Saturday, November 23, 2019

What tools or resources did Sumerian slaves use for their jobs?

By the Uruk Period (c. 4100-2900 BCE), it is clear that the Sumerians were making use of slave labor. Most slaves were likely captured from nearby areas for the express purpose of enslaving them. While slaves were widely used as farmers, builders, weavers, and millers, they did not make up a huge part of the Sumerian economy. Most labor was likely done by free Sumerian citizens. Slaves in Sumer, though, did have access to many of the same tools and resources that others in the region had in order to do their work.
Slaves working on farms made use of typical Sumerian irrigation devices and features. Levees and canals were widely constructed to provide water where it was needed and prevent flooding where it was not. They built levees over 30 feet tall and dug canals in excess of 50 feet in width. This was hard, labor-intensive work, and it is likely that slaves were used in the construction of these features.
The earliest known use of the wheel comes from the Sumerians. The wheel started out as a tool for potters but was later adapted to help carry heavy loads. Sumerian slaves would likely have used the wheel in both of these contexts. Transportation with wheeled carts was further aided by the use of paved roads, which the Sumerians pioneered using specialized paving bricks.
The rest of the resources and tools that Sumerian slaves used were rather typical of Later Stone Age and Early Bronze Age technology. Relatively simple axes, saws, shovels, and picks made of stone and bronze were used regularly as part of a slave's work.
https://books.google.com.ni/books?id=lbmXsaTGNKUC&pg=PA13&redir_esc=y

https://sciencing.com/ancient-sumerian-levees-canals-16874.html

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back0506.cfm


Sumerian technology and tools were fairly basic. Sumer was a Stone and early Bronze Age civilization. The typical Sumerian had at their disposal tools made of these materials. Things like knives and digging instruments were common. Sumerians also produced impressive pottery, and the potter's wheel is a development of Mesopotamian civilization. The wheel is also a product of this era.
Sumer, like other ancient civilizations of the Middle East (e.g., the Babylonians and Egyptians), was dependent on slaves. They were the backbone of the labor force. Most of the tools slaves had access to were fairly primitive. Most labor was done by hand, and a slave's body was his most common and useful tool.
Agriculture was a fundamental practice, centrally important in Sumerian civilization, and the technology associated with it was key. This included the construction of complex irrigation canals. Another tool used for watering crops was the shaduf, a kind of lever system connected to a rope and bucket that moved water from river to field.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."

Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...