What makes Sumer the first civilization?

Question

What makes Sumer the first civilization?

Answer 1

This quote says it best:

"Authorities do not all agree about the definition of civilization. Most accept the view that "a civilization is a culture which has attained a degree of complexity usually characterized by urban life." In other words, a civilization is a culture capable of sustaining a substantial number of specialists to cope with the economic, social, political, and religious needs of a populous society. Other characteristics usually present in a civilization include a system of writing to keep records, monumental architecture in place of simple buildings, and an art ... representative of people and their activities. All these characteristics of civilization first appeared in Mesopotamia."

http://history-world.org/sumeria.htm

Here were city states, public buildings, trade, the use of bronze, government, and, above all, writing. Without a written language, records could not be kept and no large collection of people could operate.

Sumer may not be truly the first civilization, but it's the earliest one know that contains the elements of what we think of being in a civilization.

Answer 2

Icabod and Wisdom?? have good answers, IMO.

Just because our history books refer to Sumer as the "first" civilization there is no reason to see that statement chiseled in granite. That area of what was to become Mesopotamia was a logical area for hunter gathers to settle down because of the abundance of continuously replenished fresh water.

I saw a reference to seasonal floods between the two rivers as the basis for Noah's flood. Two things on that:

1. The flood was not...Noah's

2. The flood saga is found through Mesopotamian literature and folk lore. The biblical flood story is almost certainly taken from the Saga of Gilgamesh.

The origin of the Gilgamesh flood was most likely that which resulted from the recession of the last glaciation of our current Ice Age when the Bosporus stopped being a land bridge and started being a strait when it was weakened by receding ice. The Mediterranean Sea came rushing through creating what we now call the Black Sea from what was a smallish fresh water lake..

That event, a major geophysical event, was enough to foster hundreds of thousands of flood sagas. Gilgamesh just won the literary prize only to be copied by the constructors of the Jewish bible, later to be included in the christian bible.

The info is readily available for a little research.

Answer 3

Because after the Bibical Flood of the Tigris & Euphrates rivers (ca. 6700 years ago), this vast Mesopotamian valley, was open to be re-populated, and continued to be prime agricultural land.

Sumerian Cuneiform writing, which was the source of Egyptian the Hieroglyphic/Hieratic language was soon to follow (ca. 6000 years ago)!

Answer 4

We don't know that this was the 1st civilization. Continued archeological digs suggest that there may be more civilizations yet to be discovered (especially in Africa). However, what makes it the 1st civilation has to do with how the term "civilization" is defined. There were many peoples scattered throughout the globe for centuries; however, Sumer, as a civilization, contained the necessary elements to qualify as an actual civilization (a complex society characterized by the process of state formation, the practice of agriculture and settlement in cities) and thus received this designation.

Hope this helps!