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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
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