Ancient Sumer Facts By Dr.Chuleta Jones

Stable Food Supplies The ancient sumerians had a very stable food supply. They had very good crops be the rich land of the plains are the water of the rivers. They built canals, dams and reservoirs to have a balanced water supply for the crops. The ancient sumerians invented the plow for turning the soil and prepare it for planting. The plow is pulled along the ground and animals such as oxen pull it.

Religious Beliefs All civilizations have some type of religious system. The ancient sumer did religious thing every part of the their day. They tried to please their gods to give them something. The ancient sumerians showed their beliefs by building temples. The temples are called ziggurat. The towers were platforms made of mud bricks, with shrines on the highest tier. Ziggurats were so big that you could see them from 20 miles away. The people think that the gods live in them.

Technological Advances The ancient sumerians had a lot very good technology. The most invention for them was the wheel because without the wheel they would take for ever to drag things one place to another. The first time that they used the wheel was to make pottery, first time used the wheel as a surface for shaping clay into pots. Another invention was the arch. The ancient sumer arches were inverted upside down like a U or V-shaped structure. To build arches, the Sumerians stacked bricks, made of clay and straw, to rise from the walls in steps until they met in the center. Arches added strength to the buildings.

Government of the time All civilizations have a government to tell them what to do and make life orderly. The ancient sumer were ruled by kings. The people believed that the king were very powerful and strong because the gods chose the king. The kings make sure that the irrigation system are working right and everything else. One of the most important jobs of the king is to lead the army because every city fight for water and boundaries.

irrigation System Irrigation systems had enough water for ancient sumer farmers to grow lots of crops for everybody. The ancient sumer developed the irrigation system by building canals so the water passed through villages but they needed to be careful. The Canals toke water from the rivers to the fields. But canals can be closed with silt and destroy the whole irrigation system so the farmers needed to clean the silt every time. Since the ancient sumer build these canals farmers could never get apart from them. They had to work together for the common good.

Writing system The ancient sumer had a highly developed written language. The Sumerians created a written language called cuneiform. The Sumerians used a sharp, pointed tool to write on clay tables. Sumerians developed cuneiform around 2400 B.C.E. the cuneiform was used to record information about the goods people traded with one another. First cuneiform writing may contain 2,000 symbols to understand ideas and sounds. Over time, this number was reduced to about 700 symbols.

The end!!!