I. The First Civilizations Humans are in the far corners of the globe thriving as hunter-gatherers, however, as time passes the human population explodes decreasing the overall food supply. With food dwindling in some areas of the world, humans are faced with starvation. Homo sapian cro-magnons, however, have another choice. They can alter their lifestyle and become farmers. Through farming they can grow more than enough food for themselves. This ushers in a new era of human culture and development. To distinguish between the time we were hunter-gatherers and farmers, historians have these definitions: Paleolithic: (Old Stone Age) time period when humans lived as huntergatherers during prehistoric times. Neolithic: (New Stone Age) time period when humans build permanent settlements and farmed. Alright so some hunter-gathering groups because of a lack of food are forced into farming. But where would you farm? Well being that farming is very difficult, arduous work, you would farm where it is easiest and where is that; the world s great river valleys. At roughly about the same time 5,000 years ago or 3,000 B.C.E. permanent settlements are built in the following river valleys: Nile Euprhates and Tigris Indus Yellow Why farm river valleys? 1) Flooding brings silt: eroded, fertile soil deposited by rivers. Nearly clockwork these rivers flood every spring bringing life giving soil. 2) Irrigation: using ditches and canals to bring water to crops. Who needs to count on rain when the river provides. If you look at a map you ll notice how close the mouth of the Nile is to the Euphrates and Tigris river valleys. In fact if you trace a line from the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris northwest along those rivers path, and then arch southward along the shore of the Mediterranean and then further arch down the Nile river you have a horseshoe or crescent swath of extremely fertile, farmable land. Scholars and historians call this swath: 1
Fertile Crescent: swath of fertile, farmable land including the Nile into Mesopotamia it is the birthplace of civilization Civilization: advanced societies with developed religion, science, industry and government. While civilization seems to have begun in all these river valleys at about the same time in 3000 B.C.E. most agree that it began first in the Fertile Crescent area. Therefore our first civilization that we will study is the one that began in the Euphrates and Tigris river valleys. A land more commonly known by the people of the day as Mesopotamia. II. Mesopotamia: the land between the two rivers E.T. The land was called Mesopotamia. Today you can find the country of Iraq there. The first civilization to form there we call the Sumerians. Sumerians: earliest known human civilization in Mesopotamia 3000 B.C.E. Named after the first settlement that archaeologists found which was named Sumer, thus we call them the Sumerians. Don t think that the Sumerians acted as a united people or country. The Sumerians all spoke the same language and worshipped the same gods, but they lived in separate teeny, tiny countries that were only as large as their cities and the immediately surrounding area. We call this type of governement. City-states: cities with their own government and independence. Tigris Euphrates. Ninevah. Uruk. Nimrud. Ur. Ashur. Babylon. Sumer. Isin. Eridu.Umma. Shuruppak. Lagash * The names are accurate, but alas the map is not! These are just a few of the many Sumerian city-states. Each city had high stone walls with bronze gates that were closed at night to safeguard the city from attack and wandering lions. These cities fought each other constantly over land, but more often over water rights. If a city upstream was using to much water, denying your thirsty crops it could mean war! Homes were build to dried mud-bricks as little rainfall falls here. Cities such as Uruk numbered upwards of 50,000 people. Impressive considering Titusville is just a mere 6,000. 2
III. How do we know about the Sumerians? Are they prehistoric, meaning before writing, or are they historical, meaning we have their written records? Fortunately for us the Sumerians developed their own unique writing system. They wrote down their laws, their stories and their tax receipts. However, they didn t have any paper so they wrote instead on clay tablets which were then baked and stored. Unfortunately baked clay isn t as resilient as paper and much has undoubtedly been lost. Cunieform: wedge-shaped, Sumerian writing on baked clay tablets. Much has been lost but much has been found. Including the oldest known story. A story that is much older than even the Old Testament of the Bible. Although old the story is a good one entitled; Gilgamesh: oldest known story of legendary king of Uruk who was 2/3 s god and 1/3 man. He was the Sumerian superman. The Gilgamesh story is great but tragic story. Gilgamesh, alongside his best friend and equal Enkidu, slay the forest demon Humbaba, and the fearsome Bull of Heaven sent by the angry goddess Ishtar. However, the gods decide the combined powers of Gilgamesh and Enkidu are just too great and Enkidu is put to death. A heartbroken Gilgamesh begins to fear his own death. Searching to cheat death he wanders the earth meeting up with Utnapishtum who is nearly 1000 years old. He tells Gilgamesh about an ancient great flood and how he build an ark to save all the world s animals, and he also tells Gilgamesh of a flower whose petals will make him young again. Alas, Gilgamesh finds the flower but a snake devours it shedding its skin, leaving Gilgamesh to await the fate of all men death. 3
IV. Sumerian religion: The Gilgamesh story takes me to Sumerian religious beliefs. The Sumerians still believed in some magical superstitions, but instead of animism in which everything has a spirit, the Sumerians came to believe that these spirits were instead powerful gods. Before there was a spirit of the sun, moon and stars, well now there was a god for each of these things. This belief is called; Polytheism: the belief in many gods The Sumerians believed that all things good and evil came from the gods. If crops were to grow, children to be born and the rivers to flow these gods must be kept pleased and happy. If the gods were not well pleased then disasters could strike such as earthquakes, droughts, fires and floods. To keep each of these gods happy the Sumerians had priests to all of these gods who told the people what the gods desired from them. They also build great temples to them called; Priests: Interpreted the will of the gods by reading the entrails of sacrificed animals. Only priests could enter the home of the god and make offerings of food, wined and animals. Ziggurats: mountain of god Sumerian religious temples. Each city-state had a massive one to their patron or chief god. This is the only part of the ziggurat you could enter. Here might be a statue of the god to which priests made offerings. Believe it or not, these would be your typical Sumerian mud-brick homes. Why do they have flat roofs? Priests were the only Sumerians who learned the complicated cunieform writing system. They kept the records and collected taxes for the god so celebrations and further temples could be built for them. Priests were the only ones who could tell the people what the gods wanted and because of this great power, the priests are the first true rulers of the Sumerian city-states. They became the first kings. 4
The greatest of the Sumerian kings, aside from the legendary Gilgamesh, of course, were the following men: Sargon I: 2300 B.C.E. ruler in northern Mesopotamia who conquers and unites all the Sumerian city-states. Rules a united Mesopotamia for 50 years before dying and his empire crumbles. Ruled the world s first empire collection of different states Hammurabi: 1800 B.C.E. he was king of the city-state of Babylon who conquers and unites the Sumerians under his law for 40 years. Hammer was cool but the reason we remember him is because of his law code. Law Code of Hammurabi: considered the first fair and just law code. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. All Sumerians followed his law even after his empire crumbled, and his laws still influence our thinking today. His law was not the first law code, it was simply considered the first good one. Many examples of Hammurabi s laws can be found in the Bible. Penalties for violating laws were different if you were rich, poor or a slave. Generally your punishment was equal to your crime. If you took someone s eye, they would take yours, if you took their tooth they took yours, and if you took a life, then they killed you! Want to see a complete list of all 282 laws? Click here. http://www.duhaime.org/hamm1.htm V. What was the average life for the average Sumerian? Most Sumerians were not wealthy, and most did not go to school and learn to read and write. The average Sumerian was a farmer who tilled the soils of Mesopotamia to support himself and his family. He grew wheat for breat, barley, tended cattle and sheep and paid a percentage of his crops to the priests and kings to keep the peace and please the gods. Only the wealthy attended school to learn cunieform. After learning cunieform they might become a scribe which is a professional writer, a priest, or perhaps a merchant and trade goods between city states. Because only the wealthy attended schools, if 5
you were born poor you would die poor as there wasn t any way for you to get ahead and attain wealth and status. When you died you went to the land of the dead Kur. If wasn t great but it wasn t unpleasant. It s just where you went for an afterlife. Sumerians are also given credit for inventing the wheel, the sailboat, the plow, and they developed a 12 month calendar based on the cycles of the moon. They also developed a number system based on the number 60. From this came the 60 minute hour, the 60 second minute, and the 360 degree circle. VI. What is this B.C.E. and C.E. and B.C. and A.D. stuff? Oh and one last thing I forgot to mention before we go. Historians needed a way of dating events and happenings. For instance the year 2000 or 1944 or whatever. If you notice in our years we count upwards 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and so on. Well what are we counting from? Our time system dates from the fact that the first people to settle this country were mostly Christian and the time scale we use is a Christian time scale based on the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. B.C. A.D. 3000 B.C. First Civilizations 2000 B.C. 1000 B.C. 1 A.D. Birth Jesus 1000 A.D. Present Day B.C.E. B.C. Before Christ A.D. Anno Domini In the year of our Lord. C.E. This is the time system that we commonly use, but other cultures use different ones. Because this is a Christian time scale and many people in our country are not Christian many historians and scholars are using B.C.E. and C.E. instead. B.C.E. means Before Common Era and C.E. means Common Era, but the numbering system is the same. The End of Mr. Herman s Sumerian notes. Be sure to check out the links and the study guide. Next we go across the burning sands to Egypt, land of mystery! 6