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What Are The Main Characteristics Of The Epic Of Cilgamesh

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A. 8 Main Characteristics (New York State Education Department, 2008)

1. CITIES - As farmers settled in fertile river valleys, they began to grow surplus or extra food. This extra food increased the population of the settlements. In time, the settlements grew into cities, such as Ur in Sumer or Babylon in Mesopotamia.
2. COMPLEX RELIGIONS - Religious leaders would conduct elaborate ceremonies to appease the gods (polytheism) and insure a bountiful harvest. Floods and droughts were blamed on the gods’ abger so rituals were conducted in the temples.
3. SOCIAL CLASSES - As jobs became specialized so did the status and needs of certain individuals. The need for a knowledgeable and educated religious leader was more respected than an unskilled …show more content…

Writing (Cuneiform): People in Sumer developed writing to keep track of business deals and other events. Their writing was called cuneiform. It consisted of hundreds of wedge-shaped marks cut into damp clay tablets with a sharp-ended reed. Archaeologists have found thousands of these cuneiform tablets, telling us much about Mesopotamian life.
2. Literature: The Sumerians also produced works of literature. The world’s oldest known story comes from Sumer. It is called the Epic of Gilgamesh. An epic is a long poem that tells the story of a hero. The hero Gilgamesh is a king who travels around the world with a friend and performs great deeds. When his friend dies, Gilgamesh searches for a way to live forever. He learns that this is possible only for the gods. This epic poem is still studied today.
3. Math and Science: As said before, they had the irrigation system. Sumerians also invented the wagon wheel to help carry people and goods from place to place. Another breakthrough was the plow, which made farming easier. Still another invention was the sailboat, which replaced muscle power with wind power. They used geometry to measure fields and put up buildings. They also created a number system based on 60. We have them to thank for our 60-minute hour, 60-second minute, and 360-degree circle. In addition, Sumerian people watched the skies to learn the best times to plant crops and to hold religious festivals. They recorded the positions of the planets and stars and developed a 12-month …show more content…

The next period of regional hegemony was established by the Third Dynasty of Ur which set up a vast regional bureaucracy to collect taxes and tribute it encouraged expansion of the irrigation system, and growth of population and settlement. This attempt to maximize economic and political power led to a rapid collapse, with disastrous consequences for southern Mesopotamia. Over the next millennium or so there was a 40 percent reduction in the number of settlements, and a 77 percent reduction in settled area. Political power shifted to the north, to Babylon an empire established by Hammurabi. After a brief resurgence by Babylon, brought to an end by Cyrus the Great, Mesopotamia was incorporated into successive Near Eastern empires of varying size and durability - Achaemenian, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanian, and Islamic. Sometime in the seventh through tenth centuries A.D., however, there was a major collapse in the Mesopotamian alluvium. By the eleventh or twelfth centuries A.D. the total occupied area had shrunk to only about six percent of its level 500 years earlier. Population dropped to the lowest point in five millennia. State resources declined precipitously. (Tainter,

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