Development of ancient sumerian city states
After the final development of early man, Homo Sapien Sapiens, Sumerian City States began to form. This Neolithic Era began because people stopped being nomads and began farming and having agriculture. (Click here to learn more about that.) Trying to create communities was not as easy as it seemed, however. First of all, if the early humans wanted to build houses, then it would require mud bricks, sticks and stones to build them. This was extra hard when they had to build two-story houses. The result of an average house is shown below:
The early humans had to build a lot of houses for more people to come to their city-state.
Problems While Creating Sumerian City-States
One difficulty people came across when they were creating the Sumerian City-States was building and maintaining a complex irrigation system. At first, farmers had problems with making sure that crops had the correct amount of water. During most of the year crops would be to dry and die, but during the spring rivers would flood their fields and wash away the crops. Once people created canals to bring even amounts of water to crops all throughout the year farmers found that the canals could get clogged up with silt, and the system constantly was needing repair. To resolve this problem farmers worked together to clear silt from canals and they scooped up water from one canal to another to make sure they were balanced. Another problem that occurred was Sumerian cities fought over water, sometimes leading to bloodshed. To solve this problem cities began building walls and moats around the city to prevent wars. Farmers had to live outside the walls, but they were allowed inside for protection when under attack.
Food, farming, and trading
Because of permanent shelters and places to store things, the humans had a more stable food supply. Many of the men started farms that grew corn, cotton, rice, and other tradable goods because when they were staying in one place, no longer nomadic, they could have agriculture. Trading was another important part of a stable food supply and the development of ancient sumerian city-states themselves because different communities often grew one or two types of food or materials, so they needed to trade with other communities that had food they didn't have. The same goes for the other community that is trading.
What to remember
The most important things to remember about ancient Sumerian City-States are trading, farms, and permanent shelters; that's everything you have learned so far. A few key things to remember are that trading helped communities get more resources and that many homes had to be built in order to have a populated city-state ( the fact that everyone had to have a house to live in ). Lastly, the early people built temples called ziggurats - places where gods were worshiped. Because of a controlled civilization, the people started to believe in many gods that were thought to help them create such a beautiful civilization they could live in. Watch the video below for more information: