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Mesopotamia - From Nomads to Farmers

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in Sumer part of the ancient land of Mesopotamia there was a famous State gold Newport one day a teacher in it for asking students to start a jerk about their lives and their country this is the story of one VSOP and Georgia okay here we go nice Abbas journal entry 1 want sister right 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 travel they would also gather wild berries nuts and greens to eat but they often didn't know our next meal would come from it was a hard way to live  then they discovered they could plant and harvest the kind they found growing wild  and I 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 cancel my ancestors stopped wondering and stay here they discovered that food grows better here than almost anywhere else because we're in a river valley right between two rivers and fat Mesopotamia actually means land between the rivers One River the Tigris and the other is the Euphrates  my grandfather says it's easy to grow food in our Valley because the song here is so fertile and he says that is because of the mountains of North it snows a lot up there in the winter when the snow melts all that water down into the valley and into the river  can the rivers rise over their Banks and flood the valley and they dump a lot of really good turn 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 Biggs and grates are animals give us milk cheese and meat and there are always plenty of fish in the rivers  my ancestors started farming here their biggest problem was never knowing when a flood might come and wash away their crops  pop survive. play my died 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 way to control the river first we learned how to build levees those are big piles of Earth between the fields and the river there too tall for the river to get over so they prevent the floods  then we made gated ditches around the field and when the crops needed water in the summer we would open the gates and let some river water flow in to plant our crops we use a great tool called a plow it's a Sumerian invention and we use an to pull the 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 an hour calendar each year has 12 months and each month has 30 days each month is represented by one of the constellations in the 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 mount will arrive  we Sumerians also invented writing my grandfather says that in the old days nobody knew how to light well if you can't write how do you keep track of how many animals you sold last month what do you supposed to do paint them on Cave walls now we're much more modern here and Sumer we figured out how to write on clay tablets  you just take a piece of Reed The Silence from it that's a sort of hard pointed tools  you press the point into some wet clay and pretty soon your writing our style of writing is called cuneiform with writing you can keep records of everything you do it's great cuz then you don't have to remember it all 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 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  like I add we are very modern here in Sumer my grandfather says that in the 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 what others grow enough for everybody  of course you had to be neighbors for that to work  so people settle down close to each other in villages and The Villages grew into city-states city state has its own King and each one is sacred to one of the Gods state is called nip or it's on the banks of the Euphrates river and it's the most holy city in all of Sumer nippler is sacred to the god our greatest god his Temple the ziggurat is right in the middle of the city  our ziggurat is named Eddie run which means the house finding Heaven and Earth is the garage is a huge Square building sort of like a pyramid it's made of several layers were 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 ziggurat are houses where the wealthy people live like priests and Merchants for instance  they live in two story houses farther 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 to 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 padded into I'm old and bake the mud bricks in the sun until they're dry will use them to make all of our buildings  here's my my family lives in one of the two story houses close to the ziggurat  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 house chores  mother also weeds beautiful cloth to make clothing  how cloth is made of fine wool from our own sheep she sells a lot of it to the traitors Caravan  my younger sisters help my mom spin yarn and weave cloth makes my dad to send me to tablet School  I'm learning to write so I can describe 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 Elmer 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 off and in the grain field and then they are set free besides the king and his family the people with the highest positions are the priests daycare for the gods and make sure they're 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 salt water fresh water and wind my city where is protected by the God and Leo the god of wind we believe he lives in his temple on top of the ziggurat we spend a lot of time change my God a lot of people even make a little statue of themselves pregnant and leave it in the temple the statues keep on praying while the people go about daily chores  our priest told ceremonies to honor the gods and offer them food twice each day my older brother shogi is a priest in a ziggurat only priests are allowed inside she'll be reminds me of that every chance he gets God's Own the land and everything on it so we give the guys everything we grow then the priest share it with all the people they may sure everyone gets enough each city-state in Sumer has a king called in NC we believe he was chosen by the gods to rule out of it and then it was the gods who gave us our laws Power King makes judgments when people have argument he's in charge of all our trade with other cities  he decides who gets the farm our field  and he makes sure God's temples are in good repair and all the right off rings are made he's got a whole lot to do  so obviously he needs other people to help him 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 play tablets of everything that happens in each year  the king and the priests all work in the ziggurat it's full of offices and workrooms and storage spaces to support the king in the priest 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 tax turn our funerals  Ann Arbor 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 time not good  the man have to spend time working to the government doing things that help or protect the city for example my uncle help to harvest The Barley crops  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 time just go to the king they pay for our army which is pretty expensive and also for repairs and improvements to our city  the pants are there says there are priests and there are Kings but the taxman 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

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Mesopotamia - From Nomads to Farmers

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