CULTURE
Seated along the
Euphrates River, Sumer had a thriving agriculture and trade industry. Herds of
sheep and goats and farms of grains and vegetables were held both by the
temples and private citizens. Ships plied up and down the river and throughout
the Persian Gulf, carrying pottery and various processed goods and bringing
back fruits and various raw materials from across the region, including cedars
from the Levant.
Sumer was one of the
first literate civilizations leaving many records of business transactions, and
lessons from schools. They had strong armies, which with their chariots and
phalanxes held sway over their less civilized neighbors. Perhaps the most
lasting cultural remnants of the Sumerians though, can be found in their
religion.
Sumerian Jobs and Economy
Jobs included pottery makers, stonecutters, bricklayers, metal smiths, Farmers,
fishers, shepherds, weavers, leather-workers, and sailors.
The wheel was invented
for carts, chariots, and pottery making.
Iron was smelted about
2500 BC.
Seals had been used to
stamp a carved insignia on clay before cylindrical seals became widespread for
labeling commodities and legal documents.
Pictographic writing was
first used by the Sumerians about 3400, and by 3000 BC this had evolved into
cuneiform words and syllables.
The Sumerian economy was
based on agriculture, which was influenced by major technological advances in
Mesopotamian history.
Early Sumerian homes
were huts built from bundles of reeds, which went on to be built from sun-baked
mud bricks because of the shortage of stone.
Sumerians would have
ploughed with stone and cut with clay sickles, and went on to using metal
ploughs with the development of metal-working skills. A significant invention
(one of many by the Sumerians) was the wheel, which at first was made of solid
wood.
The aggrandizement of
the king was at times taken to an extreme, as indicated by the royal cemetery
of Ur from the 26th century BC in which archaeologists found not only
extraordinary wealth and precious objects but also the corpses of as many as 74
attendants. As we shall see in the tale of Gilgamesh and other literature, the
Sumerians believed in an underworld for the spirits of the dead; and some kings
as gods felt they wanted their servants there also. Obviously this was a major
violation of life, and this practice seemed to die out after the Early Dynastic
period.
Below the king or
governor society had three distinct classes: aristocratic nobles who were
administrators, priests, and officers in the army rewarded with large estates;
a middle class of business people, school teachers, artisans, and farmers; and
the lowest being slaves, who had been captured in war or were dispossessed
farmers or those sold by their families. Slavery was not stigmatized by race
but was considered a misfortune out of which one could free oneself through service,
usually in three years.
Some of the young women
were married to the god in the temple and were not celibate; some were
prostitutes, and their children were often legally adopted. Laws made clear
distinctions between the three classes. Though women had some rights, they were
not equal to men. Thus from the beginning of civilization the sexism of
patriarchal rule in the state and families is seen in the oppression by male
dominance. The Sumerians were quite bureaucratic, documenting major
transactions and legal agreements of all kinds, being the first to develop a
system of laws, which influenced the law codes of Eshnunna and Hammurabi.
How then did these
social hierarchies develop? Given the limited knowledge available, our
explanations are speculative and uncertain. As the pastoral peoples traded with
the farmers and villagers, more complex social organizations could function
more productively. The manufacturing of pottery and other products led to
specialization and trading by barter, as the Sumerians had no money system
except for the weighing of precious metals. As irrigation systems became more
complex, planners and managers of labor were needed. Protection of surplus
goods and valuable construction was required to guard against raiding parties. Those
with the ability to organize and manage more complex activities tended to give
themselves privileges for their success, and eventually social inequalities
grew, as those who failed lost their privileges. Religion also became a part of
this system of inequality, as religious leaders placed themselves above others
in their service of the deities.
Laws
apparently were devised to prevent abuses and as a way to settle disputes. Cities took the step
from police protection under law to the organization of retaliatory attacks by
an army. The skills of hunters selected over a long period of evolution seem to
have given men (more than women) a tendency to gang up and work together in
violent attacks. However, when the objects of these attacks became other men
and the valuables found in another city, this tendency became self-destructive
for the species. The survival instincts kept it within bounds so that it has
not practiced to extinction (so far), but individual leaders who could gain
social rewards for initiating such adventures appeared with increasing
regularity. Apparently those individuals with better methods of resolving
conflicts were not able to persuade enough people all the time to avoid such
brutality. Yet the history of Sumer shows that war was counter-productive for
most people and eventually led to the decline and fall of their culture.
After the fall of the
last Sumerian dynasty about 2000 BC, some Sumerian scribes wrote chronicles of
their long past. Although these have been lost, lists of their kings and some
accounts edited into later Babylonian chronicles have been found. These claimed
that their kings go back more than 240,000 years before the flood and come
forward about 30,000 years after the flood. Such figures would take us back
before Atlantis to Lemuria, which seems unlikely, though as one of the few
agglutinative languages Sumerian does resemble Polynesian. More than five
thousand years ago their advanced architecture using vaults, arches, and domes
indicated a long development.
The first dynasty after
the deluge was in the Akkadian region northwest of Sumer in the city of Kish,
ten miles east of what became Babylon. According to Georges Roux, twelve of the
kings' names were Semitic rather than Sumerian.
Thus from its historical
beginnings the Sumerian civilization was mixed with Semitic influences. The
first legendary ruler Etana was said to have ascended to heaven on the back of
an eagle. The oldest historical king, Mebaragesi, ruled Kish about 2700 BC and
apparently overcame the Sumerians' eastern neighbor at Elam, for he is said to
have carried away their weapons as spoil.
The second dynasty at
Uruk in Sumer itself must have overlapped with the first, because it was the
legendary fifth king of that dynasty, Gilgamesh, who was attacked by the last
Kish king Agga. An ancient account told the following story: Agga having
besieged Uruk sent envoys to Gilgamesh with an ultimatum. Gilgamesh went to his
city's elders, suggesting that they not submit but fight with weapons. However,
the elders came to the opposite conclusion.
So Gilgamesh took his
proposal to the "men of the city," and they agreed with him. Gilgamesh
was elated and said to his servant Enkidu, "Now, then, let the (peaceful)
tool be put aside for the violence of battle." Gilgamesh then asked for a
volunteer to go to Agga. Birhurturre, the head man, went and withstood torture;
but when the awesome Gilgamesh ascended the wall and was seen by the foes, the
foreigners felt overwhelmed and abandoned the siege.
The Uruk dynasty was well
known in Sumerian tradition, as Gilgamesh was preceded by Meskiaggasher, son of
the sun-god Utu, Enmerkar also sun of Utu who built Uruk, the shepherd
Lugalbanda, who was also considered divine, and the fisherman Dumuzi, the
legendary vegetation god who married the love goddess, Inanna. Tales of
Gilgamesh became very popular.
Mesalim, who called
himself King of Kish, erected a temple to Ningirsu in Lagash, for which he
arbitrated a territorial dispute with Umma and set up a stele marking the
border. However, he was overthrown, as was the last king of Uruk, by the
founder of the Ur dynasty, Mesannepadda, whose name meant the hero chosen by
An.
He and his successor
rebuilt the Tummal temple at Nippur that had fallen into ruin. The peace
between Lagash and Umma was maintained for about a century as Lagash king
Ur-Nanshe built temples, dug canals, and imported wood from Dilmun. Meanwhile
Mesannepadda sent gifts to the distant Mari. The rulers of Ur became
extraordinarily wealthy as indicated by their royal tombs in the mid-27th
century. A royal standard shows four-wheeled chariots pulled by asses and rows
of prisoners presented to the king.
Eventually mountain
people from Khamazi occupied Kish, while the Elamites encroached on Sumer. In
Lagash Ur-Nanshe's grandson, Eannatum, who also built temples and dug canals,
became a warrior, fighting back against the Elamites, conquering Ur and Uruk,
and taking the kingship of Kish. Closer to home was the local conflict with
Umma. Claiming his god commanded it, the governor of Umma raided the disputed
field of Gu-edin, removed the marker set up by Mesalim, and invaded the
territory of Lagash. However, Eannatum won the battle with the help of his god
Enlil and captured in a great net his enemies, who begged for life.
A peace treaty was
agreed upon with Enakalli, the next governor of Umma, and Mesalim's stele was
restored to its former place. Umma was required to pay heavy taxes in barley,
and Eannatum's victory was commemorated by a stele depicting vultures tearing
up the corpses of the defeated. Eannatum boasted of killing 3,600 men of Umma
and had to bury twenty heaps of his own men.
Later Eannatum had to
fight a coalition of forces from Kish and Mari led by the King of Akshak;
though he claimed victory, his little empire was declining. Umma once again
seized the disputed canal, destroyed the stele of the vultures, and defeated
Eannatum. However, his nephew, Entemena, regained the canal from Umma even
though they were backed by foreign kings (probably from Mari), and he assigned
his own governor to control the irrigation Lagash needed. Entemena also
constructed new canals, attained a "brotherhood pact" with
Lugal-kinishe-dudu who had united Uruk and Ur, and for a reign of peace and
prosperity was deified by a grateful people with statues for nearly a thousand
years. A second Eannatum was succeeded by a high priest of the warrior god
Ningirsu, and for a time peace prevailed as the people of Umma were allowed to
live in Lagash with religious and civil liberties.
However, conditions
deteriorated as they were ruled by the distant kings of
Unfortunately after only
eight years of this rule by the world's first known reformer, the army of Umma led by its governor, Lugalzagesi,
attacked Lagash possibly not resisted by Urukagina, burnt the shrines, and carried off the divine
image of Ningirsu. Assuming the existence of moral
justice the chronicler lamented, "The men of Umma,
by the despoiling of
As for Lugalzagesi, ensi of Umma, may his goddess Nidaba make
him bear his mortal sin upon his head!" Lugalzagesi went on to conquer and become king of Uruk and claim all of