Sumerian Society
The first civilization in Mesopotamia to develop was the Sumerians. They learned to live together in small cities that were completely independent. Each city-state was like its own small country. It included homes, farms and a market, a palace and temple. Each city-state had to have all the things necessary to meet everyone’s needs.
People in each community worked together to survive. The Sumerians were interdependent. Interdependent means people depend on each other to survive. Each person did a different job to help everyone else out. When people focus one job it is called specializing. When people specialize, they learn to do it better than anyone else because they focus so much on it.
Kings
Many times, city-states would argue with one another over land or resources. This led to wars between the city-states. When a war was fought, one leader was chosen to lead the city-state’s army. This leader was called a lugal, or big man. Lugals would sometimes not give up their power after a war and stayed the king of that city-state. Then, when the king died, his son would take over for him.
Kings in Sumerian cities were important to making sure the city-state was safe. Kings were responsible for making sure the city walls were built and kept-up. When there was a battle, the king had to lead his troops himself. From winning a war, the king would capture gold and treasures to help make his city-state rich.
Other than protecting the city-states, kings in Sumer had other important responsibilities. People believed that kings were chosen by the gods to rule so kings had some religious power. They were expected to build temples in the city-state for worship and sacrifice to the gods.
When people in the city-state disagreed, it was the king who judged their cases. The laws a king wrote helped people live together peacefully and treat each other fairly. Kings also collected taxes to pay for government work.
Priests
People in Sumerian city-states were very religious. They believed in many different gods who controlled all parts of the world and nature. Temples built in the city-states were important buildings because they showed respect to these gods.
Priests were people who worked in the temples. Priests conducted religious ceremonies, made sacrifices, and advised people in religious matters.
Sumerians believed that the gods would get angry if they were not taken care of well. An angry god may cause floods, earthquakes, or other natural disasters to destroy the city-state. Priests were supposed to keep the gods happy by feeding them daily, singing and playing music to relax them, and caring for the god’s temple.
When people wanted to make the gods happy, they would bring gifts of riches and foods. Priests would offer these gifts to the gods by placing them in front of special statues. At the end of the day, the “leftovers” that had not been eaten were given to the king or the priests themselves to eat.
Traders & Merchants
People from all over Mesopotamia and even lands farther away had goods to trade with one another. Traders and merchants made that possible.
Traders traveled to foreign lands to trade goods from Mesopotamia with other cultures. Some traveled in caravans, or groups of people and animals that travel together, across the Syrian Desert. Others sailed trade ships across the Persian Gulf. The travel was often very dangerous.
Traders brought back gold, precious stones, cedar and Cyprus wood, and other valuable materials to the city-states. Wood was used to strengthen mud-brick buildings. One stone, obsidian, was used to make tools. These materials helped many people in Mesopotamia meet their needs.
Merchants in the Sumerian city-states would gather these goods from other lands in a market place called a bazaar. Also, goods produced by skilled workers from within the city-state were sold here. Members of the community could shop for all that they needed in the bazaar.
Artisans
Making many of the things that people need require very skilled workers. Artisans are those skilled workers who produce practical objects that all people needed. Artisans made the weapons soldiers used to defend the city, the tools that farmers used to grow crops, and many other useful things.
Sumerian cities had many types of artisans. Metalworkers made useful tools and weapons out of metals that others mined. Stonecutters made statues and cut stone for some buildings. Potters made oil lamps, cups, bowls, and other useful objects from clay. Other artisans such as leatherworkers, goldsmiths, and carpenters created many other important things for people in Sumer.
Creating these important tools and objects was not always easy work. Artisans had to study for a long time to become good at their craft. They trained with other artisans who did the same job for a long time before setting out for business on their own. Because it took so much time to learn how to do just one thing, artisans had to trade their goods with other people to get the things they needed to survive. Focusing on how to do one thing very well like the artisans did is called specializing.
Farmers
Growing food for all of the people in the city-state was the work of the farmers. Farmers worked on large fields just outside the city-state’s walls. They depended on the fertile soil of the land between the two rivers to make crops grow. They irrigated their fields by making canals to carry water into the fields. The food they harvested kept the city alive.
Many farmers worked on small plots that they rented from richer farmers. A few farmers where able to buy their own small plots of land. However, rent and taxes made it difficult for all farmers to become very wealthy.
Farmers grew wheat and barley which could be turned into bread, flour, or porridge. They also grew onions, garlic, peas, lettuce and cucumbers. Fruit trees such as apple and pomegranate were planted around the fields. Some farmers raised livestock like sheep, cows, and oxen which provided wool, milk, meat, and labor.
Scribes
Sumerians learned to keep records by developing a system of writing called cuneiform. This system was very complex and took years and years to learn. Because it was so hard, most people did not know how to read and write. Scribes were people who specialized in how to read and write. They then would read and write for others.
Scribes were important to the government because they kept records of all the taxes paid and laws made. In the temple, scribes wrote down the sacrifices made for the priests. Doctors used scribes to write prescriptions and records. Scribes wrote orders for military officers to send to their troops. Even commoners used scribes to write letters and read important documents.
Scribes did not write on paper. They used soft clay tablets and wrote with pointed sticks in the clay. When the clay hardened, their document was preserved.
Sumerian city-states were very successful communities. Everyone had to work together to survive. Each person had a different job to do and that made it possible to get more work done faster. Sumerians show us what is possible when people worked together interdependently.
WORKS REFERENCED
Schomp, Virginia. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Scholastic: New York, 2004.