The Sumerian People: A paper by Strigocia06:40 Aug 25 2006
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For almost 6,000 years the land know as Sumer remained a mystery. Its language, people, cities, religion, and art had all but disappeared. To rediscover Sumer, scholars and archeologist's had to first discover and decipher the Akkadians, Babylonians, and the Assyrians. In the mid 1800's Jules Oppert, and Assyriologist, finally give the Sumerian people their name. On January 17th, 1869 he delivers a lecture to the French Society of Numismatics and Archeology in which he declares that these people and their language should be called Sumerian, basing he conclusion on the title “King of Sumer and Akkad” found in the inscriptions of early rulers (Kramer 21) Research, continuing through the 19th century and into the present, has led historians to believe that Sumer was the first true civilization—having manifest all to the required qualities to label it as such.
The land discovered to be Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq. It was a collection of city-states, independent of each other, centered between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Settling in this region was enhanced by the annual flooding of the two rivers, causing the flood plains to be very fertile. This made it possible for year-round farming and a constant water supply. A city-state was defined by the use of boundary stones and canals, which marked their owned territory. The city proper was walled, with smaller villages or hamlets seated along the outskirts of their land. Each city-state had a patron God or Goddess, for whom a temple was built. The temples were built in the center of the city, reinforcing its importance. These temples, though built as a major community feature, were never built for public worship. They were merely the earthly home for that city-states patron God or Goddess. The only people allowed in the temple was its ruling priest, King, or those elected by the aforementioned to maintain the grounds and structure of the temple. These city temples eventually develop into ziggurats, which Kramer considers, “Sumer's most characteristic contribution to religious architecture.” (73) When a temple went into disrepair or a city had a shift in rule, it would be buried and a new temple would be built in its place. This is how the height and step-shape of the ziggurat formed.
The noble and religious leaders constituted only a small fraction of the cities population. The great majority were farmer and cattle breeders, boatman and fisherman, merchants and scribes, doctors and architects, masons and carpenters, smiths, jewelers, and potters. (Kramer 74) In the city-states, there were those that grew rich and powerful, due to their specific trade, but this did not keep the poor from owning and managing their own farm, home and livestock. There are debates on the possibility of this being an untrue statement. Kramer notes that a number of scholars claim the “Sumerian city-state was a totalitarian theocracy dominated by the temple, which owns all the land and was in absolute control or the economy.” (75) Regardless of which opinion is believed, traveling merchants had a thriving business trading with neighboring cities, whether it was to be benefit of the merchant or the temple.
Similar to our society, the family played an important role in Sumerian society. A Sumerian family was very close and held together by, “...love, respect, and mutual obligation.” (Kramer 78) All marriages were arranged by the parents—some prior to their children coming of age. A betrothal was recognized as a legal contract. A father would only agree to the passingof his daughters hand after he received a bridal gift from the prospective groom. Although Sumerian women appear to be objects, waiting to be bought and sold, she did have many important, legal rights. Kramer writes, “A woman in Sumer... could hold property, engage in business, and qualify as a witness.” (78) As harsh as it may seem, children of a Sumerian family could be disinherited or sold into slavery. The selling of children was often done to pay off the debts of the family.
The average Sumerian home was much like a small, studio apartment. Its center had an open court design, with rooms that grouped off of it. It was normally a one story building, constructed of mud-brick. Their household tool and dishes were made from stone, clay, copper, or bronze. Their furniture was based on necessity, not design, consisting of chairs, tables and beds. A morbid twist to the Sumerian dwellings was that their family mausoleums, or burial sites, were located under their home.
Much of the history of the Sumerian city-state comes from inscribed text, found on clay tablets. The amazing thing about this fact is that the Sumerians are believed to be the first civilization in history to have created a coherent written language. There are two stages to development of their written language; the first being a picture-hieroglyphic text and the second being cuneiform (wedge-shaped) style text. The Sumerian language began as a picture-hieroglyphics. Each sign was a picture of one or more concrete objects and represented a word whose meaning was identical with, or closely related to the object pictured.(Kramer 302) Early scribes found problems with the picture-hieroglyphs. With the vast number of symbols required to form simple words of phrases, they felt it was to difficult for practical usage. The solution of this problem gave rise to the cuneiform style text. Cuneiform is named for the “wedge-shaped” impressions left from the reed stylus used to write the text. On the previous page, there is a chart showing the evolution of the picture-hieroglyphics to the cuneiform style writing. Typically, the only people would could read or write the Sumerian language were scribes. One became a scribe by going to specialized schools. “The original goal of the Sumerian school was what were would term 'professional'--that is, it was first established to train the scribes required to satisfy economic and administrative demands on the land...” Kramer writes, in “History Begins at Sumer”
With the birth of the written language, so comes the birth of literature. The Sumerian people wrote epic tales, hymns, lamentations and historiographic documents, essays long and short, precepts, and proverbs. (Kramer 168) It is possible that as early as 2500 B.C. Sumerian's were keeping records of their literary works. The greatest of these works would most certainly be the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is an epic poem about a mythological King named Gilgamesh. As a side note, there was an actual king, with the same name, that ruled the city-state of Uruk around 2700 B.C. The tablets containing this story were found in the late 19th century, in the ruined library of an Assyrian king. In this epic, Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk, and the son of the goddess Ninsun and local temple-priest. Gilgamesh is a great and courageous ruler, but his pride gets the best of him. Hearing the outcries of his people, the Gods create a man named Enkidu. Hearing of his existence, Gilgamesh sends for him to be brought to Uruk. When Enkidu arrives at Uruk, the men fight. Admitting his defeat at the hand of Gilgamesh, Enkidu becomes his close friend. Gilgamesh and Enkidu now set off to kill the giant Humbaba, who guards a remote cedar forest. They are successful in doing so, and then return to Uruk. When Gilgamesh returns, the goddess Ishtar (Inanna) proposes marriage. He refuses, angering the goddess. She sends down the “Bull of Heaven” as an act of revenge. As before, Gilgamesh and Enkidu is triumphant in slaying this massive beast. Having upset the gods for slaying the “Bull of Heaven,” Enkidu is stricken ill, and eventually dies. After the lose of his friend, Gilgamesh becomes obsessed with immortality, and begins a search for the answers of eternal life. He finds a man named Utnapishtim, who was the sole survivor of the “Great flood.” Knowing this was proof that the gods gave him eternal life, he demanded that Utnapishtim explain to him how this was possible. He tells Gilgamesh of a plant that will renew his youth and where to find it. Gilgamesh finds this plant, but it is taken from him, by a serpent, before he is able to use it. Tired and mentally drain from his self-inflicted ordeals, Gilgamesh writes of his life—and all the he learned along the way. In the most complete version of this tale, the text ends here. It is assumed that Gilgamesh dies at the end of the story.
Another of the great, collected writings of the Sumerian people is The Kings List. This a complete—as complete as history will allow—of all the Dynastic rulers of Sumer. Wolley writes that, “Around 2000 B.C., after the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Sumerian scribes took it in hand to record the glories of the great days that had passed away.” (27) The list has the kings arranged by dynasty, length of reign, and the total for their dynasty. The first ten antediluvian kings are recorded to have combined reign of 241, 200 year. This is not a clerical error; this is the amount of time—after the translation of the List—said to be length of reign for the Kings before the Flood. To the trained eye, this seems impossible. The reason for this high number is the fact that this part of the list was recorded in multiples of sars (cycles of 360 years). Some historians explain this as an actual clerical error made by an ancient scribe, while others say it was propaganda, making the lineage of other kings seem more grandiose.
Their writing achievements aside, the Sumerian people also left behind a legacy of invention. The people of Sumer possessed an intelligence beyond their assumed primitive exterior. Many historians have credited the Sumerian people with inventing the wheel. We know that they were using a potter's wheel from a early point on, so it is possible to conclude that the idea spread from there, leading to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. They were the first civilization to invent, use, and perfect a system of running water—as well as, a system to remove waste from their cities. They created bags, made mostly from animal skins or organs. The archaeological evidence of distant trade along Sumer's surrounding rives, show that they were also accomplished boat builders. They made skin-covered boats, wooden oared boats, and sailboats. They created a multitude of weapons; these include knives, arrows and arrowheads, swords and daggers, and armor—used to defend themselves from these very same weapons.
Before the Ur III dynasty, and the final dynasty of Sumer, the Semitic king Sargon came to power. He was from Akkad, the region northwest of Sumer. During his reign he helped unite Sumer and Akkad. He also established the new city of Agade and built new temples at the existing city of Nippur. He increased trade across his empire, with most of it's benefits focused on Nippur, making it a center of world culture for a brief time. After Sargon's death, his son, Naram-Sin, declared himself 'King of the Four corners of the World' and had himself deified. Unfortunately, this did nothing for his luck. The city of Agade was sacked by the Guti, who were a barbaric group of mountain people, and Naram-Sin was deposed of. The Sumerian people experienced a brief period of rebirth when they were able to reclaim power and remove the Gutians. For the next 100 years they were prosperous, until around 2000 B.C., when attacking Amorites nearly wiped out their entire society. A few of the Sumerian city-states were able to keep their independence, but they were eventually absorbed into the rising Babylonian Empire. This officially marks the end of the Sumerian civilization.
The end of a civilization, but not the end of its influence on the world. The Sumerian people contributed so much to what is Western culture today. Their written language, laws, city structure, family life, and literary works have left a mark on all successful civilizations to follow. Their written history filled in a gap where we originally thought history ended. A simple statement that could be said about the Sumerian people: Maybe they were not the first, but they were the first to write it down, and that means something.
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