Left: Sculpture of the head of Sumerian rulerGudea,c. 2150 BC. Right:cuneiform characters forSaĝ-gíg (𒊕𒈪), "Black Headed Ones", the native designation for the Sumerians. The first is the pictographic character for "head" (, later), the second the character for "night", and for "black" when pronouncedgíg (, later).[1][2][3][4]
The term "Sumer" (Akkadian:𒋗𒈨𒊒,romanized: šumeru)[5] comes from theAkkadian name for the "Sumerians", the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of southernMesopotamia.[6][7][8][9][10] In their inscriptions, the Sumerians called their land "Kengir", the "Country of the noble lords" (Sumerian:𒆠𒂗𒄀,romanized: ki-en-gi(-r),lit. ''country" + "lords" + "noble''), and their language "Emegir" (Sumerian:𒅴𒂠,romanized: eme-g̃ir or𒅴𒄀eme-gi15).[6][11][12]
The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black-Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People"[6][13][14][15] (Sumerian:𒊕𒈪,romanized: sag̃-gíg,lit. ''head" + "black'', or𒊕𒈪𒂵,sag̃-gíg-ga, phonetically/saŋɡiɡa/,lit. "head" + "black" + relative marker).[1][2][3][4] For example, the Sumerian kingShulgi described himself as "the king of the four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people".[16] The Akkadians also called the Sumerians "black-headed people", orṣalmat-qaqqadi, in the Semitic Akkadian language.[2][3]
The Akkadians, the East Semitic-speaking people who later conquered the Sumeriancity-states, gave Sumer its main historical name, but thephonological development of the termšumerû is uncertain.[17] HebrewשִׁנְעָרŠinʿar,EgyptianSngr, andHittiteŠanhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants ofSumer.[17]
Others have suggested that the Sumerians were aNorth African people who migrated from theGreen Sahara into theMiddle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East.[23] However, contrary evidence strongly suggests that the first farming originated in theFertile Crescent.[24] Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. 2016 have suggesteda partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Middle East, particularlyNatufians, after testing the genomes of Natufian andPre-Pottery Neolithic culture-bearers.[24] Craniometric analysis has also suggested an affinity between Natufians and ancient North Africans.[25]
Based on mentions ofDilmun as the "home city of the land of Sumer" in Sumerian legends and literature, other scholars have suggested the possibility that the Sumerians originated from Dilmun, which was theorized to be the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.[30][31][32] In Sumerian mythology, Dilmun was also mentioned as the home of deities such asEnki.[33][34] The status of Dilmun as the Sumerians’ ancestral homeland has not been established, but archaeologists have found evidence of civilization in Bahrain, namely the existence of Mesopotamian-style round disks.[35]
A prehistoric people who lived in the region before the Sumerians have been termed the "Proto-Euphrateans" or "Ubaidians",[36] and are theorized to have evolved from theSamarra culture of northern Mesopotamia.[37][38][39][40] The Ubaidians, though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves, are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer. They drained the marshes foragriculture, developed trade, and established industries, includingweaving,leatherwork,metalwork,masonry, andpottery.[36]
Some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of thehunting andfishing peoples who lived in the marshland and theEastern Arabia littoral region and were part of the Arabianbifacial culture.[41]Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast ofEastern Arabia, today'sPersian Gulf region, before it was flooded at the end ofthe Ice Age.[42]
Sumerian civilization took form in theUruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into theJemdet Nasr andEarly Dynastic periods. The Sumerian city ofEridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been one of theoldest cities, where three separate cultures may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.[43]
Reliable historical records begin withEnmebaragesi (Early Dynastic I). The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC (short chronology), but Sumerian continued as asacred language. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in theThird Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100–2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some time.[43]
Archeological discovery
The Sumerians were entirely unknown during the early period of modern archeology.Jules Oppert was the first scholar to publish the word Sumer in a lecture on 17 January 1869. The first major excavations of Sumerian cities were in 1877 atGirsu by the French archeologistErnest de Sarzec, in 1889 atNippur byJohn Punnett Peters from theUniversity of Pennsylvania between 1889 and 1900, and inShuruppak by German archeologistRobert Koldewey in 1902–1903. Major publications of these finds were "Decouvertes en Chaldée par Ernest de Sarzec" byLéon Heuzey in 1884, "Les Inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad" byFrançois Thureau-Dangin in 1905, and "Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik" on Sumerian grammar byArno Poebel in 1923.[44]
A composite copy of a text listing cities from the late Uruk period such as: Nippur, Uruk, Ur, Eresh, Kesh, and Zabala.
In the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independentcity-states, which 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.
Anu ziggurat and White Temple
Anu ziggurat and White Temple at Uruk. The original pyramidal structure, the "Anu Ziggurat", dates to around 4000 BC, and the White Temple was built on top of it c. 3500 BC.[45] The design of the ziggurat was probably a precursor to that of theEgyptian pyramids, the earliest of which dates to c. 2600 BC.[46]
An incomplete list of cities that may have been visited, interacted and traded with, invaded, conquered, destroyed, occupied, colonized by and/or otherwise within the Sumerians’ sphere of influence (ordered from south to north):
Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 kilometres (205 miles) north-west of Agade, but which is credited in theking list as having exercised kingship in the Early Dynastic II period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates-Tigris alluvial plain, south ofBaghdad in what are now theBābil,Diyala,Wāsit,Dhi Qar,Basra,Al-Muthannā andAl-Qādisiyyah governorates ofIraq.
Portrait of a Sumerian prisoner on a victory stele ofSargon of Akkad,c. 2300 BC.[47] The hairstyle of the prisoners (curly hair on top and short hair on the sides) is characteristic of Sumerians, as also seen on theStandard of Ur.[48]Louvre Museum.
The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and thePersian Gulf. The oldest evidence for occupation comes fromTell el-'Oueili, but, given that environmental conditions in southern Mesopotamia were favourable to human occupation well before the Ubaid period, it is likely that older sites exist but have not yet been found. It appears that this culture was derived from theSamarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. The story of the passing of the gifts of civilization (me) toInanna, goddess of Uruk and of love and war, byEnki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk.[49]
The archaeological transition from the Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery domestically produced on a slowwheel to a great variety of unpainted pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change.[50][51]
Uruk King-priest feeding the sacred herd
The king-priest and his acolyte feeding the sacred herd. Uruk period, c. 3200 BC
By the time of the Uruk period, c. 4100–2900 BC calibrated, the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large,stratified, temple-centered cities, with populations of over 10,000 people, where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use ofslave labour captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in the earliest texts. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide area—from theTaurus Mountains inTurkey, to theMediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as westernIran.[52]: 2–3
The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists, like that found atTell Brak, had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The cities of Sumer could not maintain remote, long-distance colonies by military force.[52][page needed]
Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probablytheocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king (ensi), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women.[53] It is quite possible that the later Sumerianpantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became the most urbanized city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants.
The ancientSumerian king list includes the early dynasties of several prominent cities from this period. The first set of names on the list is of kings said to have reigned before a major flood occurred. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such asAlulim andDumizid.[53]
The end of the Uruk period coincided with thePiora oscillation, a dry period from c. 3200–2900 BC that marked the end of a long wetter, warmer climate period from about 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, called theHolocene climatic optimum.[54]
The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god)[55] towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures asDumuzid,Lugalbanda andGilgamesh—who reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2900 BC, when the now deciphered syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own.
The earliest dynastic king on the Sumerian king list whose name is known from any other legendary source isEtana, 13th king of the first dynasty ofKish. The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence isEnmebaragesi of Kish (Early Dynastic I), whose name is mentioned in theEpic of Gilgamesh—leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As theEpic of Gilgamesh shows, this period was associated with increased war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. Both Gilgamesh and one of his predecessors Enmerkar are credited with having built the walls of Uruk.[56]
The dynasty of Lagash (c. 2500–2270 BC), though omitted from the king list, is well attested through several important monuments and many archaeological finds.
Although short-lived, one of the first empires known to history was that ofEannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk,Ur, andLarsa, and reduced to tribute the city-state ofUmma, arch-rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts ofElam and along thePersian Gulf. He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy.[57] Eannatum'sStele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at the severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly after his death.
Later,Lugal-zage-si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king beforeSargon of Akkad.[43]
Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes.Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there is little break in historical continuity between the pre- and post-Sargon periods, and that too much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a "Semitic vs. Sumerian" conflict.[58] It is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by Sargon.
Gudea ofLagash, the Sumerian ruler who was famous for his numerous portrait sculptures that have been recovered.A portrait ofUr-Ningirsu, son of Gudea, c. 2100 BC.Louvre Museum.
Following the downfall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands ofGutians, another native Sumerian ruler,Gudea of Lagash, rose to local prominence and continued the practices of theSargonic kings' claims to divinity.
The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts.
Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur underUr-Nammu andShulgi (c. 2112–2004 BC, middle chronology), whose power extended as far as southernAssyria, has been erroneously called a "Sumerian renaissance" in the past.[59] Already, the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the resurgence of the Akkadian-speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the influx of waves of Semitic Martu (Amorites), who founded several competing local powers in the south, includingIsin,Larsa,Eshnunna and later, Babylonia.
The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate the south of Mesopotamia as theBabylonian Empire, just as theOld Assyrian Empire had already done in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was used.
Fall and transmission
This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward the north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity.Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem.[60] Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely.[61]
During the Akkadian andUr III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation ofwheat to the more salt-tolerantbarley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three-fifths.[61] This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian remained only aliterary andliturgical language, similar to the position occupied byLatin inmedieval Europe.
Following an Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule ofIbbi-Sin (c. 2028–2004 BC),[citation needed] Sumer came under Amorite rule (taken to introduce theMiddle Bronze Age). The independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as the "Dynasty of Isin" in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of Babylonia underHammurabi c. 1800 BC.
Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and Akkad", such asTukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC. The title was used much later byCyrus the Great when he defeatedNabonidus and conquered theNeo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC.
Population
Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,000–80,000 at its height.[62] Given the other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. Theworld population at this time has been estimated at 27 million.[63]
The Sumerians spoke alanguage isolate. A number of linguists have claimed to be able to detect asubstrate language of unknown classification beneath Sumerian, because names of some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants.[64] However, thearchaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the earlyUbaid period (5300–4700 BCC-14) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here, farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by theTigris and theEuphrates.
Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from the north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected viaChoga Mami transitional ware, to the pottery of theSamarra period culture (c. 5700–4900 BCC-14) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. The connection is most clearly seen atTell el-'Oueili nearLarsa, excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in a difficult environment.[citation needed]
Others have suggested a continuity of Sumerians, from the indigenous hunter-fisherfolk traditions, associated with the bifacial assemblages found on the Arabian littoral.Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at the end of the last Ice Age.[citation needed]
Culture
Social and family life
A reconstruction in the British Museum of headgear and necklaces worn by the women at theRoyal Cemetery at Ur.
In the early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest[65] that
"Pottery was very plentiful, and the forms of the vases, bowls and dishes were manifold; there were special jars for honey, butter, oil and wine, which was probably made from dates. Some of the vases had pointed feet, and stood on stands with crossed legs; others were flat-bottomed, and were set on square or rectangular frames of wood. The oil-jars, and probably others also, were sealed with clay, precisely as in earlyEgypt. Vases and dishes of stone were made in imitation of those of clay."
"A feathered head-dress was worn. Beds, stools and chairs were used, with carved legs resembling those of an ox. There were fire-places and fire-altars."
"Knives, drills, wedges and an instrument that looks like a saw were all known. While spears, bows, arrows, and daggers (but not swords) were employed in war."
"Tablets were used for writing purposes. Daggers with metal blades and wooden handles were worn, and copper was hammered into plates, while necklaces or collars were made of gold."
"Time was reckoned in lunar months."
There is considerable evidence concerningSumerian music.Lyres and flutes were played, among the best-known examples being theLyres of Ur.[66]
Sumerian culture was male-dominated and stratified. TheCode of Ur-Nammu, the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur III, reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath thelu-gal ("great man" or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata: The "lu" or free person, and the slave (male,arad; femalegeme). The son of alu was called adumu-nita until he married. A woman (munus) went from being a daughter (dumu-mi), to a wife (dam), then if she outlived her husband, a widow (numasu) and she could then remarry another man who was from the same tribe.[citation needed]
In early Sumer women played an important public rule as priestesses. They could also own property, transact business and had their rights protected by the courts. Sons and daughters inherited property on equal terms. The status of women deteriorated in the centuries after 2300 BC. Their right to dispose of their property was limited, and the female deities also lost their former importance.[67][68]
A Sumerian princess of the time of Gudeac. 2150 BC.
Frontal detail. Louvre Museum AO 295.
Marriages were usually arranged by the parents of the bride and groom;[70]: 78 engagements were usually completed through the approval of contracts recorded on clay tablets.[70]: 78 These marriages became legal as soon as the groom delivered a bridal gift to his bride's father.[70]: 78 One Sumerian proverb describes the ideal, happy marriage, through the mouth of a husband, who boasts that his wife has borne him eight sons and is still eager to have sex.[71]
The Sumerians considered it desirable for women to still bevirgins at the time of marriage,[72]: 100–101 but did not expect the same of men,[72]: 102–103 although one author considerspremarital sex in general to have been discouraged.[73] Neither Sumerian nor Akkadian had a word exactly corresponding to the English word 'virginity', and the concept was expressed descriptively, for example asa/é-nu-gi4-a (Sum.)/la naqbat (Akk.) 'un-deflowered', orgiš nunzua, 'never having known a penis'.[72]: 91–93 It is unclear whether terms such asšišitu in Akkadian medical texts indicate the hymen, but it appears that the intactness of the hymen was much less relevant to assessing a woman's virginity than in later cultures of the Near East. Most assessments of virginity depended on the woman's own account.[72]: 91–92
From the earliest records, the Sumerians had very relaxed attitudes toward sex.[74] Theirsexual mores were determined not by whether a sexual act was deemed immoral, but rather by whether or not it made a person ritually unclean.[74] The Sumerians widely believed thatmasturbation enhanced sexual potency, both for men and for women,[74] and they frequently engaged in it, both alone andwith their partners.[74] The Sumerians did not regardanal sex as taboo either.[74]Entu priestesses were forbidden from producing offspring[75][71] and frequently engaged in anal sex as a method ofbirth control.[75][need quotation to verify][74][unreliable source?][71][failed verification]
A tablet with pictographic pre-cuneiform writing. Late 4th millennium BC, limestone. Height: 4.5 cm, width: 4.3 cm, depth: 2.4 cm. TheLouvre
The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number ofclay tablets written incuneiform script. Sumerian writing is considered to be a great milestone in the development of humanity's ability to not only create historical records but also in creating pieces of literature, both in the form of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws.
Triangular or wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, including personal and business letters, receipts,lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, and daily records. Full libraries of clay tablets have been found. Monumental inscriptions and texts on different objects, like statues or bricks, are also very common. Many texts survive in multiple copies because they were repeatedly transcribed by scribes in training. Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had become dominant.
A prime example of cuneiform writing is a lengthy poem that was discovered in the ruins of Uruk. TheEpic of Gilgamesh was written in the standard Sumerian cuneiform. It tells of a king from the early Dynastic II period named Gilgamesh or "Bilgamesh" in Sumerian. The story relates the fictional adventures of Gilgamesh and his companion,Enkidu. It was laid out on several clay tablets and is thought to be the earliest known surviving example of fictional literature.
The Sumerian language is generally regarded as alanguage isolate inlinguistics, because it belongs to no known language family. Akkadian, by contrast, belongs to the Semitic branch of theAfroasiatic languages. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to otherlanguage families. It is anagglutinative language. In other words,morphemes ("units of meaning") are added together to create words, unlikeanalytic languages where morphemes are purely added together to create sentences. Some authors have proposed that there may be evidence of asubstratum or adstratum language for geographic features and various crafts and agricultural activities, called variouslyProto-Euphratean or Proto Tigrean, but this is disputed by others.
Understanding Sumerian texts today can be problematic. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases do not give the full grammatical structure of the language and seem to have been used as an "aide-mémoire" for knowledgeable scribes.[77]
Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC.[78] Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Babylonia and Assyria until the 1st century AD.[79]
An early writing tablet for recording the allocation of beer, 3100–3000 BC, from Iraq.British Museum, London
A cuneiform tablet about an administrative account, with entries concerning malt and barley groats, 3100–2900 BC. Clay, 6.8 x 4.5 x 1.6 cm, theMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
A bill of sale of a field and a house, fromShuruppak, c. 2600 BC. Height: 8.5 cm, width: 8.5 cm, depth: 2 cm. The Louvre
Stele of the Vultures, c. 2450 BC, limestone, Found in 1881 by Édouard de Sarzec inGirsu, now Tell Telloh, Iraq. The Louvre
Wall plaque showing libations to a seated god and a temple.Ur, 2500 BC
Naked priest offering libations to a Sumerian temple (detail),Ur, 2500 BC
The Sumerians credited their divinities for all matters pertaining to them and exhibited humility in the face of cosmic forces, such asdeath anddivine wrath.[70]: 3–4
Sumerian religion seems to have been founded upon two separatecosmogenic myths. The first saw creation as the result of a series ofhieroi gamoi or sacred marriages, involving the reconciliation of opposites, postulated as a coming together of male and female divine beings, the gods.
This pattern continued to influence regional Mesopotamian myths. Thus, in the later AkkadianEnuma Elish, creation was seen as the union of fresh and salt water, between maleAbzu, and femaleTiamat. The products of that union,Lahm and Lahmu, "the muddy ones", were titles given to the gate keepers of the E-Abzu temple ofEnki inEridu, the first Sumerian city.
Mirroring the way that muddy islands emerge from the confluence of fresh and salty water at the mouth of the Euphrates, where the river deposits its load of silt, a second hieros gamos supposedly resulted in the creation of Anshar and Kishar, the "sky-pivot" (or axle), and the "earth pivot", parents in turn ofAnu (the sky) andKi (the earth).
Another important Sumerian hieros gamos was that between Ki, here known asNinhursag or "Lady of the Mountains", and Enki of Eridu, the god of fresh water which brought forth greenery and pasture.
At an early stage, following the dawn of recorded history,Nippur, in central Mesopotamia, replaced Eridu in the south as the primary temple city, whose priests exercised politicalhegemony on the other city-states. Nippur retained this status throughout the Sumerian period.
Deities
Akkadian cylinder seal from sometime around 2300 BC or thereabouts depicting the deitiesInanna,Utu,Enki, andIsimud
Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form. There was no common set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. Nonetheless, these were not exclusive; the gods of one city were often acknowledged elsewhere. Sumerian speakers were among the earliest people to record their beliefs in writing, and were a major inspiration in laterMesopotamian mythology,religion, andastrology.
The Sumerians worshiped:
An as the full-time god equivalent to heaven; indeed, the wordan in Sumerian means sky and his consortKi, means earth.
Enki in the south at the temple in Eridu. Enki was the god of beneficence and of wisdom, ruler of the freshwater depths beneath the earth, a healer and friend to humanity who in Sumerian myth was thought to have given humans the arts and sciences, the industries and manners of civilization; the first law book was considered his creation.
Enlil was the god of storm, wind, and rain.[80]: 108 He was the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon[80]: 108 [81]: 115–121 and the patron god of Nippur.[82]: 231–234 His consort wasNinlil, the goddess of the south wind.[83]: 106
Inanna was the goddess of love, sexuality, and war;[76]: 109 the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening (western) star, at the temple (shared with An) at Uruk. Deified kings may have re-enacted the marriage of Inanna andDumuzid with priestesses.[76]: 151, 157–158
The sun-godUtu atLarsa in the south andSippar in the north,
Thesedeities formed the main pantheon, and in addition to this there were hundreds of other minor gods. Sumerian gods were often associated with different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with those cities' political power. The gods were said to have created human beings from clay for the purpose of serving them. The temples organized the mass labour projects needed for irrigation agriculture. Citizens had a labor duty to the temple, though they could avoid it by a payment of silver.
Cosmology
Sumerians envisioned Earth to be a rectangular field with four corners.[84] The Sumerianafterlife involved a descent into a gloomynetherworld to spend eternity in a wretchedexistence as aGidim (ghost).[84]
The universe was divided into four quarters:
To the north were the hill-dwellingSubartu, who were periodically raided for slaves, timber, and other raw materials.[85]
To the west were the tent-dwellingMartu, ancient Semitic-speaking peoples living as pastoral nomads tending herds of sheep and goats.
To the south was the land ofDilmun, a trading state associated with the land of the dead and the place of creation.[86]
To the east were theElamites, a rival people with whom the Sumerians were frequently at war.
Their known world extended fromThe Upper Sea or Mediterranean coastline, toThe Lower Sea, thePersian Gulf and the land ofMeluhha (probably theIndus Valley) andMagan (Oman), famed for its copper ores.
Temple and temple organisation
Ziggurats (Sumerian temples) each had an individual name and consisted of a forecourt, with a central pond for purification.[87] The temple itself had a centralnave with aisles along either side. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. At one end would stand thepodium and amudbrick table for animal and vegetablesacrifices.Granaries andstorehouses were usually located near the temples. After a time the Sumerians began to place the temples on top of multi-layered square constructions built as a series of rising terraces, giving rise to the Ziggurat style.[88]
Funerary practices
It was believed that when people died, they would be confined to a gloomy world ofEreshkigal, whose realm was guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people entering or leaving. The dead were buried outside the city walls in graveyards where a small mound covered the corpse, along with offerings to monsters and a small amount of food. Those who could afford it sought burial at Dilmun.[86]Human sacrifice was found in the death pits at the Ur royal cemetery where QueenPuabi was accompanied in death by her servants.
From the royal tombs ofUr, made oflapis lazuli and shell, shows peacetime
In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest thatsheep,goats,cattle, andpigs were domesticated. They usedoxen as their primary beasts of burden anddonkeys orequids as their primary transport animal and "woollen clothing as well as rugs were made from the wool or hair of the animals. ... By the side of the house was an enclosed garden planted with trees and other plants; wheat and probably othercereals were sown in the fields, and theshaduf was already employed for the purpose of irrigation. Plants were also grown in pots or vases."[65]
An account of barley rations issued monthly to adults and children written incuneiform script on a clay tablet, written in year 4 of KingUrukagina,c. 2350 BC
The Sumerians were one of the first knownbeer-drinking societies. Cereals were plentiful and were the key ingredient in their early brew. They brewed multiple kinds of beer consisting of wheat, barley, and mixed grain beers. Beer brewing was very important to the Sumerians. It was referenced in the Epic of Gilgamesh when Enkidu was introduced to the food and beer of Gilgamesh's people: "Drink the beer, as is the custom of the land... He drank the beer-seven jugs! and became expansive and sang with joy!"[89]
The Sumerians practiced similar irrigation techniques as those used in Egypt.[90] American anthropologistRobert McCormick Adams says that irrigation development was associated with urbanization,[91] and that 89% of the population lived in the cities.
Sumerian agriculture depended heavily onirrigation. The irrigation was accomplished by the use ofshaduf,canals,channels,dykes,weirs, andreservoirs. The frequent violent floods of theTigris, and less so, of theEuphrates, meant that canals required frequent repair and continual removal ofsilt, and survey markers and boundary stones needed to be continually replaced. The government required individuals to work on the canals in acorvée, although the rich were able to exempt themselves.
As is known from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after theSpring equinox and theAkitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. Next they made oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields withpickaxes. After drying, they plowed,harrowed, andraked the ground three times, and pulverized it with amattock, before planting seed. Unfortunately, the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. By the Ur III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley as their principal crop.
Sumerians harvested during thespring in three-person teams consisting of areaper, abinder, and a sheaf handler.[93] The farmers would usethreshing wagons, driven by oxen, to separate the cereal heads from thestalks and then use threshing sleds to disengage the grain. They thenwinnowed the grain/chaff mixture.
The Sumerians were great artists. Sumerian artefacts show great detail and ornamentation, with fine semi-precious stones imported from other lands, such aslapis lazuli,marble, anddiorite, and precious metals like hammered gold, incorporated into the design. Since stone was rare it was reserved for sculpture. The most widespread material in Sumer was clay, as a result many Sumerian objects are made of clay. Metals such as gold, silver, copper, and bronze, along with shells and gemstones, were used for the finest sculptures and inlays. Small stones of all kinds, including more precious stones such as lapis lazuli, alabaster, and serpentine, were used forcylinder seals.
Some of the most famous masterpieces are the Lyres of Ur, which are considered to be the world's oldest survivingstringed instruments. They were discovered byLeonard Woolley when theRoyal Cemetery of Ur was excavated between 1922 and 1934.
Cylinder seal and impression in which appears a ritual scene before a temple façade; 3500–3100 BC; bituminous limestone; height: 4.5 cm;Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures were made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed withmortar orcement. Mud-brick buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, which thus came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resultant hills, known astells, are found throughout the ancient Near East.
According toArchibald Sayce, the primitivepictograms of the early Sumerian (i.e. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. Brick was the ordinary building material, and with it cities, forts, temples and houses were constructed. The city was provided with towers and stood on an artificial platform; the house also had a tower-like appearance. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. The foundation stones—or rather bricks—of a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under them."[65]
The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms that supported temples. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by theMarsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. The Sumerians also developed thearch, which enabled them to develop a strong type of dome. They built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such asbuttresses,recesses, halfcolumns, andclay nails.
The Sumerians developed a complex system ofmetrology c. 4000 BC. This advanced metrology resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From c. 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrotemultiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt withgeometrical exercises anddivision problems. The earliest traces of theBabylonian numerals also date back to this period.[94] The period c. 2700–2300 BC saw the first appearance of theabacus, and a table of successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of theirsexagesimal number system.[95] The Sumerians were the first to use a place value numeral system. There is also anecdotal evidence the Sumerians may have used a type of slide rule in astronomical calculations. They were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.[96]
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building inShuruppak, Sumerian tablet, c. 2600 BC
Discoveries ofobsidian from far-away locations inAnatolia and lapis lazuli fromBadakhshan in northeasternAfghanistan, beads from Dilmun (modernBahrain), and several seals inscribed with theIndus Valleyscript suggest a remarkably wide-ranging network of ancient trade centered on thePersian Gulf. For example,Imports to Ur came from many parts of the world. In particular, the metals of all types had to be imported.
TheEpic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods, such as wood, that were scarce in Mesopotamia. In particular,cedar fromLebanon was prized. The finding of resin in the tomb of QueenPuabi at Ur, indicates it was traded from as far away asMozambique.
The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. Slave women worked asweavers, pressers,millers, andporters.[citation needed]
Theetched carnelian beads with white designs in this necklace from theRoyal Cemetery of Ur, dating to theFirst Dynasty of Ur, are thought to have come from the Indus Valley.British Museum.[98]The trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Indus would have been significantly shorter due to lower sea levels in the 3rd millennium BC.[99]
Evidence for imports from the Indus to Ur can be found from around 2350 BC.[100] Various objects made with shell species that are characteristic of the Indus coast, particularlyTurbinella pyrum andPleuroploca trapezium, have been found in the archaeological sites of Mesopotamia dating from around 2500–2000 BC.[101]Carnelian beads from the Indus were found in the Sumerian tombs of Ur, theRoyal Cemetery at Ur, dating to 2600–2450.[102] In particular, carnelian beads with an etched design in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley, and made according to a technique of acid-etching developed by theHarappans.[103][98][104] Lapis lazuli was imported in great quantity by Egypt, and already used in many tombs of theNaqada II period (c. 3200 BC). Lapis lazuli probably originated in northernAfghanistan, as no other sources are known, and had to be transported across theIranian plateau to Mesopotamia, and then Egypt.[105][106]
Several Indus seals with Harappan script have also been found in Mesopotamia, particularly in Ur, Babylon and Kish.[107][108][109][110][111][112]
Gudea, the ruler of the Neo-Summerian Empire at Lagash, is recorded as having imported "translucent carnelian" fromMeluhha, generally thought to be the Indus Valley area.[102] Various inscriptions also mention the presence of Meluhha traders and interpreters in Mesopotamia.[102] About twenty seals have been found from the Akkadian and Ur III sites, that have connections with Harappa and often use Harappan symbols or writing.[102]
The Indus Valley Civilization only flourished in its most developed form between 2400 and 1800 BC, but at the time of these exchanges, it was a much larger entity than the Mesopotamian civilization, covering an area of 1.2 million square kilometers with thousands of settlements, compared to an area of only about 65.000 square kilometers for the occupied area of Mesopotamia, while the largest cities were comparable in size at about 30–40,000 inhabitants.[113]
Money and credit
Large institutions kept their accounts in barley andsilver, often with a fixed rate between them. The obligations, loans and prices in general were usually denominated in one of them. Many transactions involved debt, for example goods consigned to merchants by temple and beer advanced by "ale women".[114]
Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans. The trade credit was usually extended by temples in order to finance trade expeditions and was nominated in silver. The interest rate was set at 1/60 a month (oneshekel permina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years.[114]Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an institution (such as a temple), in this case the arrears were considered to be lent to the debtor.[115] They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal.[114]
Periodically, rulers signed "clean slate" decrees that cancelled all the rural (but not commercial) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes. Customarily, rulers did it at the beginning of the first full year of their reign, but they could also be proclaimed at times of military conflict or crop failure. The first known ones were made byEnmetena andUrukagina of Lagash in 2400–2350 BC. According to Hudson, the purpose of these decrees was to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened the fighting force, which could happen if peasants lost their subsistence land or became bondservants due to inability to repay their debt.[114]
The almost constant wars among the Sumerian city-states for 2000 years helped to develop the military technology and techniques of Sumer to a high level.[116] The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2450 BC on a stele called theStele of the Vultures. It shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly ofinfantry. The infantry carriedspears, worecopperhelmets, and carried rectangularshields. The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles thephalanx formation, which requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have used professional soldiers.[117]
The Sumerian military used carts harnessed toonagers. These earlychariots functioned less effectively in combat than did later designs, and some have suggested that these chariots served primarily as transports, though the crew carried battle-axes andlances. The Sumerian chariot comprised a four or two-wheeled device manned by a crew of two and harnessed to four onagers. The cart was composed of awoven basket and the wheels had a solid three-piece design.
Sumerian cities were surrounded bydefensive walls. The Sumerians engaged insiege warfare between their cities, but the mudbrick walls were able to deter some foes.
Sumer and contemporary polities and culturesc. 3000 BC
Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid-4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. The wheel initially took the form of the potter's wheel. The new concept led to wheeledvehicles and mill wheels. The Sumerians' cuneiform script is the oldest (or second oldest after theEgyptian hieroglyphs) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as theJiahu symbols andTartaria tablets is controversial). The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in thezodiac and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks.[118][unreliable source] They were also aware of thefive planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.[119]
They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including amixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. Thissexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions betweeninfantry,cavalry, andarchers. They developed the first known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails, and government records.
The first true city-states arose in Sumer, roughly contemporaneously with similar entities in what are nowSyria andLebanon. Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. Conjointly with the spread of writing, the first formal schools were established, usually under the auspices of a city-state's primary temple.
^"emeĝir [SUMERIAN]".The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. Retrieved14 July 2021.
^abc"The area in question (the extreme south of Mesopotamia) may now be called Sumer, and its inhabitants Sumerians, although these names are only English approximations of the Akkadian designations; the Sumerians themselves called their land Kengir, their language Emegir, and themselves Sag-giga, "black-headed ones." inW. Hallo; W. Simpson (1971).The Ancient Near East. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. p. 29.
^Piotr Michalowski, "Sumerian,"The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages." Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge University Press). Pages 19–59
^Roŭ, Georges (1993).Ancient Iraq (3rd ed.). London, England: Penguin Books. pp. 80–82.
^abvan der Toorn, K.; van der Horst, P. W. (January 1990). "Nimrod before and after the Bible".The Harvard Theological Review.83 (1):1–29.doi:10.1017/S0017816000005502.S2CID161371511.
^"The Ubaid Period (5500–4000 B.C.)".Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art. October 2003.Archived from the original on 2021-07-07. Retrieved2014-02-22.
^Carter, Rober A.; Graham, Philip, eds. (April 2006)."Beyond the Ubaid"(PDF). University of Durham. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2014-03-21. Retrieved2014-02-22.
^Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio; Martínez-Laso, Jorge; Gómez-Casado, Eduardo (2000).Prehistoric Iberia: Genetics, Anthropology, and Linguistics. International Conference on Prehistoric Iberia : Genetics, Anthropology, and Linguistics; November 16–17, 1998; Madrid, Spain. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 22.ISBN978-0-306-46364-8.
^Reich, David; Pinhasi, Ron; Patterson, Nick; Hovhannisyan, Nelli A.; Yengo, Loic; Wilson, James F.; Torroni, Antonio; Tönjes, Anke; Stumvoll, Michael (August 2016)."Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East".Nature.536 (7617):419–424.Bibcode:2016Natur.536..419L.doi:10.1038/nature19310.ISSN1476-4687.PMC5003663.PMID27459054.Craniometric analyses have suggested an affinity between the Natufians and populations of north or sub-Saharan Africa, a result that finds some support from Y chromosome analysis which shows that the Natufians and successor Levantine Neolithic populations carried haplogroup E, of likely ultimate African origin, which has not been detected in other ancient males from West Eurasia. However, no affinity of Natufians to sub-Saharan Africans is evident in our genome-wide analysis, as present-day sub-Saharan Africans do not share more alleles with Natufians than with other ancient Eurasians.
^Margarethe Uepermann (2007), "Structuring the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia".Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, Vol. 3, Issue 2, pp. 65–109.
^abNigro, Lorenzo (1998). "The Two Steles of Sargon: Iconology and Visual Propaganda at the Beginning of Royal Akkadian Relief".Iraq.60. British Institute for the Study of Iraq:85–102.doi:10.2307/4200454.hdl:11573/109737.JSTOR4200454.S2CID193050892.
^abT. Jacobsen.Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture.
^Cooper, Jerrold S. (2016). "Sumerian literature and Sumerian identity".Problems of canonicity and identity formation in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Kim Ryholt, Gojko Barjamovic, Københavns universitet, Denmark. Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (2010: Copenhagen, Denmark) Literature and Identity Formation (2010: Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 1–18.ISBN978-87-635-4372-9.OCLC944087535.
^Baring, Anne; Cashford, Jules (1993).The Myth of the Goddess Evolution of an Image. Penguin Books Limited. p. 159.ISBN9780141941400.
^Glassman, Ronald M. (2017).The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States. Springer International Publishing. p. 344.ISBN9783319516950.
^abColeman, J. A.; Davidson, George (2015),The Dictionary of Mythology: An A–Z of Themes, Legends, and Heroes, London, England: Arcturus Publishing Limited,ISBN978-1-78404-478-7.
^abBlack, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (1992).Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. University of Texas Press.ISBN978-0-292-70794-8.
^Whatever the assertions of cosmography here, when modern-day archaeologists carve out areas of exploration based on physical-remains and other data, there is an emphasis on three,vide Marcella Frangipane, "Different Trajectories in State Formation in Greater Mesopotamia: A View from Arslantepe (Turkey)",Journal of Archaeological Research 26 (2018): 3–63.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-017-9106-2.Archived 2022-11-23 at theWayback Machine: "southern Mesopotamia, northern Mesopotamia, and [to the west] Upper Euphrates valley" (3), with no reference to any of these proper-names.
^abGeoffrey Bibby and Carl Phillips,Looking for Dilmun (London, England: Stacey International, 1996; reprinted London, England: Knopf, 2013).ISBN978-0-905743-90-5.
^Leick, Gwendolyn (2003), Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City' (Penguin).
^Mark M. Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash,A Global History of Architecture (London, England: Wiley, 2011), pp. 33–39.ISBN978-0-470-90248-6.
^Marian H. Feldman,Diplomacy by design: Luxury arts and an "international style" in the ancient Near East, 1400–1200 BC, (Chicago, Illinois: University Press, 2006), pp. 120–121.
^abBritish Museum notice: "Gold and carnelians beads. The two beads etched with patterns in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley. They were made by a technique developed by the Harappan civilization".Photograph of the necklace in question.
^For the etching technique, seeMacKay, Ernest (1925). "Sumerian Connexions with Ancient India".The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (4): 699.JSTOR25220818.
^abcdHudson, Michael (1998). Michael Hudson and Marc Van De Mieroop (ed.).Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL. pp. 23–35.ISBN978-1-883053-71-0.
^Van De Mieroop, Marc (1998). Michael Hudson and Marc Van De Mieroop (ed.).Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL. p. 63.ISBN978-1-883053-71-0.
^Winter, Irene J. (1985). "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". In Kessler, Herbert L.; Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV 16. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. pp. 11–32.ISSN0091-7338.
Ascalone, Enrico. 2007.Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 1). Berkeley, California: University of California Press.ISBN0-520-25266-7 (paperback).
Bottéro, Jean, André Finet, Bertrand Lafont, and George Roux. 2001.Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Crawford, Harriet E. W. 2004.Sumer and the Sumerians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leick, Gwendolyn. 2002.Mesopotamia: Invention of the City. London, England and New York: Penguin.
Lloyd, Seton. 1978.The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: From the Old Stone Age to the Persian Conquest. London, England: Thames and Hudson.
Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. 1998.Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. London, England and Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
Kramer, Samuel Noah (1972).Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Revised ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.ISBN978-0-8122-1047-7.
Roux, Georges. 1992.Ancient Iraq, 560 pages. London, England: Penguin (earlier printings may have different pagination: 1966, 480 pages, Pelican; 1964, 431 pages, London, England: Allen and Urwin).
Schomp, Virginia.Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
Sumerian Language Page, perhaps the oldest Sumerian website on the web (it dates back to 1996), features compiled lexicon, detailed FAQ, extensive links, and so on.
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