Civilization And Sumer Research Paper

Coleman Kintz

Professor Hoeschen

World Civilization I

15 September 2014

Civilization and Sumer

The definition of civilization is often construed by people in the wrong way. People use the word “civilized” in a derogatory manner by calling someone “uncivilized” or demanding someone to act more “civilized.” The issue with this is that the word civilized does not mean to act with manners or etiquette. While the actual meanings of “civilized” and civilization are often debated by historians, Judge and Langdon define civilization as a “very large complex societies, or regional groups of complex societies, with widely shared or similar customs, institutions, and beliefs” (466) and to be civilized simply means to be someone that lives in a civilization.

Early hominids were scavengers as they would pick berries and gather nuts; these people did not hunt and would feed on the carcasses of dead animals. When the land they were on became barren of food and resources, the hominids would move on to areas that were more prosperous. There was no attachment to the land that they lived on. As time went on, our earliest ancestors learned new skills such as creating crude stone axes for hunting, and they learned to use fire to cook meats, ward off wild animals, and to provide nighttime light . It was because of the abilities to hunt and create fire that the early people were able to develop the first societies and cultures. Hominid hunters were able to return to a fire, cook, and share wisdom that has been passed down to them. The different groups of hominids then began developing their own cultures that would distinguish these societies from each other

Sumer is the first known region that can be considered a civilization because it encomposses all of the following: large population of people, shared customs and religions, and a governing body. In Sumer, there are numerous cities, with two major cities Ur and Uruk. Like most early cities, Ur and Uruk emerged near rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. Sumerian cities often had large walls and some cities had populations larger than 30,000 people. In these cities, the majority of people were farmers, but there were also people with other occupations such as merchants, soldiers, artisans, and many others. The government of Sumerian city-states were often trying to grow their wealth and power, and to do so they would wage war against other Sumerian societies. The fighters who carried themselves best in war were often elected to become the kings and officials of the newly conquered lands (23). In addition to having a governing body, Sumerian city-states loosely shared a religion amongst themselves. The Epic of Gilgamesh is crucial in understanding the religion of the Sumerian people. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, the one part human, two part god-king of Sumerian city-state Uruk, and Enkidu travel to kill the cedar forests evil guardian, Huwawa. After successfully defeating Huwawa, Gilgamesh is confronted by the goddess Ishatar and she proclaims that she wants to marry Gilgamesh. He