The island of bliss Dilmun and the underworld in the myths of Sumer and Akkad The Sumerian legend of Enki and Ninhursag, one of the oldest poems in the world, tells of the blissful island of Dilmun, now associated with Bahrain: “Dilmun is a land of light. Dilmun is a pure country. Dilmun

Civilization arose in the 65th century. back.
Civilization stopped in the 38th century. back.
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Civilization existed from 4500 BC. before 1750 BC in the southern part of Mesopotamia on the territory of modern Iraq ..

The Sumerian civilization dissolved as the Sumerians ceased to exist as a single people.

Sumerian civilization arose in 4-3 thousand BC.

Sumerian race: White Alpine mixed with white Mediterranean race.

Sumerian - a society related to, not connected with the previous ones, but connected with subsequent societies ..

The Sumerians are one of the oldest non-autochthonous people of Mesopotamia ..

The genetic links of the Sumerians have not been established ..

The name is given for the Sumer region, which did not cover the entire country with a Sumerian population, but originally, the area around the city of Nippur.

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The genetic links of the Sumerians have not been established.

The Semitic civilization constantly interacted with the Sumerian, which led to a gradual mixing of their cultures, and subsequently civilizations. After the fall of Akkad, under pressure from the barbarians from the northeast, peace was maintained only in Lagash. But the Sumerians succeeded in re-raising their political prestige and reviving their culture during the Ur Dynasty (circa 2060).

After the fall of this dynasty in 1950, the Sumerians were never able to take the political primacy. With the rise of Hammurabi, control over these territories passed to Babylon and the Sumerians, as a nation, disappeared from the face of the earth.

Amorites - Semites in origin, commonly known as the Babylonians, overcame the Sumerian culture and civilization. With the exception of language, the Babylonian educational system, religion, mythology, and literature were virtually identical to those of the Sumerians. And because these Babylonians, in turn, were greatly influenced by their less cultured neighbors, especially the Assyrians, Hittites, Urartians, and Canaanites, they, like the Sumerians themselves, helped plant the seeds of Sumerian culture throughout the ancient Near East.

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Sumerian City State. It is a sociopolitical entity that developed in Sumer from a village and a small settlement in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. and flourished throughout the 3rd millennium. The city with its free citizens and general assembly, its aristocracy and priesthood, clients and slaves, its patron god and its viceroy and representative on earth, the king, farmers, artisans and merchants, its temples, walls and gates existed everywhere in the Ancient World, he Indus to the Western Mediterranean.

Some of its specific features may vary from place to place, but in general it bears a very strong resemblance to its early Sumerian prototype, and it is reasonable to conclude that very many of its elements and counterparts are rooted in Sumer. Of course, it is likely that the city would have come into existence independently of the existence of Sumer.

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Sumer, the land that was called Babylonia in the classical era, occupied the southern part of Mesopotamia and roughly coincided geographically with modern Iraq, stretching from Baghdad in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south. The territory of Sumer occupied about 10 thousand square miles, a little more than the state of Massachusetts. The climate here is extremely hot and dry, and the soils are naturally scorched, weathered, and infertile. This is a river plain, and therefore it is devoid of minerals and poor in stone. The swamps were overgrown with powerful reeds, but there was no forest, and, accordingly, there was no wood.

It was a land that, they say, the Lord denied (in the Bible - objectionable to God), hopeless, doomed to poverty and desolation. But the people who inhabited it and known by the 3rd millennium BC. like the Sumerians, he was endowed with an uncommon creative intellect and an enterprising, decisive spirit. Despite the natural disadvantages of the land, they turned Sumer into a real Garden of Eden and created what was probably the first advanced civilization in the history of mankind.

The basic unit of Sumerian society was the family, whose members were closely linked to each other by bonds of love, respect, and shared duties. The marriage was organized by the parents, and the engagement was considered completed as soon as the groom presented the bride's father with a wedding gift. The engagement was often confirmed by a contract recorded on a tablet. Although marriage was thus reduced to a practical transaction, there is evidence that premarital love affairs were not alien to the Sumerians.

A woman in Sumer was endowed with certain rights: she could own property, participate in cases, be a witness. But her husband could simply divorce her, and if she turned out to be childless, he had the right to have a second wife. Children completely obeyed the will of their parents, who could disinherit them and even sell them into slavery. But in the normal course of events, they were selflessly loved and pampered, and after the death of their parents, they inherited all their property. Adopted children were not uncommon, and they, too, were treated with extreme care and attention.

Law played a big role in the Sumerian city. Starting around 2700 B.C. we find acts of sale, including fields, houses and slaves.

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Judging from the available evidence, both archaeological and literary, the world known to the Sumerians extended as far as India in the East; to the north - to Anatolia, the Caucasus region and more western territories of Central Asia; to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, here it is possible, apparently, to rank Cyprus and even Crete; and as far as Egypt and Ethiopia in the south. Today there is no evidence that the Sumerians had any contact or information about the peoples who inhabited North Asia, China or the European continent. The Sumerians themselves divided the world into four ubdas, i.e. four districts or regions that roughly corresponded to the four compass points.

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Sumerian culture belongs to two centers: Eridu in the south and Nippur in the north. Sometimes Eridu and Nippur are called the two opposite poles of Sumerian culture.

The history of civilization is divided into 2 stages:

period of the Ubaid culture, which is characterized by the beginning of the construction of an irrigation system, population growth and the emergence of large settlements that turn into city-states. A city-state is a self-governing city with an adjacent territory.

ATThe second stage of the Sumerian civilization is associated with the Uruk culture (from the city of Uruk). This period is characterized by: the appearance of monumental architecture, the development of agriculture, ceramics, the appearance of the first writing in the history of mankind (pictograms-drawings), this writing is called cuneiform and was produced on clay tablets. It was used for about 3 thousand years.

Signs of the Sumerian civilization:

Writing. The Phoenicians first borrow it and on its basis create their own script, consisting of 22 consonants, the Greeks borrow the script from the Phoenicians, who add vowels. Latin was largely derived from Greek, and many modern European languages ​​exist on the basis of Latin.

The Sumerians discovered copper, which begins the Bronze Age.

The first elements of statehood. In peacetime, the Sumerians were ruled by a council of elders, and during the war a supreme ruler was elected - lugal, gradually their power remains in peacetime and the first ruling dynasties appear.

The Sumerians laid the foundations of Temple architecture, a special type of temple appeared there - a ziggurat, this is a temple in the form of a stepped pyramid.

The Sumerians carried out the first reforms in the history of mankind. The ruler of Urukavina became the first reformer.He forbade the taking away of donkeys, sheep and fish from the townspeople and any kind of deductions to the palace in payment for assessing their allowance and shearing sheep. When a husband divorced his wife, no bribe was paid to either the enzi or his viziers or the abgal. When the deceased was brought to the cemetery for burial, various officials received a much smaller share of the property of the deceased than before, and sometimes much less than half. As for the temple property that the enzi appropriated to himself, he, Urukagina, returned it to its true owners - the gods; in fact, it seems that the temple administrators now looked after the enzi's palace, as well as the palaces of his wives and children. Throughout the country, from end to end, notes a contemporary historian, "there were no tax collectors."

FROMExamples of Sumerian technology include wheel, cuneiform, arithmetic, geometry, irrigation systems, boats, lunisolar calendar, bronze, leather, saw, chisel, hammer, nails, brackets, rings, hoes, knives, swords, dagger, quiver, scabbard, glue, harness, harpoon and beer. They grew oats, lentils, chickpeas, wheat, beans, onions, garlic and mustard. Sumerian pastoralism involved raising cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. A bull acted as a pack animal, and a donkey acted as a riding animal. The Sumerians were good fishermen and hunted game. The Sumerians had slavery, but it was not the main component of the economy.

Sumerian buildings were made of plano-convex mud bricks, not held together with lime or cement, because of which they were destroyed from time to time and rebuilt in the same place. The most impressive and famous structures of the Sumerian civilization are the ziggurats, large multi-layered platforms that supported the temples.

Hsome scholars speak of them as the progenitors of the Tower of Babel, which is spoken of in the Old Testament. Sumerian architects came up with such a technique as an arch, thanks to which the roof was erected in the form of a dome. The temples and palaces of the Sumerians were built using such advanced materials and technologies as semi-columns, niches and clay nails.

The Sumerians learned how to burn river clay, the supply of which was almost inexhaustible, and turn it into pots, dishes and jugs. Instead of wood, they used chopped and dried gigantic swamp reeds, which grew here in abundance, knitted them into sheaves or wove mats, and also, using clay, built huts and pens for livestock. Later, the Sumerians invented a mold for molding and firing bricks from inexhaustible river clay, and the problem of building material was solved. Here appeared such useful tools, crafts and technical means as a potter's wheel, a wheel, a plow, a sailing vessel, an arch, a vault, a dome, copper and bronze casting, sewing with a needle, riveting and soldering, stone sculpture, engraving and inlay. The Sumerians invented a clay writing system that was adopted and used throughout the Middle East for almost two thousand years. Almost all of the information about the early history of Western Asia has been gleaned from thousands of clay documents covered with cuneiform written by the Sumerians, which have been found by archaeologists over the past one hundred and twenty-five years.

The Sumerian sages developed a faith and creed that, in a certain sense, left "god to God", and also recognized and accepted the inevitability of the limitations of mortal existence, especially their helplessness in the face of death and God's wrath. With regard to views on material existence, they highly valued wealth and property, a rich harvest, full granaries, barns and stables, successful hunting on land and good fishing in the sea. Spiritually and psychologically, they emphasized ambition and success, superiority and prestige, honor and recognition. The inhabitant of Sumer was deeply aware of his personal rights and opposed any encroachment on them, whether it be the king himself, someone senior in position or equal. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Sumerians were the first to establish law and compose codes to clearly distinguish "black from white" and thus avoid misunderstanding, misinterpretation and ambiguity.

Irrigation is a complex process that requires joint efforts and organization. Canals had to be dug and constantly repaired, and water had to be distributed proportionately to all consumers. For this, power was needed that exceeded the desires of an individual landowner and even an entire community. This contributed to the formation of administrative institutions and the development of the Sumerian statehood. Since Sumer, due to the fertility of irrigated soils, produced much more grain, while experiencing an acute shortage in metals, stone and building timber, the state was forced to extract the materials necessary for the economy either by trade or by military means. Therefore, by 3 thousand BC. Sumerian culture and civilization penetrated east to India, west to the Mediterranean, south to Ethiopia, north to the Caspian Sea.

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The Sumerian influence invaded the Bible through the Canaanite, Khuritti, Hittite and Akkadian literatures, especially the latter, since, as is known, in the 2nd millennium BC. Akkadian was ubiquitous in Palestine and its environs as the language of practically all educated people. Therefore, the works of Akkadian literature must have been well known to the writers of Palestine, including the Jews, and many of these works have their own Sumerian prototype, modified and transformed over time.

Abraham was born in Chaldean Ur, probably around 1700 BC. and spent the beginning of his life there with his family. Then Ur was one of the main cities of ancient Sumer; it became the capital of Sumer three times in different periods of its history. Abraham and his family members brought some of the Sumerian knowledge to Palestine, where it gradually became part of the tradition and the source that Jewish writers used to write and edit the books of the Bible.

The Jewish writers of the Bible considered the Sumerians to be the original ancestors of the Jewish people. Coordinated texts and plots of the Sumerian cuneiform are known, which are repeated in the form of presentations in the Bible, some of them were repeated by the Greeks.

A significant proportion of Sumerian blood flowed in the veins of Abraham's ancestors, who lived for generations in Ur or other Sumerian cities. With regard to Sumerian culture and civilization, there is no doubt that the proto-Jews absorbed and assimilated much of the life of the Sumerians. So it is very likely that the Sumerian-Jewish contacts were much closer than is commonly believed, and the law that came from Zion has many of its roots in the land of Sumer.

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Sumerian is an agglutinative language, not an inflectional one like the Indo-European or Semitic languages. Its roots are generally immutable. The basic grammatical unit is a phrase rather than a single word. Its grammatical particles tend to retain their independent structure rather than appear in complex conjunction with the roots of words. Therefore, structurally, the Sumerian language closely resembles such agglutinative languages ​​as Turkish, Hungarian and some Caucasian ones. In terms of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, Sumerian still stands apart and does not seem to be related to any other language, living or dead.

Sumerian has three open vowels, a, e, o, and three corresponding closed vowels, a, k, and i. Vowels were not pronounced strictly, but often changed in accordance with the rules of sound harmony. This primarily concerned vowels in grammatical particles - they sounded short and were not accented. At the end of a word or between two consonants, they were often omitted.

The Sumerian language has fifteen consonants: b, p, t, e, g, k, z, s, w, x, r, l, m, n, nasal g (ng). The consonants could be omitted, i.e. they were not pronounced at the end of a word unless they were followed by a grammatical particle that began with a vowel.

The Sumerian language is quite poor in adjectives and often uses genitives instead of them. Links and conjunctions are rarely used.

In addition to the main Sumerian dialect, probably known as Emegir, "royal language", there were several other, less significant ones. One of them, emesal, was used mainly in the speeches of female deities, women and eunuchs.

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According to the tradition that existed among the Sumerians themselves, they arrived from the islands of the Persian Gulf and settled Lower Mesopotamia at the beginning of the 4th millennium BC.

Some researchers attribute the emergence of the Sumerian civilization to no less than 445 thousand years ago.

In the Sumerian texts that have come down to us, referred to V millennium BC, contains enough information about the origin, evolution and composition of the solar system. AT In the Sumerian image of our solar system, exhibited in the Berlin State Museum, in the very center is the luminary - the Sun, which is surrounded by all the planets known to us today. At the same time, there are differences in the image of the Sumerians, and the main one is that the Sumerians place an unknown and very large planet between Mars and Jupiter - the twelfth in the Sumerian system. This mysterious planet was called Nibiru by the Sumerians - the "crossing planet", whose orbit, a highly elongated ellipse, passes through the solar system every 3600 years.

ToOsmogony of the Sumerians considers the “heavenly battle” to be the main event - a catastrophe that occurred more than four billion years ago, and which changed the appearance of the solar system.

The Sumerians confirmed that they once had contacts with the inhabitants of Nibiru, and that it was from that distant planet that the Anunnaki descended to Earth - "descended from heaven."

The Sumerians describe the celestial collision that took place in the space between Jupiter and Mars, not as a battle of some large highly developed creatures, but as a collision of several celestial bodies that changed the entire solar system.

OThis is evidenced even by the sixth chapter of biblical Genesis: nifilim - "descended from heaven." This is evidence that the Anunnaki "married the women of the earth."

From the Sumerian manuscripts it becomes clear that the Anunnaki first appeared on Earth about 445 thousand years ago, that is, much earlier before the advent of the Sumerian civilization.

The aliens were only interested in terrestrial minerals, primarily gold. FROM At first, the Anunnaki tried to extract gold in the Persian Gulf, and then took up mine development in southeast Africa. And every thirty-six centuries, when the planet Nibiru appeared, earthly gold reserves were sent to it.

The Annunaki spent 150,000 years mining gold, and then a rebellion broke out. The long-lived Anunnaki were tired of working in the mines for hundreds of thousands of years, and then the decision was made: to create any of the most "primitive" workers to work in the mines.

Not immediately luck began to accompany the experiments, and at the very beginning of the experiments, ugly hybrids were born. But, finally, success came to them, and a successful egg was placed in the body of the goddess Ninti. After a long pregnancy as a result of a caesarean section, Adam, the first man, appeared in the world.

Apparently, many events, historical information, important knowledge that helps people to rise to a higher level, described in the Bible - all this came from the Sumer civilization.

Many texts of the Sumerians say that their civilization began precisely with the settlers who flew from Nibiru when it died. There are records of this fact in the Bible about people who descended from heaven, who even took earthly women as wives.

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FROMThe word "Sumer" is used today to refer to the southern part of ancient Mesopotamia. From the most ancient times, for which there is any evidence, southern Mesopotamia was inhabited by a people known as the Sumerians, who spoke a language other than Semitic. Some memos say that they could be conquerors from the East, perhaps Iran or India.

V thousand BC There was already a prehistoric settlement in Lower Mesopotamia. By 3000 B.C. A flourishing urban civilization already existed here.

The Sumerian civilization was predominantly agricultural, and featured a well-organized social life. The Sumerians were adept at building canals and developing efficient irrigation systems. Found objects such as pottery, jewelry and weapons testified that they also knew how to handle materials such as copper, gold and silver, and developed art along with technological knowledge.

The name of two vital rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, or Ydiglat and Buranun, as they are read in cuneiform, are not Sumerian words. And the names of the most significant urban centers - Eridu (Eredu), Ur, Larsa, Isin, Adab, Kullab, Lagash, Nippur, Kish - also do not have a satisfactory Sumerian etymology. Both the rivers and the cities, or rather, the villages that later grew into cities, took their names from people who did not speak the Sumerian language. Similarly, the names Mississippi, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Dakota indicate that the early settlers of the United States did not speak English.

The name of these pre-Sumerian settlers of Sumer is, of course, unknown. They lived long before the invention of writing and did not leave any control records. Neither do the later Sumerian documents say anything about them, although there is a belief that at least some of them were known in the 3rd millennium as Subars (Subarians). We know this almost for certain; they were the first important civilizing force in ancient Sumer - the first tillers, pastoralists, fishermen, its first weavers, leather workers, carpenters, blacksmiths, potters and masons.

And again, linguistics confirmed the guess. It appears that basic agricultural techniques and industrial crafts were first brought to Sumer not by the Sumerians, but by their unnamed predecessors. Landsberger called this people Proto-Euphrates, a slightly awkward name that is nonetheless appropriate and linguistically useful.

In archeology, the proto-Euphrates are known as the Obeids (Ubeids), that is, the people who left cultural traces, first found in the El Obeid hill near Ur, and later in the lowest layers of several hills (tells) throughout ancient Sumer. The Proto-Euphrates, or Obeids, were agriculturalists who established a number of villages and towns throughout the territory and developed a fairly stable, rich rural economy.

Judging by the Enmerkar and Lugalband epic cycle, it is likely that the early Sumerian rulers had an unusually close, trusting relationship with the city-state of Aratta, located somewhere in the Caspian Sea region. The Sumerian language is an agglutinative language, to some extent reminiscent of the Ural-Altaic languages, and this fact also points in the direction of Aratta.

IV millennium BC In the extreme south of Mesopotamia, the first Sumerian settlements arose. The Sumerians found tribes in southern Mesopotamia who spoke the language of the Ubeid culture, different from Sumerian and Akkadian, and borrowed the most ancient toponyms from them. Gradually, the Sumerians occupied the entire territory of Mesopotamia from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.

Sumerian statehood arises at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC.

By the end of the III millennium BC. the Sumerians lost their ethnic and political significance.

28th century BC e. - the city of Kish becomes the center of the Sumerian civilization.The first ruler of Sumer whose deeds were recorded, however brief, was a king named Etana of Kish. The King's List speaks of him as "who stabilized all the lands." After Etana, according to the King's List, there are seven rulers, and several of them, judging by their names, were more Semites than Sumerians.

The eighth was King Enmebaraggesi, about whom we have some historical, or at least in the spirit of the saga, information, both from the King's List and from other literary Sumerian sources. One of the heroic messengers of Enmerkar and his fighting companion in the fight against Aratta was Lugalbanda, who succeeded Enmerkar on the throne of Erech. Since he is the main character in at least two epic tales, he was most likely also a venerable and imposing ruler; and it is not surprising that by 2400 BC, and possibly earlier, he was counted among the deities by the Sumerian theologians and found a place in the Sumerian pantheon.

Lugalbanda, according to the King's list, was replaced by Dumuzi, the ruler who became the main character of the Sumerian "rite of sacred marriage" and the myth of the "dying god", which deeply affected the ancient world. Following Dumuzi, according to the King List, Gilgamesh ruled, a ruler whose deeds won him such wide fame that he became the main hero of Sumerian mythology and legends.

27th century BC e. - The weakening of Kish, the ruler of the city of Uruk - Gilgamesh repels the threat from Kish and smashes his army. Kish is attached to the possessions of Uruk and Uruk becomes the center of the Sumerian civilization.

26th century BC e. - Weakening of Uruk. The city of Ur became the leading center of the Sumerian civilization for a century.The fierce three-sided struggle for supremacy between the kings of Kish, Erech and Ur must have greatly weakened Sumer and undermined its military power. In any case, according to the King's List, the First Dynasty of Ur was replaced by the foreign dominion of the kingdom of Avan, an Elamite city-state located not far from Susa.

XXV thousand BC By the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. we find hundreds of deities among the Sumerians, at least their names. Many of these names are known to us not only from the lists compiled in schools, but also from the lists of sacrifices set forth in the tablets found over the last century.

A little later than 2500 B.C. a ruler named Mesilim enters the Sumerian scene, taking the title of king of Kish and, it seems, control over the whole country - a knob was found in Lagash and in Adaba - several items with his inscriptions. But most importantly, Mesilim was the responsible arbiter in the bitter border dispute between Lagash and Umma. About a generation after the reign of Mesilim, around 2450 BC, a man named Ur-Nanshe ascended the throne of Lagash and founded a dynasty that lasted five generations.

2400 BC The issuance of laws and legal regulation by the rulers of the Sumerian states was common in this age. Over the next three centuries, more than one judge plenipotentiary, or palace archivist, or edubba professor, had the idea of ​​recording current and past legal norms or precedents, either for the purpose of reference to them, or perhaps for teaching. But to date, no such compilations have been found for the entire period from the reign of Urukagina to Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, who came to power around 2050 BC.

24th century BC e. - The city of Lagash reaches its highest political power under King Eannatum. Eanntatum reorganizes the army, introduces a new battle formation. Relying on the reformed army, Eannatum subjugates most of Sumer to his power and undertakes a successful campaign against Elam, defeating a number of Elamite tribes. In need of large funds to carry out such a large-scale policy, Eannatum introduces taxes and duties on temple lands. After the death of Eannatum, popular unrest incited by the priesthood begins. As a result of these unrest, Uruinimgina comes to power.

2318-2312 BC e. - the reign of Uruinimgina. To restore worsened relations with the priesthood, Uruinimgin is implementing a series of reforms. The absorption of temple lands by the state is stopped, tax collections and duties are reduced. Uruinimgina carried out a number of reforms of a liberal nature, which improved the situation not only of the priesthood, but also of the ordinary population. Uruinimgin entered the history of Mesopotamia as the first social reformer.

2318 BC e. - The city of Umma, dependent on Lagash, declares war on it. The ruler of Umma Lugalzagesi defeated the army of Lagash, devastated Lagash, burned its palaces. For a short time, the city of Umma became the leader of a united Sumer, until it was defeated by the northern kingdom of Akkad, which assumed dominance over all of Sumer.

2316-2261 BC O one of the close rulers of the city of Kish seized power and took the name Sargon (Sharrumken is the king of truth, his real name is unknown, in the historical literature he is called Sargon the Ancient) and the title of king of the country, a Semite by origin, created a state covering all of Mesopotamia and part of Syria.

2236-2220 BC FROM Sargon made the small city of Akkade in the north of the Lower Mesopotamia the capital of his state: the region became known as Akkad after it. Sargon's grandson Naramsin (Naram-Suen) Took the title "king of the four cardinal points".

Sargon the Great was one of the most prominent political figures of the Ancient Near East, a military leader and genius, as well as a creative administrator and builder with a sense of the historical importance of his deeds and achievements. His influence manifested itself in one way or another throughout the ancient world, from Egypt to India. In later epochs, Sargon became a legendary figure about whom poets and bards wrote sagas and fairy tales, and they did contain a grain of truth.

2176 BC The fall of the Akkadian monarchy under the blows of the nomads and neighboring Elam.

2112-2038 BC The king of the city of Ur, Ur-Nammu, and his son Shulgi (2093-2046 BC), the creators of the III dynasty of Ur, united all Mesopotamia and took the title "King of Sumer and Akkad."

2021 -- 2017 BC. The fall of the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad under the blows of the West Semitic people of the Amorites (Amorites). (Toynbee). M Much later, Hammurabi again called himself king of Sumer and Akkad.

2000 BC. The free population of Lagash was about 100 thousand people. In Ur about 2000 BC, i.e. when it was the capital of Sumer for the third time, there were approximately 360,000 souls, writes Woolley in his recent article "The Urbanization of Society." His figure is based on minor comparisons and dubious assumptions, and it would be wise to cut it by about half, but even then the population of Ur will be close to 200,000.

At the beginning of the III millennium BC. on the territory of southern Mesopotamia, several small city-states, nomes, developed. They were located on natural hills and surrounded by walls. Approximately 40-50 thousand people lived in each of them. In the extreme southwest of Mesopotamia was the city of Eridu, near it was the city of Ur, which was of great importance in the political history of Sumer. On the banks of the Euphrates, to the north of Ur, was the city of Larsa, and to the east of it, on the banks of the Tigris, was Lagash. A major role in the unification of the country was played by the city of Uruk, which arose on the Euphrates. In the center of Mesopotamia on the Euphrates was Nippur, which was the main sanctuary of all Sumer.

City Ur. There was a custom in Ure to bury, along with members of the royal family, also their servants, slaves and close associates - apparently, to accompany them in the afterlife. In one of the royal tombs, the remains of 74 people were found, 68 of which were women (most likely, the king's concubines);

City-state, Lagash. In its ruins, a library of clay tablets with cuneiform text was found. These texts contained business records, religious hymns, as well as very valuable information for historians - diplomatic treaties and reports on wars that were fought in Mesopotamia. In addition to clay tablets, sculptural portraits of local rulers, figurines of bulls with human heads, as well as works of handicraft art were found in Lagash;

The city of Nippur was one of the most important cities in Sumer. Here was located the main sanctuary of the god Enlil, who was revered by all the Sumerian city-states. Any Sumerian ruler, if he wanted to consolidate his position, had to get the support of the priests of Nippur. A rich library of clay cuneiform tablets was found here, the total number of which amounted to several tens of thousands. The remains of three large temples were discovered here, one of which is dedicated to Enlil, the other to the goddess Inanna. Also found were the remains of a sewer system, the presence of which was characteristic of the urban culture of Sumer - it consisted of clay pipes with a diameter of 40 to 60 centimeters;

City of Eridu. First, the city built by the Sumerians upon their arrival in Mesopotamia. It was founded at the end of the 5th millennium BC. directly on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Sumerians erected temples on the remains of former sanctuaries in order not to leave the place marked by the gods - as a result, this led to a multi-stage structure of the temple, known as the ziggurat ..

The city of Borsippa is famous for the remains of a large ziggurat, whose height even today is about 50 meters - and this despite the fact that for centuries, if not millennia, the locals used it as a quarry for building material. Often the Great Ziggurat is associated with the Tower of Babel. Alexander the Great, impressed by the greatness of the ziggurat in Borsippa, ordered to begin its restoration, but the death of the king prevented these plans;

The city of Shuruppak was one of the most influential and wealthy city-states of Sumer. It was located on the banks of the Euphrates River and in legends was called the birthplace of the righteous and wise king Ziusudra - a man who, according to the Sumerian myth of the flood, was warned by the god Enki about punishment and with his entourage built a large ship that allowed him to escape. Archaeologists have found an interesting reference to this myth in Shuruppak - traces of a major flood that occurred around 3200 BC.

In the first half of the III millennium BC. in Sumer, several political centers were created, the rulers of which bore the title of lugal or ensi. Lugal in translation means "big man". This is what the kings were called. Ensi was called an independent lord who ruled any city with the nearest district. This title is of priestly origin and indicates that initially the representative of the state power was also the head of the priesthood.

In the second half of the III millennium BC. Lagash began to claim a dominant position in Sumer. In the middle of the XXV century. BC. Lagash in a fierce battle defeated his permanent enemy - the city of Ummu, located to the north of it. Later, the ruler of Lagash, Enmetena (circa 2360-2340 BC), ended the war with Umma victoriously.

The internal position of Lagash was not stable. The masses of the city were infringed in their economic and political rights. To restore them, they banded around Uruinimgina, one of the city's powerful citizens. He displaced an ensi named Lugalanda and took his place himself. During the six-year reign (2318-2312 BC), he carried out important social reforms, which are the oldest legal acts known to us in the field of socio-economic relations.

He was the first to proclaim the slogan that later became popular in Mesopotamia: “Let the strong not offend widows and orphans!” Extortions from the priestly staff were abolished, the in-kind allowance of forced temple workers was increased, and the independence of the temple economy from the tsarist administration was restored.

In addition, Uruinimgina restored the judicial organization in rural communities and guaranteed the rights of the citizens of Lagash, protecting them from usurious bondage. Finally, polyandry (polyandry) was eliminated. Uruinimgin presented all these reforms as an agreement with the main god of Lagash, Ningirsu, and declared himself the executor of his will.

However, while Uruinimgina was busy with his reforms, a war broke out between Lagash and Umma. The ruler of Umma Lugalzagesi enlisted the support of the city of Uruk, captured Lagash and canceled the reforms introduced there. Then Lugalzagesi usurped power in Uruk and Eridu and extended his dominion over almost all of Sumer. The capital of this state was Uruk.

The main branch of the Sumerian economy was agriculture, based on a developed irrigation system. By the beginning of the III millennium BC. refers to the Sumerian literary monument, called the "Agricultural Almanac". It is dressed in the form of a lesson given by an experienced farmer to his son, and contains instructions on how to maintain soil fertility and stop the process of salinization. The text also gives a detailed description of the fieldwork in their temporal sequence. Cattle breeding was also of great importance in the country's economy.

The craft developed. There were many house builders among the urban artisans. Excavations in Ur of monuments dating back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC show a high level of skill in Sumerian metallurgy. Among the grave goods were found helmets made of gold, silver and copper, axes, daggers and spears, chasing, engraving and graining. Southern Mesopotamia did not have many of the materials found in Ur attest to a lively international trade.

Gold was delivered from the western regions of India, lapis lazuli - from the territory of modern Badakhshan in Afghanistan, stone for vessels - from Iran, silver - from Asia Minor. In exchange for these goods, the Sumerians traded wool, grain, and dates.

From local raw materials, artisans had at their disposal only clay, reed, wool, leather and linen. The god of wisdom Ea was considered the patron of potters, builders, weavers, blacksmiths and other artisans. Already in this early period, bricks were fired in kilns. Glazed bricks were used for facing buildings. From the middle of the III millennium BC. potter's wheel began to be used for the production of dishes. The most valuable vessels were covered with enamel and glaze.

Already at the beginning of the III millennium BC. bronze tools began to be made, which until the end of the next millennium, when the Iron Age began in Mesopotamia, remained the main metal tools.

To obtain bronze, a small amount of tin was added to molten copper.

The Sumerians spoke a language whose relationship to other languages ​​has not yet been established.

Many sources testify to the high astronomical and mathematical achievements of the Sumerians, their building art (it was the Sumerians who built the world's first step pyramid). They are the authors of the most ancient calendar, recipe guide, library catalogue.

Medicine was at a high level of its development: special medical sections were created, reference books contained terms, operations and hygiene skills. Scientists have managed to decipher records of cataract surgery.

Geneticists were especially shocked by the found manuscripts, which depict fertilization in test tubes, all in detail.

Sumerian records say that the Sumerian scientists and physicians of that time carried out many genetic engineering experiments before they created the perfect man, recorded in the bible as Adam.

Scientists are even inclined to think that the secrets of cloning were also known to the Sumerian civilization.

Even then, the Sumerians knew about the properties of alcohol as a disinfectant, and used it during operations.

The Sumerians had unique knowledge in the field of mathematics - the ternary system of calculus, the Fibonacci number, they knew everything about genetic engineering, they were fluent in the processes of metallurgy, for example, they knew everything about metal alloys, and this is the most difficult process.

The solar-lunar calendar was the most accurate. It was also the Sumerians who came up with the sexagesimal number system, which made it possible to multiply millions of numbers, count fractions, and find the root. The fact that we now divide a day into 24 hours, a minute into 60 seconds, a year into 12 months - all this is the Sumerian voice of antiquity.

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In the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. the period of rapid prosperity of Lagash begins. The city at this time is ruled by ensi Uranshe. However, another time is coming. Very close is the rival for power - Umma, at any moment there could be an attack by the Elamites because of the Tigris. The temples, however, did not always agree to allocate the funds necessary for the implementation of the plans of the king. The king inevitably had to begin to appropriate for himself a part of the property and income, traditionally inseparably owned by God, which were disposed of by the temples. Urnanshe laid the foundations for the political and economic power of his dynasty. This made it possible for its third representative, the grandson of Eanatum (2400 BC), to make an attempt to extend his power to the states neighboring Lagash. He managed to do this, but strife within the state and riots in the occupied territories continued.

The more active became the policy of the ensi, striving for hegemony over Sumer, the more worried the priests. Their interests and influence were increasingly threatened by the rulers of the Urnanshe dynasty, who were gaining more and more independence from the temples. There was a constant struggle between them. As a result of this struggle, the political party of the priests placed their protege, Lugalanda, on the throne. But, no matter how hard Lugalanda tried to look after the interests of the priests in his policy, what had already happened could not be changed: along with the temple, a powerful socio-economic force arose - the princely palace with a monstrously overgrown bureaucratic apparatus. The reign of Lugaland was not long (7-9 years). There was a violent upheaval. The upheaval that took place in Lagash is associated with the name of Uruinimgina. This man, after 44 centuries called the first reformer in history, before he became the ruler of the country, was an official from the environment of Lugalanda. He abolished many unjust taxes on the poor. Uruimgina's reforms were not to the taste of either palace circles or temple officials. Uruimgina significantly reduced the palace staff, limited the power of officials and somewhat pressed the priests. Thus, he pleased no one but the common people, who were then mute.

And so discontent in the state of the third dynasty of Ur grew day by day, threatening its existence. The danger of the situation was further aggravated by the fact that foreign peoples, mainly Semites, had long ago prevailed in Sumer.

The western borders of Sumer were continuously raided by warlike tribes - the Amorites. These wild nomads increasingly showed up on the western borders of Sumer, attacking poorly fortified cities. At the same time, they seeped into the territory of Sumer in larger groups and peacefully settled in various cities, increasing the number of non-Sumerian population.

The tasks that confronted Amar-Zuen, who ascended the throne in 2045 BC. e. were not easy. He ruled for 8 years and after him Shu-Suen came to power.

The history of Sumer and the fate of its last rulers now, after four millennia, lead to sad reflections. The last kings of Sumer were brave, wise, far-sighted, they won victories, achieved great success, and yet their state was rapidly and inevitably declining. The Sumerian civilization has grown old, the culture has become decrepit; turned to the past, it could neither withstand the difficulties associated with the new socio-political situation, nor absorb the life-giving forces of the new. As a result, it became stagnant in its traditionalism, became impoverished and receded into the past.

Any state is like a beautiful fruit, which is eaten away by worms with bitterness - from the outside and from the inside.

Neither military campaigns, nor the policy of appeasement in relation to an increasingly aggressive enemy can no longer save the state, which, after the death of Shu-Suen, was inherited by his son Ibbi-Suen. The twenty-five-year reign of Ibbi-Suen (2027-2003) is the last act of the tragedy of Sumer. Behind the outer facade, the ostentatious power hides the impending collapse of the empire. Although the official language of Sumer - business and ritual - continues to be Sumerian, the people speak Akkadian. The Sumerian island, an extremely small group of people, holding on only by the force of tradition, trying to defend the past and their interests, is flooded with waves of Semitic influences. Separate provinces begin to more or less decisively free themselves from the domination of Ur, while some are forcibly suppressed by the West Semitic tribes, others voluntarily submit to their authority. Starting from the fifth year of the reign of Ibbi-Suen, documents compiled in the northern provinces date differently than in Ur, Uruk or Nippur: they no longer correlate with those events that the central government considers the most important and significant. And this means that the king actually lost control over these areas.

The raids of tribes hostile to Sumer, the limitation of the sphere of influence of the capital, constant wars - all this undermined the foundations of the country's economy. The import and export of goods has sharply decreased. Prices jumped, in some parts of the country there was a famine. Now Ibbi-Suen is the king of a very small state, torn to pieces by enemies. Lonely, abandoned by everyone, realizing the complete hopelessness of resistance, he still continues to fight. Although, in his opinion, the tragedy of Sumer was sent down by the gods, this does not prevent him, who calls himself a god, from protesting against the verdict of the gods: he does not lay down his arms in front of an enemy stronger than he is.

In 2003 BC. e. The Elamites broke into the besieged capital. Ur fell. The last king of Sumer "retired in bondage to Anshan."

The heyday of the Sumerians in the south of Mesopotamia began approximately in the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. It was this people who invented the world's first written language (cuneiform), it was they who had the first wheels and arches, it was they who own the oldest sample of epic literature ("The Tale of Gilgamesh"). Two and a half thousand years later, this civilization perished.

Some geological evidence indicates that about 4,200 years ago a severe drought began in the Middle East that lasted for about 200 years or more. The evaporation of the Red and Dead Seas has increased; the water level also dropped in Lake Van on the territory of modern Turkey; marine sediment cores indicate an increase in the amount of dust in the air. Well, archaeological excavations have shown a significant reduction in the number of settlements: 74% of the settlements of Mesopotamia were abandoned. The area of ​​inhabited areas decreased by 93%. The demographic situation has undergone strong changes, social contradictions have become aggravated, but this did not lead to the collapse of civilization. Around 2000 B.C. e. Two waves of nomads hit Sumer. The main city of the country Ur fell. Over the next two millennia, the Sumerian language was still preserved as the language of science (like Latin in the Middle Ages), but then it was forgotten.

Time has erased the memory of the Sumerians from the annals of history. Nothing is said about them in the papyri of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, whose age is more than four thousand years. And even more so, there is nothing in the annals of ancient Greece and Rome, whose culture is much younger. The Bible mentions the ancient city of Ur, but does not say a word about the mysterious Sumerian people. Speaking about the center of civilization that arose in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, scientists meant, first of all, the Babylonian-Assyrian cultural community of people. And only in the middle of the 19th century, sensational excavations by scientists proved that more ancient states existed on the territory of Mesopotamia, whose age is about six thousand years. So for the first time it became known about the great civilization of the Sumerians. It was from them that Babylon and Assyria inherited their wisdom. Judge for yourself... The death of Sumer, the collapse of the millennial kingdom, was a shock, both for the contemporaries of these events, and for posterity. The ancient foundations of social life, traditions and customs collapsed. But it was not so easy to destroy the culture that had been formed over the course of a millennium! As if continuing the work begun by the last kings of Ur, scribes at the courts of the new rulers, in temples and schools carefully collect monuments of Sumerian wisdom and art. They rewrite myths, poems, epic tales, proverbs of the Sumerians, using the dead Sumerian language, which for almost two subsequent millennia was preserved only as a sacred language. In the 3rd century BC e. in the Babylonian temples, worship was still conducted in the Sumerian language. The peoples who in the post-Sumerian era created their states in Mesopotamia almost completely adopted the achievements of the Sumerian culture - its writing, architectural features, counting system, knowledge in the field of astronomy, etc. A thousand or more years after the fall of Sumer, the rulers of Mesopotamia spoke about the kings of Ur and Uruk, Kish and Lagash as their predecessors.