The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character

by Samuel Noah Kramer

than has hitherto been possible, not to mention the numerous additions and corrections that are introduced in the cited translations. Chapters vi and vii, concerned with Sumerian education and character, are my own "favorites," if an author can be permitted to have favorites. Here are two aspects of Sumerian culture of which practically nothing was known until quite recently, but which, as the two chapters show, can now be sketched and treated in considerable detail. In the chapter on education, for example, will be found four Sumerian essays dealing with school life, which were almost totally unknown only fifteen years ago. Chapter vii tries a comparatively new approach in Oriental studies: it attempts to isolate, analyze, and assess the inner motives and drives which helped to create-and destroy-Sumerian civilization. Chapter viii sketches what may be termed the "legacy" of Sumer to the world and its culture. Beginning with a review of the give-and-take between the Sumerians and the other peoples of the ancient Near East, it continues with a summary of some of the more obvious facets of modern life which may go back to Sumerian roots. It concludes with a sketch of a number of theological, ethical, and literary ideas of the Sumerians which seem to have their parallels in the Bible-the book which played so large a role in Western culture-and which