Sumeria — The World of Words

From Encolombia.com

It has often been said that history begins at Sumer. Traditionally, historians have constrained the jurisdiction of history to an arbitrary time frame. For example, a certain number of years have to pass before an event is considered history. On the other end of the timeline, history has traditionally been defined as written history. The invention of the written word, which is usually ascribed to Sumer in around 3500 BCE, is seen as the transition mark between history and what is considered prehistory. 

By now, because of some of the topics I've written about before, I'm sure you are well aware that my definition of history is much broader. To me, history is anything that happened in the past—from just a moment ago all the way to, until we can go farther, the Big Bang itself.  To me, history is not confined to 5522 years of the written record but rather 13.8 billion years. 

That being said, the transition from societies without writing to societies with writing changed history forever and though there is some debate as to whether or not Egypt developed writing before Sumer-indeed, even considering how much we do not know about humanity before the Younger Dryas-Sumer still obviously plays a large role in the dawn of complex societies. As such, it has earned itself the phrase that "history begins at Sumer." It is worth taking a look at this early society that grew around Mesopotamia. 

Sumerian warriors. Copyright by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin

Sumer Begins in Legend

The following section uses information based on Sumerian mythology.

The land of Sumer, lying within the fertile Tigris and Euphrates River valley, was a paradise given to the Sumerians by the gods—gods who provided everything the people needed to construct a civilization. Enki was particularly a major god who played a role in the birth of this kingdom. The Sumerians were ruled by a line of kings, the very first king being King Alulim, who some ancient religion scholars suggest could be conceptually related, in some way, shape or form, to the Biblical Adam. Alulim's dynasty reigned for thousands upon thousands of years and though some kings like King Ensipadzidana would be brought to heaven to learn the secrets of the gods, other kings led their people in a sort of defiance to the gods that had given them everything. It should also be noted that there appears to be some sort of god-human mixed reproduction in the legends, producing ridiculously strong and, in some cases, tyrannical hybrid men.  

The god Enki from the Adda Seal

After becoming a sinful and rebellious people, particularly under the rule of the last king, Ubaratutu, the gods—like they do in so many other legends—brought forth the Deluge, a Great Flood to wipe the slate clean. 

After the Flood

11,700 years ago - 4000 BCE

If we were to equate this Deluge with the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, this flood caused sea levels to rise quite rapidly, displacing people across the globe and resetting civilization to square one. It is here where we make our transition from legend to archaeology. 

A map of the Earth during the Ice Age by Reddit user Vality7

Though there are many theories on the origin of the Sumerians, I tend to agree most with the idea that the bulk of the ancestors of the Sumerians, what archaeology calls the Samarra culture, originated from a fishing culture that lived on the southeastern coast of Arabia until the end of the Ice Age around 11,000 years ago. Ethnically speaking, these people may have been genetically related to the Dravidians of the Indus River Valley civilization, leftovers from one of the earliest migrations out of Africa. They certainly were not Semitic like the Afroasiatic, Proto-Semitic Natufian people who lived in the Levant at this time. 

Fleeing to more fertile ground, the ancestors of the Sumerians eventually discovered the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley to the north with the best conditions to establish a more settled civilization. These people are known in archaeology as the Samarra culture and later, the Ubaidian culture. Perhaps the story of the gods and the long-living kings were native to the region and the Sumerians heard of these stories from the remnants of a fallen people and decided to heed their words and made these gods their own. Perhaps the cities these kings ruled were not in Sumer but in the lands held by the ancestral Sumerians in eastern Arabia and the stories were subsequently adapted to their new locale. Either way, the ancestral Sumerians held their gods in high regard and religion was a driving force in the move towards creating new cities. 

Map of the Samarra culture, the ancestors to the Sumerians. From P L Kessler

The ancestors of the Sumerians began to move into the region in around 5500 BCE, either bringing agricultural techniques with them or learning from other local people in the region, clearing out the land and draining whole marshes to develop complex irrigation systems and farms. At their inception, the Sumerians show signs of advanced culture with weaving, pottery, and metalwork and later establishing complex trade networks that could reach as far as Afghanistan, the Indus River Valley civilization, and Mozambique. By 4000 BCE, the defined Sumerian culture had developed. 

The Sumerian Golden Age

4000 BCE - 2334 BCE

Sumerian culture was defined by their city-states. Unlike the age of legend, the Early Bronze Age Sumerians were not one unified political structure but independent city-states ruled by priests or kings. At the center of each city was a temple structure or Ziggurat to the city's god. Though each city was associated with a specific god, these gods all made up the Sumerian pantheon that Sumerians from across the culture sphere venerated and to which they sacrificed animals. They also ritually sacrificed vegetables. There are also cases of human sacrifices—often servants who are killed to be with entombed rulers to serve them in the afterlife. 

A Ziggurat from Dea Picture Library

To support the cities, there were stone boundary borders and a network of canals to serve the cities that required constant repair. In order to run the cities, the temples were required to mobilize the population and required them to do labor for the city though some of the rich could pay in silver to avoid the work. In order to keep record of this massive labor force, the Sumerians created their claim to fame—writing. Writing was done on wet clay tablets with a reed pen and, as a result of the Sumerian focus on writing, there are many artifacts and records even as far back as this time. 

It also seems like some Sumerians from the city of Uruk may have circumnavigated Arabia and arrived in Upper Egypt, taking political power and helping to develop the region. These Sumerian settlers could possibly be the progenitors of the First Dynasty of Egypt when the country eventually unified. 

Writing tools of the Sumerians from the British Museum

During this time period, sometimes called the Early Dynastic Period, cities like Ur and Uruk grew in power with great, powerful, and tyrannical kings like the legendary Gilgamesh of Uruk. The Sumerian military was arranged into a phalanx-like formation with spears and daggers and copper helmets although they did not use any swords. The Sumerians clashed with each other while remaining suspicious of the Semites to their north and the Elamites to their east. The Sumerians and Elamites often clashed. At times, the Elamites controlled Sumerian cities. Each Sumerian city had walls which ensured that siege warfare was constant in Sumer. 

The balance of power shifted with the rise of a Sumerian man named Lugalannemundu who built what could possibly be considered the first empire as he conquered Ur, Uruk, and the city of Lagash. Lugalannemundu's empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea with conquests even in Elam itself though we know little about this empire. The Empire of Lugalannemundu did not last long as the empire fell apart following his death, returning Sumer to a land of in-fighting city-states. During this time period, a woman tavern keeper named Kugbau overthrew the city-state of Mari and ruled as a notable female ruler who was venerated as a goddess after her death. 

Sumerian forces clash with Semites from Hutchinson's Story of the Nations

After Lugalannemundu's Empire collapsed, the vacuum was eventually filled by Lagash. What was once a minor city in Sumer became a powerhouse as it asserted itself as an independent power, defeating Ur in battle and capturing the king of Umma. Lagash forces expanded even beyond Sumer, forcing Dilmun, a state in Bahrain, to pay tribute. King Eannatum  successfully unified Sumer with the conquests of Uruk, Ur, Nippur, Akshak, and Larsa and the short-held territory of Kish. Eannatum also continued conquests into Elam. However, the Lagash Empire didn't exactly bother with running the empire as it did taking the empire. As a result, the empire was constantly in a state of revolt. Eannatum was succeeded by his brother Enannatum I under whose reign Umma declared independence with failed attacks on Lagash until Enannatum I was succeeded by Entemena who brought Umma to heel once again. He is said to have brought prestige back to the Lagash Empire. However, following Entemena, the kings of Lagash were said to be weak and corrupt up until the last king, King Urukagina, who created what might be the first legal code. 

However, Urukagina's reforms did not come in time to save the Lagash Empire. A man named Lugalzagesi, the head of Umma, rebelled against the empire and conquered Lagash, Uruk, and Ur in 2358 BCE. The Lagash Empire had fallen and in its place was Lugalzagesi's empire which expanded from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea like Lugalannemundu's empire of old. However, while the Sumerians had always seen the Elamites as their greatest foe, the one to deal the final blow to the in-fighting Sumerians were the Semites, specifically a certain culture known as the Akkadians. Lugalzagesi might have been the big fish in the sea, but there's always a bigger fish. While Lugalannemundu and Lugalzegi's empires would become footnotes in history, Sumer was about to face the might of what would become remembered as the world's first true empire. 

The Akkadian Empire by Nareklm

Chains of Akkad

2334 BCE - 2154 BCE

Sumer was busy. Even with all of the in-fighting, Sumer's largest city, Uruk, had a population of around 50,000-80,000. The whole region may have had 0.8-1 million people in a world that was only populated by 27 million people. Not only were there Sumerians present, but migrants from other parts of the world like Elamites and Semites had entered the world of Sumer. One such Semite was a man named Sargon, an Akkadian who was working as a cupbearer for the King of the Sumerian city-state of Kish in around 2334 BCE. 

The cupbearer was a position of great power in Sumerian society and it was through this position that Sargon was able to engineer a coup and place himself on the throne of Kish, though he culturally associated his new state with Akkad. Swiftly, Sargon expanded his realm into the powerful Akkadian Empire that would be remembered as the first empire in history. Lugalzagesi himself was captured in the Battle of Uruk, cementing Sumerian defeat. Sargon was not satisfied with just Sumer as his campaigns were fought in Elam, the Levant, and according to some sources, even into southern Anatolia. To ensure loyalty of his empire, unlike the Lagash Empire, Sargon had a policy of moving different populations to different parts of the Empire with a priority given to spreading his fellow Akkadians throughout the empire. As a result of this, Sumer's culture became progressively more and more Akkadian. The Sumerian language became heavily influenced by Akkadian until Akkadian became the lingua franca of the realm. Ethnically, Akkadians and other Semitic people grew to potentially become the majority of Sumer. As their culture and people died, Sumer rebelled many times against Akkad but Sumer was crushed each and every time. The Sumerians found themselves united against one common enemy for the first time ever but they could not defeat the Akkadians. 

Sargon of Akkad from his victory stele.

It is said that when Sargon was old and weaker than he was in his prime, the whole empire from the Persian Gulf to northern Mesopotamia took the opportunity to revolt with every conquered people sending a united army to besiege Akkad. To the disdain of the conquered, Sargon himself led the battle against the rebellion and crushed the allies. 

In 2278 BCE, Sargon's son Rimush became the Emperor of Akkad and the Sumerians gave it their all to one last rebellion, successfully breaking Sumer away from the Akkadian Empire. Rimush came back with a vengeance, reconquering Sumer with a bloody and genocidal campaign that killed over 100,000 Sumerians. Rimush's genocide would spell the end of the once prestigious culture that marked the transition from prehistory to history and had given the Near East the art of writing. As a conquered people, Sumer was subject to Akkad's heavily planned economy that took wealth away from the people. The Akkadian language replaced Sumerian in common affairs. Sumerian kings kneeled before the Akkadian throne who found themselves enslaved. In the known world, there was only Akkad, an empire that subjugated its people. When Emperor Naram-Sin destroyed a Sumerian temple, however, the oracles revealed that the gods no longer were giving support to Akkad. Naram-Sin brought about the Curse of Akkad. Things were about to change. 

Akkadian forces victorious on the battlefield

Neo-Sumeria

2154 BCE - 1940 BCE

And so, in around 2154 BCE, the Akkadian Empire found itself under attack on all fronts. To the west, a massive drought forced nomadic western Semitic people known as the Amorites to crash into the Akkadian Empire's borders. To the east, a barbarian people known as the Gutians, the supposed ancestors of the Kurds, crossed the Zagros Mountains and stormed Mesopotamia. The Akkadian armies were overwhelmed and defeated as the Amorites and Gutians tore the empire apart. Taking advantage of the chaos, Lagash took the opportunity to declare independence and reassert itself as its own power.  Thanks to the Curse of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire fell. 

So began what is known as the Sumerian Dark Ages, a time of struggle. While Lagash maintained independence, it struggled with its dual Akkadian-Sumerian identity. The remainder of Sumer found itself under the yoke of the Gutians, a people who cared little for making their own state and enjoyed chaos and raiding more so than border patrol and taxation. Poor farming practices during the transition out of Akkad's economy resulted in mass famine and the price of grain went through the roof. Starvation was everywhere. 

The Sumerian Dark Ages would not last forever as Utu-hegal of Uruk assembled a combined Sumerian army to rebel against the Gutians, eventually driving them out and reasserting Sumerian independence. Utu-hegal looked upon Sumer as a new day dawned… only to be defeated by Ur-Nammu of Ur. Perhaps the Sumerians can't get along with each other, but that didn't matter anymore. Sumeria was free! The Gutians and the Akkadians were gone!

Akkadian and Gutian forces engage in battle. From Hutchinson's History of the Nations

Except… the Akkadians weren't really gone. Akkadians and Semites were everywhere. Sumerians, as an ethnic group, barely existed. Ur, ruling over Sumer, attempted to revive Sumerian culture. The Neo-Sumerian Empire encouraged Sumerian language and culture but the fact of the matter was, this Neo-Sumerian Empire was not a revival of Sumer but was rather the last days of the Sumerians. The Akkadian language remained the lingua franca even though Sumerian was the official language. Sumerian identity itself was in decline. And finally, despite all its efforts, the Neo-Sumerian Empire fell in 2004-1940 BCE thanks to a final invasion by Elam. The fall of the Neo-Sumerian Empire created a new status quo in the land of Sumer. To the east, the Sumerian cities were more Elamite than Sumerian and to the west, the Sumerian cities were more Amorite than Sumerian. The Early Bronze Age had come to an end and the Middle Bronze Age had begun as the Semites and Elamites fought for control of the Tigris and Euphrates river valley until, eventually, a Semite statesman named Hammurabi would take over the city of Babylon and from there he would build a new empire in Sumeria though it was no longer Sumerian in identity. The First Babylonian Empire would be a Semitic empire for a Semitic river valley. 

An Ode

The Sumerians. A people who possibly ran from the flooding of their original homeland to make a new home in the Fertile Crescent. A people who introduced writing and change the field of history forever, although other people would invent writing on their own and Egypt might have invented writing before them. A people who fought amongst themselves more than against their true enemies. A people of heroes and legends of questionable moral character. Just as they were figuring out how to make empires themselves, a man from the inside tore everything down and spelled the end of Sumerian civilization. While the Gutians freed them from the Akkadians, the Gutians brought their own chaos with them and when the Sumerians were finally free to reassert themselves, they had to take a look around and realize that they were not who they were as the Neo-Sumerian Empire fell to the same fate ancient peoples from across the world tended to fall into. But thanks to their efforts in writing and keeping records, historians know the Sumerians. We know who they were and what they thought and believed. Maybe it's not true that history began at Sumer. But, for all their advancements and records and what they gave to the western world, I think it's fair to say that, even if its just in the form of remembering writing, history will never forget Sumer. 

A Sumerian Ziggurat. From Chronicle

References

1. Ancient Iraq by Georges Roux, 1993
2. Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization by Emily Teeter, 2011( https://bit.ly/38v7319) 
3. Dravidian migration, Sumerian lingusitic and cultural affinities - Tamil Nadu from the Tribal Cultural Heritage in India Foundation, 2022 (https://bit.ly/37TTOGO)
4. Elementary Sumerian Glossary by Daniel A. Foxvog, 2016
5. Further Investigations as to the Relationship of Samarran and Ubaid Ceramic Assemblages by Mark Blackham, 1996. 
6. Hammurabi on Britannica by Johannes M. Renger (https://bit.ly/3MtLWe4)
7. Mesopotamia, the Invention of the City by Gwendolyn Leick, 2003
8. The Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India by Georg Feuerstein et. al, 2005
9. Sumer and the Sumerians by Harriet E. W. Crawford, 2004
10. Sumerian literature and Sumerian identity by Jerrold S. Cooper, 2016

By Andrew Eubanks