Ancient Sumer
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Section D:
Culture of Ancient Sumer
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SUMER CULTURE Page
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Ancient Sumer |
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Life in Sumer
- by Matthew & Nick The Sumerians had a thriving agriculture. They had many animals and their grain foods were stored at the temple and by private citizens. [The Sumerians learned to keep detailed records of their stored produce.] Boats went up and down the rivers with processed goods, bringing back food and raw materials. The ziggurats were very large and found in every town. People from outside Sumer would come and battle the Sumerians for land. |
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- by Andrew & Paul The main gods of Sumer were Anu, father of the gods and lord of heaven, Enil, lord of the earth, and Enhi, lord of the waters. There were also gods of the sun, moon, planets, winds, storms, rivers and mountains. The ziggurats were the most important temples in the cities of Sumer, and were built high in an attempt to reach heaven. The Sumerians believed that they had to feed and shelter their gods. |
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Religion - by Roberto & Chris Sumer's temples show how important religion was to the people of Sumer. They had many gods who they believed influenced every part of their lives. They made offerings and prayers to the gods of sky, water, crops and all things important to the people. The Sumerians believed that their gods lived in very high places and so made their offerings from ziggurats. |
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Religion - Daniel & Alex The Sumerians built a civilisation in which religion was important. We know this because of artifacts and ziggurats that were left behind. The ziggurats (temples) were possibly the most important buildings in the city because of their great size. Inside most of these ziggurats were writings of how the gods punished them by giving them famine and rewarded them by giving them good crops. |
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Death and the Afterlife - by Dennis, Dominic & Brent Ancient Sumerians held a grand belief of death and the afterlife. Each house had a shrine devoted to their own deity. Wealthy people had statues made for them to help offer their spirits to the gods in the afterlife. They also believed that how you lived in the current life would determine what you would become in the afterlife. An example of a royal funeral involved a queen of Sumer about 4,500 years ago. Her body was carried to a tomb by musicians, soldiers and servants. These people drank a drug which made them unconscious. The workmen then blocked the entrance with rocks, thus entombing the living with the dead. |
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Religious Beliefs - by Luke & Sean Sumerian cities had similar religions beliefs that united them into one civilisation. They had different gods for different attributes of the world, such as war, wisdom and air. Sacrifices were made to the gods in a ziggurat, a massive temple with multiple stories. A famous temple was the Temple of Khafage in which only the lower levels were used for sacrifices and religions meetings while the upper levels were for shops and offices. The Ancient Sumerians used religion to explain and solve the world's mysteries. |
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Religion - by Conor & Eric The Sumerian's most holy city was Ur. It was also the greatset city in all of Sumer. Their ziggurats were temples, and were the tallest buildings in the land. The size of the temple showed how important their religion was to them. The Sumerians were influenced by many gods. Prayers and offerings would be made into the sky. Important things such as water and crops were offered. Offerings took place at ziggurats. |
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Writing - by Elliot & Luke Only a small percentage of the Sumerian population could read or write the cuneiform form of writing. Writing allowed the ruling and wealthy class in Sumeria to record their own stories. Some kings even kept their own libraries. The Sumerian writing system was originally devised as a series of pictograms. Over time the pictograms were simplified into a system called cuneiform. This system consisted mostly of lines (wedges) and dots. |
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Writing - by Lachlan & Sam Rulers wanted to keep records of what people owed them in taxes and to spread word of the laws. Later on people would use the pictograms for stories and history and in the life of many communities. Pictograms were the first writing and were simple drawings of what an object looked like. Through the years people learned to make the pictograms easier to write. Cuneiform developed from this. |
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Art - by Damian & Jonathon Though craftsmen were very skillful at metal working and engraving, the development of sculpture and architecture in Sumer was handicapped by the lack of stone. Many works in gold, including jewellery, harps and helmets, have been found in Sumer. However, there is little knowledge of Mesopotamian painting and other arts before the Babylonian period [following Sumer]. Many of the buildings in Sumer were decorated with mosaics, reproducing colourful and intricate textile patterns by use of painted clay cones. |
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Society, Law and Government - by Ryan & Cameron An important part of culture in any society is government. The Sumerians believed in a 'God-ruled state'. This means that the land and people belonged to a supreme deity. The power of the ruler came down from on high; this ruler was seen as God's agent. He was meant to be responsible for the wellbeing of the people. |
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Leonard Woolley, Archaeologist - by C.Grant Much of our understanding of Ancient Sumer has come from the work of Sir Leonard Woolley, British archaeologist (1880-1960). While he carried out field excavations in many areas of the Middle East, his most important contributions were made at various sites in the ancient city of Ur. He directed major expeditions over the period 1922 to 1934, and later published a number of significant books. His wife, Katharine, accompanied him for much of this time, assisting the digging and sketching of artifacts. Woolley applied new standards of care to the actual removal of materials from the ground. His was purposeful and methodical, instructing his teams to avoid undue haste, controlling theft on-site, and making knowledge and understanding of history (rather than the collection of artifacts) his prime concern. In spite of this, some of his conclusions have subsequently been discussed and reappraised. However, overall, his work is regarded highly. Contributions made by Woolley These include uncovering the Royal Burial Ground at Ur along valuable materials that shed light on life in Sumer and proved extensive trade in Sumerian times, proof of extensive river flooding at ancient Ur, and the discovery of Queen Puabi's burial pit. The Burial Pit offered new insight into Sumerian rituals, showing that royal funerals were significant events that also involved what appeared to be voluntary human sacrifice. The royal retainers, and even animals, were probably killed by poison, with the intention of assisting their master or mistress in the afterlife. Artifacts also included paintings, gold and silver jewelery, cups, furnishings, and personal seals, with some items made of lapis lazuli, a valuable mineral substance brought to Sumer from some distance. Quote by Woolley 'Our object was to get history, not to fill museum cases with miscellaneous curios, and history could not be got unless both we and our men were duly trained.' (in 'Sumer: Cities of Eden'. 1993. Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia.) |
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FEATURE DRAWING
SUMERIAN RULER
On pottery: The king is seen with branches, feeding a wild sheep
(by C.Grant)
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