Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates • Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Eridu • Kish • Uruk • Ur • Lagash • Nippur • Ngirsu
Elam: Susa
Akkadian Empire: Akkad • Mari
Amorites: Isin • Larsa
Babylonia: Babylon • Chaldea
Hittites • Kassites • Hurrians/Mitanni
Assyria: Assur • Nimrud • Dur-Sharrukin • Nineveh
Chronology
History of Mesopotamia
History of Sumer • Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Mythology
Enûma Elish • Gilgamesh
Assyro-Babylonian religion
Language
Sumerian • Elamite
Akkadian • Aramaic
Hurrian • Hittite

Sumer ( Sumerian: KI-EN-GIR, "Land of the Lords of Brightness"^[1], or "land of the Sumerian tongue"^[2][3], Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar ), located in southern Mesopotamia, is one of the earliest known civilizations in the world. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk Nippur (URUENLIL; Sumerian: Nibru Akkadian: Nibbur) from the Sumerian for 'lord wind' (Enlil is modern ? in Afak Al Qadisyah Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Susa ( Biblical שושן ( Shushan) also Greek: Σοῦσα Transliterated as Sousa; Latin Susa) Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî Isin (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat was a city of lower Mesopotamia, which flourished during the 20th century BC. Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq Chaldea (from Greek grc Χαλδαία Chaldaia; Akkadian akk māt Kaldu Hebrew כשדים Kaśdim, "the Chaldees" of the The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established The Kassites were an Ancient Near Eastern tribe who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca The Hurrians (also Khurrites; cuneiform Ḫu-ur-ri 𒄷𒌨𒊑 were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia Mitanni ( Hittite cuneiform, also Mittani) or Hanigalbat ( Assyrian Hanigalbat Khanigalbat cuneiform) Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Assur also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon" present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Nineveh ( Akkadian: Ninua; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Hebrew נינוה Nīnewē; Arabic نينوى Naīnuwa) See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for Ancient Mesopotamia was settled and conquered by numerous ancient Civilizations. The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BC ending with the downfall of the Third The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties The following is a list of the kings of Babylonia, a major city and empire in ancient lower Mesopotamia, compiled from the traditional Babylonian king lists and modern Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris The akk Enûma Eliš is the Babylonian Creation myth (named for its Incipit) Gilgamesh was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II first dynasty of Uruk ruling circa 2600 BC according to the Sumerian king The pre- Christian religions of Babylonia and Assyria are the earliest attestation of Ancient Semitic religion, in particular Mesopotamian mythology Assyriology (from Greek grc Ἀσσυρίᾱ Assyriā; and grc -λογία -logia) is the archaeological historical and linguistic study Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Elamite is an Extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites. Aramaic is a Semitic language with Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Shinar (Hebrew he שִׁנְעָר Šin`ar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar 'land of the rivers' is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding A Civilization is a society in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (late 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th millennium BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Babylon in the early 2nd millennium BC. Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq The Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic The Uruk period (ca 4000 to 3100 BC existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq The term "Sumerian" applies to all speakers of the Sumerian language. Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC

Although other cities pre-date Sumer (Jericho, Çatalhöyük and others, either for seasonal protection, or as year-round trading posts) the cities of Sumer were the first to practice intensive, year-round agriculture (from ca. A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status Jericho ( Arabic, ʼArīḥā; Hebrew, Standard Yəriḥo Tiberian Yərîḫô Çatalhöyük (ʧɑtɑl højyk in Turkish also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük, or any of the three without Diacritics çatal is Turkish Agriculture was developed at least 10000 years ago and it has undergone significant developments since the time of the earliest cultivation 5300 BC). The surplus of storable foodstuffs created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and herds. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labor force and division of labor. Division of labour or specialization is the specialization of cooperative labour in specific circumscribed tasks and roles intended to increase the Productivity This organization led to the necessity of record keeping and the development of writing (ca. The history of writing encompasses the various Writing systems that evolved in the Early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC) 3500 BC).

Contents 1 Origin of Name 2 City states 3 History 3.1 Ubaid period 3.2 Uruk period 3.3 Early Dynastic Period 3.3.1 1st Dynasty of Lagash 3.4 Akkadian Empire 3.5 Gutian period 3.5.1 2nd Dynasty of Lagash 3.6 Sumerian renaissance 3.7 Decline 4 Population 5 Culture 5.1 Language and writing 5.2 Religion 5.3 Agriculture and hunting 5.4 Architecture 5.5 Economy and trade 5.6 Military 5.7 Technology 6 Legacy 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

Origin of Name

The term "Sumerian" is the common name given to the ancient inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia by their successors, the Semitic Akkadians. In Linguistics and Ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical " Shem " Hebrew שם translated as "name" Arabic: ساميّ The Sumerians called themselves sag-giga, literally meaning "the black-headed people"^[4]. The Akkadian word Shumer may represent this name in dialect, but it is unknown why the Akkadians called the southern land Shumeru^[5][3]. Biblical Shinar, Egyptian Sngr and Hittite Šanhar(a) could be western variants of Šumer^[5]. Shinar (Hebrew he שִׁנְעָר Šin`ar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar 'land of the rivers' is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring

City states

Further information: Cities of the Ancient Near East

By the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into about a dozen independent city-states, whose limits were defined by canals and boundary stones. Uru was the Sumerian term for a city or City state, written with the Cuneiform Ideogram URU. A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. 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. EN (Borger 2003 nr 164; U+ 12097 𒂗 also read ENSI) is the Sumerian Cuneiform for " Lord " or " Lugal 𒈗 Sumerian for " king " from LÚGAL 𒇽 𒃲 "great man" was one of several Sumerian titles that the ruler of

The five "first" cities said to have exercized pre-dynastic kingship:    Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain) Bad-tibira (Tell al-Madain) Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh) Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah) Shuruppak (Tell Fara) Other principal cities: Kish (Tell Uheimir & Ingharra) Uruk (Warka) Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar) Nippur (Afak) Lagash (Tell al-Hiba) Ngirsu (Tello or Telloh) Umma (Tell Jokha) Hamazi 1 Adab (Tell Bismaya) Mari (Tell Hariri) Akshak 1 Akkad 1 Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat) (1location uncertain)

Minor cities (from south to north): Kuara (Tell al-Lahm) Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh) Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab) Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum) Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim) Borsippa (Birs Nimrud) Kutha (Tell Ibrahim) Der (al-Badra) Eshnunna (Tell Asmar) Nagar (Tell Brak)

Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 km northwest of Agade, but which is credited in the king list to have "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, Al-Muthannā and Al-Qādisiyyah governorates of Iraq. The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq Bad-tibira, identified as modern Tell al-Madineh, between Ash-Shatrah and Senkerch (ancient Larsa) in southern Iraq, was an ancient Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of Sippar ( Sumerian Zimbir "bird city" modern Tell Abu Habbah, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian and later Babylonian Shuruppak (also Shuruppag "the healing place" modern Tell Fara, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city situated south of Nippur Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Nippur (URUENLIL; Sumerian: Nibru Akkadian: Nibbur) from the Sumerian for 'lord wind' (Enlil is modern ? in Afak Al Qadisyah Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of Umma (modern Tell Jokha) was an ancient city in Sumer. History Best known for its long frontier conflict with Lagash. Hamazi (or Khamazi) was an ancient kingdom or city-state of some importance that reached its peak ca Adab (modern Bismaya (or Bismya Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city between Telloh and Nippur. Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Akshak was a city of ancient Sumer, situated on the northern boundary of Akkad, sometimes identified with Babylonian Upi (Greek Opis) Isin (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat was a city of lower Mesopotamia, which flourished during the 20th century BC. Kuara (also known as Kisiga, Ku'ara, modern Tell al-Lahm site Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city located on the western bank of the Zabala (also Zabalam, modern Tell Ibzeikh site Iraq) was a city of ancient Sumer in what is now the Dhi Qar governorate in Kisurra (modern Tell Abu Hatab site Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city situated on the west bank of the middle Euphrates River, north of Marad (Sumerian Marda, modern Tell Wannat es-Sadum site Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city Dilbat (modern Tell ed-Duleim, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian minor city located southeast from Babylon on the eastern bank of the Western Borsippa (modern Birs Nimrud site Iraq) was an important ancient city of Sumer, built on both sides of a lake about 17 Kutha (Sumerian Gudua, modern Tell Ibrahim site Iraq) was an ancient city of Sumer on the right bank of the eastern branch of the Upper Der (modern al-Badra, Iraq) was a Sumerian city state positioned east of the Tigris River on the border between Sumer and Elam Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city and city-state in lower Mesopotamia. Nagar (modern Tell Brak, Syria) was an ancient Late Neolithic, Sumerian and Akkadian city on the Khabur River. The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties Baghdad (بغداد) is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous Babil (بابل is a province in Iraq. It has an area of, with an estimated population of 1385783 people in 2003 Diyala (ديالى is one of the constituent Governorates of the nation of Iraq. Wasit (واسط is one of the Governorates of Iraq. It is in the east of the country Dhi Qar (ذي قار is a province in Iraq with an area of. In 2003 the estimated population of the governorate was 1472000 people Al Muthanna sometimes simply Muthanna (المثنى is one of the Governorates of Iraq. Al-Qādisiyyah (in Arabic: القادسية is one of the Provinces of Iraq. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics.

History

Main article: History of Sumer

The Sumerian city states rose to power during the prehistorical Ubaid and Uruk periods. The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BC ending with the downfall of the Third The Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic The Uruk period (ca 4000 to 3100 BC existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, Sumerian history reaches back to the 29th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, ca. the 26th century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief "Sumerian renaissance" in the 21st century, cut short in the 20th century BC by Amorite invasions. The Gutian dynasty came to power in Mesopotamia around 2150 BC ( Short chronology) by destabilising Akkad at the end of the reign of king Ur-Utu The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until ca. Isin (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat was a city of lower Mesopotamia, which flourished during the 20th century BC. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital

• Ubaid period: 5300-4100 BC (Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic)
• Uruk period: 4100-2900 BC (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age I)
  • Uruk XIV-V: 4100-3300
  • Uruk IV period: 3300-3000 BC
  • Uruk III = Jemdet Nasr period: 3000-2900 BC
• Early Dynastic period (Early Bronze Age II-IV)
  • Early Dynastic I period: 2900-2800 BC
  • Early Dynastic II period: 2800-2600 BC (Gilgamesh)
  • Early Dynastic IIIa period: 2600-2500 BC
  • Early Dynastic IIIb period: ca. The Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic The Neolithic (from Greek νεολιθικός — neolithikos from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos The Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos + lithos ' Copper stone' period or Copper Age period known as the '''Eneolithic''' ('''Æneolithic''' is a The Uruk period (ca 4000 to 3100 BC existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, The Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos + lithos ' Copper stone' period or Copper Age period known as the '''Eneolithic''' ('''Æneolithic''' is a The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for Jemdet Nasr is an archaeological site in Iraq 's Babil Governorate, situated to the north-east of Babylon and Kish and east of Kutha The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for Gilgamesh was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II first dynasty of Uruk ruling circa 2600 BC according to the Sumerian king 2500-2334 BC
• Akkadian Empire period: ca. 2334-2218 BC (Sargon)
• Gutian period: ca. You may be looking for the Assyrian kings Sargon I The Gutian dynasty came to power in Mesopotamia around 2150 BC ( Short chronology) by destabilising Akkad at the end of the reign of king Ur-Utu 2218-2047 BC (Early Bronze Age IV)
• Ur III period: ca. The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of 2047-1940 BC

Ubaid period

Main article: 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 Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic The Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region is an extension of the During this time, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was established at Eridu, ca. Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq 5300 BC, by farmers who brought with them the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. Sāmarrā ( Arabic, سامَرّاء) is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. Eridu remained an important religious center when it was gradually surpassed in size by the nearby city of Uruk. Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern

Uruk period

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 (ca 4000 to 3100 BC existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, In Pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic wares In Pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic wares

By the time of the Uruk period (ca. Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern 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. In Sociology, social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of Social classes Castes and strata within a Society. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use of slave labor captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in the earliest texts. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide area - from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as Central Iran. For the Taurus Mountains on the moon see Montes Taurus. For Mount Taurus outside Cold Spring New York, see Bull Hill. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics.

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. Nagar (modern Tell Brak, Syria) was an ancient Late Neolithic, Sumerian and Akkadian city on the Khabur River. The cities of Sumer could not maintain remote, long-distance colonies by military force.

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^[6]. It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modelled upon this political structure.

The ancient Sumerian king list includes the early dynasties of several prominent cities from this period. The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties 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 Dumizid. Alulim was the first king of Eridu and the first king of Sumer according to the Sumerian king list, making him the first king in the world Not to be confused with Dumuzid the Fisherman Dumuzid, "the Shepherd" from Bad-tibira in Sumer, was the 5th pre-dynastic

The end of the Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation, a dry period from c. The Piora Oscillation was an abrupt cold and wet period in the Climate history of the Holocene Epoch; it is generally dated to the period of 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. The Holocene Climate Optimum was a warm period during roughly the interval 9000 to 5000 years B

Early Dynastic Period

The Dynastic period begins ca. 2900 BC and includes such legendary figures as Enmerkar and Gilgamesh — who are supposed to have reigned shortly before the historic record opens ca. Enmerkar, according to the Sumerian king list, was the builder of Uruk in Sumer, and was said to have reigned for "420 years" (or 900 as Gilgamesh was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II first dynasty of Uruk ruling circa 2600 BC according to the Sumerian king 2700 BC, when the now decipherable 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 Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties Etana was an ancient legendary Sumerian king of the city of Kish, and was according to the Sumerian king list, one of the kings who reigned after the deluge The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish (ca. Enmebaragesi ( Me-Baragesi, En-Men-Barage-Si, Enmebaragisi, fl 26th century BC), whose name is also mentioned in the Gilgamesh epic — leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction.

1st Dynasty of Lagash

Main article: Lagash

ca. Eannatum was a Sumerian king of Lagash who established one of the first verifiable empires in history Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk 2500 - 2270 BC

The dynasty of Lagash, 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. Eannatum was a Sumerian king of Lagash who established one of the first verifiable empires in history Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of Umma (modern Tell Jokha) was an ancient city in Sumer. History Best known for its long frontier conflict with Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf. Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region is an extension of the He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy - his stele of the vultures has been found, showing violent treatment of 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. Lugal-Zage-Si ( sux-Latn lugal-zag-ge4-si = sux-Latn [[LUGAL]] He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before the arrival of the Semitic king, Sargon of Akkad. In Linguistics and Ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical " Shem " Hebrew שם translated as "name" Arabic: ساميّ You may be looking for the Assyrian kings Sargon I

Akkadian Empire

Main article: Akkadian Empire

ca. 2270 - 2083 BC (short chronology)

The Semitic Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish ca. See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for 2800 BC^[7], preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from ca. 2500 BC. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great (ca. 2270 – 2215 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 "Neo-Sumerian Renaissance" that followed it. The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Speakers of Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted for about one thousand years, until ca. 1800 BC, when Sumerian ceased to be spoken. 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. Thorkild Jacobsen (Danish pronunciation yahkobsen; 7 June 1904 – 2 May 1993) was a renowned historian specializing in Sumerian" conflict. ^[8] However, it is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were conquered by Sargon. Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran.

Gutian period

Main article: Gutian dynasty of Sumer

ca. The Gutian dynasty came to power in Mesopotamia around 2150 BC ( Short chronology) by destabilising Akkad at the end of the reign of king Ur-Utu 2083 - 2050 BC (short chronology)

2nd Dynasty of Lagash

Main article: Lagash

ca. See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for Gudea was a ruler ( ensi) of the city of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk 2093 - 2046 BC (short 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 Sargonid kings' claims to divinity. See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for The Gutian dynasty came to power in Mesopotamia around 2150 BC ( Short chronology) by destabilising Akkad at the end of the reign of king Ur-Utu Gudea was a ruler ( ensi) of the city of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk Like the previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendents also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts.

Sumerian renaissance

Main article: Sumerian renaissance

ca. Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of 2047-1940 BC (short chronology)

Later, the 3rd dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, whose power extended as far as northern Mesopotamia, was the last great "Sumerian renaissance", but already the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the influx of waves of Martu (Amorites) who were later to found the Babylonian Empire. See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur-Nammu (or Ur-Namma, Ur-Engur, Ur-Gur, ca 2112-2095 BC Middle chronology) founded the Sumerian 3rd dynasty of Ur Shulgi (also formerly read as Dungi) of Urim was the second king of the " Sumerian Renaissance " Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital The Sumerian language, however, remained a sacerdotal language taught in schools, in the same way that Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was utilised.

Decline

This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Iraq 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 recognised as a major problem. Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil Salt affected soils are caused by excess accumulation of salts typically most pronounced at the soil surface Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissalved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. 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 3/5ths. The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Barley ( Hordeum vulgare) is an annual Cereal Grain, which serves as a major animal Feed crop, with smaller amounts used for ^[9] This greatly weakened 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 would remain only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group according to their particular traditions Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome.

Following an Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule of Ibbi-Sin (ca. Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Ibbi-Sin, son of Shu-Sin, was king of Sumer and Akkad and last king of the Ur III dynasty and reigned 1940 BC), Sumer came under Amorite rule (taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age). Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for 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 ca. The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Hammurabi ( Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer" from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman" and Rāpi 1700 BC.

Population

The Sumerians were a non-Semitic people and were at one time believed to have been invaders, as a number of linguists believed they could detect a substrate language beneath Sumerian. Sāmarrā ( Arabic, سامَرّاء) is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq In Contact linguistics, a substratum ( lat sub: under + stratum: layer → lower layer) is a Language 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 archaeological record is a term used in Archaeology to denote all archaeological evidence, including the physical remains of past human activities which Archaeologists The Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic Radiocarbon dating is a Radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring Radioisotope Carbon-14 (14C to determine the age of Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Sumerian people who settled here farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת

Despite the lack of corroborating written records, it is generally agreed that Sumerian speakers were farmers who moved down from the north, after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami Transitional ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (c. The Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic Sāmarrā ( Arabic, سامَرّاء) is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris 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. Radiocarbon dating is a Radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring Radioisotope Carbon-14 (14C to determine the age of The connection is most clearly seen at Tell Awayli (Oueilli, Oueili) near Larsa, excavated by the French in the 1980s, where 8 levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of 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.

Alternatively, the Sumerians may have been an indigenous culture of hunter-fishers who lived in the reedy marshlands at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, as the Marsh Arabs do today. The Marsh Arabs (عرب الأهوار ˤArab al-Ahwār "Arabs of the Marshlands" also known as the Maˤdān (معدان are inhabitants of the This culture contributed to a cultural fusion with northern agriculturists, creating Sumerian language and civilisation.

Culture

Sumerian culture may be traced to two main centers, Eridu in the south and Nippur in the north may be regarded as a contrasting poles of Sumerian religion. Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq Nippur (URUENLIL; Sumerian: Nibru Akkadian: Nibbur) from the Sumerian for 'lord wind' (Enlil is modern ? in Afak Al Qadisyah

The deity Enlil, around whose sanctuary Nippur had grown up, was considered lord of the ghost-land, and his gifts to mankind were said to be the spells and incantations that the spirits of good or evil were compelled to obey. Enlil ( EN = Lord + LIL = Loft "Lord of the Open" or "Lord of the Wind" was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian The world he governed was a mountain (E-kur from E=house and Kur=Mountain); the creatures that he had made lived underground.

Eridu, on the other hand, was the home of the culture god Enki (absorbed into Babylonian mythology as the god Ea), the god of beneficence, ruler of the freshwater depths beneath the earth (the Abzu from Ab=water and Zu=far), a healer and friend to humanity who was thought to have given us the arts and sciences, the industries and manners of civilization; the first law-book was considered his creation. Enki ( Sumerian: dENKI(G 𒂗𒆠 was a Deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology Babylonian mythology is a set of stories depicting the activities of Babylonian deities, Heroes and Mythological creatures While these stories Enki ( Sumerian: dENKI(G 𒂗𒆠 was a Deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology Eridu had once been a seaport, and it was doubtless its foreign trade and intercourse with other lands that influenced the development of its culture. Its cosmology was the result of its geographical position: the earth, it was believed, had grown out of the waters of the deep, like the ever widening coast at the mouth of the Euphrates. The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת Long before history is recorded, however, the cultures of Eridu and Nippur had coalesced. While Babylon seems to have been a colony of Eridu, Eridu's immediate neighbor, Ur, may have been a colony of Nippur, since its moon god was said to be the son of Enlil of Nippur. Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. However, in the admixture of the two cultures, the influence of Eridu was predominant.

Historian Alan Marcus has been quoted as saying that "Sumerians held a rather dour perspective on life. Alan I Marcus, born August 15 1949 is the author of the history textbook Building Western Civilization From the Advent of Writing to the Age of Steam ( 1998 " One Sumerian wrote: "Tears, lament, anguish, and depression are within me. Suffering overwhelms me. Evil fate holds me and carries off my life. Malignant sickness bathes me. " Another wrote, "Why am I counted among the ignorant? Food is all about, yet my food is hunger. On the day shares were allotted, my allotted share was suffering. "^[10]

There is much evidence that the Sumerians loved music. It seemed to be an important part of religious and civic life in Sumer. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Lyres were popular in Sumer; see Sumerian music. The lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Classical Antiquity and later The discovery of numerous musical instruments in royal burial sites and illustrations of musicians in Sumerian art show how Music seemed to play an important part of

According to inscriptions describing the reforms of king Urukagina of Lagash (ca. Urukagina (reigned ca 2380 BC &ndash 2360 BC, Short chronology) alternately rendered as Uruinimgina or Irikagina, was a ruler Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk 2300 BC), he is said to have abolished the former custom of polyandry in his country, on pain of the woman taking multiple husbands being stoned with rocks upon which her crime is written^[11].

Though women were protected by late Sumerian law and were able to achieve a higher status in Sumer than in other contemporary civilizations, the culture was male-dominated. Cuneiform law refers to any of the Legal codes written in Cuneiform script, that were developed and used throughout the ancient Middle East among the The Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur-III "Sumerian Renaissance", reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. The Code of Ur-Nammu is the oldest known tablet containing a Law code surviving today 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) who could remarry.

Language and writing

Main article: Sumerian language

The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of tablets written in Sumerian. Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Sumerian pre-cuneiform script has been discovered on tablets dating to around 3500 BC.

The Sumerian language is generally regarded as a language isolate in linguistics because it belongs to no known language family; Akkadian belongs to the Afro-Asiatic languages. A language isolate, in the absolute sense is a Natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic" relationship with other living languages that is Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a Language family with about 375 languages ( SIL estimate and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other language groups. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family It is an agglutinative language; in other words, morphemes ("units of meaning") are added together to create words. An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning.

Sumerians invented picture-hieroglyphs that developed into later cuneiform, and their language vies with Ancient Egyptian for credit as the oldest known written human language. A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. An extremely large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language has survived, the great majority of these on clay tablets. Known Sumerian texts include personal and business letters and transactions, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns and prayers, magical incantations, and scientific texts including mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. 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 the ruling race.

Understanding Sumerian texts today can be problematic even for experts. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases don't give the full grammatical structure of the language.

Religion

Main article: Sumerian mythology

Like other cities of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, Sumer was a polytheistic, or henotheistic, society. Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris Polytheism is belief in or worship of multiple Gods (usually assembled in a pantheon) together with associated Mythology and Rituals Henotheism ( Greek heis theos "one god" is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean devotion to a Single god while accepting Their lives were spent serving the gods in the form of man-made statues. There was no organized set of gods, with each city-state having its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings; but the Sumerians were probably the first to write down their beliefs. Sumerian beliefs were also the inspiration for much of later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology. Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Astrology (from Greek grc ἄστρον astron, "constellation star" and grc -λογία -logia) is a group of Systems

The Sumerians worshipped An as the full time god, equivalent to "heaven"-- indeed, the word "an" in Sumerian means "sky. " His consort Ki, means "Earth". Ki (earth in Sumerian mythology was the goddess and personification of the earth and underworld chief consort of An (heaven the sky god Collectively the gods were known as Anunna ((d)an-unna = "offspring of the lord"). The Anunna are the fifty great gods of Sumerian mythology. Some of them are associated with specific cities while others bear a strong resemblance to the functions of patron An's closest cohorts were Enki in the south at the E'abzu temple in Eridu, Enlil in the north at the E'kur temple of Nippur and Inanna, the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening (western) star, at the E'anna temple (shared with An) at Uruk. Enki ( Sumerian: dENKI(G 𒂗𒆠 was a Deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology Enlil ( EN = Lord + LIL = Loft "Lord of the Open" or "Lord of the Wind" was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian Inanna ( D INANNA B153ellstpng|100x20px|INANNA]]) is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love fertility and warfare The sun-god Utu was worshipped at Sippar, the moon god Nanna, was worshipped at Ur, these deities probably considered to be the original matrix; there were hundreds of minor deities. This article refers to the Sumerian Deity. For other uses see Utu (disambiguation. Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always The Sumerian gods (Sumerian dingir, plural dingir-dingir or dingir-re-ne) thus had associations with different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with the political power of the associated cities. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. The gods were said to have created human beings from clay for the purpose of serving them. If the temples/gods ruled each city it was for their mutual survival and benefit - the temples organized the mass labor projects needed for irrigation agriculture. Citizens had a labor duty to the temple which only towards the end of the third millennium were they able to avoid by a payment of silver instead. The temple-centered farming communities of Sumer had a social stability that enabled them to survive for four millennia.

Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk enclosed by a tin dome. The Universe is defined as everything that Physically Exists: the entirety of Space and Time, all forms of Matter, Energy A dome is a common structural element of Architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a Sphere. The Sumerian afterlife involved a descent into a gloomy netherworld to spend eternity in a wretched existence as a Gidim (ghost). AfterLife is a film drama set in Scotland directed by Alison Peebles made in 2003 about an ambitious Scottish journalist forced to choose between In Akkadian and Sumerian mythology, Irkalla (also Ir-Kalla, Irkalia) is the Hell -like Underworld from which there In common usage existence is the world of which we are aware through our senses but in Philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning and is often contrasted with Gidim are the Sumerian equivalent of Ghosts they were the spirits of dead people living in the Underworld.

Ziggurats (Sumerian temples) consisted of a forecourt, with a central pond for purification. A ziggurat ( Akkadian ziqqurrat, D-stem of zaqāru "to build on a raised area" was a Temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian The temple itself had a central nave with aisles along either side. In Romanesque and Gothic Christian Abbey, Cathedral Basilica and church Architecture, the nave is the Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. At one end would stand the podium and a mudbrick table for animal and vegetable sacrifices. For the 2004 film directed by Yann Moix see Podium (film. A podium (plural podia) is a Platform that A mudbrick is a firefree Brick made of Clay, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw The term " vegetable " generally means the edible parts of Plants The definition of the word is traditional rather than Scientific, however Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning "to make sacred" from Old French, from Latin sacrificium: sacr, "sacred" Granaries and storehouses were usually located near the temples. A warehouse is a commercial Building for Storage of Goods. Warehouses are used by Manufacturers Importers Exporters 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 later Ziggurat style.

Agriculture and hunting

The Sumerians adopted the agricultural mode of life which had been introduced into Lower Mesopotamia and practiced the same irrigation techniques as those used in Egypt. ^[12] Adams says that irrigation development was associated with urbanization,^[13] and that 89% of the population lived in the cities [1]. Robert McCormick Adams Jr (born July 23, 1926) is a US Anthropologist.

They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard. Barley ( Hordeum vulgare) is an annual Cereal Grain, which serves as a major animal Feed crop, with smaller amounts used for The chickpea ( Cicer arietinum) (also garbanzo bean, Indian pea, ceci bean, bengal gram, chana, kadale kaalu, The lentil or daal or pulse ( Lens culinaris) is a bushy Annual plant of the legume family grown for its lens-shaped Seeds Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. The Date Palm ( Phoenix dactylifera) is a palm in the genus Phoenix, extensively cultivated for its edible Fruit. Organicsalsajpg||thumb|right|Onions used in salsa.]]Cooked onions in frying pan Allium sativum L, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the Onion family Alliaceae. Lettuce ( Lactuca sativa) is a Temperate annual or Biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var porrum (L also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs along with the Onion and For the prepared condiment see Mustard (condiment. For other uses of the term "mustard" see Mustard. They also raised cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The domestic goat ( Capra aegagrus hircus) is a subspecies of goat Domesticated from the Wild goat of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe Pigs, also called hogs or' swine', are Ungulates which have been domesticated as sources of food leather and similar products since ancient times They used oxen as their primary beasts of burden and donkeys or equids as their primary transport animal. Oxen (singular ox) are Cattle trained as draft animals. Often they are adult castrated males The donkey or ass, Equus asinus, is a member of the Equidae or horse family and an odd-toed ungulate. Equidae is the family of horse-like animals which belong to the order Perissodactyla. Sumerians caught many fish and hunted fowl and gazelle. Most or all Birds collectively referred to as fowl belong to one of two orders namely the gamefowl or landfowl ( Galliformes) and the waterfowl A GAZelle (ГАЗе́ль is a series of mid-sized Trucks Vans and Buses made by Russian car manufacturer GAZ.

Sumerian agriculture depended heavily on irrigation. Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops The irrigation was accomplished by the use of shadufs, canals, channels, dykes, weirs, and reservoirs. A shadoof or shaduf (an Arabic word شادوف Canals are artificial channels for water There are two types of canals water conveyance canals which are used for the conveyance and delivery of water and Waterways Physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a River, slough or ocean Strait consisting of a bed and banks LeveeEmbankmentDitch A dike (or dyke) levee, levée, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial WEIR (1430 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format A reservoir is most broadly a place or hollow vessel where Fluid is kept in Reserve, for later use 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 continually replaced. The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת Silt is Soil or rock derived Granular material of a Grain size between sand and clay The government required individuals to work on the canals in a corvee, although the rich were able to exempt themselves. Corvée is labour often but not always unpaid that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform unless commuted in some way such as by a cash payment sometimes this was

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. The Assyrian new year (Assyrian Akitu) lies on April 1. Traditionally falling on the Vernal equinox, it was moved to April 1 when the Next they let oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. A pickaxe is a Hand tool with a hard head attached Perpendicular to the handle After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. The plough ( American spelling plow; both plaʊ is a Tool used in Farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed In Agriculture, a set of harrows is an implement for cultivating the surface of the Soil. A rake ( Old English raca, cognate with Dutch raak, German Rechen, from a root meaning "to scrape together" mattock is a hand Tool similar to a Pickaxe. It is distinguished by the head which makes it particularly suitable for digging or breaking up moderately hard ground 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 dry fall season in three-person teams consisting of a reaper, a binder, and a sheaf arranger. Autumn (also known as fall in North American English) is one of the four Temperate Seasons Autumn marks the transition from Summer A reaper is a person (or machine who reaps or harvests (cuts and gathers crops when they are ripe The reaper-binder, or binder, was a farm implement that improved upon the Reaper. The farmers would use threshing wagons to separate the cereal heads from the stalks and then use threshing sleds to disengage the grain. In Botany, a peduncle is a stalk supporting an Inflorescence, or after Fecundation a fruit They then winnowed the grain/chaff mixture. Wind winnowing is an agricultural method developed by ancient cultures for separating grain from Chaff.

Architecture

Main article: Sumerian architecture

The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. The Sumerians were a people who lived in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from the 4th millennium BC to the 3rd millennium BC. Sumerian structures were made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement. A mudbrick is a firefree Brick made of Clay, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw Mortar is a workable paste formed by mixture of Cement, Water and fine aggregate Masonry to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between In the most general sense of the word a cement is a binder a substance which sets and hardens independently and can bind other materials together Mud-brick buildings eventually deteriorate, and so they were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, so that they came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resultant hills are known as tells, and are found throughout the ancient Near East. Tell, tel or tall (تلّ tall, and תֵּל tel) meaning "hill" or "mound" is a type of archaeological

The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms which supported temples. A ziggurat ( Akkadian ziqqurrat, D-stem of zaqāru "to build on a raised area" was a Temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian Some scholars have theorized that these structures might have been the basis of the Tower of Babel described in Genesis. The Tower of Babel (מגדל בבל Migdal Bavel برج بابل Burj Babil) is a structure featured in chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, an enormous Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as A. A cylinder seal is a cylinder engraved with a 'picture story' used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface generally wet Clay. A seal can mean a wax seal bearing an impressed figure or an embossed figure in paper with the purpose of authenticating a document but the term can also mean any device for The Marsh Arabs (عرب الأهوار ˤArab al-Ahwār "Arabs of the Marshlands" also known as the Maˤdān (معدان are inhabitants of the D. 400. The Sumerians also developed the arch. With this structure, they were able to develop a strong type of roof called a dome. They built this by constructing several arches.

Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails. A buttress is an architectural structure built against (a counterfort) or projecting from a Wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall Used by Sumerians and other Mesopotamian cultures beginning in the third millennium BC clay nails, also referred to as dedication or foundation nails were inscribed

Economy and trade

Discoveries of obsidian from far-away locations in Anatolia and lapis lazuli from 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 around the Persian Gulf. Obsidian is a naturally occurring Glass formed as an extrusive Igneous rock. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, Dilmun (sometimes transliterated Telmun) is a land mentioned by Mesopotamian Civilizations as a trade partner source of raw material copper and Entrepot The Kingdom of Bahrain (in مملكة البحرين,, literally Kingdom of the Two Seas) is an Island country in the Persian Gulf The Indus Valley Civilization (Mature period 2600&ndash1900 BCE abbreviated IVC, was an ancient Civilization that flourished in the Indus River basin The term Indus script (Harappan script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the Harappan civilization ( Indus Valley The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region is an extension of the

The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods such as wood that were scarce in Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction. In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized.

The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters. This article describes textile weaving For other senses of this word see Weaving (disambiguation. For other uses see Miller (disambiguation A miller usually refers to a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a Cereal A porter, also called a bearer, is a person who carries objects

Sumerian potters decorated pots with cedar oil paints. Pottery is the Ceramic ware made by potters It also refers to a group of materials that includes Earthenware, Stoneware Cedar oil was used as the base for Paints by the ancient Sumerians They would grind Cobalt compounds in a Mortar and pestle to produce Paint is any Liquid, liquifiable or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque Solid The potters used a bow drill to produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. The bow drill is an ancient Tool. While it was usually used to make Fire, it was also used for primitive Woodworking and Dentistry. Fire is the heat and light energy released during a Chemical reaction, in particular a combustion reaction. Sumerian masons and jewelers knew and made use of alabaster (calcite), ivory, gold, silver, carnelian and lapis lazuli. Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar, and the term "masonry" can also refer to the units themselves Jewellery (also spelled jewelry, see spelling differences) is a personal Ornament, such as a necklace ring or bracelet made from Gemstones Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct Minerals Gypsum (a hydrous sulfate of Calcium) and Calcite Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of Calcium carbonate ( Ca[[carbon C]] O 3 Ivory is formed from Dentine and constitutes the bulk of the Teeth and Tusks of animals such as the Elephant, Hippopotamus, Gold (ˈɡoʊld is a Chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and Atomic number 79 Silver (ˈsɪlvɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol " Ag " (argentum from the Ancient Greek: ἀργήντος - argēntos gen

Military

The almost constant wars among the Sumerian city-states for 2000 years helped to develop the military technology and techniques of Sumer to a high level. The first war recorded was between Lagash and Umma in ca. 2525 BC on a stele called the Stele of Vultures. It shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly of infantry. The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists The infantrymen carried spears, wore copper helmets and carried leather or wicker shields. This is an article about a particle accelerator For uses of spear, see Spear or Spear (disambiguation. Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 A helmet is a form of Protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries a variation of the hat Leather is a material created through the Tanning of hides and Skins of Animals primarily Cattlehide The Tanning process Wicker is hard woven Fiber formed into a useful object Wicker is usually used for Baskets or Furniture. A shield is a protective device meant to intercept attacks The term often refers to a device that is held in the hand as opposed to Armour or a Bullet proof vest The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the phalanx formation, which requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have made use of professional soldiers. The phalanx (Ancient Greek φάλαγξ Modern Greek φάλαγγα phālanga (plural phalanxes or phalanges (Ancient and Modern Greek φάλαγγες This article is about people called professionals For the Movie, see The Professional or Leon.

The Sumerian military used carts harnessed to onagers. The Onager ( Equus hemionus) is a large Mammal belonging to the horse family and native to the deserts of Syria, Iran, Pakistan 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 chariot is the earliest and simplest type of Carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples The term lance has become a catchall for a variety of different Pole weapons based on the Spear. The Sumerian chariot comprised a four or two-wheeled device manned by a crew of two and harnessed to four onagers. A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load ( Mass) or performing labour in machines The cart was composed of a woven basket and the wheels had a solid three-piece design. A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres often made of Willow.

Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. See also List of cities with defensive walls A defensive wall is a Fortification used to defend a city or settlement from potential aggressors The Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities, but the mudbrick walls failed to deter some foes. A mudbrick is a firefree Brick made of Clay, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw

Technology

Examples of Sumerian technology include: the wheel, cuneiform, 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 and harpoons. Bronze is any of a broad range of Copper alloys, usually with Tin as the main additive but sometimes with other elements such as Phosphorus A chisel is a Tool with a characteristically shaped Cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object The most common uses are for driving nails fitting parts and breaking up objects Tack is a term used to describe any of the various equipment and accessories worn by Horses in the course of their use as domesticated Animals Saddles stirrups In Engineering, Woodworking and Construction, a nail is a pin -shaped sharp object of hard Metal, typically Steel, A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together Jewellery (also spelled jewelry, see spelling differences) is a personal Ornament, such as a necklace ring or bracelet made from Gemstones Hoes are Bladed Tools used to agitate the surface of the Soil around Plants to remove weeds pile soil around the base The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape split and cut Wood, Harvest timber, as a Weapon A knife is a handheld sharp-edged instrument consisting of handle attached to a Blade used for cutting The term lance has become a catchall for a variety of different Pole weapons based on the Spear. An arrow is a pointed Projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most Cultures. Glue or adhesive is a compound that adheres or bonds two items together A dagger (from Vulgar Latin: 'daca' - a Dacian Knife) is a typically double-edged blade used for Stabbing or thrusting A bag (also known as a Sack) is a non- rigid or semi-rigid container made of Paper, Cloth, Plastic, Leather, Armour (or armor) is protective covering most commonly manufactured from metals to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact A quiver is a container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those shot from a bow, Crossbow or Blowgun. The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of Carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples A scabbard is a Sheath for holding a Sword or other large blade A boot is a type of Shoe that covers at least the Foot and the Ankle and sometimes extends up to the Knee or even the Hip. Sandals are an open type of Footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps or thongs passing over the instep and around the ankle A harpoon is a long Spear -like instrument used in Fishing to catch fish or other large aquatic animals such as Whales It accomplishes this task by impaling

The Sumerians had three main types of boats:

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

Legacy

Most authorities credit the Sumerians with the invention of the wheel, initially in the form of the potter's wheel. Bitumen is a mixture of organic Liquids that are highly Viscous, black sticky entirely soluble in Carbon disulfide, and composed primarily A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load ( Mass) or performing labour in machines In Pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic wares The new concept quickly led to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. Vehicles, derived from the Latin word vehiculum, are non-living Means of transport. The Sumerians' cuneiform writing system is the oldest there is evidence of (with the exception of proto-writing such as the Vinča signs and the even older Jiahu signs). The Vinča signs, also known as the Vinča alphabet Vinča-Turdaş script or Old European script, are a set of symbols found on prehistoric artifacts "Jiahu symbols" (zh-Hans 贾湖契刻符号 refer to the 16 distinct markings on prehistoric artifacts found in Jiahu, a neolithic Peiligang The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which constellations survived in the zodiac and in the constellations known to the ancient Greeks^[14]. The five planets that are visible to the naked eye also have Sumerian names^[15].

They invented and developed arithmetic using several different number systems including a Mixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. Mixed radix Numeral systems are Non-standard positional numeral systems in which the numerical base varies from position to position This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. Sexagesimal ( base-sixty) is a Numeral system with sixty as the base. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions between infantry, cavalry and archers. The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists The Cavalry (from French cavalerie) is the second oldest of the Combat Arms, and as Soldiers or Warriors who fought mounted on Archery is the practice of using a bow or Crossbow to shoot Arrows Archery has historically been used in Hunting and Combat and has 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 is now Syria and Israel. A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Several centuries after their invention of cuneiform, the practice of writing expanded beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists and was applied for the first time about 2600 BC to written messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records and other pursuits generally corresponding to the fields occupying teachers and students ever since. Accordingly, the first formal schools were established, usually under the auspices of a city-state's primary temple.

Finally, the Sumerians ushered in the age of intensive agriculture and irrigation. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture Emmer wheat, barley, sheep (starting as moufflon) and cattle (starting as aurochs) were foremost among the species cultivated and raised for the first time on a grand scale. Emmer wheat ( Triticum dicoccon) also known as farro especially in Italy is a low yielding awned Wheat. Barley ( Hordeum vulgare) is an annual Cereal Grain, which serves as a major animal Feed crop, with smaller amounts used for The mouflon ( Ovis orientalis orientalis group is a subspecies group of the wild sheep Ovis orientalis. The aurochs or urus ( Bos taurus primigenius) was a very large type of cattle that was prevalent in Europe until its Extinction in 1627 These inventions and innovations easily place the Sumerians among the most creative cultures in human pre-history.

See also

• Sumerian language
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• History of Sumer
• Sumerian king list
• Sumerian architecture
• History of writing numbers
• Marsh Arabs
• Mesopotamia

References

Further reading

• Ascalone, Enrico. Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 1). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007 (paperback, ISBN 0520252667).
• Bottéro, Jean. Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia.
• Crawford, Harriet. Sumer and the Sumerians.
• Leick, Gwendolyn. Mesopotamia.
• Lloyd, Seton. The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: From the Old Stone Age to the Persian Conquest.
• Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia.
• Kramer, Samuel Noah. Samuel Noah Kramer (1897–1990 was one of the world's leading Assyriologists and a world renowned expert in Sumerian history and Sumerian language. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium BC.
• Kramer, Samuel Noah. The Sumerians : Their History, Culture, and Character.
• Roux, Georges. Ancient Iraq.
• Schomp, Virginia. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians.
• Sumer: Cities of Eden (Timelife Lost Civilizations). Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1993 (hardcover, ISBN 0809498871).
• Woolley, C. Leonard. Sir Charles Leonard Woolley ( 17 April 1880 &ndash 20 February 1960) was a British Archaeologist best known for his Excavations The Sumerians.

External links

Geography

• Map of The Fertile Crescent
• The History Files Ancient Mesopotamia
• The History of the Ancient Near East Ancient Sumer

Language

• 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.
• ETCSL: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature has complete translations of more than 400 Sumerian literary texts.
• PSD: The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary, while still in its initial stages, can be searched on-line, from August 2004.
• CDLI: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative a large corpus of Sumerian texts in transliteration, largely from the Early Dynastic and Ur III periods, accessible with images.
• Sumerian Language in Semitic Perspective Semitic Sumerian Dictionary.

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