Sumerian Innovation

The river valley civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, India, and China were historical pillars of innovation. Not only were they each responsible for having forged new technological innovations, but they each created their own system of writing as well. Each of them meets the requirements of being labeled as a “civilization” because each had a form of social organization, trade and economic activity, government, division of labor, and some form of record keeping. What sets them apart from one another are the specifics within the similarities they shared. These similarities and differences within their technological innovations and writing are numerous.

Sumerian DBQ Did you know most of the things we use today were invented in Mesopotamia times? Thesis: Two contributions from the Mesopotamian Civilization were the inventions of cuneiform and Hammurabi’s Code. The Mesopotamians invented so many thing we use today!

One of the most important inventions was cuneiform. (Doc.1)It was created by the Sumerians over 5000 years ago (Doc.1). It was the world's first Language.(Doc.1) Sumerians invented this writing system to keep track of business dealings, records (Doc. 1) and religious activity (OI). It

Cuneiform not only allowed records to be kept but, it also allowed thoughts and ideas to be written down. Around 1754 bc a new ruler, Hammurabi, conquered Mesopotamia and decided to set permanent laws. He wrote the laws on stone and placed the stone in the middle of the

Imagine a world without writing. This is an almost impossible task because our world is completely inundated with writing. How would we keep track of commerce or maintain a record of history? It is interesting to me that humans have designed ways in which to communicate to each other using symbols carved into stone. This technology has not only been shaped by the people using them, the hieroglyphics have also directly influence the societies that used them. Hieroglyphics are such an important invented technology, because it has been vital in helping to shape and record the culture of two populations living at different times and across the world: the ancient Egyptians, and the ancient Mayans. In this paper, I will discuss the intriguing similarities

Sumerians made life changing advancements and achievements. These advancements and achievements impacted their society in different ways. There are 3 major achievements/advancements that show up a lot in Sumerian history. Without these advancements our world would not be as high as it is. The Sumerians made several advancements that impacted their society such as writing, plow, and ziggurats.

Ancient civilizations such as Sumeria, Egypt, and Babylon have all contributed to humankind and some way through their major achievements. the achievements of these civilizations have all helped later civilizations develop due to the examples of these past groups. some ancient civilizations developed techniques of farming and others comma some of the first written languages. All of these achievements are equally important for later developing civilizations. The Sumerians were a civilization that helped to contribute to humankind with their achievements involving architecture, weapons, and writing.

In the Babylonian pantheon, Nabu, son of Marduk, invented bestowed the art of writing in cuneiform to man, although it’s commonly accepted that it began in the late fourth millennium B.C.E. With it, people kept records of trades and inventories, wrote chronicles of their kings, epics depicting legendary characters like Gilgamesh, and sonnets to recite to worship their gods. While many could stake some claim to basic literacy, scribes were the only ones able to truly master the language afters year of practice, leading to information on the daily lives of Babylonians being omitted from our knowledge. However, kings had the luxury of personal scribes, and would utilize them to write “letters” to their foreign kings. One such example is the Amarna letters, a series of correspondence between Kadašman-Enlil I, Kassite king of

Mesopotamia’s first invention was a form of writing called cuneiform which was written on clay tablets with a sharp reed called a stylus. This permitted for recording events and

Ancient Sumer is considered one of the oldest, if not the first civilization known to man. Thought to be over 7000 years old by some historians, the ancient civilization of Sumer is truly one of a kind. Being such an old group of people, was Sumer able to advance its own culture and society in such an ancient time? Has Sumer affected modern society as we know it today? To begin, the inventions of ancient Sumer truly had an effect on both their society and us today.

Fire was one of the most important early technological innovation. Fire made surviving through the cold months possible. It was also useful for cooking foods. Spears were useful for hunters and gatherers. It helped catch and kill their prey. After the industrial revolution, innovations such as the plow helped in agriculture to speed the process and not have to do each individual task by hand.

In Mesopotamia, people had no money so they traded barley, pottery, fish, and other foods and inventions they made. They needed a way to keep up with what they traded, so Sumerians created the first form of writing over 5000 years ago which they called Cuneiform. They used Cuneiform for business dealings such as trading barley, keeping records, and new ideas changed between different generations.

During 3000 BC, Sumerian was the first cyclical empire, even though they came to a fall the Sumerian people made an impact on Western Civilization. This empire kept history alive, but never forgotten. The wheel was one of their many inventions which are still used today for cars, and manual labor like wheel barrels and lawnmowers. The epic poem Gilgamesh is still a book read today in English classes. This epic poem is inspiring and was an actual historical figure. The Sumerians contributed several ideas, the first organized religion temples and priests. The Sumerians also gave us the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, which was a story about a river dividing itself into 4 river heads, two of the four being the Tigris and the Euphrates River. The water supply was an accommodating way of trade. The Sumerians were the first international traders. They also invented writing, the Sumerians wrote of cuneiform blocks, now student can write on paper but it was a start being able to write thoughts down. The Sumerians had countless clever ideas; they also invented the potter’s wheel, which was used for making pottery to store food and goods. The plow was used for farming and the sailboat was used for traveling up or down the river, for trading or

Agriculture was the basis for wealth. Religion played a central role in government and daily life. Leaders strongly identified themselves with the gods. Many societies rose and fell during the period we designate as the Ancient Near East. Stability was fleeting and this most of the objects pertained to religion and rule. The earliest of these communities were the Sumerians. The Sumerians are credited with many firsts: the wheel, the plow, casting objects in copper and bronze and cuneiform

Sumer was the world's first civilization that developed in southeastern Mesopotamia around 3300 B.C. Sumer’s downfall was around 1900 B.C., due to a conquest of armies. In Sumer chief servants of the gods became rulers. Sumer had a complex government. Each of the 12 city-states had a ruler responsible for complex projects such as irrigation systems, enforcing laws and leading armies in war. Like most ancient civilizations Sumer structured their society using a hierarchy, a system of different ranking groups. The highest class consisted of the ruling family and high priests. The middle class was made up of lesser priests, scribes, merchants, and artisans. The lowest class consisted of peasant farmers. Whatever social class Sumerians were born into Sumerians also died under that same social class. Sumerian women never held legal rights equal to men. Sumerian had a barter economy meaning they exchanged one set of goods for another. Sumerians were polytheistic. They used a ziggurat, a large, stepped platform topped by a temple to worship the city’s chief god or goddess. They believed in the afterlife and celebrated holy days. In their afterlife, once a person entered the underworld there was no release. Sumerians also believed gods and goddesses behaved like regular people. Major innovation Sumerians invented include the first wheeled vehicles, a form of writing called cuneiform and developments in math and astronomy. Sumerians invented the first wheeled vehicles that were used to travel across deserts and to carry goods long distances. Sumerians used cuneiform to record economical changes, myths, prayers, laws and business contracts. Cuneiform was invented around 3200 B.C. and marked the period when writing began. Scholars from Sumer studied skies, movement of stars and planets. They also established a number system based on six. Such as, dividing the hour into sixty minutes and dividing the circle into 360 degrees, much like times today.