1. Was Ancient Sumer a Civilization?
History Alive
Chapter 5

2. 5.1 Introduction Focus on Sumerian culture.
In 1800’s archeologists bean finding artifacts in Mesopotamia.
By studying artifacts the archeologists have learned about Sumer.
One artifact is the Standard of Ur.

3. Standard of Ur It was found where the city of Ur once stood.
It is made of wood and decorated with shell and lapis lazuli.
It shows the Sumerians in war and at peace.

4. Standard of Ur

5. Characteristics of a Civilization
Stable food supply
Social structure
System of government
Religious system
Highly developed culture including painting, architecture, music, and literature
technology
Written language

6. 5.3 Stable Food Supply
A stable food supply is what allows people in a society to have the food they need in order to survive.

7. Two Sumerian inventions that helped create a stable food supply
Complex irrigation system including canals, dams, and reservoirs to provide their crops with water.
The plow is a tool used for turning the soil to prepare it for planting.

8. 5.4 Social Structure Upper Class Common Class Slaves
A social structure is the way a society or civilization is organized.
Upper Class
Common Class
Slaves

9. Sumerian Social Class Structure
Upper Class
These people had large and luxurious two story homes near the center or the city.
Priests
Land owners
Government Officials

10. Sumerian Social Class Structure
Common Class
Lived in small, mud-brick houses at the edge of the city.
Merchants and Craftspeople
Metalworkers—
Famers
Fisherman

11. Sumerian Social Class Structure
Slaves
Lived in their owners’ homes and owned no property.

12. 5.5 Government The people or groups that rule a particular region.
Sumerian city-states were ruled by kings who they believed were chosen by Sumerian Gods.

13. Sumerian Kings Enforced laws and collected taxes. Built temples.
Maintained the irrigation system.
Led his army to war.
List of the Sumerian Kings

14. Sumerian Government
Sumerian Army
Governors
Scribes
Irrigation Patrol

15. 5.6 Religion
A religious system includes a set of beliefs, usually in god or gods, together with forms or worship.
Sumerians built ziggurats.
A ziggurat is an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower.

16. 5.7 The Arts
All civilizations have a highly developed culture, including the arts. Arts include creative forms of expression such as painting, architecture, and music.

17. Artists and Craftspeople in Sumer
Sumerian metalworkers made weapons, cups, mirrors, jewelry.
Artisans also decorated the ziggurats.

18. Sir Charles Leonard Woolley
British archaeologist Charles Leonard Woolley (April 17, February 20, 1960) became famous for the artifacts and information he uncovered during his magnificent excavations at Ur. Woolley is noted as one of the first modern archaeologists, and was knighted in 1935 for his services to archaeology.
Born in London to a clergyman, Woolley graduated from New College in Oxford, and in 1905 he became Assistant Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. In 1922, Woolley was chosen by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania to lead the famous excavation at Ur. The excavations of the temple complex and the ziggurat in the city complex were impressive but it was the Royal Cemetery of Ur which proved to be the most amazing archeological find of the period. His most important discovery was the tomb of "Queen" Puabi. Miraculously untouched by looters, her tomb contained thousands of beads and other pieces of jewelry including a seal bearing her name in Sumerian. Buried with her were her attendants, guards and musicians who had participated in the funerary ceremony. Woolley was adept in conserving objects while they were still in the ground. Filling the lost wooden elements with wax, dowels, and plaster, he was able to reconstruct the form of many objects. His work at Ur, which ended in 1934, added tremendous amounts of information to our knowledge of this early period.
Unwilling to rest on the laurels brought by the work at Ur, he also excavated at the sites of Tell Atchana and al-Mina in Syria. In addition to being a talented archaeologist, Woolley wrote more than 25 books including Excavations at Ur: A Record of 12 Years' Work, published in 1954, and Spadework: Adventures in Archaeology, published in 1953.
Discovered the treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur

19. Sumerian Architects designed ziggurats.

20. Sumerian Musicians
Played the drums, pipes, and a small harp called a lyre.
Lyres were wooden instruments made of a sound box and strings.
The lyres were also decorated.

21. 5.8 Technology
The use of tools and other inventions for practical purposes.
Sumerians invented the wheel.

22. 5.8 Technology Sumerians also invented the arch.
An arch is an upside down U- or V-shaped structure that supports weight above it, as in a doorway.

23. 5.9 Writing The Sumerians created a written language called cuneiform.
The names comes from the Latin word for “wedge.”
The Sumerians used a wedge-shaped stylus to etch their writing in clay tablets.

24. 5.10 Chapter Review Was Sumerian culture a civilization?
What are the characteristics of a civilization?
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25. The End