Sumer

Ancient Mesopotamian civilization from 5500 to 1800 BC

"Sumerian civilization" and "Sumeria" redirect here. For other uses, see Sumer (disambiguation) and Sumeria (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Summer.

Sumer
(c. 5500 – c. 1800 BC)

The general location on a modern map, and main cities of Sumer with ancient coastline. The coastline nearly reached Ur in ancient times.

Religion| Sumerian religion
Language| Sumerian
Geographical range| Mesopotamia, Near East, Middle East
Period| Late Neolithic, Middle Bronze Age
Dates| c. 5500 – c. 1800 BC
Preceded by| Ubaid period
Followed by| Akkadian Empire

Sumer (/ˈsuːmər/) is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. Like nearby Elam, it is one of the cradles of civilization, along with Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Erligang culture of the Yellow River valley, Caral-Supe, and Mesoamerica. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, a surplus of which enabled them to form urban settlements. The world's earliest known texts come from the Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, and date to between c. 3350 – c. 2500 BC, following a period of proto-writing c. 4000 – c. 2500 BC.

## Name

[edit]

Sumerians

Left: Sculpture of the head of Sumerian ruler Gudea, c. 2150 BC. Right: cuneiform characters for Saĝ-gíg (𒊕 𒈪), "Black Headed Ones", the native designation for the Sumerians. The first is the pictographic character for "head" (, later ), the second the character for "night", and for "black" when pronounced gíg (, later ).[1][2][3][4]

The term "Sumer" (Akkadian: 𒋗𒈨𒊒, romanized: šumeru)[5] comes from the Akkadian name for the "Sumerians", the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia.[6][7][8][9][10] In their inscriptions, the Sumerians called their land "Kengir", the "Country of the noble lords" (Sumerian: 𒆠𒂗𒄀, romanized: ki-en-gi(-r), lit. ''country" + "lords" + "noble''), and their language "Emegir" (Sumerian: 𒅴𒂠, romanized: eme-g̃ir or 𒅴𒄀 eme-gi15).[6][11][12]

The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black-Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People"[6][13][14][15] (Sumerian: 𒊕𒈪, romanized: sag̃-gíg, lit. ''head" + "black'', or 𒊕𒈪𒂵, sag̃-gíg-ga, phonetically /saŋ ɡi ɡa/, lit. "head" + "black" + relative marker).[1][2][3][4] For example, the Sumerian king Shulgi described himself as "the king of the four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people".[16] The Akkadians also called the Sumerians "black-headed people", or ṣalmat-qaqqadi, in the Semitic Akkadian language.[2][3]

The Akkadians, the East Semitic-speaking people who later conquered the Sumerian city-states, gave Sumer its main historical name, but the phonological development of the term šumerû is uncertain.[17] Hebrew שִׁנְעָר Šinʿar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Sumer.[17]

## Origins

[edit]

Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and c. 3300 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence), a non-Semitic and non-Indo-European agglutinative language isolate.[18][19][20][21][22]

The Blau Monuments combine proto-cuneiform characters and illustrations of early Sumerians, Jemdet Nasr period, 3100–2700 BC. British Museum.

Others have suggested that the Sumerians were a North African people who migrated from the Green Sahara into the Middle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East.[23] However, contrary evidence strongly suggests that the first farming originated in the Fertile Crescent.[24] Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. 2016 have suggested a partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Middle East, particularly Natufians, after testing the genomes of Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture-bearers.[24] Craniometric analysis has also suggested an affinity between Natufians and ancient North Africans.[25]

Some scholars associate the Sumerians with the Hurrians and Urartians, and suggest the Caucasus as their homeland.[26][27][28] This is not generally accepted.[29]

Based on mentions of Dilmun as the "home city of the land of Sumer" in Sumerian legends and literature, other scholars have suggested the possibility that the Sumerians originated from Dilmun, which was theorized to be the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.[30][31][32] In Sumerian mythology, Dilmun was also mentioned as the home of deities such as Enki.[33][34] The status of Dilmun as the Sumerians’ ancestral homeland has not been established, but archaeologists have found evidence of civilization in Bahrain, namely the existence of Mesopotamian-style round disks.[35]

A prehistoric people who lived in the region before the Sumerians have been termed the "Proto-Euphrateans" or "Ubaidians",[36] and are theorized to have evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia.[37][38][39][40] The Ubaidians, though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves, are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer. They drained the marshes for agriculture, developed trade, and established industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.[36]

Enthroned Sumerian king of Ur, possibly Ur-Pabilsag, with attendants. Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BC.

Some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture.[41] Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf region, before it was flooded at the end of the Ice Age.[42]

Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been one of the oldest cities, where three separate cultures may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.[43]

Reliable historical records begin with Enmebaragesi (Early Dynastic I). The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC (short chronology), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100–2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some time.[43]

## Archeological discovery

[edit]

The Sumerians were entirely unknown during the early period of modern archeology. Jules Oppert was the first scholar to publish the word Sumer in a lecture on 17 January 1869. The first major excavations of Sumerian cities were in 1877 at Girsu by the French archeologist Ernest de Sarzec, in 1889 at Nippur by John Punnett Peters from the University of Pennsylvania between 1889 and 1900, and in Shuruppak by German archeologist Robert Koldewey in 1902–1903. Major publications of these finds were "Decouvertes en Chaldée par Ernest de Sarzec" by Léon Heuzey in 1884, "Les Inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad" by François Thureau-Dangin in 1905, and "Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik" on Sumerian grammar by Arno Poebel in 1923.[44]

## City-states in Mesopotamia

[edit]

Further information: List of cities of the ancient Near East and Geography of Mesopotamia

A composite copy of a text listing cities from the late Uruk period such as: Nippur, Uruk, Ur, Eresh, Kesh, and Zabala.

In the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor (ensi) or by a king (lugal) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites.

Anu ziggurat and White Temple

Anu ziggurat and White Temple at Uruk. The original pyramidal structure, the "Anu Ziggurat", dates to around 4000 BC, and the White Temple was built on top of it c. 3500 BC.[45] The design of the ziggurat was probably a precursor to that of the Egyptian pyramids, the earliest of which dates to c. 2600 BC.[46]

An incomplete list of cities that may have been visited, interacted and traded with, invaded, conquered, destroyed, occupied, colonized by and/or otherwise within the Sumerians’ sphere of influence (ordered from south to north):

1. Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)SC
2. Kuara (probably Tell al-Lahm)SU
3. Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar)SC
4. Kesh (probably Tell Jidr)SU
5. Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh)S
6. Uruk (Warka)SC
7. Bad-tibira (probably Tell al-Madain)SC
8. Lagash (Tell al-Hiba)S
9. Girsu (Tello or Telloh)S
10. Umma (Tell Jokha)S
11. Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh)S
12. Shuruppak (Tell Fara)SC
13. Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab)S
14. Mashkan-shapir (Tell Abu Duwari)S
15. Eresh (probably Abu Salabikh) SU
16. Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat)SC
17. Adab (Tell Bismaya)SC
18. Nippur (Afak)SH
19. Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum)S
20. Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim)S
21. Borsippa (Birs Nimrud)M
22. Larak (probably Tell al-Wilayah)SCU
23. Kish (Tell Uheimir and Ingharra)MC
24. Kutha (Tell Ibrahim)M
25. Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah)MC
26. Der (al-Badra)M
27. Akshak (probably Tell Rishad)MCU
28. Akkad (probably Tell Mizyad)MCU
29. Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)M
30. Awan (probably Godin Tepe)ICU
31. Mari (Tell Hariri)WC
32. Hamazi (probably Kani Jowez)NCU
33. Nagar (Tell Brak)W

* (Sa city in southern Mesopotamia)
* (Man outlying city in central Mesopotamia)
* (Nan outlying city in northern Mesopotamia)
* (Wan outlying city in western Mesopotamia)
* (Ian outlying city in western Iran)
* (Ca city said on the Sumerian King List (SKL) to have exercised the Sumerian kingship)
* (Ha holy city)
* (Ua lost city)

Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 kilometres (205 miles) north-west of Agade, but which is credited in the king list as having exercised kingship in the Early Dynastic II period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates-Tigris alluvial plain, south of Baghdad in what are now the Bābil, Diyala, Wāsit, Dhi Qar, Basra, Al-Muthannā and Al-Qādisiyyah governorates of Iraq.

## History

[edit]

Main article: History of Sumer

Portrait of a Sumerian prisoner on a victory stele of Sargon of Akkad, c. 2300 BC.[47] The hairstyle of the prisoners (curly hair on top and short hair on the sides) is characteristic of Sumerians, as also seen on the Standard of Ur.[48] Louvre Museum.

The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c. 23rd century BC, when the language of the written records becomes easier to decipher, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions.

The Akkadian Empire was the first state that successfully united larger parts of Mesopotamia in the 23rd century BC. After the Gutian period, the Ur III kingdom similarly united parts of northern and southern Mesopotamia. It ended in the face of Amorite incursions at the beginning of the second millennium BC. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until c. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule.

* New Stone Age: c. 10000 – c. 5000 BC
* Ubaid period: c. 6500 – c. 4100 BC
* Copper Age: c. 5000 – c. 3300 BC
* Uruk period: c. 4100 – c. 3100 BC
* Uruk XIV–V phases: c. 4100 – c. 3300 BC
* Uruk IV phase: c. 3300 – c. 3100 BC
* Early Bronze Age I: c. 3300 – c. 3000 BC
* Jemdet Nasr period (Uruk III phase): c. 3100 – c. 2900 BC
* Uruk III phase: c. 3100 – c. 2900 BC
* Early Bronze Age II: c. 3000 – c. 2700 BC
* Early Dynastic period c. 2900 – c. 2334 BC
* Early Dynastic I period: c. 2900 – c. 2800 BC
* Eridu dynasty (Alulim)
* Bad-tibira dynasty (Dumuzid)
* Larak dynasty (En-sipad-zid-ana)
* Sippar dynasty (Enmeduranki)
* Shuruppak dynasty (Ziusudra)
* Kish I dynasty (Enmebaragesi)
* Early Dynastic II period: c. 2800 – c. 2600 BC
* Uruk I dynasty (Gilgamesh)
* Early Dynastic IIIa period: c. 2600 – c. 2500 BC
* Ur I dynasty
* Awan dynasty
* Kish II dynasty
* Hamazi dynasty
* Early Dynastic IIIb period: c. 2500 – c. 2334 BC
* Uruk II dynasty
* Ur II dynasty
* Adab dynasty
* Mari dynasty
* Kish III dynasty
* Akshak dynasty
* Kish IV dynasty
* Uruk III dynasty
* Early Bronze Age III: c. 2700 – c. 2200 BC
* Akkadian period: c. 2334 – c. 2154 BC
* Akkad dynasty (Sargon)
* Early Bronze Age IV: c. 2200 – c. 2100 BC
* Gutian period: c. 2154 – c. 2119 BC
* Uruk IV dynasty
* Gutian dynasty
* Middle Bronze Age I: c. 2100 – c. 2000 BC
* Ur III period: c. 2119 – c. 2004 BC
* Uruk V dynasty
* Ur III dynasty
* Middle Bronze Age II A: c. 2000 – c. 1750 BC
* Isin-Larsa period: c. 2004 – c. 1736 BC
* Isin I dynasty
* Larsa dynasty
* Middle Bronze Age II B: c. 1750 – c. 1650 BC
* Old Babylonian period: c. 1736 – c. 1475 BC
* Sealand dynasty

### Ubaid period

[edit]

Main article: Ubaid period

A pottery jar from the Late Ubaid Period

The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. The oldest evidence for occupation comes from Tell el-'Oueili, but, given that environmental conditions in southern Mesopotamia were favourable to human occupation well before the Ubaid period, it is likely that older sites exist but have not yet been found. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. The story of the passing of the gifts of civilization (me) to Inanna, goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk.[49]

### Uruk period

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Main article: Uruk period

The archaeological transition from the Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery domestically produced on a slow wheel to a great variety of unpainted pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change.[50][51]

Uruk King-priest feeding the sacred herd

The king-priest and his acolyte feeding the sacred herd. Uruk period, c. 3200 BC

Cylinder seal of the Uruk period and its impression, c. 3100 BC – Louvre Museum

By the time of the Uruk period, c. 4100–2900 BC calibrated, the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, 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 labour 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 western Iran.[52]: 2–3

The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists, like that found at Tell Brak, had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The cities of Sumer could not maintain remote, long-distance colonies by military force.[52][page needed]

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.[53] It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became the most urbanized 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.[53]

The end of the Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation, a dry period from c. 3200–2900 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.[54]

### Early Dynastic Period

[edit]

Main articles: Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) and First Dynasty of Ur

Golden helmet of Meskalamdug, possible founder of the First Dynasty of Ur, 26th century BC

The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god)[55] towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Dumuzid, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh—who reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2900 BC, 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 (Early Dynastic I), whose name is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh—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 war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. Both Gilgamesh and one of his predecessors Enmerkar are credited with having built the walls of Uruk.[56]

#### 1st Dynasty of Lagash

[edit]

A fragment of Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures

Main article: Lagash

The dynasty of Lagash (c. 2500–2270 BC), though omitted from the king list, is well attested through several important monuments and many archaeological finds.

Although short-lived, one of the first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa, and reduced to tribute the city-state of Umma, arch-rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf. He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy.[57] Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at the severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly after his death.

Later, Lugal-zage-si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad.[43]

### Akkadian Empire

[edit]

Main article: Akkadian Empire

Sumerian prisoners on a victory stele of the Akkadian king Sargon, c. 2300 BC.[47][48] Louvre Museum.

The Akkadian Empire dates to c. 2234–2154 BC (middle chronology), founded by Sargon of Akkad. The Eastern Semitic Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c. 2800 BC,[57] preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. 2500 BC. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great (c. 2334–2279 BC), 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 Ur III period that followed it.[58]

Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, 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.[58] It is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by Sargon.

### Gutian period

[edit]

Main article: Gutian dynasty of Sumer

c. 2193–2119 BC (middle chronology)

#### 2nd Dynasty of Lagash

[edit]

Gudea of Lagash, the Sumerian ruler who was famous for his numerous portrait sculptures that have been recovered. A portrait of Ur-Ningirsu, son of Gudea, c. 2100 BC. Louvre Museum.

Main article: Lagash

c. 2200–2110 BC (middle chronology)

Following the downfall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands of Gutians, another native Sumerian ruler, Gudea of Lagash, rose to local prominence and continued the practices of the Sargonic kings' claims to divinity.

The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts.

### Ur III period

[edit]

Main article: Third Dynasty of Ur

Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi (c. 2112–2004 BC, middle chronology), whose power extended as far as southern Assyria, has been erroneously called a "Sumerian renaissance" in the past.[59] Already, the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the resurgence of the Akkadian-speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the influx of waves of Semitic Martu (Amorites), who founded several competing local powers in the south, including Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna and later, Babylonia.

The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate the south of Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire, just as the Old Assyrian Empire had already done in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was used.

### Fall and transmission

[edit]

This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward the north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem.[60] Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely.[61]

During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three-fifths.[61] This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian remained only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe.

Following an Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule of Ibbi-Sin (c. 2028–2004 BC),[citation needed] Sumer came under Amorite rule (taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age). The independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as the "Dynasty of Isin" in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi c. 1800 BC.

Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and Akkad", such as Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC.

## Population

[edit]

Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,000–80,000 at its height.[62] Given the other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. The world population at this time has been estimated at 27 million.[63]

The Great Ziggurat of Ur, c. 2100 BC, near Nasiriyah, Iraq

The Sumerians spoke a language isolate. A number of linguists have claimed to be able to detect a substrate language of unknown classification beneath Sumerian, because names of some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants.[64] However, the archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (5300–4700 BC 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.

Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from the north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami transitional ware, to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (c. 5700–4900 BC 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 el-'Oueili near Larsa, excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, 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]

Others have suggested a continuity of Sumerians, from the indigenous hunter-fisherfolk traditions, associated with the bifacial assemblages found on the Arabian littoral. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at the end of the last Ice Age.[citation needed]

## Culture

[edit]

### Social and family life

[edit]

A reconstruction in the British Museum of headgear and necklaces worn by the women at the Royal Cemetery at Ur.

In the early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest[65] that

* "Pottery was very plentiful, and the forms of the vases, bowls and dishes were manifold; there were special jars for honey, butter, oil and wine, which was probably made from dates. Some of the vases had pointed feet, and stood on stands with crossed legs; others were flat-bottomed, and were set on square or rectangular frames of wood. The oil-jars, and probably others also, were sealed with clay, precisely as in early Egypt. Vases and dishes of stone were made in imitation of those of clay."
* "A feathered head-dress was worn. Beds, stools and chairs were used, with carved legs resembling those of an ox. There were fire-places and fire-altars."
* "Knives, drills, wedges and an instrument that looks like a saw were all known. While spears, bows, arrows, and daggers (but not swords) were employed in war."
* "Tablets were used for writing purposes. Daggers with metal blades and wooden handles were worn, and copper was hammered into plates, while necklaces or collars were made of gold."
* "Time was reckoned in lunar months."

There is considerable evidence concerning Sumerian music. Lyres and flutes were played, among the best-known examples being the Lyres of Ur.[66]

Sumerian culture was male-dominated and stratified. The Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur III, reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath the lu-gal ("great man" or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata: The "lu" or free person, and the slave (male, arad; female geme). The son of a lu was called a dumu-nita until he married. A woman (munus) went from being a daughter (dumu-mi), to a wife (dam), then if she outlived her husband, a widow (numasu) and she could then remarry another man who was from the same tribe.[citation needed]

In early Sumer women played an important public rule as priestesses. They could also own property, transact business and had their rights protected by the courts. Sons and daughters inherited property on equal terms. The status of women deteriorated in the centuries after 2300 BC. Their right to dispose of their property was limited, and the female deities also lost their former importance.[67][68]

Inscriptions describing the reforms of king Urukagina of Lagash (c. 2350 BC) 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.[69]

Sumerian princess (c. 2150 BC)

A Sumerian princess of the time of Gudea c. 2150 BC.

Frontal detail.
Louvre Museum AO 295.

Marriages were usually arranged by the parents of the bride and groom;[70]: 78  engagements were usually completed through the approval of contracts recorded on clay tablets.[70]: 78  These marriages became legal as soon as the groom delivered a bridal gift to his bride's father.[70]: 78  One Sumerian proverb describes the ideal, happy marriage, through the mouth of a husband, who boasts that his wife has borne him eight sons and is still eager to have sex.[71]

The Sumerians considered it desirable for women to still be virgins at the time of marriage,[72]: 100–101  but did not expect the same of men,[72]: 102–103  although one author considers premarital sex in general to have been discouraged.[73] Neither Sumerian nor Akkadian had a word exactly corresponding to the English word 'virginity', and the concept was expressed descriptively, for example as a/é-nu-gi4-a (Sum.)/la naqbat (Akk.) 'un-deflowered', or giš nunzua, 'never having known a penis'.[72]: 91–93  It is unclear whether terms such as šišitu in Akkadian medical texts indicate the hymen, but it appears that the intactness of the hymen was much less relevant to assessing a woman's virginity than in later cultures of the Near East. Most assessments of virginity depended on the woman's own account.[72]: 91–92

From the earliest records, the Sumerians had very relaxed attitudes toward sex.[74] Their sexual mores were determined not by whether a sexual act was deemed immoral, but rather by whether or not it made a person ritually unclean.[74] The Sumerians widely believed that masturbation enhanced sexual potency, both for men and for women,[74] and they frequently engaged in it, both alone and with their partners.[74] The Sumerians did not regard anal sex as taboo either.[74] Entu priestesses were forbidden from producing offspring[75][71] and frequently engaged in anal sex as a method of birth control.[75][need quotation to verify][74][unreliable source?][71][failed verification]

Prostitution existed, but it is not clear if sacred prostitution did.[76]: 151

### Language and writing

[edit]

Main articles: Sumerian language and Cuneiform

Further information: History of writing

A tablet with pictographic pre-cuneiform writing. Late 4th millennium BC, limestone. Height: 4.5 cm, width: 4.3 cm, depth: 2.4 cm. The Louvre

The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of clay tablets written in cuneiform script. Sumerian writing is considered to be a great milestone in the development of humanity's ability to not only create historical records but also in creating pieces of literature, both in the form of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws.

Although the writing system was first hieroglyphic using ideograms, logosyllabic cuneiform soon followed.[citation needed]

Triangular or wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, including personal and business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, and daily records. Full libraries of clay tablets have been found. Monumental inscriptions and texts on different objects, like statues or bricks, are also very common. Many texts survive in multiple copies because they were repeatedly transcribed by scribes in training. Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had become dominant.

A prime example of cuneiform writing is a lengthy poem that was discovered in the ruins of Uruk. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in the standard Sumerian cuneiform. It tells of a king from the early Dynastic II period named Gilgamesh or "Bilgamesh" in Sumerian. The story relates the fictional adventures of Gilgamesh and his companion, Enkidu. It was laid out on several clay tablets and is thought to be the earliest known surviving example of fictional literature.

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 Afroasiatic languages. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other language families. It is an agglutinative language. In other words, morphemes ("units of meaning") are added together to create words, unlike analytic languages where morphemes are purely added together to create sentences. Some authors have proposed that there may be evidence of a substratum or adstratum language for geographic features and various crafts and agricultural activities, called variously Proto-Euphratean or Proto Tigrean, but this is disputed by others.

Understanding Sumerian texts today can be problematic. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases do not give the full grammatical structure of the language and seem to have been used as an "aide-mémoire" for knowledgeable scribes.[77]

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC.[78] Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Babylonia and Assyria until the 1st century AD.[79]

* An early writing tablet for recording the allocation of beer, 3100–3000 BC, from Iraq. British Museum, London

* A cuneiform tablet about an administrative account, with entries concerning malt and barley groats, 3100–2900 BC. Clay, 6.8 x 4.5 x 1.6 cm, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

* A bill of sale of a field and a house, from Shuruppak, c. 2600 BC. Height: 8.5 cm, width: 8.5 cm, depth: 2 cm. The Louvre

* Stele of the Vultures, c. 2450 BC, limestone, Found in 1881 by Édouard de Sarzec in Girsu, now Tell Telloh, Iraq. The Louvre

### Religion

[edit]

Main article: Sumerian religion

Sumerian religion

Wall plaque showing libations to a seated god and a temple. Ur, 2500 BC

Naked priest offering libations to a Sumerian temple (detail), Ur, 2500 BC

The Sumerians credited their divinities for all matters pertaining to them and exhibited humility in the face of cosmic forces, such as death and divine wrath.[70]: 3–4

Sumerian religion seems to have been founded upon two separate cosmogenic myths. The first saw creation as the result of a series of hieroi gamoi or sacred marriages, involving the reconciliation of opposites, postulated as a coming together of male and female divine beings, the gods.

This pattern continued to influence regional Mesopotamian myths. Thus, in the later Akkadian Enuma Elish, creation was seen as the union of fresh and salt water, between male Abzu, and female Tiamat. The products of that union, Lahm and Lahmu, "the muddy ones", were titles given to the gate keepers of the E-Abzu temple of Enki in Eridu, the first Sumerian city.

Mirroring the way that muddy islands emerge from the confluence of fresh and salty water at the mouth of the Euphrates, where the river deposits its load of silt, a second hieros gamos supposedly resulted in the creation of Anshar and Kishar, the "sky-pivot" (or axle), and the "earth pivot", parents in turn of Anu (the sky) and Ki (the earth).

Another important Sumerian hieros gamos was that between Ki, here known as Ninhursag or "Lady of the Mountains", and Enki of Eridu, the god of fresh water which brought forth greenery and pasture.

At an early stage, following the dawn of recorded history, Nippur, in central Mesopotamia, replaced Eridu in the south as the primary temple city, whose priests exercised political hegemony on the other city-states. Nippur retained this status throughout the Sumerian period.

#### Deities

[edit]

Akkadian cylinder seal from sometime around 2300 BC or thereabouts depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud

Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form. There was no common set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. Nonetheless, these were not exclusive; the gods of one city were often acknowledged elsewhere. Sumerian speakers were among the earliest people to record their beliefs in writing, and were a major inspiration in later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology.

The Sumerians worshiped:

* An as the full-time god equivalent to heaven; indeed, the word an in Sumerian means sky and his consort Ki, means earth.
* Enki in the south at the temple in Eridu. Enki was the god of beneficence and of wisdom, ruler of the freshwater depths beneath the earth, a healer and friend to humanity who in Sumerian myth was thought to have given humans the arts and sciences, the industries and manners of civilization; the first law book was considered his creation.
* Enlil was the god of storm, wind, and rain.[80]: 108  He was the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon[80]: 108 [81]: 115–121  and the patron god of Nippur.[82]: 231–234  His consort was Ninlil, the goddess of the south wind.[83]: 106
* Inanna was the goddess of love, sexuality, and war;[76]: 109  the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening (western) star, at the temple (shared with An) at Uruk. Deified kings may have re-enacted the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid with priestesses.[76]: 151, 157–158
* The sun-god Utu at Larsa in the south and Sippar in the north,
* The moon god Sin at Ur.

Sumero-early Akkadian pantheon

These deities formed the main pantheon, and in addition to this there were hundreds of other minor gods. Sumerian gods were often associated with different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with those cities' political power. The gods were said to have created human beings from clay for the purpose of serving them. The temples organized the mass labour projects needed for irrigation agriculture. Citizens had a labor duty to the temple, though they could avoid it by a payment of silver.

#### Cosmology

[edit]

Sumerians envisioned Earth to be a rectangular field with four corners.[84] The Sumerian afterlife involved a descent into a gloomy netherworld to spend eternity in a wretched existence as a Gidim (ghost).[84]

The universe was divided into four quarters:

* To the north were the hill-dwelling Subartu, who were periodically raided for slaves, timber, and other raw materials.[85]
* To the west were the tent-dwelling Martu, ancient Semitic-speaking peoples living as pastoral nomads tending herds of sheep and goats.
* To the south was the land of Dilmun, a trading state associated with the land of the dead and the place of creation.[86]
* To the east were the Elamites, a rival people with whom the Sumerians were frequently at war.

Their known world extended from The Upper Sea or Mediterranean coastline, to The Lower Sea, the Persian Gulf and the land of Meluhha (probably the Indus Valley) and Magan (Oman), famed for its copper ores.

#### Temple and temple organisation

[edit]

Ziggurats (Sumerian temples) each had an individual name and contained a forecourt with a central pond for purification.[87] The temple itself had a central nave with aisles along either side. Flanking the aisles were rooms for the priests. At one end stood a podium and a mudbrick table for animal and vegetable sacrifices. Granaries and storehouses were usually located near the temples. After a time the Sumerians began to place the temples on top of multi-layered square constructions built as a series of rising terraces, giving rise to the Ziggurat style.[88]

#### Funerary practices

[edit]

It was believed that when people died, they would be confined to a gloomy world of Ereshkigal, whose realm was guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people entering or leaving. The dead were buried outside the city walls in graveyards where a small mound covered the corpse, along with offerings to monsters and a small amount of food. Those who could afford it sought burial at Dilmun.[86] Human sacrifice was found in the death pits at the Ur royal cemetery where Queen Puabi was accompanied in death by her servants.

### Agriculture and hunting

[edit]

Further information: Agriculture in Mesopotamia

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

From the royal tombs of Ur, made of lapis lazuli and shell, shows peacetime

In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. They used oxen as their primary beasts of burden and donkeys or equids as their primary transport animal and "woollen clothing as well as rugs were made from the wool or hair of the animals. ... By the side of the house was an enclosed garden planted with trees and other plants; wheat and probably other cereals were sown in the fields, and the shaduf was already employed for the purpose of irrigation. Plants were also grown in pots or vases."[65]

An account of barley rations issued monthly to adults and children written in cuneiform script on a clay tablet, written in year 4 of King Urukagina, c. 2350 BC

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!"[89]

The Sumerians practiced similar irrigation techniques as those used in Egypt.[90] American anthropologist Robert McCormick Adams says that irrigation development was associated with urbanization,[91] and that 89% of the population lived in the cities.

They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard. Sumerians caught many fish and hunted fowl and gazelle.[92]

Sumerian agriculture depended heavily on irrigation. The irrigation was accomplished by the use of shaduf, canals, channels, dykes, weirs, and reservoirs. The frequent violent floods of the Tigris, and less so, of the Euphrates, meant that canals required frequent repair and continual removal of silt, and survey markers and boundary stones needed to be continually replaced. The government required individuals to work on the canals in a corvée, although the rich were able to exempt themselves.

As is known from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after the Spring equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. Next they made oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. Unfortunately, the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. By the Ur III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley as their principal crop.

Sumerians harvested during the spring in three-person teams consisting of a reaper, a binder, and a sheaf handler.[93] The farmers would use threshing wagons, driven by oxen, to separate the cereal heads from the stalks and then use threshing sleds to disengage the grain. They then winnowed the grain/chaff mixture.

### Art

[edit]

See also: Stele of the Vultures and Royal Cemetery at Ur

Gold dagger from Sumerian tomb PG 580, Royal Cemetery at Ur.

The Sumerians were great artists. Sumerian artefacts show great detail and ornamentation, with fine semi-precious stones imported from other lands, such as lapis lazuli, marble, and diorite, and precious metals like hammered gold, incorporated into the design. Since stone was rare it was reserved for sculpture. The most widespread material in Sumer was clay, as a result many Sumerian objects are made of clay. Metals such as gold, silver, copper, and bronze, along with shells and gemstones, were used for the finest sculptures and inlays. Small stones of all kinds, including more precious stones such as lapis lazuli, alabaster, and serpentine, were used for cylinder seals.

Some of the most famous masterpieces are the Lyres of Ur, which are considered to be the world's oldest surviving stringed instruments. They were discovered by Leonard Woolley when the Royal Cemetery of Ur was excavated between 1922 and 1934.

* Cylinder seal and impression in which appears a ritual scene before a temple façade; 3500–3100 BC; bituminous limestone; height: 4.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

* Ram in a Thicket; 2600–2400 BC; gold, copper, shell, lapis lazuli and limestone; height: 45.7 cm; from the Royal Cemetery at Ur (Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq); British Museum (London)

* Standard of Ur; 2600–2400 BC; shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli on wood; length: 49.5 cm; from the Royal Cemetery at Ur; British Museum

* Bull's head ornament from a lyre; 2600–2350 BC; bronze inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli; height: 13.3 cm, width: 10.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

### Architecture

[edit]

Main articles: Sumerian architecture, Ziggurat, and Mudhif

See also: Clay nail

The Great Ziggurat of Ur (Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq), built during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC), dedicated to the moon god Nanna

The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures were made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement. Mud-brick buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, which thus came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resultant hills, known as tells, are found throughout the ancient Near East.

According to Archibald Sayce, the primitive pictograms of the early Sumerian (i.e. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. Brick was the ordinary building material, and with it cities, forts, temples and houses were constructed. The city was provided with towers and stood on an artificial platform; the house also had a tower-like appearance. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. The foundation stones—or rather bricks—of a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under them."[65]

The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms that supported temples. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. The Sumerians also developed the arch, which enabled them to develop a strong type of dome. They built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails.

### Mathematics

[edit]

Main article: Babylonian mathematics

The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000 BC. This advanced metrology resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From c. 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems. The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period.[94] The period c. 2700–2300 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.[95] 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.[96]

### Economy and trade

[edit]

Main article: Economy of Sumer

Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, c. 2600 BC

Discoveries of obsidian from far-away locations in Anatolia and lapis lazuli from Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan, beads from Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and several seals inscribed with the Indus Valley script suggest a remarkably wide-ranging network of ancient trade centered on the Persian Gulf. For example, Imports to Ur came from many parts of the world. In particular, the metals of all types had to be imported.

The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods, such as wood, that were scarce in Mesopotamia. In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized. The finding of resin in the tomb of Queen Puabi at Ur, indicates it was traded from as far away as Mozambique.

The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters.[citation needed]

Sumerian potters decorated pots with cedar oil paints. The potters used a bow drill to produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. Sumerian masons and jewelers knew and made use of alabaster (calcite), ivory, iron, gold, silver, carnelian, and lapis lazuli.[97]

#### Trade with the Indus valley

[edit]

Main article: Indus-Mesopotamia relations

The etched carnelian beads with white designs in this necklace from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, dating to the First Dynasty of Ur, are thought to have come from the Indus Valley. British Museum.[98] The trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Indus would have been significantly shorter due to lower sea levels in the 3rd millennium BC.[99]

Evidence for imports from the Indus to Ur can be found from around 2350 BC.[100] Various objects made with shell species that are characteristic of the Indus coast, particularly Turbinella pyrum and Pleuroploca trapezium, have been found in the archaeological sites of Mesopotamia dating from around 2500–2000 BC.[101] Carnelian beads from the Indus were found in the Sumerian tombs of Ur, the Royal Cemetery at Ur, dating to 2600–2450.[102] In particular, carnelian beads with an etched design in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley, and made according to a technique of acid-etching developed by the Harappans.[103][98][104] Lapis lazuli was imported in great quantity by Egypt, and already used in many tombs of the Naqada II period (c. 3200 BC). Lapis lazuli probably originated in northern Afghanistan, as no other sources are known, and had to be transported across the Iranian plateau to Mesopotamia, and then Egypt.[105][106]

Several Indus seals with Harappan script have also been found in Mesopotamia, particularly in Ur, Babylon and Kish.[107][108][109][110][111][112]

Gudea, the ruler of the Neo-Sumerian Empire at Lagash, is recorded as having imported "translucent carnelian" from Meluhha, generally thought to be the Indus Valley area.[102] Various inscriptions also mention the presence of Meluhha traders and interpreters in Mesopotamia.[102] About twenty seals have been found from the Akkadian and Ur III sites, that have connections with Harappa and often use Harappan symbols or writing.[102]

The Indus Valley Civilization only flourished in its most developed form between 2400 and 1800 BC, but at the time of these exchanges, it was a much larger entity than the Mesopotamian civilization, covering an area of 1.2 million square kilometers with thousands of settlements, compared to an area of only about 65.000 square kilometers for the occupied area of Mesopotamia, while the largest cities were comparable in size at about 30–40,000 inhabitants.[113]

#### Money and credit

[edit]

Large institutions kept their accounts in barley and silver, often with a fixed rate between them. The obligations, loans and prices in general were usually denominated in one of them. Many transactions involved debt, for example goods consigned to merchants by temple and beer advanced by "ale women".[114]

Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans. The trade credit was usually extended by temples in order to finance trade expeditions and was nominated in silver. The interest rate was set at 1/60 a month (one shekel per mina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years.[114] Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an institution (such as a temple), in this case the arrears were considered to be lent to the debtor.[115] They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal.[114]

Periodically, rulers signed "clean slate" decrees that cancelled all the rural (but not commercial) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes. Customarily, rulers did it at the beginning of the first full year of their reign, but they could also be proclaimed at times of military conflict or crop failure. The first known ones were made by Enmetena and Urukagina of Lagash in 2400–2350 BC. According to Hudson, the purpose of these decrees was to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened the fighting force, which could happen if peasants lost their subsistence land or became bondservants due to inability to repay their debt.[114]

### Military

[edit]

Early chariots on the Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BC Phalanx battle formations led by Sumerian king Eannatum, on a fragment of the Stele of the Vultures Silver model of a boat, tomb PG 789, Royal Cemetery of Ur, 2600–2500 BC

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.[116] The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2450 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 infantry carried spears, wore copper helmets, and carried rectangular shields. The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the phalanx formation, which requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have used professional soldiers.[117]

The Sumerian military used carts harnessed to onagers. These early chariots functioned less effectively in combat than did later designs, and some have suggested that these chariots served primarily as transports, though the crew carried battle-axes and lances. The Sumerian chariot comprised a four or two-wheeled device manned by a crew of two and harnessed to four onagers. The cart was composed of a woven basket and the wheels had a solid three-piece design.

Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. The Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities, but the mudbrick walls were able to deter some foes.

### Technology

[edit]

Examples of Sumerian technology include: the wheel, cuneiform script, arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, Sumerian boats, lunisolar calendar, bronze, leather, saws, chisels, hammers, braces, bits, nails, pins, rings, hoes, axes, knives, lancepoints, arrowheads, swords, glue, daggers, waterskins, bags, harnesses, armor, quivers, war chariots, scabbards, boots, sandals, harpoons and beer. The Sumerians had three main types of boats:

* clinker-built sailboats stitched together with hair, featuring bitumen waterproofing
* skin boats constructed from animal skins and reeds
* wooden-oared ships, sometimes pulled upstream by people and animals walking along the nearby banks

## Legacy

[edit]

[-3000]

SUMER

Proto-
Elamite

EBLA

Jeul-
mun

INDUS
VALLEY
CIVILIZATION

Corded Ware
Culture

Yamnaya
Culture

Kura-
Araxes

Afanasievo
culture

Botai
culture

Bolshemys
culture

Sarazm
culture

Ancient
Northeast Asians

Hongshan

Long-
shan

Dawen-
kou

Liang-
zhu

Majia-
yao

Qujia-
ling

EARLY
DYNASTIC
EGYPT

class=notpageimage|

Sumer and contemporary polities and cultures c. 3000 BC

Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid-4th millennium BC, 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 led to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. The Sumerians' cuneiform script 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 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.[118][unreliable source] They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.[119]

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 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 BC, 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.

## See also

[edit]

* History of Iraq
* Numeral system
* Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement
* Ancient Mesopotamian religion
* Indus–Mesopotamia relations
* Egypt–Mesopotamia relations
* History of institutions in Mesopotamia

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Foxvog, Daniel A. (2016). Elementary Sumerian Glossary (PDF). University of California at Berkeley. p. 52.
2. ^ a b c "The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary: saĝgiga [humankind]". psd.museum.upenn.edu.
3. ^ a b c Diakonoff, I. M.; D'I︠A︡konov, Igor' Mik︠h︡aílovich (1991). Early Antiquity. University of Chicago Press. p. 72\. ISBN 978-0-226-14465-8.
4. ^ a b Feuerstein, Georg; Kak, Subhash; Frawley, David (2005). The Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India (Second Revised ed.). Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. p. 117\. ISBN 978-81-208-2037-1.
5. ^ "emeĝir [SUMERIAN]". The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
6. ^ a b c "The area in question (the extreme south of Mesopotamia) may now be called Sumer, and its inhabitants Sumerians, although these names are only English approximations of the Akkadian designations; the Sumerians themselves called their land Kengir, their language Emegir, and themselves Sag-giga, "black-headed ones." in W. Hallo; W. Simpson (1971). The Ancient Near East. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. p. 29.
7. ^ Black, Jeremy A.; George, A. R.; Postgate, J. N.; Breckwoldt, Tina (2000). A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 384\. ISBN 978-3-447-04264-2.
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13. ^ "The origin of the Sumerians is unknown; they described themselves as the 'black-headed people'" Haywood, John (2005). The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations. Penguin. p. 28\. ISBN 978-0-14-101448-7.
14. ^ Diakonoff, I. M. (2013). Early Antiquity. University of Chicago Press. p. 72\. ISBN 978-0-226-14467-2.
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16. ^ "I am the king of the four quarters, I am a shepherd, the pastor of the "black-headed people"" in Liverani, Mario (2013). The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. Routledge. p. 167\. ISBN 978-1-134-75084-9.
17. ^ a b van der Toorn, K.; van der Horst, P. W. (January 1990). "Nimrod before and after the Bible". The Harvard Theological Review. 83 (1): 1–29\. doi:10.1017/S0017816000005502. S2CID 161371511.
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25. ^ Reich, David; Pinhasi, Ron; Patterson, Nick; Hovhannisyan, Nelli A.; Yengo, Loic; Wilson, James F.; Torroni, Antonio; Tönjes, Anke; Stumvoll, Michael (August 2016). "Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East". Nature. 536 (7617): 419–424\. Bibcode:2016Natur.536..419L. doi:10.1038/nature19310. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 5003663. PMID 27459054. "Craniometric analyses have suggested an affinity between the Natufians and populations of north or sub-Saharan Africa, a result that finds some support from Y chromosome analysis which shows that the Natufians and successor Levantine Neolithic populations carried haplogroup E, of likely ultimate African origin, which has not been detected in other ancient males from West Eurasia. However, no affinity of Natufians to sub-Saharan Africans is evident in our genome-wide analysis, as present-day sub-Saharan Africans do not share more alleles with Natufians than with other ancient Eurasians."
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46. ^ "The stepped design of the Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara, the oldest known pyramid along the Nile, suggests that it was borrowed from the Mesopotamian ziggurat concept." in Held, Colbert C. (University of Nebraska) (2018). Middle East Patterns, Student Economy Edition: Places, People, and Politics. Routledge. p. 63\. ISBN 978-0-429-96199-1.
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48. ^ a b Nigro, Lorenzo (1998). "The Two Steles of Sargon: Iconology and Visual Propaganda at the Beginning of Royal Akkadian Relief". Iraq. 60. British Institute for the Study of Iraq: 85–102\. doi:10.2307/4200454. hdl:11573/109737. JSTOR 4200454. S2CID 193050892.
49. ^ Wolkstein, Diane; Kramer, Samuel Noah (1983). Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. Elizabeth Williams-Forte. New York: Harper & Row. p. 174\. ISBN 978-0-06-014713-6.
50. ^ Henrickson, Elizabeth F.; Thuesen, Ingolf; Thuesen, I. (1989). Upon this Foundation: The N̜baid Reconsidered : Proceedings from the U̜baid Symposium, Elsinore, May 30th–June1st, 1988. Museum Tusculanum Press. p. 353\. ISBN 978-87-7289-070-8.
51. ^ Glassner, Jean-Jacques (2003). The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer. JHU Press. p. 31\. ISBN 978-0-8018-7389-8.
52. ^ a b Algaze, Guillermo (2005). The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization, Second Edition, University of Chicago Press.
53. ^ a b Jacobsen, Thorkild (Ed) (1939),"The Sumerian King List" (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Assyriological Studies, No. 11., 1939).
54. ^ Lamb, Hubert H. (1995). Climate, History, and the Modern World. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-12735-1.
55. ^ Jacobsen, Thorkild (1976), "The Harps that Once...; Sumerian Poetry in Translation" and "Treasures of Darkness: a history of Mesopotamian Religion".
56. ^ George, Andrew (Translator) (2003), "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (Penguin Classics).
57. ^ a b Roux, Georges (1993). Ancient Iraq. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-012523-8.
58. ^ a b T. Jacobsen. Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture.
59. ^ Cooper, Jerrold S. (2016). "Sumerian literature and Sumerian identity". Problems of canonicity and identity formation in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Kim Ryholt, Gojko Barjamovic, Københavns universitet, Denmark. Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (2010: Copenhagen, Denmark) Literature and Identity Formation (2010: Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 1–18\. ISBN 978-87-635-4372-9. OCLC 944087535.
60. ^ Thorkild Jacobsen; Robert M. Adams (1 November 1958). "Salt and Silt in Ancient Mesopotamian Agriculture: Progressive changes in soil salinity and sedimentation contributed to the breakup of past civilizations". Science. 128 (3334): 1251–1258\. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.128.3334.1251. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17793690. Wikidata Q34677808.
61. ^ a b Thompson, William R. (2004). "Complexity, Diminishing Marginal Returns and Serial Mesopotamian Fragmentation" (PDF). Journal of World-Systems Research. 10 (3): 612–652\. doi:10.5195/jwsr.2004.288. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012.
62. ^ "The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: Home". Archived from the original on 2015-04-11. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
63. ^ Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, 1978, Atlas of World Population History, Facts on File, New York, ISBN 0-7139-1031-3.
64. ^ Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea (1998). Daily life in ancient Mesopotamia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-313-29497-6. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
65. ^ a b c Sayce (Reverend), A. H. (1908). The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions (2nd revised ed.). London, England; Brighton, England; New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. pp. 98–100.
66. ^ Goss, Clint (15 April 2017). "Flutes of Gilgamesh and Ancient Mesopotamia". Flutopedia. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
67. ^ Baring, Anne; Cashford, Jules (1993). The Myth of the Goddess Evolution of an Image. Penguin Books Limited. p. 159\. ISBN 9780141941400.
68. ^ Glassman, Ronald M. (2017). The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States. Springer International Publishing. p. 344\. ISBN 9783319516950.
69. ^ Cinthia Gannett (1992). Gender and the Journal: Diaries and Academic Discourse, p. 62.
70. ^ a b c d Kramer, Samuel Noah (1963). The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. The Univ. of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-45238-8. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
71. ^ a b c Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea (1998), Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Greenwood, p. 132, ISBN 978-0-313-29497-6.
72. ^ a b c d Cooper, Jerrold S. (2001). "Virginity in Ancient Mesopotamia". Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki (PDF). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-951-45-9054-2.
73. ^ Dale Launderville. Celibacy in the Ancient World: Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece, p. 28.
74. ^ a b c d e f Dening, Sarah (1996). "Chapter 3: Sex in Ancient Civilizations". The Mythology of Sex. London, England: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-02-861207-2.
75. ^ a b Leick, Gwendolyn (2013) [1994], Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, New York: Routledge, p. 219, ISBN 978-1-134-92074-7.
76. ^ a b c Black, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (1992), Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary, University of Texas Press, ISBN 0-292-70794-0.
77. ^ Allan, Keith (2013). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 56–57\. ISBN 978-0-19-164343-9.
78. ^ Woods, C. 2006. "Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and the Death of Sumerian". Archived 2013-04-29 at the Wayback Machine. In S. L. Sanders (ed), Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture: 91–120 Chicago.
79. ^ Campbell, Lyle; Mixco, Mauricio J. (2007). A glossary of historical linguistics. Edinburgh University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-7486-2379-2.
80. ^ a b Coleman, J. A.; Davidson, George (2015), The Dictionary of Mythology: An A–Z of Themes, Legends, and Heroes, London, England: Arcturus Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-1-78404-478-7.
81. ^ Kramer, Samuel Noah (1983), "The Sumerian Deluge Myth: Reviewed and Revised", Anatolian Studies, 33: 115–121, doi:10.2307/3642699, JSTOR 3642699, S2CID 163489322.
82. ^ Hallo, William W. (1996), "Review: Enki and the Theology of Eridu", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 116
83. ^ Black, Jeremy A.; Cunningham, Graham; Robson, Eleanor (2006), The Literature of Ancient Sumer, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-929633-0
84. ^ a b Black, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (1992). Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-70794-8.
85. ^ Whatever the assertions of cosmography here, when modern-day archaeologists carve out areas of exploration based on physical-remains and other data, there is an emphasis on three, vide Marcella Frangipane, "Different Trajectories in State Formation in Greater Mesopotamia: A View from Arslantepe (Turkey)", Journal of Archaeological Research 26 (2018): 3–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-017-9106-2. Archived 2022-11-23 at the Wayback Machine: "southern Mesopotamia, northern Mesopotamia, and [to the west] Upper Euphrates valley" (3), with no reference to any of these proper-names.
86. ^ a b Geoffrey Bibby and Carl Phillips, Looking for Dilmun (London, England: Stacey International, 1996; reprinted London, England: Knopf, 2013). ISBN 978-0-905743-90-5.
87. ^ Leick, Gwendolyn (2003), Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City' (Penguin).
88. ^ Mark M. Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash, A Global History of Architecture (London, England: Wiley, 2011), pp. 33–39. ISBN 978-0-470-90248-6.
89. ^ Gately, Iain (2008). Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol. Gotham Books. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-59240-303-5.
90. ^ Mackenzie, Donald Alexander (1927). Footprints of Early Man. Blackie & Son Limited.
91. ^ Adams, R. McC. (1981). Heartland of Cities. University of Chicago Press.
92. ^ Tannahill, Reay (1968). The fine art of food. London: Folio Society. ISBN 0850670063.[page needed]
93. ^ Melvin Kranzberg, Joseph Gies. By the sweat of thy brow: Work in the Western world. Putnam, 1975.
94. ^ Duncan J. Melville (2003). Third Millennium Chronology. Archived 2018-07-07 at the Wayback Machine, Third Millennium Mathematics. St. Lawrence University.
95. ^ Ifrah, Georges (2001). The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer. New York, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 11\. ISBN 978-0-471-39671-0.
96. ^ Anderson, Marlow; Wilson, Robin J. (2004). Sherlock Holmes in Babylon: and other tales of mathematical history. ISBN 978-0-88385-546-1. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
97. ^ Marian H. Feldman, Diplomacy by design: Luxury arts and an "international style" in the ancient Near East, 1400–1200 BC, (Chicago, Illinois: University Press, 2006), pp. 120–121.
98. ^ a b British Museum notice: "Gold and carnelians beads. The two beads etched with patterns in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley. They were made by a technique developed by the Harappan civilization". Photograph of the necklace in question.
99. ^ Reade, Julian E. (2008). The Indus-Mesopotamia relationship reconsidered (Gs Elisabeth During Caspers). Archaeopress. pp. 12–14\. ISBN 978-1-4073-0312-3.
100. ^ Reade, Julian E. (2008). The Indus-Mesopotamia relationship reconsidered (Gs Elisabeth During Caspers). Archaeopress. pp. 14–17\. ISBN 978-1-4073-0312-3.
101. ^ Gensheimer, T. R. (1984). "The Role of shell in Mesopotamia : evidence for trade exchange with Oman and the Indus Valley". Paléorient. 10: 71–72\. doi:10.3406/paleo.1984.4350.
102. ^ a b c d McIntosh, Jane (2008). The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. pp. 182–190\. ISBN 978-1-57607-907-2.
103. ^ For the etching technique, see MacKay, Ernest (1925). "Sumerian Connexions with Ancient India". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (4): 699. JSTOR 25220818.
104. ^ Guimet, Musée (2016). Les Cités oubliées de l'Indus: Archéologie du Pakistan (in French). FeniXX réédition numérique. p. 355\. ISBN 978-2-402-05246-7.
105. ^ Demand, Nancy H. (2011). The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 71–72\. ISBN 978-1-4443-4234-5.
106. ^ Rowlands, Michael J. (1987). Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World. Cambridge University Press. p. 37\. ISBN 978-0-521-25103-7.
107. ^ For a full list of discoveries of Indus seals in Mesopotamia, see Reade, Julian (2013). Indian Ocean In Antiquity. Routledge. pp. 148–152\. ISBN 978-1-136-15531-4.
108. ^ For another list of Mesopotamian finds of Indus seals: Possehl, Gregory L. (2002). The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Rowman Altamira. p. 221\. ISBN 978-0-7591-0172-2.
109. ^ "Indus stamp-seal found in Ur BM 122187". British Museum.
"Indus stamp-seal discovered in Ur BM 123208". British Museum.
"Indus stamp-seal discovered in Ur BM 120228". British Museum.
110. ^ Gadd, G. J. (1958). Seals of Ancient Indian style found at Ur.
111. ^ Podany, Amanda H. (2012). Brotherhood of Kings: How International Relations Shaped the Ancient Near East. Oxford University Press. p. 49\. ISBN 978-0-19-971829-0.
112. ^ Aruz, Joan; Wallenfels, Ronald (2003). Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 246\. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1. "Square-shaped Indus seals of fired steatite have been found at a few sites in Mesopotamia."
113. ^ Cotterell, Arthur (2011). Asia: A Concise History. John Wiley & Sons. p. 42\. ISBN 978-0-470-82959-2.
114. ^ a b c d Hudson, Michael (1998). Michael Hudson and Marc Van De Mieroop (ed.). Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL. pp. 23–35\. ISBN 978-1-883053-71-0.
115. ^ Van De Mieroop, Marc (1998). Michael Hudson and Marc Van De Mieroop (ed.). Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL. p. 63\. ISBN 978-1-883053-71-0.
116. ^ Roux, Georges (1992), "Ancient Iraq" (Penguin).
117. ^ Winter, Irene J. (1985). "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". In Kessler, Herbert L.; Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV 16. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. pp. 11–32. ISSN 0091-7338.
118. ^ Thompson, Gary. "History of Constellation and Star Names". Members.optusnet.com.au. Archived from the original on 2012-08-21. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
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### Further reading

[edit]

* Ascalone, Enrico. 2007. Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 1). Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-25266-7 (paperback).
* Bottéro, Jean, André Finet, Bertrand Lafont, and George Roux. 2001. Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Crawford, Harriet E. W. 2004\. Sumer and the Sumerians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Leick, Gwendolyn. 2002. Mesopotamia: Invention of the City. London, England and New York: Penguin.
* Lloyd, Seton. 1978. The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: From the Old Stone Age to the Persian Conquest. London, England: Thames and Hudson.
* Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. 1998. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. London, England and Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
* Kramer, Samuel Noah (1972). Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Revised ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1047-7.
* Roux, Georges. 1992. Ancient Iraq, 560 pages. London, England: Penguin (earlier printings may have different pagination: 1966, 480 pages, Pelican; 1964, 431 pages, London, England: Allen and Urwin).
* Schomp, Virginia. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
* Sumer: Cities of Eden (Timelife Lost Civilizations). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1993 (hardcover), ISBN 0-8094-9887-1).
* Woolley, C. Leonard. 1929. The Sumerians Archived 2021-04-15 at the Wayback Machine. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

### External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Sumer (category)

* Ancient Sumer History – The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium
* Iraq's Ancient Past – Penn Museum
* A brief introduction to Sumerian history

#### Geography

[edit]

* Kessler, Peter (2008). "Ancient Mesopotamia". The History Files. Kessler Associates.

#### Language

[edit]

* Sumerian Language Page, perhaps the oldest Sumerian website on the web (it dates back to 1996), features compiled lexicon, detailed FAQ, extensive links, and so on.
* Black, Jeremy Allen; Baines, John Robert; Dahl, Jacob L.; Van De Mieroop, Marc. Cunningham, Graham; Ebeling, Jarle; Flückiger-Hawker, Esther; Robson, Eleanor; Taylor, Jon; Zólyomi, Gábor (eds.). "ETCSL: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature". Faculty of Oriental Studies (revised ed.). United Kingdom. Retrieved 2022-09-23. "The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), a project of the University of Oxford, comprises a selection of nearly 400 literary compositions recorded on sources which come from ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and date to the late third and early second millennia BCE."
* Renn, Jürgen; Dahl, Jacob L.; Lafont, Bertrand; Pagé-Perron, Émilie (2022) [1998]. "CDLI: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative" (published 1998–2022). Retrieved 2022-09-23. "Images presented online by the research project Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) are for the non-commercial use of students, scholars, and the public. Support for the project has been generously provided by the Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (ILMS), and by the Max Planck Society (MPS), Oxford and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); network services are from UCLA's Center for Digital Humanities."
* Sjöberg, Åke Waldemar; Leichty, Erle; Tinney, Steve (2022) [2003]. "PSD: The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary" (published 2003–2022). Retrieved 2022-09-23. "The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project (PSD) is carried out in the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. It is funded by the NEH and private contributions. [They] work with several other projects in the development of tools and corpora. [Two] of these have useful websites: the CDLI and the ETCSL."

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* v
* t
* e

Timeline of Mesopotamia

|  | Northwestern Mesopotamia | Northern Mesopotamia | Southern Mesopotamia

|
|
|

c. 3500–2350 BCE  | Late Chalcolithic 4-5 / Early Jezirah 1-3  | Uruk period / Jemdet Nasr period / Early Dynastic period
c. 2350–2200 BCE  | Akkadian Empire
c. 2200–2100 BCE  | Gutians
c. 2100–2000 BCE  | Third Dynasty of Ur
c. 2000–1800 BCE  | Mari and other Amorite city-states | Old Assyrian period | Isin/Larsa and other Amorite city-states
c. 1800–1600 BCE  | Old Hittite Kingdom | Old Babylonian Empire (Southern Akkadians)
c. 1600–1400 BCE  | Mitanni (Hurrians)  | Karduniaš (Kassites)
c. 1400–1200 BCE  | Hittite Empire |  | Middle Assyria
c. 1200–1150 BCE  | Bronze Age Collapse ("Sea Peoples")  | Arameans
c. 1150–911 BCE  | Phoenicia | Neo-Hittite
city-states | Aram-
Damascus | Arameans | Middle Babylonia | Chal-
de-
ans
911–729 BCE  | Neo-Assyrian Empire
729–609 BCE  |  |
626–539 BCE  | Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldeans)
539–331 BCE  | Achaemenid Empire
336–301 BCE  | Macedonian Empire (Ancient Greeks and Macedonians)
311–129 BCE  | Seleucid Empire
129–63 BCE  | Seleucid Empire | Parthian Empire
63 BCE–224 CE  | Ancient Rome \- Byzantine Empire (Syria)
224–mid 7C  | Sassanid Empire

* v
* t
* e

Ancient Mesopotamia

Geography|

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|

Ancient|

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|

History|

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Iraq topics

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638–1958|

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Rulers of the ancient Near East

|  | Territories/
dates
[1][2][3][4][5] | Egypt | Canaan | Ebla | Mari | Kish/
Assur | Akshak/
Akkad | Uruk | Adab | Umma
| Lagash | Ur | Elam

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

4000–3200 BCE  | Naqada I
Naqada II
| Egypt–Mesopotamia relations | Pre-Dynastic period (4000–2900 BCE)  | Susa I

Uruk period
(4000–3100 BCE)

(Anu Ziggurat, 4000 BCE)

(Anonymous "King-priests")  | Susa II

(Uruk influence or control)
3200–3100 BCE  | Proto-Dynastic period
(Naqada III)
Early or legendary kings:
Upper Egypt
Finger Snail Fish Pen-Abu Animal Stork Canide Bull Scorpion I Shendjw Iry-Hor Ka Scorpion II Narmer / Menes | Lower Egypt
Hedju Hor Ny-Hor Hsekiu Khayu Tiu Thesh Neheb Wazner Nat-Hor Mekh Double Falcon Wash
3100–2900 BCE  | Early Dynastic Period
First Dynasty of EgyptNarmer Palette
Narmer Menes Neithhotep♀ (regent) Hor-Aha Djer Djet Merneith♀ (regent) Den Anedjib Semerkhet Qa'a Sneferka Horus Bird | Canaanites | Jemdet Nasr period
(3100–2900 BCE)  | Proto-Elamite
period
(Susa III)
(3100–2700 BCE)
2900 BCE  | Second Dynasty of Egypt

Hotepsekhemwy Nebra/Raneb Nynetjer Ba Nubnefer Horus Sa Weneg-Nebty Wadjenes Senedj Seth-Peribsen Sekhemib-Perenmaat Neferkara I Neferkasokar Hudjefa I Khasekhemwy
| Early Dynastic Period I (2900–2700 BCE)
First Eblaite
Kingdom
| First kingdom of Mari
| Kish I dynasty
Jushur, Kullassina-bel
Nangishlishma,
En-tarah-ana
Babum, Puannum, Kalibum
2800 BCE

| Kalumum Zuqaqip Atab
Mashda Arwium Etana
Balih En-me-nuna
Melem-Kish Barsal-nuna | Uruk I dynasty
Meshkiangasher
Enmerkar ("conqueror of Aratta")
2700 BCE  | Early Dynastic Period II (2700–2600 BCE)
|  | Zamug, Tizqar, Ilku
Iltasadum | Lugalbanda
Dumuzid, the Fisherman
Enmebaragesi ("made the land of Elam submit")[6]
Aga of Kish | Gilgamesh | Old Elamite period
(2700–1500 BCE)

Indo-Mesopotamia relations
2600 BCE  | Third Dynasty of Egypt

Djoser

(First Egyptian pyramids)
Sekhemkhet Sanakht Nebka Khaba Qahedjet Huni | Early Dynastic Period III (2600–2340 BCE)
Sagisu
Abur-lim
Agur-lim
Ibbi-Damu
Baba-Damu |  | Kish II dynasty
(5 kings)
Uhub
Mesilim | Ur-Nungal
Udulkalama
Labashum | Lagash
En-hegal
Lugal-
shaengur | Ur
A-Imdugud
Ur-Pabilsag
Meskalamdug
(Queen Puabi)
Akalamdug
Enun-dara-anna
Mesh-he
Melem-ana
Lugal-kitun | Adab
Nin-kisalsi
Me-durba
Lugal-dalu |
2575 BCE  | Old Kingdom of Egypt
Fourth Dynasty of Egypt
Snefru Khufu

Djedefre Khafre Bikheris Menkaure Shepseskaf Thamphthis | Ur I dynasty
Mesannepada
"King of Ur and Kish", victorious over Uruk
2500 BCE  | Phoenicia (2500–539 BCE)  | Second kingdom of Mari

Ikun-Shamash
Iku-Shamagan

Ansud
Sa'umu
Ishtup-Ishar
Ikun-Mari
Iblul-Il
Nizi
Enna-Dagan | Kish III dynasty
Ku-Baba♀ | Akshak dynasty
Unzi
Undalulu | Uruk II dynasty
Ensha-
kushanna | Mug-si | Umma I dynasty

Pabilgagaltuku | Lagash I dynasty

Ur-Nanshe

Akurgal | A'annepada
Meskiagnun
Elulu
Balulu | Awan dynasty
Peli
Tata
Ukkutahesh
Hishur
2450 BCE  | Fifth Dynasty of Egypt

Userkaf Sahure Neferirkare Kakai Neferefre Shepseskare Nyuserre Ini Menkauhor Kaiu Djedkare Isesi Unas | Enar-Damu
Ishar-Malik | Ush
Enakalle
Elamite invasions
(3 kings)[6] | Shushun-Tarana
Napi-Ilhush
2425 BCE  | Kun-Damu | Eannatum
(King of Lagash, Sumer, Akkad, conqueror of Elam)
2400 BCE  | Adub-Damu
Igrish-Halam
Irkab-Damu | Kish IV dynasty
Puzur-Suen
Ur-Zababa | Urur | Lugal-kinishe-dudu
Lugal-kisalsi | E-iginimpa'e
Meskigal | Ur-Lumma

Gishakidu
(Queen Bara-irnun)  | Enannatum
Entemena
Enannatum II
Enentarzi | Ur II dynasty
Nanni
Mesh-ki-ang-Nanna II | Kikku-Siwe-Temti
2380 BCE  | Sixth Dynasty of Egypt
Teti Userkare Pepi I Merenre Nemtyemsaf I Pepi II Merenre Nemtyemsaf II Netjerkare Siptah
| Adab dynasty
Lugal-Anne-Mundu
"King of the four quarters of the world"
2370 BCE  | Isar-Damu | Enna-Dagan
Ikun-Ishar
Ishqi-Mari | Invasion by Mari
Anbu, Anba, Bazi, Zizi of Mari, Limer, Sharrum-iter[6] | Ukush | Lugalanda
Urukagina | Luh-ishan
2350 BCE  |  | Puzur-Nirah
Ishu-Il
Shu-Sin | Uruk III dynasty
Lugal-zage-si
(Governor of Umma, King of all Sumer)
2340 BCE  |  | Akkadian Period (2340–2150 BCE)
Akkadian Empire

Sargon of Akkad Rimush Manishtushu | Akkadian Governors:
Eshpum
Ilshu-rabi
Epirmupi
Ili-ishmani
2250 BCE  | Naram-Sin | Lugal-ushumgal
(vassal of the Akkadians)
2200 BCE  | First Intermediate Period
Seventh Dynasty of Egypt
Eighth Dynasty of Egypt
Menkare Neferkare II Neferkare Neby Djedkare Shemai Neferkare Khendu Merenhor Neferkamin Nikare Neferkare Tereru Neferkahor Neferkare Pepiseneb Neferkamin Anu Qakare Ibi Neferkaure Neferkauhor Neferirkare | Second Eblaite
Kingdom | Third kingdom of Mari
(Shakkanakku
dynasty)

Ididish
Shu-Dagan
Ishma-Dagan
(vassals of the Akkadians)  |
Shar-Kali-Sharri
Igigi, Imi, Nanum, Ilulu (3 years)
Dudu
Shu-turul | Uruk IV dynasty
Ur-nigin
Ur-gigir |  | Lagash II dynasty
Puzer-Mama
Ur-Ningirsu I
Pirig-me
Lu-Baba
Lu-gula
Ka-ku
| Hishep-ratep
Helu
Khita
Puzur-Inshushinak
2150 BCE  | Ninth Dynasty of Egypt
Meryibre Khety Neferkare VII Nebkaure Khety Setut | Ur III period (2150–2000 BCE)
Nûr-Mêr
Ishtup-Ilum

Ishgum-Addu
Apil-kin | Gutian dynasty
(21 kings)

La-erabum
Si'um | Kuda (Uruk)
Puzur-ili
Ur-Utu |  | Umma II dynasty
Lugalannatum
(vassal of the Gutians)  | Ur-Baba
Gudea
Ur-Ningirsu
Ur-gar
Nam-mahani

Tirigan
2125 BCE  | Tenth Dynasty of Egypt
Meryhathor Neferkare VIII Wahkare Khety Merikare

| Uruk V dynasty
Utu-hengal
2100 BCE  | (Vassals of UR III)  | Iddi-ilum
Ili-Ishar
Tura-Dagan
Puzur-Ishtar
(vassals of Ur III)[7] | Ur III dynasty
"Kings of Ur, Sumer and Akkad"
Ur-Nammu Shulgi Amar-Sin Shu-Sin
2025–1763 BCE  | Amorite invasions | Ibbi-Sin | Elamite invasions
Kindattu (Shimashki Dynasty)
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt
Mentuhotep I Intef I Intef II Intef III Mentuhotep II Mentuhotep III Mentuhotep IV
Third Eblaite
Kingdom
(Amorites)
Ibbit-Lim

Immeya Indilimma | (Amorite Shakkanakkus)
Hitial-Erra
Hanun-Dagan
(...)

Lim Dynasty
of Mari
(Amorites)
Yaggid-Lim Yahdun-Lim Yasmah-Adad Zimri-Lim (Queen Shibtu)  | Old Assyria
Puzur-Ashur I
Shalim-ahum
Ilu-shuma
Erishum I
Ikunum
Sargon I
Puzur-Ashur II
Naram-Sin
Erishum II | Isin-Larsa period
(Amorites)
Dynasty of Isin: Ishbi-Erra Shu-Ilishu Iddin-Dagan Ishme-Dagan Lipit-Ishtar Ur-Ninurta Bur-Suen Lipit-Enlil Erra-imitti Enlil-bani Zambiya Iter-pisha Ur-du-kuga Suen-magir Damiq-ilishu
Dynasty of Larsa: Naplanum Emisum Samium Zabaia Gungunum Abisare Sumuel Nur-Adad Sin-Iddinam Sin-Eribam Sin-Iqisham Silli-Adad Warad-Sin Rim-Sin I (...) Rim-Sin II
Uruk VI dynasty: Alila-hadum Sumu-binasa Naram-Sin of Uruk Sîn-kāšid Sîn-iribam Sîn-gāmil Ilum-gamil An-am Irdanene Rîm-Anum Nabi-ilišu  | Sukkalmah dynasty

Siwe-Palar-Khuppak
Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt
Amenemhat I Senusret I Amenemhat II Senusret II Senusret III Amenemhat III Amenemhat IV Sobekneferu♀
1800–1595 BCE  | Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt
Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt | Abraham
(Biblical)
Kings of Byblos
Kings of Tyre
Kings of Sidon | Yamhad
(Yamhad dynasty)
(Amorites)  | Old Assyria

(Shamshi-Adad dynasty
1808–1736 BCE)
(Amorites)
Shamshi-Adad I Ishme-Dagan I Mut-Ashkur Rimush Asinum Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi

(Non-dynastic usurpers
1735–1701 BCE)
Puzur-Sin Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi

(Adaside dynasty
1700–722 BCE)
Bel-bani Libaya Sharma-Adad I Iptar-Sin Bazaya Lullaya Shu-Ninua Sharma-Adad II Erishum III Shamshi-Adad II Ishme-Dagan II Shamshi-Adad III Ashur-nirari I Puzur-Ashur III Enlil-nasir I Nur-ili Ashur-shaduni Ashur-rabi I Ashur-nadin-ahhe I Enlil-Nasir II Ashur-nirari II Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-rim-nisheshu Ashur-nadin-ahhe II

| First Babylonian dynasty
("Old Babylonian Period")
(Amorites)
Sumu-abum Sumu-la-El Sabium Apil-Sin Sin-Muballit Hammurabi Samsu-iluna Abi-Eshuh Ammi-Ditana Ammi-Saduqa Samsu-Ditana

Early Kassite rulers |

Second Babylonian dynasty
("Sealand Dynasty")
Ilum-ma-ili Itti-ili-nibi Damqi-ilishu
Ishkibal Shushushi Gulkishar
mDIŠ+U-EN Peshgaldaramesh Ayadaragalama
Akurduana Melamkurkurra Ea-gamil

Second Intermediate Period
Sixteenth
Dynasty of Egypt
Abydos
Dynasty
Seventeenth
Dynasty of Egypt

| Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt
("Hyksos")
Pharaoh Ahmose I slaying a Hyksos
Semqen 'Aper-'Anati Sakir-Har Khyan Apepi Khamudi | Mitanni
(1600–1260 BCE)
Kirta Shuttarna I Baratarna
1531–1155 BCE  | TutankhamunNew Kingdom of Egypt
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
Ahmose I Amenhotep I | Third Babylonian dynasty (Kassites)
Agum-Kakrime Burnaburiash I Kashtiliash III Ulamburiash Agum III Karaindash Kadashman-Harbe I Kurigalzu I Kadashman-Enlil I Burna-Buriash II Kara-hardash Nazi-Bugash Kurigalzu II Nazi-Maruttash Kadashman-Turgu Kadashman-Enlil II Kudur-Enlil Shagarakti-Shuriash Kashtiliash IV Enlil-nadin-shumi Kadashman-Harbe II Adad-shuma-iddina Adad-shuma-usur Meli-Shipak II Marduk-apla-iddina I Zababa-shuma-iddin Enlil-nadin-ahi | Middle Elamite period

(1500–1100 BCE)
Kidinuid dynasty
Igehalkid dynasty
Untash-Napirisha

Thutmose I Thutmose II Hatshepsut♀ Thutmose III
Amenhotep II Thutmose IV Amenhotep III Akhenaten Smenkhkare Neferneferuaten♀ Tutankhamun Ay Horemheb | Hittite Empire (1450–1180 BCE)
Suppiluliuma I Mursili II Muwatalli II Mursili III Hattusili III Tudhaliya IV Suppiluliuma II

Ugarit (vassal of Hittites)
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
Ramesses I Seti I Ramesses II Merneptah Amenmesses Seti II Siptah Tausret♀ | Elamite Empire
Shutrukid dynasty
Shutruk-Nakhunte
1155–1025 BCE  | Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt

Setnakhte Ramesses III Ramesses IV Ramesses V Ramesses VI Ramesses VII Ramesses VIII Ramesses IX Ramesses X Ramesses XI

Third Intermediate Period

Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt
Smendes Amenemnisu Psusennes I Amenemope Osorkon the Elder Siamun Psusennes II

| Phoenicia
Kings of Byblos
Kings of Tyre
Kings of Sidon

Kingdom of Israel
Saul
Ish-bosheth
David
Solomon | Syro-Hittite states
Carchemish
Tabal | Middle Assyria
Eriba-Adad I Ashur-uballit I Enlil-nirari Arik-den-ili Adad-nirari I Shalmaneser I Tukulti-Ninurta I Ashur-nadin-apli Ashur-nirari III Enlil-kudurri-usur Ninurta-apal-Ekur Ashur-dan I Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur Mutakkil-Nusku Ashur-resh-ishi I Tiglath-Pileser I Asharid-apal-Ekur Ashur-bel-kala Eriba-Adad II Shamshi-Adad IV Ashurnasirpal I Shalmaneser II Ashur-nirari IV Ashur-rabi II Ashur-resh-ishi II Tiglath-Pileser II Ashur-dan II | Fourth Babylonian dynasty ("Second Dynasty of Isin")
Marduk-kabit-ahheshu Itti-Marduk-balatu Ninurta-nadin-shumi Nebuchadnezzar I Enlil-nadin-apli Marduk-nadin-ahhe Marduk-shapik-zeri Adad-apla-iddina Marduk-ahhe-eriba Marduk-zer-X Nabu-shum-libur | Neo-Elamite period (1100–540 BCE)
1025–934 BCE  | Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Babylonian dynasties ("Period of Chaos")
Simbar-shipak Ea-mukin-zeri Kashshu-nadin-ahi Eulmash-shakin-shumi Ninurta-kudurri-usur I Shirikti-shuqamuna Mar-biti-apla-usur Nabû-mukin-apli
911–745 BCE  | Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt
Shoshenq I Osorkon I Shoshenq II Takelot I Osorkon II Shoshenq III Shoshenq IV Pami Shoshenq V Pedubast II Osorkon IV

Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt
Harsiese A Takelot II Pedubast I Shoshenq VI Osorkon III Takelot III Rudamun Menkheperre Ini

Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt
Tefnakht Bakenranef

| Kingdom of Samaria

Kingdom of Judah | Neo-Assyrian Empire
Adad-nirari II Tukulti-Ninurta II Ashurnasirpal II Shalmaneser III Shamshi-Adad V Shammuramat♀ (regent) Adad-nirari III Shalmaneser IV Ashur-Dan III Ashur-nirari V | Eight Babylonian Dynasty
Ninurta-kudurri-usur II Mar-biti-ahhe-iddina Shamash-mudammiq Nabu-shuma-ukin I Nabu-apla-iddina Marduk-zakir-shumi I Marduk-balassu-iqbi Baba-aha-iddina (five kings) Ninurta-apla-X Marduk-bel-zeri Marduk-apla-usur Eriba-Marduk Nabu-shuma-ishkun Nabonassar Nabu-nadin-zeri Nabu-shuma-ukin II Nabu-mukin-zeri
| Humban-Tahrid dynasty

Urtak
Teumman
Ummanigash
Tammaritu I
Indabibi
Humban-haltash III
745–609 BCE  | Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt
Taharqa("Black Pharaohs")
Piye Shebitku Shabaka Taharqa Tanutamun | Neo-Assyrian Empire

(Sargonid dynasty)
Tiglath-Pileser† Shalmaneser† Marduk-apla-iddina II Sargon† Sennacherib† Marduk-zakir-shumi II Marduk-apla-iddina II Bel-ibni Ashur-nadin-shumi† Nergal-ushezib Mushezib-Marduk Esarhaddon† Ashurbanipal Ashur-etil-ilani Sinsharishkun Sin-shumu-lishir Ashur-uballit II

Assyrian conquest of Egypt | Assyrian conquest of Elam
626–539 BCE  | Late Period
Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt
Necho I Psamtik I Necho II Psamtik II Wahibre Ahmose II Psamtik III | Neo-Babylonian Empire
Nabopolassar Nebuchadnezzar II Amel-Marduk Neriglissar Labashi-Marduk Nabonidus | Median Empire
Deioces Phraortes Madyes Cyaxares Astyages
539–331 BCE  | Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt
(First Achaemenid conquest of Egypt)  | Kings of Byblos
Kings of Tyre
Kings of Sidon | Achaemenid Empire
Cyrus Cambyses Darius I Xerxes Artaxerxes I Darius II Artaxerxes II Artaxerxes III Artaxerxes IV Darius III
Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt
Twenty-ninth Dynasty of Egypt
Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt
Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt
331–141 BCE  | Argead dynasty and Ptolemaic Egypt
Ptolemy I Soter Ptolemy Ceraunus Ptolemy II Philadelphus Arsinoe II♀ Ptolemy III Euergetes Berenice II Euergetis♀ Ptolemy IV Philopator Arsinoe III Philopator♀ Ptolemy V Epiphanes Cleopatra I Syra♀ Ptolemy VI Philometor Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator Cleopatra II Philometor Soteira♀ Ptolemy VIII Physcon Cleopatra III♀ Ptolemy IX Lathyros Cleopatra IV♀ Ptolemy X Alexander Berenice III♀ Ptolemy XI Alexander Ptolemy XII Auletes Cleopatra V♀ Cleopatra VI Tryphaena♀ Berenice IV Epiphanea♀ Ptolemy XIII Ptolemy XIV Cleopatra VII Philopator♀ Ptolemy XV Caesarion Arsinoe IV♀ | Hellenistic Period
Seleukos I Nikator Tetradrachm from BabylonArgead dynasty: Alexander III Philip III Alexander IV
Antigonid dynasty: Antigonus I
Seleucid Empire: Seleucus I Antiochus I Antiochus II Seleucus II Seleucus III Antiochus III Seleucus IV Antiochus IV Antiochus V Demetrius I Alexander III Demetrius II Antiochus VI Dionysus Diodotus Tryphon Antiochus VII Sidetes
141–30 BCE  | Kingdom of Judea
Simon Thassi John Hyrcanus Aristobulus I Alexander Jannaeus Salome Alexandra♀ Hyrcanus II Aristobulus II Antigonus II Mattathias | Alexander II Zabinas Seleucus V Philometor Antiochus VIII Grypus Antiochus IX Cyzicenus Seleucus VI Epiphanes Antiochus X Eusebes Antiochus XI Epiphanes Demetrius III Eucaerus Philip I Philadelphus Antiochus XII Dionysus Antiochus XIII Asiaticus Philip II Philoromaeus | Parthian Empire
Mithridates I Phraates Hyspaosines Artabanus Mithridates II Gotarzes Mithridates III Orodes I Sinatruces Phraates III Mithridates IV Orodes II Phraates IV Tiridates II Musa Phraates V Orodes III Vonones I Artabanus II Tiridates III Artabanus II Vardanes I Gotarzes II Meherdates Vonones II Vologases I Vardanes II Pacorus II Vologases II Artabanus III Osroes I
30 BCE–116 CE  | Roman Empire
(Roman conquest of Egypt)
Province of Egypt | Judaea | Syria
116–117 CE  | Province of Mesopotamia under Trajan | Parthamaspates of Parthia
117–224 CE  | Syria Palaestina | Province of Mesopotamia | Sinatruces II Mithridates V Vologases IV Osroes II Vologases V Vologases VI Artabanus IV
224–270 CE  | Sasanian Empire
Province of Asoristan
Coin of Ardashir I, Hamadan mint.Ardashir I Shapur I Hormizd I Bahram I Bahram II Bahram III Narseh Hormizd II Adur Narseh Shapur II Ardashir II Shapur III Bahram IV Yazdegerd I Shapur IV Khosrow Bahram V Yazdegerd II Hormizd III Peroz I Balash Kavad I Jamasp Kavad I Khosrow I Hormizd IV Khosrow II Bahram VI Chobin Vistahm
270–273 CE  | Palmyrene Empire
Vaballathus Zenobia♀ Antiochus
273–395 CE  | Roman Empire
Province of Egypt | Syria Palaestina | Syria | Province of Mesopotamia
395–618 CE  | Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Egypt | Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda | Byzantine Syria | Byzantine Mesopotamia
618–628 CE  | (Sasanian conquest of Egypt)
Province of Egypt
Shahrbaraz Shahralanyozan Shahrbaraz | Sasanian Empire
Province of Asoristan
Khosrow II Kavad II
628–641 CE  | Byzantine Empire | Ardashir III Shahrbaraz Khosrow III Boran♀ Shapur-i Shahrvaraz Azarmidokht♀ Farrukh Hormizd Hormizd VI Khosrow IV Boran Yazdegerd III Peroz III Narsieh
Byzantine Egypt | Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda | Byzantine Syria | Byzantine Mesopotamia
639–651 CE  | Muslim conquest of Egypt | Muslim conquest of the Levant | Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia and Persia
Chronology of the Neolithic period |  Rulers of ancient Central Asia

1. ^ Rulers with names in italics are considered fictional.
2. ^ Hallo, William W.; Simpson, William Kelly (1971). The Ancient Near East: A History. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 48–49\. ISBN 978-0-15-502755-8.
3. ^ "Rulers of Mesopotamia". CDLI:wiki. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.
4. ^ Thomas, Ariane; Potts, Timothy, eds. (2020). Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 14\. ISBN 978-1-60606-649-2.
5. ^ Roux, Georges (1992). Ancient Iraq. London: Penguin Books Limited. pp. 532–534 (Chronological Tables). ISBN 978-0-14-193825-7.
6. ^ a b c Per the Sumerian King List.
7. ^ Unger, Merrill F. (2014). Israel and the Aramaeans of Damascus: A Study in Archaeological Illumination of Bible History. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock. p. 5\. ISBN 978-1-62564-606-4.

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