Sumerians
The Sumerians were the inhabitants of Sumer, regarded as the site of the world's first known civilization, situated in southern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They excelled in agriculture, cultivating wheat and barley and domesticating animals, which led to a significant food surplus facilitated by the invention of the bronze plow. This surplus allowed for the emergence of new skills, including the development of the first written language through a system known as cuneiform, which used wedge-shaped characters on clay tablets. Sumerians made notable advancements in various fields, including literature, science, and mathematics, and established formal schools to educate their citizens.
The Sumerian society was organized into independent city-states, characterized by complex urban planning and governance structures led by councils and elected kings. Their rich pantheon of gods, related to natural forces, played a central role in daily life, with monumental ziggurats built for worship. Sumerians engaged in extensive trade, connecting with regions as far as the Indus Valley and Anatolia, exchanging goods such as precious stones and metals. Although Sumerian civilization faced challenges like epidemics and eventual assimilation by the Babylonians around 1800 BCE, their legacy was revitalized in the 19th century through archaeological discoveries, revealing their profound contributions to human history.
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Sumerians
Related civilizations: Akkad, Babylonia.
Date: 3400-1800 b.c.e.
Locale: Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq
Sumerians
Sumer is the site of the world’s first known civilization, located in southern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The people living in this region learned to cultivate wheat and barley, domesticate sheep and goats, and predict the seasons using a lunar calendar. The invention of the bronze plow created a massive food surplus that allowed the Sumerians (sew-MEHR-ee-uhnz) to develop new skills that went beyond mere survival.
They began to keep economic records; this practice evolved into the first written language. The writing system known as cuneiform used wedge-shaped characters that were easily pressed into soft clay tablets. The Sumerians composed poetry and literature. Science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics were taught in the first formal schools. Artisans became master potters, metalworkers, weavers, and scribes. Engineers created complex irrigation canals that brought water several miles inland, transforming the desert into fertile farmland. City planners designed palace and temple complexes, harbors, and roads within large residential districts. Ur, Kish, Uruk, and Lagash are a few of the large walled cities that supported populations of 100,000 people. Epidemics were common in Sumerian cities because of the large populations and poor sanitary practices. They suffered from outbreaks of tuberculosis, bubonic plague, typhus, and smallpox.
Sumer was a confederation of independent city-states ruled by councils of wealthy landowners and elected kings. The elite ruling class supported itself through taxation of its citizens and tribute from surrounding groups. Collected wealth paid for armies, temples, roads, and public works. The Sumerian military was divided into ranks of infantry soldiers and charioteers. They wore leather armor and fought with bronze-tipped spears. Foreign war captives were forced into slavery, as were citizens who were in financial debt.
The role of priest or priestess was a powerful position held by members of the nobility. Sumerian gods were associated with the forces of nature. Their pantheon includes Utu the Sun god, Inanna the goddess of love and fertility, and Nanna the Moon god. Sacrifices were made and magnificent monuments called ziggurats were built to worship the gods.
The food surplus and centralization of the government made trade with other people possible. Sumerian trade routes spanned east to the Indus Valley and modern Afghanistan, where Sumerians obtained lapis lazuli and other precious stones. Syria supplied timber, Anatolia had tin and copper used for making bronze, and luxury goods were imported from Egypt and Africa.
The city-states of Sumer were united about 2300 b.c.e. under the Akkadian leader Sargon. Shortly before 1800 b.c.e., the Sumerian civilization was assimilated by the Babylonians. It was not until the nineteenth century c.e., with the decipherment of the cuneiform language, that the Sumerians reentered the historical record. In 1922, C. Leonard Woolley’s excavations at Ur uncovered magnificent royal tombs and the city’s ziggurat, revealing the great accomplishments of the Sumerian people.
Bibliography
Kramer, Noah. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.
Kuhrt, Amélie. The Ancient Near East, c. 3000-330 b.c. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1995.
Nemet-Nejat, Karen. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.