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