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The Sumerians

The Sumerians. City States Religion Writing System Legacy. Background. They were the first civilization of the Middle East settling in the Tigris and Euphrates delta. They raised crops like grains and dates. They drained the swamps, and built dykes and canals to control flooding.

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The Sumerians

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  1. The Sumerians City States Religion Writing System Legacy

  2. Background • They were the first civilization of the Middle East settling in the Tigris and Euphrates delta. • They raised crops like grains and dates. • They drained the swamps, and built dykes and canals to control flooding.

  3. City States • By 3500 B.C. the most successful farming settlements had grown into powerful city states. • Each had its own ruler, as well as its own god, goddess, laws, and army. • Rival city-states like Erech, Ur, and Kish often battled each other.

  4. Religion • They believed their gods controlled everything. • Therefore the Priests were very important because they knew the prayers and hymns to keep the gods content. • The most important building then was the Ziggurat, a many tiered temple. • Taxes were collected in the form of crops & grain. • Scribes were the young men who learned to read and write at temple schools and kept the government records.

  5. Writing System • The Sumerians developed a system to read and write. • They had taken a reed, sharpened it, making it a stylus, and when pressed into moist clay tablets, it created wedge shaped designs. • At first, it was simple designs that represented things, they would draw an ox head for ox. It was known as pictographs. • Then later pictographs evolved into ideas being displayed. They became ideograms. (Imagine a pic of a guy with quotes around his feet to display running.) • The wet clay tablets then were dried and when later found by the Romans, it was labeled as cuneiform, Latin for wedge.

  6. Achievements • The Sumerians were the first to use the wheel and are credited with inventing the sail. • They invented the plow and developed an accurate calendar. • They used geometry to survey fields based on the number 60, which ends up giving us the 360 degree circle. • We also have the 60 second minute, and 60 minute hour.

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