Scribd
Upload
6 views3 pages

Sumeria

The document explores the history of Sumeria, tracing back to 7,000 years ago when early humans began forming villages in Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It highlights the Sumerians' innovations, such as building with clay and developing cuneiform writing, which allowed for communication and record-keeping. The growth of cities like Ur and Babylon is also discussed, along with their religious practices and societal organization.

Uploaded by

simona.pascale8
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
6 views3 pages

Sumeria

The document explores the history of Sumeria, tracing back to 7,000 years ago when early humans began forming villages in Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It highlights the Sumerians' innovations, such as building with clay and developing cuneiform writing, which allowed for communication and record-keeping. The growth of cities like Ur and Babylon is also discussed, along with their religious practices and societal organization.

Uploaded by

simona.pascale8
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Sumeria, the kick-off story

I am going to ask you to follow this timeline back in time…(unroll a millennium timeline

backwards from the present) If we go back 100 years we would see the first cars being

invented and driven and the first airplanes being flown, but we won’t stop there. 500 years

ago…people in Europe began to explore other areas of the world..1000 years ago,

medieval castles were being built…but we must keep going. 2000 years ago we would

have seen the Romans build their empire, but let’s keep going. How far? Let’s go back

about 7 thousand years! There were no roads, only paths. There were no large ships, no

supermarkets, no electric lights…no cities! But there were people, people who hunted and

fished and had begun to form small villages and grow their own crops. They also began to

keep animals.

Although they didn’t own that much, these people were very clever. They figured out what

was edible and what was not. They tamed animals like sheep and goats. They were

planting seeds and producing more and more food themselves. But one thing they

couldn’t produce themselves was water. The crops needed water, the animals needed

water and the people needed water.

Some of these groups were very lucky. They found a great place to live, right between

two rivers in Asia (show map). One of the rivers is called the Tigris and the other is called

the Euphrates. The soil was very good there and the crops loved it. The population grew!

The area is known to us as Mesopotamia, and now it is in the country of Iraq. Where did

that name Mesopotamia come from? The Greeks. Meso means “between” and potamia

comes from the word for river. Between the rivers! It was a large area and different

groups settled down in different territories. In the south was the land called Sumeria and

we call the people Sumerians. And these people built some of the first cities in the world!

Would you like to see what we think one of them looked like? (show picture)

Besides the problem of water, which was solved by having the rivers so close, was the
problem of housing. There were not many trees in this area and little stone to build with.

But there was something else…clay! You may have made small objects out of clay, but

did you know that it was possible to build houses out of clay? People probably had to do a

lot of experimenting to get just the right mix of clay, water and straw, and then make molds

to press the clay into. When they dried they were bricks that could be used to build with.

And besides houses, the Sumerians made some other amazing things out of clay. Take a

look at these pots…(show picture) Well, as the population grew, it became clear that they

needed some way of giving messages to each other. Everyone could not possibly speak

personally to everyone else! Well, to solve the problem, the people went to their trusty

friend, clay! Clay, you think, how can that help? Well the Sumerians realized they could

make “paper” out of clay. Well, not really paper, but tablets that could be written on while

the clay was soft. To make their marks they used a reed that was cut, called a stylus.

They agreed what kind of symbols they would use and what they would mean. That in

itself seems like a difficult job! Then to make a list, or a message, they would press the

stylus into the clay and then after the clay dried it would be permanent. No erasing! We

call this form of writing cuneiform and you saw this writing in the story of the Alphabet and

Numbers (show picture)

When we look at this writing we might think, “I could never read that!”, but even people

now learn to read the ancient Sumerian script. I have heard a story about a man in

England who spent many years learning cuneiform. He went to work at the British

Museum, where many such tablets are stored. And one day he was called by the police.

“Have I done something wrong?” he thought. No, they needed his help. They had found a

huge tablet that had been stolen by some bandits. They needed someone to read it so

they could find out where to return it. So this man from the British museum was a real

hero and figured out where the tablet had come from. If you want to try your hand at some

cuneiform, all you need is some clay and a stick…


It was quite wonderful to live in Mesopotamia and people flocked to the area. The cities

grew and grew. The city I showed you (show picture again) is called Ur. It seems as if

most of the cities in Mesopotamia had a plan like this, with streets and temples and places

to store grain and houses…As time went on, some cities became more powerful than

others and gained much wealth. One of the cities we know a good bit about is Babylon.

Here is a picture of the magnificent city gate! (show picture)

The temples that were built are pyramids, but not like the pyramids of Egypt. These

pyramids have steps. They have a wonderful name: ziggurat. The Sumerians believed in

many gods and built many such temples. I wonder what kinds of ceremonies and rituals

were performed? When so many people have to live together they have to find lots of

ways to cooperate and divide up the jobs. What kinds of jobs do you think were common?

The Sumerians made some important inventions and discoveries, and you can find out

more about that in our books and our cards for the History Question Charts…

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy