irrigation system and were forced to serve in army during times of war
Lived in their owners homes and had no property
3. System of Government (5.5)
Ensures that life in the society
is orderly by directing people’s
Ruled by Kings
• Believed that their gods
chose kings (very powerful)
• Reinforced social orderbecause obeying the will of
the gods were the Sumerians’
strongest belief
Sumerian Kings
1.Enforced laws
2. Collected taxes
3. Built temples
4. Made sure irrigation system was maintained
5. Led his city-states army(one of the most important job because the constant
fighting over land boundaries and water use)
a. Armies included professional soldiers and temporary citizen-soldiers
b. Foot soldiers and others drove chariots with horses
6. Appointed officials to help with duties
a. Governors ruled outlying towns
b. Scribes helped record laws
*Sumerians were the first to develop a system of written laws
4. Religious System (5.6)
Involves both a set of beliefs and forms of worship
All civilizations have some kind of religious belief
Form of
Religious System
Set of
Beliefs in
a god or
Religious beliefs influenced every part of daily life
• Sumerians tried to please their gods in all things
In growing crops
Settling disputes
• Religion bound the people together in a common
way of life
Sumerians expressed their religious beliefs by
constructing temples and religious temples called
• Kings duty to build and
• Towers were platforms made
of mud bricks
• Wood shrines on the highest
• Were large and could be seen
from 20 miles away
• Some were as high as 8
stories and as wide as 200 ft
Sumerian Beliefs
 Sumerians believed their gods lived in the ziggurats(most likely in the shrines up top)
 On the outside walls of the ziggurats were long staircases that the gods could use to climb down
to earth
 Kings and Priest stood inside the towers to ask for the gods blessings
 Sumerian statues also expressed religious beliefs
detailed & lifelike
Many showed people worshipping the gods(eyes gazing upward)
 Believed the gods were pleased when people showed signs of devotion, love & obedience
Musicians played
Lyres- wooden
instruments made
of a sound box and
string. A wooden
bar on top held
the strings in place
Lyres were
decorated with
precious stones
and with carvings
made of horn
This showed the
value of music
Human sacrifices
(ritual killing of a person as an offering
to the gods)
5. Highly developed way of life : The Arts (5.7)
Art, architecture, paintings, music and literature
Artist and Artisans in ancient Sumer
• Many types of artist and artisans in ancient
• Metalworkers: weapons & cups, jewelry and
mirrors (Decorative items)
• Architects designed temples and ziggurats
• Brought joy to the gods
and people
• Musicians sang and played
music during temple
• Wrote love songs
• Entertained guest for
Instruments included:
drum, pipe & lyre
6. Advances in Technology
• Sumerians made several technological
• Most important was the Wheel
• Earliest example date back to 3500 B.C.E
• Wheel was first used as a surface to shape
clay into pots
• Potters wheels laid flat and spun on an axle
• Sumerian realized that if the wheel was
flipped on its edge it could easily roll
• Discovery was used to make wheeled cart
for farmers and chariots for the army
• Wheels were built by clamping several
pieces of wood together
• Before the wheel people drug
items on sledges (flat bottom
• Get stuck in the mud
• Couldn’t support heavy
• Wheeled carts made it easier to
travel long distance
• Oxen could pull three times as
much then when using a sledge
The Arch
• Sumerian arches were inverted (upside
down) U or V shaped structures built
above doorways
• To build an arch Sumerians stacked
brick made of clay and straw to rise
from the walls in steps until they met in
the center
• Arches added strength and beauty to
Sumerian building
• Became a common feature of temple
entrances and upper class homes
• Some historians believe that the arch is
the Sumerians’ greatest architectural
7. Highly developed written language
Latin word for “Wedge”
• Sumerians used a wedge
shaped stylus (a sharp, pointed
tool) to etch their writing in
clay tablets
• Cuneiform was developed
around 2400 B.C.E.
• The earliest examples show that it was
used to record information about goods
people exchanged
• Cuneiform may have contained as many as
2,000 symbols to stand for ideas and
• Over time the number was reduced to 700
• Cuneiform was based off of an earlier
simpler form of writing that used
• Pictographs- symbols that stand for real
objects (ex. Snake or water)
• Scribes used sharpened reed to draw the
symbols on wet clay
• When dried it became a permanent record

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