They also invented civilization in the literal sense of the word. Basically anything that the Sumerians used, which had not already been invented in the Stone Age, they had to invent for themselves. There are probably numerous other items that the Sumerians invented for which they haven’t received proper credit. For with that mud they built towering ziggurats, and on that mud they invented writing.Įxamples of Sumerian technological inventions include the wheel, copper, bronze, the arch, sailboats, lunar calendars, sundials, saws, chisels, hammers, rivets, sickles, hoes, glue (bitumen), swords and scabbards, harnesses, armor, musical instruments (the lyre and harp), chariots, the kiln, sun-dried and kiln-fired bricks (mixed with straw to give them greater strength), the pottery wheel, printing, plows, metal cooking pots, and (last but not least) beer. The only thing they had in abundance was mud, but with that mud they built a great civilization.
Neither did the Sumerians have much mineral wealth. Unlike the Egyptians, however, the Sumerians did not have a lot of stone (imagine Egyptian civilization without its endless supply of stone). Like the Egyptians, the Sumerians did not have a lot of timber so it’s somewhat surprising that the world’s first civilizations should arise where there isn't a plentiful supply of wood, which could be used for fuel, the construction of houses, and for many of the utilitarian items needed in daily life. What’s so remarkable about the Sumerians’ invention of civilization is they did it with so few natural resources. This kind of statue, along with the Sumerians' sudden rise to civilization, has caused some people to speculate that the Sumerians were assisted by aliens from outer space. Statuettes from the Ubaid period, the prehistoric era of the Sumerians. (See the page on The Gebel el-Arak Knife.) The only contact between the two great civilizations was through Though on a modern map they seem to be quite close, they never had any direct contact with each other. The historic record seems to indicate that they built their civilizations independently. There is no mention of the Egyptians in the Sumerian archives, or vice-versa, and there is no direct evidence they had a noticeable influence on one another, except for their propensity to build giant pyramids and ziggurats. There has been some debate on whether they created their civilizations independently or if they cooperated with each other. The Sumerian civilization was already ancient when it ended in 2004 B.C., twenty centuries before Julius Caesar, sixteen centuries before Socrates, and seven centuries before Tutankhamen.Īt the dawn of history, the Egyptians were the only people with a civilization comparable to that of the Sumerians (although the Sumerian civilization was much older). In regard to the Sumerians, you will need to revise your concept of ancient in comparison to the "ancient" Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. What’s more, they did it thousands of years before anyone else.
They seemed to come from out of nowhere, and they single-handedly invented civilization when most of the rest of the world was still living in the Stone Age. The Sumerians were the most extraordinary people who ever lived on the face of the earth. The temple was dedicated to Nanna, the moon god. The original "Stairway to Heaven." The grand staircase of the great ziggurat at Ur.
0 kommentar(er)
