The Sumer civilization thrived in ancient Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Iraq. It was the first civilization to develop systems of writing, government, religion, economic classes, advanced architecture like ziggurats, science, arts, and literature such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Sumerians invented innovations like the wheel, plow, calendar, bronze metallurgy, silver currency, and the first written legal code. However, rivalry among Sumerian city-states led to decline, and the Akkadian Empire later conquered and unified the region under rulers like Sargon I.

1. SUMER CIVILIZATION

2. CULTURE VS. CIVILIZATION
 What is CULTURE?
 Answer: It has been called to be the “way of life”
for an entire society.
 What is CIVILIZATION?
 Answer: It is a highly organized society marked
by advanced knowledge of
trade, government, arts, science and often
times, written language.
 GRESASAW: Government, Religion, Economic
activity, Social
stratification, Architecture, Science, Arts and
Writing

3. G-R-E-S-A-S-A-W
 As we continue with our discussion, identify
GRESASAW for the Sumer civilization.
 Write them down on your notebook.

4. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE AREA
REPRESENTED BY THE ORANGE STAR?

5. MESOPOTAMIA

6. •WHAT IS THE
LITERAL MEANING
OF MESOPOTAMIA?
•Mesopotamia is
located at the
Fertile Crescent.
•This is an arc of
fertile land that
spans from the
Persian Gulf up to
the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea.
•What are the two
rivers that can be
found here?

7. BASED ON YOUR WORLD MAP, WHAT
IS THE CURRENT NAME OF THE AREA
WHERE MESOPOTAMIA USED TO BE?
IRAQ
Were there small villages
within the Fertile
Crescent even earlier
than Sumerian
civilization?

8. DURING THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD...
 Communities thrived within and outside the
Fertile Crescent.
 Jericho on the West bank of Israel around
7000 BCE
 Catal Huyuk and Hacilar in Anatolia (Turkey)
around 6000 BCE
 Villages in Zagros Mountains found in the
border or Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Persia
(Iran) around 5700 BCE

9. WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED FOR
SOME OF THESE COMMUNITIES TO
DISAPPEAR?
.Answer:
The environment have
reached its limit and capacity
to sustain life for some
communities.

10. ON THE OTHER HAND, THE SUMER CIVILIZATION
THRIVED AND WAS CONSIDERED TO BE THE
“CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION”.

11. CITIES OF SUMER:
 Ur-capital
city of
Mesopotamia
 Uruk
 Eridu
 Lagash
 Nippur
 Kish

12. CITY-STATES OF SUMER
 Independent and autonomous
 Rectangular in shape with wide roads and protected
with high and thick walls
 The ziggurat is found at the center of the city and
became the point of reference for the layout of the
rest of the city.
 Around the ziggurat are granaries, quarters of
officials and shops.
 They are led by priest-kings who were mediators
between the gods and the people.
 Their form of government is theocracy.

13. ZIGGURAT
 Largest structure in
the city
 A temple to honor
the gods/goddesses
 Polytheism - An
(god of the
heavens), Enlil
(god of air), Enki
(god of the waters),
Ninhursag
(goddess of the
earth)

14. CUNEIFORM
 A system of writing
 Written by scribes
 Creation of the first
schools
 Record business
transactions, myths, ess
ential traditions, epics
and more
 Written on clay tablets
 Became the basis of
historians for the exact
date on which an event
occurred

15. EPIC OF GILGAMESH
 The world’s first epic
 It tells the adventures of Gilgamesh, king of
Uruk , who embarked on a quest for
immortality and failed.
 It also has a“flood story” that is similar to the
“flood story” of Noah’s ark.

16. CODE OF UR-NAMMU
 It was the first written set of laws
 It divided society into two classes: free people and
slaves.
 Slaves usually worked as servants but also as
craftsmen. They were owned by their masters, but
their legal status was relatively free. They could give
evidence in court, get married and own possessions.
 The years in which Ur-Nammu created his code are
therefore called "Year in which Ur-Nammu the king
put in order the ways from below to above", and "Year
Ur-Nammu made justice in the land".

17. CODE OF UR-NAMMU
 1. If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed.
 2. If a man commits a robbery, he will be killed.
 3. If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15
shekels of silver.
 13. If a man is accused of sorcery he must undergo ordeal by water; if
he is proven innocent, his accuser must pay 3 shekels.
 18. If a man knocks out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out ½ a
mina of silver.
 19. If a man has cut off another man’s foot, he is to pay ten shekels.
 20. If a man, in the course of a scuffle, smashed the limb of another man
with a club, he shall pay one mina of silver.
 21. If someone severed the nose of another man with a copper knife, he
must pay two-thirds of a mina of silver.
 22. If a man knocks out a tooth of another man, he shall pay two shekels
of silver.

18. OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS OF SUMER
 Wheel, 360 degree circle
 Plow, wheelbarrow
 Wheel-spun pottery, the sail
 Lunar Calendar
 Bronze metallurgy
 Silver currency
 The decimal system
 Sexagesimal - a numeral system with sixty as its
base.
 This is why we have 60 seconds=1 minute, 60
minutes=1 hour.

19. HISTORY OF SUMER
 Sumer was established around 3500 BCE.
 Due to rivalry over land and water, civil wars
among the city-states erupted and led to the
decline of the Sumerian civilization.
 Around 2334-2400 BCE the Akkadians
conquered Sumer led by Sargon I and
unified the independent city-states.

20. CHALLENGE:
1. CHOOSE ONE FROM THE MANY
DISCOVERIES OF SUMER
CIVILIZATION TO MANKIND.
2. EXPLAIN WHY THAT PARTICULAR
DISCOVERY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO
MANKIND.

21. CHECKING OF GRESASAW ON SUMER
CIVILIZATION WILL BE ON THE NEXT
MEETING.