UNIT 2: MESOPOTAMIA

LESSON 6:
ANCIENT SUMER

Why do historians classify ancient Sumer as a civilization?

Introduction
The rise of Sumerian city-states began around 3500 B.C.E. Taking a closer look at life in Sumer will
help you act like an archaeologist. You’ll consider evidence to try to answer this question about the
distant past: Why do historians classify ancient Sumer as a civilization? A civilization is a society
that has developed arts, sciences, and organization.

Until about 170 years ago, archaeologists had no idea that the Sumerian people had lived at all.
Then, in the mid-19th century, archaeologists began finding artifacts in the area of the Fertile
Crescent called Mesopotamia, uncovering tablets, pottery, and the ruins of cities. They were
surprised to find writing in a language they had never seen before.

By studying artifacts, archaeologists have been able to learn a lot about Sumer. One artifact is the
Standard of Ur (uhr), found where the ancient city of Ur once stood. The artifact is made of wood
and decorated with pieces of shell and lapis lazuli, a semiprecious blue stone from what is now
Afghanistan. It shows the Sumerians in times of peace and war. Ancient objects like this one can
reveal a great deal about daily life in ancient Sumer.

Historians now know that the Sumerians had a complex society. Some of the things they developed,
like the plow and writing, are still in use today. But which characteristics of Sumer society cause
historians to classify it as a civilization? Let’s take a closer look at ancient Sumer.
The Standard of Ur depicts scenes of war and peace in ancient Sumer.

SECTION 1. Characteristics of Civilization

Sumer was a challenging place to live because it had hot summers, little rain, and rivers that
flooded the plains in the spring. Building complex irrigation systems and large cities allowed the
Sumerians to overcome these challenges. By 3000 B.C.E., most Sumerians lived in powerful city-
states like Ur, Lagash (LAY-gash), and Uruk (UH-ruhk). But what did the Sumerians do to create a
civilization?

To answer this question, we need to examine what civilization means. What characteristics are
common to a civilization? Historians name several such characteristics, including these:

a stable food supply, to ensure that the people of a society have the food they need to survive
a social structure with different social levels and jobs
a system of government, to ensure that life in the society is orderly
a religious system, which involves both a set of beliefs and forms of worship
a highly developed way of life that includes the arts, such as painting, architecture, music, and
literature
advances in technology
a highly developed written language

Sometimes, one or more of these characteristics are not found. For example, some ancient
civilizations did not have highly developed writing systems or organized religion. Did Sumer have
these characteristics? Let’s find out what the evidence can show.

Which characteristics of a civilization does this artifact represent? How do we use objects like
this one in modern society?

SECTION 2. Stable Food Supply

Civilizations need a stable food supply because a complex society can only thrive if its members
have the food they need to survive. The Sumerians invented two key adaptations to help them
create a stable food supply.

One of these inventions was their complex irrigation systems. The Sumerians built networks of
canals, dams, and reservoirs to provide their crops with a regular water supply.
Their second invention was the plow, which is a tool used for tilling, or turning, soil to prepare it for
planting. Prior to the plow’s invention, farmers used animal horns or pointed sticks to poke holes in
the earth, where they would plant seeds. This was a very time-consuming process, and farmers
needed a faster way to prepare the land for planting.

The Sumerians made the first plow out of wood. One end of the plow was bent for cutting into the
ground to turn the soil. Farmers themselves either pushed and pulled the plow along the ground or
used animals such as oxen to pull it.

The Sumerians invented the plow. Today, some people still use plows to farm the land.

SECTION 3. Social Structure

Civilizations usually have a complex organization, or social structure, including different jobs and
social levels. People at higher levels have greater status than others.

Archaeologists have found evidence suggesting that several classes of people lived in Sumer. At
the highest level were priests, kings, nobles, and government officials. These top members of
society had the largest and most luxurious homes near the center of the city. Evidence suggests
that these mud houses had whitewashed walls and were typically two stories high.
At the middle level were merchants and artisans. Among the artisans were skilled metalworkers,
who used metals like gold, silver, tin, lead, copper, and bronze. Since Mesopotamian land had few
minerals, Sumerians imported these materials from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and the Elamites
on the Iranian plateau. Out of these materials, they could create swords and arrowheads for the
army. They engineered tools, like plows and hoes, for farmers, as well as luxury items, such as
mirrors and jewelry, for the upper class.

The middle class also included farmers and fishers living in small, mud-brick houses at the edge of
the city. Farmers often worked to build or repair the irrigation systems.

Women in particular had roles all throughout society. Some worked as scribes, artists, or
priestesses. Though they worked in many professions, they were paid less than men.

At the bottom level of the social structure were enslaved people. Most enslaved people were
enemies that the Sumerians had captured during war. Unlike in some other societies, it seems most
enslaved Sumerians worked in households rather than on large construction projects.

This man and child are standing in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in present-day
Iraq. Uruk was one of many powerful Sumerian city-states.

SECTION 4. Government
Many civilizations have a complex system of government to direct people’s behavior and make life
orderly. Kings ruled the Sumerian city-states. The Sumerians believed that their gods supported
these kings. This belief made kings very powerful. It also helped to reinforce the social order
because obeying the will of the gods was one of the Sumerians’ strongest beliefs.

Sumerian kings enforced the laws and collected taxes. They built temples and made sure irrigation
systems were maintained.

A king also led his city-state's army. All the city-states needed armies for various reasons. Some
were defending land boundaries and others were fighting over the use of water. Leading the army
was one of the king's most important jobs.

A Sumerian army included both professional soldiers and temporary citizen-soldiers. Some were
foot soldiers, while others drove chariots, which were wheeled vehicles pulled by oxen.

Kings appointed officials to help with certain duties. Governors ruled the outlying towns, and
scribes helped record laws as well as contracts. The Sumerians were the first people to develop a
system of written laws.

Nebuchadnezzar II was a Babylonian king who ruled over Sumerian lands and ordered
massive construction projects. Kings were responsible for ruling and maintaining order in the
entire city-state.

SECTION 5. Religion
Most civilizations have some kind of religious system. A religious system includes both a set of
beliefs, usually in a god or gods, as well as various forms of worship.

In Sumer, religious beliefs influenced many parts of daily life. The Sumerians tried to please their
gods in every aspect, from growing crops to settling disputes. Major gods included Enlil, who
controlled storms and the wind, as well as Ninhursag. She ruled over the earth and helped crops
grow. Religion created a common way for people to connect with one another.

Constructing temples and religious towers called ziggurats (ZIHG-guh-rats) was one way the
ancient Sumerians expressed their religious beliefs. It was the king’s duty to build and maintain
these ziggurats. The towers were platforms made of mud bricks, with shrines on the highest tier.
Ziggurats were so large that they could be seen from miles away. Some were as high as 7 stories and
as wide as 200 feet.

The Sumerians may have believed that their gods lived in the ziggurats, most likely in the special
shrines at the top. Attached to the outside walls of each ziggurat was at least one long staircase that
some think was created so that the gods could climb down to Earth. Kings and priests likely stood
inside the towers to ask for the gods’ blessings.

Sumerian statues also expressed religious beliefs. Many of these statues were detailed and lifelike.
They showed people worshipping the gods, often with wide-eyed gazes. The Sumerians may have
believed that the gods were pleased when people showed these signs of devotion, or love and
obedience.

The Sumerians had many kinds of religious ceremonies. Often, musicians played at these events.
Some ceremonies may have involved human sacrifice, the ritual killing of a person as an offering to
the gods.

This is a reconstruction of the ziggurat that once rose over the ancient city of Ur. Sumerians
may have thought their gods resided in ziggurats.

SECTION 6. The Arts

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

There were many kinds of artists and artisans in ancient Sumer. Metalworkers made objects like
weapons and cups, as well as decorative items, such as mirrors and jewelry. Architects designed
temples and ziggurats. Sculptors carved statues that adorned temples or were used in rituals.

Music was another influential art in Sumer. The Sumerians may have believed that music brought
joy to gods and people alike. Musicians sang and played instruments during temple ceremonies.
They wrote love songs and entertained guests at feasts.

Sumerian musicians played a variety of instruments, including drums and pipes. One favorite was a
small harp called a lyre, a wooden instrument made of a sound box and strings. A wooden bar held
the strings in place at the top. Lyre makers often decorated their instruments with precious stones
and with carvings made of horn. These decorations demonstrate how much the Sumerians valued
music.

This lyre has the head of a bull decorating its sound box. A musician would strum the strings,
seen on the left side of the image, to play musical notes.
SECTION 7. Technology
Typically, civilizations create new forms of technology. The Sumerians made several technological
advances, the most important being the wheel.

The earliest examples of the wheel date back to 3500 B.C.E. when Sumerian potters, or pottery
makers, used them as a surface for shaping clay into pots. A potter’s wheel would spin, flat side up,
on an axle. The Sumerians discovered that a wheel could be rolled forward when flipped onto its
edge. They used this discovery to create wheeled carts for farmers and chariots for the army. They
constructed the wheels by clamping pieces of wood together.

It would be hard to discover a more powerful invention than the wheel. Before its invention, people
had to drag their goods on flat-bottomed carts called sledges. Wheeled carts made it easier to move
goods over long distances because they did not get stuck in mud and could support heavy loads,
unlike the earlier sledges. Oxen could pull much more weight on wheeled carts than on sledges.

Another technological advancement was the arch, which is an inverted (upside-down) U- or V-

shaped structure built above a doorway. To build arches, the Sumerians stacked bricks made of clay
and straw to rise from the walls in steps until they met in the center.

Arches added strength and beauty to Sumerian buildings. They became a common feature of
temple entrances. Some historians say that the arch is the Sumerians’ greatest architectural
achievement.
The Sumerian invention of the wheel helped better the lives of later groups, as well. The
Assyrian men seen here riding a wooden chariot were able to improve their military strategies
because of the wheel.
In ancient Sumer, large chunks of wood were tightly clamped together in order to form
wheels. This important invention improved Sumerian life.

SECTION 8. Writing
A final characteristic of many civilizations across the world is a highly developed written language.
The Sumerians created a written language called cuneiform. This name comes from the Latin word
for “wedge.” The Sumerians used a wedge-shaped stylus (a sharp, pointed tool) to etch their writing
in clay tablets.

Sumerians developed cuneiform around 3300 B.C.E. The earliest examples of cuneiform show that
it was used to record information about the goods people exchanged with one another. At first,
cuneiform writing may have contained as many as 2,000 symbols to stand for sounds and for words
and phrases. Over time, this number was reduced to about 700.
Cuneiform was based on an earlier, simpler form of writing that used pictographs. Pictographs are
symbols that stand for real objects, such as a snake or water. Scribes used a sharpened reed to draw
the symbols on wet clay. When the clay dried, the marks became a permanent record.

Shown here is cuneiform writing etched in a clay tablet. Cuneiform was often used to record
traded goods.

Lesson Summary
In this lesson, you have learned about the characteristics of Sumer society that made it a
civilization.

Stable Food Supply Ancient Sumerians invented an irrigation system and the plow to help them
create a stable food supply.

Social Structure, Government, and Religion Ancient Sumer had a complex social structure with
different jobs and social levels. Kings led the government. Religious beliefs influenced every part of
daily life.

Arts, Technology, and Writing Ancient Sumerians had a highly developed culture that included the
creative arts of painting, architecture, and music. The Sumerians’most important technological
invention was the wheel. They also created a written language called cuneiform that was based on
pictographs.