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Sumer (/'su?m?r/) is the earliest known civilization in
the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging
during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth
millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of civilization in the world, along
with ancient Egypt, Elam, the Caral-Supe civilization, Olmecs, the Indus Valley
civilisation, and ancient China. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops,
the surplus from which enabled them to form urban settlements. Proto-writing
dates back before 3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and
Jemdet Nasr, and date to between c. 3500 and c. 3000 BC.[ambiguous]
Name Sumerians:
The term "Sumer" (Sumerian: ???? eme-gi or ???? eme-gir15, Akkadian:
?????? umeru)[5] is the name given to the language spoken by the
"Sumerians", the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of southern
Mesopotamia, by their successors the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians.[6][7][8]
The Sumerians referred to their land as Kengir, the 'Country of the noble
lords' (??????, k-en-gi(-r), lit. 'country' + 'lords' + 'noble') as seen in
their inscriptions.[6][9][10] The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the
people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black Headed Ones" or
"Black-Headed People"[6][11][12][13] (?? ??, sag-gíg, lit.
'head' + 'black', or ?? ?? ??, sag-gíg-ga phonetically /sa? gi ga/, lit.
'head' + 'black' + 'carry').[1][2][3][4] For example, the Sumerian king Shulgi
described himself as "the king of the four quarters, the pastor of the
black-headed people".[14] The Akkadians also called the Sumerians
'black-headed people', or ?almat-qaqqadi, in the Semitic Akkadian
language.[2][3] The Akkadian word umer may represent the geographical
name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term
umerû is uncertain.[15] Hebrew ????????? in?ar, Egyptian
Sngr, and Hittite anhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could
be western variants of Sumer.[15]
Origins:
Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between
c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language
(pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as
evidence), a non-Semitic and non-Indo-European agglutinative language
isolate.[16][17][18][19][20] In contrast to its Semitic neighbours, it was not
an inflected language.[16] The Blau Monuments combine proto-cuneiform
characters and illustrations of early Sumerians, Jemdet Nasr period,
31002700 BC. British Museum. Others have suggested that the Sumerians
were a North African people who migrated from the Green Sahara into the Middle
East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East.[21]
However, with evidence strongly suggesting the first farmers originated from
the Fertile Crescent, this suggestion is often discarded.[22] Although not
specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. 2016 have suggested a
partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Middle East,
particularly Natufians, after testing the genomes of Natufian and Pre-Pottery
Neolithic culture-bearers.[22][23] Alternatively, a recent (2013) genetic
analysis of four ancient Mesopotamian skeletal DNA samples suggests an
association of the Sumerians with Indus Valley Civilization, possibly as a
result of ancient Indus-Mesopotamia relations.[24] According to some data, the
Sumerians are associated with the Hurrians and Urartians, and the Caucasus is
considered their homeland.[25][26][27] A prehistoric people who lived in the
region before the Sumerians have been termed the "Proto-Euphrateans"
or "Ubaidians",[28] and are theorized to have evolved from the
Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia.[29][30][31][32] The Ubaidians, though
never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves, are assumed by modern-day scholars
to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer. They drained the marshes for
agriculture, developed trade, and established industries, including weaving,
leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.[28] Enthroned Sumerian king of
Ur, possibly Ur-Pabilsag, with attendants. Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BC. Some
scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate
language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of the
hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia
littoral region and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture.[33] Reliable
historical records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that
have been dated before Enmebaragesi (Early Dynastic I). Juris Zarins believes
the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf
region, before it was flooded at the end of the Ice Age.[34] Sumerian
civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into
the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. The Sumerians progressively lost
control to Semitic states from the northwest. Sumer was conquered by the
Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC (short
chronology), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. Native Sumerian rule
re-emerged for about a century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately
21002000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some
time.[35] The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is
considered to have been one of the oldest cities, where three separate cultures
may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and
practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in
black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk,
living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the
Sumerians.[35]
City-states in Mesopotamia:
Further information: List of cities of the ancient Near East and Geography:
of Mesopotamia In the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many
independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each
was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of
the city and ruled over by a priestly governor (ensi) or by a king (lugal) who
was intimately tied to the city's religious rites. Anu ziggurat and White
Temple Anu ziggurat and White Temple at Uruk. The original pyramidal structure,
the "Anu Ziggurat" dates to around 4000 BC, and the White Temple was
built on top of it c. 3500 BC.[36] The design of the ziggurat was probably a
precursor to that of the Egyptian pyramids, the earliest of which dates to c.
2600 BC.[37][38] The five "first" cities, said to have exercised
pre-dynastic kingship "before the flood": Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)
Bad-tibira (probably Tell al-Madain) Larak 1 Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah) Shuruppak
(Tell Fara) Other principal cities: Uruk (Warka) Kish (Tell Uheimir and
Ingharra) Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar) Nippur (Afak) Lagash (Tell al-Hiba) Girsu
(Tello or Telloh) Umma (Tell Jokha) Hamazi 1 Adab (Tell Bismaya) Mari (Tell
Hariri) 2 Akshak 1 Akkad 1 Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat) Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh)
(1location uncertain) (2an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia) Minor cities
(from south to north): Kuara (Tell al-Lahm) Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh) Kisurra (Tell
Abu Hatab) Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum) Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim) Borsippa (Birs
Nimrud) Kutha (Tell Ibrahim) Der (al-Badra) Eshnunna (Tell Asmar) Nagar (Tell
Brak) 2 (2an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia) Apart from Mari, which lies
full 330 kilometres (205 miles) north-west of Agade, but which is credited in
the king list as having "exercised kingship" in the Early Dynastic II
period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates-Tigris
alluvial plain, south of Baghdad in what are now the Babil, Diyala, Wasit, Dhi
Qar, Basra, Al-Muthanna and Al-Qadisiyyah governorates of Iraq.
History:
Main article: History of Sumer:
The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk
periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and
before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III
period, c. 23rd century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was
developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and
inscriptions. The Akkadian Empire was the first state that successfully united
larger parts of Mesopotamia in the 23rd century BC. After the Gutian period,
the Ur III kingdom similarly united parts of northern and southern Mesopotamia.
It ended in the face of Amorite incursions at the beginning of the second
millennium BC. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until c. 1700
BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were
eventually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) population.[citation
needed] Ubaid period: 65004100 BC (Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic)
Uruk period: 41002900 BC (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age I) Uruk
XIVV: 41003300 BC Uruk IV period: 33003100 BC Jemdet Nasr
period (Uruk III): 31002900 BC Early Dynastic period (Early Bronze Age
IIIV) Early Dynastic I period: 29002800 BC Early Dynastic II
period: 28002600 BC (Gilgamesh) Early Dynastic IIIa period:
26002500 BC Early Dynastic IIIb period: c. 25002334 BC Akkadian
Empire period: c. 23342218 BC (Sargon) Gutian period: c. 22182047
BC (Early Bronze Age IV) Ur III period: c. 20471940 BC
Ubaid period :
Main article: Ubaid period:
The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted
pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. The oldest
evidence for occupation comes from Tell el-'Oueili, but, given that
environmental conditions in southern Mesopotamia were favourable to human
occupation well before the Ubaid period, it is likely that older sites exist
but have not yet been found. It appears that this culture was derived from the
Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not
these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture.
The story of the passing of the gifts of civilization (me) to Inanna, goddess
of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may
reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk.[41]
Uruk period Main article: Uruk period The archaeological transition from the
Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted
pottery domestically produced on a slow wheel to a great variety of unpainted
pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. The Uruk period is a
continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible
change.[42][43] Uruk King-priest feeding the sacred herd The king-priest and
his acolyte feeding the sacred herd. Uruk period, c. 3200 BC Cylinder seal of
the Uruk period and its impression, c. 3100 BC - Louvre Museum By the time of
the Uruk period (c. 41002900 BC calibrated), the volume of trade goods
transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the
rise of many large, stratified, temple-centered cities (with populations of
over 10,000 people) where centralized administrations employed specialized
workers. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian
cities began to make use of slave labour captured from the hill country, and
there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in the earliest texts.
Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a
wide areafrom the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea in
the west, and as far east as western Iran.[44]:?23? The Uruk period
civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists (like that found at
Tell Brak), had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved
their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The cities of Sumer
could not maintain remote, long-distance colonies by military force.[44][page
needed] Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably theocratic and
were most likely headed by a priest-king (ensi), assisted by a council of
elders, including both men and women.[45] It is quite possible that the later
Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little
evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period,
and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became the most
urbanized city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants.
The ancient Sumerian king list includes the early dynasties of several
prominent cities from this period. The first set of names on the list is of
kings said to have reigned before a major flood occurred. These early names may
be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as
Alulim and Dumizid.[45] The end of the Uruk period coincided with the Piora
oscillation, a dry period from c. 32002900 BC that marked the end of a
long wetter, warmer climate period from about 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, called
the Holocene climatic optimum.[46]
Early Dynastic Period :
Main articles: Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) and First Dynasty of Ur:
The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the
temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly
"En" (a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female
figure when headed by a male god)[47] towards a more secular Lugal (Lu=man,
Gal=great) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Dumuzid,
Lugalbanda and Gilgameshwho reigned shortly before the historic record
opens c. 2900 BC, when the now deciphered syllabic writing started to develop
from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern
Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas,
and neighboring Semitic groups adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own.
The earliest dynastic king on the Sumerian king list whose name is known from
any other legendary source is Etana, 13th king of the first dynasty of Kish.
The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi
of Kish (Early Dynastic I), whose name is also mentioned in the Epic of
Gilgameshleading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been
a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period was
associated with increased war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as
undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. (Both Enmerkar and
Gilgamesh are credited with having built the walls of Uruk.)[48]
1st Dynasty of Lagash :
Main article: Lagash:
The dynasty of Lagash (c. 25002270 BC), though omitted from the king
list, is well attested through several important monuments and many
archaeological finds. Although short-lived, one of the first empires known to
history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer,
including Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa, and reduced to tribute the city-state of
Umma, arch-rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam
and along the Persian Gulf. He seems to have used terror as a matter of
policy.[49] Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at the
severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly
after his death. Later, Lugal-Zage-Si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the
primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his
capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the
Mediterranean. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of
Akkad.[35]
Akkadian Empire:
Main article: Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire dates to c. 22342154 BC (middle chronology). The
Eastern Semitic Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the
kings of Kish c. 2800 BC,[49] preserved in later king lists. There are texts
written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. 2500 BC. Use of Old Akkadian
was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great (c. 23342279 BC), but
even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the
language used by the scribes. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of
Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and
that of the Ur III period that followed it. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as
vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC,
Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to
scholars and scribes. Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there is little break
in historical continuity between the pre- and post-Sargon periods, and that too
much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a "Semitic vs.
Sumerian" conflict.[50] However, it is certain that Akkadian was also
briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by
Sargon.
Gutian period:
Main article: Gutian dynasty of Sumer c. 21932119 BC
(middle chronology)
2nd Dynasty of Lagash:
Main article: Lagash c. 22002110 BC
Following the downfall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands of Gutians, another
native Sumerian ruler, Gudea of Lagash, rose to local prominence and continued
the practices of the Sargonic kings' claims to divinity. The previous Lagash
dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left
a large number of archaeological artifacts.
"Neo-Sumerian" Ur III period:
Main article: Third Dynasty of Ur:
Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi (c. 21122004 BC,
middle chronology), whose power extended as far as southern Assyria, has been
erroneously called a "Sumerian renaissance" in the past.[51] Already,
however, the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the
resurgence of the Akkadian-speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the
influx of waves of Semitic Martu (Amorites), who were to found several
competing local powers in the south, including Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna and later,
Babylonia. The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate the south of
Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire, just as the Old Assyrian Empire had
already done in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language
continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria,
much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was
used.
Fall and transmission:
This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population
from southern Mesopotamia toward the north. Ecologically, the agricultural
productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising
salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major
problem.[52] Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high
levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil,
eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. During the Akkadian and Ur
III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more
salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from
2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined
by nearly three-fifths.[53] This greatly upset the balance of power within the
region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively
strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian
would remain only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position
occupied by Latin in medieval Europe. Following an Elamite invasion and sack of
Ur during the rule of Ibbi-Sin (c. 20282004 BC),[citation needed] Sumer
came under Amorite rule (taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age). The
independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as the
"Dynasty of Isin" in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of
Babylonia under Hammurabi c. 1800 BC. Later rulers who dominated Assyria and
Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and
Akkad", such as Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC.
Population:
Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a
population of 50,00080,000 at its height;[54] given the other cities in
Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's
population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. The world population at this
time has been estimated at about 27 million.[55] The Sumerians spoke a language
isolate, but a number of linguists have claimed to be able to detect a
substrate language of unknown classification beneath Sumerian because names of
some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier
inhabitants.[56] However, the archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted
cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (53004700 BC
C-14) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here
farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the
Tigris and the Euphrates. Some archaeologists have speculated that the original
speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from the
north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid
period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami
transitional ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (c.
57004900 BC C-14) in the north, who were the first to practice a
primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its
tributaries. The connection is most clearly seen at Tell el-'Oueili near Larsa,
excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid
pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, farming peoples
spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a
temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for
water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in a difficult
environment.[citation needed] Others have suggested a continuity of Sumerians,
from the indigenous hunter-fisherfolk traditions, associated with the bifacial
assemblages found on the Arabian littoral. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians
may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at
the end of the last Ice Age.
Culture Social and family life A reconstruction in the British Museum of
headgear and necklaces worn by the women at the Royal Cemetery at Ur. In the
early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest[57] that "Pottery
was very plentiful, and the forms of the vases, bowls and dishes were manifold;
there were special jars for honey, butter, oil and wine, which was probably
made from dates. Some of the vases had pointed feet, and stood on stands with
crossed legs; others were flat-bottomed, and were set on square or rectangular
frames of wood. The oil-jars, and probably others also, were sealed with clay,
precisely as in early Egypt. Vases and dishes of stone were made in imitation
of those of clay." "A feathered head-dress was worn. Beds, stools and
chairs were used, with carved legs resembling those of an ox. There were
fire-places and fire-altars." "Knives, drills, wedges and an
instrument that looks like a saw were all known. While spears, bows, arrows,
and daggers (but not swords) were employed in war." "Tablets were
used for writing purposes. Daggers with metal blades and wooden handles were
worn, and copper was hammered into plates, while necklaces or collars were made
of gold." "Time was reckoned in lunar months." There is
considerable evidence concerning Sumerian music. Lyres and flutes were played,
among the best-known examples being the Lyres of Ur.[58] Inscriptions
describing the reforms of king Urukagina of Lagash (c. 2350 BC) say that he
abolished the former custom of polyandry in his country, prescribing that a
woman who took multiple husbands be stoned with rocks upon which her crime had
been written.[59] Sumerian princess (c.2150 BC) Sumerian princess of the time
of Gudea c. 2150 BC. Frontal detail. Louvre Museum AO 295. Sumerian culture was
male-dominated and stratified. The Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest such
codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur III, reveals a glimpse at
societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath the lu-gal ("great
man" or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata:
The "lu" or free person, and the slave (male, arad; female geme). The
son of a lu was called a dumu-nita until he married. A woman (munus) went from
being a daughter (dumu-mi), to a wife (dam), then if she outlived her husband,
a widow (numasu) and she could then remarry another man who was from the same
tribe.[citation needed] Marriages were usually arranged by the parents of the
bride and groom;[60]:?78? engagements were usually completed through the
approval of contracts recorded on clay tablets.[60]:?78? These marriages became
legal as soon as the groom delivered a bridal gift to his bride's
father.[60]:?78? One Sumerian proverb describes the ideal, happy marriage
through the mouth of a husband who boasts that his wife has borne him eight
sons and is still eager to have sex.[61] The Sumerians generally seem to have
discouraged premarital sex.[62] Neither Sumerian nor Akkadian had a word
exactly corresponding to the English word 'virginity', and the concept was
expressed descriptively, for example as a/é-nu-gi4-a (Sum.)/la naqbat
(Akk.) 'un-deflowered', or gi nunzua, 'never having known a
penis'.[63]:?9193? It is unclear whether terms such as iitu
in Akkadian medical texts indicate the hymen, but it appears that the
intactness of the hymen was much less relevant to assessing a woman's virginity
than in later cultures of the Near East, and most assessments of virginity
depended on the woman's own account.[63]:?9192? From the earliest
records, the Sumerians had very relaxed attitudes toward sex[64] and their
sexual mores were determined not by whether a sexual act was deemed immoral,
but rather by whether or not it made a person ritually unclean.[64] The
Sumerians widely believed that masturbation enhanced sexual potency, both for
men and for women,[64] and they frequently engaged in it, both alone and with
their partners.[64] The Sumerians did not regard anal sex as taboo either. Entu
priestesses were forbidden from producing offspring and frequently engaged in
anal sex as a method of birth control. Prostitution existed but it is not clear
if sacred prostitution did.
Language and writing:
Main articles: History of writing, Sumerian language, and Cuneiform
The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of
clay tablets written in cuneiform script. Sumerian writing is considered to be
a great milestone in the development of humanity's ability to not only create
historical records but also in creating pieces of literature, both in the form
of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws. Although hieroglyphs
were used first, cuneiform and then ideograms soon followed. Triangular or
wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. A large body of hundreds
of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, including
personal and business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers,
stories, and daily records. Full libraries of clay tablets have been found.
Monumental inscriptions and texts on different objects, like statues or bricks,
are also very common. Many texts survive in multiple copies because they were
repeatedly transcribed by scribes in training. Sumerian continued to be the
language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had
become dominant. A prime example of cuneiform writing would be a lengthy poem
that was discovered in the ruins of Uruk. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in
the standard Sumerian cuneiform. It tells of a king from the early Dynastic II
period named Gilgamesh or "Bilgamesh" in Sumerian. The story relates
the fictional adventures of Gilgamesh and his companion, Enkidu. It was laid
out on several clay tablets and is thought to be the earliest known surviving
example of fictional literature. The Sumerian language is generally regarded as
a language isolate in linguistics because it belongs to no known language
family; Akkadian, by contrast, belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic
languages. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other
language families. It is an agglutinative language; in other words, morphemes
("units of meaning") are added together to create words, unlike
analytic languages where morphemes are purely added together to create
sentences. Some authors have proposed that there may be evidence of a
substratum or adstratum language for geographic features and various crafts and
agricultural activities, called variously Proto-Euphratean or Proto Tigrean,
but this is disputed by others. Understanding Sumerian texts today can be
problematic. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases do not
give the full grammatical structure of the language and seem to have been used
as an "aide-mémoire" for knowledgeable scribes.[69] Akkadian
gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of
the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC,[70] but Sumerian continued to be used as a
sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Babylonia and Assyria
until the 1st century AD.[71]
Religion :
Main article: Sumerian religion:
The Sumerians credited their divinities for all matters pertaining to them and
exhibited humility in the face of cosmic forces, such as death and divine
wrath.[60]:?34? Sumerian religion seems to have been founded upon two
separate cosmogenic myths. The first saw creation as the result of a series of
hieroi gamoi or sacred marriages, involving the reconciliation of opposites,
postulated as a coming together of male and female divine beings, the gods.
This pattern continued to influence regional Mesopotamian myths. Thus, in the
later Akkadian Enuma Elish, creation was seen as the union of fresh and salt
water, between male Abzu, and female Tiamat. The products of that union, Lahm
and Lahmu, "the muddy ones", were titles given to the gate keepers of
the E-Abzu temple of Enki in Eridu, the first Sumerian city. Mirroring the way
that muddy islands emerge from the confluence of fresh and salty water at the
mouth of the Euphrates, where the river deposits its load of silt, a second
hieros gamos supposedly resulted in the creation of Anshar and Kishar, the
"sky-pivot" (or axle), and the "earth pivot", parents in
turn of Anu (the sky) and Ki (the earth). Another important Sumerian hieros
gamos was that between Ki, here known as Ninhursag or "Lady of the
Mountains", and Enki of Eridu, the god of fresh water which brought forth
greenery and pasture. At an early stage, following the dawn of recorded
history, Nippur, in central Mesopotamia, replaced Eridu in the south as the
primary temple city, whose priests exercised political hegemony on the other
city-states. Nippur retained this status throughout the Sumerian period.
Deities:
Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods
in human form. There was no common set of gods; each city-state had its own
patrons, temples, and priest-kings. Nonetheless, these were not exclusive; the
gods of one city were often acknowledged elsewhere. Sumerian speakers were
among the earliest people to record their beliefs in writing, and were a major
inspiration in later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology. The
Sumerians worshiped: An as the full-time god equivalent to heaven; indeed, the
word an in Sumerian means sky and his consort Ki, means earth. Enki in the
south at the temple in Eridu. Enki was the god of beneficence and of wisdom,
ruler of the freshwater depths beneath the earth, a healer and friend to
humanity who in Sumerian myth was thought to have given humans the arts and
sciences, the industries and manners of civilization; the first law book was
considered his creation. Enlil was the god of storm, wind, and rain.[72]:?108?
He was the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon[72]:?108?[73]:?115121? and
the patron god of Nippur.[74]:?231234? His consort was Ninlil, the
goddess of the south wind.[75]:?106? Inanna was the goddess of love, sexuality,
and war;[66]:?109? the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening
(western) star, at the temple (shared with An) at Uruk. Deified kings may have
re-enacted the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid with
priestesses.[66]:?151,?157158? The sun-god Utu at Larsa in the south and
Sippar in the north, The moon god Sin at Ur.
Genology of deties
(The article has a detailed genological chart showing the relations between the
many gods)
These deities formed the main pantheon, and in addition to this there were
hundreds of other minor gods. Sumerian gods were often associated with
different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with
those cities' political power. The gods were said to have created human beings
from clay for the purpose of serving them. The temples organized the mass
labour projects needed for irrigation agriculture. Citizens had a labor duty to
the temple, though they could avoid it by a payment of silver. Cosmology
Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk enclosed by a
dome. The Sumerian afterlife involved a descent into a gloomy netherworld to
spend eternity in a wretched existence as a Gidim (ghost).[76] The universe was
divided into four quarters: To the north were the hill-dwelling Subartu, who
were periodically raided for slaves, timber, and other raw materials.[77] To
the west were the tent-dwelling Martu, ancient Semitic-speaking peoples living
as pastoral nomads tending herds of sheep and goats. To the south was the land
of Dilmun, a trading state associated with the land of the dead and the place
of creation.[78] To the east were the Elamites, a rival people with whom the
Sumerians were frequently at war. Their known world extended from The Upper Sea
or Mediterranean coastline, to The Lower Sea, the Persian Gulf and the land of
Meluhha (probably the Indus Valley) and Magan (Oman), famed for its copper
ores.
Temple and temple organisation:
Ziggurats (Sumerian temples) each had an individual name and consisted of a
forecourt, with a central pond for purification.[79] The temple itself had a
central nave with aisles along either side. Flanking the aisles would be rooms
for the priests. At one end would stand the podium and a mudbrick table for
animal and vegetable sacrifices. Granaries and storehouses were usually located
near the temples. After a time the Sumerians began to place the temples on top
of multi-layered square constructions built as a series of rising terraces,
giving rise to the Ziggurat style.[80] Funerary practices It was believed that
when people died, they would be confined to a gloomy world of Ereshkigal, whose
realm was guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people
entering or leaving. The dead were buried outside the city walls in graveyards
where a small mound covered the corpse, along with offerings to monsters and a
small amount of food. Those who could afford it sought burial at Dilmun.[78]
Human sacrifice was found in the death pits at the Ur royal cemetery where
Queen Puabi was accompanied in death by her servants.
Agriculture and hunting :
The Sumerians adopted an agricultural lifestyle perhaps as early as c.
50004500 BC. The region demonstrated a number of core agricultural
techniques, including organized irrigation, large-scale intensive cultivation
of land, monocropping involving the use of plough agriculture, and the use of
an agricultural specialized labour force under bureaucratic control. The
necessity to manage temple accounts with this organization led to the
development of writing (c. 3500 BC).
In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep,
goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. They used oxen as their primary
beasts of burden and donkeys or equids as their primary transport animal and
"woollen clothing as well as rugs were made from the wool or hair of the
animals. ... By the side of the house was an enclosed garden planted with trees
and other plants; wheat and probably other cereals were sown in the fields, and
the shaduf was already employed for the purpose of irrigation. Plants were also
grown in pots or vases."[57]
(An illustration in the article shows) An account of barley rations issued
monthly to adults and children written in cuneiform script on a clay tablet,
written in year 4 of King Urukagina, c. 2350 BC
The Sumerians were one of the first known beer-drinking societies. Cereals were
plentiful and were the key ingredient in their early brew. They brewed multiple
kinds of beer consisting of wheat, barley, and mixed grain beers. Beer brewing
was very important to the Sumerians. It was referenced in the Epic of Gilgamesh
when Enkidu was introduced to the food and beer of Gilgamesh's people:
"Drink the beer, as is the custom of the land... He drank the beer-seven
jugs! and became expansive and sang with joy!"[81] The Sumerians practiced
similar irrigation techniques as those used in Egypt.[82] American
anthropologist Robert McCormick Adams says that irrigation development was
associated with urbanization,[83] and that 89% of the population lived in the
cities. They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic,
lettuce, leeks and mustard. Sumerians caught many fish and hunted fowl and
gazelle.[84]
Sumerian agriculture depended heavily on irrigation. The irrigation was
accomplished by the use of shaduf, canals, channels, dykes, weirs, and
reservoirs. The frequent violent floods of the Tigris, and less so, of the
Euphrates, meant that canals required frequent repair and continual removal of
silt, and survey markers and boundary stones needed to be continually replaced.
The government required individuals to work on the canals in a corvée,
although the rich were able to exempt themselves. As is known from the
"Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after the
Spring equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers
would flood their fields and then drain the water. Next they made oxen stomp
the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. After
drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized
it with a mattock, before planting seed. Unfortunately, the high evaporation
rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. By the Ur
III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley as
their principal crop. Sumerians harvested during the spring in three-person
teams consisting of a reaper, a binder, and a sheaf handler.[85] The farmers
would use threshing wagons, driven by oxen, to separate the cereal heads from
the stalks and then use threshing sleds to disengage the grain. They then
winnowed the grain/chaff mixture.
Art:
See also: Stele of the Vultures and Royal Cemetery at Ur:
The Sumerians were great creators, nothing proving this more than their art.
Sumerian artifacts show great detail and ornamentation, with fine semi-precious
stones imported from other lands, such as lapis lazuli, marble, and diorite,
and precious metals like hammered gold, incorporated into the design. Since
stone was rare it was reserved for sculpture. The most widespread material in
Sumer was clay, as a result many Sumerian objects are made of clay. Metals such
as gold, silver, copper, and bronze, along with shells and gemstones, were used
for the finest sculpture and inlays. Small stones of all kinds, including more
precious stones such as lapis lazuli, alabaster, and serpentine, were used for
cylinder seals. Some of the most famous masterpieces are the Lyres of Ur, which
are considered to be the world's oldest surviving stringed instruments. They
have been discovered by Leonard Woolley when the Royal Cemetery of Ur has been
excavated between from 1922 and 1934.
Architecture:
Main articles: Sumerian architecture, Ziggurat, and Mudhif :
See also: Clay nail
The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures were
made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement. Mud-brick
buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, leveled,
and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the
level of cities, which thus came to be elevated above the surrounding plain.
The resultant hills, known as tells, are found throughout the ancient Near
East. According to Archibald Sayce, the primitive pictograms of the early
Sumerian (i.e. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already
cut into blocks and seals. Brick was the ordinary building material, and with
it cities, forts, temples and houses were constructed. The city was provided
with towers and stood on an artificial platform; the house also had a
tower-like appearance. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and
could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and
seems to have been double. The foundation stonesor rather bricksof
a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under
them."[57] The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the
ziggurats, large layered platforms that supported temples. Sumerian cylinder
seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh
Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. The Sumerians also
developed the arch, which enabled them to develop a strong type of dome. They
built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian temples and
palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses,
recesses, half columns, and clay nails.
Mathematics:
Main article: Babylonian mathematics:
The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000 BC. This advanced
metrology resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From
c. 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets
and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems. The earliest traces
of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period.[86] The period c.
27002300 BC saw the first appearance of the abacus, and a table of
successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their
sexagesimal number system.[87] The Sumerians were the first to use a place
value numeral system. There is also anecdotal evidence the Sumerians may have
used a type of slide rule in astronomical calculations. They were the first to
find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.[88]
Economy and trade:
Main article: Economy of Sumer:
Discoveries of obsidian from far-away locations in Anatolia and lapis lazuli
from Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan, beads from Dilmun (modern
Bahrain), and several seals inscribed with the Indus Valley script suggest a
remarkably wide-ranging network of ancient trade centered on the Persian Gulf.
For example, Imports to Ur came from many parts of the world. In particular,
the metals of all types had to be imported. The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to
trade with far lands for goods, such as wood, that were scarce in Mesopotamia.
In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized. The finding of resin in the tomb
of Queen Puabi at Ur, indicates it was traded from as far away as Mozambique.
The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy.
Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters. Sumerian potters
decorated their pots with cedar oil paints. The potters used a bow drill to
produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. Sumerian masons and jewelers
knew and made use of alabaster (calcite), ivory, iron, gold, silver, carnelian,
and lapis lazuli.[89]
Trade with the Indus valley:
Main article: Indus-Mesopotamia relations:
The trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Indus would have been
significantly shorter due to lower sea levels in the 3rd millennium BC.[91]
Evidence for imports from the Indus to Ur can be found from around 2350 BC.[92]
Various objects made with shell species that are characteristic of the Indus
coast, particularly Turbinella pyrum and Pleuroploca trapezium, have been found
in the archaeological sites of Mesopotamia dating from around 25002000
BC.[93] Carnelian beads from the Indus were found in the Sumerian tombs of Ur,
the Royal Cemetery at Ur, dating to 26002450.[94] In particular,
carnelian beads with an etched design in white were probably imported from the
Indus Valley, and made according to a technique of acid-etching developed by
the Harappans Lapis lazuli was imported in great quantity by Egypt, and already
used in many tombs of the Naqada II period (c. 3200 BC). Lapis lazuli probably
originated in northern Afghanistan, as no other sources are known, and had to
be transported across the Iranian plateau to Mesopotamia, and then
Egypt.[97][98] Several Indus seals with Harappan script have also been found in
Mesopotamia, particularly in Ur, Babylon and Kish.
Gudea, the ruler of the Neo-Summerian Empire at Lagash, is recorded as having
imported "translucent carnelian" from Meluhha, generally thought to
be the Indus Valley area.[94] Various inscriptions also mention the presence of
Meluhha traders and interpreters in Mesopotamia.[94] About twenty seals have
been found from the Akkadian and Ur III sites, that have connections with
Harappa and often use Harappan symbols or writing.[94] The Indus Valley
Civilization only flourished in its most developed form between 2400 and 1800
BC, but at the time of these exchanges, it was a much larger entity than the
Mesopotamian civilization, covering an area of 1.2 million square meters with
thousands of settlements, compared to an area of only about 65.000 square
meters for the occupied area of Mesopotamia, while the largest cities were
comparable in size at about 3040,000 inhabitants.[105]
Money and credit:
Large institutions kept their accounts in barley and silver, often with a fixed
rate between them. The obligations, loans and prices in general were usually
denominated in one of them. Many transactions involved debt, for example goods
consigned to merchants by temple and beer advanced by "ale
women".[106]
Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans.
The trade credit was usually extended by temples in order to finance trade
expeditions and was nominated in silver. The interest rate was set at 1/60 a
month (one shekel per mina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that
level for about two thousand years.[106]
Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an
institution (such as a temple), in this case the arrears were considered to be
lent to the debtor. They were denominated in barley or other crops and the
interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could
amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal. Periodically, rulers signed
"clean slate" decrees that cancelled all the rural (but not
commercial) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes.
Customarily, rulers did it at the beginning of the first full year of their
reign, but they could also be proclaimed at times of military conflict or crop
failure. The first known ones were made by Enmetena and Urukagina of Lagash in
24002350 BC. According to Hudson, the purpose of these decrees was to
prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened the fighting force,
which could happen if peasants lost their subsistence land or became
bondservants due to inability to repay their debt.
(But Hudson mis represents the nature of the ancient debt relationship. It
could be canceled by the temple-palace because it was owned by the farmers and
was, as indicated here not because food was 'loaned ' to the farmers but
because the farmers failed to deliver their standard quota of grain TO the
temple. But he then uses this 'clean slate' debt forgivness as basis for his
repeated demand that modern governments roegive debts 'clear slates' But the
debt relationship now is the opposite. It is the government that is the debtor,
so its 'clean slate' would be forgiving ITS OWN debt. Moreover that ancient
'debt' was not part of the money supply while the debt-credit of modern
governments is itself the money supply, so forgiving its own debt - canceling
debt means canceling credit - would drasticallyh reduce the national money
supply.))
Military:
The almost constant wars among the Sumerian city-states for 2000 years helped
to develop the military technology and techniques of Sumer to a high
level.[108] The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in
c. 2450 BC on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures. It shows the king of
Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly of infantry. The infantry
carried spears, wore copper helmets, and carried rectangular shields. The
spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the phalanx formation, which
requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have used
professional soldiers.[109] The Sumerian military used carts harnessed to
onagers. These early chariots functioned less effectively in combat than did
later designs, and some have suggested that these chariots served primarily as
transports, though the crew carried battle-axes and lances. The Sumerian
chariot comprised a four or two-wheeled device manned by a crew of two and
harnessed to four onagers. The cart was composed of a woven basket and the
wheels had a solid three-piece design. Sumerian cities were surrounded by
defensive walls. The Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities,
but the mudbrick walls were able to deter some foes.
Technology:
Examples of Sumerian technology include: the wheel, cuneiform script,
arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, Sumerian boats, lunisolar
calendar, bronze, leather, saws, chisels, hammers, braces, bits, nails, pins,
rings, hoes, axes, knives, lancepoints, arrowheads, swords, glue, daggers,
waterskins, bags, harnesses, armor, quivers, war chariots, scabbards, boots,
sandals, harpoons and beer. The Sumerians had three main types of boats:
clinker-built sailboats stitched together with hair, featuring bitumen
waterproofing skin boats constructed from animal skins and reeds wooden-oared
ships, sometimes pulled upstream by people and animals walking along the nearby
banks.
Legacy:
Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid-4th millennium BC,
near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and
Central Europe. The wheel initially took the form of the potter's wheel. The
new concept led to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. The Sumerians' cuneiform
script is the oldest (or second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs) which
has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the Jiahu
symbols and Tartaria tablets is controversial). The Sumerians were among the
first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which
survived in the zodiac and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks. They
were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked
eye.[111] They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different
number systems including a mixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and
base 6. This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and
Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic
divisions between infantry, cavalry, and archers. They developed the first
known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails,
and government records. The first true city-states arose in Sumer, roughly
contemporaneously with similar entities in what are now Syria and Lebanon.
Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded
beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the
first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend,
mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. Conjointly with the
spread of writing, the first formal schools were established, usually under the
auspices of a city-state's primary temple.
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