The Sumerians Created the Foundation of Human Life!

The Sumerians were in control over the land of Mesopotamia for the longest of all the other civilizations. However, they weren't a very brutal one. They loved to create art and designs. However, this didn't happen until later. The original Sumerians were just groups of people who settled along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They would set up small mud huts and build fires at night to keep them warm. You may say this isn't that big of a deal, but the reality is, the Sumerians did all this without being able to communicate with other people. A stable language wasn't put into play until about 4000 B.C. Leaving 3000 years of confusion. But, they made it work.

During this time, the Sumerians weren't actually the Sumerians. The actual Sumerians didn't unite until around 5000 B.C. These small villages didn't meet each other for a while. But they were mostly hunters and gatherers which meant, they didn't stay in one area. They would always move after a few days to hunt a heard of animals. Although, later on, they were able to obtain a surplus of food, they could then focus on settling down and remaining in one spot for a long time. Thus, the city states began to form.

The Copper Age was introduced to the Sumerians and the rest of the world in the mid 4000's. The first main use for copper was in farming. Which, the Sumerians could master by looking at the stars. They invented a calender to let them know when the best time to plant what was. However, this didn't matter with copper. Copper was used as a plow tied up to a few Oxen in order to plow lines of fertile growing patches. With this invention, they could plant, and receive more food. Which, opened doors for a larger population, and eventually opened up into a military.

The Sumerians used the copper to their advantage. Copper appealed to people because of it's unique color. Many artists at the time used copper to create works of art. However, the sculptures would usually stick to mud or rock.

By this time, the Civilization could invent many different items that could help them spread their civilization to be a great one. The boat was a useful device which showed a great way of fishing along the two rivers. This also upgraded their food supply.

Sumeria never did have much of a powerful military. This is because they were too focused on keeping up with government and society. However, they did have a few inventions which gave them the edge against other nations during battle.

The mace was a great invention which came out around the 4000's. A mace was lighter than just a big log or stick, but it had a heavier end, and could be used to knock out an opponent easily. Another great advantage was the bow and arrow. This was used to shoot at enemies from a distance. It was much easier than throwing rocks, and was much more deadly than just a rock. However, these inventions weren't mastered just yet. The mace would often lose it's heavy metal piece on the end because it was only tied on with rope, and the arrows would often not fly further than ten feet, and by the time the enemy got that close, you were already dead.

Tactics didn't exist back then. Instead of fighting in strategic lines, they would get in large groups and just charge at each other. If anyone even had a shield it was only about the size of someone's forearm and was made of wood which was easily destroyed after one direct strike. If archers ever got caught in a hand to hand combat battle, they would probably get killed since they didn't have weapons other than their arrows.

One Commander, named Gilgamesh, from about 3500 B.C. lead an army of about a thousand soldiers throughout Mesopotamia to unite the people under a single rule. Also, he was known for searching for the Holy Grail, a religious item which was known for giving eternal life if found. All in all, this great man's journeys were all recorded into a story, in fact, the first story ever written, about 2000 years before the Greeks were even thought of. The story was called, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The Akkadian Empire was established mainly from the Sumerians. Since the Sumerians had already had cities lined up all over Mesopotamia, the Akkadians just used the Sumerians as slaves to combine the cities into one great empire.

The reason the Sumerians were forced into slavery was due to a battle which they lost in 2353 B.C. The reason they lost this battle was because the Akkadians had a greater supply of cavalry (horses) and they used swords instead of maces. The Sumerians knew about swords, however, they didn't change into using Bronze due to their history of Copper use. Much like today's oil problem, the population was so used to using copper that they didn't pay attention to the ability to make swords which could slash right through copper. Therefor, they were slaughtered by Sargon of Akkad (the Akkadian Emperor)

The Akkadian Empire wasn't much different from the Sumerians civilization a few hundred years earlier. They used the techniques of art, math, farming, and architecture much like the Sumerians. In actuality, the name Sumeria was given to the people by the Akkadians upon arrival. This is because the Sumerians didn't have a set name for themselves at this time.

If you pay attention to most detail in Akkadian art and Sumerian art, they are very similar in all aspects, even the people looked the same because of they were only a hundred miles away from each other long ago.