Civilization mind map by Jonathan Sanchez

Social Structure

Government

Staple Food Supply

Writing

The Arts

Technology

Needed for complex a society to survive

Sumerian invented two things that helped

complex irrigation systems

cannels

resevoirs

dams

Religion

plow

faster way to farm

used to turn soil

tool

originaly made of wood

could be pulled by animals

Civilizations have a complex organization or social structure

A Social structure includes different jobs and social levels

people at higher levels Statues then others

At the top was an upper class, which include priests, land owners, and government officials

In the middle was the common class

The common class also included farmers and fishermen

This included merchants and craftsman.

The craftsman people include highly skilled metalworkers

They lived in small, mud-brick houses at the edge of the city.

at the very bottom of the social structure were slaves

They lived in their owner's homes and had no property of their own

All civilizations have a system of government to direct people's behavior and make it orderly.

Sumerian city-states were ruled by kings

The Sumerians believed that their king were chosen by the gods

Sumerian believed must obey the will of the gods

Sumerians Kings enforced the laws and taxes

All the city-states needed armies because they were constantly fighting over land boundaries and the use of water.

leading the army was one of the king's most important jobs.

A Sumerian army include both included professional soldiers and temporary citizen-soldiers.

Kings had officials under them to help them with their duties.

Ancient civilization

All civilization have a highly developed culture, including the arts

There were many kinds of artists and craftspeople in Sumer.

Music was another important art in Sumer

The Sumerians believed that music brought joy to the gods and people alike.

Musicians played instruments and sang during temple ceremonies.

Musicians played many instruments, including drums and pipes.

Lyres were wooden instruments made of a sound box and strings

Ancient Civilization

A final characteristic of the civilization is a highly developed written language.

The Sumerians created a written language called cuneiform.

The Sumerians used a wedge-shaped stylus (a sharp, pointed tool)to etch their writing in clay tablets.

At first, they may have used as many as 2,000 symbols to stand for ideas and sounds .

Lyre makers often decorated their instruments with precious stones and carving made of horn

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Ancient Civilization

All civilization create mew form of technology, or practical tools and inventions

The Sumerians' most important invention was the wheel

Sumerians potters, or pottery makers, used wheels as a surface for shaping clay into pots.

Sumerians discovered that a wheel that was flipped onto its edge could be rolled forward

They built the wheels by clamping pieces of wood together.

Before the wheel, people had to drag their goods on flat-bottomed cart called sledges

Wheeled carts made it much easier to move goods long distances.

Oxen could pull three times more weight on wheeled carts than they could then they could on sledges

another technological advance was the arch

Aches added strenght and beauty to Sumerian buildings

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All civilization have a religious system.

A religion system includes a set of beliefs, usually in a god, or gods, together with forms of worship

In Sumer, religions influenced every part of daily life.

Religion bound them together in common way of life

Sumerians expressed their religion beliefs by building temples and religious towers called ziggurats

It was the kings duty to build and maintain the ziggurats

They were so large that they could be seen 20 miles away.

The Sumerians believed that the gods lived in the ziggurats and they built special temples at the top for them

Kings and priests stood inside the towers to ask for the god's blessings

Sumerians statues also expressed their Religion beliefs.

They showed people worshipping the gods, often with their eyes gazing upward.

Sumerians had many kinds of religious ceremonies

Cuneiform was based on an earlier, simpler form of writing that used pictographs.

Scribes drew the symbols with a sharped reed on the wet clay

When the clay dried, the marks became permanent record

Over time, they were able to reduce this number about 700

Modern United States