Transcript Government - melissakingfisher

The Sumerians
Technology
The skills and knowledge
to make products or meet
goals
The Wheeled Cart
 Allowed
them to
move
construction
materials
 Help move
goods
 Help them travel
Government
In Ancient Mesopotamia
Government
 Is
an organized system that groups
use to make laws and decisions.
City-State
 Sumer
was made up of several
independent city-states.
 A city-state included a city and the
farm lands around it.
 Each city-state had its own leaders
and its own government
 In
the early days each government
was run by a small group of leaders
and a chief chosen by that group.
 They made laws and decided what
work had to be done.
Wars
 The
city-states often had wars on
outsiders and on each other to make
their farmland bigger or to protect it.
 Wars
were also fought over the right
to use water supplies.
Indecisive.….
 In
times of
danger the
group of leaders
could not always
agree on what to
do..
So they created a new kind of
government…
 MONARCHY
– ONE PERSON TO
RULE IN PEACETIME AND LEAD
SOLDIERS IN WARTIME.
 The person had the AUTHORITY OR
Right to rule!!!
 Always
men!
KINGS
 Ruled
over every part of Sumerian
life, including religion, agriculture,
and building plans.
 They
believed that their gods
selected the rulers or kings.
 So
they believed the kings or rulers
were very powerful!!!
Gilgamesh
2700 BC –
2500 BC
Gilgamesh
People described
Gilgamesh as
1/3 man and
2/3 god.
Review Matching

Government

City-State

Technology

Monarchy

Authority
 One
person has the right
to rule
 An organized system for
groups to make laws and
decisions
 A city and the farmland
around it
 Right to rule
 The skills and knowledge
to make products
Changing economics
 The
success of agriculture and
technology gave way to a large
population growth!!
 Sumerian
farms produced enough food
to create a surplus.
 Surplus
is extra supply, to feed the
people who came to settle in
Sumer.
Divisions in Society
KING!!!
Priests,
leaders
Doctors, scribes
Carpenters, potters, bricklayers
Slaves (prisoners of war, punishment
for crimes or to pay off debts) Slaves
were not slaves for life.
In all Sumerian society…
 MEN
HAD MORE AUTHORITY
AND MORE RIGHTS THAN
WOMEN!!!!
 YEAHHH!!!!!
Women
 Were
allowed to own property
 Divorce cruel husbands
 Own business
 Religious leaders
 Trained to be scribes
As the society grows….
 Innovations
or new ways of doing
things were developed!
Innovations
 Sumerians
built
cargo boats with
sails to trade
goods up the
river.
Innovations…
 The
need to
keep a record
of…
–Ownership
–Taxes owed
–Trade
 Sumerians’
greatest
innovation was
WRITING
Writing
 2000
B.C the
Sumerians
developed a
writing system
called
CUNEIFORM
Scribes
 Was
a person who
wrote things for
others!!!
 Writing was a
valuable skill.
 They kept records,
wrote letters for
other people and
copied down
stories and songs.
Scribes and other
working people
exchanged goods
and services.
 Some kings did not
know how to write
and used the
scribes.
