The ancient Sumerians called themselves salmat qaqqadi, meaning “black heads.” The word “Sumer” comes from shumerum, which was what the Akkadians, Sumer’s neighbors to the north, called the inhabitants of this area. Sumer’s gifts to humanity are immeasurable. British Museum/Scala, Florence Birth of writing box now known as the Standard of Ur, which was decorated on all sides with intricate mosaics made from shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli, depicting a parade of chariots, warriors, and prisoners. One of the most iconic pieces was a 2550 B.C. The tombs were full of objects made from silver and gold and adorned with precious stones like lapis lazuli, carnelian, agate, and chalcedony. In 1927, archaeologist Leonard Woolley led an expedition (sponsored by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania) that uncovered a lavish necropolis in the ancient city, revealing glittering evidence of the city’s great wealth. thanks to robust trading relationships with other cities. Ur’s Sumerian rulers accrued great wealth in the mid-third millennium b.c. ( Age-old secrets revealed from the world's first metropolises: including Uruk.) At its peak, Uruk numbered some 40,000 inhabitants-a huge population that drove significant economic development. According to the Sumerian King List, it was founded by King Enmerkar around 4500 B.C. The very first city-state to rise to prominence was Uruk (called “Erech” in the Bible). Scholars are quick to point out that the Sumerian King List blends legend and history, with the earliest kings enjoying excessively long reigns and the more recent having human-size lengths of time on the throne. The most complete one features the names of prominent cities, their rulers, and how long they ruled. Copies of the list have been found on 16 different clay tablets or cylinders found across Mesopotamia. These cities were ruled by kings, whose names might have been forgotten were it not for the discovery of the Sumerian King List. shows goddesses standing before King Ur-Nammu. Right: A cast of a cylindrical seal from circa 2100 B.C. ( Why this ancient 'King of the World' in Assyria was so proud of his library.) From that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehobothir, Calah,and Resen between Nineveh and Calah that is the great city” (Genesis 10:10-12). ![]() The Bible mentions Sumerian cities and rulers: “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. Over time, some of them grew more powerful than others, and for brief periods, one city-state might rule the others until it fell from power. ![]() Among the most significant were Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Larsa, Isin, Adab, Lagash, Nippur, and Kish. The wealth turned settlements into villages, and villages grew into cities with thousands of residents.īy 3500 B.C., Sumer had grown into a collection of city-states linked by linguistic and religious traditions. Their success created rich agricultural centers of trade. These innovators devised an irrigation system of canals to harness the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates and better manage agriculture in the region. Settlers arrived in the Mesopotamian floodplain around the sixth millennium B.C. Glorious finds in the area revealed the richness and complexity of this ancient culture and allowed scholars to see how Sumerian influences cascaded through the civilizations that followed it. ![]() Sumerian civilization and its achievements would be forgotten for millennia, until archaeologists began exploring the region in earnest in the 19th and 20th centuries. The civilization reached its peak in the late third millennium B.C and then gradually fell away. Dominance and control would shift among its glorious cities as the years rolled by. Across the region that is now southern Iraq, powerful city-states emerged, towering ziggurats rose, sweeping epics were told, and golden jewelry adorned the rich and powerful. Known today as Sumer, this ground-breaking culture gave birth to not only the first cities but also innovations in transportation, literature, and monumental architecture.įor more than 2,000 years, Sumerian culture flourished and was the dominant power in Mesopotamia. The foundations of human civilization first flowered in the fertile lands between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |