Brief introduction of Sumer

Sumer is the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq and Kuwait) and is usually regarded as the cradle of civilization. The name comes from Akkadian in northern Mesopotamia, which means "the land of civilized kings". In Sumerians, they called themselves "blackheads" and their land. In cuneiform, it is just "land" or "land of blackheads". In the Bible Genesis, Sumerians were called to seize land.

According to the list of Sumerian kings, when the gods first gave human beings the gifts they needed to develop society, they achieved this goal by establishing an Eli capital in Sumerian. Although the Sumerian city of uruk is regarded as the oldest city in the world, the ancient Mesopotamians thought it was Elidu, and it was here that order was established and civilization began.

Ubaid period

It has long been thought that Sumer was first inhabited around 4500 BC. However, this date has been controversial in recent years, and now it is believed that human activities in this area began earlier. The first settlers were not Sumerians, but people of unknown origin. Archaeologists call them Ubaid people-from the excavated al-Ubaid mound, where cultural relics were first discovered to prove their existence-or the original Euphrates people, who named them as residents of the Euphrates River area earlier.

Generally speaking, Mesopotamia and Sumerians believed that civilization was the result of God and the victory of chaotic order.

No matter who these people are, they have entered the agricultural society from the hunter-gatherer society before 5000 BC. Excavation of al-Ubaid and other sites in southern Iraq found Ubaid stone tools, such as hoes, knives and hoes, as well as clay products, including sickles, bricks, painted pottery and figurines.

These people are the earliest messengers of civilization in this area. I don't know when people who were later called Sumerians entered this area.

List of Sumerian kings

According to Samuel Noah Kramer, a scholar, "The first ruler of Sumer, whose behavior was recorded, was a Kish king named Etana in the shortest sentence. He may have ascended the throne very early. In 3000 BC, in the Book of Kings, he was described as a man who stabilized all the land "(Sumerians, 43). The list of Sumerian kings is a cuneiform document written by a scribe in Ragac, about 2 100 BC, which lists all the kings in this area and their achievements, trying to show that the continuity of social order can be traced back to the beginning of BC civilization.

Because Mesopotamia, especially Sumerians, generally believed that civilization was the result of the gods' victory over chaos, people thought that the king list was created to legalize the rule of King Utu-Hegelian named uruk (2 100 BC), which showed that he was the latest ruler in the region. Etana is famous for the myth of riding an eagle to heaven. Like other kings mentioned in the list (including Dumz and The Forgotten), Etana is famous for his superhuman feats and heroism.

It is believed that Uto-Hegel tried to connect himself with these early heroic kings by creating a list of kings. Because Mesopotamia believed that God made everything move, and human beings were created to keep order and prevent chaos with the gods, early historical writers in this area paid more attention to the relationship between rulers and their gods.

For these writers, the written history of human achievements always seems to be considered unimportant. The problem is that Sumer's early history is inferred from archaeological and geological records beyond the written tradition, and many modern scholars still cannot obtain information.

The rise of cities

Whenever Sumerian civilization was first established in this area, by 3600 BC, they invented agricultural technologies such as wheels, writing, navigation, irrigation and the concept of cities (although China and India also claimed to be "the first cities in the world"). It is generally believed that the earliest cities in the world rose in Sumer, among which the most important cities are Eldu, uruk, Ur, Larsa, Yixin, Adabu, Kula, lagache, Nipur and Kish.

Uruk is regarded as the first real city in the world. Kramer once again pointed out that these names were not Sumerians, but came from Ubaid, so at least they were established as villages much earlier than BC. In 5000 BC. Other cities in Sumer are Szipal, Shurupak, Badtibila, Gilsu, Uma, Urukag, Nina and Kisula. All people have different scales and scopes, among which uruk is the largest and the most powerful in its heyday.

With the establishment of Sumerian cities, their history began from about 5000 BC to 1750 BC. Sumerians were invaded by Elam and Amorites, and "Sumerians no longer exist as a nation" (Kramer). After Ubaid period (5000-4 BC100 BC) and Uluk period (4 BC100-2900 BC), cities began to appear in the whole landscape, and Uluk City rose. Although this period was named after the "first city" in uruk, as mentioned above, Yili was regarded as the first city by Sumerians.

At this time, the trade with foreign countries has been firmly established, and the characters have evolved from hieroglyphics to cuneiform characters. People think that trade is the main driving force for the development of writing, because now there must be some way of accurate long-distance communication between Sumerian businessmen and their agents abroad. The kingship also rose at this time, and the Sumerian city-state was ruled by the monarch, supplemented by the Presbyterian church (including men and women). The kings after Etana are Sumerians, not Sumerians as their names prove, such as EnMebara Gesi of Kish. It was not until the end of the eight kings' rule that Sumerian names began to appear in the king's list.

Akkadian kingdom in Sumer.

In the early dynasty (from 2300 BC to 34 BC), we saw the subtle changes of the priest king (known as ENSI, known as Lugal (a more modern concept of "king"). During this period, Sumerian city-states fought for the control of cultivated land and water rights until the rise of the first dynasty in lagache in 2500 BC. Under the leadership of their king, Eannutum, lagache became the center of a small empire, which included most of Sumer and parts of neighboring Elam.

When a young man (who later claimed to be the king's gardener) seized the throne, the empire still existed under the rule of King Lugal Zag. This is sargon from Akkad. He will continue to establish Akkad Kingdom (2234-22 BC18), the first multi-ethnic empire in the world. It is believed to be based on the model set by Eannutum.

Akkad rule the kingdom invaded most parts of Mesopotamia, including Sumer, until ancient people invaded from the north (modern Iranian region) and destroyed major cities. Gutian period (22 BC18-2047) is considered as a dark age in Sumerian history (and the whole history of Mesopotamia). Gutian people were universally condemned by Sumerian writers in later history, and most of them thought they were punished by the gods.

Sumerian Renaissance

The last period in Sumerian history was called Ur III period (2047- 1750 BC), which was named after the third dynasty in city of ur. This period is also known as the Sumerian Renaissance, because culture has made remarkable progress-involving almost every aspect of civilized human life-these progress. The kings of Ur, Ur-Nanmu (reigned from 2047 to 2030 BC) and Shuerji (reigned from 2029 to 1982 BC) took cultural progress as the goal, maintained peace, and enabled art and technology to flourish. Invented before or during Ur III, the tools, concepts and technological innovations of Ur III dynasty consolidated the Sumerians' position as creators of civilization as we know it in history.

In Samuel Noah Kramer's book History Begins in Sumer, he listed 39 firsts in the history of this region, including the first school, the first proverb and motto, the first Messiah, the first Noah and the flood story, the first love song, the first aquarium, the first court case, and the first one. Sumerians also basically invented time because their six-digit counting system (based on the number 60) created 60 seconds minutes and 60 minutes hours.

They also divided day and night into 12 hours, defined the start and end time of "working day" and established the concept of "rest day" for holidays. Historian Bertman wrote, "The hand of Mesopotamia still determines the length of the traditional working day, even when our working day stops, the length of our electronic entertainment (half an hour or an hour of TV programs)" (334). Bertman further pointed out that the modern practice of checking constellations came from ancient Sumer, and the constellation in which a person was born was first noticed and named by ancient Mesopotamia.

Ullner wrote the first law in Sumer, which became the precedent of the later more widely known Babylonian code code of hammurabi. Historian Paul Kriwaczek wrote: "Ur-Nammu's universal legal statement provides a good example of King Ur's unified motivation: mandating all aspects of life" (149). Sumer became a hereditary country under the unified power of the third Ur dynasty (Krivacek pointed out that "it means to build on the patriarchal family model ruled by the father"), and the image of the monarch as a father led his children onto the right road to prosperity.

Ullner's son, Surgy, is regarded as the greatest of the new kings of Sumer. They inherited his father's policy, but went further. In order to impress the people and distinguish him from his father, Shurji ran 65,438+000 miles (65,438+060.9 kilometers) between Nipur Religious Center and the capital Ur, and then returned again in one day to hold festivals in two cities. Although some people think that this hymn praising his achievements is a kind of boasting and exaggeration of the king, scholars believe that he can actually complete his reputation, and this is also in line with Shuerji's ruling spirit. Creating a sense of awe and admiration among their subjects seems to be the core of King Ur's ruling power at this time.

The Decline and Legacy of Sumer

Under Shurji's rule, a wall of 155 miles (250 kilometers) was built to stop Semitic tribes called Martu or Tidnum, but they are better known as their biblical names Amorites. Shuerji's son, grandson and great-grandson all renovated and strengthened the city wall to stop the people they called "barbarians", but it turned out that this barrier was ineffective. This wall cannot be properly operated or maintained by personnel, and it is not fixed on any solid barrier at the end points, so an intruder can simply reach any end point along one side of the wall and then bypass it.

The army of Elam, a neighboring country, broke through the city wall, marched on Ur, looted Ur, and took the king about BC 1750. The Amorites have now established their own position in this land, but with the fall of Ur and the severe famine caused by climate change and overuse of land, many people moved to the south. It is believed that among these migrating Amorites, there was an ancestor Abraham who left Ur and settled in Canaan.

During the period of Ur III and after the decline of Ur, many Sumerians migrated northward. Sumerian language is no longer used as a language (although there are still characters), and it is largely replaced by Semitic Akkadian, and Sumerian culture is over. However, their heritage continues to exist in many aspects of civilization that modern people take for granted. Even so, Sumerians invented something as basic as the 24-hour clock.