The Sumerian Civilization

"History Starts in Sumer" 

    It is only natural for us to look back at our past and try to gain extra strength from our ancestors'
achievements and creations. 

    The Sumerian Civilization started in the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent, the area between Baghdad and the Gulf, at around 9,000 B.C. thus before the Roman, Greek and Egyptian civilizations. 

"HISTORY STARTS IN SUMER" - Samuel Noah Cramer, famous archeologist. 
  
    The Sumerian Miracle was the civilization that started history, way before the Egyptian miracle and the Greek miracle. In fact, the two latter civilizations were enriched by the Sumerian civilization and it's achievements. 

    The first form of writing was invented in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians around 3,500 B.C., thus, the Sumerian language was the first written language. Therefore, history started at around 3,500 B.C. with the invention of written Sumerian. Although spoken Sumerian faded around 3,000 B.C. written Sumerian remained in use up till 1,000 A.D. 

    Due to the archeological nature of Mesopotamia, most of the Sumerian civilization was built and documented using clay, that was often dried in the sun. Thus, and due to the undurability of clay, many details of the civilization were lost throughout the years. However, the relatively few clay sheets that survived tell a great story about a great civilization. Clay sheets with mathematical problems and solutions, names and descriptions of different trees and plants and names and properties of different metals and stones were found and are witnesses to the Sumerian advances in different fields of science. Also, the first form of a judicial system was introduced by the Sumerians where a huge number of clay sheets detailing individual laws that governed the Sumerian population survived the years and are available for us now to study. 

    If the interest was to find "who invented" something or "where/when was the first time" something was used, then the Sumerian civilization is a satisfactory answer to many of these questions. For example: 

• The Ceramists' Wheel. 

• The wheel and cart. 

• The Sail Boat. 

• The first Bridge. 

• The first Dome. 

• The first Temple. 

• The first Musical System. 

• The Harp. 

• Law courts. 

• Writing. 

• Schools. 

• Parliament. 

• Myths. 

• The 60 degrees (60'') system, still used nowadays in measuring time and angles. 

and many other were all invented in Sumer, which is now known as Iraq.

[Article by webmaster. Inspired by the book Sumer and Akad, Dr. Wadee3 Bushour, Damascus 1981]

P.S. If you find any errors in the archeological and/or scientific jargon employed in this article please e-mail the webmaster. Thanks.