Unit #3 Reflection

1.)  Domestication of Plants and Animals:  

Domesticated Sheep

          Once people began to settle, they learned more about the environment around them.  They observed the same grain in different stages of growth, the habits of animals, and which animal ate what.  Once they figured out that plants grew from seeds, they learned that they could gather those seeds, plant them, wait for them to grow, and then harvest them when they were ready to be eaten.  They could control when and where seeds were planted.  They could grow crops near their homes and be sure of food, so they wouldn't have to go on fruitless searches and waste extra energy on non-existent food.  Some of the earliest plants that were domesticated were barley, wheat, and lentils.  Early people also tamed animals.  Scientists can tell that this happened because there is a physical difference between wild and domesticated livestock.  For example, domesticated sheep are smaller than wild ones, their muzzles are shorter, and their horns either disappear or change shape.  When humans had tamed animals kept near their homes, they didn't have to go hunt as often, and many times, not at all.  This determined a steady source of meat, so people didn't waste energy hunting when there weren't any animals to hunt.

2.) Transition from Hunter-gatherers to Civilizations:
          The transition from early people as hunter-gatherers to early people as civilizations was very gradual.  First, people needed to settle.  Then, they domesticated plants and animals to develop agriculture.  Because of the steady food supply not everyone needed to spend all their time hunting and gathering, because all they needed to do was trade wares among themselves to get food.  This was how specialization of labor developed, and a surplus of food came into being.  Because of the extra food, trade between cities developed, and then a stronger culture with its own unique music, art, architecture, religion, and government grew.  Cities soon grew into empires, and then into civilizations.  


3.) Early Religion and Beliefs

Early God

          People long ago had very strong beliefs.  Most early cities and civilizations practiced polytheism, which is the belief in many gods.  They usually had gods for everything - from god of the harvest to god of the hoe.  Early people had priests and diviners that would attempt to tell the future through astronomy, burned incense, animal entrails, etc. etc.  Because priests were believed to be able to predict what might happen further in time, they were given places of utmost power before war came, and soldiers or generals rose to become kings.  

4.) Learning about the Sumerians is important because...

          Learning about the Sumerians is actually important, because they made so many contributions to human life.  They invented the wheel (which we still use today), the plow (which shows that they learned to harness animal power - a big step for humans), and the sail (they were able to harness wind power, and we still use them today, too), as well as a variety of other things.  Without the wheel, we wouldn't have cars, bicycles, planes, trains, buses, strollers, carts, wheelbarrows, rolling suitcases, and tons of other items that we take for granted.  Without the plow, we might not have developed agriculture; we wouldn't have been able to make a lot of land good for crops in a short amount of time, and may even have considered much land that we can use because of the plow impossible to use.  Without the sail, we wouldn't have built the first big boats, which ran on wind power.  The Sumerians also invented one of the first types of writings called cuneiform, which was used for hundreds and thousands of years, before pictographs and the alphabet were created.  As well as everything I mentioned above, the Sumerians had a well-developed government and religion.  So as you can see, the Sumerians really were important, even if they aren't here now.