Sumer facts for kids
The general location on a modern map, and main cities of Sumer with ancient coastline. The coastline nearly reached Ur in ancient times.
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| Geographical range | Mesopotamia, Near East, Middle East |
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| Period | Late Neolithic, Middle Bronze Age |
| Dates | c. 5500 – c. 1800 BC |
| Preceded by | Ubaid period |
| Followed by | Akkadian Empire |
Sumer was one of the very first civilizations in the world. It was located in southern Mesopotamia, which is now south-central Iraq. This amazing civilization appeared during the Stone Age and early Bronze Age, between 6,000 and 5,000 BC.
Sumer is considered one of the "cradles of civilization," like ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley Civilisation. The Sumerians lived near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The fertile land allowed their farmers to grow lots of grain and other crops. This extra food helped them build large towns and cities. The oldest known writings come from Sumerian cities like Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, dating back to about 3350–2500 BC.
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What does the name "Sumer" mean?
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The name "Sumer" comes from the Akkadian language. The Akkadians were a different group of people who later took over the Sumerian lands. They called the Sumerians "šumeru."
The Sumerians themselves had a different name for their land. They called it "Kengir," which meant "Country of the noble lords." They called their language "Emegir." The Sumerians also referred to themselves as the "Black-Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People." For example, King Shulgi of Sumer called himself "the king of the four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people."
Where did the Sumerians come from?
Most historians believe that the Sumerians first settled in this area between 5500 and 3300 BC. They spoke the Sumerian language, which is unique and not related to other major language families like Semitic or Indo-European languages.
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Some researchers think the Sumerians might have come from North Africa. However, strong evidence shows that farming first began in the Fertile Crescent, which is closer to Mesopotamia.
Before the Sumerians, another group of people called the "Ubaidians" lived in the region. Modern scholars believe the Ubaidians were the first to develop a civilization in Sumer. They drained marshlands for agriculture, started trading, and created industries like weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, and pottery.
Sumerian civilization really grew during the Uruk period (4th millennium BC). The city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is thought to be one of the oldest cities. Here, three different cultures might have mixed: farmers, nomadic herders, and fisher folk.
Sumer eventually lost control to Semitic-speaking groups from the northwest. The Akkadian Empire conquered Sumer around 2270 BC. However, Sumerian rule returned for about 100 years during the Third Dynasty of Ur (around 2100–2000 BC).
How were Sumerian cities organized?
In the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was made up of many independent city-states. These cities were separated by canals and boundary markers. Each city had a main temple dedicated to its special god or goddess. A priestly governor (called an ensi) or a king (called a lugal) ruled each city. These rulers were closely connected to the city's religious ceremonies.
Some of the important Sumerian cities included:
Most of these cities were located in the flat plains between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in what is now Iraq.
A brief history of Sumer
The Sumerian city-states became powerful during the Ubaid and Uruk periods. We have written records from Sumer dating back to the 27th century BC. However, these early records are hard to understand. The historical record becomes clearer around the 23rd century BC, when writing became easier to read.
The Akkadian Empire was the first state to successfully unite large parts of Mesopotamia in the 23rd century BC. After a period ruled by the Gutians, the Ur III kingdom also united parts of Mesopotamia. This kingdom ended around 2000 BC due to invasions by the Amorites.
Ubaid period (around 6500–4100 BC)
The Ubaid period is known for its unique style of beautifully painted pottery. This pottery spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. It is believed that this culture came from the Samarran culture in northern Mesopotamia.
Uruk period (around 4100–3100 BC)
During the Uruk period, pottery changed from being handmade and painted to being mass-produced and unpainted. This period saw the rise of many large, organized cities with populations over 10,000 people. These cities were centered around temples and had specialized workers.
It was likely during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to use slave labor. These slaves were often captured from nearby hill countries. Evidence of the Uruk civilization has been found across a wide area, from Turkey to Iran.
Sumerian cities during this time were probably ruled by priest-kings (called ensi). They were helped by a council of elders, which included both men and women. There was not much evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers, and towns usually did not have walls. Uruk became the most urbanized city in the world, with over 50,000 people.
Early Dynastic Period (around 2900–2334 BC)
This period began around 2900 BC. Leadership shifted from temple priests to more secular kings (called Lugal). Famous legendary figures like Gilgamesh are from this time. Cities became walled, and their populations grew as people moved from unprotected villages. Both Enmerkar and Gilgamesh are said to have built the walls of Uruk.
Lagash Dynasty
The Lagash dynasty (around 2500–2270 BC) was very important, even though it's not on the main king list. One of its kings, Eannatum, created one of the first known empires. He took control of almost all of Sumer and even parts of Elam. His empire fell apart soon after he died.
Later, Lugal-zage-si, a priest-king from Umma, took over Uruk and claimed an empire stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. He was the last Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad conquered the region.
Akkadian Empire (around 2334–2154 BC)
The Akkadian Empire was founded by Sargon of Akkad. The Akkadian language, which is a Semitic language, became very important during Sargon's rule. However, many official documents were still written in Sumerian. Akkadian and Sumerian were both spoken for about 1,000 years. By 1800 BC, Sumerian became more of a scholarly language, used mainly by writers and scholars.
Gutian period (around 2193–2119 BC)
After the Akkadian Empire fell to the Gutians, another Sumerian ruler named Gudea of Lagash became powerful. He was known for his many statues and for promoting art.
Ur III period (around 2112–2004 BC)
Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi brought back Sumerian rule. However, the region was already becoming more Semitic, with Akkadian speakers growing in numbers. Waves of Semitic people called Martu (Amorites) also arrived, forming new kingdoms.
The Sumerian language continued to be used in schools and religious ceremonies, much like Latin was used in Europe during the Middle Ages.
Fall of Sumer
Over time, the land in southern Mesopotamia became too salty for farming. This was due to poor drainage and high evaporation from irrigation. Farmers had to switch from growing wheat to barley, which tolerates salt better, but it wasn't enough. The population in this area dropped significantly between 2100 BC and 1700 BC. This weakened the Sumerian-speaking areas and strengthened the Akkadian-speaking regions.
After an invasion by the Elamites around 2000 BC, Sumer came under Amorite rule. Sumerian then became mainly a language for literature and religious ceremonies.
Sumerian culture and daily life
Social and family life
Early Sumerian writings show us what life was like:
- Pottery was very common, with many types of jars and dishes for honey, butter, oil, and wine.
- People wore feathered head-dresses.
- Beds, stools, and chairs had carved legs.
- Tools like knives, drills, and saws were known.
- Weapons included spears, bows, arrows, and daggers.
- Writing was done on clay tablets.
- Gold necklaces were worn.
- Time was measured using lunar months.
Sumerian society was mostly led by men and had different social levels. Below the king, people were either free citizens (called lu) or slaves (male arad, female geme).
In early Sumer, women had important public roles as priestesses. They could own property, do business, and their rights were protected by courts. Sons and daughters inherited property equally. However, the status of women became less strong after 2300 BC.
Marriages were usually arranged by the parents. Engagements were made official with contracts written on clay tablets. Marriages became legal when the groom gave a gift to the bride's father.
Language and writing
One of the most important discoveries in Sumer are the many clay tablets written in cuneiform script. Sumerian writing was a huge step forward for humanity. It allowed them to create historical records, literature, prayers, and laws.
At first, the writing used pictures (hieroglyphs). But soon, it developed into cuneiform, which used wedge-shaped marks. Sumerians used triangular reeds to write on wet clay. Hundreds of thousands of Sumerian texts have been found, including letters, receipts, laws, hymns, and stories. Many texts exist in multiple copies because students copied them to learn.
A famous example of cuneiform writing is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It tells the story of a king named Gilgamesh from the Early Dynastic period. This story is considered the earliest known example of fictional literature.
The Sumerian language is a "language isolate," meaning it's not related to any other known language family. Akkadian, on the other hand, is a Semitic language. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language around 2000 BC. However, Sumerian continued to be used for religious, ceremonial, literary, and scientific purposes until about 1 AD.
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An early writing tablet recording beer distribution, 3100–3000 BC, from Iraq. British Museum, London.
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A cuneiform tablet with an administrative account about malt and barley groats, 3100–2900 BC. Clay. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
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A bill of sale for a field and a house, from Shuruppak, around 2600 BC. The Louvre.
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Stele of the Vultures, around 2450 BC. Found in 1881 in Girsu. The Louvre.
Religion
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The Sumerians believed in many gods who looked and acted like humans. Each city-state had its own special gods, temples, and priest-kings. However, gods from one city were often recognized in others. Sumerians were among the first to write down their religious beliefs. Their ideas greatly influenced later Mesopotamian myths and religions.
Sumerian gods
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The Sumerians worshipped gods like:
- An: The god of the sky.
- Enki: The god of wisdom and fresh water, believed to have given humans knowledge and skills.
- Enlil: The god of storms, wind, and rain, and the chief god of the Sumerian gods.
- Inanna: The goddess of love and war, linked to the planet Venus.
- Utu: The sun-god.
- Sin: The moon god.
These were the main gods, but there were hundreds of smaller gods too. Sumerians believed the gods created humans from clay to serve them. Temples organized big projects like irrigation for farming. Citizens had to work for the temple, but rich people could pay to avoid it.
Afterlife and the universe
Sumerians believed the universe was a flat disk covered by a dome. When people died, they went to a gloomy netherworld ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal. They would spend eternity there as ghosts. The dead were buried outside city walls in graveyards, with small offerings of food.
Their known world stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. They also knew about lands like Dilmun (modern Bahrain) and Magan (Oman), famous for copper.
Temples
Sumerian temples, called Ziggurats, each had a special name. They had a courtyard with a pond for cleaning rituals. The temple itself had a main hall with side aisles and rooms for priests. At one end was a platform and a mud-brick table for offerings. Storage buildings were usually near the temples. Over time, Sumerians started building temples on top of tall, layered platforms, creating the famous ziggurat style.
Farming and food
The Sumerians started farming around 5000–4500 BC. They used advanced farming methods, including organized irrigation systems and large-scale farming with plows. They had specialized workers for agriculture, managed by a central government. The need to keep track of temple accounts led to the development of writing around 3500 BC.
Early Sumerian writings show that they raised sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs. They used oxen to pull things and donkeys for transport. They made wool clothing and rugs from animal hair. Their homes had gardens with trees and plants. They grew wheat and other grains in fields, using a tool called a shaduf for irrigation.
The Sumerians were one of the first societies known for drinking beer. Cereals were abundant and were the main ingredient in their early brews. They made different kinds of beer from wheat, barley, and mixed grains. Beer brewing was very important to them. The Epic of Gilgamesh even mentions it, describing how Enkidu was introduced to beer and became joyful after drinking it.
Sumerian farming relied heavily on irrigation using canals, dykes, and reservoirs. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers often flooded violently, so canals needed constant repair. The government required people to work on the canals, though wealthy individuals could pay to avoid this duty.
Farmers would flood their fields after the flood season, then drain the water. They used oxen to stomp the ground and kill weeds. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground before planting seeds. Unfortunately, high evaporation caused salt to build up in the fields. By the Ur III period, farmers mostly grew barley, which was more salt-tolerant than wheat.
Sumerians harvested crops in the spring using three-person teams: a reaper, a binder, and a sheaf handler. They used threshing wagons pulled by oxen to separate the grain from the stalks, then winnowed the mixture to get the clean grain.
Art and architecture
Artistic creations
The Sumerians were skilled artists. Their artifacts show great detail and decoration. They used precious materials like lapis lazuli, marble, diorite, gold, and silver, often imported from other lands. Since stone was rare, it was mainly used for sculptures. Clay was the most common material for many Sumerian objects. Metals, shells, and gemstones were used for the finest sculptures and inlays. Small stones were used for cylinder seals.
Some of their most famous artworks are the Lyres of Ur, which are considered the world's oldest surviving stringed instruments. They were found during excavations of the Royal Cemetery at Ur between 1922 and 1934.
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Cylinder seal and impression showing a ritual scene before a temple façade; 3500–3100 BC; Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Ram in a Thicket; 2600–2400 BC; gold, copper, shell, lapis lazuli, and limestone; British Museum.
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Standard of Ur; 2600–2400 BC; shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli on wood; British Museum.
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Bull's head ornament from a lyre; 2600–2350 BC; bronze inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli; Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Buildings and structures
The Tigris-Euphrates plain did not have many minerals or trees. So, Sumerian buildings were made from mud-bricks. These buildings would eventually wear down, so they were regularly torn down and rebuilt in the same spot. This constant rebuilding made cities rise higher and higher above the surrounding plain, creating hills called "tells."
The most impressive Sumerian buildings were the ziggurats. These were large, layered platforms that supported temples. Sumerian cylinder seals also show houses made from reeds, similar to those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq even today. The Sumerians also invented the arch, which allowed them to build strong domes. Their temples and palaces used more advanced techniques like buttresses and half columns.
Economy and trade
Discoveries of materials like obsidian from Turkey and lapis lazuli from Afghanistan show that Sumer had a wide-ranging trade network, especially around the Persian Gulf. For example, metals had to be imported. The Epic of Gilgamesh mentions trading with distant lands for goods like wood, which was rare in Mesopotamia.
Sumerians used slaves, but they were not the main part of the economy. Slave women often worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters.
Sumerian potters decorated pots with cedar oil paints. Masons and jewelers used materials like alabaster, ivory, iron, gold, silver, and carnelian.
Trade with the Indus Valley
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There is evidence of trade between Sumer and the Indus Valley Civilisation around 2350 BC. Objects made from shells found on the Indus coast have been discovered in Mesopotamia. Carnelian beads from the Indus Valley were found in Sumerian tombs at Ur. Lapis lazuli, probably from Afghanistan, was also imported in large amounts.
Several Indus seals with Harappan writing have been found in Mesopotamia, including in Ur and Babylon. Gudea, a ruler of Lagash, imported "translucent carnelian" from Meluhha, which is believed to be the Indus Valley area.
Money and loans
Large organizations kept their accounts using barley and silver, often with a set exchange rate between them. Debts, loans, and prices were usually set in one of these. Many transactions involved debt, such as goods given to merchants by temples.
Commercial loans were often given by temples to fund trade trips and were set in silver. The interest rate was usually 1/60 per month (one shekel per mina) and stayed that way for about 2,000 years.
Farmers' loans were often due to unpaid debts to institutions like temples. These were set in barley or other crops, and the interest rates were much higher, sometimes 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan amount.
Sometimes, rulers would issue "clean slate" decrees. These cancelled all rural debts (but not commercial ones) and allowed people who had become bondservants to return home. Rulers usually did this at the start of their reign or during times of war or crop failure. The goal was to prevent too much debt from weakening the fighting force, as peasants might lose their land or become bondservants.
Military
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The constant wars between Sumerian city-states over 2,000 years helped develop their military technology. The first detailed war recorded was between Lagash and Umma around 2450 BC. A stone carving called the Stele of the Vultures shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army.
The Sumerian infantry carried spears, wore copper helmets, and used rectangular shields. The spearmen are shown in a formation similar to a phalanx, which suggests they might have had professional soldiers.
The Sumerian military used carts pulled by onagers (wild donkeys). These early chariots were not as effective in combat as later designs. Some think they were mainly for transport, though the crew carried battle-axes and lances. These carts had two or four wheels, were made of woven baskets, and had solid three-piece wheels.
Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. They engaged in siege warfare, trying to capture each other's cities.
Technology and inventions
The Sumerians invented many important things, including:
- The wheel: First used as a potter's wheel, then for vehicles and mill wheels.
- Cuneiform script: One of the oldest writing systems.
- Arithmetic and geometry: They developed a complex system of measurement.
- Irrigation systems: To manage water for farming.
- Sumerian boats: Different types for various uses.
- Lunisolar calendar: A calendar based on both the moon and the sun.
- Bronze: They were skilled in metalworking.
- Tools: Saws, chisels, hammers, nails, hoes, axes, knives, daggers.
- Weapons: Lance points, arrowheads, swords, war chariots.
- Other items: Glue, waterskins, bags, harnesses, armor, quivers, scabbards, boots, sandals, harpoons.
They were also among the first astronomers. They mapped stars into constellations, many of which are still recognized today. They knew about the five planets visible to the naked eye.
The Sumerians developed arithmetic using a sexagesimal (base-60) number system, which became standard in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and the basic divisions of infantry, cavalry, and archers. They also created the first known legal and administrative systems, with courts, jails, and government records.
The first true city-states appeared in Sumer. A few centuries after cuneiform was invented, writing was used for messages, mail, history, legends, mathematics, and astronomy. Along with writing, the first formal schools were set up, usually by the city's main temple.
See also
In Spanish: Sumeria para niños
