Brief historical notes on the Sumerians

Lost Civilizations (@lostcivilizations)

Published in 

lostworlds

 · 6 Sep 2023

A people who controlled southern Mesopotamia, near the Persian Gulf, and gave their name to one of the first great historical civilizations of the. Middle East.

Old Sumerian traditions held the memory of a "flood" that would destroy humanity at the dawn of its history. Indeed, archaeological excavations have demonstrated the reality of many floods of the Euphrates, of which the most catastrophic took place around 2800-2600 BC, but in only three sites: Ur Kish and Shuruppak - it was therefore a question of a purely local and not concurrent, even if listing king lists before and after the flood. It is after the flood that the names of the great Sumerian cities appear - Kish, Uruk, Umma, Lagash, Larsa, Ur and the first "dynasty", a rather inappropriate term now, since the royal successions were not always regular.

After the appearance of a dynasty of Kish, whose tenth king was Enmébaragesi (around 2700 BC), the dynastic period (2600 - 2300 BC) was marked by the sovereigns buried in the "royal tombs" of Ur with the related funerary furnishings rich in objects of gold and money. These were succeeded by the kings of the first dynasty of Ur, starting with Mésannepadda, its founder, around 2560 - 2525 BC.

In the North of Ur, at the same time, EN.SI (the governors) of Lagash reigned: one of them, Eannatum (2455 -2425 BC), initially imposed his sovereignty on the nearby city of Umma, he commemorated this important fact with the famous "stèle of the vultures". But after the death of Eannatum, the kings of the Lagash were dethroned by a priestly family, Urinimgina (about 2350 BC); the latter, despite his reforming work, could not restore the hegemony of his city and was overtaken by Lugal-zagesi, ensi (governor?) of Umma (around 2340 - 2316 BC), who destroyed Lagash, appropriated Ur, of Uruk and Kish, extended his authority over the whole land of Sumer.

But this first Sumerian empire was to quickly succumb under the blows of the Akkadiens, of Semitic origin. Sargon the elder (about 2334 - 2279BC), subjected all the cities of Lower Mesopotamia; asserting his power in Elam, in northern Mesopotamia, in Syria, and perhaps as far as the Mediterranean (Cyprus?).

The Akkadiens assimilated the Sumerian culture and adopted cuneiform characters to transcribe their language, which remained the current language in Mesopotamia.

Punctuated by incessant riots, the empire that had founded Sargon the Elder collapsed, after just a century of existence, shortly after 2200 BC, under the blows of Gutis warriorsI came down from the Zagros mountains. These reigned for about a century over Lower Mesopotamia, leaving much freedom to the Sumerian cities.

From about 2145 BC, a true Sumerian renaissance began, beginning to expand to Lagash, under the reign of Gudéa, who, took the title of ensi (governor), but who appears to have been a truly independent ruler, like his sons, Ur -Ningirsu. The city enjoyed, at that time, an unparalleled prosperity. The Sumerians re-established their autonomy almost everywhere: it was the brilliant period of the third dynasty of Ur (2113 - 2006 BC). Its founder, Ur-Nammu (2113 - 2095 BC), a great builder, restored order by organizing an effective administration and promulgating the oldest collection of laws in Mesopotamia; Ur-Nammu's successor, Shulgi, (2095 - 2047BC), restored the empire.

The Third Dynasty fell in 1950 BC when the Elamites captured King Ibbi-Sin and destroyed the city; the Lament for Ur commemorates this event. Later the city was captured by the Babylonians. The Amorites dominated Mesopotamia politically. But they had to collect, preserve and transmit the inheritance of the Sumerian civilization, as demonstrated by the fidelity with which they preserved the Sumerian language for more than a millennium and a half and the tireless work of copying the texts by the scribes of the temples and of palaces throughout Mesopotamia.

Historical Chronology