SUMERIANS. – The first people of the ancient Middle East of whom written documents have survived. They possessed a very high culture, born in the temples, which left a decisive imprint on universal history. Their great power of influence survived them for millennia in the language, theology, science, and myths of the peoples who supplanted them.
OUTLINE:
I. Origin
II. Language
III. History and archaeology
IV. Literature
V. Religion.I. ORIGIN
The name was coined by modern Orientalists from Babylonian cuneiform texts, in which the formula (e.g., in the Code of Hammurabi, prologue) often occurs, derived in Latin from *Sume-ri-ri*, which is used alternately with the Sumerian form *LUGAL KI-EN-GI KI-URU*, meaning “king of Sumer and Akkad,” two regions occupying the south of Mesopotamia. Sumer (*KI-EN-GI*) was the area around the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris, then separate; Akkad lay further north between the two rivers. The Sumerians called themselves the “black-headed ones” (*SAG-GIG-GA*). The origin of the people remains obscure, being possible only through textual evidence. In the most remote times, the gods are depicted as standing on mountain peaks; but geologically the land (*KALAM*) belongs to the recent alluvial terrain, and the shore formed only as the gulf receded, with swamps consolidating among the lagoons. Therefore it is generally believed that the oldest cultures were further north (at Jarmo, Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf) and were established in the south only from the period of Obed (= “Ubaid”), unless an even earlier phase at Eridu is admitted. Thus the question of the Sumerians’ maritime or terrestrial immigration remains undecided.The race was determined by special studies conducted by Keith on the skeletons from the tomb of Queen ŠUB-AD at Ur, that of Prince MES-KALAM-DUG, and others. These studies show that this race was not very different from that of modern Arabs. Queen Šub-ad, who was probably under forty years old, was 1.51 m tall, had a dolichocephalic head, a brain of 1600 cm³ (250 cm³ more than the normal European woman today); Prince Meskalam-dug measured 1.65–1.67 m, with extraordinarily strong bones, a long head, a narrow nose, and a brain of 1550 cm³; he had a long face and was left-handed. However, in plastic representations, the Sumerians appear rather stocky, with receding foreheads and very curved noses, fleshy, with good musculature, dressed in a shaggy garment, probably made of skins; this type of costume persisted until the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2050–1950 BC). Very different is the type of the Akkadians, e.g., in the stele of Narām-Sin. The Akkadian artist emphasized the somatic differences between the two peoples.
II. LANGUAGE
The language of the Sumerians is not related to the Indo-European, Semitic, or any other known language family. It mostly belongs to the structural type of languages called agglutinative.The noun possesses the name, verb, pronoun, numeral, an enclitic conjunction, and various suffixes by which case relations are also expressed:
| nominative | LUGAL | the king |
| genitive | LUGAL-A(K) | of the king |
| dative | LUGAL-RA | to the king |
| accusative | LUGAL | the king |
| comitative | LUGAL-DA | with the king |
| ablative | LUGAL-TA | from the king |
| terminative | LUGAL-SE | toward the king |
| locative-terminative | LUGAL-E | near the king |
The plural is formed with two suffixes: *-ENE* for persons, *-HA* for things; but often the singular has collective value; a plural including all beings of a kind is made by reduplication of the noun or adjective: *LUGAL-ENE* “the kings”; *UDU-HA* “the sheep”; *KUR-KUR* “(all) the lands (enemies)”; *DINGIR-GAL-GAL-ENE* “(all) the great gods.” Masculine and feminine are expressed by heteronomy rather than grammatical forms: *LUGAL* “king”; *NIN* “queen,” “princess”; *A-A* “father”; *AMA* “mother”; but *DUMU* “newborn” can mean “boy” (son) or “girl” (daughter). Clear is the distinction between the class of persons (gods, heroes, men and beasts, if personified as in folktales) and the class of things (the rest). The adjective follows the noun. In the verb a transitive form is distinguished, comprising the present-future “tense” and the preterite, from an intransitive form in which the temporal division is lacking; active and passive, infinitive, participle, imperative are found, as well as amplified forms with the infix *-ED-*. Prefixes (of conjugation) and various preformatives nuance simple narration, the speaker’s interest, emphatic negation and affirmation, precative and prospective moods. In the verb, through infixes, the relation to preceding case dimensions is summarized; every verb can also have a causative sense. It is surprising the large number of monosyllabic roots, especially in the verb. The root is immutable, and all modifications of meaning are expressed by prefixes or suffixes. Syntax is complex: the coupling of words, the formation of “chains,” the possibility of substantivizing any word, clause, phrase, and even entire periods with a simple suffix *-A*, give a special character to the Sumerian language.
Two stages of the Sumerian language are distinguished: Old Sumerian and Neo-Sumerian. At the boundary of these two periods stands Gudea, prince of Lagaš. At least two dialects are attested: the main dialect (*EME-KU*) and the so-called “women’s language” (*EME-SAL*), used, e.g., by goddesses in religious poetry. Sumerian phonetics remains a difficult field: the values of the Akkadian syllabary are known, but the texts are from a late stage of the language, when neither the consonants closing the syllable (e.g., the *g* of *ŠAG* “heart”) nor final syllables were pronounced. Nasal consonants are attested, such as *n* (“prefect” of a city is written *ENSI E-SI*) and *g* (alternation of *GÁ* and *MA* is found).
SUMERIANS – Impression seal with symbols of the goddess Inanna and image of the god Dumuzi (c. 2900 BC) – Berlin.
III. HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
The history of the Sumerians is divided into three periods: 1) prehistoric; 2) protohistoric; 3) properly historical, distinguished by the invention of writing: only in the protohistoric period do written documents appear, though still very scarce, while in the properly historical period they are abundant.1. The prehistoric period
For Mesopotamian prehistory, only tentative relative chronologies exist. R. J. Braidwood (*Illustrated London News*, Dec. 15, 1951, p. 992) offers the following scheme:Barda Balka
Hazer Merd
Palegawra
Karim Shahir
Jarmo
Hassuna
More developed villages; origin and first flourishing of pottery, including fine painted forms at Samarra, the apex of that period.
Halaf (and Eridu) even more advanced villages; fine painted pottery, then the principal expression of human culture.
Obed (‘Ubaid) (west of Ur) invention of the potter’s wheel; black monochrome pottery; geometric motifs.
Warka (Uruk) already protohistory.
The Neolithic ends in the Hassuna period. The following periods (Samarra-Halaf) form the early Chalcolithic, those of Hağgi Muhammad and Obed I the middle Chalcolithic, and that of Obed II the late Chalcolithic. In the Warka period (around 3000 B.C.) the transition is made to the Bronze Age, protohistoric. Of interest is the development of architecture, from the village of the first farmers to true cities. It begins with mud walls, then with small mud bricks; finally, in the Uruk period, the brick form is invented. Private houses were at first of very modest proportions and of the simplest plan: besides rectangular forms, there are also round ones, comparable to the tholoi of the Aegean or to the beehive-like houses still existing in the region of Aleppo in Syria; palaces and temples prefer a longer rectangular plan and show all types between the house with a hearth and the house with a courtyard.
In the Warka period the first attempt is made at a ziggurat (tower): earth is piled up; the side slopes are later faced with bricks; at the top the “high temple” is built. From the time of Hassuna pottery flourishes, first shaped by hand, then by the slow potter’s wheel, then (in the Warka period) by the fast wheel; the firing technique develops from open firing to the use of a well-controlled kiln, which transforms fine clay into very hard pottery, a prerequisite for all high-quality painted pottery. Decoration also evolves continuously: from simple scratched designs to inlay with especially fine clay, until perfect polishing and monochrome and polychrome painting, as in the beautiful specimens of the Halaf period, classic for all time. Less developed is plastic art: crude terracottas, especially of female figures (“mother goddesses”) and the eye idols of Tell Brak. Glyptic art knows the button seal and the stamp seal; debated are the cylinder seals of the Halaf period.
Thus the results of excavations present for the later periods the image of an agricultural people, who have progressed from the nomadic life of hunters and herdsmen to stability, though besides agriculture they still engage in hunting and fishing. From small agricultural centers (Jarmo) they have arrived at more extensive agglomerations, which toward the end of prehistoric times are surrounded by stone walls. In these settlements crafts flourish to a high degree: primitive spindles, knives, awls, needles, axes, daggers, spearheads, fishhooks, furniture of all kinds, clay and stone vessels; all this gives the impression of a high standard of living. Dominating the scene, monumental, is the temple, around which the houses cluster as if in supplication. The temple is also important as the center of cultural and political life; it regulates the life of the people, whose hard work it lightens with the joyful festivals of a religion that venerates fertility; it organizes the struggle against water and for water, because agriculture is based on irrigation, and already systems of canals are built and the distribution of water is regulated.
2. The protohistoric period
It is marked by such a cultural surge that it makes Mesopotamia preeminent until the time of the Seleucids, so that only Egypt, from the time of its unification, will have a civilization comparable to this. The period is represented by levels VI-IV of Uruk (Warka) and, later, by the Gemet Nasp period; many add the time of Mesilim, mostly attributed to the properly historical period. The Uruk IV period is perhaps the most creative age in Sumerian history. Architecture continues and perfects the models already developed in prehistoric times; however, the ziggurat, the pride of all Mesopotamian religious buildings, now takes on its monumental form, comparable to medieval cathedrals. Settlements develop into true fortified cities. In place of the splendid Halaf pottery, glyptic art flourishes, which better reveals the life of the people. The cylinder seal is created, which lasts until the last days of Mesopotamian culture and is characteristic of all the ancient Near East. Such seals are small cylinders of clay, or more rarely of precious stones, and very rarely of copper, bronze, gold, on whose surface is engraved the neolithic of an ornament, which may be the figure of a personage, often with added cuneiform characters indicating mostly the owner. When the seal is rolled on damp clay, it forms the “positive” of a band of figures, which can also serve as a property mark on jars. Naturally, many more impressions have survived thanindependent seals, and the cylinder seal is the most widespread type of seal in Mesopotamia.
The protohistoric period is also the time of the formation of the Sumerian state. The ruler, called EN, “lord,” is not yet an independent ruler or a prefect representing another chief, then called LUGAL, “great man” or king. This hierarchy exercised undisputed and beneficent authority. Always accompanying life with the necessary rituals, it organized the digging of canals and the building of dikes; it regulated the distribution of water in the fields; it divided the land according to utilitarian criteria: land for barley and wheat fields, for date palm plantations and vineyards, land suitable only for pastures, especially for flocks of sheep and goats, and for cattle and donkeys (rarer); it also organized and perfected crafts: all kinds of tools for the use of the population were made, such as plows, four-wheeled carts, sledges, nets, boats and ships. The temple even organized trade in distant regions, to obtain timber, limestone, metals, precious stones, sun-dried bricks. Still more: it regulated all the religious culture of the people, with moving rituals and festivals that sometimes degenerated into licentious excesses, as in all religions that venerate fertilizing water. It organized the study for priests and scribes, who had to keep the strict accounts of all production. Above all, it inspired art, having made all the furnishings, symbols and likenesses of the gods, their magnificent houses, the pride and joy of all, and their statues of the gods, signs of the divine presence, i.e., objects of continual prayer to them; moreover, the divine chariots, musical instruments, ritual garments, the equipment for splendid processions. Worthy of note is the religious conception: man is the servant of the gods, and so must provide them with dwellings, garments, and food worthy of them; in doing so the gods give abundance; the king is only the first among the other servants.
As gods, in those prehistoric times, more than others are venerated Inanna (from NIN-AN-A[K]), the “Lady of Heaven,” and the sky god An, if sovereign of the gods. Inanna is recognized by her sign, the bundle of reeds; she seems to be the goddess of love, war, and culture, judging by later myths. There were local gods in every Sumerian temple, e.g., Ningirsu in Lagash, Ninmara in Marad, Ningizzida, Ninhursag, Nisaba, and (later) others of great influence. Enlil, king of all lands and ruling god of the pantheon in Nippur, Enki (Akkadian Ea), god of fresh water and wisdom in Eridu, Utu, sun god in Larsa, Nanna, moon god in Ur.
The Jemdet Nasr period, the second part of the Protostoric Age, continues the Uruk IV period. It is an age of expansion and radiance of Sumerian culture. The name is derived from the excavated site of Jemdet Nasr, 24 km northeast of Kish, where a new type of painted pottery was found. The neck and shoulders of the vase are divided into sections, comparable to Greek methods, and are also adorned with figures; this new decorative style may have been due to Iranian influences. Thus, the apex of creativity and mastery of forms is reached. The temples and ziggurats become even more magnificent, surrounded by the sacred area of the KISAL, which is the temenos. Commercial relations develop, as shown by the jewelry and metals found. Among the rare statues, a female figure from Uruk stands out, called “the beautiful woman of the Jemdet Nasr period,” which can be compared to the finest Greek statues.
At this time, Elam (v.) or “highland,” also undergoes the influence of Sumerian culture. The “Proto-Elamites” briefly develop a writing system (attested by tablets from Susa and Tepe Sialk) that adapts the Sumerian script to their entirely different language. By the end of the Jemdet Nasr period, for unknown reasons, a certain decline occurs: forms become more rudimentary.
3. The Historical Period
a) The Mesilim Period. — This phase, which many still include in the Protostoric Age, is named after the first known Mesopotamian name: on the pommel of a mace is inscribed “Mesilim, king of Kish” (or “of the totality,” a title later transmitted to the Neo-Assyrian kings?); he is the first king to present himself by name. A radical change occurs in art: everything becomes schematic, abstract, more like a drawing (see fig. 15). In the ruins of Uruk, conventional signs are used to convey thought. Even from the earliest examples, the cuneiform script (about 1,000 tablets) is already plastic, often reduced to mere outlines; yet architecture presents the first wonder of a city: Uruk is surrounded by high walls pierced by gates, two of which have been excavated, with a perimeter of 9.5 km, topped by 900 towers. It is understandable that the mythical hero Gilgamesh was later credited with the construction of such walls.b) The First Dynasty of Ur. — With the Ur period, beyond various archaeological finds and names, royal inscriptions are available. There is also another historical source, though delicate to handle: the king lists, compiled around 2000 B.C., which extend from the present back to the most remote times. In some respects, they can be compared to Gen 4-5, II, because they attribute to the antediluvian kings reign lengths exceeding those of the biblical patriarchs; they are not very useful for the period before Ur I, and even afterward must be used with caution. They are comprehensive lists of kings, but without distinguishing between the most important and irrelevant dynasties subject to others; sometimes contemporaneous dynasties may be included, and some kings may be omitted. Given this, modern historiography must weigh and combine all elements from multiple sources; it must also seek synchronisms to obtain a probable relative and absolute chronology, a field much debated in recent years. With some caution, a rather low chronology has been chosen here, as it seems more probable, though not all controversies have been resolved. Thus, alongside the First Dynasty of Ur, there was a dynasty of Lagash, a much less important city but better documented by richer inscriptions. Here is the list of kings:
| Ur I | Lagash |
|---------|-----------|
| Akurgal | Akurgal |
| Eannatum| Eannatum |
| Enitarzi| Enitarzi |
| Lugalanda| Lugalanda|
| | Urukagina |
ca. 2350: Lugalzaggesi of Uruk, “emperor.”
For Mesannepadda of Ur, the name of his consort Ninturnin and his successor, his son Aannepadda, is also known; the latter built a temple at Obed. Tablets report that for his god Ningirsu, patron of Lagash, Ur-Nanshe built temples and canals, a tradition common in Sumer. Of Eannatum, the famous “Stele of the Vultures” remains—a limestone slab divided horizontally, depicting and narrating his battle against Umma, a nearby city. Unfortunately, much of the slab is destroyed; what remains recounts the invasion by the people of Umma and how Eannatum struck them like a whirlwind and drove them from his land with great victory, by the power of Ningirsu, the warrior hero. But Eannatum also waged war against the kings of Elam, Uruk, Ur, and Kish. After him, his brother Eannatum I reigned, succeeded by Entemena, son of Eannatum, who defeated Umma; with his son Eannatum II, the dynasty founded by Ur-Nanshe came to an end. They were succeeded by Enentarzi, Enentarzi, and Lugalanda, priests under Entemena. From this time, a strange document of belief in the afterlife remains in the royal tombs of Ur. Upon the death of a prince (then the lady Shub-ad), all the retinue, servants, and court ladies accompanied him to the tomb, where they are thought to have freely poisoned themselves, collapsing beside the horses pulling the funeral chariot, to keep the prince company in the afterlife. In Lagash, however, things worsened. With the dissolution of the state structure, classes asserted their independence and selfish interests; a regime emerged devoted to private interests, and a struggle for power and exploitation of the weak ensued. Urukagina successfully carried out a revolution, followed by social reforms—the first reported in Asia—and restored “freedom,” justice, and social peace, as desired by the gods, to the beloved servants.
SUMERIANS — The Stele of the Vultures with Eannatum’s victory over Umma (ca. 2400 B.C.) — Paris, Louvre.
Then the hereditary enemy rose again: Lugalzaggesi, son of Ukush, ensi of Umma, defeated Urukagina and attempted, through cruel methods, to establish a united Sumerian empire with Uruk as its capital; but the attempt failed.
c) The Akkadian Period. — Of this period, the kings Sargon (Sharru-kinu, “the true king,” ca. 2350), Rimush, Manishtusu, Naram-Sin, Shar-kali-sharri, and six others are known.
The Semitic king of Akkad, Sargon, accomplished what the Sumerians had not: he united the two southern parts of Mesopotamia. The Akkadians had long been in the land, mingled with the Sumerians, whom they surpassed in culture, and continually received reinforcements from the Semitic population of the Arabian Peninsula. Under Sargon, they rose to command all of Mesopotamia and exercised power forcefully after defeating numerous enemies; they defended the country from barbarians for about 150 years. Finally, however, they succumbed to the foreign rule of the Guteans (ca. 2200 B.C.). The Semitic regime completely transformed Sumerian culture, to the point of causing a linguistic shift from Old Sumerian to Neo-Sumerian. Sumerian customs and strategies, as well as the language, were suppressed. The theocracy of the temples was transformed into a state of officials controlled by the king, which ultimately gave rise to a class-based state. The king began to add the divine determinative to his name, and in imperial Rome, he received liturgical worship in temples, which were also built for him, as for the ancient Sumerian gods. In the pantheon, the astral deities venerated by the Akkadians were placed in the forefront, though a fusion with the ancient Sumerian gods was made.
d) The Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2050 or 2070 – c. 1950 BC). – Rulers: Ur-Nammu (c. 2050); Šulgi; Bur-Sin; Šu-Sin; Ibbi-Sin. Toward the end of the Gutean domination, which was not fruitful in artistic works, the Sumerian cities recovered. In Uruk, Ur-ḫegal succeeded in driving out the Guteans and capturing and killing their last king, Tirigan. He, however, succumbed in his attempt to centralize in himself the empire of all the Sumerian land: he was defeated by his vassal Ur-Nammu, a brilliant statesman who knew how to reconcile Sumerians and Akkadians and was more acceptable to the Sumerian cities. After defeating Namhani, ensi of Lagash, and that of Kish, traversing the entire country with an armed force, he founded the last and perhaps the most prosperous kingdom of Sumer, contemporary with the flourishing of Sumerian literature. Important in this context was his contemporary Gudea of Lagash, who, like Namhani (killed by Ur-Nammu), had also married a daughter of Ur-Bau, ensi of Lagash.
Whether all the “Neo-Sumerian” kings were truly Sumerian, given the names of the last ones, is uncertain. Yet they considered themselves Sumerians and wished, without clashing with the Akkadian elements, to restore the ancient empire of Sumer and Akkad. The political scene changes: Elam grows ever stronger, and from the west, from Amurru, begins the infiltration and invasion of the Amorites (v.). When the Elamites destroyed the capital Ur, several cities, such as Isin and Larsa, contended for supremacy until one of them formed the first kingdom of Babylon (v. HAMMURABI (HAMMURAPI)). Particularly valuable are the numerous and extensive inscriptions of Gudea of Lagash, which show the Sumerian restoration. The kings, like Gudea, saw themselves as faithful shepherds of their people, vicars of the city’s tutelary deities; they were more builders of temples, cities, and canals. Literature flourished. The mythical poems now and in the time of Isin and Larsa received their final Sumerian redaction before being reworked, with characteristic changes, by the Babylonians. Art also flourished, as seen in the numerous statues of Gudea; yet here, as in literature, a certain Akkadian infiltration is noted.
The “house of tablets,” i.e., the temple schools, thrived. It served simultaneously as an elementary school for beginners, a royal academy, and a central library. There, the simple art of writing and the use of set formulas for commercial life and legal documents were taught; priests and priestesses were especially initiated into the mysteries of their rites, the stylistic refinements of hymns and lamentations, and various lists of diverse things—lands, stones, fish and other animals, but above all gods and kings: the entire science of those times. The sections of the laws were also learned. UR-NAMMU, CODICE DI (v.) is the first known to have composed a law code, humane and without the use of lex talionis. Another code, but 75 years later, is that compiled by Lipit-Ishtar, king of Isin, published in 1947.
In Lagash, there was even a court of cassation, of which the archive of the DITILLA, i.e., the completed legal proceedings, remains. These DITILLA offer a glimpse into the social structure. The institution of slavery existed, but servants were treated more humanely than later among the Semites. If a slave wished to appeal for freedom, the presumption of law was in his favor, and he had full right to sue. The “tablet” was the common means of legal proof, sealed with the seals of both parties and the scribes. Also valid as proof were the oath (NAM-ERIM-DAM) and, naturally, witnesses. There were two forms of oath: the assertory one already mentioned and the promissory one, called MULUGALA, “name of the king,” which seems to have been the decisive element in marriage contracts. Marriages without parental consent were invalid. But if the groom, with the consent of both parents, had promised marriage under MULUGALA, a lawsuit could be brought for breach of promise, and the groom could be “condemned” to marriage. Women and, within certain limits, slaves were also capable of legal actions. Divorce was permitted, especially when the bride price had not been paid. Contracts of lease, proceedings for unpaid rents, compensation for damages in cases of naval accidents, divisions of inheritance, and renunciations are also found—all aspects of a modern legal system. At the end of these documents, the signature of the MÄSKIM (royal representative for oversight), the DIKUD (judges), and in cases of the greatest importance even the ENSI (city prefect) is not lacking; finally, the date is taken from a notable event of the previous year.
Celebrated in a moving lamentation, the destruction of Ur occurred c. 1950 BC. From that time, Sumerian receded as the language of the people. Yet in the time of Isin and Larsa, many royal hymns were still composed in that language. Like Latin, Sumerian remained the language of priests and educated persons. Even in the temples of the Kassites (14th century BC), poems were composed in Sumerian, though already by people who spoke Akkadian, so much so that these poems can even be dated by the grammatical errors they contain.
IV. LITERATURE
The Sumerian tablets found number in the tens of thousands. For the most part, they are economic texts. Next come historical inscriptions (several hundred), lists of things, and various classes of administrative documents. More valuable are the literary tablets, comparable to literary papyri in relation to other types of papyri; they reveal Sumerian poetry and illustrate its religion. Yet from the several thousand such tablets, only a small number of poems can be reconstructed; these are moreover difficult to interpret, as the tablets are damaged. Even if, with the most recent methods, grammatical difficulties can almost always be overcome, lexical ones remain, for many words are unknown or do not fit into the context according to known meanings. It is also necessary to place the poems within their historical context, guessing many circumstances well known to the poets and listeners but now unknown; yet even here progress is made day by day.The literary genres distinguished are: 1) myths; 2) epic songs; 3) hymns; 4) wisdom literature; 5) magical oracles and incantations.
4. Myths
Seventeen major myths are now known, aside from the too fragmentary remnants and those recently deciphered (cf. Orientalia, 22 [1953], pp. 190-93, pls. 29-56), from which it appears that usable texts will increase day by day. It is useful to list the titles that modern scholars have given to these myths (the ancient Sumerians cited them by their incipits). Ten deal with the origins of the universe, the gods, man, and Sumerian culture. The word “myth” is used only for proper myths and “etiological” or explanatory ones; “heroic” myths and the subtype of “chivalric” myths fall under epic songs.a) Enlil and Ninlil or The Generation of Nanna, the Moon God, and of Three Netherworld Deities. b) The Journey of Nanna from His Father Enlil in Nippur to Ur to obtain “abundance” in every sense: river water, grain, herbs, reeds, trees, steppe products, honey, wine, and a long life. c) Enten and Enef, or How Enlil Appointed Enten as
Sumerians – Female ornaments found in the royal tombs of Ur.
tore dell'abbondanza, because Enten, unlike Emeš, was the «expert of the living waters» (including animal sowing), thus producing in all livestock and all plants the greatest abundance; according to Falkenstein, Enten would personify rainy weather, winter.
d) The creation of the hoe, an explanatory myth: there existed, in Nippur, a hoe of gold and lapis lazuli, preserved in the temple Duranki («bond of Heaven and Earth»); the myth tells how Enlil determined the fate of that hoe, an invention useful and full of strength, and gave it to the black-headed chiefs, along with the basket, to build temples, cities, and houses, to fight enemies, and to weed out noxious plants. The gods give agricultural tools to the people, as if they were zealous even for land reclamation or «arrangements» of the fields; each god inspects with zeal and diligence through his black-headed chiefs in his own sphere; men must respond as good servants, carrying out even the hard work of canals, fields, and constructions in accordance with the respective decrees of the gods, which are a living force. Thus the very height of Sumerian culture and its will to subdue the earth and make it fertile are due to Sumerian religion.
e) Lahar and Asman, or The dispute between the god who herds livestock and the goddess who cultivates grain, of great importance also for the creation of man.
f) Enki and Niburraug or The creation of medicinal plants.
g) Enki and Sumer or How Enki creates and organizes Sumer and all the environment of its life. The poem is full of patriotism:
«O Sumer, great land! Among the lands of the universe (you are) the one full of stable splendor, (you are) the people, from the rising of the Sun to its setting, obedient to the divine decrees! Your decrees are lofty decrees, unattainable, your heart is deep, its bottom cannot be found, your... is like the sky, which no man will ever be able to touch!»
Thus Enki «blesses» Sumer and Ur, his capital, «the standing ox», Melubha, «black mountain» (perhaps the eastern coast of Africa, as far as the ships of Sumer went), «blesses especially its parts, the Euphrates and the Tigris, which he fills with waters, over which he appoints Enbibulu as prefect; he makes them teem with fish, which receive as prefect Dumu-Keš; he gives law to the Sea (Persian Gulf), entrusting it to the god Sirara; he summons the winds before him, makes Iskur, god of the «hedgehog of the interior of the sky», their lord; he wants the fields to be cultivated, directs the plow, the yoke, and the seeds toward them, and appoints Enkimdu, god of canals and dikes, as their master; he wants them to be full of grain, and entrusts their care to Asman, the goddess of grain; but he also wants the region to be full of houses, villages, cities, and temples, as «the land proper of the gods», and therefore he determines the decrees for the hoe and the shape of bricks, and Kabta, god of bricks, is appointed to oversee them; with the GUNGUN tool the foundations of houses must be made, and therefore they will be supervised by Mušdamma, great architect of Enlil. Of the stables and sheepfolds, rich in milk and fat, the charge is taken by the shepherd-god Dumuzi.
h) Enki and Eridu or The journey of the water god from his father Enlil in Nippur, to obtain blessing decrees for the city of Eridu and the temple E-engur, the «house of the abyss» (others «of the sea»), of its recent construction.
i) Inanna and Enki, or How the goddess Inanna transfers the civilized arts of Eridu to Uruk, a myth of great interest for understanding what the Sumerians called culture. Inanna, goddess of love and war, visits her father Enki in Eridu and gets him drunk at banquets. Then Enki allows himself to be stripped of more than a hundred ME («models»), forces and skills according to the divine decrees, which constitute all the civilization of the time, with its good and bad sides. Sobered up, Enki sends his messenger Isimud to bring those ME back to Eridu; he stops at every intermediate port the «celestial ship» of Inanna; but always Isimud must yield to Ninšubur, messenger and protector of Inanna. Among these ME are found all the elements of the culture of the time, with the social and religious hierarchy, the arts, crafts, personal, family, artisan, and agricultural events.
l) The creation of man (see below under religion). Two heroic myths follow:
m) The deeds of Ninurta, warrior god, who conquers, with his wonderful weapon SARUR, the land of the KUR mountains and changes its name to HUR-SAG, subjecting it to a benevolent goddess.
n) Inanna and Mount Ebih, or How the warrior Inanna destroys an arrogant and impious country.
Among the various myths can be listed:
o) The descent of Inanna into the Underworld, from which she ascends leading demons with her.
p) Inanna and Sukallituda: the latter is punished for having despised Inanna;
q) Inanna prefers Enkimdu to Dumuzi;
r) The marriage of Martu with the daughter of Numušda, tutelary god of Ninab; Martu is the free man of the heroic steppe, his bride perhaps symbolizing the culture of the Sumerian cities.
s) The flood and Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah.
2.
Sumerian Noah.
The epic poems. - Nine notable ones remain; they constitute the cycle of Lugalbanda, Enmerkar, and Gilgameš (son of Lugalbanda). However, there is no unified cycle, as in the Akkadian Gilgameš:
a) Gilgameš, Enkidu, and the Netherworld;
b) Gilgameš and Agga of Kiš;
c) Gilgameš and the Land of Life (monster Humbaba);
d) Gilgameš and the Celestial Bull;
e) The death of Gilgameš;
f) Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta;
g) Enmerkar and Ensukšitranna;
h) Lugalbanda and Enmerkar;
i) Lugalbanda and Mount Hurrum.
There is a difference in style between Akkadian and Sumerian epics. As Semites, the Akkadians are more active and love dramatic scenes. The Sumerian, more contemplative, lists a succession of vivid images, and therefore it is not parallelism that expresses the rhythm of its thought, but rather repetition with only slight variations. It also loves order and solemn pace, as already in the simple grammatical proposition. Hence there are often refrains and many interwoven elements in the epics. The Sumerian cycle of Gilgameš, his father Lugalbanda, and Enmerkar is closer to the mythical and legendary than the Akkadian cycle.
5. The hymns
The most notable hymns remaining are about a hundred: they constitute the broadest field of Sumerian literature, apart from the almost always meager texts in mythical, epic, and even historical inscriptions (e.g., the cylinders A and B of Gudea, which are the largest Sumerian works extant). Some compositions do not reach 50 lines, others exceed 300. The poetic technique includes short antiphons and more extensive refrains. Some show a regular stanza form, e.g., in three verses. Important for the insertion of hymns into life is that there are not infrequently rubrics for their liturgical action. In other cases, the text often hints at the actions of the singers of those hymns or a scenic representation of the content. Classifications of them have even survived, as in the Hebrew Psalms, made by the Sumerians, especially according to musical instruments, and such indications can be drawn from the written colophons at the end of the tablets.1515
SUMER - Ziggurat of Ur (ca. 2050 B.C.).
The first hymn genre is the ritual praise of gods, temples, cities, and kings, among whom, from the empire of Sargon onward, there should not be much difference, given that many kings were then deified. Thus hymns of praise are found for almost all the Neo-Sumerian kings of Ur III and post-Sumerian kings of Isin. It was common for a god to represent a greater god (see Enki and Sumer). Naturally, the most solemn are the hymns to the gods, especially the primordial ones, and they can contain precious indications for Sumerian theology.
A slightly altered form of these hymns is properly called prayer. In Sumerian myths and hymns, one finds meditation and contemplation of the wondrous works of the gods, with only brief prayers inserted, imploring the god to look upon their city with a favorable eye and to bring upon it, like a flood, all the light of heaven and abundance, which also originates in heaven (HÉ-GÁL). Most moving is the genre of lamentations, of which four are most notable: the lament for Ur, destroyed; that for Nippur and Agade (Akkad); and finally that which deplores the destruction of the entire land of Sumer. A highly effective element is that all the temples of Sumer are made to lament, for the gods have withdrawn from them, and even the walls and bricks. These temples also have a "living" function and significance; they protect the *capo-neri*, even frightening from afar the monsters of the mountains and the underworld. On the other hand, they are the work of prayer and human magic: they continually implore the pure abundance of the gods, as, for example, in the solemn rite of the *hieros gamos*, which seeks to compel the gods to pour forth that water of abundance and fertility. Another profound effect is produced by the songs and supplications of the gods before the assembled council of the gods; but An and Enlil, the king-gods, reject the intercession of the tutelary gods; their word is one that no one can ever change. Then come the terrible winds and infernal powers, along with political enemies, who strike the people of the *capo-neri* with clubs like gazelles, and the heavenly Bull roars from the sky. Yet even though the people scatter and flee like disturbed birds, even though the cities are reduced to being inhabited by stones rather than men, all may yet end well: the tutelary gods regain the favor of An and Enlil, the ritual for the new foundations of the city is performed, and all ends with a hymn of joy and praise to them, and also to An and Enlil, who have issued the decree for reconstruction (the *KI-BI-GI-4*). Closely related to these lamentations are those for Tammuz, seized by demons in the underworld, and other laments of the mother and tutelary goddesses.
4. **Wisdom Literature.** — The final genre is wisdom literature, apart from magical texts and those, in a stricter sense, didactic, such as the exhortation of a farmer father to his son to teach him agriculture. Several types are found: the most elementary are proverbs and aphorisms, brief sayings profound and often imbued with spiritual wisdom. Another genre consists of fables, in which animals or personified objects come into contention, such as the bird and the fish, the tree and the reed, the hoe and the wagon, silver and bronze.
This wisdom literature is due in part also to the É-DUBBA (the "house of tablets"), that is, the school, which was created to train the *DUB-SAR*, the tablet scribes. In such schools, the *ADDA-É-DUBBA* taught, the "fathers of the house of tablets," i.e., the professors, also called *UMMIA*, "experts." For discipline, they had a *SE-SAL*, a "big brother," an assistant even responsible for the rods. A very human tale remains, rich in simplicity and sincerity, of a wretched schoolboy of those times. Awakened, he cries to his mother to give him two loaves of bread and runs to arrive still in time for school. Our *DUMU-É-DUBBA* arrives a few minutes late and is penalized with rod blows. He fails to recite the "tablet," after which another incident occurs, which Sumerian writing expresses with the sign for "rod" on "flesh." Afterward, the schoolboy eats his loaves and begins to write a tablet; but since his legs hurt, he stands and leaves the room: this leads to further punishments from the various overseers of the É-DUBBA. The tablet turns out badly, so he receives more blows from the teacher. In the evening, he must learn other tablets and prepares to write them, always with the result of the rods. He returns home sadly and recites a tablet that he has truly learned; his father, overjoyed, cannot refuse the boy’s proposal to invite the teacher home to placate him. This is done: the teacher, poorly paid even then, receives the place of honor, a new robe, a ring, and a fine meal, and declares that the poor student is full of wisdom, assuring the father that he writes well and is a capable devotee of the goddess Nisaba, mistress of scribes. Perhaps this goliardic poem should be taken somewhat comically.
V. RELIGION. — Sumerian religion, in its fundamental ideas, differs from that of the Akkadians, the Canaanites, and the Egyptians. Perhaps it can be understood by comparing it to Baltic religion, known in the environment of the Old Testament.
Abundance is the central idea in both religions; both are religions of fertility, in both fertilizing water holds primordial importance, and there are no lack of licentious festivals and sexual rites. But there are many differences: the religion of Baal is a religion of capricious rain that comes and goes, and it entails the veneration of a principle of cosmic order; Sumerian religion, by contrast, considers fertilizing water according to a firm and established order, an order embedded in the hierarchy of the community of gods, who make the "models" of all things that on earth are forces and competencies. Water is an element full of wisdom, capable of everything when regulated by canals and confined by dikes; such regulated water is beneficial, its origin being in the heavens, where, among the first things the gods created, they fixed the radiant destiny of fresh water, and it is well distinguished from the primordial waters, which, like the waters of the sea, have disastrous effects. The Sumerians venerate in their gods the benevolent givers of abundance; thus their religion is far removed from a religion of revelation and divine spiritual charity.
The Sumerian cosmogony and theology, as they appear in mythic, hymnic, and epic texts, first posit the primordial Ocean, personified in NAMMU, who generates Heaven and Earth, still united as the Great Mountain above the waters. That is, she gives birth to the god Heaven (AN) and the goddess Earth (KI), primordial deities. From the union of An and Ki is born the god "Air," namely ENLIL, who separates the two (cf. the Egyptian myth). But since the sky was of black lapis lazuli, as it were the roof of Enlil’s house and also its walls, while the base was Ki, there was no light in Enlil’s house. To obtain it, he generated with Ninlil (consort of the same element) the moon god Nanna, wanderer of the sky. He, through a compromise with NINGAL (the "great lady"), generated a son brighter than himself, Utu, the sun god. On the other side, on earth, fresh water, the beneficial element, distinct from the primordial and sea waters, also formed, and its god was Enki. From these four creator gods derives the entire pantheon: there are the Anunnaki, attendants of An; there are the stars, little brothers of Nanna and Utu; there are infernal deities also generated by Enlil. There is the great goddess Inanna, "Lady of Heaven," daughter of Enki; there are other terrestrial and cultural deities, as set forth in the myths. Such deities are created in accordance with the order of the universe, that is, through the assembly and decision of the council of the gods, in which An and Enlil, but also other deities, fix the destinies of the "models" for becoming. Yet the Sumerian pantheon is anything but primitive; it is the fruit of a long evolution. It can be affirmed that in early Sumerian times Enlil was the most active deity, but it seems that later Enki increasingly asserted himself.
The creation of man, a servant of the gods—though not identical to the Akkadian version—is indeed more solemn: the gods lack worthy dwellings, refined food and culture, and clothing. Then, through the intervention of Nammu, mother of Enki, men are fashioned from the clay above the abyss, seemingly born also of Nammu and Ninmah, with the aid of all the midwife goddesses. They also determine the fate of man, the servant of the gods. This is followed by a joyous feast of the gods, during which, becoming somewhat boisterous, Ninmah and Enki shape from that clay above the abyss six special types of men. The text is legible only with regard to the last two types: the barren woman, destined by Enki for sacred prostitution, and the naturally eunuch man, destined by Enki to serve kings. Other myths on the origin of man describe him as having grown like a plant in a sacred place or as a product of the hoe. From this arises the idea of Sumerian life: placed in a world of abundance, man must prepare with his developing culture the best for the gods, over whom he always has dominion; yet the gods, being benevolent and even subject to magic, fulfill all their duties. On the life after death, all sources of Sumerian religion are silent; the tombs mentioned at Ur indicate belief in another life.
Sumerian ideas are always illuminating, and it is important to know Sumerian thought on a given subject. This is especially true for the early chapters of Genesis, which have literary connections with the "cultural hymns" and to some extent with all Sumerian "cultural" literature.