Section 3 Sumerian Achievements The Big Idea The Sumerians made many advances that helped their society develop Main Ideas The Sumerians invented the worlds first writing system Advances and inventions changed Sumerian lives ID: 698021
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Slide1
Chapter 3 Section 3
Sumerian AchievementsSlide2
Section 3: Sumerian Achievements
The Big Idea
The Sumerians made many advances that helped their society develop.
Main Ideas
The Sumerians invented the world’s first writing system.
Advances and inventions changed Sumerian lives.
Many types of art developed in Sumer.Slide3
Sumerian Writing and EducationSlide4
The Invention of Writing
The Sumerians made one of the greatest cultural advances in history.
They developed cuneiform.
Cuneiform-the world’s first system of writingSlide5
The Invention of Writing
Sumerians used sharp tools called
styluses
, instead of pencils and pens, to make wedge-shaped symbols on clay tablets.
The oldest inscriptions are on stone 3600 BC.
Clay tablets appear around 3200 BC.
Sumerian writing reads from right to left.Slide6
History of Cuneiform
But in cuneiform, symbols could also represent syllables, or basic parts of words.
As a result, Sumerian writers could combine symbols to express more complex ideas such as “joy” or “powerful.”
Sumerian writing reads from right to left.
Cuneiform ended around 330 BC.Slide7
History of Cuneiform
Earlier written communication had used
pictographs
, or picture symbols.
Each pictograph represented an object, such as a tree or an animal.Slide8Slide9
Scribes
The Sumerians first used cuneiform to keep business records.
A
scribe
, or writer, would be hired to keep track of the items people traded.
Government officials and temples hired scribes to keep their records.
Becoming a scribe was a way to move up in social class.Slide10Slide11
Schools
Sumerian students went to school to learn to read and write.
The priests were the primary teachers of the children.
To most temples were attached schools with clergy instructed boys and girls.Slide12
Schools
They instructed in writing and arithmetic, formed their habits into patriotism and piety, and prepared some for the profession of scribes.
School tablets survive, encrusted with tables of multiplication and division, square and cube roots, and exercise in applied geometry. Slide13
Schools
But, like today, some students did not want to study.
“
Go to school, stand before your school-father, recite your assignment, open your school bag, write your tablet…After you have finished your assignment and reported to your monitor(teacher), come to me, and do not wander about in the street.
Link
to A Sumerian Essay for SchoolboysSlide14
Literature
In time, Sumerians put their writing skills to new uses.
It was first used for commerce, and then religious record.
They wrote works on history, law, grammar, and math.
They also created works of literature such as stories, proverbs, and songs.
They wrote poems about the gods and about military victories. Slide15
Epics
Some literature include epics.
Epics
are long poems that tell the stories of heroes.
The most famous poem being the
Epic of Gilgamesh
, the story of a legendary Sumerian King.Slide16
Epic of Gilgamesh
The first half of the story discusses Gilgamesh, king of
Uruk
, and
Enkidu
, a wild man created by the gods to stop Gilgamesh from oppressing the people of
Uruk
.
After an initial fight, Gilgamesh and
Enkidu
become close friends. Together, they go on a journey to the defeat monsters.
Later they kill the Bull of Heaven, which the goddess Ishtar sends to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances.
As a punishment for these actions, the gods sentence
Enkidu
to death.Slide17
Epic of Gilgamesh
In the second half of the epic, depressed about
Enkidu's
death causes Gilgamesh to undertake a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life.
He summons his dead friend
Enkidu
, who describes the miseries of death, and then the epic ends.Slide18
Who is Gilgamesh
Two thirds of him is god,
One third of him is man,
There’s none can match the form of his body…
All things he saw, even to the ends of the earth, He underwent all, learned to know all;
He peered through all secrets,
Through wisdoms mantle that veils all
What was hidden he saw,
What was cover he undid;
Of times before the storm flood be brought report.
He went on a long far way,
Giving himself toil and distress;
Wrote then on a stone table the whole of his laborSlide19Slide20
Sumerian Technology and ScienceSlide21
Evolution of the wheel
The
Sumerians
were the first to development of the wheel
It was used for carts and wagonsSlide22
The Plow
The
plow
increased farm production. The plow was pulled by oxen and broke through the hard clay soil for planting. Slide23
Potters Wheel
Invented the Potter’s wheel-a device that spins clay as a craftsperson shapes it into bowls.Slide24
Advances and Inventions
They made advances in daily life
They also invented a clock that used falling water to measure time.
They added sails to their boats to make sailboats.
Sumerians built sewers under the city streets
First to manufacture bronze to make stronger tools and weapons
They even produced makeup and glass jewelry.Slide25Slide26
Math
Commerce created mathematics, and united with religion to beget astronomy.
The Mesopotamians even developed
π
as the number 3
They developed math system based on the number 60.
Based on this system, they divided a circle into 360 degrees.
Divided
a
calendar
into 12
months
with
a total of 354 days.
The divisions of our months (12), (24)days, hours, and (60) minutes came from the Mesopotamians
They calculated the areas of rectangles and trianglesSlide27Slide28
Science
They wrote long list to record their study of the natural world
These tablets included the names of thousands of animals, plants, and minerals.
Sumerians would use ashes of ox hooves, egg shells, and pumice as tooth paste
They would also use animal fat, wood, and ash as soap.Slide29
Astronomy
Mesopotamians
study the stars to divine the future fates of men, more astrologers then astronomers.
Every celestial movement had a terrestrial event.
If the moon was crescent, then the king would overcome an enemy.
They made the first distinction between a planet and a star.
They plotted the orbits of the sun and moon and dated the seasons. Slide30Slide31
Medicine
They used
ingredients
from animals, plants, and minerals to produce healing drugs.
Some included milk, turtle shells, fig, and salt
They catalogued their medical knowledge, listing treatments according to symptoms and body parts.Slide32
Medicine
A regular profession of
physician
had been established, with fees and penalties fixed by laws
A patient could know the fee before treatment, and the poor could pay less.
Doctors had to pay damages for misdiagnoses, they could even lose a finger in extreme cases. Slide33Slide34
Medicine
Strange Medicine: Sumerians would sleep next to skulls or even kiss/lick them to cure ailments.
Sorcerers were more popular then physicians amongst the populace.
Possession was considered a disease, caused by sin.
Drugs were used to terrify the demons rather then heal the patients.
People were given disgusting drinks consisting of raw meat, snake-flesh, wood shavings, wine or oil, rotten food, crushed bones, fat, dirt, and animal or human urine or excrement to convince the demon to leave.Slide35
Sumerian Art and CultureSlide36
The Arts of Sumer
The Sumerians skills in the fields of art, metalwork, and architecture
Architecture-the science of building
Sumerian kings lived in palaces
The rich lived in two story homes with a dozen rooms, made mud bricks.
The poor lived in small one story homes, most even made of reeds.
Roads were unpavedSlide37
Architecture
City Centers were dominated by their temples called
ziggurats
, a pyramid-shaped temple tower.
Outdoor staircases led to a platform and a shrine at the top.
Cities had a storage granaries and water cisterns, as well as accommodations for visiting envoys from other cities.
Towns also had a strictly regulated open market and licensed traders.Slide38
Oval Temple of
KhafajiSlide39
Ziggurat of Ur-
NammuSlide40
The Arts
Sumerians were famous fo
r making sculptures, jewelry, cylinder seals, pottery, music, and dance.
Sumerian
sculptors produced many fine works.
Among them are the statues of gods for temples.
Sumerian
pottery is known for its quantity but not quality. Slide41
The Arts
Jewelry was popular
Jewelers made many beautiful works out imported gold, silver, and gems.
Cylinder
seals could be used to sign documents, battle scenes, worship rituals, and mark property.
They were stone cylinders engraved with designs, when rolled over clay, they left an imprint.Slide42Slide43Slide44Slide45
Music
Kings
and temples hired musicians to play on special occasions for entertainment.
They used reed pipes, drums, tambourines, and stringed instruments called lyres.
Children learned songs in school.
People sang hymns to gods and kings.
Music and dance provided entertainment in marketplaces and homes. Slide46Slide47
Summary of Sumerian Civilization
Sumerian civilization may be summed up in this contrast between crude pottery and consummate jewelry; it was a synthesis of rough beginnings and occasional but brilliant mastery. Here are the first states and empires, the first irrigation, the first use of gold and silver as standards of value, the first business contracts, the credit first system, the first code of law, the first writing, the first stories of Creation, the first libraries and schools, the first literature and poetry, the first cosmetics and jewelry, ornamental metal and decorative themes, the first arch, column, vault, and dome. Here appears some of the sins of civilization: slavery, despotism, and imperialistic war. It was a life differentiated and subtle, abundant and complex. Slide48
Questions (pages 65-69)
What
did
the Sumerians use to write in cuneiform?
Why were scribes important?
How was cuneiform used to express complex ideas?
What was
one of
the most important technical developments of Sumer
What Sumerian advance in mathematics do we use every day when we look at a calendar?
What was at the center of most Sumerian cities?
What different types of art did the Sumerians create?Slide49
Cuneiform
1.
2.
3.
Technology
1.
2.
3.
Invention of Writing. Copy and Fill in the Graphic Organizer
Architecture
1.
2.
3.
Arts
1.
2.
3.Slide50
Architecture
Rulers lived in large palaces.
Mud
bricks were the houses’ main building blocks.
A
ziggurat
, or pyramid-shaped temple tower, rose above each city.
Many types of art developed in Sumer. Copy and Fill in the Graphic Organizer
The Arts
Sculptors produced many statues of the gods for their temples.
Jewelry was a popular item made from imported gold, silver, and gems.
Engraved
cylinder seals
are one of Sumer’s most famous types of art
.
Technology
The Wheel
The Plow
The Sail
Bronze weapons
Cuneiform
World’s first system of writing
Cuneiform symbols could represent syllables. Earlier pictographs had represented only objects.
The Sumerians wrote on clay tablets with a stylus.