We don't know, for example, where they came from. They themselves claimed to have come from somewhere else — presumably from somewhere further down the Persian Gulf. They might have splintered off from the same stock of people who went on to build the Harappan civilization of the Indus River valley, which had its heyday about the same time that the Sumerians did. They displaced, or possibly blended into, a nation already living at the end of the Persian Gulf, known as the Ubaidians. Whatever the case, they built prosperous settlements which grew in size, eventually becoming true cities by the middle of the 4th millennium BCE.
The Sumerians called themselves "the Black-Haired Ones," which seems an odd moniker, given that they were surrounded by other nations which also tended to have dark hair (Amorites, a Semitic people to the north, and the Elamites, another enigmatic race to the east). It's also odd, because most Sumerians (well, the men, anyway) shaved their heads, as a show of humility & piety. (They usually kept their beards, however, which gave them a noteworthy appearance in their own art as well as that of their neighbors.)
Sumerian writing was known as the cuneiform script, from the Latin word for "wedge," because it was comprised of wedge-shaped reed-stylus impressions in clay (which was abundant in southern Mesopotamia). The Elamites picked up on this invention and adapted it for their use. The Amorites learned it, later on, but at first, used the Sumerian language. Only in much later times did they change it so that it represented their own language.
The Sumerian language was quite unlike any other around them. It was certainly not related to the Semitic languages spoken by the Amorites (or the Egyptians for that matter). It was also not the same as Elamite. In any event, the Sumerian language does not fit into any known language family, although there have been attempts to link it to the Dravidian languages of India and the Caucasian languages of the Caucusus Mountains region. (The jury is still out. There are some linguists trying to link Sumerian with Etruscan, and even the mysterious Basque language!)
At first the city-states were fully independent, and aside from some occasional communication & trade, remained apart from each other. But as their populations grew, so too did the need for territory, and inevitably there were some clashes. These generally were settled quickly; the Sumerians were not quick to go to war with one another — certainly not as willing to fight each other as they were the Elamites, or the raiding clans of Amorites.
As the historic age begins, it appears that the city of Kish was pre-eminent. It had some religious importance, with Enlil, the king of the gods, as its patron. (The likely explanation is that Enlil acquired this distinction because of Kish's pre-eminence — not the other way around.) Documents around 2,800 BCE stated that Etana, lugal of Kish, "stabilized" the land. What is most likely is that he was successful in a campaign against the Elamites — or else had repelled an Elamite assault — and gained distinction. Even so, he did not really rule Sumer. He was more or less the greatest among equals.
Even so, Etana's reputation encouraged others to similar aspirations. Meskiaggasher of Uruk, to the south, and his son Enmerkar, led campaigns to the north, against the Amorites, and they carved out an empire which included a great deal of territory outside of Sumer.
A later ruler of Kish subdued the Elamites, in similar fashion, and constructed a new temple to Enlil in another location (not far from Kish), called Nippur. So, Uruk and Kish (later the center of the city-state of Kish would move to Nippur) were building empires. At the same time, the city of Ur was also growing — but since they had nowhere else to go, they had to go up against other Sumerian cities.
This was a period of strife, which the Sumerians themselves lamented. While they fought — mostly in the south, from Nippur on southward — the Amorites continued moving in, to the north, and their communities grew into urban centers rivalling those of the Sumerians. Occasionally they fought one Sumerian city-state or another, but other times, they were enlisted as allies, in one city's efforts to subdue another.
In any event, the Sumerians were an extremely insular people. While they traded with other peoples, they did not encourage them to stay long in Sumer, & at times kept their contacts with others to a minimum. For this reason, they had a reputation for being a bit snobbish or even prudish. Certain classes of people, for example, particularly the priesthood, refused any contact with foreigners.
This was the first real "empire" in history. For the first time, one ruler from one city, controlled thousands of settlements — ranging from vast cities to tiny neolithic villages, throughout an enormous region.
It was also the first time that Sumer was united under a single ruler. Until then, while some of the Sumerian cities had grown powerful, none had controlled all of them — they had mostly carved out "mini-empires" outside of Sumer.
The importance of this event cannot be overstated. Until this time, even in spite of some warring among themselves, the Sumerian city-states had seen themselves as iconic, and whole within themselves. The Sumerians did not see themselves as a people who should be united under one sovereign banner. In fact, prior to this, no nation in the area had done such a thing. The Amorites, while powerful, were broken into clans, some of which had peaceful relations with Sumer while others didn't. The Elamites were also clannish, and appeared to have fought among themselves as much as against the Sumerians. The idea that a single people should become a single state, was totally new, and unprecedented.
Sargon's dream endured only for a century. A people known as the Gutians, from the Zagros Mountains, attacked & overwhelmed the forces of Akkad, and broke the Sargonid empire. They raided southward, devastating all of Sumer.
The Gutian marauding went on for some time, until Utuhegal, king of Uruk, defeated them in battle, around 2,100 BCE. Utuhegal proved so popular that other cities saw them as their own lugal. He installed one of his generals, Ur-Nammu, as ruler of the city of Ur, and it was ur-Nammu who rebuilt the Sumerian empire. However, by this time, the Amorites of the north had been well-integrated into the Sumerian state and culture, and never again would they be separated.
Ur was defeated by an Elamite attack, but Babylon — another city of Amorite origin, in the north of Sumer but in the center of the Tigris & Euphrates valleys, became pre-eminent. Around 1,800 BCE, Hammurabi, king of Babylon, ruled Mesopotamia and most of Syria.
Interestingly, Babylonian cuneiform remained in use, well into classical times. The Greeks were familiar with it, and it's from them that we can read Babylonian texts. Late in the 19th century, however, deep digs turned up strange cuneiform tablets which, if read as Babylonian, contained gibberish. This was Sumerian — and was deciphered only once some combined Babylonian & Sumerian texts were discovered.
The empire of Babylonia did not last, of course. It was eclipsed by that of the Assyrians, another Semitic people far to the north, whose center was the city of Nineveh. The Assyrians enjoyed a long period of hegemony over the region and had a reputation for being brutal, ruthless warriors. Their empire lasted several centuries, until it ran up against that of the Hittites — who held them off — and then it was overrun by the Persians. The Persians, of course, went on to defeat and scatter the Hittites, as well, and ran up against the Greeks, who had settled in western Anatolia, in the wake of the power vacuum left behind there by the collapse of the Hittites.
The Persians would continue at war with the Greeks, on and off, until the Macedonian king, Alexander the Great, defeated them in a cataclysmic battle (which itself is another Great Moment in history). The remnant of the Persian empire was pressed southward by Alexander's advance, and they destroyed the last of the Elamites, then became vassals of Alexander — by this time they had more to gain by falling in with him, than by opposing him.
Back to Dennis's "Greatest Moments in History".
Back up to Dennis's Home Page.