History Begins at Sumer (1957) by Samuel Noah Kramer

Sumer (Sumerians), Mesopotamia, River Tigris and Euphrates

3800-3200 B.C. The Uruk Period

• The invention of the wheel and the plow
• First orchards planted (dates, figs, and olives)
• The development of metal casting
• Cuneiform writing ("wedge-shaped writing")
• Cities

Ziggurat

2800-2350 B.C. The Dynastic Period

• The building of palace complexes
• The rise of lugals (kings)
• City walls larger, stronger, and more important
• Theocratic Kingship: Theos (God) + Krotos (Power) ruled by God through an agent on earth: a king
• Large landowners, warrior aristocracy, social tension

Monarchy, Akkadian Relief

Akkadians from Akkad

Sargon, Akkadian King ruled 2371-2316 B.C.

Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.) Babylonian King

Sumerian Culture

1. Religion

• Polytheistic
• Syncretistic: willing to borrow religious ideas from others
• Sky God; Male, associated with war, government, and powerful forces of nature
• Earth Gods; Feminine
• Animism: everything, including abstract forces, is alive
• Gods and goddesses immortal and superhuman
• Rites aimed at propitiation
• Fatalistic and pessimistic
• No ethical function

2. Law

• Issued by councils of notables in conjunction with priests and kings
• Not abstract, not philosophical
• Carved in sone tablets and displayed in public places

3. Literature

• The Epic of Gilgamesh, dates to ca. 2500 B.C., surviving works from ca. 800 B.C.

4. Mathematics and Sciences

• Decimal and sexadecimal system
• Place value

Epic

1. Long, usually a poem
2. Conceived on a grand scale
3. Deals with gods and heroes, important subjects
4. Elevated language
5. Universalizing

Enkheduana 2285-2220, daughter of Sargon