First Civilization- Ur in Sumer Flashcards
Villages Grow into Cities
Settled in stable communities that were based on agriculture. Domesticated animals became more common. The invention of new tools—hoes, sickles, and plow sticks—made the task of farming easier, settlements with a plentiful supply of food could support larger populations. change from a nomadic hunting-gathering way of life to settled village life took a long time. Likewise, the change from village life to city life was a gradual process that spanned several generations.
Agriculture
Agriculture marked a dramatic change in how people lived together, started the Neolithic Revolution, people could settle down in groups, soon became civilizations, increased population
Economic Changes
To cultivate more land and to produce extra crops, ancient people in larger villages built elaborate irrigation systems, surpluses freed some villagers to pursue other jobs and to develop skills besides farming, learned to become craftspeople created valuable new products, such as pottery, metal objects, and woven cloth. In turn, people who became traders profited from a broader range of goods to exchange—craftwork, grains, and many raw materials. Two important inventions—the wheel and the sail—also enabled traders to move more goods over longer distances.
Social Changes
More complex and prosperous economy affected the social structure of village life. For example, building and operating large irrigation systems required the labor of many people, workers formed, social classes with varying wealth, power, and influence began to emerge,would become more clearly defined as cities grew, religion also became more organized. During the Old Stone Age, prehistoric people’s religious beliefs centered around nature, animal spirits, and some idea of an afterlife. During the New Stone Age, farming peoples worshiped the many gods and goddesses who they believed had power over the rain, wind, and other forces of nature, developed rituals founded on these earlier religious beliefs. As populations grew, common spiritual values became lasting religious traditions.
How Civilization Develops
one of the first civilizations arose in Sumer. Sumer was located in Mesopotamia, a region that is part of modern Iraq, a civilization is often defined as a complex culture with five characteristics: (1) advanced cities, (2) specialized workers, (3) complex institutions, (4) record keeping, and (5) advanced technology.
Advanced Cities
birthplaces of the first civilizations. A city is more than a large group of people living together. The size of the population alone does not distinguish a village from a city. One of the key differences is that a city is a center of trade for a larger area; depended on trade, farmers, merchants, and traders brought goods to market in the cities. The city dwellers themselves produced a variety of goods for exchange.
Specialized Workers
As cities grew, so did the need for more specialized workers, such as traders, government officials, and priests. Food surpluses provided the opportunity for specialization, development of skills in a specific kind of work. An abundant food supply allowed some people to become expert at jobs besides farming, city dwellers became artisans—skilled workers who make goods by hand. Specialization helped artisans develop their skill at designing jewelry, fashioning metal tools and weapons, or making clothing and pottery. The wide range of crafts artisans produced helped cities become centers of trade.
Complex Institution
Populations of early cities made government, or a system of ruling, necessary. In civilizations, leaders emerged to maintain order among people and to establish laws. Government is an example of an institution—a long-lasting pattern of organization in a community, growth of cities caused religion to become a formal institution. Most cities had great temples where dozens of priests took charge of religious duties. Sumerians believed that every city belonged to a god who governed the city’s activities. The temple was the hub of both government and religious affairs. It also served as the city’s economic center. There food and trade items were distributed.
Record Keeping
As government, religion, and the economy became more complex, people recognized the need to keep records. In early civilizations, government officials had to document tax collections, the passage of laws, and the storage of grain. Priests needed a way to keep track of the calendar and important rituals. Merchants had to record accounts of debts and payments, around 3000 b.c., Sumerian scribes—or professional record keepers—invented a system of writing called cuneiform (KYOO•nee•uh•FAWRM), meaning “wedge-shaped.” (Earlier Sumerian writing consisted of pictographs—symbols of the objects or what they represented.) The scribe’s tool, called a stylus, was a sharpened reed with a wedge-shaped point. It was pressed into moist clay to create symbols. Scribes baked their clay tablets in the sun to preserve the writing, began to write about other things then records, wrote about their cities’ dramatic events—wars, natural disasters, the reign of kings. Thus, the beginning of civilization in Sumer also signaled the beginning of written history.
Improved Technology
Tools and techniques are always needed to solve problems that emerge when large groups of people live together. In early civilizations, some farmers harnessed the powers of animals and nature, ox-drawn plows to turn the soil. They also created irrigation systems to expand planting areas, artisans relied on new technology to make their tasks easier. Around 3500 b.c., they first used the potter’s wheel to shape jugs, plates, and bowls. Sumerian metalworkers discovered that melting together certain amounts of copper and tin made bronze. After 2500 b.c., metalworkers in Sumer’s cities turned out bronze spearheads by the thousands. The period called the Bronze Age refers to the time when people began using bronze, rather than copper and stone, to fashion tools and weapons. The Bronze Age started in Sumer around 3000 b.c., civilization first developed in cities. In fact, the very word civilization comes from the Latin word for citizen.
Case Study: Ur in Sumer
Ur, one of the earliest cities in Sumer, stood on the banks of the Euphrates River in what is now southern Iraq, 30,000 people once lived in this ancient city. Ur was the site of a highly sophisticated civilization, 3000 b.c., Ur was a flourishing urban civilization. People in Ur lived in well-defined social classes. Rulers, as well as priests and priestesses, wielded great power. Wealthy merchants profited from foreign trade. Artists and artisans created lavish jewelry, musical instruments, and gold daggers. Woolley’s finds have enabled historians to reconstruct Ur’s advanced culture.
Agricultural Economy in Ur
People are working barefoot in the irrigation ditches that run between patches of green plants. With stone hoes, the workers widen ditches to carry water into their fields from the reservoir a mile away. This large-scale irrigation system was developed to provide Ur with food surpluses, which keep the economy thriving. The government officials who direct this public works project ensure its smooth operation.
Life in Ur
City-dwellers go about their daily lives. Most live in windowless, one-story, boxlike houses packed tightly along the street. A few wealthy families live in two-story houses with an inner courtyard. Down another street, artisans work in their shops. A metalworker makes bronze by mixing molten copper with just the right quantity of tin. Later, he will hammer the bronze to make spearheads—weapons to help Ur’s well-organized armies defend the city. As a potter spins his potter’s wheel, he expertly shapes the moist clay into a large bowl. These artisans and other craftworkers produce trade goods that help Ur prosper.
Ur’s Thriving Trade
Narrow streets open into a broad avenue where merchants squat under awnings and trade farmers’ crops and artisans’ crafts. This is the city’s bazaar, or marketplace. Coins are not used to make purchases because money has not yet been invented. But merchants and their customers know roughly how many pots of grain a farmer must give to buy a jug of wine. This way of trading goods and services without money is called barter. More complicated trades require a scribe. He carefully forms cuneiform signs on a clay tablet. The signs may show how much barley a farmer owes a merchant for a donkey.
Temple in Ur
Ur’s tallest and most important building—the temple. Like a city within a city, the temple is surrounded by a heavy wall. Within the temple gate, a massive, tiered structure towers over the city. This pyramid-shaped monument is called a ziggurat (ZIHG•uh•RAT), which means “mountain of god. On the exterior of the ziggurat, a flight of perhaps 100 mud-brick stairs leads to the top. At the peak, priests conduct rituals to worship the city god who looms over Ur. Every day, priests climb these stairs. They often drag a goat or sheep to sacrifice. The temple also houses storage areas for grains, woven fabrics, and gems—offerings to the city’s god, believed in an afterlife.
