The many inventions of the Sumerian people has made a great contribution to our world and lives. The Sumerian came into the Mesopotamia around 5000BCE (Alder, 2008). The Sumerian people had many great ideas which lead me to believe they were very intelligent and intellectual. Some of the Sumerian inventions were the system of writing, math based on units of 60, wheel, and monarchy to name a few. The world we live in today would be very different if it were not for the Sumerian inventions.
The development of writing is probably one of the Sumerian's greatest inventions. My World History book states " writing evolved from their need to have good records for keeping their calendar and predicting seasonal changes, as well as for commercial and religious taxation, marital and inheritance contracts, and some other activities in which it was important to have a clear, mutually agreed - upon version of past events"(Alder,2008). Writing enabled the Sumerians keep up with things going on in their day to day life. Some of the first writings were records, so that the Sumerian could record their distributions of goods (Hooker Richard, 1996). The form of writing used was called cuneiform which consisted of symbols and drawings also called pictograms. Without the Sumerian invention of writing our world would not be able to do some of the exact things that the Sumerians did like keep records for past events, contracts, and use calendars.
The invention of mathematics and chronology by the Sumerians was another great invention. The math of the Sumerian people was based on 60 and its divisors. This is why today when we use clocks for time its 60 seconds in a minute. The World History book also states that "Much of our basic geometry and trigonometry, such as 360 degrees of a circle, also stems from the Sumerian" (Alder, 2008). If the Sumerian had not come up with this brilliant idea there would be no Albert Einstein or any other great scientist or chemist for that matter. The world would be off balance if there was not a way to tell time to get to the important places we needed be like work, school, and events.
Although there is some confusion on who invented the wheel it is said that the Sumerians invented the wheel as a load- bearing transportation device (Alder, 2008). Since the Sumerian people were big on trade it makes sense that they would invent the wheel to transport their goods. The invention of the wheel was a great idea. Today we use on our cars, desk, wheel barrel, rollercoaster, skates, pulleys, and even on trash cans. The world would not be as mobile and efficient as it is today without the wheel.