EARLY CIVILIZATI fNS IN THE EASTERN HEMISPHERE Sumerian Civilization

A city-state is an independent, or self governing, state. It is made up of a city and the surrounding area controlled by it. Sumerian city states often fought each other for control of Mesopotamia.

Figure 3-5 A Sumerian Ziggurat. These huge towers were built in honour of various deities.

Sumerian civilization seems to be the oldest urban civilization. It developed in the area called Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was about 1000 km long and 400 km wide. It lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In fact, Mesopotamia means "land between the waters" in Greek. This area is located in the country now called Iraq. Irrigation agriculture was being carried out in Mesopotamia as early as about 6000 B.C. In about 5300 B.C. the people known as the Sumerians settled near the river banks. Using irrigation, Sumerian farmers were able to produce abundant food. They grew cereal crops, vegetables and dates. Barley, rather than wheat, was the main cereal crop because it grew well in the salty soil. The farmers probably kept cattle, too, and there were many fish and waterfowl. Before long, there was a food surplus and a rapid growth in population. Over time, cities developed. People began to follow new occupations. In particular, they began to trade in food and other products. Four major Sumerian city-states developed. These were Ur, Lagash, Uruk and Umma. Each Sumerian city was dominated by a pyramid-like temple. These temples are known as Ziggurats. The Sumerians'thought of them as stairways that deities used to come down to earth. Ziggurats were both a place of worship and a storehouse for food. They provided work for large numbers of artisans;.(skilled workers), who were able both to earn a living and to develop their crafts.

DID YOU KNOW...?

Our 60-second minute and 60minute hour come from the Sumerians. Their number system was based on 60 rather than 10.

The temple owned much of the property in the city. In addition, temple leaders controlled many city activities. Nevertheless, there was some private property and a separate political ruler. As the civilization grew, records began to be kept. By about 3400 B.C., business was flourishing. It became so complicated that no one could remember all the details. At first, people used clay tokens to remind themselves what goods they had sold, who had bought them, how much money they were owed and what they had in their storehouses. Then someone decided to scratch a picture of what was being traded onto a clay tablet. People began to draw the amount of grain and the number of pots and animals they had sold or bought. Eventually, the pictures were adapted into wedge-shaped symbols. More symbols were developed to record other kinds of information, from lists of battle victories to details of land sales. Eventually, the symbols were also used to write letters, love poems, prayers and traditional stories. These symbols are known as cuneiform writing.. By about 2900 B.C. Sumerian civilization was fully formed. Many people lived in cities. They traded over long distances and practised metallurgy. They used a 12-month calendar that was based on the cycles of the moon. Like many peoples of that time, the Sumerians feared nature. They could never be sure when it would strike them and their crops with bad weather, drought or flood. They feared their deities, many of whom represented forces in nature. Nevertheless, the Sumerians tried to control the natural environment. For example, they built complex irrigation systems. They used trees as windbreaks and invented a form of plough. They may have been the first people to use a sundial to measure time. They invented the wheeled cart and the sail. Both of these inventions were used for trade and war. The war chariot was later used throughout the Middle East. The Sumerians were conquered in 2331 B.C. by Sargon, a powerful chieftain from Akkad, a city to the north. Sargon spread Sumerian civilization throughout Mesopotamia and the Near East. However, within a few generations of Sargon's death, his empire was captured by the Babylonians. The greatest ruler of Babylon was Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.). He is famous for his code of laws. The code provided for harsh punishments but reflected a spirit of justice and a sense of responsibility. The following are a few examples of the laws in Hammurabi's code: 1. If a man has accused a man and has charged him with manslaughter and then has not proved it against him, his accuser shall be put to death. 195. If a son strikes his father, they shall cut off his fore-hand. 196. If a man has put out the eye of a free man, they shall put out his eye. 198. If he puts out the eye of a villein [a peasant who was not free to leave the land he worked on] or breaks the bone of a villein, he shall pay 1 maneh [unit of currency' of silver. 209. If a man strikes the daughter of a free man and causes her to lose the fruit of her womb, he shall pay 20 shekels [unit of currency, larger than a maneh] of silver for the fruit of her womb. 210. If that woman dies, they shall put his daughter to death. 211. If he causes the daughter of a villein to lose the fruit of her womb by striking her, he shall pay 5 shekels of silver for the fruit of her womb. 212. If that woman dies, he shall pay half a maneh of silver. [From The Babylonian Laws, edited and translated by G.B. Driver and John Miles.]

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evel pment of Alphabets nearby Aramaeans, who may have adapted some of their letters from the Egyptians. However, Phoenician had an alphabet of only 22 symbols, each of which stood for a single consonant. In other words, the symbols stood for the sounds of spoken language rather than for objects. This made it easy to learn. Once people knew what sounds the symbols stood for, they could rearrange them to form all the words in the language. The Greeks learned from the Phoenicians in developing their own alphabet, and the Roman alphabet developed from Greek. Our own alphabet is derived from that of the Romans. Figure 3-6 shows the possible development of some of our letters.

As you have seen, the Sumerians used cuneiform writing. The Egyptians had a similar type of writing, known as hieroglyphics. In both types of writing, symbols represent objects or concepts. It took many years to learn these types of writing because there were so many symbols to memorize. This problem did not exist in the language of another civilization — the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians lived in the area that is now Lebanon. They were the leading traders of their day, transporting goods throughout the Mediterranean by ship. The Phoenicians also transported their language. Often the language of the leading traders of an era becomes an international language. They probably adapted some of their letters from the Egyptian ,2

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Figure 3-6 The Development of the Alphabet. What connections can you make between the Egyptian symbols, the Aramaean names for their symbols (in parentheses), and the Latin symbols for the letters?

The Hebrews Among the many early civilizations of the Near East, one has had a particularly strong influence on Canadian society. This group was the Hebrews, otherwise known as the Jews. The Hebrews did not control a large territory. They were often under the rule of other nations. They adopted the alphabet of the Phoenicians. Some of the stories that were in their holy book — the Old Testament of the Bible — were the same as stories told by other people in the area. Nevertheless, the Hebrews were different in a number of ways. They worshipped one God, not many deities, as their neighbours did. Their spiritual beliefs gave them a sense of time that was also different from that of their neighbours.

The Hebrews believed that the first humans, Adam and Eve, lived in a paradise called the Garden of Eden. They disobeyed God and, as a result, were forced to leave. They, and the generations that came from them, were condemned to a life of hard work and suffering. God promised, however, that this punishment would end at some time in the future when he would send them a saviour, or Messiah. In other words, the Hebrews believed that something bad had happened at one point in the past and that something good was going to happen in the future. As a result, they developed a strong sense of time as linear. The Hebrews believed that history had a beginning and a direction. Other ancient societies believed that history always repeated itself as the seasons did. A group of people called Christians adopted the Hebrew idea of time during the first century A.D. As Christianity spread from the East to Europe, so too did this particular view of the world. European society, therefore, did not expect history to repeat itself. Instead, it came to accept change as normal. Europeans, more than other peoples, came to believe in change for the better of society over time.