We bring in a summarized and agile way the basic information to study the Sumerians. Location, period of time, political organization, economy, territorial expansion and other data that will help you when knowing this civilization of antiquity. In subsequent articles we will continue with more study guides on other towns of the History Ancient. So we start with the Sumerian City States.
Geographical area
The Sumerian city states were located in the Lower Mesopotamiabetween the rivers Tigris and Euphratesin a floodplain area.
Time frame
They were installed from approximately 4000 BC and remained autonomous until around 2350 BC, when the Empire Akkadianwhich dominated the entire area.
Type of political organization
The sumerian people did not form an integrated state with a large territory, but rather developed in various City-states. City-states comprised the space of a city and the surrounding countryside. They were managed and governed autonomously from neighboring city-states.
rulers
The rulers of the Sumerian City States were in principle the great priests (called Patesi). They were dedicated -in addition to the worship of the gods- to organize public works, agricultural tasks and the tributes of the peasants, craft workshops, etc. Later, when conflicts arose with other city statesthe military chiefs intervened in the government in transitory form. Finally these remained in power and became princes with hereditary monarchy.
Economic activities.
The main economic activity was farming irrigated, with cereals and dates among its main products. There was also an important craft activity, which reached very high artistic levels. It was also developed trade by barter with other areas of the Near East.
Reason for decline
After a long period where you are city states lived quite independently of each other, one of them, kish he prevailed over the rest and conquered them. In this way the first empire of the region was established: the akkadian empire.
We suggest you delve deeper through these highlights about the Sumerians
The astronomy
The Sumerians were great scholars of the sky, despite (logically) the precarious tools of the time. To a large extent, they used the observation of the sky to measure time. The displacement of the Moon or Jupiter was also perfectly known.
However, there are those who go further. There are engravings in which celestial bodies can be seen in the background that would correspond to the nine planets of the solar system, with a large star in the middle (which would be the sun). This would mean that the Sumerians already knew what the solar system was, and even the size of the planets (the largest in reality are represented as the largest in the engravings. But how could this be possible? To answer this question there are several theories, one of them we show you in the video at the end of the article.
The development of writing
For another of the things that the Sumerian people have gone down in history is for the invention of writing. Or at least, it is the oldest town that is known to have used writing. It was called cuneiform writing. The symbols were “carved” on hot clay tablets and when they dried they became hard and engraved. The appearance of writing was a great advance for civilization. Sources and historical records began to exist, trade and communication were favored. Although, yes, at first only a few were able to “write”.
the ziggurats
They were the sacred temples of the Sumerians, where they worshiped their gods. They were a kind of pyramids made from baked clay and dried in the sun. One of the most important ziggurats that are preserved is that of the City of Ur.
Video about the Sumerians
Surely some of you already know that the Sumerian civilization is also involved in a certain mythical halo, as it could not be otherwise in a civilization so ancient and at the same time so advanced. The mystery that surrounds the Sumerians has to do with the Anunnaki race, which will surely sound familiar to all those who love conspiracy and “unlikely” facts.
These “historians” claim that the Sumerians could even be some sort of extraterrestrial race or deities worshiped by the Summaries and Akkadians. The fact is that there are those who maintain that they are not beings that come from the mythology of the Sumerian people, but that they were really visitors from other planets.
In the following video you can see more information on the subject. Be careful, it is not a video of a credulous person talking about the subject, but a documentary from the History Channel:
Links of interest
In Overhistory we have many other articles related to ancient civilizations that you will love if you are a lover of ancient history:
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