Talk:Sumer

I'm not sure about some of the claims here. Did the Sumerians really invent the wheel? Etc. -- April

At least one website mentions the Sumerians as the inventors of the wheel. Another one suggests that there's some debate over this, so I don't know that I'd state it definitively here. Amusingly, another site mentions that in one location, after the wheel was invented there appeared to be an ad campaign on the cave walls promoting its use after people were afraid to do so because of fear of evil spirits. (This was in the Czech republic). So basically, no definitive evidence with a quick search. Probably need someone more authoritative though... Rgamble

In 1955 Ralph Linton wrote that the earliest evidence of the wheel is from Ur (Babylonian, I think, not Sumerian) although the earliest example of an axle is from Sumer. There has been an awful lot of archeology since then, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is now an even earlier example. But I wouldn't know where to look for an authoritative source. One reason is that I think most archeologists have given up on this kind of history (x first invented....). The archeological record is incomplete, in many ways. Even if the oldest example of a wheel comes from Sumer, it does not mean that Sumerians invented the wheel -- the evidence for an older wheel in Mexico may have been destroyed. Or the wheel in Sumer may have been brought there from some other society, or invented by a craftsperson from another place. Finally, does it really matter? Today in an integrated global economy, there is much at stake if someone invents the first VCR or cold-fusion reactor. But five thousand years ago, does it really matter if someone on one side of the planet invented something a few hundred years before someone on another side of the planet? SR

Ur was a Sumerian city, and probably existed under the earlier people of the region as well. One hears that the Sumerians invented the wheel a fair bit (second only to cavemen ;) ), but I think the archaeological record is still considered ambiguous.

"Male and female slaves were called maountian men and mountian women, respectivly." "maountian"? "mountian"? "mountain"?
S.

Moved from vandalism:

sorry to post here but its the only place i know that people read and check new posts. Uh, Im working on Sumer and I can't get the text to wordwrap so its scrolling off into space...whats wrong? Lir 23:46 Oct 25, 2002 (UTC)

The problem was that the paragraph starting The Sumerian religion was initially very matriarchial begins with a SPACE character. So it's going to come out like the following:

The Sumerian religion was initially very matriarchial, as were many aspects of their society.

Take off the space, and it will look like this:

The Sumerian religion was initially very matriarchial, as were many aspects of their society. --Ed Poor

What exactly is the source for the assertion that the ninth century Magyars were descended from the Sumerians. Seems to me that it is more a case of a people trying to link themselves (rather tenuously at that) with a mythical/heroic past. Please give some backing to the statement. Danny

The following URL http://www.google.com/search?q=sumerians+magyars should give you as many links as you desire. The linkage is quite a common theory; the Sumerians were not Semitic, and the Magyars and other tribes came from areas nearby, and the languages have strong similarities, more than to any other currently existing languages.

Sumerian language says the language has no known affinities to others, which I've also seen written elsewhere.

Lir, the way you have edited this page it doesn't feel like an encyclopedia; it feels like a rather shoddy school report with things thrown in and linked willy-nilly. I know you are putting a lot of work into it, but perhaps you might benefit the project better if you looked at the entries for Sumer in a few other encyclopedias, to get a better idea of how things go into an encyclopedia. Good luck, and don't get discouraged. Your enthusiasm is catching. --Clutch

Well it should feel like a rather shoddy school report seeing as how its far from complete. Lir 07:41 Oct 28, 2002 (UTC)

What I was trying to point out was that some things that are appropriate to put into school reports, aren't so appropriate for encyclopedia articles. I mean, the fact that women did weaving in Sumeria needs some backing up. And why all the links? You have far too many, and you usually link to very generic things that it just doesn't make sense to link. If you haven't yet, I recommend going through the Wiki documentation and looking at the list of pages that are considered "quality" Wiki documents. Here is a link to Quality Wikipedia documents. I hope it clears things up for you. --Clutch 07:53 Oct 28, 2002 (UTC)

Look. If you want to know more about women weaving in Sumeria-then go ahead and add some information on it. Lir 07:59 Oct 28, 2002 (UTC)

I want to know what sources you are getting your information from. Also I don't think you should put in the bit about women weaving unless you also say why it's so important that it be in the article. Women have been weaving for a long time, and in many cultures. What was so unique about Sumerian women weaving that it should be in this encyclopedia article? I feel similarly about many other bits of information you felt were important to dump into the article.

Instead of dumping in a lot of little bits and pieces, like magpie droppings, I suggest that you put in one detail, adequately describe and explain it so it makes sense in the overall article... And THEN move on and add the next bit of information. --Clutch 08:21 Oct 28, 2002 (UTC)

I suggest you spend less time criticizing and more time adding articles. Lir 12:57 Oct 28, 2002 (UTC)

Your attitude is a poor reflection of the cooperative spirit of anarchy that you SEEM to find so attractive. --Clutch 14:04 Oct 28, 2002 (UTC)

Right back at you mr magpie droppings. Lir 16:46 Oct 28, 2002 (UTC)

Plz explain what is wrong with this article since you feel it so awful as to mention it on wikipedia-l as an example of an atrocity. Lir 10:46 Nov 21, 2002 (UTC)

Differing from previous city-state societies, Sumer was the first large nation formed by the aggregation and organization of city-states. The Sumerians practiced separation of church and state as well as representative democracy. The Sumerians had a sophisticated legal system. One ancient clay tablet tells of the first recorded murder trial in history.

Sumer existed as separate city-states, if sometimes achieving hegemony over one another, for many centuries. They did not see themselves as a nation, or as having a separate church and state, and indeed the kings were typically at least partly religious in function. The law codes are hardly what we would consider secular. I'm not entirely sure what the bit about representative democracy refers to, but it sounds like it is talking about the political system, which was not really that sort of thing. So I think it would be best to remove the paragraph until the points receive some justification.

The Magyars who settled Hungary in the 9th century AD are thought by some scholars to be ethnic descendants of the Sumerians. The Magyar and Sumerian languages show vastly more similarities to each other than to any other known languages.

No mention of the divergent migration and split in tribes of the Finno-Ugric peoples? Finnish, not Sumerian, is the closest relative to the Hungarian language... This same information can be found on the Magyars page.-- Jay Allen

I don't remove theories from Magyar just because it sounds foolish. (I try to be as NPOV'ed as possible, so these are listed as alternative theories.) There is the mainstream Finno-Ugric theory and lots of, let's call them, extreme theories, varying from Japanese to Martians as origin. Never heard about Sumerians and Magyars but hey, I'm not a wikipedia. :) If you have reliable sources it's always nice to hear about them, though. --grin 13:05, 10 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Hungarian and Sumerian cannot be shown to be related. Just about every single language in the history of the world has been linked to Sumerian(and Basque, and Etruscan). This is nothing but Fringe linguistics. It should not be in an encyclopedia(except in an article about Fringe linguistics), because it has zero evidence. I hope everyone won't mind if I remove it?

More of this zany fantasy can be found at the David Rohl website: http://www.nunki.net/ People are afraid of this because the doubletalk has them fooled. This 'Sumerian' junk is a disgrace to Wikipedia Wetman

I could not find the reference on the site you posted. could you give the direct link please? I am surprised if Dr. Rohl mentions anything about that since he is despite his open mind a very meticulous archaeologist. User:Zestauferov

The mythical traditions of the Ancient Sumerians eerily resonate with those of the Hopi tribe of North America. Both have a central flood mythology, and both claim descendance from entities who survived a Great Flood. Here is a list of Hopi/Sumeria synchronicities:

The Hopi believe the Creator of Man is a woman. The Sumerians believed the Creator of Man was a woman.

The Hopi believe the Father Creator is KA. The Sumerians believed the Father Essence was KA.

The Hopi believe Taiowa, the Sun God, is the Creator of the Earth. The Sumerians believe TA.EA was the Creator.

The Hopi believe two brothers had guardianship of the Earth. The Sumerians believed two brothers had dominion over the Earth.

The Hopi believe Alo to be spiritual guides. The Sumerians believed AL.U to be beings of Heaven.

The Hopi believe Kachinas (Kat'sinas) are the spirits of nature and the messengers and teachers sent by the Great Spirit. The Sumerians believed KAT.SI.NA were righteous ones sent of God.

The Hopi believe Eototo is the Father of Katsinas. The Sumerians believed EA.TA was the Father of all beings.

The Hopi believe Chakwaina is the Chief of Warriors. The Sumerians believed TAK.AN.U was the Heavenly Destroyer.

The Hopi believe Nan-ga-Sohu is the Chasing Star Katsina. The Sumerians believed NIN.GIR.SU to be the Master of Starships.

The Hopi believe Akush to be the Dawn Katsina. The Sumerians believed AK.U to be Beings oflight.

The Hopi believe Danik to be Guardians in the Clouds. The Sumerians believed DAK.AN to be Sky Warriors.

The Hopi believe Sotunangu is a Sky Katsina. The Sumerians believed TAK.AN.IKU were Sky Warriors.

The Hopi name for the Pleaides is ChooChookam. The Sumerians believed SHU. SHU.KHEM were the supreme Stars.

The Hopi believe Tapuat is the name of Earth. The Sumerians believed Tiamat was the name of Earth.

The Hopi call a snake Chu'a. The Sumerians called a snake SHU.

The Hopi word for "dead" is Mokee. The Sumerians used KI. MAH to mean "dead."

The Hopi use Omiq to mean above, up. The Sumerians used AM.IK to mean looking to Heaven.

The Hopi believe Tuawta is One Who Sees Magic. The Sumerians believed TUAT.U was One from the Other World.

The Hopi believe Pahana was the Lost Brother who would one day return to assist the Hopi and humankind. The Sumerians would recognize PA.HA.NA as an Ancestor from heaven who would return.

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Some new menace going by the IP of 24.215.162.119 who doesn't know how to edit (like me when I first started :-P ), cut all this info out without discussion. Seems like there is a bit of Fred Hamori info here mixed up with speculations by other authors. Anyway it looks like some of the info should be put back into the article more carefully, but not quite so childishly (which was probably the reason for annoying 24.215.162.119 enough to delete instead of re-work it). I don't have time to do this myself right now so I am leaving it here.

The term "Sumer" is actually an exonym, first applied by the Akkadians and indicating a perceived relationship to the Subarians to the north-east of Akkad. It has remained an exonym for a linguistic group calling themselves "Kanga" or "Kienga", which for precision should be called Linguistic-Sumerians or Kangians. The Subarian exonym, combined with being unrelated (on the basis of their language) to the various groups speaking West Afro-Asiatic dialects in Mesopotamia and the Levant, indicates that the Kiengian-Sumerians migrated onto the "plain of Shinar" from the East, specifically the Iranian plateaux (or perhaps even from the Indus Valley by ship), especially considering the linguistic ties to the Elamite and Dravidian languages.

Although the Kangians' arrival date is thought to coincide with their literary period, following the devastation of the Ubaid pre-Kangian-Sumerian (pre-linguistic-Sumerian) civilization by a flood dated to 3100 BC, the minor agricultural and organized Ubaid civilization, with cultural roots in Kermanshah near the northwestern corner of the Zagros Range, seems to have existed in the area as early as the mid 5th millennium BC. We know very little of these Ubaid pre-linguistic-Sumerians, but plausibly surmise that they, like all subsequent peoples in the area, spoke an Afro-Asiatic language. According to traditions from the area recorded in the Sumerian language, they may have been the first Kishites, though their own chronology would fit them into the 1st Uruk period. The earliest Hebrew religious texts also attest the transition from a Hamite influence to a Shemite influence in the story of Asshur succeeding Nimrod.

At any rate the time of the Linguistic-Sumerians can appear as a period of foreign influence in Mesopotamia, after which native Afro-Asiatic control resumed. The expansion of Indo-European peoples from the west into the Iranian Plateau pushed the speakers of agglutinative language there into Central Asia and into the Indian subcontinent, severing any ties with Mesopotamia and leaving their relatives there to become assimilated. The "Kanga" and "Subar" names would survive in Central Asia until the expansion of the Avars in the 6th century AD.

Lets see what can be done with it. It might be IP 24.215.162.119 is the world's expert in the area simply oblivious to the value of other's ideas, or be yet another factionist out to make Wiki o podium only his/her own POV thus trying to edit out POVs which contradict with her/his own academic standpoints.Zestauferov 14:40, 2 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Sorry

Some dumbass classmate in my 7th grade changed it. He was 146.95.224.105. I'll change it back. :(