Lecture 1 Sumerians

8/3/2019 Lecture 1 Sumerians

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Unit Name and Number

I-SUMMERIANS

Name of the Faculty:- Sehdev ShramaUID :- 12915

E-mail :- [email protected]

In case you disagree with certain content of the reading material, kindly mail to the concerned faculty.


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Objective of study

To under the origin of Sumerian civilization

To know about art , culture and society of

Sumerians To know about the art and sculpture development

during Jahangir

To know its relevance in studying the history.


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Reference

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer

www.ancientscripts.com/sumerian.html

mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/sumer.html


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SUMMERIANS


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MAPS


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SUMERIANS

Sumerians first arrived in region around 5000 BC

Typical Paleolithic people motivated by search for game Settled in region and took up farming

Built dams, dikes, and short canals to use water from theEuphrates

Grew barley and dates and raised sheep and goats


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SUMERIAN CITY-STATES

City-states gradually emerged over next 1000 years

Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Kish, Umma, etc.

Larger than Neolithic settlements and displayed evidence ofeconomic specialization and strong political organization

Included the urban center plus surrounding countryside

Each was also an independent political unit


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CITY CHARACTERISTICS

Each city surrounded by walls

Permanent garrisons of soldiers stationed in towers and ateach gate

Wide boulevards crossed city, lined by houses of the wealthy

Rest of city made up of narrow, twisting alleys surrounded bysmall, flat-roofed huts

Homes of farmers, and small craftsmen


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SUMERIAN AGRICULTURE

Each was crisscrossed by irrigation system of major canals andminor channels

Designed to bring water from Euphrates to farmland

Farmland divided into square and rectangle-shaped plots

Farmers worked land with plows, seed-drills, and stone hoes

and received yield of 40:1 Other areas set aside as gardens and fruit orchards

Carts pulled by donkeys and boats on the canals took produce tothe urban center itself


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ZIGGURAT

Most dominant structure in each city was its temple

Dedicated to patron god of the city

Largest structure in city

Resembled a gigantic stepped pyramid

Designed to look like mountains because Sumerians believed

their gods liked to live on top of mountains


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LUGAL

Cities originally governed by an assembly ofadult males

Kings appeared who claimed to berepresentatives of the gods and who took

control of most government functions Called lugals

Not originally an hereditary position andthe kings power was limited tointerpreting the will of the gods

But this position would become

extraordinarily powerful in a relativelyshort period of time


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SARGON THE GREAT

According to legend, he was a

poor orphan adopted by a

gardener

Not a harsh ruler

By Mesopotamian standards

Respected and adopted

Sumerian culture and

civilization


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THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE In 2000 BC, the Amorites moved into region from

Arabia

Settled near Babylon and ultimately took itover

Amorites/Babylonians prospered and becamewealthiest and more powerful people inMesopotamia

Under King Hammurabi, they conquered the

region Babylonian Empire

Peak of Mesopotamia civilization

Produced first written law code

Empire collapsed shortly after Hammurabisdeath

Victim of new invading tribes and jealouslyindependent spirit of Sumerian city states

Hammurabi


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INVENTION OF WRITING

As early as 3500 BC, the Sumeriansused pictograms to representcertain physical objects

Drawn on clay

By 3500 BC, they began to useideograms (symbols standing forabstract, non-physical concepts)and phonograms (symbolsrepresenting phonetic sounds)

Meanwhile pictograms becamemore stylized


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CUNEIFORM WRITING

Emerging writing system known ascuneiform

Means wedge-shaped

Impressed on clay tablets with woodstylus

Very complicated

Originally 2000 symbols

Reduced to 500 over time

Only small group of professionalscribes could master it

After 15 years of training

A secret held by only a fewspecially-trained individuals


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MATH Developed in response to needs associated with

raising and storing food and designing irrigation

systems Based on units of 60

Only used today to measure time and circles

Also had supplemental system based on unitsof 10

Invented system to measure metal and grain

based on units of 60 Developed fundamental principles of geometry

Used to measure fields and design buildings

Invented first calendar

Based on phases of moon

Had 12 months


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SUMERIAN GODS At top of Sumerian pantheon of

gods was An

Divine force, the creator,thought to be the sky

Below An came Enhil

Controlled the weather

Capricious Then came Enki

Controlled fertility of the earthand abundance of harvests

Also capricious and cruel Then 50 other major gods and a

host of minor gods, demons,spirits, and the like


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NATURE OF RELIGION

Sumerian gods did not pay much attention to

mortals More interested in drinking, partying, and

fighting among themselves

Sumerians did not therefore worship their godsout of any sense of devotion or love

They worshipped them out of fear of thegods power and capriciousness

Sumerian religion was pessimistic

Reflected mentality of a people who had justrecently raised themselves to the level ofcivilization in a land marked by a severe

climate and where the dangers of flood anddisease were always present (and alsounexplainable and incurable)

Sumerian priest


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RELIGIOUS DILEMMA I

Sumerians were proud of their achievements

But they worried about to what extent did their achievements, orat least their pride in their achievements, go against what thegods wanted

To what extent did mans achievements upset the natural ordercreated by the gods? This dilemma was reflected in their mythology

Myth of Great Flood

Myth of the Garden of Eden Mythology reflected Mesopotamian insecurity over the alleged

contradiction between their growing belief in the importance ofman and his earthly accomplishments and the ingrained beliefthat they were the insignificant creation of divine beings muchmore important than they were


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SOCIAL CLASSES Establishment of a social hierarchy where some people had more power,

wealth, and privileges than others

Equality originally prevailed in Sumerian city-states

But divisions soon appeared

First group to claim special privileges and status were priests

Gave up working and began to live off work of others

Temples given huge tracts of land which priests rented in smallparcels to farmers

Lived off rent


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SLAVERY Originated with practice of men selling themselves

and/or their families to pay off debts

Supplemented by using pows as slaves

Demand for slaves increased as civilizationprogressed

Advance of civilization did not bring samebenefits to everyone

Some benefited a great deal

Others saw a deterioration in theirsituation

Civilization brought important benefits but it alsointroduced inequality, exploitation, taxes, andslavery


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THE PURPOSE OF LAW

If inequality and exploitation become too naked, society will not survive

Ancient Mesopotamia rulers realized this

They established law to define the limits of exploitation

In order to prevent such terrible acts of oppression that it would

have sparked the oppressed to rise up and the destroy the entiresystem

Law was invented by those on top to protect their superior status bylimiting the abuses they theoretically had the power to commit


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HAMMURABI

Several Sumerian city-

states seem to have some

sort of rudimentary law

code by 2300 BC

But the man creditedwith implementing the

first uniform law code

was the Babylonian king

Hammurabi

Applied to almost allof Mesopotamia


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HAMMURABIS LAW CODE

Greatest of his accomplishments

Carved on a huge stone slab

Discovered in Syria in 1901

Probably carried off fromBabylon after Ebla

destroyed the Babylonian

Empire

Contained 282 sections and

incorporated many uniquefeatures


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FEATURES

Basic feature was eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth

Revolutionary new legal principal

Earlier Sumerian laws calculated all punishments, no matterwhat the crime, in monetary fines

Punishments varied according to the social status of offender

Very harsh punishments

No concept of cruel and unusual punishment

Detailed regulation of economic life

Subsidiary status of women


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Summary

Lecture 1 Sumerians

Documents

Transcript of Lecture 1 Sumerians