Sumerian Civilization essays

Sumerian Civilization essays After hearing about many different ancient civilizations I feel that the Sumerians were the most advanced and the best civilization of their time. Not only did they come up with their own system of writing but they also became advanced in fields such as astronomy and math. All of their achievements come together to prove their wisdom and advanced thinking skills of their time. Out of all of their achievements the Sumerians biggest accomplishment was their system of writing. Their unique system called cuneiform consisted of arrangements of wedge-like strokes generally impressed with a stylus on wet clay tablets. This system was later adapted by other civilizations such as the Babylonians and the Persians. Because the Sumerians were predominantly agricultural they also became skilled at building canals and at developing effective systems of irrigation. Some of their other contributions came from objects such as pottery, jewelry, and weapons. These show that they were also skilled in the use of metals such as copper, gold, and silver and had developed by 3000 B.C. fine artistry as well as considerable technological knowledge. There are many reasons why the Sumerian civilization can be considered better than the many other ancient civilizations. One reason is that they were able to come up with their own system of writing rather than adapting it from another preexisting civilization like the Persians and Babylonians did. Another thing that made the Sumerians better than some of the other civilizations was their use of the calendar which they divided into twelve months based on the cycle of the moon. Since a year consisting of twelve lunar months is considerably shorter than a solar year, the Sumerians added a "leap month" every three years in order to catch up with the sun. This interest in measuring long periods of time also led the Sumerians to develop a complicated knowledge of astronomy and the first human invention of the zodiac ...