Sumer

=**Sumer**=

=
Sumer was located in between the Euphrates and the Tigris river, meaning the soil was very rich and that made it easy to grow many crops. It was settled around 4500-4001, and Sumer was in modern day Iraq. Sumerian language was slowly replaced by the Akkadian language.======

=**Sumerian Music**= There is evidence that Sumerians must have liked music. People believe that it was very important to their religious beliefs. Archeologists have found musical instruments around burial sights of royalty, as well as art showing illustrations of musicians. Dancing girls would clap to keep rhythm until drums began to take over. When Sumerians would play stringed instruments they believed they had to be pure, so they would wash their hands as a way of purifying themselves. Most songs were played to honour the goddess Innana, but music was used for daily happenings such as births and marriages. Usually only people with higher class would have the privilege to have music at their celebration.

=**Way of life**= Sumer was a very fertile place which made living very easy for the people who lived there. Being right in between the Tigris and Euphrates river made the sol very rich and more convenient for growing crops. Sumer was a flourishing place which had many cities and temples, to keep intruder out and they built large walls which went around their cities.

Most Sumerians lived as farmers growing crops, and or raising live-stock. To make life easier they would dig canals which would irrigate their own crops which were mainly: Vegetables, barley, wheat, and dates. Live-stock tended to be cattle, donkeys, goats, as well as sheep.

The Sumerians were the first to invent cuneiform in around 3000 B.C. They use wedge like tools which they would carve symbols with into clay tablets. They clay was then left to sun dry and many were saved which helps us understand more about ancient times.

=Critical thinking= Imagine you’re living in an ancient world, you’re in one of the most fertile places but the technology is simple. How would you survive? It is thought that irrigation first started in Sumer; they dug canals from the Euphrates and the Tigris River that went throughout their fields. Suddenly food became more plentiful as well as rich in nutrients and fibre. What would it be like if the Sumerians never invented irrigation? We would definitely not be where we are today. We wouldn’t be able to support anyone else but ourselves (food wise), and even then times would get tough and we may not have even been able to support our families. But now that we have it we can grow many new plants and also at a faster, and to larger quantity.

Today our irrigation is much different to the kind they had back then, but only because it has evolved to make it more efficient. Now we use pipes instead of dug canals, but that is for a reason. In Sumer they were located right in between the Euphrates and Tigris River, which made it possible for them to dig canals. But if you didn’t live near any rivers or streams, it would make it much harder to irrigate your crops. Now that we have pipes we can hook them up to various places like wells.

Irrigation was not the only, or most important innovation of ancient Mesopotamia, writing was also one of the major inventions. Cuneiform was the first form of writing, they used symbols to represent what they were writing. They used styluses to print the symbols onto wet clay, then set then in the sun to dry. Gradually this led to further more advanced forms of writing, until we got to where we are today.

As we look back at ancient times we gain the realization that technology just becomes more and more advanced. We look at where we are today and we may think we can’t get any more advanced, like life can’t get any better. But what if that’s what people thought a long time ago?

=Bibliography= Wikipedia-Sumer- Where I got random facts thet I included into my projects. Facts on notes that will be handed in. S. Encyclopedia- Where I found facts about Sumeian way of life. vector-clip-art.com- Where I got attached picture.

By:Kelsey