Sumer

Sumer was the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Kuwait) which is generally considered the cradle of civilization. The name comes from Akkadian, the language of the north of Mesopotamia, and means “land of the civilized kings”. The Sumerians called themselves “the black headed people” and their land, in cuneiform script, was simply “the land” or “the land of the black headed people”. According to the Sumerian King List, when the gods first gave human beings the gifts necessary for cultivating society, they did so by establishing the city of Eridu in the region of Sumer. While the Ssu8umerian city of Uruk is held to be the oldest city in the world, the ancient Mesopotamians believed that it was Eridu and that it was here that order was established and civilization began.

The Sumerian civilization existed from around 5000 BCE to around 1750 BCE, where the Sumerians are thought to cease to exist as a people. They are thought to have invented the wheel, writing, the sail boat, agricultural processes such as irrigation, and the concept of the city.

There are several different periods in the Sumerian history

* **Ubaid Period** (c. 5000-4100 BCE)
* **Uruk Period** (4100-2900 BCE):  In which cities began to emerge across the landscape and the city of Uruk rose in prominence. Though the period is named for the `first city’ of Uruk, Eridu was considered the first city by the Sumerians themselves, as previously noted. Trade was firmly established with foreign lands at this time and writing evolved from pictograms to cuneiform script. It is thought that trade was the main motivator in the development of writing as there now had to be some means for accurate, long-distance, communication between the merchants of Sumer and their agents abroad.
* **The Early Dynastic Period** (2900-2334 BCE)
* **Akkadian Empire** (2234-2218 BCE). The Sumerians were conquers and rule by Sargon of Akkad, which founded the first Akkadian Empire.
* **The Ur III Period** (2047-1750 BCE), a renaissance period for the Sumerian culture.

### **Important Cities, and their main gods**:

* Eridu, E-Abzu, Enki
* Ur, E-kishnugal, Nanna (moon)
* Larsa, E-babbar, Utu (sun)
* Uruk, E-anna, Inana and An
* Bad-tibira, E-mush, Dumuzi and Inana
* Girsu, E-ninnu, Ningirsu
* Umma, E-mah, Shara (son of Inana)
* Nippur, E-kur, Enlil
* Shuruppak, E-dimgalanna, Sud (variant of Ninlil, wife of Enlil)
* Marad, E-igikalamma, Lugal-Marada (variant of Ninurta)
* Kish, ?, Ninhursag
* Sippar, E-babbar, Utu (sun)
* Kutha, E-meslam, Nergal

### **Titles used in Sumeria:**

* In the earliest periods most cities was ruled by a sort of priest-king, known as an *ensi*.
* In the later period of Early dynastic the title change to *Lugal* (translit: "Big Man), which is more a king as we know it.

### **Important people from the period:**

* **Gilgamesh**, is the semi-mythic King of Uruk best known from *The Epic of Gilgamesh.* Gilgamesh was a king in the demi-god who was said to have lived an exceptionally long life (The Sumerian King List records his reign as 126 years) and to be possessed of super-human strength.
* **Mesh-ki-ang-gasher**, known from the epic *Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.*
* **Enshakushanna** was a king of Uruk in the later 3rd millennium BC who is named on the Sumerian king list, which states his reign to have been 60 years.
* **Ur-Nanshe**, the new high priest of Lagash and achieved independence, making himself king. He defeated Ur and captured the king of Umma, Pabilgaltuk.
* **Lugal-zage-si** of Uruk. One of the greatest kings, and high priest of Umma. Lugal-zage-si took Lagash, Uruk and Ur, and made Uruk his capital. In a long inscription that he made engraved on hundreds of stone vases dedicated to Enlil of Nippur, he boasts that his kingdom extended "from the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf), along the Tigris andEuphrates, to the Upper Sea" or Mediterranean.
* **Ur-Nammu** of Ur. Defeated Utu-hegal of Uruk and founded the Third Dynasty of Ur.
* **Gudea**. He was a ruler (*ensi*) of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia, who ruled ca. 2144 - 2124 BC.  He did style himself "god of Lagash". Gudea claimed to have conquered Elam and Anshan, but his inscriptions emphasize the building of irrigationchannels and temples, and the creation of precious gifts to the gods.

### **Sumerian writing**.

Sumerian cuneiform is the earliest known writing system. Its origins can be traced back to about 8,000 BC and it developed from the pictographs and other symbols used to represent trade goods and livestock on clay tablets. Originally the Sumerians made small tokens out of clay to represent the items. The tokens were kept together in sealed clay envelopes, and in order to show what was inside the envelopes, they press the tokens into the clay in the outside.

Over time they realized that the tokens were not needed as they could make the symbols in the clay. They also developed a numeral system to represent multiple instances of the same symbol rather than just inscribing them all. The symbols became stylized over time and eventually evolved into a complete writing system.

The name 'cuneiform' means 'wedge-shaped' and comes from the Latin *cuneus* (wedge). It is based on the appearance of the strokes, which were made by pressing reed a stylus into clay. These type of symbol emerged in 3,000 BC.

The Sumerian language is very different from the indo-european languages, since it is one of the few ergative languages in the worlds. (an ergative language is a language in which the single argument ("subject") of an intransitive verb behaves like the object of a transitive verb, and differently from the agent ("subject") of a transitive verb.)

example:

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."