About Ancient Sumer
Sumer is one of the first known civilizations. It lasted from about 3700 BC until about 2000 BC. It was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what's known as the Fertile Crescent. The Greeks called it Mesopotamia, meaning the land between the rivers.
The Sumerians farmed the land, created canals to irrigate their crops, domesticated animals and built roads. Most importantly, they created cities, which quickly experienced population growth. One of their cities, Ur, had as many as 24,000 people. As the cities grew, people started to have specific jobs, like potters, weavers, farmers and traders. They also had a government, a religion and they kept records.
Sumerian was written in cuneiform, a writing system which developed around the 31st century BC. The term cuneiform comes from Latin, meaning wedge-shaped. That's because cuneiform characters are made in wedge-shaped strokes. The characters have an arrow-head like shape. The symbol above is in cuneiform and it represents the word for musical instrument. We're using it in the place of a flag, since we can't find an actual flag that was used by ancient Sumer!
The song linked to above is the oldest known lullaby!
We’d love it if you’d join the Mama Lisa Facebook Group. You can post anything you’d like about your culture. You can post your own musical recordings or YouTube videos… Links to culture and musical sites… Photos of your country… Questions about songs or cultural issues… Anything related to World Culture and... Read more »
In addition to this blog, I also host Mama Lisa’s World. Mama Lisa’s World is a large collection of children’s songs and rhymes from countries all around the globe. Matt, a music teacher from Rhode Island, wrote a question to me, the other day, about Mama Lisa’s World: Hey Mama, I love the concept of your site.... Read more »- A significant part of the Mama Lisa sites is a large collection of songs and nursery rhymes from around the world. We currently have about 750 songs from around 90 countries and cultures. When you consider how many languages there are in those cultures – that’s a lot of information! In order to make... Read more »
Mesopotamia
(In English)
Articles about Mesopotamia
Cuneiform Writing System
(In English)
The origin and development of cuneiform.
Ancient Sumeria (Sumer)
(In English)
A history of Ancient Sumer (Sumeria)including its Cities, Kings, Mythologies, Sciences, Religions, Writings, Culture, Cuneiform and Contributions.
The Sumerians
(In English)
Site about the Sumerians
The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
(In English)
Based at the University of Oxford. Its aim is to make accessible over 400 literary works composed in the Sumerian language in ancient Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennia BC.
Cuneiform Writing
(In English)
Read more about cuneiform writing.
