They did a lot of large-scale agriculture, growing grains on some centralized state-owned fields and then distributing them out to the people. They had a complex system of metrology, using arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. And this culture was sophisticated, they had a lot of knowledge about how the world worked. The cities had a shared culture, shared gods and a shared language in a way that nowhere else in the world did. The thing that made Sumer different from the other random collections of city-states was its culture. the Uruk period – where Uruk was in charge, the Jemdet Nars period – where Jemdet Nars was in charge). The periods are named after the particular city that was in charge at that time (e.g. For different periods of Sumerian history, different cities dominated. The cities were in an almost constant state of war over the 2,000-year history of Sumeria. Over time, they banded together, with one king invading the other surrounding cities and taking them over. Each had a population of roughly 50,000 people, with the total Sumerian population being between 800,000 and 1.5 million. The cities were all similar, they had a large temple complex at the center, bordered by a canal. Instead, they built their epic temple complexes out of mudbricks, the same material they used for their writing tablets (Image: Wikimedia).Īncient Sumeria was formed from a series of city-states banding together in roughly 4000 BC. It is made of mud – no trees really seem to grow around Sumeria, so they made very little out of wood, certainly not large buildings. It is a glorious piece of architecture and one of the oldest buildings in the world. It was the central piece in a larger temple complex and was the administrative center of the city. It was originally built around 2,100 BC by King Ur-Nammu, but had many later renovations. The Ancient Sumarians This is the Ziggurat of Ur, a building in one of the major cities in Sumer. But Sumeria is where human civilization really started. About 500 years later Ancient Egypt came on the scene and joined them. They were formed from the first cities in the world joining together. And not just a bit earlier, hundreds even thousands of years earlier than most other ancient civilizations. They were the original ancient civilization: anything you think of when you think of civilization – writing, government, temples, law – they did it first. The ancient Sumerians ruled ancient Iraq from 3,500 BC to 2000 BC. ![]() Sumeria: The Original Ancient Civilization
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