Most of the knowledge and technology we have today originated from the ancient world.
We take pride in being the most advanced generation in human history, but most of the knowledge and technology we possess today traces back to the ancient world. Among these, the Sumerians contributed four inventions that, without them, we would not exist as we do today.
Writing
According to archaeological research, the Sumerians settled in the southern regions of the Tigris and Euphrates river delta. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, they had established extensive, fortified settlements protected by high walls and deep moats, and their society was already stratified with a king at the helm.
The prosperous economic life is believed to be the main driving force behind the invention of Sumerian writing. In a bustling trading environment with increasingly distant trade routes, residents needed a means to communicate and document transactions.
Based on archaeological findings, cuneiform writing emerged as late as around 3500 BC. The earliest characters were pictograms representing goods and their distribution routes, such as simple drawings of animals, grains, recipients, or delivery locations.
Over time, cuneiform writing evolved beyond its commercial purpose. Ultimately, it became a writing system with an almost limitless vocabulary and transformed into a powerful tool for artistic expression among poets.
The earliest known epic written by the Sumerians is likely the Epic of Gilgamesh. It emphasizes the complexity of emotions and revolves around themes that future generations would continue to explore, such as love, fear, hope, and death. Interestingly, in addition to its narratives, Gilgamesh also serves as a “textbook on geography, natural sciences, and minerals”, preserving detailed knowledge of the Sumerians.
From the Sumerian civilization, cuneiform spread and became the primary script of many other ancient civilizations. Over thousands of years, it laid the foundation for several languages, including Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittite, and Persian.
Numbers and Mathematics
Plimpton 322. (Image: Thecollector.com).
Just as with cuneiform writing, the Sumerians also invented numerical systems out of commercial necessity. Although they were not the first to create the concept of numbers, their base-60 system (sexagesimal) became widely adopted and persisted for centuries.
Historians and mathematicians speculate that the Sumerians developed the base-60 system because it has a high number of divisors (60 is the smallest number that can be evenly divided by all numbers from 1 to 6) and is easy to calculate using fingers. Today, the base-60 system remains prevalent, especially in units of time, angles, and coordinates.
From the Sumerians’ base-60 system, later mathematicians developed geometric equations and arithmetic formulas. The most impressive “students” of Sumerian mathematics were perhaps the Babylonians.
They left behind the most important ancient trigonometric table in the world, Plimpton 322, which laid the groundwork for the well-known Pythagorean theorem, a² + b² = c². It is entirely accurate to assert that the ancient Sumerians were the inventors of mathematics.
Medicine
Seal of the Physician Ur-Iugal-Edinna, 2000 BC. (Image: Thecollector.com).
Like most civilizations in their primitive stages, the Sumerians believed that diseases were punishments from the gods, and to heal, they prayed and performed sacrifices. However, the substances they used for such rituals were also remedies.
The Sumerians had two types of physicians: Asu – the healer who treated illnesses based on medical knowledge, and Asipu – the sorcerer who exorcised demons and prayed to deities using remedies. Despite their contrasting approaches, both aimed to heal, addressing both physical and mental ailments.
According to ancient documents found, the primary medicinal substances used by Sumerian physicians included herbs, minerals, and salts. They often crushed these substances and mixed them with water, beer, wine, or honey to make it easier for patients to swallow.
Additionally, Sumerian physicians placed a high value on cleanliness. They consistently advised patients to maintain personal hygiene and cleanliness in their living spaces and never forgot to wash their hands before examining patients or performing minor surgeries.
Sumerian surgery was surprisingly advanced. They utilized catheters to address issues related to fluid drainage and the urinary tract. A clay tablet discovered describes the process of draining excess fluid from the liver through an incision between the third and fourth ribs. Another tablet provides instructions for trepanation to drain an abscess.
In Sumerian society, physicians were highly respected. In return, they were very responsible and willing to take accountability for any mistakes. Today, doctors are well-versed in the Hippocratic Oath. Interestingly, the principles in this oath stem from the laws and medical practices of the Sumerians.
Agriculture
Illustration of Ancient Sumerian Agriculture. (Image: Thecollector.com).
The Sumerians inhabited the fertile plains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which were highly suitable for large-scale agriculture. Each year, floods enriched this vast, flat land with a layer of silt, making it increasingly fertile.
However, around 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, the climate warmed, and rainfall became scarce. To sustain agriculture, the Sumerians had to find effective methods for irrigation, leading to the creation of a remarkable irrigation system.
Archaeologists have discovered numerous remnants of canals, ditches, and reservoirs around the ancient city of Uruk. The Sumerians were also the inventors of the water-lifting device, designed to leverage the weight of a heavy object attached to one end of a pole to easily lift water buckets from low to high places.
Around 1000 BC, the Sumerians invented the plow that utilized oxen for traction. They even devised a method to attach seed bags to the plow to reduce the labor of sowing seeds.
The Sumerians were the architects of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization, which flourished from the late 4th millennium to the 3rd millennium BC. They are recognized as one of the four earliest and largest civilizations in the world, alongside Ancient Egypt, Norte Chico, and the Indus Valley.
