Sumer

Definition

Sumer (Sumerian: ki-en-ĝir "Land of the Lords of Brightness", Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar) was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, Iraq. It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization.

The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years and began with the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (mid 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th millennium BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Babylonia in the early 2nd millennium BC.

The cities of Sumer were the first to practice intensive, year-round agriculture, (from ca. 5300 BC). By perhaps 5000 BC, the Sumerians had developed core agricultural techniques including large-scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labour force, particularly along the waterway now known as the Shatt al-Arab, from its Persian Gulf delta to the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. The surplus of storable food created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and grazing land. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labor force and division of labor. This organization led to the development of writing (ca. 3500 BC).

By the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into about a dozen independent city-states, who were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor (ensi) or by a king (lugal) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites.

The Sumerian city states rose to power during the prehistorical Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, ca. the 23rd century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief "Sumerian renaissance" in the 21st century BC, cut short in the 20th century BC by Semitic Amorite invasions. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until ca. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) population.

The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of tablets written in Cuneiform writing. Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had become the ruling race. The Sumerian language is generally regarded as a language isolate in linguistics because it belongs to no known language family; Akkadian, by contrast belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Understanding Sumerian texts today can be problematic even for experts. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases do not give the full grammatical structure of the language.

The five "first" cities said to have exercised pre-dynastic kingship were:

1. Eridu
2. Bad-tibira
3. Larsa
4. Sippar
5. Shuruppak

Other principal cities were:

• Uruk
• Kish
• Ur
• Nippur
• Lagash
• Girsu
• Umma
• Hamazi
• Adab
• Mari
• Akshak
• Akkad
• Isin

Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 license. Last reviewed by Jan van der Crabben on 28 April 2011. Please help and improve this definition!

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Articles

• The Atrahasis Epic: The Great Flood and the Meaning of Suffering

  The Atrahasis is the Akkadian/Babylonian epic of the Great Flood sent by the gods to destroy human life. Only the good man, Atrahasis (his name translates as `exceedingly wise') was warned of the impending deluge by the god Ea who instructed him to build an ark to save himself. Atrahasis heeded...

• The Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi - No "Sumerian Job"

  The Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi is a Sumerian poem which chronicles the lament of a good man suffering undeservedly. Also known as `The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer', the title translates as "I will praise the Lord of Wisdom".  In the poem, Tabu-utul-Bel, age 52, an official of the city...

• The Hymn to Ninkasi, Goddess of Beer

  The Hymn to Ninkasi is at once a song of praise to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer, and an ancient recipe for brewing. Written down around 1800 BCE, the hymn is no doubt much older. Evidence for brewing beer in the Mesopotamian region dates back to 3500-3100 BCE at the Sumerian settlement...

• The Mesopotamian Pantheon

  The gods of the Mesopotamian region were by no means uniform in name, power, provenance or status in the hierarchy. Mesopotamian culture varied from region to region, from city-state to city-state and, because of this, Marduk should not be regarded as King of the Gods in the same way Zeus ruled in Greece...

• Inanna's Descent: A Sumerian Tale of Injustice

  The Sumerian poem, The Descent of Inanna (c. 1900-1600 BCE) chronicles the great goddess and Queen of Heaven Inanna’s journey from heaven, to earth, to the underworld to visit her recently widowed sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Dead.  The poem begins famously with the lines...

Illustrations

Sumer Books

• History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History Samuel Noah Kramer University of Pennsylvania Press (01 April 1988) Price: $16.05

• Atlas of Empire Peter Davidson New Holland Publishers Ltd (22 February 2011) Currently unavailable

• Sumer and the Sumerians Harriet Crawford Cambridge University Press (25 October 2004) Price: $41.30

• Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer Diane Wolkstein Harper Perennial (03 August 1983) Price: $10.08

• The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character Samuel Noah Kramer University Of Chicago Press (15 February 1971) Price: $20.49