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Achievements of the Sumerians

Mesopotamia’s Great Achievements The early land of Mesopotamia had many great achievements that have shaped the way our lives are today. The Mesopotamians created grand cities and introduced many of the basic ideas we use today such as civilized language. Many of these people’s achievements will be in this project but it is impossible to chart all their achievements because we are still uncovering their old artifacts to this day. Mesopotamia or “The land between two rivers” or now Iraq is the cradle of civilization and the place of our ancestors and the place where we made many great discoveries. One of the very first achievements made by the Mesopotamians, or Sumerians was their very own writing system. Called cuneiform, the writing system included numbers as well as words. Called “word pictures”, this writing system was performed on a tablet of clay with a pointed instrument called a stylus. Although many of the people of Mesopotamia did not no how to write properly they got by using marks to represent different situations. After all, the reason why the Sumerians needed writing was to keep track of business records while they were trading. The only people who learned cuneiform completely where men called scribes. Scribes wrote the information down at request and they recorded most of the important records. Mesopotamia quickly flourished and the first real civilization was created. Shortly after numbers and cuneiform were created, math followed opening up lots of opportunities for further careers. Math shaped the way people think and architecture for buildings improved. Pretty soon the Sumerians found ways to relate to and improve almost anything. The creation of math helped the people to figure out problems that they had earlier on that they wouldn’t have known how to solve. Math developed over the years into what it is today but most of the early improvements of it started when math was just numbers. With math more and more minor and major discoveries could be made! The next achievement in line is currency. The currency evolved from clay symbols to represent trade to silver coils called “hat money”. This hat money and it’s value varied from how big it was and different names were made for the different money values. For example today we have the penny, and the dime, and the nickel etc. which all have a different value. The development of currency in Mesopotamia greatly increased the peoples wealth and because of that many other developments were created and improved. This is why currency is such an important achievement for the Mesopotamians. Another great step for the Sumerians or Mesopotamians was the wheel. With currency the Sumerians found that trade had greatly increased. Orders from neighboring city-states far away needed to be met. At first the Sumerians would drag the supplies through the land on boxes. This was slow work so the traders decided to put logs under the cart and roll it over them. Once the back log came out they would bring it to the front and keep repeating this cycle. Finally somebody got the great idea of attaching the logs to the cart. This was the first wheel which was continuously developed until it is what it is today. Trade and transportation for goods was much easier and once again trade increased. Throughout the years the Sumerians got more and more inventive all the time. Many more inventions were made by them throughout the years but this is all my project covers. The Mesopotamians shaped the way our lives are today and we are all descendants of them. I hope you enjoyed my project and found it interesting because these are some of the first inventions the Mesopotamians or Sumerians made! Posted by 23282 on 1/19/07; 11:49:02 AM from the Patrick dept. Discuss

Development in Farming

Posted by 23282 on 1/3/07; 11:05:11 AM from the Patrick dept. Discuss

Ur the City and the Ziggurat

Ur the Ancient City and the Ziggurat Ur and the ancient ziggurat are found in southern Iraq near the center of Mesopotamia or the “Cradle of Civilization”. The ancient Greek city of Ur was built a few years before 2000 B.C. shortly followed by the looming Monument that is the ziggurat. The Sumerians who called themselves the “Black Hooded-Ones” built the huge step pyramid as an administrative building. The Sumerians also thought that the pyramid was the shrine where the wise god Nanna chose to dwell called the “Bedchamber of the God”. Through the Sumerian’s belief they decided to expand the palace shortly before it was complete and built the bedchamber at the top of the ziggurat. Unfortunately trouble befell the city as the king died his sons could not control the city and it was soon sacked by the Elamites. Ur was greatly wanted and because of the fall of the Greeks many nations came and claimed Greek cities for themselves. Ur’s bad reputation and the fact that the Euphrates river changed course left the city abandoned for the city could not be irrigated. The city remained buried until the 19th century when the British finally uncovered it’s remains. All information from this review was taken from: http://www.amazeingart.com/seven-wonders/ziggurat.html It has much more information on Ur and I suggest you take a look at it. Posted by 23282 on 12/11/06; 8:55:28 PM from the Patrick dept. Discuss (1 response)

Homo Sapien (Cromagnon)

Homo Sapien Cromagnon or just Homo Sapiens The Homo Sapien Cromagnon people which were the last evolution of humans before the humans we are today lived around from 10 to 100 000 years ago. Although it is a pretty wide range of years, the guess is at least correct within a few thousand of years. The Homo Sapien Cromagnon people looked about the same as us but were probably a little less resistant to certain conditions. The only difference in looks between the Cromagnons and us is that they were probably just a little bit hairier having been just a little bit of closer relation in genetics to apes. That is a brief discription of the appearance of the Homo Sapien Cromagnon humans. The Cromagnums were also the most skilled at meeting their basic needs other then the people of today. In result of their improved intelligence their brain size grew to 1000 to 1700cm cubed a big improvement from the Homo Sapien Neanderthals who were the humans before them. The Cromagnon people developed new technology throughout their history making tools to help them fish, hunt, sew to make clothes and tools to fight with each other. The skill the human developed in the Cromagnon stage was to think through complex situations and ideas. The Homo Sapien Cromagnon people were first discoverd in France, near the cradle of civilization. Posted by 23282 on 11/5/06; 2:06:40 PM from the Patrick dept. Discuss (10 responses)

Stranded on an Island

Early Beginnings, Think for Yourself p.45 You see some fruit in a tree given the supplies in the nature around you how will you make a tool to get it down? If I was in this position I would look around for a tree and pull off a huge limb. I would smack the fruit up in the tree with this stick and make it fall. If this didn’t work I would simply sharpen the stick on a sharp rock from the ocean and then spear the fruit. You want to bring some water back to camp but you need to make a tool to carry it in. How will you make a tool to carry it and store it? If I ever needed to do this I would use my clothes as a sponge and carry the water back where I needed it. If I had no clothes or this wouldn’t work I would use my stick to knock down a coconut then split it open with a rock. Then I would drink the milk and hollow it out and I would have two perfect buckets! Brainstorm a list of short and long term needs and how you would get them using tools you made from scratch. -food -I would make a bow for hunting -shelter -I would make a teepee using sticks and grass -water -I would make my shelter by the water and use my coconuts for containers -fire -I would easily make a bow fire starter because I know how to use one and make one Posted by 23282 on 11/1/06; 2:50:04 PM from the Patrick dept. Discuss (1 response)