Sumerians: A History From Beginning to End

by Henry Freeman

They used a base-12 system and a base-60 system rather than a base-10 system. The year was split into 12 segments. They used the base-60 system to divide a circle into 360 degrees.

At times, many of us get consumed by the worldview of our individual societies today and only see the Middle East as an area of the world that is distant, dangerous, and deeply embroiled in conflict.

It’s informative to place the problems in the region that we see today into a deeper historical and geographical context to guide us in developing a broader perspective and to appreciate their human struggles. With that in mind, it might surprise many that the disappearance of water and natural resources in the region is also related to ancient Sumerians.

In honor of the importance the Sumerians placed on the number 12, the pages that lie between each of the following 12 chapters will intrigue you, raise more questions and provide some answers. As the clock ticks and the hours pass, our human thirst for knowledge to seek answers and achieve progress reveals the mastery and importance of these ancient people to the development of human civilization.

art, , metals, steles

As the community interested in these ancient findings slowly embraced the concept that the Sumerian people from 6,000 years ago that resided in southern Mesopotamia were not the same as the Semitic [1] Akkadians or Babylonians, both from northern Mesopotamia, the key findings led to a major rediscovery of the Mesopotamian civilizations.

To put it in perspective, it turned out that the Sumerian Empire (circa 5000-2000 BCE) predated the Akkad Empire (circa 2400-2200 BCE), the Babylonian Empire (circa 1950-1600 BCE), the Kassite Empire (circa 1550-1100 BCE), and the Assyrian Empire (circa 1400-612 BCE) in the Mesopotamian (modern day Iraq) region.

However, several reliable studies of world civilizations suggest that after the end of the last Ice Age in 15,000-10,000 BCE and the first evidence of agriculture, the Sumerians arrived in Mesopotamia circa 5000 BCE.

All of the Mesopotamian empires were largely collections of city-states with the one city with the best army determining domination in the region, until the decline of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE, when King Cyrus II (Cyrus the Great) conquered Mesopotamia by 539 BCE.

The development of bronze in this region first occurred in Mesopotamia when the Sumerians discovered adding tin to copper could create bronze circa 3500 BCE.

The study of changing settlement patterns of the times suggests that after the Ubaid period (circa 650 to 3800 BCE), which was characterized by small settlements by the semi-nomadic Ubaid people and some degree of site planning, the Sumerians came from the north or east, settled in the southern Mesopotamia region, and were the first to completely depend on irrigation systems. Therefore, one of the main distinctions that differentiated them from the Ubaid was that the Sumerians were no longer nomadic; instead, once the development of sophisticated irrigation systems, irrigation availability became the decisive factor in the location of city-states and agricultural sites.

Irrigation led to the foundations for organized societies and cities, but it also led to the salination and later degradation of the soil.

While the cities of Ur and Uruk are considered the first Sumerian city-states, there were twelve separate city-states altogether: Kish, Erech (Uruk), Ur, Sippar, Akshak, Larak, Nippur, Adab, Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira, and Larsa.

Since the ores needed to make copper required refinement in order to rid the metal of its waste products, removing the waste material reduced the weight of raw copper and allowed merchants to ship larger loads back to Sumer.

They worked with local nomads, who were often migrant in nature, to provide required labor. Some gave up their hunting and gathering or herding lifestyles to work in Sumerian mines or commodity production sites.

What’s the best advice you can give yourself whenever you put money down on the table? That’s right: write it down.

There are numbers of bills of sale, receipts, and documents that, upon further investigation, reveal that the Sumerians documented their economic production using a specific pictographic writing that had more than 2,000 shapes. The sheer volume caused confusion; as a result Sumerians began to develop cuneiform script. The first written tablets in this proto-cuneiform are around 85% administrative or accounting in nature.

The Gutians were semi-nomads from the mountains that the Sumerians called subhuman barbarians. It is the Gutians who contributed to the fall of the Akkadian empire after the Akkadians conquered the Sumerians. The Gutian period is considered the dark ages of Sumerian history (2218-2047 BCE).

The number of ideas that came from the Bronze Age and the Sumerian civilization, and the effects of its relationships with contemporary civilizations, is significant.

Sumerian culture and civilization had penetrated as far east as India, as far west as the Mediterranean, as far north as the Caspian Sea, and as far south as Ethiopia.

Sumer is known as the land of civilized kings - what sets them apart from those who are not civilized? Does it have to do with leaving a rudimentary way of life and embracing ways to develop a higher quality of life? What exactly makes a people civilized? If the kings are civilized, does it mean a civilization is forming?

According to “History in Black: African Americans in Search of An Ancient Past” by Yaacov Shavit, experts are ready to consider the possibility that the early population of Asia was black-skinned. Is that what the Sumerians meant by Sag-giga? Still, modern historians are divided on the identity of the early Sumerian culture and whether this is realistic or a figurative description.

They considered that civilization was a result of the gods’ triumph over chaos. That seems to be one way that we consider being civilized.

Archeologist Chris Thornton, the moderator of the panel, commented that the word “civilization” has become a loaded term that somehow implies that anything that is uncivilized is somehow bad or sub-human.

they conference-goers presented

a culture becomes a civilization when it has various combinations of elements. These can include extensive food production, codified laws and administration, form of detailed writing, complex social...

Gilgamesh, which may be known to many readers. In the epic, he said, the wildman Enkidu becomes civilized by participating in four distinct endeavors. Those endeavors include experiencing human love, putting on clothing, eating non-wild food, and playing sports. He suggests that t...

the idea that civilization isn’t necessarily the best option but instead a necessary one, especially when a growing population and limited resources can also reflect the reality of ancient times.

They became the first people to congregate in cities. They abandoned their tent-dwelling existence. They farmed. They built houses. They developed the first system of writing. They developed laws and codes that delineated rights of property and limited political authority. They constructed irrigation systems and drained canals and marshes.

In the Sumerian King’s List, when the gods first gave human beings the gifts necessary to cultivate society, they applied those gifts and established the city of Eridu. Apparently, by establishing order, they had become a civilization in their own minds.

some of the earliest known dictionaries in the world made them extremely important in studies focused on the origins of literacy. It is considered an indication of the initial civilizing process. Since they developed writing in the middle of the fourth millennium BCE and learned how to make tools and weapons before 3000 BCE, all of the subsequent and corresponding “firsts” continue to fascinate us

In order to get into the ancient Sumerian mindset, he analyzed their myth “Enki and the World Order.” The myth reveres the god Enki’s ability to create and organize the natural and cultural entities and processes essential to civilized society. In the myth, he blesses Sumer, which showed that the Sumerians thought of themselves as a rather special and hallowed community intimately related to the gods.

“Journal of the Society of Oriental Research, Volumes 1-2”explores the idea that a sense of moral evil must go with a feeling of free will. He concludes that while Sumerian society, like every other society, is conditioned by social traditions, personal initiatives led to progressive strides in ancient civilization socially. In the case of the Sumerians, they emphasized the established nature of the family that made the father the leader of the family unit and social customs absolute. However, reforms and personal initiatives in family law and society at large did have a place in civilization, despite the systemic conditioning of the king or state being able to take actions based on heredity, environment, and tradition.

While women could become priestesses in Sumerian culture and worked in many industries, it is interesting to note that women in texts that focus on the context of political leadership played a nurturing role to strengthen the position of male rulers and heroes. Women did in fact not just live out traditional structural concepts of life since they were involved in physical work, engaged in business, testified in legal proceedings, and were protected by laws that allowed them to own property, as evidenced by archived clay tablets. Their roles were more diverse than has often been assumed and their personal initiative in building the civilization is not just to be conveniently wrapped into the loaded look at the past that has identified their civilization as a traditional society.

In villages, social equality was rarely challenged, while in the cities distinctions between people was essential and expected to be displayed in many fashions and activities. It affected the lives of both men and women and according to several scholars, Sumerian women had more rights than women in many later civilizations. The Sumerians were also very concerned with oppression of the poor by the wealthy and the living conditions of orphans and widows. All received legal protections and social norms advocated goodwill towards them.

Many of the kings were literate, but they all had scribes. Kings and emperors set up inscriptions proclaiming their titles and chronicling their victories over enemies. Educated scribes could consider service to the palace, or temple, or as an accountant as job possibilities.

In their early years, according to Harriet Crawford in “The Sumerian World,” a scribe would seal documents using a seal that bore his name, but no title. Later, he would commission a new seal or recut the old one, to include the scribal title.

For instance, in “The Uniqueness of Western Civilization” by Ricardo Duchesne, the author argues that even when looking at Sumerian architecture and literature one can see the symbols of the subservience of man to the gods, and that the was the gods that were credited for the achievements of the Sumerian civilization. However, Western civilization celebrates tales of personal heroism among more individualized cultures of the West, which has led to foundational values and ideals of the West that celebrate the dawn of Western civilization in tales of such as The Iliad and Beowulf to name a few.

Sumerians were eclipsed in 1750 BCE by neighboring Semites when the Elamites and Amorites invaded. The Semitic Amorites, or Old Babylonians, conquered the plains under the Emperor Hammurabi in the 1700 BCE. He attributes being given the lands to Anu, the Supreme sky god, and Bel, the lord of heaven and earth and ruler of the destiny of the world in his letters.

When Hammurabi died in 1750 BCE, the empire disintegrated into small city-states ruled by weakened kings. The technologically-advanced Hittites, an Indo-European group of tribes, emerged out of modern-day Turkey and conquered Babylon. When they constructed their empire, it included the Zagros Mountains and Palestine. They took over Sumer about 1500 BCE. They pushed westward to Canaan.

In “The Hittites and their Language” by Claude Reignier Conder, he concluded that the Hittites were a Mongol tribe that was finally scattered circa the seventh century BCE and that although their language was clearly Mongol, not Aryan or Semitic, their script was adapted from the Sumerians.

The Sumerians achieved so much largely in part to feeling as if they were a chosen people, and that their success was the will of the gods.

All of these beautiful minds brought us so many things: writing for business transactions, schools, agricultural achievements, the wheel, a concept of time that we still rely on, superior metallurgy, a calendar, algebra, and a first set of laws, to name a few briefly.

Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer in “The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character,” from his all-encompassing thorough studies of the Sumerian culture, came to determine that Sumerians realized that they were part of a larger humanity which inhabited the four ubdas (the four regions the world is divided into as a whole).

In his studies of emotional drivers that pervaded Sumerian life, Samuel Noah Kramer found that both fear and love of life permeated their civilization in all its forms and aspects. They also valued material prosperity and well-being. The kings boasted about bringing these to the Sumerian people. Psychological causes for Sumerian achievements make sense to us.

sluices

One can easily understand the development of several innovations like the wheel and potter’s wheel, as these would increase productivity; it’s a key human motivator. With more innovations, a greater variety of tools could be developed to improve the quality of life. Trade by land and sea developed for and motivated by a need to find greater resources, since Sumer itself didn’t have as many advantageous resources as its neighbors. Finally, at least in terms of why the Sumerians began to keep lists for a variety of purposes, making order out of chaos drove them. We can relate to that.

proclivity

toiled

Each individual had a special protective deity. The gods directed mankind and ideas were god-given in order to labor over the land and fulfill the will of the gods. Rules and regulations were devised by the gods to make the cosmos run smoothly and effectively and became a list of Mes, which were a set of laws to keep the world in order. According to Peter F. Smith’s “The Dynamics of Urbanism,” Sumerians were driven to fulfill the divine command against inactivity.