Bellringer
- What advantages did River Valleys
offer for starting a civilization?
- List the 5 characteristics of a
civilization.
STAIR
Specialized workers
Technology
Advanced cities
Institutions
Record keeping
Glossary Help
• Glossary: Social classes = groups
with different rights, responsibilities,
or respect (objective S9)
Problems in Sumer
• In groups, discuss the three
problems Sumerians faced and try to
identify the solution that will keep
your society alive!
(We will fill in the chart at the end
together)
Problems in Sumer
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
1. Unpredictable
flooding
Irrigation
Cooperation (institutions)
2. No natural
resources
Trade
3. No natural
barriers
Defensive walls (of mud)
Organize armies
Sumer GRAPES
Sumer: Geography
• Southern Mesopotamia
• Part of the Fertile Crescent
Aleppo
Jericho
Glossary Help
• Mesopotamia- The land between
two rivers (in the Middle East) – the
first river valley civilization
• Fertile Crescent- A crescent-shaped
area of fertile land in the Middle East
Physical Geography
• Two rivers, lots of fertile land
• Flat
• Mountains and deserts beyond the
flat land
• Neighbors were nomads in the
desert and northern
Mesopotamia…we’ll meet them soon
Sumer: Religion
• Polytheism – belief in many gods
–What did their gods do?
• Ziggurat – temple and city-center
–Animal sacrifices and offerings
• Why are priests so important in Sumer?
Temple to Nanna, Ur
This large temple, dedicated to the god Nanna, was built around 2100 B.C. by King Ur-Nammu,
in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur. (Michael S. Yamashita/Corbis; ABC-CLIO)
Offerings to the Gods
King Ur-Nammu makes an offering to the moon god Nanna. Ur-Nammu reigned over the
Sumerian city of Ur from about 2112 to 2095 B.C. The stela dates to around 2060 B.C.
(Bettmann/Corbis; ABC-CLIO)
Sumer: Achievements
• Inventions
– Wheel
– Sail
– Plow
– Base-60
math (used
today in
clocks and
circles
Achievements
• Architecture (ziggurat)
• Writing – cuneiform
–Earliest writing used pictograms,
pictures that stand for words
–Later evolved into a set of symbols
representing about 300 sounds
Early Writing
Clay tablet with pictograms from Mesopotamia. (Multimedia Library; ABC-CLIO)
Sumerian inscription, detail of a statue of
Gudea of Lagash, 22nd century BC
(Brittannica)
Ancient Sumerian tablet with cuneiform, one of the earliest forms of writing. This tablet, from
2039 BC, tracks disbursements of wages to supervisors of day laborers. (Library of Congress;
ABC-CLIO)
Detail from an Assyrian tablet with cuneiform writing. The Assyrian alphabet contained 19
simple letters and approximately 300 cuneiform symbols. (Shutterstock; ABC-CLIO)
DRAW A PICTURE OF CUNEIFORM AND DESCRIBE THE
CHARACTERISTICS!
Arts
Sumerian figurine of a woman sitting and holding a small vase. (Erich Lessing/Art Resource; ABCCLIO)
Standard of Ur – War
Standard of Ur – Peace
Sumer: Political
• Priests ruled in peace, military
leaders during wars
• Eventually, a military leader made
himself king and created a dynasty
Sumer: Political
• Each city-state had its own king
–Ur, Uruk, Umma, Lagash, Kish
• Leaders collected taxes and
organized labor (for, say, irrigation)
Sumer: Economic
• Agriculture-based
• Trade very important
–Traded food for stone, wood, and
metal
–Then made tools and traded them
for more stuff
Sumer: Social
Priests
Wealthy Merchants
Working Class (Farmers, Artisans)
Slaves (Foreign Prisoners, Sold Children)
Why were merchants so respected?
Women’s Rights
• Women could
–Own property
–Be educated
–Have important jobs
• Women could not
–Rule the city or be the head priest
Fall of Sumer
NOT a Country
• Sumer is not a country!
–Individual city-states with their
own leaders and laws
–Not united…fought each other
often
–Linked by similar cultures
• Cultural diffusion
Sumer’s Neighbors
• Northern Mesopotamia was not as
fertile, many nomads lived there
• Why might they cause problems for
the Sumerians?
• Why were the Sumerians unable to
defend themselves from invasion?
Mr. Kahn’s Rules of
World History
Rule #1: Divided, you fall
Sargon of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad
[Time Life Pictures/Getty Images]; ABC-CLIO
Political Units
•
•
•
•
City
City-state
Kingdom
Empire
Nomads Invade
• Akkad declines
–Famine
–Internal fighting
–Invasions
• Nomads from the west invade
–Found new empire in the city of
Babylon
Mr. Kahn’s Rules of
World History
Rule #2: Beware the nomads
Babylon
• Babylon, on the Euphrates and near
the Tigris, controls all trade on both
rivers
• Dominates Mesopotamia for 300
years
• Why did Babylon last, while Akkad
did not?
Mr. Kahn’s Rules of
World History
Rule #3: He who controls
trade, controls the world
Sumer’s Legacy
• Cuneiform and ziggurats used
throughout Mesopotamian history
for thousands of years after the fall
of the Sumerian city-states
CULTURAL DIFFUSION!
Post-Sumerian Ziggurat
View of the Mesopotamian ziggurat at Choga Zanbil in present-day western Iran, 13th century
BC. (Diego Lezama Orezzoli/Corbis; ABC-CLIO)
Babylon
[Ridpath, John Clark, Ridpath's History of the World, 1901]; ABC-CLIO
Homework
• Describe the history of Sumer using
10 words from your Glossary
–(NOT including any words from
Skills Objectives)