Boys of SumerWhen we think of the basis our civilization, we usuallythink of Rome or Greece. True, these civilizations did formthe basis of ours. But where did they come from ? Thesecivilizations, like almost all others before and after,sprung from that of Sumer. Sumer has made a great number ofcontributions to society including writing , laws, andcapitalism. Sumer is the first civilization to develop writing. Sumerian writing was done on clay tablets. The writingitself was performed by pressing a wedge shaped instrument,called a stylus, into the tablet. The writing is calledCuneiform. This word comes from the Latin word cuneus,meaning "wedge". The first kind of writing used by theSumerians was pictographic. Each character was a littlepicture representing something. This meant that one had tolearn a new symbol for each word one wished to speak. Forobvious reasons, this could be a little inconvenient. By2800 b.c., however, the system had been simplified somewhat. Each pictograph now represented a syllable. There were only600 syllables at this time, a much more reasonable number. This system was later simplified even further into thephonetic system we are familiar with today. So, without theSumerians, I would not be writing this paper right now. Then again, without the Sumerians, I wouldn't have anyhomework, either. Ever. Sumerians are also responsible for the concept ofwritten laws. They had the Romans beat by a thousand years. The most obvious example of Sumerian law is the Code ofHammurabi. The purpose of these laws, according to the

Sacred Tome(History Book) was, "to cause justice to prevailin the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to preventthe strong from oppressing the weak .. and to further thewelfare of the people." The most important part of the codewas that it made all people equal before the law. This wasa concept 3,000 years ahead of its time. It was concernedwith the general welfare of the people, a sharp contrast tothe feudal system. Another interesting aspect was that itregulated and promoted trade. The third gift of Sumer is capitalism. The Code ofHammurabi, among other things, set minimum wage, set taxes,and regulated interest. Sumer also had a strong merchantclass. Sumer's rulers encouraged trade, among other things,because it made for more money in taxes. The economy inSumer was farm based. The farmers worked common land ownedby the city temple. They payed taxes on what they grew,anywhere between one third to one sixth of what they grew. There were also groups of people known as clans, who ownedtheir own land. The gradual usurpation of these lands bytemple officials led to the rise of despost who createdsocial equality and promoted capitalism. The most famous ofthese is Sargon of Akkad. He united the whole Mesopotamianregion, and promoted the new class of private merchants. After the fall of Ur around 2,000 B.C., the practice ofCapitalism in Sumer reached its peak. The Sumerianmerchants shamelessly abused the lower classes, amassinghuge personal fortunes. Capitalism at its finest, to besure. Because of Sumer, we have laws, writing, andcapitalism. Our civilization exists because of thesecontributions.