Interesting facts about the Sumerian civilization. Sumerians facts. Some interesting facts about the Sumerian civilization. The ancient Sumerians adored ... beer

Sumer was one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. Over 7,000 years ago, the Sumerians built the roads and walls of their first city. They were the first in the history of mankind to leave their homes, abandoning their usual agriculture and cattle breeding, and moved to live in a real city.

There are few artifacts that could tell something about life in 5000 BC, however, scientists can tell something about the life of the Sumerians.

Women had their own language

Men and women in Sumer were not equal. When morning came, the man was sure that his wife had already prepared breakfast for him. When the family had children, they sent the boys to school and left the girls at home. The lives of men and women were so different that women even developed their own language.
The main Sumerian language was called "Emegir", but the women had their own dialect called "Emsal" ("women's language"), and no record of it has survived. Some sounds in the female language were pronounced differently, and the representatives of the weaker sex also used some words and several vowels that were not in emegir.

Sumerians paid taxes before they invented money

Taxes have been around longer than the money to pay them. Even before the first coins and silver sheckles appeared in Mesopotamia, the people must give the ruler part of their income. Often Sumerian taxes did not differ from modern ones. Instead of money, the ruler charged a percentage of what the people produced. Farmers sent crops or livestock, while merchants could pay in leather or timber.
Rich people were taxed much more - in some cases, they had to give the ruler half of what they earned. However, this was not the only way to pay taxes. The Sumerians practiced work in public projects. For a month each year, a man had to leave his home to work on a farm, dig irrigation canals, or fight. Only rich people could pay off such a duty (pay someone else to work instead of him).

Life revolved around beer

There is a theory that civilization began because of beer. Allegedly, people started farming, just to be able to get drunk. And they were “lured” to the city only with the promise of more beer. True or not, beer was certainly an important part of life in Sumer. It was served on the table at every meal, from breakfast to dinner, and was not considered as the main drink in the life of any person.
Of course, Sumerian beer was different from the modern one. It had the consistency of something like porridge, with dirty sediment on the bottom, a layer of foam on top, and small pieces of bread left over from fermentation floating on the surface. It could only be drunk through a straw. But it was worth it. Sumerian beer had enough grain to be considered a nutritious part of a balanced breakfast. When workers came to work on community projects, they were often paid in beer. This is how the ruler "lured" the farmers to work on his construction projects: he had the best beer.

Use of opium

Beer was not the only way to "relax" in Sumer. The Sumerians had opium, and they definitely used this substance. The Sumerians have been growing the opium poppy since at least 3000 BC. Today there is not much information about what they did with it, but the name that the Sumerians gave the poppy clearly speaks for itself - they called it the "plant of joy." There are theories that the Sumerians used these plants for medicine, in particular, as a pain reliever.

New wife for the ruler annually

Every year the ruler married a new woman. He was to marry one of the priestesses - a group of virgin girls chosen to be "perfect in body" - and make love to her. Otherwise, the gods supposedly would have made the land and women of Sumer barren. The ruler and his chosen bride would "represent the act of making love to the gods in the earthly world". On her wedding day, the bride was bathed, fumigated with incense and dressed in the most beautiful robes, while the ruler and his entourage went to her temple.
In the temple, a crowd of priests and priestesses were waiting, who began to sing songs of love. When the ruler arrived, he presented gifts to the bride, and then they went together to a room smoked with incense and made love on a ceremonial bed, which was made to order exclusively for this event.

Priestesses were doctors and dentists

Priestesses were not only the harem of the ruler - they were one of the most useful people in Sumerian society. They were poets, scribes and some of the first doctors in history. Sumerian cities were always built around the temple complex. In the center was a great ziggurat, surrounded by buildings where priests and priestesses lived and artisans worked on public projects. It was a huge space that occupied a third of the city, and it was used for more than just ceremonies.
There were also orphanages, astronomical centers and large business organizations. However, it was outside the complex that the most historically important work was done. The sick came here and asked the priestesses to examine them. These women went outside and checked the health of the patients. They diagnosed the sick and prepared medicines for them.

Literacy is wealth

Reading and writing were fairly new concepts in ancient Sumer, but they were already incredibly important back then. People have never become rich by working with their hands. Usually merchants and farmers belonged to the lower class. If someone wanted to get rich, then he became a manager or a priest. And literacy was a prerequisite. Sumerian boys could start school as soon as they were seven years old, but it was expensive. Only the richest people in the city could afford to send their children to a school where they were taught math, history, and literacy. Usually children just copied what the teacher wrote until they could imitate it exactly.

The poor living outside the city

Not every Sumerian was part of this "upper echelon of society." Most of them were lower class, living on farms outside the city walls or helping low-paid artisan workers in the city. While the rich lived in adobe houses with furniture, windows and lamps, the poor had to live in thatched tents. They slept on straw mats on the ground, and all their families lived in such conditions. Outside the city walls, life was hard. But people could move up. A hard-working family could trade some of their crops to buy more land, or rent out their lands for a profit.

army of conquerors

Yet the life of the poor in Sumer was far better than that of the slaves. The Sumerian rulers constantly used enslaved workers in their cities, and recruited slaves simply by raiding people who lived in the mountains. The raiders took these people with them into captivity and took away all their property. The Sumerian rulers believed that if the gods grant them victory, then the divine will is to make slaves out of the inhabitants of the mountains.
Usually, male slaves were led by women, and female slaves often became completely disenfranchised concubines. Although, it is worth noting that there were options to gain freedom. A slave woman could only marry a free man, although she would have to give her first child to her master as payment. A male slave could do enough to buy his freedom and even get his own land. But there was also a downside - no one was immune from slavery. If a free person fell into debt bondage or committed a crime, then he was made a slave.

Ritual burials

In Sumer, death was a real mystery. The dead were allegedly sent to what the Sumerians called "the land of no return", but no one knew what was there. Therefore, the Sumerians believed that they would need all the earthly goods they possessed in the afterlife. They were terrified of spending eternity alone and hungry, so the dead were buried with jewelry, gold, food, and even their pet dogs. The rulers "took" with them to the other world all their servants and "court", and sometimes their families.

Sumer was one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Over 7,000 years ago, the Sumerians built the roads and walls of their first city. They were the first in the history of mankind to leave their homes and tribal homes, abandoning the usual agriculture and cattle breeding, and moved to live in a real city. few artifacts have survived today that could tell something about life in 5000 BC, however, scientists carefully study all the finds and could already

1 Women Had Their Own Language

Men and women in Sumer were not equal. When morning came, the man was sure that his wife had already prepared breakfast for him. When the family had children, they sent the boys to school and left the girls at home. The lives of men and women were so different that women even developed their own language.

The main Sumerian language was called "Emegir", but the women had their own dialect called "Emsal" ("women's language"), and no record of it has survived. Some sounds in the female language were pronounced differently, and the representatives of the weaker sex also used some words and several vowels that were not in emegir.

2 The Sumerians Paid Taxes Before They Invented Money

Taxes have been around longer than the money to pay them. Even before the first coins and silver sheckles appeared in Mesopotamia, the people must give the ruler part of their income. Often Sumerian taxes did not differ from modern ones. Instead of money, the ruler charged a percentage of what the people produced. Farmers sent crops or livestock, while merchants could pay in leather or timber.

Rich people were taxed much more - in some cases, they had to give the ruler half of what they earned. However, this was not the only way to pay taxes. The Sumerians practiced work in public projects. For a month each year, a man had to leave his home to work on a farm, dig irrigation canals, or fight. Only rich people could pay off such a duty (pay someone else to work instead of him).

3. Life revolved around beer

There is a theory that civilization began because of beer. Allegedly, people started farming, just to be able to get drunk. And they were “lured” to the city only with the promise of more beer. True or not, beer was certainly an important part of life in Sumer. It was served on the table at every meal, from breakfast to dinner, and was not considered as the main drink in the life of any person.

Of course, Sumerian beer was different from the modern one. It had the consistency of something like porridge, with dirty sediment on the bottom, a layer of foam on top, and small pieces of bread left over from fermentation floating on the surface. It could only be drunk through a straw. But it was worth it. Sumerian beer had enough grain to be considered a nutritious part of a balanced breakfast. When workers came to work on community projects, they were often paid in beer. This is how the ruler "lured" the farmers to work on his construction projects: he had the best beer.

4. Use of opium

Beer was not the only way to "relax" in Sumer. The Sumerians had opium, and they definitely used this substance. The Sumerians have been growing the opium poppy since at least 3000 BC. Today there is not much information about what they did with it, but the name that the Sumerians gave the poppy clearly speaks for itself - they called it the "plant of joy." There are theories that the Sumerians used these plants for medicine, in particular, as a pain reliever.

5. New wife for the ruler annually

Every year the ruler married a new woman. He was to marry one of the priestesses - a group of virgin girls chosen to be "perfect in body" - and make love to her. Otherwise, the gods supposedly would have made the land and women of Sumer barren. The ruler and his chosen bride would "represent the act of making love to the gods in the earthly world". On her wedding day, the bride was bathed, fumigated with incense and dressed in the most beautiful robes, while the ruler and his entourage went to her temple.

In the temple, a crowd of priests and priestesses were waiting, who began to sing songs of love. When the ruler arrived, he presented gifts to the bride, and then they went together to a room smoked with incense and made love on a ceremonial bed, which was made to order exclusively for this event.

6 Priestesses Were Doctors And Dentists

Priestesses were not only the harem of the ruler - they were among the most useful people in Sumerian society. They were poets, scribes and some of the first doctors in history. Sumerian cities were always built around the temple complex. In the center was a great ziggurat, surrounded by buildings where priests and priestesses lived and artisans worked on public projects. It was a huge space that occupied a third of the city, and it was used for more than just ceremonies.

There were also orphanages, astronomical centers and large business organizations. However, it was outside the complex that the most historically important work was done. The sick came here and asked the priestesses to examine them. These women went outside and checked the health of the patients. They diagnosed the sick and prepared medicines for them.

7. Literacy is wealth

Reading and writing were fairly new concepts in ancient Sumer, but they were already incredibly important back then. People have never become rich by working with their hands. Usually merchants and farmers belonged to the lower class. If someone wanted to get rich, then he became a manager or a priest. And literacy was a prerequisite. Sumerian boys could start school as soon as they were seven years old, but it was expensive. Only the richest people in the city could afford to send their children to a school where they were taught math, history, and literacy. Usually children just copied what the teacher wrote until they could imitate it exactly.

8. Poor people living outside the city

Not every Sumerian was part of this "upper echelon of society." Most of them were lower class, living on farms outside the city walls or helping low-paid artisan workers in the city. While the rich lived in adobe houses with furniture, windows and lamps, the poor had to live in thatched tents. They slept on straw mats on the ground, and all their families lived in such conditions. Outside the city walls, life was hard. But people could move up. A hard-working family could trade some of their crops to buy more land, or rent out their lands for a profit.

9. Army of conquerors

Yet the life of the poor in Sumer was far better than that of the slaves. The Sumerian rulers constantly used enslaved workers in their cities, and recruited slaves simply by raiding people who lived in the mountains. The raiders took these people with them into captivity and took away all their property. The Sumerian rulers believed that if the gods grant them victory, then the divine will is to make slaves out of the inhabitants of the mountains.

Usually, male slaves were led by women, and female slaves often became completely disenfranchised concubines. Although, it is worth noting that there were options to gain freedom. A slave woman could only marry a free man, although she would have to give her first child to her master as payment. A male slave could do enough to buy his freedom and even get his own land. But there was also a downside - no one was immune from slavery. If a free person fell into debt bondage or committed a crime, then he was made a slave.

10. Ritual burials

In Sumer, death was a real mystery. The dead were allegedly sent to what the Sumerians called "the land of no return", but no one knew what was there. Therefore, the Sumerians believed that they would need all the earthly goods they possessed in the afterlife. They were terrified of spending eternity alone and hungry, so the dead were buried with jewelry, gold, food, and even their pet dogs. The rulers "took" with them to the other world all their servants and "court", and sometimes their families.

It has already been proven that the Sumerian civilization is the oldest on Earth. Their first civilization arose in general at a breathtaking time: at least 445 thousand years ago. Many scientists have fought and are struggling to solve the mystery of the most ancient people on the planet, but the mysteries still remain.

More than 6 thousand years ago, in the region of Mesopotamia, out of nowhere, a unique civilization of the Sumerians appeared, which had all the signs of a highly developed one. Suffice it to mention that the Sumerians used the ternary counting system and knew the Fibonacci numbers. The Sumerian texts contain information about the origin, development and structure of the solar system. In their depiction of the solar system, located in the Middle East section of the State Museum in Berlin, the Sun is at the center of the system, surrounded by all the planets known today. However, there are differences in their depiction of the solar system, the main of which is that the Sumerians place an unknown large planet between Mars and Jupiter - the 12th planet in the Sumerian system! The Sumerians called this mysterious planet Nibiru, which means "crossing planet". The orbit of this planet - a highly elongated ellipse - once every 3600 years crosses the solar system.
The next passage of the Niber through the solar system is expected between 2100 and 2158. According to the Sumerians, the planet Niberu was inhabited by conscious beings - the Anunaki. Their life span was 360,000 Earth years. They were real giants: women from 3 to 3.7 meters tall, and men from 4 to 5 meters.
It is worth noting here that, for example, the ancient ruler of Egypt, Akhenaten, was 4.5 meters tall, and the legendary beauty Nefertiti was about 3.5 meters tall. Already in our time, two unusual coffins were discovered in Akhenaten's city of Tel el-Amarna. In one of them, an image of the Flower of Life was engraved right above the head of the mummy. And in the second coffin were found the bones of a seven-year-old boy, whose height was about 2.5 meters. Now this coffin with the remains is exhibited in the Cairo Museum.
In Sumerian cosmogony, the main event is called the “celestial battle”, a catastrophe that occurred 4 billion years ago and changed the appearance of the solar system. Modern astronomy confirms the data on this catastrophe!
A sensational discovery by astronomers in recent years has been the discovery of a set of fragments of some celestial body with a common orbit corresponding to the orbit of the unknown planet Nibiru.
Sumerian manuscripts contain information that can be interpreted as information about the origin of intelligent life on Earth. According to these data, the genus Homo sapiens was created artificially as a result of the use of genetic engineering about 300 thousand years ago. Thus, perhaps humanity is a civilization of biorobots.
I’ll make a reservation right away that there are some temporary inconsistencies in the article. This is due to the fact that many dates are set only with a certain degree of accuracy.

Six millennia ago... Civilizations ahead of their time, or the mystery of the climatic optimum.
The deciphering of Sumerian manuscripts shocked the researchers. Here is a brief and incomplete list of the achievements of this unique civilization that existed at the dawn of the development of Egyptian civilization, long before the Roman Empire, and even more so Ancient Greece. We are talking about the time about 6 thousand years ago.
After deciphering the Sumerian tables, it became clear that the Sumerian civilization had a number of modern knowledge in the field of chemistry, herbal medicine, cosmogony, astronomy, modern mathematics (for example, it used the golden ratio, the ternary calculus system, used after the Sumerians only when creating modern computers, used Fibonacci numbers! ), possessed knowledge in genetic engineering (this interpretation of the texts was given by a number of scientists in the order of the version of the decoding of manuscripts), had a modern state structure - a jury trial and elected bodies of people's (in modern terminology) deputies, and so on ...
Where could such knowledge come from at that time? Let's try to figure it out, but let's draw some facts about that era - 6 thousand years ago. This time is significant in that the average temperature on the planet then was several degrees higher than at present. The effect is called the temperature optimum. The approach of the binary system of Sirius (Sirius-A and Sirius-B) to the solar system belongs to the same period. At the same time, for several centuries of the 4th millennium BC, two moons were visible in the sky instead of one moon - the second celestial body, then comparable in size to the moon, was the approaching Sirius, an explosion in the system of which occurred again in the same period - 6 thousand years ago! At the same time, absolutely regardless of the development of the Sumerian civilization in Central Africa, there was a Dogon tribe leading a rather isolated lifestyle from other tribes and nationalities, however, as it became known in our time, the Dogon knew the details of not only the structure of the Sirius star system, but also owned other information from the field of cosmogony. Those are the parallels. But if the Dogon legends contain people from Sirius, whom this African tribe perceived as gods who descended from heaven and flew to Earth due to a catastrophe on one of the inhabited planets of the Sirius system associated with an explosion on the star Sirius, then, according to the Sumerian According to texts, the Sumerian civilization was associated with immigrants from the dead 12th planet of the solar system, the planet Nibiru.

Crossing planet.
According to Sumerian cosmogony, the planet Nibiru, not without reason called "crossing", has a very elongated and inclined elliptical orbit and passes between Mars and Jupiter once every 3600 years. For many years, the information of the Sumerians about the dead 12th planet of the solar system was classified as a legend. However, one of the most amazing discoveries of the last two years has been the discovery of a collection of fragments of a previously unknown celestial body moving along a common orit in a way that only fragments of a once single celestial body can do. The orbit of this collection crosses the solar system once every 3600 years precisely between Mars and Jupiter and exactly corresponds to the data from the Sumerian manuscripts. How could the ancient civilization of the Earth have such information 6 thousand years ago?
"Descended from heaven" - myth or reality?
The planet Nibiru plays a special role in the formation of the mysterious civilization of the Sumerians. So, the Sumerians claim to have had contact with the inhabitants of the planet Nibiru! It was from this planet that, according to the Sumerian texts, the Anunaki came to Earth, "descending from heaven to Earth."
Here we are dealing with evidence of the possible assimilation of settlers from Nibiru. By the way, if you believe these legends, which are quite numerous in different cultures, then humanoids not only belonged to the protein form of life, but were also so compatible with earthlings that they could have a common offspring. Biblical sources also testify to such assimilation. We add that in most religions, the gods converged with earthly women. Doesn't the above testify to the reality of paleocontacts, that is, contacts with representatives of other inhabited celestial bodies that occurred from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years ago.
How incredible is the existence of beings close to human nature outside the Earth? Among the supporters of the plurality of intelligent life in the Universe there were many great scientists, among whom it is enough to mention Tsiolkovsky, Vernadsky and Chizhevsky.
However, the Sumerians report much more than the biblical books. According to Sumerian manuscripts, the Anunaki first arrived on Earth about 445 thousand years ago, that is, long before the emergence of the Sumerian civilization.
People or ... biorobots?
Let's try to find an answer in the Sumerian manuscripts to the question: why did the inhabitants of the planet Nibiru fly to Earth 445 thousand years ago? It turns out that they were interested in minerals, primarily gold. Why?
If we take as a basis the version of an ecological catastrophe on the 12th planet of the solar system, then we could talk about creating a protective gold-containing screen for the planet. Note that a technology similar to the proposed one is currently used in space projects.

The image shows a sample of a Sumerian clay tablet with cuneiform writing.
Archaeological research has confirmed that mining activities were carried out in South Africa during the Stone Age. So, in 1970, in Swaziland, in particular, extensive mining sites were discovered with mines up to 20 meters deep. Experts found that there “was used mining technology in the period after 100,000 BC. In 1988, an international group of physicists, using the latest equipment, determined the age of the settlements of Swaziland: 80 - 115 thousand years. And interestingly, the bones of Homo Sapiens were found there, that is, we really mined gold there 100,000 years ago. I wonder why we needed it in the Stone Age? And where did the huge amount of gold mined industrially go?
It was in Sumer that the foundation of knowledge in mathematics was laid: calculating the areas of complex figures, extracting the root, solving equations with two and three unknowns, and even information about the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers. Schumer scientists knew elements of computational mathematics and information coding, sciences whose discovery in the middle of the 20th century led to the development of cybernetics. The Sumerian number system was based on a combination of numbers 6 and 10 and was called sexagesimal. We are still using it today.
The Sumerians were the first to learn how to make colored glass and bronze, the first to combine gold with silver, bronze and bone. They invented the wheel and cuneiform writing, formed the first professional army, compiled the first legal codes, invented arithmetic.
The priests calculated the length (length) of the year (365 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes, 41 seconds). This discovery was kept secret by the priests and was used to strengthen power over the people, compose religious and mystical rituals and organize the leadership of the state. Priests and magicians used knowledge about the movement of the stars, the Moon, the Sun, about the behavior of animals for divination, foreseeing the future.
It was in ancient Sumer that the first schools, the first historians, the first "farmer's almanac" appeared; medical procedures were described in special reference books, which contained information about hygiene rules, operations, such as cataract removal, and the use of alcohol for disinfection during surgical operations. Sumerian medicine was characterized by a scientific approach to diagnosis and prescription of treatment.


The Sumerians were excellent travelers and explorers - they are also credited with the invention of the world's first ships. One dictionary of Sumerian words contained at least 105 designations for various types of ships - according to their size, purpose and type of cargo. One inscription speaks of the possibility of repairing ships and lists the types of materials that the local ruler brought to build the temple of his god around 2200 BC. The breadth of the range of these goods is amazing - ranging from gold, silver, copper - and to diorite, carnelian and cedar. In some cases, these materials have been transported over thousands of miles.
In Sumer, cosmogony and cosmology first arose, the first collection of proverbs and aphorisms appeared, and literary debates were held for the first time; here the first book catalog appeared, the first money (silver shekels in the form of "bullions by weight") were in circulation, taxes were introduced for the first time, the first laws were adopted and social reforms were carried out, medicine appeared, and for the first time attempts were made to achieve peace and harmony in society.

The Sumerian civilization perished as a result of the invasion from the west of warlike Semitic nomadic tribes. In the 24th century BC, the king of Akkad, Sargon the Ancient, defeated the king Lugalzaggisi, the ruler of Sumer, uniting northern Mesopotamia under his power. On the shoulders of Sumer, the Babylonian-Assyrian civilization was born.
It was in this way, according to the ancient civilization of the Sumerians, that MAN appeared on earth.
But who were the Sumerians?

Sumer was one of the ancient civilizations on planet Earth. About seven thousand years ago, the Sumerians built walls and driveways for their first city. As history indicates, they were the first of all such tribes, who decided to abandon everyday agriculture and cattle breeding, and left their havens.

To date, archeological finds that testify to life in 5000 BC are negligible, but despite this, researchers can draw some conclusions about the life of the Sumerians.

1. Sumerians - representatives of the weaker sex spoke their own language

The Sumerians did not have equality between men and women. When morning comes, the wife should already prepare breakfast for her man. If there were children in the family, only boys went to school, and girls did not leave the home walls. In view of this apparent inequality between the sexes, women began to speak in an invented language.

“Emegir” was the name of the Sumerian language, and the female dialect was called “emsal”, but, unfortunately, there is no data about it. The female language of the Sumerians had a difference in the pronunciation of some sounds, the use of some words and vowels that are absent in the language "Emegir".

2 The Sumerians Paid Taxes Before They Invented Money

Taxes have been around longer than the money to pay them. Even before the first coins and silver sheckles appeared in Mesopotamia, the people must give the ruler part of their income. Often Sumerian taxes did not differ from modern ones. Instead of money, the ruler charged a percentage of what the people produced. Farmers sent crops or livestock, while merchants could pay in leather or timber.

Wealthy people were taxed much more - in some cases, they had to give the ruler half of what they earned. However, this was not the only way to pay taxes. The Sumerians practiced work in public projects. For a month each year, a man had to leave his home to work on a farm, dig irrigation canals, or fight. Only rich people could pay off such a duty (pay someone else to work instead of him).

3. Life revolved around beer

There is a theory that civilization began because of beer. Allegedly, people started farming, just to be able to get drunk. And they were “lured” to the city only with the promise of more beer. True or not, beer was certainly an important part of life in Sumer. It was served on the table at every meal, from breakfast to dinner, and was not considered as the main drink in the life of any person.

Of course, Sumerian beer was different from the modern one. It had the consistency of something like porridge, with dirty sediment on the bottom, a layer of foam on top, and small pieces of bread left over from fermentation floating on the surface. It could only be drunk through a straw. But it was worth it.

Sumerian beer had enough grain to be considered a nutritious part of a balanced breakfast. When workers came to work on community projects, they were often paid in beer. This is how the ruler "lured" the farmers to work on his construction projects: he had the best beer.

4. Use of opium

Beer was not the only way to "relax" in Sumer. The Sumerians had opium, and they definitely used this substance. The Sumerians have been growing the opium poppy since at least 3000 BC. Today there is not much information about what they did with it, but the name that the Sumerians gave the poppy clearly speaks for itself - they called it the "plant of joy." There are theories that the Sumerians used these plants for medicine, in particular, as a pain reliever.

5. New wife for the ruler annually

Every year the ruler married a new woman. He was to marry one of the priestesses - a group of virgin girls chosen to be "perfect in body" - and make love to her. Otherwise, the gods supposedly would have made the land and women of Sumer barren. The ruler and his chosen bride would "represent the act of making love to the gods in the earthly world". On her wedding day, the bride was bathed, fumigated with incense and dressed in the most beautiful robes, while the ruler and his entourage went to her temple.

In the temple, a crowd of priests and priestesses were waiting, who began to sing songs of love. When the ruler arrived, he presented gifts to the bride, and then they went together to a room smoked with incense and made love on a ceremonial bed, which was made to order exclusively for this event.

6 Priestesses Were Doctors And Dentists

Priestesses were not only the harem of the ruler - they were one of the most useful people in Sumerian society. They were poets, scribes and some of the first doctors in history. Sumerian cities were always built around the temple complex. In the center was a great ziggurat, surrounded by buildings where priests and priestesses lived and artisans worked on public projects. It was a huge space that occupied a third of the city, and it was used for more than just ceremonies.

There were also orphanages, astronomical centers and large business organizations. However, it was outside the complex that the most historically important work was done. The sick came here and asked the priestesses to examine them. These women went outside and checked the health of the patients. They diagnosed the sick and prepared medicines for them.

7. Literacy is wealth

Reading and writing were fairly new concepts in ancient Sumer, but they were already incredibly important back then. People have never become rich by working with their hands. Usually merchants and farmers belonged to the lower class. If someone wanted to get rich, then he became a manager or a priest. And literacy was a prerequisite.

Sumerian boys could start school as soon as they were seven years old, but it was expensive. Only the richest people in the city could afford to send their children to a school where they were taught math, history, and literacy. Usually children just copied what the teacher wrote until they could imitate it exactly.

8. Poor people living outside the city

Not every Sumerian was part of this "upper echelon of society." Most of them were lower class, living on farms outside the city walls or helping low-paid artisan workers in the city. While the rich lived in adobe houses with furniture, windows and lamps, the poor had to live in thatched tents.

They slept on straw mats on the ground, and all their families lived in such conditions. Outside the city walls, life was hard. But people could move up. A hard-working family could trade some of their crops to buy more land, or rent out their lands for a profit.

9. Army of conquerors

Yet the life of the poor in Sumer was far better than that of the slaves. The Sumerian rulers constantly used enslaved workers in their cities, and recruited slaves simply by raiding people who lived in the mountains. The raiders took these people with them into captivity and took away all their property. The Sumerian rulers believed that if the gods grant them victory, then the divine will is to make slaves out of the inhabitants of the mountains.

Usually, male slaves were led by women, and female slaves often became completely disenfranchised concubines. Although, it is worth noting that there were options to gain freedom. A slave woman could only marry a free man, although she would have to give her first child to her master as payment.

A male slave could do enough to buy his freedom and even get his own land. But there was also a downside - no one was immune from slavery. If a free person fell into debt bondage or committed a crime, then he was made a slave.

10. Ritual burials

In Sumer, death was a real mystery. The dead were allegedly sent to what the Sumerians called "the land of no return", but no one knew what was there. Therefore, the Sumerians believed that they would need all the earthly goods they possessed in the afterlife.

They were terrified of spending eternity alone and hungry, so the dead were buried with jewelry, gold, food, and even their pet dogs. The rulers "took" with them to the other world all their servants and "court", and sometimes their families.