The oldest known civilization.
Who were the Sumerians?
For millions of years, human beings wandered the earth in small, nomadic tribes. They made simple tools, hunted animals, and foraged for fruit and berries.
Then, about 12,000 years ago, people discovered agriculture. With agriculture came permanent settlements, often on the banks of fertile rivers or along the edges of the sea. Some of these settlements grew into cities, which went on to develop governments, armies, and writing systems.
The first example of a civilized city appeared in Mesopotamia. The Ancient Sumerians – as the inhabitants of Mesopotamia are known – built urban centers with defensive walls, irrigated farms, and huge religious temples. In later years, similar cities appeared in other parts of the world, but the Sumerians were the first of their kind. Because of this, Mesopotamia is often referred to as the ‘Cradle of Civilization.’
Modern studies
The Sumerians first constructed their cities more than 6000 years ago. Studying such an ancient society is fraught with challenges, but modern historians have risen to the task.
Over the last few centuries, archaeologists have uncovered a wealth of Sumerian sites. Excavations at sites such as Uruk and Ur have revealed walls, temples and palaces. Archaeologists have also discovered sculptures depicting gods and goddesses, as well as jewelry made from precious materials like gold and lapis lazuli.
But the most important discoveries have come in the form of clay tablets: thousands of pieces with written inscriptions preserved in the hardened clay. When historians managed to decipher these inscriptions, towards the end of the 19th century, they unlocked a wealth of primary Sumerian sources, including legal codes, religious texts, and stories.
The origins of Sumer
Using the evidence available to them, historians have traced the origins of Sumer to about 4500 BCE. At this time, a community settled in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, where two great rivers – the Tigris and Euphrates – provided an abundance of water.
This allowed them to cultivate wheat, barley and dates, while developing clever irrigation techniques like distribution canals and water gates. The region’s hot climate helped the crops to grow quickly, leading to an abundance of food.
Over the next few centuries, the surplus of resources enabled them to build larger settlements, and led to the emergence of powerful cities like Uruk and Ur. Uruk became a center for religious worship, with a bustling market that attracted traders from all over the region. Its large population also supported a wide range of craftsmen who produced pottery, jewelry, weapons and tools.
Cuneiform script
A massive development in Sumerian history was the invention of the world’s first writing system. This complex system of wedge-shaped symbols was inscribed into clay using a reed stylus. It is known, today, as cuneiform script; cuneiform literally means ‘wedge-shaped’.
The significance of cuneiform cannot be overstated. In the modern world, it is easy to take writing for granted, but cuneiform was the first of its kind. Never before had human words taken shape as physical marks.
Cuneiform was incredibly versatile and was used to record everything from business transactions and legal documents to literature such as *The Epic of Gilgamesh*, one of the oldest surviving works of literature in the world. The story tells of a Mesopotamian king who fought monsters, forged friendships, and strove for immortality. Without cuneiform, this story would only have existed orally, and would never have been read by people of the modern day.
King Urukagina's reforms
King Urukagina was a pivotal figure in the history of Sumer. When he came to power, in approximately 2400 BCE, he introduced a number of reforms that would shape the culture for centuries to come.
For example, he abolished polyandry – the practice of one woman marrying multiple men. There were no equivalent laws banning men from marrying multiple women, which has led some historians to view this reform as the first written example of gender oppression.
Having said that, he also introduced laws which protected widows from being taken advantage of by their husbands’ families. This ensured that they received an inheritance when their husband passed away. As one tablet read: “The widow and the orphan were no longer at the mercy of the powerful man.”
The Code of Ur-Nammu
Hundreds of years after the reforms of King Urukagina, the Sumerians developed the world’s oldest known legal code, with punishments for crimes such as murder, adultery, and sorcery. The Code of Ur-Nammu was created by King Ur-Nammu, and dates back to around 2100 BCE.
According to the code, if someone committed murder they would be put to death themselves. If someone was accused of sorcery, they would undergo an ordeal by water. If someone cut off another person’s foot, they would be fined 10 pieces of silver. There were almost 60 laws in total, but only 30 are known today.
Law and order are often regarded as an essential part of any civilized society. The Sumerians of Ancient Mesopotamia were the first people in recorded history to put such a system into practice.
Lyres and ziggurats
The Sumerians were a culture of great creativity, producing works of art that still captivate us today. The Lyres of Ur, discovered in modern-day Iraq, are the oldest stringed instruments ever found. Intricately carved from wood and decorated with gold and lapis lazuli, they remain some of the most beautiful instruments ever created.
Sumerian architecture was equally impressive. Their ziggurat temples towered over cities like Uruk and Eridu, providing places for worship as well as centers of government. These structures were built using mud bricks and measured more than 50 meters in height.
Sumerian literature was also rich. As well as *The Epic of Gilgamesh*, other notable works include *The Instructions of Shuruppak* – a collection of moral advice given by a father to his son – and *The Descent Of Inanna* – an epic tale about a goddess’ journey to the underworld.
The Stele of the Vultures
The Sumerians were no strangers to warfare, and their cities often clashed over resources or land. One of these conflicts is recorded in the fragments of a stone monument called the Stele of the Vultures.
The Stele was erected to commemorate the victory of King Eannatum of Lagash over King Ush of Umma – the leaders of two rival Sumerian cities. Carvings show soldiers following a leader into battle, trampling their enemies underfoot. There are vultures in the sky above the soldiers, which explains how the monument got its name.
The Stele suggests that the Sumerians used organized battle formations, with phalanxes of heavily armored soldiers. Archaeological evidence also suggests that the Sumerians engaged in siege tactics when confronted by a city’s high, mud-brick walls. These techniques were advanced for the time.
The decline of Sumer
The Sumerian civilization eventually declined due to a combination of internal and external factors. Internally, the city-states were weakened by warfare between factions, while externally they faced invasions from neighboring peoples who wanted a piece of Sumerian prosperity.
Sumer faded away completely by about 1900 BCE, but this did not mark the end of civilization in Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, the Akkadians, and the Babylonians all rose and fell in the centuries that followed.
These civilizations adopted many aspects of Sumerian society including their distinctive cuneiform script. In other words, the society of the Ancient Sumerians never fully disappeared; instead, it was absorbed into the cultures of those who followed.
The legacy of Sumer
The legacy of Sumer is still evident in many aspects of modern life. The concept of centralized cities, with written documents and organized laws, is a defining feature of the world today.
In later years, many of these qualities developed elsewhere, independent of Sumerian influence. But credit should always be given to firsts, and Sumer was the first at many things: the first civilization, the first writing system, and the first code of law.
Overall, Sumer marked a turning point in human history. Everything before it was pre-civilization, and everything beyond it was post-civilization. The days of hunter-gatherers were drawing to a close – the era of cities had begun.
