Meso+KAT

Group names - Alyssa Breiner, Kelly Nolan, and Tyler Fox  ·   Archeologists found evidence of the classes of people who lived in Sumer  ·   Upper class included priests, landowners, and government officials  ·   They had big homes hat were two stories, and had walls made of white washed mud  ·   Middle class was the merchants, the craftspeople and skilled metal workers  ·   The lower class was farmers and below them, was slaves  ·   The Mesopotamians were ruled by kings  ·   They believed that the gods chose who the kings were  ·   Their jobs were to enforce laws and collect taxes  ·   They also made sure irrigation systems maintained  ·   But their most important job was to rule the army ** **5.5 Government** 5.6 Religeon
 * 5.3 Stable Food Supply **
 * Mesopotamians built networks of canals, dams, reservoirs to provide crops with a water supply
 * Their second invention was the plow, made out of wood
 * It prepared soil for planting
 * They invented it so they could have an easier way to prepare land for plating
 * Before the plow they used animals
 * With this new invention they were able ot plant crops easier and faster
 * 5.4 Social Structure **
 * 5.5 Government **
 * BY KELLY NOLAN
 * Their army consisted of professional soldiers, temporary citizen soldiers, foot soldiers, and chariot drivers
 * There were governers and scribes to write down the laws
 * They had officers who patrolled the canal and looked for damage and made sure the farmers didn't illegally steal water
 * Hammurabi came up with laws and a court system
 * Their reason for a government was to direct people's behavior and make life orderly
 * The kings are very powerful

Tyler Fox **
 * All civilizations have a religeos system that can include a set of beliefs, like that of gods and goddesses
 * Sumerians built ziggerauts as religeos temples or towers
 * Sumerians believed that gods lived in temples built at the peak of the ziggeraut
 * Kings/Priests where the only people allowed to enter the sacred temples at the top, to ask for the god's blessings
 * Statues of gods and goddesses were built to worship them
 * They believed that praising and worshipping the gods made them happy
 * Worshippers would burn inscents, play music, and place food in front of the statues as they washed them
 * It is belived that some worshippings may have even included human sacrifice

5.7 Art **


 * All civilizations have a somewhat developed culture
 * In Sumer, metal workers made things that ranged from silverware, to jewelry and even weapons
 * Sumerians thought that music brought joy to gods as well as people
 * Musicians played at worshippings, ceremonies, and feasts
 * one of the favorite and most popular of the Sumerian instruments was, a lyre
 * It was a harp-like instrument withstrings and a sound box at the bottom that amplifies the notes as an acoustic guitar does
 * lyres often had intricate carvings and designs on the sound box

Tyler Fox

**

5.9 Writing ** **5.8 Technology** **BY ALYSSA BREINER**0
 * The Sumerians developed the first form of writing
 * Called it cuneiform which comes from the Latin word meaning "wedge"
 * Developed around 2,400 B.C.E.
 * The writing was invented to keep track of business deals
 * At first there were 2,000 symbols that represented ideas and sounds
 * Eventually got that number down to 700
 * Based on a simpler form of writing using pictographs
 * __pictograph-__ symbols that stand for real objects
 * Scribes drew on wet clay with a sharpened reed
 * When dry, the clay tablet was a permanent record
 * The Sumerians most important invention was the wheel
 * It was invented in 3,500 B.C.E.
 * The Sumerian pottery makers used it as a surface for shaping clay into pots
 * They then discovered that the wheel could be flipped on its side and rolled forward
 * Used discovery to create wheeled carts for farmers and chariots for the army
 * Built wheels by clamping pieces of wood together

http://img5.travelblog.org/Photos/35955/231371/f/1813728-Farmland-Greens-0.jpg ^^FARMLAD TO SHOW THE PLOWS http://blogofwishes.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/backwards-clock.jpg ^^ THEY CREATED A TIME TELLING DEVICE CALLED A SUN-DIAL http://z.about.com/d/graphicssoft/1/5/b/s/4/ChristianBrushes-Crosses.gif ^^TO SYMBOLIZE RELIGION http://bigeye.us/scribe/LANGUAGES/akkadian-cuneiform.gif ^^WRITING THAT THEY USED CALLED CUNEIFORM http://douggeivett.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/cuneiform-writing-1.jpg ^^ CUNEIFORM http://www.bible-history.com/sketches/ancient/cuneiform-writing.jpg ^^ THEY WENT TO SCHOOL TO LEARN HOW TO BE SCRIBES http://www.mrdowling.com/images/603gilgamesh.gif ^^ GILGAMESH http://www.unificationtheory.com/god/Mesopotamia/chariots.jpg ^^ARTISTIC PAINTINGS