Chapter Two Section Three

Sumerian Civilization The Land: Its Geography and Importance  Iran and Iraq lie in the Fertile Crescent today.  The valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers is known as Mesopotamia or the Fertile Cresent.  As early as 5000 B.C Neolithic farmers began to develop a civilization in Mesopotamia.

 The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers both flow southeast.  Like the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flood, leaving behind fertile soil. However, unlike the Nile, these floods cannot be easily predicted.  The valley was often invaded. The new civilization would last for a short time and then another group of invaders would conquer it. Soon, another civilization would conquer the new group, and the cycle would continue.

Sumer and Its Acheivements  The Ancient Sumerians used symbols and developed a kind of picture writing called pictographs.  Pictographs were different from hieroglyphics, in that Sumer had no paper to write on. Instead, the Sumerians pressed marks into clay tablets.  Writers used a wedge-shaped tool called a stylus.  Cuneiform writing, which contained about 600 symbols, developed from pictograph writing.

 The Sumerians invented the arch, a curved structure over an opening, which allowed them to build domes.  Sumerian temples were known as ziggurats. They were made from layers of baked clay.  The Sumerians were great mathematicians, who divided the circle into 360 degrees.  The modern compass and watch are based on this design.  The Sumerians developed a lunar calendar, to which they added a month every few years.

Sumerian Society  Early in their history, Sumerians developed a type of community called the city-state.  Sumerian city-states rarely united under a single ruler.  The people believed that much of the land in city-states belonged to the gods.

 Priests were important leaders in city- states.  As city-states competed for valuable land, however, war leaders became important, and eventually evolved into kings.  There were four distinct classes in Sumerian society.

 At the top were high priests, kings and nobles.  Following them were lower priests, merchants and scholars.  Thirdly came the peasant farmers.  And at the bottom of society were the slaves who had been kidnapped or taken as prisoners of war.

 Most Sumerians were farmers.  Merchants traveled by land or boat to trade with peoples in other areas of Southwest Asia.  Only upper-class boys were educated. Like the Egyptians, Sumerian education was linked to religion.

 The Sumerians practiced polytheism, or the belief in more than one god.  Sumerian gods were identified with forces of nature.  Although they buried food and tools with their dead, the Sumerians did not believe in an afterlife.