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[Mystical music]
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In Sumer, part of the ancient land of Mesopotamia,
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there was a famous city state called Nippur.
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One day a teacher in Nippur
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asked his students to start a journal about their lives and their country.
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This is the story of one student, Nisaba, and her journal.
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Okay here we go. Nisaba's journal, entry one.
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Teacher wants us to write about our life.
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What is my life like here in Sumer?
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I think I'll tell the story of my people from the very beginning.
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My grandfather knows all about it.
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He says the first thing we Sumerians did
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was get really good at farming.
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My ancestors used to make their living by hunting wild animals for food.
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They were constantly on the move following the herds.
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As they travelled they would also gather wild berries, nuts and green seeds.
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But they often didn't know where their next meal would come from.
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It was a hard way to live.
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Then they discovered they could plant and harvest
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the kind of wheat they found growing wild
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and they also found out how to tame wild goats and sheep
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and raise them for food.
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Grandfather calls that 'domestication'.
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It meant they didn't have to hunt for food anymore.
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They could grow it themselves
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and so my ancestors stopped wandering and stayed here.
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They discovered that food grows better here than almost anywhere else.
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That's because we're in a river valley, right between two rivers in fact.
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Mesopotamia actually means 'land between the rivers'.
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One river is the Tigris and the other is the Euphrates.
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My grandfather says it's easy to grow food because the soil here is so fertile
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and only that is because of the mountains up north.
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It snows alot up there in the winter.
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When the snow melts, all that water runs down into the valley and the rivers.
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Then the rivers rise over their banks and flood the valley
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and they dump alot of really good dirt on the land.
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It's great for growing food in.
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So now we eat really well.
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We grow barley and wheat,
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lots of beans and fresh vegetables,
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and fruits like melons, dates, apples, figs and grapes.
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Our animals give us milk, cheese and meat
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and there are always plenty of fish in the rivers.
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When my ancestors first started farming here
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their biggest problem was never knowing when a flood might come
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and wash away their crop.
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Even if the crop survived that, they might die in the summer
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when it's so hot and there's not enough water.
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But my people didn't give up.
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Instead, we actually invented a way to control the river.
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First we learned how to build levees.
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Those are big piles of earth between the fields and the river.
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They're too tall for the river to get over so they prevent the floods.
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Then we made gated ditches around the fields
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and when the crops needed water in the summer, we'd just open the gates
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and let the river water flow in.
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To plant our crops we use a great tool called a plough.
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It's a Sumerian invention!
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And we use an ox to pull the plough, another of our great ideas.
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Some of our smartest people invented a calendar based on the moon and stars.
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My grandfather says nobody had ever thought of a way
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to measure time like that before.
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It helps us know when the floods will come.
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In our calendar, each year has 12 months and each month has 30 days.
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Each month is represented by one of the constellations in the sky.
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They're called the Zodiac.
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Our priests watch the Zodiac to know which month it is.
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That way, they know when the floods from the mountains will arrive.
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We Sumerians also invented writing.
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My grandfather says that in the old days nobody knew how to write.
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Well, if you can't write, how do you keep track of how many animals you sold?
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What are you supposed to do, paint them on caved walls?
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No, we're much more modern here in Sumer.
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We figured out how to write on clay pallets.
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You just take a piece of reed and cut a stylus from it.
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That's a sort of hard, pointed tool.
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You press the point into some wet clay and pretty soon you're writing.
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Our style of writing is called Cunieform.
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With writing you can keep records of everything you do.
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It's great cause then you don't have to remember it all!
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You can also make things permanent when you write them down.
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For example we were the first people to write down our laws.
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But this is maybe the best thing we invented.
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The wheel.
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You think somebody back in the old days would've thought of it sooner
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but we were the first!
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Before carts and wheels we used to just drag things around.
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That was hard!
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But like I said, we're very modern here in Sumer.
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My grandfather says that in the old days,
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most everybody had to work at farming the land.
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But not anymore. We Sumerians got so good at growing food
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some people could quit farming and let others grow enough for everybody.
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Of course you had to be neighbours for that to work.
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So people settled down close to each other in villages
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and the villages grew into city states.
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Each city state has its own king and each one is sacred to one of the gods.
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My city state is called Nippur.
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It's on the banks of the Euphrates River and it's the most holy city in Sumer.
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Nippur is sacred to the god Enlil - our greatest god.
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His temple, the ziggurat, is right in the middle of the city.
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Our ziggurat is Eduranki, which means the house binding heaven and earth.
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The ziggurat is a huge, square building, sort of like a pyramid.
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It's made of several layers, or storeys.
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As you go higher up, each storey is smaller than the one below.
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The very top storey is the temple where the god lives.
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Around the ziggurat are houses where the wealthy people live
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like priests and merchants for instance.
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They live in two-storey houses.
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Further away from the temple are one-storey houses
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where shopkeepers and craftspeople live
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and beyond them live the farmers and fishermen.
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All the land outside the city belongs to the city state too
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but most people live inside the city walls.
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We are very good at making bricks out of mud.
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That's a good thing cause there's a lot of mud here!
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We gather a bunch of mud, pat it into square molds,
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and bake the mud bricks in the sun until they're dry.
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We use them to make all of our buildings.
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Here's my house!
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My family live in one of the two-storey houses close to the ziggurat.
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That's because my dad works for the king.
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My mum runs the house. Our slaves do the actual work
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but my mum supervises them.
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They prepare meals, keep the house clean and do other household chores.
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Mother also weaves beautiful cloths to make clothing.
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Her cloth is made of fine wool from our own sheep.
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She sells alot of them to the trader's caravans.
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My younger sisters help my mother spin yarn and weave cloth
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but I begged my dad to send me to tablet school.
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I'm learning to write so I can be a scribe.
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It's a really important job.
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There are alot of other jobs in Sumer,
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like being a potter or a fisherman.
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Some people grind grain into flour and brew beer,
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some are traders and some just play music.
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Hey, that wouldn't be so bad!
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But it would be bad to be a slave.
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Some slaves were captured in war
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and others became slaves because they owed money.
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They have to work for three years, often in the grain fields
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and then they are set free.
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Besides the king and his family
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the people with the highest positions are the priests.
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They care for the gods and make sure they're happy.
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That reminds me, I should write something about our religion.
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It plays a big part in our life!
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We believe in seven great gods:
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of the earth,
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sky,
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sun,
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moon,
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salt water,
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fresh water,
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and wind.
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My city, Nippur, is protected by the god Enlil, the god of wind.
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We believe he lives in his temple on top of the ziggurat.
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We spend alot of time praying to our god.
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Alot of people even make a little statue of themselves praying
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and leave it in the temple.
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The statues keep on praying while the people go about their daily chores.
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Our priests hold ceremonies to honour the gods and offer them food twice a day.
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My older brother, Shulgi, is a priest in the ziggurat.
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Only priests are allowed inside.
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Shulgi reminds me of that every chance he gets!
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We believe the gods own the land and everything on it,
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so we give the gods everything we grow,
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then the priests share it with all the people.
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They make sure everyone gets enough.
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Each city state in Sumer has a king, called an enki.
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We believe he was chosen by the gods to rule us
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and then it was the gods who gave us our laws.
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Our king makes judgements when people have arguments.
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He's in charge of all our trade with other cities.
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He decides who gets to farm our fields
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and he makes sure that gods' temples are in good repair
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and that all the right offerings are made.
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He's got a whole lot to do!
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So obviously he needs other people to help him do it.
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My dad is one of them, and of course my brother helps cause he's a priest.
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Maybe I'll work there too when I'm older.
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Scribes keep records on clay tablets of everything that happens each year.
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The king and the priests all work in the ziggurat.
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It's full of offices, work rooms and storage spaces.
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To support the king and the priests, our people pay taxes throughout the year.
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Usually it's something like a couple of sheep or bags of grain.
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But there are taxes on almost everything!
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We get taxed on the livestock we own and on the fish we catch.
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We even get taxed on our funerals.
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In our city every man who is head of a household
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has to pay a tax, called 'the burden'.
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It's not the usual kind of tax, it's time not goods.
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The men have to spend time working for the government
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doing things that help or protect the city.
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For example, my uncle helped to harvest the barley crops.
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Other men have to go dig out the irrigation ditches to keep them clear.
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Our neighbour sent one of his slaves to do his work.
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My dad says you're not supposed to but people do it if they can afford it.
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All the taxes go to the king.
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They pay for our army, which is pretty expensive
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and also for our repairs and improvements to our city.
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My grandfather always say, "There are priests and there are kings,
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bu the taxman is the one you should be afraid of."
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Well, that's my journal entry for today.
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I think it's a pretty good picture of who we Sumerians are and how we live.
