Research Paper on:
Sumer's Economic Contributions

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
of law; and the first city-states Bibliography lists 2 sources. BBsumerR.doc ECONOMIC  CONTRIBUTIONS OF SUMER Written by for the Paperstore, Inc., October 2000 Introduction According to Sumerian  linguistic history, the term Sumer is used today to designate the southern part of ancient Mesopotamia. Historically, the name Sumer is derived from the Babylonian name for southern Babylonia:  m?t umeri "the land of Sumer" (construct state of m?tum "country" followed by genitive of Sumer). The Sumerians called their country ken.gi(r) "civilized land", their language eme.gir and themselves  sag.gi6.ga "the black-headed ones." Sumer may very well be the first civilization in the world (although long term settlements at Jericho and Catal Huyuk predate Sumer and examples of  writing from Egypt and the Harappa, Indus valley sites may predate those from Sumer). From its beginnings as a collection of farming villages around 5000 BC, through its conquest by  Sargon of Agade around 2370 BC and its final collapse under the Amorites around 2000 BC, the Sumerians developed a religion and a society which influenced both their neighbors and  their conquerors. History By 3000 B.C. a flourishing urban civilization existed. Sumerian civilization was predominantly agricultural and had a well-organized communal life. The Sumerians were adept at building canals and  at developing effective systems of irrigation. This certainly indicates a given productivity with the land, which also suggests the ability to sell or trade excess. Excavated objects such  as pottery, jewelry, and weapons show that they were also skilled in the use of such metals as copper, gold, and silver, and had developed, by this time, skills which