Sumerian Civilization :: The Inventors of Urban Life

Sumerian Civilization flourished on the river plains of the fertile crescent around 5000 years ago. A time when the Sumerian city-states of ruled the nation of Sumer in southern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The Sumerian Civilization is the oldest civilization to have existed in southern Mesopotamia and might be the oldest high civilization to exist in the world. It was in Sumer that urban life fist began, invented during prehistoric times on the alluvial plains and marshes of the Near East, and on the shores of the Persian Gulf.

Human society became more complex during this period. The people developed educational, mercantile, social, and political institutions within – and under the authority – of the temple. Leadership of the Sumerian civilization began with priest-kings, but ended with secular monarchs called lugal.

The First Stages of Sumerian Civilization

The first city of the Sumerian Civilization in later tradition is the city of Eridu, said to have been built as the home of the Sumerian god Enki. Archaeologists have discovered that Eridu was first established c.6500 BCE and was held in great importance throughout by the Sumerians throughout their history.

The people who settled Eridu were the first to settle that land. Their migration brought us the first examples of irrigation architecture which was to make great cities possible. However Sumerian civilization emerged in full during the Uruk Period, named after the Sumerian City-State of Uruk. Uruk was the largest and most dominant settlement of the time. Literally the only true city in the world, and the center of a unique and advanced material culture.

Towards the end of the Uruk Period (4000 to 3100 BCE) we see population flourish as society becomes evermore complex and interconnected. Many developments in the arts of civilization were made during this time.

Business, trade, and the arts were booming as a result of a significant fraction of the population being given food for other duties. A class of laborers could be paid for their service from a food surplus, enabling the construction of ever greater buildings.

Sculptors, merchants, lawyers, scholars, doctors, soldiers, priests, and officials, could all be provided for (by farmers and herders) in exchange for the duties of their position within society. Learning grew to the invention of writing in Mesopotamia which enable a more sophisticated, unique, intimate expression of the Sumerian mind.

Sumerian Civilization and the Gods

The Sumerian City-State was politically and religiously dominated by the temple. The temple was the main administrative force in charge of overseeing the cultivation and distribution of the grains and vegetables that would feed the entire people. Citizens were employed by the temple to build, labor, grind flour, cultivate fields, cook or transport goods, all of which we have meticulous record of.

In this way the entire population was united, collectively working towards the prosperity of the group, organized by the leadership of the temple and, by extension, the gods of the Sumerian Pantheon.

The streets were alive with business, the markets were full. There were beermakers, butchers, and bakers. Travelling merchants would come to sell their wares at the markets, connecting cities through the land, and distributing material culture throughout Sumer and Mesopotamia.

Furthermore, Mesopotamia possessed a significant religious homogeneity. Meaning that the great temples of the major cities might have drawn pilgrims from distant parts of the Near East to sites of religious importance, increasing the ethnic diversity in these cities.

The Rise of Kingship

The centralization of power and hierarchical social structure within the temple and religious authority played a role in the shift towards kingship. A class of nobility could have developed in a familial way around religious positions, positions of status in society, and around the king in the form of dynasties.

This new coexistence between priests and kings occurred at the end of Uruk Period, and became an important trait of the Sumerian Civilization at their peak in the 3rd millennium BCE.

It was during the Early Dynastic Period of Sumerian civilization that we see a political shift. In the Uruk Period and Jemdet Nasr Period which precede the Early Dynastic Period, political authority ultimately came from the gods. As the temple organized the city-state, it was the center of political authority. Thus authority within the temple is the equivalent to authority in the city.

The ensi was the representative of the patron deity of a temple. They were both leaders of the temple, and interpreters of the will of the gods. In the early dynasties of Sumerian history they were roughly equivalent in power to the lugal (king), though later on were clearly inferior of the lugal. The leaders of the temple were also leaders of the city-state and important figures in the community.

These ensi priest-kings who interpreted the will of the gods could be either sex, depending on the sex of the god of the temple. This indicates great quality between sexes in this ancient culture. An ensi was male when the patron deity of a temple was a goddess, while the ensi was a woman when the temple god was male.

During the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2500 BCE) authority within the society shifted from a priest-king to a king, whom the Sumerians called Lugal, literally “Great Man.” Dominion under the lugal, and the balance of power between lugal and ensi was one of the dominant features of Sumerian civilization.

Though the lugal came to be recognized as being associated with divinity, to being chosen by the gods. We see many depictions of dynastic leaders meeting with the gods, being instructed by or propitiating themselves to. Indeed we see this tradition long after Sumer in the Near East.

The Final Stages of Sumerian Civilization

During the period from 2100 to 1700 BCE Sumerian Civilization experienced a brief resurgence, a Sumerian renaissance if you will, a brief interlude between being under the rule of foreign powers. (Foreign powers who nonetheless shared predominant traditions, pantheons, and beliefs with the Sumerian peoples, it should be noted.)

We also have seen the rise of new powers in the Near East. The Akkadians in the north, the Gutians, Elamites, Egyptians, and others. Major environmental changes such as reduced crops due to increased salinity of the soil and an increasing temperature put stress on Near Eastern population, on the Sumerian Civilization in particular.

After the Elamites sacked the Sumerian city of Ur c.1940 BCE, Sumer came under Amorite rule and never existed again, accepted in the realms of history. The Sumerian Language and Script persisted however. It is still used as the language for sacred writings dealing with the gods and for educated texts of later civilizations, like Latin of the Roman Empire which was adopted by scholars of Middle Age Europe.

When the people of the land of Southern Mesopotamia rose again to cultural authority within the Near East, they were called the Babylonians under Hammurabi. Yet even they paid homage to their ancestors of the Sumerian civilization in many of their traditions and their beliefs. Hammurabi is seen on the top of the Stele of Hammurabi propitiating himself to the god Shamash, who was the Babylonian counterpart of the Sumerian Utu.

Rulers of many great civilizations to come would do the same.

Further Reading

1. Popular Reading
   1. Sumer | Wikipedia | Accessed 12 Sept 2020
2. Scholarly Reading