Agriculture and Nature

Sumerian art epitomizes the people’s dependence on nature in its depictions of the agricultural calendar and deities that govern and personify aspects of nature. An alabaster vase found in the temple ruins at Uruk stands over three feet high and depicts the New Year festival, which marked the change in the seasons (after both winter and summer) and was intended to ensure fertility of the land in the year to come. The seasonal cycle is represented by the death, resurrection, and marriage of a goddess.