Fathis

Sumerian: Government

11/17/2012

 
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Courts were located around the ziggurat
The ancient Sumerians are credited for the invention of government. They were affected politically and economically by it. It was invented to organize labor and officials were appointed to sort out problems and work on construction projects. Because of this newly-organized labor, people could work together to form an economy by building canals and roads that made trading easier. Socially, the people now had something to do, and a way to earn a living. They had also set-up government to make laws. These laws, enforced by courts, were made so the Sumerian people would know what was expected of them.
The ancient Mesopotamia's created a government that was a combination of monarchy and democracy. The kingdoms of Sumer were organized into city-states and the Kings ruled each city-states for the gods. They were assisted by priests, scribes, and nobles. But before 3500 BC priests ruled Sumer. They attended the gods who really ruled.

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Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, was said to be two-thirds God and one-third human, and 18 feet tall.
One of the most famous priest-kings was Gilgamesh of Uruk.

The Sumerian priest-kings received advice from a General Assembly made up of free (elected) men. When war broke out, the Assembly would choose one of its members to serve as leaders until the war was over, but often these leaders stayed in power even when peace had returned. By about 3000 B. C., they took their place as permanent kings. Until 3000 BC kings were elected to a temporary ruling position only in times of crisis (war or famine). After 3000 BC the position of king was no longer an elected office, but was hereditary. They led armies and organized ceremonies to please their gods. The monarchy effectively held power over great areas of land and diverse peoples by having a large and efficient "middle management." This middle management, which consisted largely of priests, bore all the responsibility of surveying and distributing land as well as distributing crops. There was never a Sumerian empire. Power constantly shifted between cities.
The rulers, along with the high priest and leading officials, had the most responsibility of the city. Priests collected taxes, designed and supervised the building of irrigation canals, and decided cases of justice.
While Scribes measured land into square units and decided taxes to be paid. They also kept accounts of foreign goods unloaded from ships. Elected officials who served in the Assembly also ruled the people. Even kings had to ask the Assembly for permission to do certain things.
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Lawmaking in Sumer was performed by a two-house legislature, who enforced the laws. The Upper House - composed of elders and the Lower House - composed of free male citizens, who were also the soldiers. Sumerian laws were not written down, but people knew what they were and they knew what could happened if you broke the law. The laws clearly stated how you had to behave and what your punishment would be if you did not. The laws that were later written down by the ancient Babylonians were, for the most part, laws first created by the ancient Sumerians. 

The Babylonian King Hammurabi made his 'Code' or collection of laws very successful. It was modeled on existing laws, but this was the largest law code assembled. The Code has 282 provisions which dealt with many aspects of life, including family rights, trade, slavery, tariffs, taxes, prices and wages. The Code tells us much about Babylonian society and is inscribed on a stone slab over 6ft high. At the top, the King is shown receiving laws from the Babylonian sun god, Shamash (a.k.a. Sumerian god Enlil). The laws are not the same for rich and poor, but the weak were given some protection against the tyranny of the strong. The Code was not the only law code in Mesopotamia, but the only one written in stone. The code was based on retribution, not justice and varied unfairly between social classes.

You gotta read some of these laws. Some of them are kind-of funny. Like if I went into a bar and got a drink, the law states I then need to be burned to death because I’m a woman. And then it got me wondering, how much has it changed in current Iraq? Is it still in the books that a woman needs to be burned for drinking alcohol?

71 Comments
shaninagins
9/29/2014 08:34:37 am

good and helpful fo my project

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Allison
10/10/2017 01:36:33 pm

What in the world i don’t know anything not one bit

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ummmm
5/3/2018 08:31:28 pm

not what i was looking for

Maria link
11/5/2017 04:52:18 pm

me to

Reply
hi link
11/7/2017 06:48:27 am

hi

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Reggie
5/11/2018 07:50:44 am

this is awesome

BPB
11/30/2017 06:32:31 am

BoOOOOO THIS STINKS

Reply
you link
1/18/2018 10:39:16 am

so do you

derp link
2/13/2018 09:44:47 pm

ummmmmmmm it's ok.

alysa link
10/2/2018 11:05:54 am

all of you guys are mean

.
1/8/2019 04:14:33 pm

by this post i can tell that you arent quite matured yet....

Erika link
11/12/2014 01:42:13 am

Thanks, this Sumerian government passage was very interesting and I really needed the information.

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Allison
8/25/2015 05:10:56 am

this blog is nice and all, but what type of government WHAT TYPE of GOVERNMENT was SET UP for the Sumerians?

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Sai
10/8/2017 10:38:33 am

Monarchy and democracy

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stuped
11/8/2017 03:14:17 pm

you stuiped or what it is not a vlog

Reply
Anonymous
9/11/2018 06:27:39 am

They said blog not vlog

Katy
10/3/2015 04:00:23 pm

Nice job on this blog

Reply
Butt headed people
8/29/2016 10:22:18 am

Ur all terrible people

Reply
Yournotmydad
10/18/2017 07:14:20 am

Thanks

Reply
Mafia
1/31/2019 04:37:30 pm

Um she might look terrible but you are.

person
11/9/2017 01:32:17 pm

learn how to spell you're correctly. It makes you look like a terrible person

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My names jeff
12/5/2017 11:26:38 am

True, I agree

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Carl link
10/5/2016 11:12:49 am

I love you

Reply
jeff
10/9/2016 08:36:02 am

you suck

Reply
JACK AF
12/5/2017 11:27:55 am

I know


tear down the cheek..................

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wesley
10/10/2016 07:42:35 pm

what is most important about sumer governments

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unknow123446
10/19/2016 06:45:39 pm

Ummmmmn thx I think

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unknow123446 link
10/19/2016 06:46:25 pm

Umm... Thx so much u rule yay

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bob link
10/24/2016 10:10:52 am

i need more

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jose link
11/2/2016 08:17:35 am

hi

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ana neuman link
11/10/2016 10:19:33 am

This website is awesome : ]

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Izzy
1/17/2017 10:19:00 am

out dated just a little

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paris
2/2/2017 12:54:11 pm

I would like to know if the sumerians have something special in their governments that helped our laws?

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may
2/6/2017 05:50:18 am

so useful

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Andreia
5/13/2017 09:57:07 pm

Thanks for the informative blog ,\Wendy!

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klur
6/20/2017 07:23:53 am

thanks! it helps a lot :-)

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Madelyn Hidalgo link
8/28/2017 11:45:15 am

Hi, I'm Madelyn. I was wondering where I could find the information about this website so I could cite the information for a history project I'm doing. I didn't want to plagiarize and I would love to give you credit for all this Information.
I would just need:
Authors first, Last name
Publishing date
Publisher.
That would be great! thank you :)

Reply
loser
10/20/2017 10:28:07 am

http://www.fathis.com/wendy-ann-blog/sumerian-government

Reply
Clint Cody Jonco
9/6/2017 08:22:48 pm

This is so boring can you please give more....

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jakie
9/19/2017 11:29:38 am

cool

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Rachael Green
9/28/2017 05:41:07 pm

this blog post helped me so much on my social studies homework!! Thanks!! This was Helpful!

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vanvule link
11/29/2017 10:54:26 am

can the government post the nuclear codes on this website??? that would be great thx!! (vanvule)

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Sal link
12/7/2017 03:55:45 pm

Me too, I had to do an essay on Sumerian achievements.

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Sai
10/8/2017 10:40:04 am

This helped a looooooooooot

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Kaleb
10/25/2017 02:37:05 pm

Helpful thx

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jeff link
10/30/2017 05:54:08 pm

WHAT TOOLS DID THEY USE AND WHERE DID THEY LIVE[for government officals] HELP

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winer
11/8/2017 03:21:38 pm

you are all stuped stuped stuped

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Dasha
11/9/2017 05:26:31 pm

nice job

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Frankie BOYYYY
11/21/2017 08:07:18 am

Thank you, this information helped me with my project.

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alicia
12/7/2017 11:45:56 am

it didnt help me at all

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evan heisler
1/18/2018 08:08:11 am

how did the government help the king

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dead inside
1/24/2018 08:09:45 am

i havent read it yet but thanks


(i heard you were hanging out with caitlyn the other day)

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An Actually Nice Human Being
1/24/2018 08:10:29 am

This was very useful. Thanks! :)

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vine 2
1/24/2018 08:18:48 am

R-Rebecca, it's not what you think!!

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Emily
2/1/2018 03:34:04 pm

this is a good paragraph, gave me a lot of information.

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Jamie
6/6/2018 12:36:28 pm

are you Emily pence

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Dubs
9/2/2018 09:18:57 am

You want play some fortnite

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Masa
5/21/2018 03:25:39 am

Thanks a lot.
I wanted to check Sumerian Lawmaking system.
In Japanese site, many say, ancient Sumerian had Bicameral Parliamentary Systems. I checked relevant wiki sites in vain.

I could confirm it by your site.

If it would be easy, could you let me know the good source to persuade this others more strongly?

If you are busy, you can neglect this.

Thanks in advance.

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divine
9/6/2018 09:31:54 am

Why you got to be so rude? If you don't have anything nice to say keep it to yourself. You sound like whiny babies this was actually very interesting.

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Kaleb
9/24/2018 09:21:10 am

Thanks this really helped me for school.Your awesome.

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coco11
9/29/2018 08:23:41 am

hi

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Maddie
10/1/2018 10:05:26 am

HI LOVE UR BLOG THANK YOU WENDY ANN I LOVE YOU SO MUJCH !!!!!

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alexxander link
10/2/2018 06:49:20 am

i need more information for my project

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jeffry link
10/2/2018 09:58:38 am

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooof i dont nkow much on this subject

Reply
Jannessa Snenthen link
10/12/2018 10:04:13 am

Very Helpful!!!

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hi
11/5/2018 06:24:23 am

helpful and interesting

Reply
this is great
11/20/2018 05:03:45 pm

this is great

Reply
MACKLOL
12/10/2018 12:31:42 pm

Ikr it's helping me with my project!

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biLLy bOb joE link
12/4/2018 09:45:54 am

wassup peeps

Reply
nugget
12/5/2018 11:15:55 am

cool beans

Reply
Hello? link
12/12/2018 01:24:33 pm

Did it work?

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