Sumerian Civilization
Migrating from the Armenian regions of the Black and Caspian Sea area, the Sumerians settled in the land of Sumer during the fourth millennium BC. Sumer is one of the earliest recorded civilizations in history. The Sumer civilization developed in the Mesopotamia area. Mesopotamia, meaning, “land between the rivers,” was encircled by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, two rivers known for their violent and unpredictable floods.
By 3000 BC, the Sumerian city of Uruk was the largest city in the world. The Early Dynastic period (2800-2370 BC) developed around the delta area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Several Sumerian city-states were residing in southern Mesopotamia during this period. Conquering all of the Sumerian city-states while invading southwestern Iran and northern Syria, the Akkadians’ success in battle led to the development of the first empire. Around 2125 BC, the Sumerian city of Ur was on the rise to domination; therefore, enabling the rulers of the Third Dynasty to establish a smaller, but similar empire to that of the Akkadians. However, with slightly over a century of prominence, the kingdom of Ur began to struggle with famine and invasion. This period of destitution ultimately resulted in the decentegration of the kingdom. It is believed that a destructive flood, occasionally suggested being partly the source of “Noah’s flood,” destroyed the Sumerian city-states. Following the cease of Sumerian rule & concurring with the fall of the Third Dynasty, the Sumerians lost their stature in society, and gradually disappeared, leaving few traces of their existence.
Aside the unfortunate chain of events associated with the termination of Sumerian rule, we are fortunate enough to have access to historical data discussing the unique & meaningful ways in which the Sumerian people are best remembered. The language spoken by the Sumerians was just one of the distinctive characteristics in which they solely possessed. The Sumerians, being a non-Semitic people, spoke a language not related to any language known today. Sumerian is an ergative, agglutinative language in which the grammar arrangement in the sentence structure was twisted around compared to our English language. Apparently, the Sumerians were divided into two dialects known as Emegir (the men’s language), and Emeral (the women’s language). As a whole, the language was referred to as Emeku, meaning “the people’s language.”
Remains of the Sumerians indicate them to have been generally short and stocky with high, straight noses & downward sloping eyes. They wore fleece and woven wool. Draping from the left shoulder was the style in which Sumerian women wore their garments, while the men bound their garment at their waist, leaving the upper body bare. The slaves, whether men or women, were uncovered from the waist up. As expected with time, the styles gradually changed. Sumerians were also known to have worn caps on their heads and sandals on their feet.
The land on which the Sumerians settled had a soil, which was fertilized with the rivers’ overflow acting on a regular annual event. As irritating as these overflows were to deal with, they were also very useful. The Sumerians progressively learned to channel it through irrigation canals. The irrigating system, dating from 4000 BC, was certainly an immense achievement of Sumerian civilization.
The Sumerians were polytheists, worshipping many gods and goddesses. Their gods, in majority, lived in temples and were provided with revenue, food, and wives. The Sumerian gods were cruel & capricious. Enlil (air & wind), Anu (sky god), Enki (earth & water), and Ishtar (love & fertility) were a few among the gods worshipped. The ziggurat, a tower in stages, was believed to have been used by the gods as a ladder to come down from the heavens. The Sumerians viewed life after death as a dark abode of miserable shadows to which all the dead descended indiscrimately. They also believed that a “ghost” followed each person at all times. Along with the gods, other authoritative figures included in Sumerian history were their kings. The Sumerians formulated lists of their ancient kings and credited them with extremely long reigns. Each city, maintaining independence, had a private king, referred to as an Ensi.
The rich and poor were divided into a variety of social classes. The upper class Sumerians included the nobles, priests, government officials, and warriors. The middle class, also referred to as the “Freeman” class, was made up of merchants, traders, and artisans. The majority of the population contained the serfs and slaves, who were responsible for all manual labor. The Sumerian society was “Matriarchal” in which women held a highly respected place.
Regulated by many laws, the basis of marriage was very complex. The bride solely determined the bequest of the dowry given to her by her father. She exercised equal rights with her husband over their children. And although in all crisis, the man was lord and master, a woman could administer the estate in the absence of her husband or a grown son, engage in independent business, and could keep or dispose of her own slaves. However, the man, being lord and master, was given a series of biased privileges. Under certain circumstances, he could sell his wife or hand her over as a slave to pay his debts. A man committing adultery could be forgiven while a woman doing so was punished by death. Expected to bear many children, a woman could be divorced if she was barren, but if she expressed no desire for children, her husband could have her executed by drowning. Sumerian children, having no legal rights, could be banished from the community when their parents publicly disowned them.
Cuneiform was the writing system created by the Sumerians. Cuneiform (from the Latin cuneus “wedge”) was known for the wedge-shaped marks made by writing on clay tablets with a cut-reed stylus. The earliest discovered of Sumerian literary texts are dated to 2600 BC, including a number of hymns and even some proverbs. Manuals of instruction, being named for gods, were also written by Sumerians. The literary piece, “Gilgamesh Epic,” is regarded as one of the greatest of Sumerian literature.
In their development of mathematics, the Sumerians based their system on the number sixty (sexagesimal). The modern 60-minute hour and the 360 degree circle reflect the survival of Sumerian counting. The Sumerians also invented the wheel and were the first to put sails on their ships. The Sumerian calendardivided the year into twelve lunar months and added an extra month every three or four years to reconcile the calendar with the seasons, and each city named it’s own months. Many of the constellations were mapped by the Sumerians.
The Sumerian civilization was basically a stone age civilization. Tools were made mostly with flint, with some use of copper and tin. Their houses were made of reeds. During this period, medicine flourished and claimed a specific treatment for each & every disease. It was also during this time that Hammurabi’s law code, containing 282 laws, came about. Thanks to the excavation of Ur by Sir Leonard Wooley in the 1920’s, along with research by many others, we are able to go back in time and visualize early civilizations and learn the culture of extinct, yet unique & fascinating races of people, such as the Sumerians.
Thatcher, Oliver J. The Library of Original Sources: The Ancient World. 3 vols. Milwaukee. Roberts-Manchester Co., 1901, 1907 Cahill, Thomas. The Gifts of the Jews. New York: Anchor, 1998.
Craig, Albert M. The Heritage of World Civilization Vol.1: 1700 2 vols. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 1986 : 2003
“History of Sumer” http://www.theology.edu/sumer.htm
