[Music] sh [Music] [Music] in Sumer part of the ancient land of Mesopotamia there was a famous city state called nepur one day a teacher in nipor asked his students to start a journal about their lives and their country this is the story of one student nisaba and her journal okay here we go nisa's journal entry one teacher one wants us to write about our lives what is my life like here in Sumer I think I'll tell the story of my people from the very beginning my grandfather knows all about it he says the first thing we Sumerians did was get really good at farming my ancestors used to make their living by hunting wild animals for food they were constantly on the Move following the herds as they traveled they would also gather wild berries nuts and greens to [Music] eat but they often didn't know where their next meal would come from it was a hard way to live then they discovered they could plant and harvest a kind of wheat they found growing wild and they also found out how to tame wild goats and sheep and raise them for food grandfather calls that domestication it meant they didn't have to hunt for food anymore they could grow it themselves and so my ancestors stopped wandering and stayed here they discovered that food grows better here than almost anywhere else that's because we're in a river valley right between two rivers in fact Mesopotamia actually means land between the rivers One River is is the tigress and the other is the [Music] Euphrates my grandfather says it's easy to grow food in our Valley because the soil here is so fertile and he says that is because of the mountains up north it snows a lot up there in the winter when the snow melts all that water runs down into the valley and into the rivers then the rivers rise over their Banks and flood the valley and they dump a lot of really good dirt dirt on the land it's great for growing food in so now we eat really well we grow barley and wheat lots of beans and fresh vegetables and fruits like melons dates apples bigs and grapes our animals give us milk cheese and meat and there are always plenty of fish in the rivers when my ancestors first started farming here their biggest problem was never knowing when a flood might come and wash away their crops even if the crops survived that they might die in the summer when it's so hot and there's not enough water but my people didn't give up instead we actually invented a way to control the river first we learned how to build levies those are big piles of Earth between the fields and the river they're too tall for the river to get over so they prevent the floods then we made gated ditches around the fields and when the crops needed water in the summer we would just open the gates and let some river water flow [Music] in to plant our crops we use a great tool called a plow it's a Sumerian invention and we use an Ox to pull a plow another of our great ideas some of our smartest people invented a calendar based on the moon and stars my grandfather says nobody had ever thought of a way to measure time like that before it helps us know when the floods will come in our calendar each year has 12 months and each month has 30 days each month is represented by one of the constellations in the Sky they're called the Zodiac our priests watch the Zodiac to know which month it is that way they know when the floods from the mountains will arrive we samarians also invented writing my grandfather says that in the old days nobody knew how to write well if you can't write how do you keep track of how many animals you sold last month what are you supposed to do paint them on Cave walls no we're much more modern here in Sumer we figured out how to write on clay tablets you just take a piece of read and cut a stylus from it that's a sort of hard pointed tool you press the point into some wet clay and pretty soon you're writing our style of writing is called cfor with writing you can keep records of everything you do it's great cuz then you don't have to remember it all [Music] you also can make things permanent when you write them down for example we were the first people to write down our laws but this is maybe the best thing we invented the wheel you'd think somebody back in the old days would have thought of it sooner but we were the first before carts and wheels we used to just drag things around that was hard but like I said we are very modern here in [Music] Sumer my grandfather says that in the old days most everybody had to work at farming the land but not anymore we Sumerians got so good at growing food some people could quit farming and let others grow enough for everybody of course you had to be neighbors for that to work so people settled down close to each other in villages and The Villages grew into city states each city state has its own King and each one is sacred to one of the Gods my city state is called nipor it's on the banks of the Euphrates river and it's the most holy city in all of Sumer nipor is sacred to the God enlil our greatest god his Temple the zigurat is right in the middle of the city our zigurat is named EDU which means the house finding Heaven and Earth the zigurat is a huge Square building sort of like a pyramid it's made of several layers or stories as you go higher up each story is smaller than the one below the very top story is the temple where the God lives around the zigurat are houses where the wealthy people live like priests and Merchants for instance they live in twostory houses further away from the temple are one-story houses where shopkeepers and Crafts People live and Beyond them live the farmers and fishermen all the land outside the city belongs to the city state too but most people live inside the city walls we are very good at making bricks out of mud that's a good thing because there's a lot of mud Here We Gather a bunch of mud Pat it into to square molds and bake the mud bricks in the sun until they're dry we use them to make all of our buildings here's my house my family lives in one of the two-story houses close to the zigurat that's because my dad works for the king my mom runs the house our slaves do the actual work but my mom supervises them they prepare meals keep the house clean and do other household chores mother also weaves beautiful cloth to make clothing her cloth is made of fine wool from our own sheep she sells a lot of it to the trader Caravans my younger sisters help my mom spin yarn and weave cloth but I begged my dad to send me to tablet school I'm learning to write so I can be a scribe it's a really important job there are a lot of other jobs in Sumer like being a Potter or a fisherman some people grind grain into flour and brew beer some are Traders and some just play music hey that wouldn't be so bad but it would be bad to be a slave some slaves were captured in war and others became slaves because they owed money they have to work for 3 years often in the grain fields and then they are set free besides the king and his family the people with the highest positions are the priests they care for the gods and make sure they're [Music] happy that reminds me I should write something about our religion it plays a big part in our lives we believe in seven Great gods of the earth sky Sun Moon saltwater fresh water and wind my city nipor is protected by the god enil the god of wind we believe he lives in his temple on top of the zigurat we spend a lot of time praying to our Gods a lot of people even make a little statue of themselves praying and leave it in the temple the statues keep on praying while the people go about their daily chores our priests hold ceremonies to honor the gods and offer them food twice each day my older brother Shuli is a priest in the zigurat only priests are allowed inside Shuli reminds me of that every chance he gets we believe the gods own the land and everything on it so we give the gods everything we grow then the priests share it with all the people they make sure everyone gets enough each city state in Sumer has a king called an ny we believe he was chosen by the gods to rule us and that it was the gods who gave us our laws our King makes judgments when people have arguments he's in charge of all our trade with other cities he decides who gets to farm our fields and he makes makes sure the God's temples are in good repair and that all the right offerings are made he's got a whole lot to do so obviously he needs other people to help him do it my dad is one of them and of course my brother helps cuz he's a priest maybe I'll work there too when I'm older scribes keep records on clay tablets of everything that happens each year the king and the priests all work in the zigurat it's full of offices and work rooms and storage spaces to support the king and the priests our people pay taxes throughout the year usually it's something like a couple of sheep or bags of grain but there are taxes on almost everything we get taxed on the livestock we own and on the fish we catch we even get taxed on our funerals in our city every man who is head of a household has to pay a tax called the burden it's not the usual kind of tax it's time not Goods the men have to spend time working for the government doing things that help or protect the city for example my uncle helped to harvest The Barley crop other men have to go dig out the irrigation ditches to keep them clear our neighbor sent one of his slaves to do his work my dad says you're not supposed to but people do it if they can afford it all the taxes go to the king they pay for our army which is pretty expensive and also for repairs and improvements to our city my grandfather always says there are priests and there are Kings but the tax man is the one you should be afraid of well that's my journal entry for today I think it's a pretty good picture of who we Sumerians are and how we live