In the previous article, the origins of written law, and the Sumerian system of administering justice was discussed. At this point, with an overall view of ancient Sumer, a discussion on the history and famous people of the region can begin. Subsequent articles will focus on influential figures and events that bear a historical significance.
According to the late Professor Samuel Noah Kramer, Sumerian history roughly goes from 4500 B.C. to around 1750 B.C., when the Sumerians ceased to exist as a people. The Sumerians themselves did not record history, at least no in the way the Greeks and the Romans would, but a great deal of information was obtained from the various temples, tablets, and other inscriptions that depicted kings lists, battles, and royal pronouncements. And of course there were the written laws.
This article will focus on Sumer's rise as a major power.
City-States
As mentioned previously, Mesopotamia was the region located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Sumer refers to the city-states located in this region. By the late period of their history, the major urban centers were the city-states: Eridu, Ur, Larsa, Isin, Adab, Kullab, Lagash, Nippur, Kish, and Akkad (a Semitic city-state). Like modern-day cities, there were urban centers, as well as outlying estates and suburbs.
There were frequent internal conflicts among the city-states over land, commerce, perceived injustices, etc., in addition to external conflicts with Semitic nomads from the west, and mountain people from the Zagros Mountains in the east. At any given time, there would always be one city-state that dominated the others, whether it be economically or militarily - but this prominence would not last long.
The Rise of Akkad
All of this would change with the rise of Akkad, ruled by Sargon, who would become history’s first known conqueror. Akkad was a city-state located just north of modern-day Baghdad.
For centuries, the Akkadians, a Semitic people, had slowly been assimilating into the Sumerian culture, but they spoke their own language rather than the Sumerian one.
Sargon, in his fifty-fifth year as King of Akkad, expanded Sumerian civilization northward, creating an empire that spanned from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, and included all of the formerly independent Sumerian city-states.
More about Sargon of Akkad and the Akkadian dynasty will be discussed in a subsequent article.
The Dark Age
Unfortunately for Sargon, the empire he created would not last after his death. Hill barbarians from the Zagros Mountains would overrun the northern part of the empire, and plunge Sumer into a dark age until some time around 2100 B.C.
However, like in Europe several millennia later, a dark age would eventually give rise to a period of great prosperity. The next article will look at the Akkadian dynasty in detail.
Sources:
Woolf, Greg. Ancient Civilizations. London: Duncan Baird Publishers, 2005.
Kramer, Samuel Noah. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963.
Shri Desai - I have a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Stony Brook University and a MBA from Hofstra University (host of the 3rd presidential debate ...
