Sumerian Culture In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Sumer region was in Mesopotamia, which is now the current Iraq. This area is very famous due to writing which was the cuneiform script on the clay tablets. The systematic record keeping, the plow, which was the agricultural development. Social and economic organization was also a well known factor, followed by, units of time which was the division of a day into 24 hours as well as one hour into 60 minutes. Also, mainly because of the settlement that took place there. This means that the area is closely studied and used as evidence of early culture and in particular, writing and art.
Starting off with defining civilisation, according to dictionary.com, it is defined as an “advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture,
…show more content…

BCE as a time period was quite vague and blurry. This story gives us an insight on descriptions on sumerian beliefs and most importantly, the sumerian culture in general. There is a certain amount of fact in this story but some truths are questionable. The facts in this story provides us with a picture of Sumeria which had many craftsmen, artistic skills, and people who strongly believed in God. The epic of Gilgamesh has details into art and skills. This story tells us that Sumerian art was quite complicated. The sumerians most frequently used material was clay where writing was engraved. Craftsmanship was shown, but along with that, strong belief of God is projected as well. Gilgamesh associates with various gods and also, there were conversations of Gilgamesh being formed by one. The public further believed that the gods were from a reptilian nature. Women also played an important role in this epic. Female prostitutes tames men, in this story, a woman tamed Enkidu. Followed by Ishtar, who guaranteed Gilgamesh the world if he offered her his love. Gilgamesh refushed Ishtar's offer which led to Enkidu's death. The affection between Gilgamesh and Enkidu takes a tragic turn, whilst the love portrayed by Ishtar and the temple prostitutes remains certain. Gilgamesh and Enkidu submitted themselves to the female life force. Almost all the conflicts, clashes, confrontations are with women, which are loaded with tension and worry. This makes the female gender crucial. This epic provided some light on the culture of Sumeria. The story gave some facts. However, the epic could not be true in general, but had some degree of honesty. Knowledge was increased regarding architectural craftsmanship of the Sumerian people, as well as regarding the gods and how the society function with their polytheistic