The Sumerians laid a network of canals from the Euphrates River, they irrigated the barren. Presentation "Ancient Mesopotamia" Friendship lasts a day, kinship lasts forever
This wide strip of excellent soil ran from what we now call the Persian Gulf, curving north and west, all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. To the south it bordered the Arabian Desert (which was too dry, sandy and rocky for agriculture) a huge crescent more than 1600 km long. This area is commonly called the Fertile Crescent.
To become one of the richest and most populous centers of human civilization (which it eventually became), the Fertile Crescent needed regular, reliable rains, and this was precisely what was lacking. The country was flat, and warm winds swept over it, without dropping their cargo - moisture, until they reached the mountains bordering the Crescent on the east. Those rains that fell occurred in the winter; the summer was dry.
However, there was water in the country. In the mountains north of the Fertile Crescent, abundant snow served as an inexhaustible source of water that flowed down the mountain slopes into the lowlands of the south. The streams gathered into two rivers, which flowed more than 1,600 km in a southwestern direction, until they flowed into the Persian Gulf.
These rivers are known to us by the names that the Greeks gave them, thousands of years after the era of Yarmo. The eastern river is called the Tigris, the western - the Euphrates. The Greeks called the country between the rivers Mesopotamia, but they also used the name Mesopotamia.
Various areas of this region have received different names, and none of them became generally accepted throughout the country. Mesopotamia comes closest to this, and in this book I will use it not only to name the land between the rivers, but also for the entire region watered by them, from the mountains of Transcaucasia to the Persian Gulf.
This strip of land is approximately 1,300 km long and extends from northwest to southeast. "Upstream" always means "towards the northwest", and "downstream" always means "towards the southeast". Mesopotamia, by this definition, covers an area of about 340 thousand square meters. km and is close in shape and size to Italy.
Mesopotamia includes the upper bend of the arc and the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent. The western part, which is not part of Mesopotamia, in later times became known as Syria and included the ancient country of Canaan.
Most of Mesopotamia is now included in the country called Iraq, but its northern regions overlap the borders of this country and belong to modern Turkey, Syria, Iran and Armenia.
Yarmo lies only 200 km east of the Tigris River, so we can assume that the village was located on the northeastern border of Mesopotamia. It is easy to imagine that the technique of cultivating the land must have spread westward, and by 5000 BC. e. agriculture was already practiced in the upper reaches of both large rivers and their tributaries. The technique of cultivating the land was brought not only from Yarmo, but also from other settlements located along the mountainous border. In the north and east, improved varieties of grains were grown and cattle and sheep were domesticated. Rivers were more convenient than rain as a source of water, and the villages that grew on their banks became larger and richer than Yarmo. Some of them occupied 2 - 3 hectares of land.
The villages, like Yarmo, were built from unfired clay bricks. This was natural, because in most of Mesopotamia there is no stone or timber, but clay is available in abundance. The lowlands were warmer than the hills around Jarmo, and early river houses were built with thick walls and few openings to keep the heat out of the house.
Of course, there was no waste collection system in the ancient settlements. Garbage gradually accumulated on the streets and was compacted by people and animals. The streets became higher, and the floors in houses had to be raised, laying new layers of clay.
Sometimes buildings made of sun-dried bricks were destroyed by storms and washed away by floods. Sometimes the entire town was demolished. The surviving or newly arrived residents had to rebuild it right from the ruins. As a result, the towns, built again and again, ended up standing on mounds that rose above the surrounding fields. This had some advantages - the city was better protected from enemies and from floods.
Over time, the city was completely destroyed, and only a hill (“tell” in Arabic) remained. Careful archaeological excavations on these hills revealed habitable layers one after another, and the deeper the archaeologists dug, the more primitive the traces of life became. This is clearly visible in Yarmo, for example.
The hill of Tell Hassun, on the upper Tigris, about 100 km west of Yarmo, was excavated in 1943. Its oldest layers contain painted pottery more advanced than any findings from ancient Yarmo. It is believed to represent the Hassun-Samarran period of Mesopotamian history, which lasted from 5000 to 4500 BC. e.
The hill of Tell Halaf, about 200 km upstream, reveals the remains of a town with cobblestone streets and more advanced brick houses. During the Khalaf period, from 4500 to 4000 BC. e., ancient Mesopotamian ceramics reaches its highest development.
As Mesopotamian culture developed, techniques for using river water improved. If you leave the river in its natural state, you can only use fields located directly on the banks. This sharply limited the area of usable land. Moreover, the amount of snowfall in the northern mountains, as well as the rate of snowmelt, vary from year to year. There were always floods at the beginning of summer, and if they were stronger than usual, there was too much water, while in other years there was too little.
People figured out that a whole network of trenches or ditches could be dug on both banks of the river. They diverted water from the river and brought it to each field through a fine network. Canals could be dug along the river for kilometers, so that fields far from the river still ended up on the banks. Moreover, the banks of canals and rivers themselves could be raised with the help of levees, which water could not overcome during floods, except in places where it was desirable.
In this way it was possible to count on the fact that, generally speaking, there would be neither too much nor too little water. Of course, if the water level fell unusually low, the canals, except those located near the river itself, were useless. And if the floods were too powerful, the water would flood the dams or destroy them. But such years were rare.
The most regular water supply was in the lower reaches of the Euphrates, where seasonal and annual fluctuations in level are less than on the stormy Tigris River. Around 5000 BC e. in the upper reaches of the Euphrates began to be built complex system irrigation, it spread downwards and by 4000 BC. e. reached the most favorable lower Euphrates.
It was on the lower reaches of the Euphrates that civilization flourished. Cities became much larger, and in some by 4000 BC. e. the population reached 10 thousand people.
Such cities became too large for the old tribal systems, where everyone lived as one family, obeying its patriarchal head. Instead, people without distinct family connections they had to live together and collaborate peacefully in their work. The alternative would be starvation. To maintain peace and enforce cooperation, a leader had to be elected.
Each city then became a political community, controlling agricultural land in its vicinity in order to feed the population. City-states arose, and a king stood at the head of each city-state.
The inhabitants of the Mesopotamian city-states essentially did not know where the much-needed river water came from; why floods occur in one season and not another; why in some years there are none, while in others they reach disastrous heights. It seemed reasonable to explain all this as the work of beings much more powerful than ordinary people - the gods.
Since it was believed that fluctuations in water levels did not follow any system, but were completely arbitrary, it was easy to assume that the gods were hot-tempered and capricious, like extremely strong overgrown children. In order for them to give as much water as needed, they had to be cajoled, persuaded when they were angry, and kept in a good mood when they were peaceful. Rituals were invented in which the gods were endlessly praised and tried to appease.
It was assumed that the gods liked the same things that people like, so that the most important method to appease the gods was to feed them. True, the gods do not eat like people, but the smoke from the burning food rose to the sky, where the gods were imagined to live, and animals were sacrificed to them by burning *.
An ancient Mesopotamian poem describes a great flood sent by the gods that destroys humanity. But the gods, deprived of sacrifices, became hungry. When a righteous survivor of the flood sacrifices animals, the gods gather around impatiently:
The gods smelled it
The gods smelled a delicious smell,
The gods, like flies, gathered over the victim.
Naturally, the rules of communication with the gods were even more complex and confusing than the rules of communication between people. A mistake in communicating with a person could lead to murder or bloody feud, but a mistake in communicating with a god could mean famine or a flood that devastates the entire area.
Therefore, in agricultural communities a powerful priesthood grew up, much more developed than that which can be found in hunting or nomadic societies. The kings of the Mesopotamian cities were also high priests and offered sacrifices.
* The idea that the gods lived in the sky may have stemmed from the fact that the earliest farmers depended on rain falling from the sky rather than on river floods. (Note by author)
The center around which the entire city revolved was the temple. The priests who occupied the temple were responsible not only for the relationship between people and gods, but also for the management of the city itself. They were treasurers, tax collectors, organizers - the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy, the brain and heart of the city.
Source -
In the south of modern Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a mysterious people, the Sumerians, settled almost 7,000 years ago. They made a significant contribution to the development of human civilization, but we still do not know where the Sumerians came from or what language they spoke.
Mysterious language
The Mesopotamian valley has long been inhabited by tribes of Semitic herders. It was they who were driven north by the Sumerian aliens. The Sumerians themselves were not related to the Semites; moreover, their origins are still unclear to this day. Neither the ancestral home of the Sumerians nor the linguistic family to which their language belonged is known.
Luckily for us, the Sumerians left many written monuments. From them we learn that neighboring tribes called these people “Sumerians”, and they themselves called themselves “Sang-ngiga” - “black-headed”. They called their language a “noble language” and considered it the only one suitable for people (in contrast to the not so “noble” Semitic languages spoken by their neighbors).
But the Sumerian language was not homogeneous. It had special dialects for women and men, fishermen and shepherds. What the Sumerian language sounded like is unknown to this day. A large number of homonyms suggests that this language was a tonal language (like, for example, modern Chinese), which means that the meaning of what was said often depended on intonation.
After sunset Sumerian civilization, the Sumerian language was studied for a long time in Mesopotamia, since most religious and literary texts were written in it.
The ancestral home of the Sumerians
One of the main mysteries remains the ancestral home of the Sumerians. Scientists build hypotheses based on archaeological data and information obtained from written sources. 
This Asian country, unknown to us, was supposed to be located on the sea. The fact is that the Sumerians came to Mesopotamia along river beds, and their first settlements appeared in the south of the valley, in the deltas of the Tigris and Euphrates. At first there were very few Sumerians in Mesopotamia - and this is not surprising, because the ships can only accommodate so many settlers. Apparently, they were good sailors, since they were able to climb up unfamiliar rivers and find a suitable place to land on the shore.
In addition, scientists believe that the Sumerians come from mountainous areas. It’s not for nothing that in their language the words “country” and “mountain” are spelled the same. And the Sumerian temples “ziggurats” resemble mountains in appearance - they are stepped structures with a wide base and a narrow pyramidal top, where the sanctuary was located.
Another important condition is that this country must have developed technologies. The Sumerians were one of the most advanced peoples of their time; they were the first in the entire Middle East to use the wheel, create an irrigation system, and invent a unique writing system.
According to one version, this legendary ancestral home was located in the south of India.
Flood survivors
It was not for nothing that the Sumerians chose the Mesopotamia Valley as their new homeland. The Tigris and Euphrates originate in the Armenian Highlands, and carry fertile silt and mineral salts to the valley. Because of this, the soil in Mesopotamia is extremely fertile, with fruit trees, grains and vegetables growing in abundance. In addition, there were fish in the rivers, wild animals flocked to watering holes, and in the flooded meadows there was plenty of food for livestock. 
But all this abundance had a downside. When the snow began to melt in the mountains, the Tigris and Euphrates carried streams of water into the valley. Unlike the Nile floods, the Tigris and Euphrates floods could not be predicted; they were not regular.
Strong floods turned into a real disaster, they destroyed everything in their path: cities and villages, fields, animals and people. It was probably when they first encountered this disaster that the Sumerians created the legend of Ziusudra.
At a meeting of all the gods, a terrible decision was made - to destroy all of humanity. Only one god, Enki, took pity on the people. He appeared in a dream to King Ziusudra and ordered him to build a huge ship. Ziusudra fulfilled the will of God; he loaded his property, family and relatives, various craftsmen to preserve knowledge and technology, livestock, animals and birds onto the ship. The doors of the ship were tarred on the outside.
The next morning a terrible flood began, which even the gods were afraid of. The rain and wind raged for six days and seven nights. Finally, when the water began to recede, Ziusudra left the ship and made sacrifices to the gods. Then, as a reward for his loyalty, the gods granted Ziusudra and his wife immortality.
This legend not only recalls the legend of Noah's Ark, most likely the biblical story is borrowed from Sumerian culture. After all, the first poems about the flood that have reached us go back as far as XVIII century B.C.
King-priests, king-builders
The Sumerian lands were never a single state. In essence, it was a collection of city-states, each with its own law, its own treasury, its own rulers, its own army. The only things they had in common were language, religion and culture. City-states could be at enmity with each other, could exchange goods or enter into military alliances. 
Each city-state was ruled by three kings. The first and most important was called “en”. This was the king-priest (however, the enom could also be a woman). The main task Tsar En was holding religious ceremonies: solemn processions, sacrifices. In addition, he was in charge of all temple property, and sometimes the property of the entire community.
An important area of life in ancient Mesopotamia there was construction. The Sumerians are credited with the invention of baked brick. City walls, temples, and barns were built from this more durable material. The construction of these structures was supervised by the priest-builder ensi. In addition, the ensi monitored the irrigation system, because canals, locks and dams made it possible to at least somewhat control irregular spills.
During the war, the Sumerians elected another leader - a military leader - lugal. The most famous military leader was Gilgamesh, whose exploits are immortalized in one of the most ancient literary works- “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” In this story great hero challenges the gods, defeats monsters, brings a precious cedar tree to his hometown of Uruk, and even descends into the afterlife.
Sumerian gods
Sumer had a developed religious system. Three gods were especially revered: the sky god Anu, the earth god Enlil and the water god Ensi. In addition, each city had its own patron god. Thus, Enlil was especially revered in the ancient city of Nippur. The people of Nippur believed that Enlil gave them such important inventions as the hoe and the plow, and also taught them how to build cities and build walls around them. 
Important gods for the Sumerians were the sun (Utu) and the moon (Nannar), which replaced each other in the sky. And, of course, one of the most important figures of the Sumerian pantheon was the goddess Inanna, whom the Assyrians, who borrowed the religious system from the Sumerians, would call Ishtar, and the Phoenicians - Astarte.
Inanna was the goddess of love and fertility and, at the same time, the goddess of war. She personified, first of all, carnal love and passion. It is not for nothing that in many Sumerian cities there was a custom of “divine marriage”, when kings, in order to ensure fertility for their lands, livestock and people, spent the night with the high priestess Inanna, who embodied the goddess herself.
Like many ancient gods, Inannu was capricious and fickle. She often fell in love with mortal heroes, and woe to those who rejected the goddess!
The Sumerians believed that the gods created people by mixing their blood with clay. After death, souls fell into the afterlife, where there was also nothing but clay and dust, which the dead ate. To make the life of their deceased ancestors a little better, the Sumerians sacrificed food and drink to them.
Cuneiform
Sumerian civilization reached amazing heights, even after being conquered by its northern neighbors, the culture, language and religion of the Sumerians were borrowed first by Akkad, then by Babylonia and Assyria.
The Sumerians are credited with inventing the wheel, bricks, and even beer (although they most likely made barley drink using a different technology). But the main achievement of the Sumerians was, of course, unique system letters - cuneiform.
Cuneiform got its name from the shape of the marks that a reed stick left on wet clay, the most common writing material. 
Sumerian writing came from a system of counting various goods. For example, when a man counted his flock, he made a clay ball to represent each sheep, then put these balls in a box, and left marks on the box indicating the number of these balls. But all the sheep in the herd are different: different sexes, different ages. Marks appeared on the balls according to the animal they represented. And finally, the sheep began to be designated by a picture - a pictogram. Drawing with a reed stick was not very convenient, and the pictogram turned into a schematic image consisting of vertical, horizontal and diagonal wedges. And the last step - this ideogram began to denote not only a sheep (in Sumerian “udu”), but also the syllable “udu” as part of compound words.
At first, cuneiform was used to compile business documents. Extensive archives have come down to us from the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia. But later the Sumerians began to record literary texts, and even entire libraries of clay tablets appeared, which were not afraid of fires - after all, after firing, the clay only became stronger. It was thanks to the fires in which the Sumerian cities, captured by the warlike Akkadians, perished, that unique information about this ancient civilization has reached us.
The country of Sumer gets its name from the people who settled around 3000 BC. in the lower reaches of the Euphrates River, near its confluence with the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates here is divided into numerous channels - branches, which either merge or diverge again. The banks of the river are low, so the Euphrates often changes its path to the sea. At the same time, the old riverbed gradually turns into a swamp. The clayey hills located at a distance from the river are severely scorched by the sun. The heat, heavy fumes from the swamps, and clouds of midges forced people to stay away from these places. The lower reaches of the Euphrates have long attracted the attention of farmers and pastoralists of Western Asia.
Small villages were located quite far away from water, since the Euphrates floods very violently and unexpectedly in the summer, and floods have always been very dangerous here. People tried not to enter the endless reed thickets, although very fertile lands were hidden underneath them. They were formed from silt that settled during floods. But in those days, people were still unable to cultivate these lands. They knew how to harvest crops only from small open areas, whose size resembled vegetable gardens rather than fields.
Everything changed when new, energetic owners appeared in the country of rivers and swamps - the Sumerians. In addition to fertile, but not yet developed lands new homeland The Sumerians could boast a large amount of clay and reeds. There were no tall trees, no stone suitable for construction, no ores from which metals could be smelted. The Sumerians learned to build houses from clay bricks; the roofs of these houses were covered with reeds. Such a house had to be repaired every year, smearing the walls with clay so that it would not fall apart. Abandoned houses gradually turned into shapeless hills, as the bricks were made of unfired clay. The Sumerians often abandoned their homes when the Euphrates changed its course, and the settlement found itself far from the coast. There was a lot of clay everywhere, and within a couple of years the Sumerians managed to build a new village on the banks of the river that fed them. For fishing and river travel, the Sumerians used small round boats woven from reeds, coating them on the outside with resin.
Possessing fertile lands, the Sumerians eventually realized what high yields could be obtained if the swamps were drained and water was piped to dry areas. The flora of Mesopotamia is not rich, but the Sumerians acclimatized cereals, barley and wheat. Irrigation of fields in Mesopotamia was a difficult task. When too much water flowed through the canals, it seeped underground and connected with underground groundwater, which is salty in Mesopotamia. As a result, salt and water were again carried to the surface of the fields, and they quickly deteriorated; wheat did not grow on such lands at all, and rye and barley yielded low yields. The Sumerians did not immediately learn to determine how much water was needed to properly water the fields: excess or lack of moisture was equally bad. Therefore, the task of the first communities formed in the southern part of Mesopotamia was to establish an entire network of artificial irrigation. F. Engels wrote: “The first condition for agriculture here is artificial irrigation, and this is the business of either communities, or provinces, or the central government.”
Organization of large irrigation works, development of ancient barter trade with neighboring countries and constant wars demanded centralization of government.
Documents from the time of the existence of the Sumerian and Akkadian states mention a wide variety of irrigation works, such as regulating the overflow of rivers and canals, correcting damage caused by floods, strengthening banks, filling reservoirs, regulating the irrigation of fields and various earthworks associated with irrigating fields. Remains of ancient canals from the Sumerian era have been preserved to this day in some areas of southern Mesopotamia, for example, in the area of ancient Umma (modern Jokha). Judging by the inscriptions, these canals were so large that large boats, even ships loaded with grain, could navigate them. All these major works were organized by the state authorities.
Already in the fourth millennium BC. e. on the territory of Sumer and Akkad arise ancient cities, which are the economic, political and cultural centers of individual small states. In the southernmost part of the country was the city of Eridu, located on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Large political significance had the city of Ur, which, judging by the results of recent excavations, was the center of a strong state. The religious and cultural center of all of Sumer was the city of Nippur with its common Sumerian sanctuary, the temple of the god Enlil. Among other cities of Sumer, Lagash (Shirpurla), which waged a constant struggle with the neighboring Umma, and the city of Uruk, where, according to legend, the ancient Sumerian hero Gilgamesh once ruled, were of great political importance.
A variety of luxurious objects found in the ruins of Ur indicate a significant increase in technology, mainly metallurgy, at the beginning of the third millennium BC. e. During this era, they already knew how to make bronze by alloying copper with tin, learned to use meteorite iron, and achieved remarkable results in jewelry.
Periodic floods of the Tigris and Euphrates, caused by melting snow in the mountains of Armenia, had a certain significance for the development of agriculture based on artificial irrigation. Sumer, located in the south of Mesopotamia, and Akkad, which occupied the middle part of the country, were somewhat different from each other in climatic terms. In Sumer, winter was relatively mild, and the date palm could grow wild here. In terms of climatic conditions, Akkad is closer to Assyria, where snow falls in winter and the date palm does not grow wild.
The natural wealth of Southern and Central Mesopotamia is not great. The fatty and viscous clay of alluvial soil was an excellent raw material in the hands of the primitive potter. By mixing clay with asphalt, the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia made a special durable material, which replaced them with stone, rarely found in the southern part of Mesopotamia.
The flora of Mesopotamia is also not rich. The ancient population of this country acclimatized cereals, barley and wheat. Great value V economic life the country had date palms and reeds that grew wild in the southern part of Mesopotamia. Obviously, the local plants included sesame (sesame), which was used for making oil, as well as tamarisk, from which sweet resin was extracted. The oldest inscriptions and images indicate that the inhabitants of Mesopotamia knew various breeds of wild and domestic animals. In the eastern mountains there were sheep (mouflons) and goats, and in the swampy thickets of the south there were wild pigs, which were tamed already in ancient times. The rivers were rich in fish and poultry. Various types poultry were known in both Sumer and Akkad.
The natural conditions of Southern and Central Mesopotamia were favorable for the development of cattle breeding and agriculture, requiring the organization of economic life and the use of significant labor for a long time.
The Afro-Asian drought forced the fathers of the Sumerian civilization to move to the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and transform the swampy lowlands into the fertile land of the Middle Mesopotamia. The test that the fathers of the Sumerian civilization went through was preserved by the Sumerian legend. The slaying of the dragon Tiamat by the god Marduk and the creation of the world from his remains is an allegorical rethinking of the conquest of the primeval desert and the creation of the land of Shinar. The story of the Flood symbolizes the rebellion of Nature, rebelling against human intervention. The swamps formed in the territory of Lower Iraq between Amara on the Tigris, Nasiriyah on the Euphrates and Basra on the Shatt al-Arab have remained untouched from their origin to the present time, for not a single society has appeared on the historical stage that would like to and was able to master them. The swamp people who often visited these places passively adapted to them, but they never had sufficient potency to repeat the feat of the fathers of the Sumerian civilization, who lived in their immediate neighborhood some five or six thousand years ago. They didn't even try to transform the swamps into a network of canals and fields.
The monuments of the Sumerian civilization keep silent but precise evidence of those dynamic acts that, if we turn to Sumerian mythology, were performed by the god Marduk, who killed Tiamat.
When getting acquainted with the chapter, prepare messages: 1. About what contributed to the creation of the great powers - Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian (key words: iron, cavalry, siege technology, international trade). 2. About the cultural achievements of the ancient peoples of Western Asia, which remain important today (key words: laws, alphabet, Bible).
1. Country of two rivers. It lies between two large rivers - the Euphrates and the Tigris. Hence its name - Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia.
The soils in Southern Mesopotamia are surprisingly fertile. Just like the Nile in Egypt, the rivers gave life and prosperity to this warm country. But the river floods were violent: sometimes streams of water fell on villages and pastures, demolishing both dwellings and cattle pens. It was necessary to build embankments along the banks so that the flood would not wash away the crops in the fields. Canals were dug to irrigate fields and gardens. States arose here at approximately the same time as in the Nile Valley - more than five thousand years ago.
2. Cities made of clay bricks. The ancient people who created the first states in Mesopotamia were the Sumerians. Many settlements of the ancient Sumerians, growing, turned into cities - centers of small states. Cities usually stood on the banks of a river or near a canal. Residents sailed between them on boats woven from flexible branches and covered with leather. Of the many cities, the largest were Ur and Uruk.
In the Southern Mesopotamia there are no mountains or forests, which means there could be no construction made of stone and wood. Palaces, temples, living
old houses - everything here was built from large clay bricks. Wood was expensive - only rich houses had wooden doors; in poor houses the entrance was covered with a mat.
There was little fuel in Mesopotamia, and the bricks were not burned, but simply dried in the sun. Unfired brick crumbles easily, so the defensive city wall had to be made so thick that a cart could drive across the top.
3. Towers from earth to sky. Above the squat city buildings rose a stepped tower, the ledges of which rose to the sky. This is what the temple of the city's patron god looked like. In one city it was the Sun god Shamash, in another it was the Moon god San. Everyone revered the water god Ea - after all, he nourishes the fields with moisture, gives people bread and life. People turned to the goddess of fertility and love Ishtar with requests for rich grain harvests and the birth of children.
Only priests were allowed to climb to the top of the tower - to the sanctuary. Those who remained at the foot believed that the priests there were talking with the gods. On these towers, the priests monitored the movements of the heavenly gods: the Sun and the Moon. They compiled a calendar by calculating the timing of lunar eclipses. People's fortunes were predicted by the stars.
Scientist-priests also studied mathematics. They considered the number 60 sacred. Under the influence of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia, we divide the hour into 60 minutes, and the circle into 360 degrees.
| Goddess Ishtar. Ancient statue. |
4. Writings on clay tablets. Excavation of the ancient cities of Mesopotamia, art
cheologists find tablets covered with wedge-shaped icons. These icons are pressed onto a soft clay tablet with the end of a specially pointed stick. To impart hardness, the inscribed tablets were usually fired in a kiln.
Wedge-shaped icons are a special script of Mesopotamia, cuneiform.
Each sign in cuneiform comes from a design and often represents a whole word, for example: star, leg, plow. But many signs expressing short monosyllabic words were also used to convey a combination of sounds or syllables. For example, the word “mountain” sounded like “kur” and the “mountain” icon also denoted the syllable “kur” - as in our puzzles.
There are several hundred characters in cuneiform, and learning to read and write in Mesopotamia was no less difficult than in Egypt. For many years it was necessary to attend the school of scribes. Lessons continued daily from sunrise to sunset. The boys diligently copied ancient myths and tales, the laws of kings, and the tablets of stargazers who read fortunes by the stars.
 |
At the head of the school was a man who was respectfully called the “father of the school,” while the students were considered “sons of the school.” And one of the school employees was literally called “the man with the stick” - he monitored discipline.
School in Mesopotamia. A drawing of our time.
Explain the meaning of the words: Sumerians, cuneiform, clay tablet, “father of the school,” “sons of the school.”
Test yourself. 1. Who owns the names Shamash, Sin, Ea, Ishtar? 2. What is common in natural conditions Egypt and Mesopotamia? What are the differences? 3. Why were stepped towers erected in Southern Mesopotamia? 4. Why are there many more signs in cuneiform than in our alphabet of letters?
Describe the drawings of our time: 1. “Sumerian village” (see p. 66) - according to plan: 1) river, canals, vegetation; 2) huts and cattle pens; 3) main activities; 4) wheeled cart. 2. “School in Mesopotamia” (see p. 68) - according to plan: 1) students; 2) teacher; 3) a worker kneading clay.
Think about it. Why did rich people in Southern Mesopotamia indicate in their wills, among other property, a wooden stool and a door? Get acquainted with the documents - an excerpt from the tale of Gilgamesh and the myth of the flood (see pp. 69, 70). Why did the flood myth arise in Mesopotamia?
Loading...