Story of Civilization: Vol. 1.6

Elam
The Sumerians

The City of Susa, in ancient Elam, east of the lower Tigris, shows signs of having been occupied for 20,000 years and evidence of advanced culture in at least 4500 BC. The Elamites had copper tools and weapons, mirrors and jewelry, writing and trade at least as far as Egypt and India (which of course implies the contemporary existence of trading cultures in those places also). Susa itself survived over 6000 years of empire and conquest: Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome and into the 14th century AD.

We don’t know where the Sumerians, west of the lower Euphrates and including Ur, Uruk, Eridu, Larsa, Lgash, Nippur, and Nisin, came from. And perhaps the question itself is meaningless in a world where the places we occupy have mostly been occupied for tens of thousands of years. We do know that when Sumeria was already old, around 2300BC, their poets attempted to recreate their own history. In so doing, they traced their kings back over 400,000 years, recounting a golden age before a great flood; one of these legendary kings was Gilgamesh. An 8-foot layer of silt at Ur, discovered by Woolley in 1929, gives reality to legend, and below it lie the remains of a pre-diluvian culture. One of the earliest known poems mourns the sacking of Lagash and the rape of her patron goddess by Lugal-zaggisi. It was customary to steal the statues of the patron gods of a city when sacking it; the city could not be properly re-established without them. **

Not long after the sack of Lagash, a king of Akkad named Sargon I, the non-royal son of a prostitute left in a basket of rushes, earned the title ‘the Great’ by sacking many cities and killing many men. Among those was Lugal-zaggisi. Sargon ruled for 45 years, conquering east, west, and south, including the kingdom of Elam and the lands all the way to the Persian Gulf. The wheel of history continues to turn, and eventually Elam and Amor ruled Sumeria for 200 years, before Hammurabi came from Babylon in the north, eventually capturing Elam and its king, ending the rule of the Sumerians and establishing the rule of the Semites that lasted until the rise of Persia.

The Sumerian City-States were ruled by patesi, or priest-kings, in palaces constructed with only two entrances and narrow passages guarded closely to prevent intruders. The Patesi took great pains not to lose power the way they had themselves gained it. Kings led their armies from the front, and wages war for practical purposes, without the veil of nationalistic language of modern times. “King Manish-tusu of Akkad announced frankly that he was invading Elam to get control of its silver mines, and to secure diorite stone to immortalize himself with statuary – the only instance known of a war fought for the sake of art.” (SoC 126)

Soon, trade and proximity led to consolidation of the city-states under powerful regional rulers. Societal order was maintained through feudal relationships and codified in a rich body of law. The first known code of laws was proclaimed by King Ur-engur in the name of the god Shamash. Government already knew the utility of religion. Each God had his or her temple, with staff, sacrifices, and rituals. Even Sin was a god – of the moon – and represented with a crescent around his head, a motif later used in Christianity to indicate saintliness. Originally the gods preferred human sacrifice, but as human morality developed, animals became preferred. Reads a tablet from a Sumerian ruin: “The lamb is the substitute for humanity; he hath given up a lamb for his life.”

Women enjoyed equal rights with their husbands over children. Women were permitted to own property, slaves, and businesses, and in the absence (or death) of husband and adult son, to administer the estate. In rare instances, Queens ruled after the death of the King. Women served in temples as domestics or concubines to the Gods or their representatives. Wealthy women wore expensive and fine jewelry and make-up.

In Sumeria also, we find the transition from writing as record-keeping to writing as literature. By 2700BC, great libraries had been built. At Tello, we have found over 30,000 volumes organized into a neat system.

The first architectural vaults belong to the Sumerians, having probably evolved from reed walls bent to join above in a naturally curved, vaulted roof. Wealthy citizens built mansions on hills, decorated them extravagantly with terracotta and tile, and had fine furniture with gold or ivory inlays. Temples were even more ornate, topped with 3, 4, or 7-story Ziggurats.

Strangely, pottery was not as advanced as the rest of Sumerian art. (Although, perhaps we just haven’t discovered any fine examples.)

Sumerian civilization may be summed up in this contrast between crude pottery and consummate jewelry; it was a synthesis of rough beginnings and occasional but brilliant mastery. Here, within the limits of our present knowledge, are the first states and empires, the first irrigation, the first use of gold and silver as standards of value, the first business contracts, the first credit system, the first code of law, the first extensive development of writing, the first stories of the Creation and the Flood, the first libraries and schools, the first literature and poetry, the first cosmetics and jewelry, the first sculpture and bas-relief, the first palaces and temples, the first ornamental metal and decorative themes, the first arch, column, vault and domes. Here, for the first known time on a large scale, appears some of the sins of civilization: slavery, despotism, ecclesiasticism, and imperialistic war, It was a life differentiated and subtle, abundant and complex. Already the natural inequality of men was producing a new degree of comfort and luxury for the strong, and a new routine of hard and disciplined labor for the rest. The theme was struck on which history would strum its myriad variations.

SoC 134

“Within the limits of our knowledge…” Certainly some of the paragraph quoted above requires revision. But only for attribution and timing; not for theme and content. Perhaps Sumeria is the first time we know of. At the same time, it is entirely possible that a lost civilization had created all the same patterns.

** Note: for a fun and very interesting look at this period, I recommend the podcast series Kings of Kings by Dan Carlin, part of his Hardcore History series.