Sumer Books
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W. W. Norton & Company (01 April 1999)Price: $12.21 -
Berkley Trade (01 January 1999)Price: $10.20 -
Anchor (01 February 1996)Price: $10.20 -
Three Rivers Press (02 April 1996)Price: $13.57 -
W. W. Norton & Company (17 March 2007)Price: $19.77
Definition
The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years and began with the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (mid 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th millennium BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Babylonia in the early 2nd millennium BC.
The cities of Sumer were the first to practice intensive, year-round agriculture, (from ca. 5300 BC). By perhaps 5000 BC, the Sumerians had developed core agricultural techniques including large-scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labour force, particularly along the waterway now known as the Shatt al-Arab, from its Persian Gulf delta to the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. The surplus of storable food created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and grazing land. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labor force and division of labor. This organization led to the development of writing (ca. 3500 BC).
Articles
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The cuneiform script proper emerges out of pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium BC. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century, found at Jemdet Nasr.
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All of the Sumerians’ innovations were remarkable contributions, responsible for revolutionizing travel, trade and commerce, written and oral communication, science, and even literature. Many of the things that we take for granted today can be traced back directly to the ingenuity of the Sumerian culture.
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The peoples of Sumer are among the earliest denizens of Mesopotamia. By about 4000 B.C., the Sumerians had organized themselves into several city-states that were spread throughout the southern part of the region. These city-states were independent of one another and were fully self-reliant centers, each surrounding a temple that was dedicated to god or goddess specific to that city-state. Each city-state was governed by a priest king.
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In ancient Mesopotamia the family was the basic unit of society that was governed by specific patriarchal rules. Monogamy was the rule, even though the nobility could have concubines. The purchase of wives from their fathers was common, but the practice became less common after 3000 BC.
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Writing is undeniably one of humanity's most important inventions. The earliest forms of storing information on objects were numerical inscriptions on clay tablets, used for administration, accounting and trade. The first writing system dates back to around 3000 BC, when the Sumerians developed the first type script: hundreds of abbreviated pictograms that could be pressed into clay.
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Illustrations
Links
- Sumerian Language Page
http://www.sumerian.org/ - http://www.ezida.com/folk_exercices.htm
http://www.ezida.com/folk_exercices.htm - CDLI - Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/ - ETCSLhomepage
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/#