Sumer
Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar) was the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. Sumerian cuneiform script was perhaps the earliest form of writing and is dated to 3500 BC.
Early History
The Sumerians may have migrated from the East (India or ancient Persia), being unrelated (on the basis of their language) to the various groups speaking Semitic languages in Mesopotamia and the Levant. Although their exact arrival date is unknown, they seemed to exist in the area as a minor agricultural and organized civilization as early as the 5th millennium BC.
Administration
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.
The cities had at their center a temple called a ziggurat. They believed that a god owned each city. Some of their major cities were Eridu, Kish, Uruk and Ur.
The cities were ruled by kings who controlled the army and commerce. See Sumerian king list.
Architecture
Sumerians made use of buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails.
Culture
Though the female could achieve a higher status in Sumer than in other civilizations, the culture was still predominantly male-dominated.
Historian Alan Marcus says, "Sumerians held a rather dour perspective on life."
A Sumerian writes, "Tears, lament, anguish, and depression are within me. Suffering overwhelms me. Evil fate holds me and carries off my life. Malignant sickness bathes me."
Another Sumerian writes, "Why am I counted among the ignorant? Food is all about, yet my food is hunger. On the day shares were alloted, my allotted share was suffering."
Economy
The Sumerians used slaves. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters.
Stone, silver, coppery, and wood came from India and Africa. Camel caravans brought the goods to Sumer along with ox-drawn wagons and wheelless sledges. Boats were also used.
Military
Sumerian cities were defended by city walls. The Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities and the mudbrick walls were not effective against foes who had the time to pry out the bricks.
Sumerian armies consisted mostly of infantry. Light infantrymen were equipped with battle-axes, daggers, and spear. The regulary infantry also used copper helmets, felt cloaks, and leather kilts.
The Sumerians invented the chariot. It was pulled by onagers, a kind ofdonkey. These were less effective in combat than later designs, and some have suggested that these served primarily as transports, though the crew was equipped with battle-axes, and lances.
The Sumerian chariot was a four-wheeled device manned by a crew of two and harnassed to four onagers. The carriage was composed of a woven-basket and the wheels were of a solid three-piece design.
It is believed that they used simple bowmen and slingers. The composite bow had not yet been invented.
Religion
Sumerians believed that the universe was a flat disk enclosed by a tin dome.
The Sumerian religion is thought to be the basis or source of inspiration for a number of modern religions. The Sumerians worshipped Nammu the Mother Goddess, Inanna the goddess of Love, Enlil the god of the Wind, and The god of Thunder.
The Sumerian dingirs (gods) were each associated with different cities and their religious importance was often affected by the political power of the associated cities. The dingirs were credited with creating humans from clay for the purpose of serving them. The dingirs often expressed their anger and frustration through earthquakes and the gist of Sumerian religion was that all of humanity was at the mercy of the gods.
The Sumerian afterlife was characterized by a descent into a vile nether-world where eternity was spent in a wretched existence.
Sumerian temples consisted of a central nave with aisles along either side. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. At one end would be the podium and a mudbrick table for animal and vegetable sacrifices. Granaries and storehouses were usually located near the temples.
After a time they began to place the temples atop artificial, terraced, and multilayered hills. This is the Sumerian ziggurat.
See also: Sumerian mythology
Technology
The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures were built of plano-convex mudbrick and not fixed with mortar nor cement. As plano-convex bricks (being rounded) are somewhat unstable, the Sumerians, every few rows, would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest. They would fill the gaps with bitumen, grain stalks, marsh reeds, weeds.
The Sumerians had three main types of boats; Skin boats were made of reed and animal skin; sailboats waterproofed with bitumen, and wooden oared ships which were sometimes pulled upstream by people and animals along the nearby banks.
Downfall
As the local Semitic tribes (Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Elamites) grew in strength, the Sumerians began to lose their political hegemony over most parts of Mesopotamia. In the time of Babylonia, combining Sumer and Akkad, the Sumerian language fell into disuse.
Legacy
The Sumerians are remembered for many of their inventions. They are sometimes credited with inventing the wheel and the potter's wheel. The Sumerians are also credited with inventing the cuneiform writing system. They were among the first astronomers. They also invented the chariot and (possibly) military formations.
The Magyars who settled Hungary in the 9th century AD have been suggested as being ethnic descendants of the Sumerians. The Magyar and Sumerian languages show vastly more similarities to each other than to any other recorded language.
See also: Gilgamesh epic