The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character

by Samuel Noah Kramer

detailed treatment of Sumer's political history available to date. Because of the fragmentary, elusive, and at times far from trustworthy character of the sources, not a few of the statements in this chapter are based on conjecture and surmise, and may turn out to be true only in part or even to be entirely false. To help the reader make his own judgments and decisions in the more crucial and doubtful cases, the various kinds of source material at the scholar's disposal are outlined and evaluated at the beginning of the chapter and their shortcomings, handicaps, and pitfalls pointed out. The third chapter treats the social, economic, legal, and technological aspects of Sumerian city life. Sketchy as it is, because of the relative dearth and obscurity of the pertinent sources, it could hardly have been written at all were it not for the very recent contributions of Diakonoff, Falkenstein, and Civil, the three scholars who have done so much to illuminate one aspect or another of this area of research. Chapters iv and v treat Sumerian religion and literature, the two areas of Sumerian culture to which I have devoted almost all my scholarly career. While they include, therefore, much that is found in my earlier publications, these chapters give a fuller and more comprehensive survey of the available material