Mesopotamia From Nomads to Farmers

In Sumer, part of the ancient land of Mesopotamia, there was a famous city-state called Nippur. One day, a teacher in Nippur 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. Nisaba's Journal, Entry 1. Teacher 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 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 the 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 the Tigris, and the other is the 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 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 melon, dates, apples, figs, and grape. 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 levees. 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 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 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. 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 a 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 Sumerians 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 reed 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 cuneiform. With writing, you can keep records of everything you do. It's great, because 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'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're very modern here in 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 Nippur. It's on the banks of the Euphrates River, and it's the most holy city in all of Sumer. Nippur is sacred to the god Enlil, our greatest god. His temple, the ziggurat, is right in the middle of the city. Our ziggurat is named Eduranki, which means the house binding heaven and earth. The ziggurat 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 ziggurat are houses where the wealthy people live, like priests and merchants, for instance. They live in two-story houses. Further away from the temple are one-story houses where shopkeepers and craftspeople 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 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 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 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 traders' 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 three 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 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, Nippur, is protected by the god Enlil, the god of wind. We believe he lives in his temple on top of the ziggurat. 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 Shulgi is a priest in the ziggurat. Only priests are allowed inside. Shulgi 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 Ensi. 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 sure the gods' 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 because 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 ziggurat. It's full of offices and workrooms 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 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 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 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.