Enheduana of Sumer

Book's are around us everywhere and we use them for many things from a research tool to a source of entertainment. Behind these books are the amazing authors, but who started it all? This is where the story of Enheduana comes in. Enheduana was the world's first author, almost 4,300 years ago. Though her works weren't published as paperback. No, they were slabs of clay, which was still soft, and a stylus was used to write into it. Enheduana was both and author and a poet, and it all started in the city-state of Akkad in Sumer. This is where Enheudana lived with her twin brothers Rimush and Manishtusu and her father Sargon, who was the king that established the Akkadian Empire. As Enheduana and her brother grew older, her father expected her brothers to be kings, yet they only had the desire but not the talent. Yet Enheduana's father saw that she had something special, both talent and drive. When she was a teenager her father appointed her high priestess to Nanna, the important moon-god of Sumer. To be a high priestess, she had to leave home, so Enheduana left and went to the city of Ur, which was one of the most sacred cities in Sumer. Since her people believed in gods and goddesses, Enheduanas job was to keep the gods and goddesses happy, which meant for the people there that their crops, animals and people prosperous. To do this she offered prayers, carried put rituals and made animals sacrifices. The most important ritual she had to do though, was the annual New Year's celebration each spring (this was celebrated in spring to encourage crops). This ceremony told this story of marriage between a shepherd and a goddess. For this ritual Enheduana and one of the reigning kings or high priests would act out the marriage to keep the gods pleased. Being a high priestess for nearly 25 years Enheduana used a lot of her religious feeling to write. She wrote poems and hymns to temples of Sumer and Akkad. Her poems were quite popular during her time and being on clay tablets made them durable and long lasting. Leaving archaeologists able to find them many years later. The writings of Enheduana included topics such as herself, Sumerian religion and politics.Even after her father died Enheduana kept of creating poetry. After the death of her father her brother, Rimush, who was the older twin, took over and then her other brother Manishtusu followed after. Both brother were quite violent and died as a result from palace enemies. After both of her brothers ruled, her nephew took over eliminating her as high priestess and replacing her with his daughter and most probably exiling Enheduana to the desert. Yet no worries for Enheduana because she became the world's first ever author. Enheduanas poems which were written around 2300 B.C are the first creations credited to an individual person.

A picture of a tablet that Enhenduana would have used to write:

QUESTIONS:

1.What did books look like during the time that Enheduana was writing? How were these books written?

These books looked much like the picture above. They were slabs of wet clay that were written on using a stylus. They were then left to dry and ended up looking like the one above.

2. Where did Enheduana and her family live? What did her father do?

Enheduana and her family lived in the city-state of Akkad in Sumer in a big palace. Her father was the king and establisher of the great Akkadian Empire.

3. What was Enheduana's job? List three of her duties. How did she lose her job?

Enheduana's job was the high priestess. She conducted rituals, offered prayers,made sacrifices and kept the gods and goddesses happy. She lost her job after her nephew took the throne, kicking her out and replacing her with his daughter.

4.The author says that Enheduana's poems were so popular that they were like bestsellers today. What evidence does she use to support this claim?

Telling us that people still talk about her today even though she wrote in 2300 B.c.

5. Enheduana's writings are hymns of praise, but they also tell us about the times she lived in. Describe one "current event" that Enheduana wrote about.

Enheduana wrote about about her father. She wrote that at one point in time the city-states that Sargon had taken united in revolt against him. They tried to capture Akkad and exile Inanna from temples. Sargon beat them and renewed Ianna's power.

How do People alter their environment?

- From earliest times, people have changed their environments. How have people today changed their environment. Discuss both the good and the bad.

As a human race when we need something we generally search for it, and sometimes in the process of looking for what we need, we alter our environment . We alter our environment to find ourselves shelter, for example humans clear land to build houses which allows us to have shelter. We alter the environment to make ourselves food, clearing out land (again) allows us space to raise animals and plant crops. When finished with things that we consume we throw it out into the environment usually, this alters the environment by polluting it. We as humans pollute quite a few thing the air, water and even if it is not polluting it still effects the earth greatly cutting down forests.

We pollute water because to power our automobiles we use oil and when transporting oil, spills are very likely to happen. There is also overfishing which doesn't really pollute but it definitely alters the environment because it mixes up the food chain causing changes and extinction. Dumping trash into the sea is another factor of this problem, when our landfills get to full we take trash out to sea and leave it there instead. This trash is harmful to animals and sometimes if litter, which is trash but in smaller quantities, finds it's way into the sources from where we get our drinking water and then this can harm us. Even though we benefit from the fact that we get power from the oil and other resources like fish, the bigger picture is we still destroy the ocean.

We cut down trees to benefit us, they give us wood which lets us build various structures and different objects that help us in everyday life, for example paper, paper comes from trees but to attain those trees we have to cut them done which is altering our environment on a bad way. Clearing these trees allows us to raise animals and plant crops, we can also use it to settle and put up shelter. This may be all fine because we get our products but altering the environment in such a way can lead very bad consequences. For example trees give us O2 and they take in CO2 and if we cut down trees well it is sort of obvious that there is then nothing to take in CO2. Also when you cut down trees you cut down an animals home and without a home, or shelter animals cannot survive.

We pollute the air by letting different gases, like those from our cars our into the open air. Cars are one of the biggest contributors to air pollution, but others things are urned to make this fuel needed to power many things. Once this fuel has been burned it never simply disappears, it goes up into the atmosphere, this then causes air pollution. Once these gases are in the air, a variety of things can happen. Usually these gases add on to the ongoing problem of the greenhouse effect, where gases are trapped inside the earths ozone causing the planet to heat up. Sometimes these gases come down as acid rain or something along the lines of that. Whatever the effect it usually is not very positive.

To sum it all up, humans in there path to fulfill our own needs usually do not alter the environment in a very good way. Somethings that I didn't really touch in the categories are thing like the thinning of the of the ozone layer which is a caused by air pollution and hunting of animals which decreases populations when they are over hunted or as a stated before over fished. So humans can effect the environment in many different ways the intentions are not always bad but the consequences can be.

Why is Catal Huyuk an important archaeological find?

Imagine traveling back in time to 8,000 B.C, you find yourself in a village with strange layered houses, ladders through roofs and people bantering and trading all around you, Catal Huyuk is where you are. Catal Huyuk was Neolithic town located on a plain in what is now present day Turkey. In around 6,000 B.C this town covered 32 acres of land which is about 24 football fields put together. Catal Huyuk was the biggest Neolithic town discovered in the Middle East, it also had 1,000 houses and a population on 5,000-6,000. Yet why was this town of any importance archaelogically?
In this town archaeologists have found so many things that can explain and gives us more detail about the lives of people. The houses in Catal Huyuk were made out of mud-brick, they were layered almost on top each other and had probably the most unusually placed door ever, on the roof! You can see in this picture below what Catal Huyuk might have looked like:

In a house from Catal Huyuk there are 2 rooms, one for storage which includes a kitchen area and another which is the living quarters. By studying the storage room archaeologists have found that the main crop the people grew was wheat, they raised cattle and hunted deer, bear and wolves. Archaeologists have also discovered that they grew peas, gathered crab apples, juniper berries, acorns and almonds. Judging by the fact that they farmed so much, food was probably definitely not a problem for the people of Catal Huyuk , and this means they must have had surplus, which can lead to trading with villages which are in need of food. Also since they farmed and not everyone had to work full time to make food this let other people look for other opportunities and one thing the people in Catal Huyuk people were quite good at was Crafts. The people made tools by chipping and grinding stone, and some of the objects they made include from bone they crafted needles beads, hairpins, and fish hooks. They also wove woolen cloth, made baskets and fashioned leather into pouches. From wood,they made bowls and boxes with lids. These objects, since they might have been new to other villages with not enough free time to experiment, might have also been very good for trading. Another discovery about this Neolithic town is the kind of burial practices they had. For relatives the grave was usually inside the house under the platform which was used by the living as tables, benches or beds. Maybe they were buried inside the house because they were still thought as part of the family? Along with interesting burial spots, evidence shows that some buildings were shrines . These shrines were no larger than a house but the difference was that they were decorated inside with bull horns on the benches, plaster sculptures, and paintings that adorned the walls. Archaeologists think that the paintings on the walls might have shown important events, and because of all this art the shrines might of attracted people from outside the town making Catal Huyuk a religious center for the region. So why does this all matter? Well Catal Huyuk showed us the daily life of the people that lived there, we got to see the kind of diet they had, they kinds of products they used, and the kinds a practices they believed in. It also taught us about the trade in the Neolithic time period. All this information leads us to piecing together the kind of culture the people of Catal Huyuk have and this can teach us and lead us to other important discoveries.