Changes

'''Sumer''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|uː|m|ər}})<ref group="note">The name is from [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''{{lang|akk-Latn|Šumeru}}''; [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] {{cuneiform|&#x121A0;&#x12097;&#x120A0;}} {{lang|sux-Latn|[[Ki (earth)|ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform)|en]]-ĝir₁₅}}, approximately "land of the civilized kings" or "native land". {{lang|sux-Latn|ĝir₁₅}} means "native, local", in some contexts is "noble"([http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e2182.html ĝir NATIVE (7x: Old Babylonian)] from The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary). Literally, "land of the native (local, noble) lords". Stiebing (1994) has "Land of the Lords of Brightness" (William Stiebing, Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture). Postgate (1994) takes ''en'' as substituting ''eme'' "language", translating "land of the Sumerian heart" ({{cite book|title=Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History| author=John Nicholas Postgate| publisher=Routledge (UK)|year=1994}}. Postgate believes it likely that eme, 'tongue', became en, 'lord', through consonantal assimilation.)</ref> or '''Sumeria''' was one of the ancient [[civilizations]] and historical regions in southern [[Mesopotamia]], modern-day southern [[Iraq]], during the [[Chalcolithic]] and [[Early Bronze Age]]. Although it was previously thought that the earliest forms of writing in the region do not go back much further than c. 3500 BC, modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a non-[[Semitic peoples|Semitic]] people who spoke the [[Sumerian language]] (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc. as evidence).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/writing.html|title=Ancient Mesopotamia. Teaching materials|publisher=Oriental Institute in collaboration with Chicago Web Docent and eCUIP, The Digital Library|access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref><ref>"[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ubai/hd_ubai.htm "The Ubaid Period (5500–4000 B.C.)" In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 2003)]</ref><ref>"[https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/u/ubaid_culture.aspx"Ubaid Culture", The British Museum]</ref><ref>"[http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/saoc63.pdf"Beyond the Ubaid", (Carter, Rober A. and Graham, Philip, eds.), University of Durham, April 2006]</ref> These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called "proto-[[Euphrates|Euphrateans]]" or "[[Ubaid period|Ubaidians]]",<ref name="britannica">{{cite web| url= http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/573176/Sumer |title=Sumer (ancient region, Iraq) |publisher= Britannica.com | work=Britannica Online Encyclopedia |accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref> and are theorized to have evolved from the [[Samarra culture]] of northern Mesopotamia ([[Assyria]]).<ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://books.google.com/?id=dWuQ70MtnIQC&pg=PA51&dq=samarra+culture#v=snippet&q=%22As%20the%20Samarra%20culture%20spread%20south%2C%20it%20evolved%20into%20the%20Ubaid%20culture%22&f=false | title = Cities, Change, and Conflict: A Political Economy of Urban Life | isbn = 978-0-495-81222-7 | author1 = Kleniewski | first1 = Nancy | last2 = Thomas | first2 = Alexander R | date = 2010-03-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://books.google.com/?id=tupSM5y9yEkC&pg=PA139&dq=samarra+culture#v=onepage&q=%22cultural%20descendants%20of%20the%20originating%20Samarran%20culture%22&f=false | title = The Near East: Archaeology in the "Cradle of Civilization" | isbn = 978-0-415-04742-5 | author1 = Maisels | first1 = Charles Keith | year = 1993}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://books.google.com/?id=i7_hcCxJd9AC&pg=PA147&dq=ubaid+samarra#v=snippet&q=%22Ubaid%200%20is%20thus%20clearly%20derived%20from%20the%20earliest%20culture%20to%20move%20into%20lower%20mesopotamia%2C%20the%20Samarra%22&f=false | title = Early Civilizations of the Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China | isbn = 978-0-415-10976-5 | author1 = Maisels | first1 = Charles Keith | year = 2001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://books.google.com/?id=zmvNogJO2ZgC&pg=PA505&dq=samarra+culture#v=onepage&q=%22similar%20to%20those%20of%20the%20ubaid%20period%22&f=false | title = A dictionary of archaeology | isbn = 978-0-631-23583-5 | author1 = Shaw | first1 = Ian | last2 = Jameson | first2 = Robert | year = 2002}}</ref> The Ubaidians were the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for agriculture, developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.<ref name="britannica" />

The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the [[Persian Gulf]]. During this time, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was established at [[Eridu]] ([[Cuneiform]]: NUN.KI), c. 5300 BCEBC, by farmers who brought with them the [[Hadji Muhammed]] culture, which first pioneered irrigation agriculture. It appears this culture was derived from the [[Samarra]]n culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. Eridu remained an important religious center when it was gradually surpassed in size by the nearby city of [[Uruk]]. The story of the passing of the [[me (mythology)|''me'']] (gifts of civilisation) to [[Inanna]], goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by [[Enki]], god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect this shift in hegemony.<ref>Wolkstein, Dianna and Kramer, Samuel Noah "Innana: Queen of Heaven and Earth".</ref>

By the time of the [[Uruk]] period (c. 4100–2900 BCE BC calibrated), the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, [[social stratification|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 of [[slave]] labor 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 the [[Taurus Mountains]] in [[Turkey]], to the [[Mediterranean Sea]] in the west, and as far east as Central [[Iran]].<ref name="Algaze, Guillermo 2005">Algaze, Guillermo (2005) "The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization", (Second Edition, University of Chicago Press)</ref>

Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably [[theocratic]] and were most likely headed by a priest-king (''ensi''), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women.<refname=Jacobsen>Jacobsen, Thorkild (Ed) (1939),"The Sumerian King List" (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Assyriological Studies, No. 11., 1939)</ref> It is quite possible that the later Sumerian [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]] was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of institutionalized violence or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became the most urbanised city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants.

The ancient Sumerian 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 as [[Alulim]] and [[Dumuzid, the Shepherd|Dumizid]].<ref>name=Jacobsen, Thorkild (1939) "Sumerian King List" (Univ of Chicago)</ref>

The end of the Uruk period coincided with the [[Piora oscillation]], a dry period from c. 3200 – 2900 BCE BC that marked the end of a long wetter, warmer climate period from about 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, called the [[Holocene climatic optimum]].<ref>Lamb, Hubert H. (1995). Climate, History, and the Modern World. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-12735-1</ref>

The Dynastic period begins c. 2900 BCE BC and includes such legendary figures as [[Enmerkar]] and [[Gilgamesh]]—who are supposed to have reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2700 BCEBC, 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 is [[Etana]], 13th king of the first Dynasty of Kish. The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is [[Enmebaragesi]] of Kish (c. 26th century BCEBC), whose name is also mentioned in the [[Gilgamesh epic]]—leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period was associated with increased violence. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. (Gilgamesh is credited with having built the walls of Uruk).

c. 2500–2270 BCEBC

c. 2270–2083 BCE BC ([[chronology of the ancient Near East|short chronology]])

The [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c. 2800 BCEBC,<ref name=roux1993/> preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. 2500 BCEBC. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of [[Sargon the Great]] (c. 2270–2215 BCEBC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by the scribes. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the "[[Neo-Sumerian]] Renaissance" that followed it. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BCEBC, 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.<ref>''Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture'' by T. Jacobsen</ref> However, it is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of [[Elam]] that were previously conquered by Sargon.

c. 2083–2050 BCE BC ([[chronology of the ancient Near East|short chronology]])

c. 2093–2046 BCE BC ([[chronology of the ancient Near East|short chronology]])

c. 2047–1940 BCE BC ([[chronology of the ancient Near East|short chronology]])

[[Uruk]], one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population at its height of 50-80,000;<ref>[http://proteus.brown.edu/mesopotamianarchaeology/ Harmansah, Ömür, The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: Ceremonial centers, urbanization and state formation in Southern Mesopotamia, 2007, http://proteus.brownp.edu/mesopotamianarchaeology/699]</ref> given the other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8million-1.5million. The [[world population]] at this time has been estimated at about 27m.<ref>Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, 1978, ''Atlas of World Population History'', Facts on File, New York, ISBN 0-7139-1031-3.</ref>

The Sumerians were a non-Semitic people, and spoke a [[language isolate]]; a number of linguists believed they could detect a [[substrate language]] beneath Sumerian, names of some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants.<ref name="Nemet-Nejat1998">{{cite book|author=Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat|title=Daily life in ancient Mesopotamia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lbmXsaTGNKUC&pg=PA13|accessdate=29 November 2011|date=30 September 1998|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group| isbn= 978-0-313-29497-6| page=13}}</ref> However, the [[archaeological record]] shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the Early [[Ubaid period]] (5300 – 4700 BCE BC [[Radiocarbon dating|C-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 the [[Tigris]] and the [[Euphrates]] rivers.

It is speculated by some archaeologists that Sumerian speakers were farmers who moved down from the north, after perfecting irrigation agriculture there [note there is no consensus among scholars on the origins of the Sumerians]. The [[Ubaid period|Ubaid]] pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via [[Choga Mami]] Transitional ware to the pottery of the [[Samarra]] period culture (c. 5700 – 4900 BCE BC [[Radiocarbon dating|C-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 at Tell Awayli (''Oueilli'', ''Oueili'') near [[Larsa]], excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this view, 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|date=June 2011}}

Inscriptions describing the reforms of king [[Urukagina]] of [[Lagash]] (c. 2300 BCEBC) say that he abolished the former custom of [[polyandry]] in his country, prescribing that a woman who took multiple husbands be stoned with rocks upon which her crime had been written.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=mpjk74blFDgC&pg=PA62&dq=urukagina+%22two+men%22&client=firefox-a&sig=29we4cFBrgMpJ9qsy4zjpCywAQY ''Gender and the Journal: Diaries and Academic Discourse'' p. 62] by Cinthia Gannett, 1992</ref>

[[File:Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer.jpg|thumb|Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer, 3100–3000 BCEBC]]

The Sumerian language is generally regarded as a [[language isolate]] in [[linguistics]] because it belongs to no known language family; Akkadian, by contrast, belongs to the Semitic branch of the [[Afro-Asiatic Afroasiatic languages]]. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other [[language family|language groups]]. It is an [[agglutinative language]]; in other words, [[morpheme]]s ("units of meaning") are added together to create words, unlike [[analytic languages]] where morphemes are purely added together to create sentences.

During the 3rd millennium BCE BC a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread [[bilingualism]].<ref name="Deutscher"/> The influences between Sumerian on Akkadian are evident in all areas including lexical borrowing on a massive scale--and syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence.<ref name='Deutscher'/> This mutual influence has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian of the 3rd millennium BCE BC as a ''[[Sprachbund]]''.<ref name='Deutscher'/>

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BCEBC,<ref name="woods">Woods C. 2006 [http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/OIS2.pdf “Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and the Death of Sumerian”]. In S.L. Sanders (ed) ''Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture'': 91-120 Chicago</ref> but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in [[Babylonia]] and [[Assyria]] until the 1st century CE.<ref>{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|title=A glossary of historical linguistics|year=2007|publisher=Edinburgh University Press| isbn=978-0-7486-2379-2|author2=Mauricio J. Mixco |page=196}}</ref>

[[File:Mesopotamia male worshiper 2750-2600 B.C.jpg|thumb|[[Tell Asmar]] votive sculpture 2750-2600 BCEBC.]]

The Sumerians adopted an agricultural lifestyle perhaps as early as c. 5000 BC – 4500 BCEBC. The region demonstrated a number of core agricultural techniques, including organized [[irrigation]], large-scale intensive cultivation of land, [[mono-cropping]] involving the use of [[plough agriculture]], and the use of an agricultural [[Division of labour|specialized labour force]] under bureaucratic control. The necessity to manage temple accounts with this organization led to the development of [[history of writing|writing]] (c. 3500 BCEBC).

[[File:Issue of barley rations.JPG|thumb|190px|An account of barley rations issued monthly to adults and children written in [[cuneiform]] on clay tablet, written in year 4 of King [[Urukagina]], circa 2350 BCEBC]]The Sumerians were one of the first known [[beer]] 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!"<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gately|first1=Iain|title=Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol|publisher=Gotham Books|isbn=978-1-592-40303-5|page=5}}</ref>

The Sumerians practiced similar irrigation techniques as those used in Egypt.<ref>{{cite book| last = Mackenzie| first = Donald Alexander| year = 1927 | title = Footprints of Early Man| publisher = Blackie & Son Limited}}</ref> American anthropologist [[Robert McCormick Adams]] says that irrigation development was associated with urbanization,<ref>{{cite book| last = Adams| first = R. McC.| year = 1981 | title = Heartland of Cities| publisher = University of Chicago Press}}</ref> and that 89% of the population lived in the cities.<ref>http://cniss.wustl.edu/workshoppapers/gatpres2a.pdf{{dead link|date=March 2012}}</ref>

The Sumerians developed a complex system of [[metrology]] c. 4000 BCEBC. This metrology advanced resulting in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From c. 2600 BCE BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote [[multiplication table]]s on clay tablets and dealt with [[geometry|geometrical]] exercises and [[Division (mathematics)|division]] problems. The earliest traces of the [[Babylonian numerals]] also date back to this period.<ref>Duncan J. Melville (2003). [http://it.stlawu.edu/~dmelvill/mesomath/3Mill/chronology.html Third Millennium Chronology], ''Third Millennium Mathematics''. [[St. Lawrence University]].</ref> The period c. 2700 – 2300 BCE BC saw the first appearance of the [[abacus]], and a table of successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their [[sexagesimal]] number system.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Ifrah|2001|p=11}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book| url= http://books.google.com/?id=BKRE5AjRM3AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=sherlock+holmes+in+babylon#PPA7,M1 |title=Sherlock Holmes in Babylon: and other tales of mathematical history | first1=Marlow |last1=Anderson | first2=Robin J. |last2=Wilson |publisher=Google Books |date=October 14, 2004 |accessdate=2012-03-29| isbn= 9780883855461}}</ref>

[[File:Bill of sale Louvre AO3765.jpg|thumb|200px|Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in [[Shuruppak]], Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCEBC]]

Sumerian [[pottery|potters]] decorated pots with [[cedar oil]] [[paint]]s. The potters used a [[bow drill]] to produce the [[fire]] needed for baking the pottery. Sumerian [[masonry|masons]] and [[jewelry|jewelers]] knew and made use of [[alabaster]] ([[calcite]]), [[ivory]], [[iron]], [[gold]], [[silver]], [[carnelian]], and [[lapis lazuli]].<ref>Diplomacy by design: Luxury arts and an "international style" in the ancient Near East, 1400-1200 BCEBC, Marian H. Feldman, University of Chicago Press, 2006, pp. 120-121</ref>

[[File:Standard of Ur chariots.jpg|frame|thumb|Early chariots on the [[Standard of Ur]], c. 2600 BCEBC.]]

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. The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2525 BCE BC on a stele called the [[Stele of the Vultures]]. It shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly of [[infantry]]. The infantrymen carried [[spear]]s, wore [[copper]] [[helmet]]s and carried [[leather]] or [[wicker]] [[shield]]s. The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the [[phalanx formation]], which requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have made use of [[professional]] soldiers.

Evidence of [[wheel]]ed vehicles appeared in the mid 4th millennium BCEBC, 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 quickly led to wheeled [[vehicles]] and mill wheels. The Sumerians' [[cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]] writing system is the oldest (or second oldest after the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the [[Jiahu symbols]] and [[Tărtăria_tablets|Tartaria tablets]] is controversial). The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in the [[zodiac]] and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite web|author=Gary Thompson |url=http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gtosiris/page11-4.html |title=History of Constellation and Star Names |publisher=Members.optusnet.com.au |accessdate= 2012-03-29}}{{Verify credibility|failed=y|date=March 2012}}</ref> They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.<ref name="SumerFAQ2">{{cite web|url=http://www.sumerian.org/sumerfaq.htm#s39 |title=Sumerian Questions and Answers |publisher=Sumerian.org |accessdate=2012-03-29}}</ref>

They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including a [[mixed radix]] system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. This [[sexagesimal]] system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions between [[infantry]], [[cavalry]], and [[archery|archers]]. 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 now [[Syria]] and [[Lebanon]]. 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 BCEBC, 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.

: [[Samuel Noah Kramer|Kramer, Samuel Noah]]. ''Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium BCEBC''.