Where, when and how did the first civilization originate? On this score, scientists (historians, archaeologists, linguists) still have no consensus. But most experts believe that the first people to have indisputable signs of civilization, such as writing, culture, science, were the Sumerians.
Who are the Sumerians
The Sumerians are the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, an area located between the two great Asian rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The emergence of the Sumerian civilization dates back to around 4000 BC. The origin of the Sumerians is still unknown. Probably, they were not the original inhabitants of Mesopotamia, but came there from some mountainous area. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that the concepts of "mountain" and "country" were designated by the same symbol. In general, the Sumerians are considered the most ancient people who had a written language at all. At the heart of the Sumerian writing ("cuneiform") were pictograms, that is, images of signs characterizing a particular object, as well as its features. Moreover, the writing of the Sumerians was owned not only by representatives of the upper classes and religious cults, but also by commoners.
Scientists have established that the original number of pictograms among the Sumerians was about 1000, but later they began to use a more abbreviated 600-digit version of the writing.
What were the achievements of the Sumerian civilization
The Sumerians first began to create works of literature. Moreover, they created the prototypes of the first public libraries. The Sumerians achieved great success in architecture and construction. It was the Sumerians who began to burn bricks and use them in the construction of various buildings. Some of the layouts developed by them were used during the palace buildings.
Sumerian medicine was highly developed even by the standards of those ancient times. And the achievements of the Sumerians in mathematics and astronomy are worthy of sincere admiration. Suffice it to say that their scientists not only established that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Moon around the Earth, but also created a very accurate calendar of lunar eclipses. This requires many years of persistent observation and careful mathematical processing of the results obtained.
As for their religious beliefs, the Sumerians believed in a great variety of gods, among which the "senior" or "great" group of 50 deities stood out. The Sumerians believed they were created to serve God. In their opinion, with their successes and labor, they "fed" the gods. These residents also believed in the Flood myth. According to Sumerian views, man was created from clay, which was mixed with divine blood. And the Earth in their view was the gap between the Upper and Lower worlds.
