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Historical Antecedents in the Course of

S c i e n c e a n d Te c h n o l o g y:

Sumerian Civilization
Consolidated by:
Mrs. Lorna C. Aban
Miss Shiellah Mae T. Barsicula
Center for Natural Sciences
School of Health and Natural Sciences

Copyright @ 2022. Saint Mary’s University, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya

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Objectives
• Explain how science and technology
affected the society and environment
and vice versa
• Identify inventions and discoveries that
changed the world over the course of
history
• Discuss the scientific and technological
developments in the Philippines
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Sumerians
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• The heartland of Sumer lay

between the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers, in what the
Greeks later called
Mesopotamia.
• The ancient Sumerians, the
"black-headed
ones," lived in the southern
part of what is now Iraq.

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Sumerian
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• Sumerians were characteristically

inventive, and are likely to have
been responsible for the
development of the first writing.
• Before 3000 B.C.E. Sumerians
were recording their language
using simple pictures.
• They wrote on tablets of clay,
later evolving the script that to us
is known as cuneiform, or
"wedge-shaped."
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Sumerian
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Cuneiform tablet still in its clay case

Legal case from Niqmepuh,
King of Iamhad (Aleppo),
1720 B.C.E.,
3.94 x 2" (British Museum)

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Sumerian
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• Book-keeping and very

detailed records on clay
tablets of offerings,
rations, taxes and
agricultural work were
features of Sumerian life
• They were energetic
farmers, traders and
sailors.

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Sumerian
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• Their religion recognized

many gods
• Rituals as well as parties
were enlivened by skillful
harpists and singers, and
Sumerian musical
instruments have even
been excavated by
modern archaeologists.

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Uruk
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• Uruk was the first

major city in Sumer buil
t in the 5th century BC
• It is considered one of
the largest Sumerian
settlements and most
important religious
centers in
Mesopotamia.
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Uruk
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• It was
continuously
inhabited
from about
5000 BC up to
the 5th
century AD.

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The toGreat
Click Ziggurat
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title style Ur
• Ziggurat or mountain
of god
• Constructed using
the sunbaked bricks
• Sacred place, only
their priests were
allowed to enter
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The toGreat
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• The temple
showcases the
• the elaborate and
intricate Sumerian
architecture
• remarkable
technology used to
build it

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Irrigation and Dikes
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•Built to bring
water to
farmlands
•To control
flooding of
rivers
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Irrigation and Dikes
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• Considered as one
of the world’s most
beneficial
engineering works
• Year-long farming
and increased food
production

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Sailboats
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• Main mode of
transportation was through
waterways
• Used to carry large
quantities of products (for
trading)
• To cover large distances
(foster culture, information,
and technology
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Wheel and Plow
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•For farm
works and
food
processes
(for mass
production)

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Wheel and Plow
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•To dig the earth

in a faster
pace, so as to
plant the seeds

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Roads
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• To travel faster and easier

• Made of sunbaked bricks laid on the ground, used
bitumen, a black sticky substance similar to asphalt
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Other Inventions
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• Cylinder seal is a small round

cylinder with figurative scenes
or written characters or both
etched on them.
• Invented around 3500 BC in
southern Mesopotamia, they
were used as an
administrative tool, a form of
signature, jewelry and as
magical amulets.
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Copper Fabrication
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• Sumerians were known to be the first users of

copper – the earliest non-precious metals. The
archeological evidence states that they
harnessed the skill of extracting and working
with copper around 5000-6000 years ago.
• Sumerians used copper in making heads of
arrows, razors, harpoons and many other small
objects.
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Copper Fabrication
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•They also began making

vessels, chisels, and jugs
from copper, which reveal
excellent craftsmanship of
the Sumerians.

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Time
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• The world was definitely

aware of the day and night
system but, yet again,
Sumerians were the first
ones to divide the passage
of time. They introduced
passage of weeks, months
and years to the world.
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Time
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• The Sumerians did the

astronomical
calculation in the base
60 system. Their work
was appreciated and
accepted throughout
Eurasia.

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Lunar Calendar
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• It is believed that the

Sumerians were possibly the
first to develop the lunar
calendar.
• It is entirely based on the
recurrence of lunar phases
which means, the phases of
the moons were used to
count the 12 months.
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Lunar Calendar
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• The Sumerians observed two seasons – summer and

winter and the sacred marriage rites were performed on
New Year.
• They used the phases of the moon to count 12 lunar
months as a year.
• And, to make up the difference between this year and
the year of seasons, they added an extra month to
every year after four years.
• The best part is that this lunar calendar is still used
among certain religious groups today.
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Numeral System
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• Another
significant
invention by
Sumerians is
known as
Sexagesimal

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Other Fields
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• Record of Sumerian achievement in science and technology as

presented by Kramer (1948) and Brinkman (1990) are amazing and far-
reaching, particularly in mathematics, engineering, architecture,
agriculture, transportation, and medicine.
• Sumerian doctors made use of assorted botanical, zoological, and
mineralogical ingredients as materia medica in their prescriptions. The
Sumerian civilization was gradually absorbed by the Semitic people
who migrated to Mesopotamia from Arabia during the 2300 BCE and
founded the great empires of Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia. [materia
medica: the body of remedial substances used in the practice of
medicine.]

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“
What do you think is the most
vital contribution of the Sumerian
civilization? Explain briefly.

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God bless!

Copyright @ 2021. Saint Mary’s University, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya

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