History of Sumer

Etana of Kish

The first ruler of Sumer, who may have come to the throne quite early in the third millennium B.C. In the King List he is described as "he who stabilized all the lands". Etana is famous from the myth of the man who ascends to heaven on the back of an eagle and, like other kings mentioned in the list (Dumuzi and Gilgamesh among them) was known for superhuman feats and heroism.

Semites

The kings following Etana were ________, not Sumerians, as attested to by their names such as Enmebaraggesi of Kish. It is not until after the rule of eight kings passed that Sumerian names begin to appear in the King List.

Akkad

Mesopotamian city-state; world's first empire.

The Ur III Period

2047-1750 BCE. The last period in Sumerian history is so named for the Third Dynasty of the city of Ur. This period is also known as The Sumerian Renaissance due to the remarkable advances in culture - touching upon virtually every single aspect of civilized human life - which were made. The kings of Ur, Ur-Nammu (r. 2047-2030 BCE) and Shulgi (r.2029-1982 BCE)), set cultural advancement as the goal of their administrations and maintained a peace which allowed for art and technology to flourish. Whether invented before or during the Ur III Period, the tools, concepts, and technological innovations in place during the Third Dynasty of Ur solidified the Sumerian's place in history as the creators of civilization as we know it.

Uruk

A Sumerian city-state considered to be the oldest city in the world. It was the largest and most powerful city in Sumer at its prime. Though, the ancient Mesopotamians believed that the oldest city was Eridu and that it was here that order was established and civilization began.

Sumerian King List

A cuneiform document, written by a scribe of the city of Lagash, sometime around 2100 BCE which lists all of the kings of the region, and their accomplishments, in an attempt to show continuity of order in society dating back to the beginning of civilization. As the Mesopotamians generally, and the Sumerians specifically, believed that civilization was the result of the gods' triumph of order over chaos, the King List is thought to have been created to legitimize the reign of a king named Utu-Hegal of Uruk (r. c. 2100 BCE) by showing him as the most recent in a long line of rulers of the region. Utu-Hegal, it is thought, was trying to link himself to such earlier hero-kings through the creation of the King List. Since the Mesopotamians believed that the gods had set everything in motion, and that human beings were created as co-laborers with the gods to maintain order and hold back chaos, the early writers of history in the region concentrated more on the links between the rulers and their gods.

Cuneiform

A form of writing developed by the Sumerians using a wedge shaped stylus and clay tablets, c. 3500-3000 BCE.

Sumerians

Called themselves "the black headed people". Invented the wheel, writing, the sail boat, and agricultural processes such as irrigation.

c. 1750 BCE

The Sumerians ceased to exist as a people after Sumer was invaded by the Elamites and Amorites.

Sumer

The world's first civilization, and the southernmost region of Mesopotamia. The name is Akkadian, meaning "land of civilized kings." In the biblical book of Genesis, Sumer is known as Shinar.

Ubaid People

These people had already moved from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian one prior to 5000 BCE. Excavations from al-Ubaid and other sites throughout southern Iraq have uncovered stone tools from the these people such as hoes, knives, and adzes and clay artifacts which included sickles, bricks, painted pottery, and figurines.

Akkadian Empire

This empire of the king Lugal-Zage was still extant when a young man, who later claimed to have been the king's gardener, seized the throne. This was Sargon of Akkad who would go on to found the Akkadian Empire (2234-2218 BCE), the first multi-national empire in the world and, it is thought, based on the model set by Eannutum. The Akkadian Empire ruled over the majority of Mesopotamia, including Sumer, until a people known as the Gutians invaded from the north (the area of modern-day Iran) and destroyed the major cities.

George Smith

Translated cuneiform in the 19th century. He translated The Epic of Gilgamesh in 1872 CE. This translation allowed other cuneiform tablets to be interpreted which overturned the traditional understanding of the biblical version of history and made room for scholarly, objective explorations of history to move forward.

The Gutian Period

c. 2218-2047 BCE. Is considered a dark age in Sumerian history (and Mesopotamian history overall) and the Gutians were universally reviled by Sumerian writers in later histories, most of which consider them a punishment sent by the gods.

Early Dynastic Period

c. 2900-2334 BCE. Saw the subtle shift from a priest-king (known as an ensi) to a more modern-day concept of `king' known as a Lugal (`big man'). The city-states of Sumer during this time fought for control of arable land and water rights until the rise of the First Dynasty of Lagash in 2500 BCE. Under their king Eannutum, Lagash became the centre of a small empire which included most of Sumer and parts of neighboring Elam.

Uruk Period

c. 4100-2900 BCE. Cities began to emerge across the landscape and the city of Uruk rose in prominence. Though the period is named for the `first city' of Uruk, Eridu was considered the first city by the Sumerians themselves.

Ubaid Period

c. 5000-4100 BCE.