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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.