Canal or Wall? A Council Meeting in a Sumerian City-State

Judge an imagined assembly in Kish and see how canals, writing and the wheel shaped city-state life.

Answer Key

The council meets

Read the scene. Then answer the questions.

About this scene: The meeting below is imagined. It is built on what historians know about Sumerian city-states around 2500 BCE. Some historians think early Sumerian rulers sometimes asked assemblies of elders for advice on big decisions.

The Assembly of Kish, After the Barley Harvest

1The barley harvest is in. The lugal, the king of the city-state of Kish, has called the elders to the courtyard below the temple of the city's god. Kish rules its walled city and the villages and fields around it. Today's question: how should the city use its 600 free workers before the next planting?

2Elder Abba-kalla, who oversees the fields east of the city, speaks first. "Our fields stop where our canals stop. Beyond them the ground is hard and dry, because rain alone cannot grow barley here. A new canal from the Euphrates would water land that now lies empty. More barley means more grain in the temple storehouse, and more barley to trade for timber, stone and copper, which our land does not have."

3Captain Ur-Dumu, who commands the city's soldiers, answers. "A canal is worth nothing if our neighbors take it from us. Last spring, men from a rival city pulled up our boundary stones and cut the dike that feeds our western fields. Part of our wall fell in the flood two years ago, and the gap is still open. Rebuild the wall first. Our ox carts can haul the bricks, so the work will go quickly."

4The scribe Lu-Nanna, who keeps the city's records, asks to speak. "Whatever you choose, let it be written. My tablets show which families take water from each canal and how many days each crew has worked. And when our rival claims the boundary stones stood somewhere else, the treaty tablet sworn before the gods of both cities will show where they stood."

5Abba-kalla replies, "A wall feeds no one. If we dig the canal now, the new fields can be planted this season. The wall can wait until after the next harvest." Ur-Dumu answers, "And if our rival attacks before then, the new fields will feed their soldiers, not our children."

6The lugal raises a hand for silence. Before the assembly decides, he asks Lu-Nanna to read aloud the tally of workers and days.

What is Abba-kalla's main argument?

A. Rain will water the empty land if the city is patient.
B. A new canal would grow more barley for food and for trade.
C. Kish should stop trading with other cities and grow its own copper.
D. The broken wall should be rebuilt before anything else.

Why does Ur-Dumu mention the boundary stones and the cut dike?

A. To show that a rival city is already threatening Kish's land and water
B. To show that Kish's soldiers attacked the rival city first
C. To show that the old canals were dug in the wrong places
D. To blame the scribe for losing the city's boundary records

Circle the sentence from paragraph 2 that explains why Kish needed to trade with other lands.

Our fields stop where our canals stop.Beyond them the ground is hard and dry, because rain alone cannot grow barley here.A new canal from the Euphrates would water land that now lies empty.More barley means more grain in the temple storehouse, and more barley to trade for timber, stone and copper, which our land does not have.

Sort each piece of evidence by the speaker who used it.

Rain alone cannot grow barley here.Rival men pulled up the boundary stones.New fields could be planted this season.Part of the wall fell in a flood two years ago.Extra barley can be traded for copper.Ox carts can haul the bricks quickly.

Abba-kalla: canal first	Ur-Dumu: wall first
Rain alone cannot grow barley here. New fields could be planted this season. Extra barley can be traded for copper.	Rival men pulled up the boundary stones. Part of the wall fell in a flood two years ago. Ox carts can haul the bricks quickly.

The scribe's tally

Lu-Nanna reads this tally to the assembly. Use it and the scene.

Lu-Nanna's Tally (imagined numbers for this scene)
Item	Count
Workers free after the harvest	600
Days for 600 workers to dig the canal	40
Days for 600 to rebuild wall, carts	25
Days for 600 to rebuild wall, by hand	50
People the canal's barley could feed	about 400 a year

If the 600 workers rebuild the wall using the ox carts and then dig the canal, how many days will both projects take? 65 days

The tally shows the wall would take twice as long if workers carried the bricks by hand. Which Sumerian invention explains the difference?

A. The wheel on carts
B. The potter's wheel
C. Irrigation canals
D. Cuneiform writing on clay

Draw a line from each part of Kish's city-state life to the purpose it serves in the scene.

A canal from the EuphratesB
A treaty tablet in cuneiformD
Ox carts with wheelsC
A mud-brick city wallA

A. Defending the city against a rival
B. Watering fields where rain is too scarce
C. Hauling heavy loads of brick
D. Proving where boundary stones stood

Lu-Nanna says, "Whatever you choose, let it be written." Which problem of a growing city-state does writing help solve in this scene?

A. Making the river flood in the right season
B. Letting the townspeople vote on the decision
C. Making barley grow faster in dry ground
D. Keeping track of water, work and agreements

Which detail from the scene best shows that Kish was an independent city-state, not one province of a large empire?

A. It trades its extra barley for timber, stone and copper.
B. Its scribe records work days on tablets of clay.
C. It has its own ruler and guards its fields against a nearby city.
D. Its farmers take water from the Euphrates through canals.

Your turn to speak

Use the scene and the tally.

10.

You are an elder of Kish. Which project should come first, the canal or the wall? Make a claim, give at least two pieces of evidence from the speeches or the tally, explain your reasoning, and answer one point from the other side.

The wall should come first. Ur-Dumu says men from a rival city already pulled up Kish's boundary stones and cut a dike, so an attack is a real danger, and part of the wall has been open for two years. The tally shows that with ox carts the wall takes only 25 days, so the workers could still dig the canal afterward; both jobs together take 65 days. Abba-kalla says a wall feeds no one, and the canal could feed about 400 more people a year. But if the rival attacks before the wall is fixed, the new fields could be lost, so protecting the city first keeps the canal's harvest safe too.