How did the Sumerian Empire arise and fall?

The Sumerian civilization was the earliest civilization in human history. The location of the Sumerian civilization was Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, from about 4,500 to 1,900 BC.

By the end of the 4th millennium BC, Sumerian civilization consisted of 23 major city-states and 10 smaller independent city-states, separated by canals and stone boundary walls. Each city-state was centered on a temple dedicated to its particular patron god or goddess and was ruled by a chief priest (ensi) or a king (lugal) who had a close relationship with the city-state's religious sites. The city-states frequently fought each other or formed alliances.

The Sumerian civilization far surpassed the previous savage period.

The Sumerian civilization was very advanced, far surpassing the previous primitive period. Even modern people today still inherit many legacies of the ancient Sumerians. Some 'conspiracy theories' even claim that the Sumerian civilization was helped by aliens (?)

In terms of education, the Sumerians established schools after the invention of writing in the late fourth millennium BC (around 3,150 BC). They called their schools 'houses of clay tablets' , calling the teacher father, the student son and the assistant teacher elder. Students were disciplined with whips or sticks.

 The Sumerians opened schools after inventing writing. (Illustration).

In politics and law, they knew how to organize democratic institutions similar to a bicameral parliament : clay tablets dating back to 3,000 BC record debates in meetings of armed men deciding whether to make peace or fight, similar to the House of Commons. The decisions of this meeting had to be submitted to the Council of Elders, in which the king's opinion was final, similar to the Senate. They organized trials for juvenile crimes separately from those for adults.

The Sumerians developed a complex system of measurement around 4000 BC. This advanced system of measurement led to the development of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From around 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and solved geometric and division problems. The earliest traces of Babylonian numerals also date from this period. The period around 2700–2300 BC saw the first appearance of the counting table, and a table of continuous columns delineating successive orders of magnitude in the sexagesimal number system.

The Sumerians were the first to use a place value number system . There is also anecdotal evidence that the Sumerians may have used a type of slide rule in astronomical calculations. They were the first to calculate the area of ​​a triangle and the volume of a cylinder.

The Sumerians adopted an agricultural way of life perhaps as early as 5,000–4,500 BC, demonstrating some basic agricultural techniques, including organized irrigation, large-scale concentrated cultivation, specialized plowing, and the use of specialized labor. They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks, and mustard. The Sumerians caught a variety of fish and hunted fowl and antelope.

The Sumerians also domesticated and raised sheep, cattle, goats, and pigs . The Sumerians also had a large ancient trade network centered around the Persian Gulf region.

Sumerian technology and crafts were also highly developed. Examples of Sumerian technology include: the wheel, cuneiform, arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, Sumerian ships, the solar-lunar calendar, bronze, leather, saws, chisels, hammers, props, bits, nails, pins, rings, hoes, axes, knives, spearheads, arrowheads, swords, glue, daggers, waterskins, bags, saddles, armor, quivers, chariots, scabbards, shoes, sandals, harpoons, and stele.

The Sumerians believed in polytheism, or belief in many gods . There was no single pantheon for the entire empire; each city-state had its own patron deity, temple, and priest-king. The Sumerians were probably the first to write down their beliefs. According to them, man was created from clay and lived to serve the gods, meaning that man should serve religion, not religion serve man.

The Sumerians were probably the first people to record their beliefs.

The Sumerian buildings were made of flat-convex mud bricks, not mixed with mortar, so they easily deteriorated over time. The Sumerians also had large structures such as the Pyramid - Ziggurat, a religious-astronomical structure of that period.

The almost constant warfare between the Sumerian city-states for 2,000 years helped to develop Sumerian warfare techniques and technology to a high level. Sumerian armies consisted primarily of infantry. The infantrymen carried spears, bronze helmets, and leather or wicker shields. The spearmen were used in a phalanx-like formation, which required training and discipline; this suggests that the Sumerians may have employed professional warriors. The Sumerians also used chariots and ox-drawn carts as mobile war chariots.

In 1,940 BC, the Elamites invaded Sumer and pillaged the Sumerian city-states. Then, under the reign of Hammurabi of Babylonia, the Babylonians unified the lands of Mesopotamia, and the Sumerians perished. Around 1,700 BC, the Sumerians were assimilated with the Assyrians and Babylonians .