1. The Civilization of Sumer
Chapter 3
Section 1

2. Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent is a region of the Middle East that stretches in a large, crescent-shaped curve from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Fertile Crescent includes Mesopotamia, a wide, flat plain that lies between two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Mesopotamia means “in between two rivers.”
Here, thousands of years ago, the world’s first civilization began to form, called Sumer.

3. Agriculture in Mesopotamia
The Fertile Crescent’s soil is rich and fertile. Some of the most productive land in the region is in Mesopotamia.
This rich soil allowed Sumerian farmers to grow many gains and vegetables. They also raised sheep, goats, and cattle.

4. Geography of Mesopotamia
Southern Mesopotamia is a hot, dry region with little rainfall. It looks like a desert, but the soils are not desert soils. They are rich with nutrients.
The southern part of Mesopotamia’s soil is rich because of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The Tigris and Euphrates have carried fine, fertile soil called silt down from the mountains.
Each spring the rivers flood their banks, spreading floodwaters and silt across the plain. When the flood ends, they leave behind a fresh layer of moist, fertile earth that is perfect for growing crops.

5. Geography of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia’s geography also gave Sumerian farmers many challenges. The heavy spring floods could wash away crops and even whole villages.
During the summer, the hot sun baked the ground rock hard. With little rain for months, plants died.

6. Farming the Land
The Sumerians used technology to turn Mesopotamia in to productive farmland. They used technology to irrigate, or supply water to, their crops.
They dug many miles of irrigation canals to bring water from the rivers to their fields. With irrigation, crops could still get water during the hot, dry summer.

7. Farming the Land
Sumerians also developed a new way of planting crops. Earlier farmers used a plow pulled by an oxen to cut a long furrow.
Sumerian farmers developed a seed funnel that they attached to their plows. As a plow moved forward, seeds automatically dropped from the funnel into the soil. This made planting easier and faster.

8. City-States of Sumer
Better agricultural techniques helped the Sumerians produce more food. With a dependable food supply, the population of villages began to grow.

9. Cities Emerge
The first Mesopotamian city was Uruk. Uruk had a population of more than 40,000 people.
Other early cities were Ur, Lagash, and Nippur. Some cities grew large and powerful. They became the world’s first city-states, independent state that includes a city and its surrounding territory.
Each Sumerian city-state had its own government and laws, and each had its own main god.

10. Trade
Each city-state was also a center of trade. Although Mesopotamia had fertile soil, it had little wood or stone and no metal ores.
Sumerian traveled far to find these important resources and bring them back to their cities.
Most trade was done by barter. Barter is a trading system in which people exchange goods directly without using money.

11. Trade
Early traders often used the rivers and major canals to transport their goods. They loaded goods onto barges, or large rafts. Workers on land used ropes to pull the barges along the water.
Sumerian used new technologies to make widespread trade easier. They used wheels on their carts. They used sails on their boats.
With wheeled carts and sail boats, Sumerians could more easily transport barley, wheat, dates, and cloth to faraway lands. They could also bring home trade goods like lumber, metals, and precious stones.

12. Social Classes
The Sumerians developed a social order with three classes. People of each class had distinct roles within Sumerian society.
The upper class included the ruler, his top officials, powerful priests, wealthy merchants, and owners of large plots of land.
The middle class was made up of farmers and skilled workers.
The lowest class was made up of mostly slaves.

13. Sumerian Religion
The Sumerians practiced polytheism, the belief in more than one god.
Sumerians believed these gods controlled every aspect of life, including rain, wind, and other elements of nature. Some gods represented agriculture or other activities.
Sumerians believed gods behaved much like people. They thought that gods ate, drank, slept, and married. They also believed that gods lived forever and had great power.

14. Sumerian Religion
If gods were happy with people’s prayers and offerings, they might bring good fortune to the city.
If the gods were not happy, they might bring war, floods, or other disasters.
Sumerians felt they needed to keep the gods happy in order for their cities to grow and prosper.
Sumerians believed only priests knew how to communicate with the gods. They depended on the priests to tell them what the gods wanted. Priests had an important role in Sumerian society. They ran the temples.

15. Sumerian Religion
Priests lived and ran the temples in which people worshipped the gods. The larger Sumerian city temples were pyramid-shaped brick towers known as ziggurats.
The largest ziggurats were seven stories tall. Some were filled beautiful paintings and statues.
The area around a temple often included large areas of farmland and controlled by the temple.
Priests kept grain and other goods belonging to the temples in large storehouses.

16. Sumerian Writing
Sumerian priests needed a system to keep track of their stored goods. At first they drew pictographs on clay. Pictographs are simple pictures that represent objects.
To record the number of fish given to a temple, Sumerian priests drew fish. Then they added marks to represent the number of fish.
In time, this way of keeping records developed into the world’s first system of writing.

17. Cuneiform
Sumerian priest created a new writing system called cuneiform. Cuneiform is a system of writing that uses triangular-shaped symbols to stand for ideas and things.
Cuneiform involved pressing wedge-shaped marks into clay tablets. By combining the marks in different ways, Sumerians could create thousands of symbols.

18. Epic of Gilgamesh
Cuneiform was originally used to record sales, taxes, and agreements.
Later, Sumerians began to use writing for more than record keeping. Around 2000 B.C.E., the long poem known as the Epic of Gilgamesh appeared.
This poem tells about the adventures of a Mesopotamian hero named Gilgamesh. The stories are myths, or made-up tales of god and heroes.
Some scholars believe Gilgamesh was a real king who ruled the Sumerian city-state of Uruk.

19. Sumerian Government
The first leaders of Sumerian city-states were priests, not kings. But when conflicts arose among the city-states, the way cities were ruled began to change.

20. Development of Kingship
As city-states grew, people in different cities began to argue with one another over the control of land and water. These conflicts sometimes led to war.
In times of war, priests helped choose the best person to lead the city-state into battle. After the war was over, this leader was expected to give up his power.
But some of these military leaders kept control of the city-states even after the war ended. These military leaders became the first kings.

21. Kings and Priests
To stay in power, kings needed the support of priests. So kings were careful to respect the priests’ rights and powers.
In turn, priests declared that the gods had sent the king to rule the city. This idea that kings were chosen by the gods became common in Sumer.
Together kings and priests created religious ceremonies that supported royal power.

22. Kings and Priests
Sumerian kings eventually took over many jobs the priests once did. They hired workers to build new canals, temples, and roads.
Each king also served as the city’s chief lawmaker and judge.

23. Written Laws
Some rulers collected city laws into law code, or a written set of laws. The earliest known law code was issued around 2100 B.C.E. by Ur-Nammu, the king of Ur.
The Ur-Nammu law code included laws about marriage, slavery, and causing harm to other people.
One law read, “If a man knocks out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out half a mina of silver.” A mina was one pound of silver.

24. Achievements
Under the rule of priests and kings, Sumerians produced many advances in technology. Through trade, many of these Sumerian advances spread to other lands.
Another important advancement was the development of bronze by mixing copper and tin.
Bronze is a harder metal than copper, so it is better for making tools and weapons.