Nowadays, in the era when the humankind has reached the bar people never thought they will ever be able to, it is hard to believe that thousands of years ago, there were different cultures and a completely different civilization, just as well-developed as ours, only in a different way. One of the most famous and the least explored, the Sumerian civilization is worth taking a closer look at.
The first issue to discuss, the Uruk vase is closely connected to worshipping of Inanna, the Sumerian Goddess. The impressions of animals and grain of the vase speak for themselves, making it clear that the vase was supposed to be used in the ceremonies worshipping fertility.
Cuneiform is the method of writing which was invented before people learned how to produce paper. Carving letters in clay tablets, people managed to keep certain information.
As for the Stele of Naram-Sin, the artifact tells the story of the king who was considered to be nearly divine. An obvious element of the ancient worship, the stele offered an innovation I writing art for the Sumerians, since it is written in a horizontal format instead of the old-time diagonal one.
Standing motionlessly in the calmness of The Square Temple, Votive Statues are supposed to represent the people who used to come of the temple to pray. The exact copies of the then men and women, these statues are a great study of the Sumerian traditions and even fashion.
A peculiar alternative for alphabet, hieroglyphs are specifics signs which are meant to define certain people, objects, notions or phenomena. They are used to write down information. For instance, Japanese and Chinese people use hieroglyphs instead of letters.
Considered to be the symbol of Egypt unification, the Palettes of King Narmer have the impression of the pharaoh with the crown of Upper Egypt on the one side and him wearing the crown of Lower Egypt on the reverse. The two impressions are supposed to symbolize that Egypt became an entity.
The elements that most people associate with such cultures as the Egyptian one, mastabas are the burial place with rooms in it for the tombs of the diseased.
Another element of the Egyptian culture, serdab is the chamber in a mastaba.
An integral element of a serdab, a serdab sculpture, such as the statue of King Djoser, was supposed to be a kind of homage to the diseased person and to serve as a specific “reservoir” for the soul of the diseased. Placed in the serdab, it was supposed to be the necessary element of the Egyptian burial tradition.
The modern world knows Hatshepsut, the famous pharaoh of Egypt, only owing to the fragmentary sculptures. Most of them depict the pharaoh in her royal dresses and devoted to her royal routines. However, some of the statues portray her as Osiris.
Speaking about the Nanna Ziggurat, the Sumerian temple, one must mention that it was apparently built to honor Nanna, the Sumerian deity of the night and moonlight. Unlike Nanna Ziggurat, which was made of mud bricks, the Pyramid of Djoser was made of stone blocks; however, the two still look much alike, with their pyramidal structure and sharp angles.
Thus, it is clear that the Sumerian people, as well as the people of the Ancient Egypt, reached the peaks which the present-day world has never heard of. Though the has-been kings of the universe knew nothing about the technological discoveries of the present-day science, they still managed to create the culture which still remains a mystery and is filled with the most incredible legends. Taking a closer look at their artworks, one can reach the ancient culture and see the magnificence of the human race.