Writing+and+Inventions

__Writing__

Sumer was the inventor of many things that we still are using today. One of the most important thing that they made is the writing. Sumerian is the first known language. It's script is called cuneiform. In the English translation, it means wedge shaped. It was created in the 4th millennium B.C. In the beginning, they started out as drawings. They then turned in to writing over time. The writing still looked like pictures, but in a more basic format. The writing was drwn on clay tablets and then hardened in the sun. They wrote from left to right, which was a lot faster. They used recycling for the clay tablets that didn't meet the king's description. The writing script is just like basic Japanese. In the bronze age there were about 1000 characters to memorize in writing. The Sumerians moved it to 400 words. They wrote from clay tablets that they put a sharp stick on to. The clay was then hardened in the sun. If they want it to be a permanent record, they would put it over a fire in an oven, or if the king didn't like it, they would recycle the clay. Most of the pictograms, or words mean two things. One of the things they were valued were symbalic value, and the other were logographic. Some of the pictures are as follows: __Stories and things that are linked to writing and numbers__

But writing wasn't the only thing that they invented. They wrote books too though. One of their most famous was, " The tale of Gilgamesh." This was as the Cristians would say, their bible. It told stories of how they came to be and monsters that lived. Other than stories, they invented numbers. This was very important. This was important with the making of the calendar. In their calendar, they had 300 days, unlike ours, which has 365 days. Also they had hours in 60 minutes, and minutes in 60 seconds. In a circle, they made it have 360 degrees. They even had poems. Some of the poems were //Iliad//, the //Odyssey//, and the //Aeneid. These are very famous.

__Vehicles__

They made the first wheeled vehicles. Also they made wagons, which helped them in making it easier to transport goods to other places. They also helped in war because some of their enimies didn't have wagons. __From Stars to Earth__ The ancient priests recorded the stars movig across the stars. They saw the movement and told the farmers when the most succesful time would be to grow crops. They also invented irrigation systems. This is when the priests predicted that the rain would come, or the snow would melt, and the river would over flow. They made a system for this. They would build big trenches along side the river, and when the huge water came, it would overflow on to the huge trenches, and the farms would have more water. This is just a basic view of the irrigation systems. For more information, go to Michael's page on farming.

__Handywork__ They also invented bronze, whih at war would be very handy. But not just for war purposes. They could use bronze for alot of things around the household. They invented leather, which would be very fasionable at the time. They got this from cows that they had on their farms. They also created a lot of things for handy work. They created a hamer, and other objects.

__Starting the language__ Their language was originally all pictures. this was a problem, for it took ages for them to write. Soon they started to write in simpler forms. It took archaeologists a while, but at the start, 30 percent of the writing was not in pctograms. Then it just took off. The sounds of the speech was alot like Chinese. If you say something in a different tone, it means a different thing.

__Economy__ Sumerians were the first to invent a economy. Some say that this was the handiest inventions that they ever made. They had a bunch of jobs that would support the economy. They had farmers, which would grow the crops, but they would have to pay the people to build the trenches for the irrigation systems. These people would have to pay the priests to tell them when the rain was going to come. The priests would be working under the government. The government would collect taxes from everybody, and the system would go on.//