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Garden of Eden

Eden and adjacent areas after Rohl

In addition to his theories on Egypt, Rohl has put forth other theories related to the Old Testament. In his published work, Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation, he posits a location for the legendary Garden of Eden in Iranian Azerbaijan, in the vicinity of Tabriz upon which the Genesis tradition was based. According to Rohl, the Garden of Eden was then located in a long valley to the north of Sahand volcano, near Tabriz. He cites several geographical similarities and toponyms which he believes match the biblical description. These similarities include: the nearby headwaters of the four rivers of Eden, the Tigris (Heb. Hiddekel, Akk. Idiqlat), Euphrates (Heb. Perath, Akk. Purattu), Gaihun-Aras (Heb., Gihon), and Uizun (Heb. Pishon); the mountain range of Kusheh Dagh (the land of Cush); and Upper and Lower Noqdi (the Land of Nod). In the same work, he develops a local flood theory for the Genesis Flood, positing that the biblical reference to the covering of "all the high mountains" is merely a description of the flooding of cities in the plains of Mesopotamia on the basis that the Hebrew word 'har' does not just mean 'mountain' but also 'hill' and 'city mound'. In his book From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible, Eric H. Cline, writing about Rohl's suggestion for the location of Eden, says "his suggestions have not caught on with the scholarly establishment. His argument is not helped by the fact that it depends upon speculations regarding the transmission of place-names for both the various rivers and nearby related areas from antiquity to the present. In the end, while Rohl’s suggestion is not out of the question, it seems no more probable than any other hypothesis, and less likely than those suggested by Speiser, Zarins, and Sauer."

The Land Between Two Rivers

Within the Fertile Crescent, perhaps the most monumental expanse in the region is Mesopotamia, enriched with illustrious history of human civilization and/or presence dating back since its earliest occupation, between the periods of Lower Paleolithic and the Late antiquity (roughly 3.3 million years ago to 3rd–8th century C.E.).

evidence retrieved from archaeological excavations after the introduction of writing in the late 4th millennium BC, increasing the amount of historical sources.

While in the Paleolithic and early Neolithic periods only parts of Upper Mesopotamia were occupied, the southern alluvium was settled during the late Neolithic period.

Mesopotamia has been home to many of the oldest major civilizations, entering history from the Early Bronze Age, for which reason it is often dubbed the cradle of civilization.

The rise of the first cities in southern Mesopotamia dates to the Paleolithic (Guru period), from c. 5300 BC; its regional independence ended with the Achievement conquest in 539 BC, although a few native neo-Assyrian kingdoms existed at different times.

Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia

The geography of Mesopotamia, encompassing its ethnology and history, centered on the two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. While the southern is flat and marshy, the near approach of the two rivers to one another, at a spot where the undulating plateau of the north sinks suddenly into the Babylonian alluvium, tends to separate them still more completely. In the earliest recorded times, the northern portion was included in Mesopotamia; it was marked off as Assyria after the rise of the Assyrian monarchy. Apart from Assur, the original capital of Assyria, the chief cities of the country, Nineveh, Kalaḫ and Arbela, were all on the east bank of the Tigris. The reason was its abundant supply of water, whereas the great plain on the western side had to depend on streams flowing into the Euphrates.

Defining Mesopotamia

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Mesopotamia means "(Land) between two rivers" in ancient Greek. The oldest known occurrence of the name Mesopotamia dates to the 4th century BCE, when it was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria. In modern times it has been more generally applied to all the lands between the Euphrates and the Tigris, thereby incorporating not only parts of Syria but also almost all of Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The neighboring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the western part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is usually made between Upper or Northern Mesopotamia and Lower or Southern Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazirah, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad. Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. In modern scientific usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation. In modern Western historiography of the region, the term "Mesopotamia" is usually used to designate the area from the beginning of time, until the Muslim conquest in the 630s, with the Arabic names Iraq and Jazirah being used to describe the region after that event.

Upper Mesopotamia

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View of the Murat River, one of the tributaries to the Euphrates, in southeastern Turkey

Typical view of farmland in the area north of al-Hasakah, with an ancient tell visible on the horizon

This vast flat is about 250 miles (400 km) in length, interrupted only by a single limestone range rising abruptly out of the plain, and branching off from the Zagros Mountains under the names of Sarazur, Hainrin and Sinjar. The numerous remains of old habitations show how thickly this level tract must once have been peopled, though now mostly a wilderness. North of the plateau rises a well-watered and undulating belt of country, into which run low ranges of limestone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered with dwarf oak, and often shutting in, between their northern and northeastern flank and the main mountain line from which they detach themselves, rich plains and fertile valleys. Behind them tower the massive ridges of the Euphrates and Zagros ranges, where the Tigris and Euphrates take their rise, and which cut off Assyria from Armenia and Kurdistan. The name Assyria itself was derived from that of the city of Assur or Asur, now Qal'at Sherqat (Kaleh Shergat), on the right bank of the Tigris, midway between the Great and Little Zab. It remained the capital long after the Assyrians had become the dominant power in western Asia, but was finally supplanted by Calah (Nimrud), Nineveh (Nebi Vunus and Kuyunjik), and Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad), some 60 miles (97 km) farther north.

Lower Mesopotamia

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In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia stretched the rich alluvial plain of Chaldea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers that encircled it. The soil was extremely fertile, and teemed with an industrious population. Eastward rose the mountains of Elam, southward were the sea-marshes and the Kaldy or Chaldeans and other Arameans, while on the west the civilization of Babylonia encroached beyond the banks of the Euphrates, upon the territory of the nomadic ancient Semitic-speaking peoples (or Suti). Here stood Ur (Mugheir, more correctly Muqayyar) the earliest capital of the country; and Babylon, with its suburb, Borsippa (Birs Nimrud), as well as the two Sippars (the Sepharvaim of Scripture, now Abu Habba), occupied both the Arabian and Chaldaean sides of the river. The Arakhtu, or "river of Babylon," flowed past the southern side of the city, and to the southwest of it on the Arabian bank lay the great inland freshwater sea of Najaf, surrounded by red sandstone cliffs of considerable height, 40 miles (64 km) in length and 35 in breadth in the widest part. Above and below this sea, from Borsippa to Kufa, extend the famous Chaldaean marshes, where Alexander the Great was nearly lost (Arrian, Eup. Al. vii. 22; Strabo xvi. I, § 12); but these depend upon the state of the Hindiya canal, disappearing altogether when it is closed.

Eastward of the Euphrates and southward of Sippara, Kutha and Babylon were Kish (Ultaimir, 9 miles (14 km) E. of Hillah), Nippur (Niffer)-where stood the great sanctuary of El-lu, the older Bel-Uruk or Uruk (Arabic Warka) and Larsa (Arabic Senkera) with its temple of the sun god, while eastward of the Shatt el-Hai, probably the ancient channel of the Tigris, was Lagash (Tello), which played an important part in early Babylonian history.

The primitive seaport of the country, Eridu, the seat of the worship of Ea the culture-god, was a little south of Ur on the west side of the Euphrates. It is now about 130 miles (210 km) from the sea; as about 46 inches of land have been formed by the silting up of the shore since the foundation of Spasinus Charax (Mu/-zamrah) in the time of Alexander the Great, or some 115 feet (35 m) a year, the city would have existed perhaps 6000 years ago. The marshes in the south, like the adjoining desert, were frequented by Aramaic tribes; of these, the most famous were the Chaldaeans, who, under Marduk-apla-iddina II, made themselves masters of Babylon and gave their name in later days to the whole population of the country. The combined stream of the Euphrates and Tigris as it flowed through the marshes was known to the Babylonians as the ndr marrati, "the salt river" (cp. Book of Jeremiah 1:21), a name originally applied to the Persian Gulf.

The alluvial plain of Babylonia was called Edin, though the name was properly restricted to "the plain" on the western bank of the river where the Bedouins pastured the flocks of their Babylonian masters. This "bank" or kisad, together with the corresponding western bank of the Tigris (according to Fritz Hommel, the modern Shatt el-Uai), gave its name to the land of Chesed, whence the Kasdim or Kasdin of the Hebrew Bible. In the early inscriptions of Lagash, the whole district is known as Gu-Edinna, the Sumerian equivalent of the Semitic Kisad Edini. The coastland was similarly known as Gu-gubba (Akkadian Kisad tamtim) "bank of the sea."

A more comprehensive name of southern Mesopotamia was Kengi, "the land," or Kengi Sumer, "the land of Sumer". Sumer has been supposed to be the original of the Biblical Shinar and the Sankhar of the Amarna letters. Opposed to Kengi and Sumer were Urra (Un) and Akkad or northern Babylonia. The original meaning of Urra was perhaps "clayey soil," but it came to signify "the upper country" or "highlands," kengi being "the lowlands." In Semitic times, Urra was pronounced Un and confounded with uru, "city" as a geographical term, however, it was replaced by Akkadu, the Semitic form of Agade - written Akkattim in the Elamite inscriptions - the name of Sargon of Akkad's capital. The rise of Sargon's empire was the probable cause of this extension of the name of Akkad; henceforward in the imperial title, "Sumer and Akkad" denoted the whole of Babylonia. After the Kassite conquest of the country, northern Babylonia came to be known as Kar-Duniyash, "the wall of the god Duniyask," from a line of forts similar to that built by Nebuchadnezzar II between Sippar and Opis, to defend his kingdom from attacks from the north. As this last was "the Wall of Semiramis" mentioned by Strabo (xi. 14. 8), Kar-Duniyash may have represented the Median Wall of Xenophon (Anab. ii. 4. 12), traces of which were found by F.R. Chesney extending from Fallujah to Jibar.

Perennial irrigation

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The dense population arose from the elaborate irrigation of the Babylonian plain, which had originally reclaimed it from a pestiferous and uninhabitable swamp, and had made it the most fertile country in the world. The science of irrigation and engineering seems to have been first developed in Babylonia, which was covered by a network of canals, all skillfully planned and regulated. The three chief of them carried off the waters of the Euphrates to the Tigris above Babylon: the Zabzallat canal (or Nahr Sarsar) running from Faluja to Ctesiphon, the Kutha canal from Sippara to Madam, passing Tell Ibrahim or Kuth'a on the way, and the King's canal or Ar-Malcha between the other two. This last, which perhaps owed its name to Hammurabi, was conducted from the Euphrates towards Upi or Opis, which has been shown by H. Winckler (Altorientalische Forschungen, ii. pp. 509 seq.) to have been close to Seleucia on the western side of the Tigris. The Pallacopas, called Pallukkatu in the Neo-Babylonian texts, started from Pallukkatu or Falluja, and running parallel to the western bank of the Euphrates as far as Iddaratu or Teredon, (?) watered an immense tract of land and supplied a large lake near Borsippa. B. Meissner may be right in identifying it with "the Canal of the Sun-god" of the early texts.

Thanks to this system of irrigation, the cultivation of the soil was highly advanced in Babylonia. According to Herodotus (1.193), wheat commonly returned two hundredfold to the sower, and occasionally three hundredfold. Pliny the Elder (H. N. xviii. 11) states that it was cut twice, and afterwards was good keep for sheep, and Berossus remarked that wheat, sesame, barley, ophrys, palms, apples and many kinds of shelled fruit grew wild, as wheat still does in the neighbourhood of Anah. A Persian poem celebrated the 360 uses of the palm (Strabo xvi. I. 14), and Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiv. 3) says that from the point reached by Julian's army to the shores of the Persian Gulf was one continuous forest of verdure.

Ancient canals

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The location of most of the major cities such as Kish, Uruk, Lagash etc. is known with certainty, while the location of minor settlements, situated along a network of canals, is more difficult to reconstruct.

An important source of Mesopotamian toponymy is the great Babylonian encyclopedia Urra=hubullu and its commentaries. These texts contain lists of toponyms, but circumstantial evidence is required to correlate these with their geographical location. The most useful category of texts for this purpose are itineraries, which list settlements in the sequence they are passed by a traveller.

Important canals of Sumer included

• the Zubi canal (Izubi, Akkadian Izubitum), a short-cut of the Tigris between the locations of modern Samarra and Baghdad. Settlements along this canal included Hibaritum and Push.
• the Irnina canal, joined the Zubi canal above Push. Settlements along this canal included Hiritum, Hursitum, Sarru-Laba, Namzium
• the Gibil canal ran southwest from the Tigris to a point south of the frontier city of Kesh, past a branch which went north to that city. The Gibil continued on to Apisala where it intersected with the Ninagina Canal which flowed southeast from Zabalam. From Apisala, the Gibil went on to Umma, where it joined the Iturungal Canal.
• The Issinnitum canal left the right bank of the Euphrates above Nippur to run by the city of Isin, and thence to rejoin the Euphrates at Kisurra.
• The Iturungal canal left the Euphrates below Nippur running past Adab, Dabrum, Zabalam, Umma, Nagsu, Bad-tibira and Larsa and between Uruk and Enegi before rejoining the Euphrates.
• The Nanagugal canal departed from the left bank of the Iturungal canal downstream of Bad-tibira. It marked the eastern boundary of Ur and the western boundary of Lagash.
• The Ninagina canal ran from Iturungal at Zabalam southeast passing Girsu, Lagash and Nina. It intersected with the Gibil canal at Apisala
• The Susuka canal ran southeast from Ur to Eridu.

Sociology/Religion

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The concept of time in ancient Mesopotamia finds its expression in two complementary models: linear progression, as in human life or in history; and cyclic, periodical return, as determined by nature, such as day and night, lunar months, and solar years. Prominent points in these cycles mark the appropriate times for religious festivals; events of historical time are not important.

A month begins with the appearance of the crescent moon in the evening sky; consequently, nightfall marks the beginning of a new day. Twelve months usually add up to a year, which starts ideally at the vernal equinox. The difference between the 354-day lunar year and the 365-day solar year is compensated for by the occasional insertion of an extra month. This division of time (i.e., a year divided into twelve or thirteen months, each containing twenty-nine or thirty days) was used in everyday business, as well in the cult.

Months are divided into days, and a specific time of the day may be especially suited for certain religious matters. Rituals usually have to be performed in the early morning, before daybreak. The morning hours were also of special significance in temple rituals. A month is further divided according to lunar phases (new moon on day one, first quarter on day 6/7, full moon on day 14/15), and thus forms the backbone of cultic calendars of Mesopotamia. The three days already mentioned mark monthly festivals held in many temples, especially during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE. In these cases, cult rituals and offerings are performed for the highest god of a city, but the divine power of the moon per se is not venerated. The disappearance of the moon at the end of the moon is considered a time of danger, especially for the king; mourning rites are performed (often by the queen) in order that these days may pass safely.

The days of the month are counted simply by number, but these numbers always represent a cosmic order, because each day corresponds to a specific lunar phase. This might, to some extent, explain the importance in Mesopotamia of hemerologies or menologies (manuals that list felicitous days or months). This practical relevance of hemerologies has been tested against records of the Neo-Assyrian royal court (7th century BCE), and it turns out that extispicy reports (reports on what organs of a sacrificed animal signify) are usually not dated to those days that are forbidden for extispicy in the hemerologies, namely, days that are related to certain phases of a lunar disc.

References

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Bibliography

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• Bahrani, Z. (1998), "Conjuring Mesopotamia: Imaginative Geography a World Past", in Meskell, L. (ed.), Archaeology under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, London: Routledge, pp. 159–174, ISBN 978-0-415-19655-0
• Canard, M. (2011), "al-ḎJazīra, Ḏjazīrat Aḳūr or Iḳlīm Aḳūr", in Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Leiden: Brill Online, OCLC 624382576
• Finkelstein, J.J. (1962), "Mesopotamia", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 21 (2): 73–92, doi:10.1086/371676, JSTOR 543884, S2CID 222432558
• Foster, Benjamin R.; Polinger Foster, Karen (2009), Civilizations of Ancient Iraq, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-13722-3
• Matthews, Roger (2003), The Archaeology of Mesopotamia. Theories and Approaches, Approaching the past, Milton Square: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-25317-9
• Miquel, A.; Brice, W.C.; Sourdel, D.; Aubin, J.; Holt, P.M.; Kelidar, A.; Blanc, H.; MacKenzie, D.N.; Pellat, Ch. (2011), "ʿIrāḳ", in Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Leiden: Brill Online, OCLC 624382576
• Wilkinson, Tony J. (2000), "Regional Approaches to Mesopotamian Archaeology: the Contribution of Archaeological Surveys", Journal of Archaeological Research, 8 (3): 219–267, doi:10.1023/A:1009487620969, ISSN 1573-7756, S2CID 140771958

Ubaid Period (6500-3800 BCE)

Beginning around the mid-seventh millennium BCE, people of the region began digging simple small-scale canals for irrigating small plots of land.

Tell (mound) of Ubaid near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the prehistoric culture which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of south Mesopotamia. The Ubaid culture has a long duration beginning before 5000 BC and lasting until the beginning of the Uruk Period. In the mid 5th millennium BC the Ubaid culture spread into northern Mesopotamia replacing the Halaf Culture. The Ubaid culture is characterized by large village settlements and the appearance of the first temples in Mesopotamia. Equipment includes a buff or greenish coloured pottery decorated with geometric designs in brown or black paint; tools such as sickles were often made of hard fired clay in the south but in the north stone and sometimes metal were used for tools.

An understanding of the rise of complex cultures in southwest Asia should begin with the Ubaid Period which falls chronologically between the origins of agriculture and the rise of urbanism. During the Ubaid a new social order was evolving in southern Mesopotamia and the Susiana Plain (Elam) of SW Iran out of which emerged complex societies with a centralized state structure. During the fifth millennium BC Ubaid culture spread northward up the Tigris-Euphrates drainage as far west as Cilicia and the Amuq. This foreshadows a similar expansion of what has been interpreted as Uruk trading colonies or enclaves established to obtain essential raw materials lacking in the alluvial plain.

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Main article: Ubaid period

The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. During this time, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was established at Eridu (Cuneiform: nun.ki 𒉣𒆠), c. 6500 BC, by farmers who brought with them the Hadji Muhammed culture, which first pioneered irrigation agriculture. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. The rise of the city of Uruk may be reflected in the story of the passing of the gifts of civilization (me) to Inanna, goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk.

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Ubaid period

Geographical range	Mesopotamia
Period	Chalcolithic
Dates	c. 6500 — c. 3800 BC
Type site	Tell al-`Ubaid
Major sites	Eridu
Preceded by	Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period, Hassuna culture, Samarra culture
Followed by	Uruk period

Borsippa

Sippar

Khafajah

Eshnunna

Eridu

Girsu

Bad-tibira

Lagash

Shuruppak

Isin

Dilbat

Marad

Larak

Kish

Akshak

Kutha

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Map of Iraq showing important sites that were occupied during the Ubaid period

Pottery jar from Late Ubaid Period

The Ubaid period (c. 6500 to 3800 BC) is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-`Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially by Henry Hall and later by Leonard Woolley.

In South Mesopotamia the period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a very long duration between about 6500 and 3800 BC when it is replaced by the Uruk period.

In North Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BC. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period and succeeded by the Late Chalcolithic period.

History of research

The term "Ubaid period" was coined at a conference in Baghdad in 1930, where at the same time the Jemdet Nasr and Uruk periods were defined.

Dating, extent and periodization

The Ubaid period is divided into three principal phases:

• Ubaid 0, sometimes called Oueili, (6500–5400 BC) an early Ubaid phase first excavated at Tell el-'Oueili
• Ubaid 1, sometimes called Eridu (5400–4700 BC), a phase limited to the extreme south of Iraq, on what was then the shores of the Persian Gulf. This phase, showing clear connection to the Samarra culture to the north, saw the establishment of the first permanent settlement south of the 5 inch rainfall isohyet. These people pioneered the growing of grains in the extreme conditions of aridity, thanks to the high water tables of Southern Iraq.
• Ubaid 2 (4800–4500 BC), after the type site of the same name, saw the development of extensive canal networks from major settlements. Irrigation agriculture, which seems to have developed first at Choga Mami (4700–4600 BC) and rapidly spread elsewhere, form the first required collective effort and centralised coordination of labour in Mesopotamia.
• Ubaid 3/4, sometimes called Ubaid I and Ubaid II — In the period from 4500–4000 BC saw a period of intense and rapid urbanisation with the Ubaid culture spread into northern Mesopotamia and was adopted by the Halaf culture. Ubaid artifacts spread also all along the Arabian littoral, showing the growth of a trading system that stretched from the Mediterranean coast through to Oman.

Spreading from Eridu, the Ubaid culture extended from the Middle of the Tigris and Euphrates to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and then spread down past Bahrain to the copper deposits at Oman. The archaeological record shows that Arabian Bifacial/Ubaid period came to an abrupt end in eastern Arabia and the Oman peninsula at 3800 BC, just after the phase of lake lowering and onset of dune reactivation. At this time, increased aridity led to an end in semi-desert nomadism, and there is no evidence of human presence in the area for approximately 1,000 years, the so-called "Dark Millennium". That might be due to the 5.9 kiloyear event at the end of the Older Peron.

Description

Ubaid culture is characterized by large unwalled village settlements, characterized by multi-roomed rectangular mud-brick houses and the appearance of the first temples of public architecture in Mesopotamia, with a growth of a two tier settlement hierarchy of centralized large sites of more than 10 hectares surrounded by smaller village sites of less than 1 hectare. Domestic equipment included a distinctive fine quality buff or greenish colored pottery decorated with geometric designs in brown or black paint; tools such as sickles were often made of hard fired clay in the south. But in the north, stone and sometimes metal were used. Villages thus contained specialised craftspeople, potters, weavers and metalworkers, although the bulk of the population were agricultural labourers, farmers and seasonal pastoralists.

During the Ubaid Period [5000–4000 BC], the movement towards urbanization began. "Agriculture and animal husbandry [domestication] were widely practiced in sedentary communities". There were also tribes that practiced domesticating animals as far north as Turkey, and as far south as the Zagros Mountains. The Ubaid period in the south was associated with intensive irrigated hydraulic agriculture, and the use of the plough, both introduced from the north, possibly through the earlier Choga Mami, Hadji Muhammed and Samarra cultures.

Society

The Ubaid period as a whole, based upon the analysis of grave goods, was one of increasingly polarised social stratification and decreasing egalitarianism. Bogucki describes this as a phase of "Trans-egalitarian" competitive households, in which some fall behind as a result of downward social mobility. Morton Fried and Elman Service have hypothesised that Ubaid culture saw the rise of an elite class of hereditary chieftains, perhaps heads of kin groups linked in some way to the administration of the temple shrines and their granaries, responsible for mediating intra-group conflict and maintaining social order. It would seem that various collective methods, perhaps instances of what Thorkild Jacobsen called primitive democracy, in which disputes were previously resolved through a council of one's peers, were no longer sufficient for the needs of the local community.

Ubaid culture originated in the south, but still has clear connections to earlier cultures in the region of middle Iraq. The appearance of the Ubaid folk has sometimes been linked to the so-called Sumerian problem, related to the origins of Sumerian civilisation. Whatever the ethnic origins of this group, this culture saw for the first time a clear tripartite social division between intensive subsistence peasant farmers, with crops and animals coming from the north, tent-dwelling nomadic pastoralists dependent upon their herds, and hunter-fisher folk of the Arabian littoral, living in reed huts.

Stein and Özbal describe the Near East oecumene that resulted from Ubaid expansion, contrasting it to the colonial expansionism of the later Uruk period. "A contextual analysis comparing different regions shows that the Ubaid expansion took place largely through the peaceful spread of an ideology, leading to the formation of numerous new indigenous identities that appropriated and transformed superficial elements of Ubaid material culture into locally distinct expressions".

The earliest evidence for sailing has been found in Kuwait indicating that sailing was known by the Ubaid 3 period.

References

• Martin, Harriet P. (1982). "The Early Dynastic Cemetery at al-'Ubaid, a Re-Evaluation". Iraq. 44 (2): 145–185. doi:10.2307/4200161. JSTOR 4200161.
• Moore, A. M. T. (2002). "Pottery Kiln Sites at al 'Ubaid and Eridu". Iraq. 64: 69–77. doi:10.2307/4200519. JSTOR 4200519.
• Bogucki, Peter (1990). The Origins of Human Society. Malden, MA: Blackwell. ISBN 1-57718-112-3.
• Charvát, Petr (2002). Mesopotamia Before History. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-25104-4.
• Mellaart, James (1975). The Neolithic of the Near East. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-14483-2.
• Nissen, Hans J. (1990). The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000–2000 B.C. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-58658-8.

Uruk Period (3800-3200 BCE)

Main article: Uruk period

The archaeological transition from the Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery domestically produced on a slow wheel to a great variety of unpainted pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change.

By the time of the Uruk period (c. 4100–2900 BC calibrated), the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, stratified, temple-centered cities (with populations of over 10,000 people) where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use of slave labor captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in the earliest texts. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide area—from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as central Iran.

The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists (like that found at Tell Brak), had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The cities of Sumer could not maintain remote, long-distance colonies by military force.

Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king (ensi), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became the most urbanized city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants.

The ancient Sumerian king list includes the early dynasties of several prominent cities from this period. The first set of names on the list is of kings said to have reigned before a major flood occurred. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as Alulim and Dumizid.

The end of the Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation, a dry period from c. 3200 – 2900 BC that marked the end of a long wetter, warmer climate period from about 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, called the Holocene climatic optimum.

This time saw an enormous growth in urbanization with impressive structures and the earliest evidence of writing. Uruk probably had a population of around 45000 at the end of the period. Irrigation innovations as well as a supply of raw materials for craftsmen provided an impetus for this growth. In fact the city-state of Uruk also seems to have been at the heart of a trade network which stretched from southern Turkey to eastern Iran (A) ... It remained in occupation throughout the following two millennia until the Parthian Period at which time it was only a minor center.

By 3000 BCE, canals had become enormous in scale, transforming the landscape and even being used for transportation between cities. Saddled with the huge responsibility of their upkeep, neighboring kings would even work together to maintain this central infrastructure.

There was a downside however to the prosperity water management brought. Booming populations outstripped the fertility of the land, stagnant water bred disease, and variability in the landscape, weather, and use led to conflict over access and rights.

Throughout its history the cities of Sumer had variously been an independent city-states ruled by a king, a city-state in vassalage to some other southern Mesopotamian city, or the seat of power that ruled over the entirety of southern Mesopotamia. In all three phases, a system of city administration and government was established. Labor was highly specialized, and included agriculture, fishing, staff to service the temple, and various skilled craftsmen, such as sculptors, seal engravers, smiths, carpenters, potters, and workers in reeds and textiles. Such specialization in labor was made possible by a system in which part of the population received its daily sustenance from a central distribution supply, in return for its labor in non-agricultural pursuits.

The Sumerian social class was split into three social groups. These social groups consist of upper class, in-between class or middle class, and lowest class. At the top of the Sumerian upper class is the king and priests. The upper class also included landowners, government officials, and merchants. Something that stood out in the Sumerian social class was that women had more rights in early Sumer than in later Mesopotamia. Upper class women were priestesses. The Sumerian women were landowners, merchants, artisans, and most raised children. Slaves made up the lowest class along with prisoners, orphans, poor children, and debtors. The Sumerians used slaves as cheap labor. Sumerians allowed slaves the right to do business, borrow money, and buy freedom.

Map of Shinar (Sumer).

Some time between the late 4th millennium to 3,300 BCE, the Sumerians had established at least 12 city-states in southern Mesopotamia, including Kish, Erich, Ur, Sippar, Akshak, Larak, Nippur, Adab, Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira, and Larsa. Each of these city-states was defended by walls, and ruled over surrounding villages and land.

Etana, a king of Kish during its first dynasty (about 2,800 BCE), was the first person to unite the separate city-states of Sumer under a centralized rule. Following the first dynasty of Kish, various of the Sumerian city-states established successive dynasties that ruled over southern Mesopotamia.

• Semitic nomadic desert tribe, its people comprising of herders of sheep and goats, originating in the Arabian Peninsula.

• These desert nomadic tribes started migrating into southern Mesopotamia by at least the 4th-3rd millennium BCE.

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Sumer

Shinar שנער is a biblical geographical locale of uncertain boundaries in Mesopotamia.

The name may be a corruption of Hebrew: Shene neharot (two rivers"), Hebrew:Shene arim ("two cities").

Akkadian Sumeru (from the Sumerians' name for Sumer, which meant perhaps "land of the civilized lords" or "native land").

The name Shinar' occurs eight times in the Hebrew Bible, in which it refers toBabylonia. In Gen. x. 10 the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom is said to have been "Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." In Gen. xi. 2, Shinar is the site of the tower of Babel; in Gen. xiv. 1, 9, the home of Amraphel, now generally identified with Hammurabi; in Dan. i. 1, the home of Nebuchadnezzar. The other passages in which the name is mentioned (Josh. vii. 21; Isa. xi. 11; Zech. v. 11) add no further information.

This location of Shinar is evident from its description as encompassing both Babel (in northern Babylonia) and Uruk (in southern Babylonia).

In the Book of Genesis 10:10, the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom is said to have been Babylon, and Erech, Uruk, and Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." Verse 11:2 states that Shinar enclosed the plain that became the site of the Tower of Babel after the Great Flood.

After the Flood, the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, had stayed first in the highlands of Armenia, and then repaired to Shinar.

In Genesis 14:1,9, Amraphel rules Shinar. Shinar is further mentioned inJoshua 7:21; Isaiah11:11;Daniel 1:2; and Zechariah 5:11, as a general synonym for Babylonia.

Sayce identified Shinar as cognate with the following names:Sangara/Sangar mentioned in the context of the Asiatic conquests of Thutmose III (15th century BCE); Sanhar/Sankhar of the Amarna letters (14th century BCE); the Greeks'sSingara; and modernSinjar, in Upper Mesopotamia, near the Khabur River. Accordingly, he proposed that Shinar was in Upper Mesopotamia, but acknowledged that the Bible gives important evidence that it was in the south.

• Lenormant ("Etudes Accadiennes," 1873, i. 27) equates with "Sumir," the old Babylonian name for southern Babylonia, supposing a more primitive form, "Sungir," which he believes had survived in "Singara" in northern Mesopotamia. Jensen ("Zeit. für Keilschriftforschung," ii. 419) and Hommel (in Hastings, "Dict. Bible," i. 224b) hold to this general view, but suggest varying and difficult etymologies. Since 1873 new material has strengthened this identification. In the inscriptions of Ur-Nina (De Sarzec, "Decouvertes en Chaldée," pl. 4), Girsu, the name of a city that afterward formed part of Shirpurla, is spelled "Su-sir" or "Sun-gir." While Rogers ("History of Babylonia and Assyria," 1900, i. 205) is content simply to follow Lenormant, Radau ("Early Babylonian History," 1900, pp. 216 et seq.) makes a successful linguistic argument for the identity of both Sumir and Shinar with Sungir.
  • Sayee rejects this derivation of the name ("Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch." 1896, xviii. 173 et seq.; "Patriarchal Palestine," 1895, pp. 67 et seq.) because "Sumir" in the cuneiform inscriptions always designates southern Babylonia only. He identifies Shinar with Sanhar of the El-Amarna tablets (comp. Schrader, "K. B." v., Nos. 25, 49), which is the Sangara of the Asiatic conquests of Thothmes III. (comp. W. Max Müller, "Asien und Europa," 1893, p. 279). Sayee does not explain how the use of this name was enlarged to denote southern Mesopotamia. It would seem much more simple to explain how "Sumir," in the common phrase "Sumir and Accad" (by which all Babylonia was designated), was adopted by a foreign people as the name of the whole country.
• The view of Cheyne (Cheyne and Black, "Encyc. Bibl."), that "Shinar" is a corruption of "Geshur," is a conjecture in which few scholars can concur.

"Sumeria" redirects here. For other uses, see Sumeria (disambiguation).

For other uses, see User:RekonDog/sandbox (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with summer.

Geographical range	Near East - Middle East
Period	Late Neolithic - Middle Bronze Age
Dates	c. 4500 – c. 1900 BC

Sumer (/ˈsuːmər/) is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq, during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages, and arguably the first civilization in the world with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place. Proto-writing in the prehistory dates back to c. 3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC; early cuneiform script writing emerged in 3000 BC.

Modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence), an agglutinative language isolate. These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called "proto-Euphrateans" or "Ubaidians", and are theorized to have evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia. The Ubaidians (though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves) are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for agriculture, developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.

Some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. It has been suggested by them, and others, that the Sumerian language was originally that of the hunter and fisher peoples, who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region, and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Reliable historical records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before Enmebaragesi (c. 26th century BC). Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf region, before it flooded at the end of the Ice Age.

Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a close cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians, who spoke a language isolate, and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC (short chronology), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language.

Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100–2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use. The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been the world's first city, where three separate cultures may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.

Origin of name

The term Sumerian is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Sumer, by the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg ga (cuneiform: 𒌦 𒊕 𒈪 𒂵), phonetically /uŋ saŋ gi ga/, literally meaning "the black-headed people", and to their land as ki-en-gi(-r) (cuneiform: 𒆠𒂗𒄀) ('place' + 'lords' + 'noble'), meaning "place of the noble lords". The Akkadian word Shumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew Shinar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Shumer.

City-states in Mesopotamia

Further information: Cities of the Ancient Near East and Geography of Mesopotamia

In the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor (ensi) or by a king (lugal) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites.

The five "first" cities, said to have exercised pre-dynastic kingship "before the flood":

1. Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)
2. Bad-tibira (probably Tell al-Madain)
3. Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh)
4. Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah)
5. Shuruppak (Tell Fara)

Other principal cities:

6. Uruk (Warka)
7. Kish (Tell Uheimir & Ingharra)
8. Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar)
9. Nippur (Afak)
10. Lagash (Tell al-Hiba)
11. Girsu (Tello or Telloh)
12. Umma (Tell Jokha)
13. Hamazi ¹
14. Adab (Tell Bismaya)
15. Mari (Tell Hariri) ²
16. Akshak ¹
17. Akkad ¹
18. Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat)

(¹location uncertain)
(²an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia)

Minor cities (from south to north):

1. Kuara (Tell al-Lahm)
2. Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh)
3. Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab)
4. Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum)
5. Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim)
6. Borsippa (Birs Nimrud)
7. Kutha (Tell Ibrahim)
8. Der (al-Badra)
9. Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)
10. Nagar (Tell Brak) ²

(²an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia)

Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 kilometres (205 miles) north-west of Agade, but which is credited in the king list as having “exercised kingship” in the Early Dynastic II period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates-Tigris alluvial plain, south of Baghdad in what are now the Bābil, Diyala, Wāsit, Dhi Qar, Basra, Al-Muthannā and Al-Qādisiyyah governorates of Iraq.

History

Main article: History of Sumer

Tell Asmar votive sculpture, 2750–2600 BC

The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c. the 23rd century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there was a brief Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC, cut short in the 20th century BC by invasions by the Amorites. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until c. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) population.

• Ubaid period: 6500–4100 BC (Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic)
• Uruk period: 4100–2900 BC (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age I)
  • Uruk XIV-V: 4100–3300 BC
  • Uruk IV period: 3300–3100 BC
  • Jemdet Nasr period (Uruk III): 3100–2900 BC
• Early Dynastic period (Early Bronze Age II-IV)
  • Early Dynastic I period: 2900–2800 BC
  • Early Dynastic II period: 2800–2600 BC (Gilgamesh)
  • Early Dynastic IIIa period: 2600–2500 BC
  • Early Dynastic IIIb period: c. 2500–2334 BC
• Akkadian Empire period: c. 2334–2218 BC (Sargon)
• Gutian period: c. 2218–2047 BC (Early Bronze Age IV)
• Ur III period: c. 2047–1940 BC

The Samarra bowl, at the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin. The swastika in the center of the design is a reconstruction.

Early Dynastic Period

Main article: Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)

The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god) towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh—who are supposed to have reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2700 BC, when the now deciphered syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own.

The earliest dynastic king on the Sumerian king list whose name is known from any other legendary source is Etana, 13th king of the first dynasty of Kish. The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish (c. 26th century BC), whose name is also mentioned in the Gilgamesh epic—leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period was associated with increased war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. (Both Enmerkar and Gilgamesh are credited with having built the walls of Uruk).

1st Dynasty of Lagash

Fragment of Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures

Main article: Lagash

c. 2500–2270 BC

The dynasty of Lagash, though omitted from the king list, is well attested through several important monuments and many archaeological finds.

Although short-lived, one of the first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa, and reduced to tribute the city-state of Umma, arch-rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf. He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy. Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at the severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly after his death.

Later, Lugal-Zage-Si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad.

Akkadian Empire

Main article: Akkadian Empire

c. 2270–2083 BC (short chronology)

The Eastern Semitic Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c. 2800 BC, preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. 2500 BC. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great (c. 2270–2215 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by the scribes. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the "Neo-Sumerian Renaissance" that followed it. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there is little break in historical continuity between the pre- and post-Sargon periods, and that too much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a "Semitic vs. Sumerian" conflict. However, it is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by Sargon.

Gutian period

Main article: Gutian dynasty of Sumer

c. 2083–2050 BC (short chronology)

2nd Dynasty of Lagash

Gudea of Lagash

Main article: Lagash

c. 2093–2046 BC (short chronology)

Following the downfall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands of Gutians, another native Sumerian ruler, Gudea of Lagash, rose to local prominence and continued the practices of the Sargonid kings' claims to divinity. The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts.

Ur III period

Great Ziggurat of Ur, near Nasiriyah, Iraq

Main article: Third Dynasty of Ur

c. 2047–1940 BC (short chronology)

Later, the 3rd dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, whose power extended as far as southern Assyria, was the last great "Sumerian renaissance", but already the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the resurgence of the Akkadian speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the influx of waves of Semitic Martu (Amorites) who were to found several competing local powers in the south, including Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna and some time later Babylonia. The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate the south of Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire, just as the Old Assyrian Empire had already done so in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was utilized.

Fall and Transmission

This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward the north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three fifths. This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian would remain only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe.

Following an Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule of Ibbi-Sin (c. 1940 BC), Sumer came under Amorites rule (taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age). The independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as the "Dynasty of Isin" in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi c. 1700 BC.

Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and Akkad", such as Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC.

Population

The first farmers from Samarra migrated to Sumer, and built shrines and settlements at Eridu.

Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,000-80,000 at its height; given the other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. The world population at this time has been estimated at about 27 million.

The Sumerians spoke a language isolate, but a number of linguists have claimed to be able to detect a substrate language of unknown classification beneath Sumerian because names of some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants. However, the archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (5300 – 4700 BC C-14) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from the north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami transitional ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (c. 5700 – 4900 BC C-14) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. The connection is most clearly seen at Tell Awayli (Oueilli, Oueili) near Larsa, excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in a difficult environment.

Others have suggested a continuity of Sumerians, from the indigenous hunter-fisherfolk traditions, associated with the bifacial assemblages found on the Arabian littoral. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at the end of the last Ice Age.

Culture

Social and family life

Upper part of a gypsum statue of a Sumerian woman with her hands folded in worship dating to c. 2400 BC, currently held in the British Museum in London

Sumerian myths suggest a prohibition against premarital sex. Marriages were often arranged by the parents of the bride and groom; engagements were usually completed through the approval of contracts recorded on clay tablets. These marriages became legal as soon as the groom delivered a bridal gift to his bride's father. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that premarital sex was a common, but surreptitious, occurrence.

A reconstruction in the British Museum of headgear and necklaces worn by the women in some Sumerian graves

In the early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest that

• "Pottery was very plentiful, and the forms of the vases, bowls and dishes were manifold; there were special jars for honey, butter, oil and wine, which was probably made from dates. Some of the vases had pointed feet, and stood on stands with crossed legs; others were flat-bottomed, and were set on square or rectangular frames of wood. The oil-jars, and probably others also, were sealed with clay, precisely as in early Egypt. Vases and dishes of stone were made in imitation of those of clay."
• "A feathered head-dress was worn. Beds, stools and chairs were used, with carved legs resembling those of an ox. There were fire-places and fire-altars."
• "Knives, drills, wedges and an instrument that looks like a saw were all known. While spears, bows, arrows, and daggers (but not swords) were employed in war."
• "Tablets were used for writing purposes. Daggers with metal blades and wooden handles were worn, and copper was hammered into plates, while necklaces or collars were made of gold."
• "Time was reckoned in lunar months."

There is considerable evidence concerning Sumerian music. Lyres and flutes were played, among the best-known examples being the Lyres of Ur.

Inscriptions describing the reforms of king Urukagina of Lagash (c. 2300 BC) say that he abolished the former custom of polyandry in his country, prescribing that a woman who took multiple husbands be stoned with rocks upon which her crime had been written.

Sumerian culture was male-dominated and stratified. The Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur III, reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath the lu-gal ("great man" or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata: The "lu" or free person, and the slave (male, arad; female geme). The son of a lu was called a dumu-nita until he married. A woman (munus) went from being a daughter (dumu-mi), to a wife (dam), then if she outlived her husband, a widow (numasu) and she could then remarry another man who was from the same tribe.

Prostitution existed but it is not clear if sacred prostitution did.

Language and writing

Main articles: Sumerian language and Cuneiform

Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer, 3100–3000 BC

The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of clay tablets written in cuneiform script. Sumerian writing, while proven to not be the oldest example of writing on earth, is considered to be a great milestone in the development of humanity's ability to not only create historical records but also in creating pieces of literature, both in the form of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws. Although pictures — that is, hieroglyphs — were used first, cuneiform and then ideograms (where symbols were made to represent ideas) soon followed. Triangular or wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, such as personal and business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, and daily records. Full libraries of clay tablets have been found. Monumental inscriptions and texts on different objects, like statues or bricks, are also very common. Many texts survive in multiple copies because they were repeatedly transcribed by scribes in training. Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had become dominant.

A prime example of cuneiform writing would be a lengthy poem that was discovered in the ruins of Uruk. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in the standard Sumerian cuneiform. It tells of a king from the early Dynastic II period named Gilgamesh or "Bilgamesh" in Sumerian. The story is based around the fictional adventures of Gilgamesh and his companion, Enkidu. It was laid out on several clay tablets and is claimed to be the earliest example of a fictional, written piece of literature discovered so far.

The Sumerian language is generally regarded as a language isolate in linguistics because it belongs to no known language family; Akkadian, by contrast, belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other language families. It is an agglutinative language; in other words, morphemes ("units of meaning") are added together to create words, unlike analytic languages where morphemes are purely added together to create sentences. Some authors have proposed that there may be evidence of a substratum or adstratum language for geographic features and various crafts and agricultural activities, called variously Proto-Euphratean or Proto Tigrean, but this is disputed by others.

Understanding Sumerian texts today can be problematic even for experts. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases do not give the full grammatical structure of the language and seem to have been used as an "aide-mémoire" for knowledgeable scribes.

During the 3rd millennium BC a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influences between Sumerian on Akkadian are evident in all areas including lexical borrowing on a massive scale—and syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This mutual influence has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian of the 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund.

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC, but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Babylonia and Assyria until the 1st century AD.

Religion

A 24th-century BC statue of a praying Sumerian man (modern day eastern Syria)

Main article: Sumerian religion

The Sumerians credited their divinities for all matters pertaining to them and exhibited humility in the face of cosmic forces, such as death and divine wrath.

Sumerian religion seems to have been founded upon two separate cosmogenic myths. The first saw creation as the result of a series of hieroi gamoi or sacred marriages, involving the reconciliation of opposites, postulated as a coming together of male and female divine beings; the gods. This continued to influence the whole Mesopotamian mythos. Thus, in the later Akkadian Enuma Elish, the creation was seen as the union of fresh and salt water; as male Abzu, and female Tiamat. The products of that union, Lahm and Lahmu, "the muddy ones", were titles given to the gate keepers of the E-Abzu temple of Enki, in Eridu, the first Sumerian city. Describing the way that muddy islands emerge from the confluence of fresh and salty water at the mouth of the Euphrates, where the river deposited its load of silt, a second hieros gamos supposedly created Anshar and Kishar, the "sky-pivot" or axle, and the "earth pivot", parents in turn of Anu (the sky) and Ki (the earth). Another important Sumerian hieros gamos was that between Ki, here known as Ninhursag or "Lady of the Mountains", and Enki of Eridu, the god of fresh water which brought forth greenery and pasture.

At an early stage, following the dawn of recorded history, Nippur, in central Mesopotamia, replaced Eridu in the south as the primary temple city, whose priests exercised political hegemony on the other city-states. Nippur retained this status throughout the Sumerian period.

Deities

Akkadian cylinder seal from sometime around 2300 BC or thereabouts depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud.

Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form. There was no common set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. Nonetheless, these were not exclusive; the gods of one city were often acknowledged elsewhere. Sumerian speakers were among the earliest people to record their beliefs in writing, and were a major inspiration in later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology.

The Sumerians worshiped:

• An as the full-time god equivalent to heaven; indeed, the word an in Sumerian means sky and his consort Ki, means earth.
• Enki in the south at the temple in Eridu. Enki was the god of beneficence and of wisdom, ruler of the freshwater depths beneath the earth, a healer and friend to humanity who in Sumerian myth was thought to have given humans the arts and sciences, the industries and manners of civilization; the first law book was considered his creation,
• Enlil was the god of storm, wind, and rain. He was the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon and the patron god of Nippur. His consort was Ninlil, the goddess of the south wind.
• Inanna was the goddess of love, beauty, sexuality, prostitution, and war; the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening (western) star, at the temple (shared with An) at Uruk. Deified kings may have re-enacted the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid with priestesses.
• The sun-god Utu at Larsa in the south and Sippar in the north,
• The moon god Sin at Ur.

Sumero-early Akkadian pantheon

These deities formed a core pantheon; there were additionally hundreds of minor ones. Sumerian gods could thus have associations with different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with those cities' political power. The gods were said to have created human beings from clay for the purpose of serving them. The temples organized the mass labour projects needed for irrigation agriculture. Citizens had a labor duty to the temple, though they could avoid it by a payment of silver.

Cosmology

Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk enclosed by a dome. The Sumerian afterlife involved a descent into a gloomy netherworld to spend eternity in a wretched existence as a Gidim (ghost).

The universe was divided into four quarters:

• To the north were the hill-dwelling Subartu, who were periodically raided for slaves, timber, and other raw materials.
• To the west were the tent-dwelling Martu, ancient Semitic-speaking peoples living as pastoral nomads tending herds of sheep and goats.
• To the south was the land of Dilmun, a trading state associated with the land of the dead and the place of creation.
• To the east were the Elamites, a rival people with whom the Sumerians were frequently at war.

Their known world extended from The Upper Sea or Mediterranean coastline, to The Lower Sea, the Persian Gulf and the land of Meluhha (probably the Indus Valley) and Magan (Oman), famed for its copper ores.

Temple and temple organisation

Ziggurats (Sumerian temples) each had an individual name and consisted of a forecourt, with a central pond for purification. The temple itself had a central nave with aisles along either side. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. At one end would stand the podium and a mudbrick table for animal and vegetable sacrifices. Granaries and storehouses were usually located near the temples. After a time the Sumerians began to place the temples on top of multi-layered square constructions built as a series of rising terraces, giving rise to the Ziggurat style.

Funerary practices

It was believed that when people died, they would be confined to a gloomy world of Ereshkigal, whose realm was guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people entering or leaving. The dead were buried outside the city walls in graveyards where a small mound covered the corpse, along with offerings to monsters and a small amount of food. Those who could afford it sought burial at Dilmun. Human sacrifice was found in the death pits at the Ur royal cemetery where Queen Puabi was accompanied in death by her servants.

Agriculture and hunting

The Sumerians adopted an agricultural lifestyle perhaps as early as c. 5000 BC – 4500 BC. The region demonstrated a number of core agricultural techniques, including organized irrigation, large-scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping involving the use of plough agriculture, and the use of an agricultural specialized labour force under bureaucratic control. The necessity to manage temple accounts with this organization led to the development of writing (c. 3500 BC).

From the royal tombs of Ur, made of lapis lazuli and shell, shows peacetime

In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. They used oxen as their primary beasts of burden and donkeys or equids as their primary transport animal and "woollen clothing as well as rugs were made from the wool or hair of the animals. ... By the side of the house was an enclosed garden planted with trees and other plants; wheat and probably other cereals were sown in the fields, and the shaduf was already employed for the purpose of irrigation. Plants were also grown in pots or vases."

An account of barley rations issued monthly to adults and children written in cuneiform script on a clay tablet, written in year 4 of King Urukagina, c. 2350 BC

The Sumerians were one of the first known beer drinking societies. Cereals were plentiful and were the key ingredient in their early brew. They brewed multiple kinds of beer consisting of wheat, barley, and mixed grain beers. Beer brewing was very important to the Sumerians. It was referenced in the Epic of Gilgamesh when Enkidu was introduced to the food and beer of Gilgamesh's people: "Drink the beer, as is the custom of the land... He drank the beer-seven jugs! and became expansive and sang with joy!"

The Sumerians practiced similar irrigation techniques as those used in Egypt. American anthropologist Robert McCormick Adams says that irrigation development was associated with urbanization, and that 89% of the population lived in the cities.

They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard. Sumerians caught many fish and hunted fowl and gazelle.

Sumerian agriculture depended heavily on irrigation. The irrigation was accomplished by the use of shaduf, canals, channels, dykes, weirs, and reservoirs. The frequent violent floods of the Tigris, and less so, of the Euphrates, meant that canals required frequent repair and continual removal of silt, and survey markers and boundary stones needed to be continually replaced. The government required individuals to work on the canals in a corvee, although the rich were able to exempt themselves.

As is known from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after the Spring Equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. Next they made oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. Unfortunately, the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. By the Ur III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley as their principal crop.

Sumerians harvested during the spring in three-person teams consisting of a reaper, a binder, and a sheaf handler. The farmers would use threshing wagons, driven by oxen, to separate the cereal heads from the stalks and then use threshing sleds to disengage the grain. They then winnowed the grain/chaff mixture.

Architecture

Dedication Nail, ca. 2100 BC.

Main articles: Sumerian architecture, Ziggurat, and Mudhif

The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures were made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement. Mud-brick buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, which thus came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resultant hills, known as tells, are found throughout the ancient Near East.

According to Archibald Sayce, the primitive pictograms of the early Sumerian (i.e. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. Brick was the ordinary building material, and with it cities, forts, temples and houses were constructed. The city was provided with towers and stood on an artificial platform; the house also had a tower-like appearance. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. The foundation stones — or rather bricks — of a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under them."

The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms that supported temples. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. The Sumerians also developed the arch, which enabled them to develop a strong type of dome. They built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails.

Mathematics

Main article: Babylonian mathematics

The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000 BC. This advanced metrology resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From c. 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems. The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period. The period c. 2700 – 2300 BC saw the first appearance of the abacus, and a table of successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their sexagesimal number system. The Sumerians were the first to use a place value numeral system. There is also anecdotal evidence the Sumerians may have used a type of slide rule in astronomical calculations. They were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.

Economy and trade

Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, c. 2600 BC

Discoveries of obsidian from far-away locations in Anatolia and lapis lazuli from Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan, beads from Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and several seals inscribed with the Indus Valley script suggest a remarkably wide-ranging network of ancient trade centered on the Persian Gulf. For example, Imports to Ur came from many parts of the world. In particular, the metals of all types had to be imported.

The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods, such as wood, that were scarce in Mesopotamia. In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized. The finding of resin in the tomb of Queen Puabi at Ur, indicates it was traded from as far away as Mozambique.

The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters.

Sumerian potters decorated pots with cedar oil paints. The potters used a bow drill to produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. Sumerian masons and jewelers knew and made use of alabaster (calcite), ivory, iron, gold, silver, carnelian, and lapis lazuli.

Money and credit

Large institutions kept their accounts in barley and silver, often with a fixed rate between them. The obligations, loans and prices in general were usually denominated in one of them. Many transactions involved debt, for example goods consigned to merchants by temple and beer advanced by "ale women".

Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans. The trade credit was usually extended by temples in order to finance trade expeditions and was nominated in silver. The interest rate was set at 1/60 a month (one shekel per mina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years. Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an institution (such as a temple), in this case the arrears were considered to be lent to the debtor. They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal.

Periodically, rulers signed "clean slate" decrees that cancelled all the rural (but not commercial) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes. Customarily, rulers did it at the beginning of the first full year of their reign, but they could also be proclaimed at times of military conflict or crop failure. The first known ones were made by Enmetena and Urukagina of Lagash in 2400-2350 BC. According to Hudson, the purpose of these decrees was to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened the fighting force, which could happen if peasants lost the subsistence land or became bondservants due to the inability to repay the debt.

Military

Early chariots on the Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BC

Battle formations on a fragment of the Stele of the Vultures

The almost constant wars among the Sumerian city-states for 2000 years helped to develop the military technology and techniques of Sumer to a high level. The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2525 BC on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures. It shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly of infantry. The infantry carried spears, wore copper helmets, and carried rectangular shields. The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the phalanx formation, which requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have made use of professional soldiers.

The Sumerian military used carts harnessed to onagers. These early chariots functioned less effectively in combat than did later designs, and some have suggested that these chariots served primarily as transports, though the crew carried battle-axes and lances. The Sumerian chariot comprised a four or two-wheeled device manned by a crew of two and harnessed to four onagers. The cart was composed of a woven basket and the wheels had a solid three-piece design.

Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. The Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities, but the mudbrick walls were able to deter some foes.

Technology

Examples of Sumerian technology include: the wheel, cuneiform script, arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, Sumerian boats, lunisolar calendar, bronze, leather, saws, chisels, hammers, braces, bits, nails, pins, rings, hoes, axes, knives, lancepoints, arrowheads, swords, glue, daggers, waterskins, bags, harnesses, armor, quivers, war chariots, scabbards, boots, sandals, harpoons and beer. The Sumerians had three main types of boats:

• clinker-built sailboats stitched together with hair, featuring bitumen waterproofing
• skin boats constructed from animal skins and reeds
• wooden-oared ships, sometimes pulled upstream by people and animals walking along the nearby banks

Legacy

Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid 4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. The wheel initially took the form of the potter's wheel. The new concept quickly led to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. The Sumerians' cuneiform script is the oldest (or second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the Jiahu symbols and Tartaria tablets is controversial). The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in the zodiac and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks. They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.

They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including a mixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions between infantry, cavalry, and archers. They developed the first known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails, and government records. The first true city-states arose in Sumer, roughly contemporaneously with similar entities in what are now Syria and Lebanon. Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. Conjointly with the spread of writing, the first formal schools were established, usually under the auspices of a city-state's primary temple.

Finally, the Sumerians ushered in domestication with intensive agriculture and irrigation. Emmer wheat, barley, sheep (starting as mouflon), and cattle (starting as aurochs) were foremost among the species cultivated and raised for the first time on a grand scale.

Further reading

• Ascalone, Enrico. 2007. Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 1). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-25266-7 (paperback).
• Bottéro, Jean, André Finet, Bertrand Lafont, and George Roux. 2001. Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Crawford, Harriet E. W. 2004. Sumer and the Sumerians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Leick, Gwendolyn. 2002. Mesopotamia: Invention of the City. London and New York: Penguin.
• Lloyd, Seton. 1978. The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: From the Old Stone Age to the Persian Conquest. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. 1998. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. London and Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
• Kramer, Samuel Noah (1972). Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Rev. ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812210476. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help)
• Roux, Georges. 1992. Ancient Iraq, 560 pages. London: Penguin (earlier printings may have different pagination: 1966, 480 pages, Pelican; 1964, 431 pages, London: Allen and Urwin).
• Schomp, Virginia. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians.
• Sumer: Cities of Eden (Timelife Lost Civilizations). Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1993 (hardcover, ISBN 0-8094-9887-1).
• Woolley, C. Leonard. 1929. The Sumerians. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Jemdet Nasr Period (3200-2900 BCE)

This city-state gave its name to a distinctive wheel-turned painted pottery. The period represents the transition from prehistory to history and literate civilization (urban revolution). Occupation commences in the Ubaid Period (circa 4000 BCE) and flourishes from 3400 to 2800 BC during the Late Uruk-Jemdet Nasr-Early Dynastic I Periods. This period was a time of retrenchment (anti-expansionism) and relative cultural isolation in southern Mesopotamia. In sum the material culture of Jemdet Nasr reflects the consolidation of administrative and social developments in the centuries following the invention of proto-cuneiform writing in the Late Uruk Period in southern Mesopotamia. These developments were to underpin the spectacular achievements of Sumerian civilization in the succeeding Early Dynastic Period.

• Sometime around 2,600 BCE, the nomadic tribes began to urbanize the area by the river, developing small communities.

Early Dynastic Period (2900-2350 BCE)

Sumer was divided between some thirty city-states each with a patron deity and a ruler generally called Ensi. They shared a set of religious beliefs that recognized the supremacy of the patron deity Enlil of Nippur--the Sumerian religious center. The history of this period is not widely known and the use by some historians of later literary narratives concerning earlier legendary rulers is questionable.

Akkadian Empire

33°6′N 44°6′E

Akkadian Empire
c. 2334 – 2154 BC
Map of the Akkadian Empire (brown) and the directions in which military campaigns were conducted (yellow arrows)
Capital	Akkad
Common languages	Akkadian Sumerian language (declining)
Religion	Akkadian
Government	Monarchy
šarrum
• c. 2334–2279 BC	Sargon (first)
• c. 2170–2154 BC	Shu-turul (last)
Historical era	Bronze Age
• Established	c. 2334 BC
• Conquests of Sargon of Akkad	c. 2340 – 2284 BC
• Disestablished	c. 2154 BC
Preceded by Succeeded by Early Dynastic Period Second Mariote Kingdom Umma Gutian Period (Sumer) Third Mariote Kingdom

The Akkadian Empire /əˈkeɪdiən/ was the first ancient Semitic-speaking empire of Mesopotamia, centered in the city of Akkad /ˈækæd/ and its surrounding region, also called Akkad in ancient Mesopotamia in the Bible. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. The Akkadian Empire exercised influence across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Anatolia, sending military expeditions as far south as Dilmun and Magan (modern Bahrain and Oman) in the Arabian Peninsula.

During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).

The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests by its founder Sargon of Akkad. Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam and Gutium. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though the meaning of this term is not precise, and there are earlier Sumerian claimants.

After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian-speaking nations: Assyria in the north, and, a few centuries later, Babylonia in the south.

History of research

The Bible refers to Akkad in Genesis 10:10, which states that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was in the land of Akkad. Nimrod's historical identity is unknown, but some have compared him with the legendary Gilgamesh, founder of Uruk. Today, scholars have documented some 7,000 texts from the Akkadian period, written in both Sumerian and Akkadian. Many later texts from the successor states of Assyria and Babylonia also deal with the Akkadian Empire.

Understanding of the Akkadian Empire continues to be hampered by the fact that its capital Akkad has not yet been located, despite numerous attempts. Precise dating of archaeological sites is hindered by the fact that there are no clear distinctions between artifact assemblages thought to stem from the preceding Early Dynastic period, and those thought to be Akkadian. Likewise, material that is thought to be Akkadian continues to be in use into the Ur III period.

Many of the more recent insights on the Akkadian Empire have come from excavations in the Upper Khabur area in modern northeastern Syria which was to become a part of Assyria after the fall of Akkad. For example, excavations at Tell Mozan (ancient Urkesh) brought to light a sealing of Tar'am-Agade, a previously unknown daughter of Naram-Sin, who was possibly married to an unidentified local endan (ruler). The excavators at nearby Tell Leilan (ancient Shekhna/Shubat-Enlil) have used the results from their investigations to argue that the Akkadian Empire came to an end due to a sudden drought, the so-called 4.2 kiloyear event. The impact of this climate event on Mesopotamia in general, and on the Akkadian Empire in particular, continues to be hotly debated.

Excavation at the modern site of Tell Brak has suggested that the Akkadians rebuilt a city ("Brak" or "Nagar") on this site, for use as an administrative center. The city included two large buildings including a complex with temple, offices, courtyard, and large ovens.

Dating and periodization

The Akkadian Period is generally dated to either: c. 2334 BC – c. 2154 BC (according to the middle chronology timeline of the Ancient Near East), or c. 2270 BC – c. 2083 BC (according to the short chronology timeline of the Ancient Near East.) It was preceded by the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (ED) and succeeded by the Ur III Period, although both transitions are blurry. For example: it is likely that the rise of Sargon of Akkad coincided with the late ED Period and that the final Akkadian kings ruled simultaneously with the Gutian kings alongside rulers at the city-states of both: Uruk and Lagash. The Akkadian Period is contemporary with: EB IV (in Israel), EB IVA and EJ IV (in Syria), and EB IIIB (in Turkey.)

Timeline of rulers

Main article: List of kings of Akkad

The relative order of Akkadian kings is clear. The absolute dates of their reigns are approximate (as with all dates prior to the late Bronze Age collapse c. 1200 BC).

Ruler	Middle Chronology All dates BC	Short Chronology All dates BC
Sargon	2334–2279
Rimush	2278–2270
Manishtushu	2269–2255
Naram-Sin	2254–2218
Shar-Kali-Sharri	2217–2193
Interregnum	2192–2190
Dudu	2189–2169
Shu-turul	2168–2154

Development of the empire

Pre-Sargonic Akkad

The Akkadian Empire takes its name from the region and city of Akkad, both of which were localized in the general confluence area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Although the city of Akkad has not yet been identified on the ground, it is known from various textual sources. Among these is at least one text predating the reign of Sargon. Together with the fact that the name Akkad is of non-Akkadian origin, this suggests that the city of Akkad may have already been occupied in pre-Sargonic times.

Sargon of Akkad

Main article: Sargon of Akkad

Bronze head of an Akkadian, probably an image of Manishtusu or Naram-Sin; descendants of Sargon (National Museum of Iraq).

Sargon of Akkad (Sharru-kin = "legitimate king", possibly a title he took on gaining power) defeated and captured Lugal-zage-si in the Battle of Uruk and conquered his empire. The earliest records in the Akkadian language date to the time of Sargon. Sargon was claimed to be the son of La'ibum or Itti-Bel, a humble gardener, and possibly a hierodule, or priestess to Ishtar or Inanna. One legend related of Sargon in Assyrian times says that

My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not. The brothers of my father loved the hills. My city is Azurpiranu (the wilderness herb fields), which is situated on the banks of the Euphrates. My changeling mother conceived me, in secret she bore me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid. She cast me into the river which rose not over me. The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water. Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and reared me. Akki the drawer of water, appointed me as his gardener. While I was gardener Ishtar granted me her love, and for four and (fifty?) ... years I exercised kingship.

Later claims made on behalf of Sargon were that his mother was an "entu" priestess (high priestess). The claims might have been made to ensure a descendancy of nobility, considering only a high placed family can be made such a position.

Kings of the Akkad Dynasty.

Originally a cupbearer (Rabshakeh) to a king of Kish with a Semitic name, Ur-Zababa, Sargon thus became a gardener, responsible for the task of clearing out irrigation canals. This gave him access to a disciplined corps of workers, who also may have served as his first soldiers. Displacing Ur-Zababa, Sargon was crowned king, and he entered upon a career of foreign conquest. Four times he invaded Syria and Canaan, and he spent three years thoroughly subduing the countries of "the west" to unite them with Mesopotamia "into a single empire".

However, Sargon took this process further, conquering many of the surrounding regions to create an empire that reached westward as far as the Mediterranean Sea and perhaps Cyprus (Kaptara); northward as far as the mountains (a later Hittite text asserts he fought the Hattian king Nurdaggal of Burushanda, well into Anatolia); eastward over Elam; and as far south as Magan (Oman) — a region over which he reigned for purportedly 56 years, though only four "year-names" survive. He consolidated his dominion over his territories by replacing the earlier opposing rulers with noble citizens of Akkad, his native city where loyalty would thus be ensured.

Trade extended from the silver mines of Anatolia to the lapis lazuli mines in modern Afghanistan, the cedars of Lebanon and the copper of Magan. This consolidation of the city-states of Sumer and Akkad reflected the growing economic and political power of Mesopotamia. The empire's breadbasket was the rain-fed agricultural system of Assyria and a chain of fortresses was built to control the imperial wheat production.

Images of Sargon were erected on the shores of the Mediterranean, in token of his victories, and cities and palaces were built at home with the spoils of the conquered lands. Elam and the northern part of Mesopotamia (Assyria/Subartu) were also subjugated, and rebellions in Sumer were put down. Contract tablets have been found dated in the years of the campaigns against Canaan and against Sarlak, king of Gutium. He also boasted of having subjugated the "four quarters" — the lands surrounding Akkad to the north (Assyria), the south (Sumer), the east (Elam), and the west (Martu). Some of the earliest historiographic texts (ABC 19, 20) suggest he rebuilt the city of Babylon (Bab-ilu) in its new location near Akkad.

Sargon, throughout his long life, showed special deference to the Sumerian deities, particularly Inanna (Ishtar), his patroness, and Zababa, the warrior god of Kish. He called himself "The anointed priest of Anu" and "the great ensi of Enlil" and his daughter, Enheduanna, was installed as priestess to Nanna at the temple in Ur.

Troubles multiplied toward the end of his reign. A later Babylonian text states:

In his old age, all the lands revolted against him, and they besieged him in Akkad (the city) [but] he went forth to battle and defeated them, he knocked them over and destroyed their vast army.

It refers to his campaign in "Elam", where he defeated a coalition army led by the King of Awan and forced the vanquished to become his vassals.

Also shortly after, another revolt took place:

the Subartu (mountainous tribes of Assyria) the upper country—in their turn attacked, but they submitted to his arms, and Sargon settled their habitations, and he smote them grievously.

Rimush and Manishtushu

Main articles: Rimush and Manishtushu

Sargon had crushed opposition even at old age. These difficulties broke out again in the reign of his sons, where revolts broke out during the nine-year reign of Rimush (2278–2270 BC), who fought hard to retain the empire, and was successful until he was assassinated by some of his own courtiers. Rimush's elder brother, Manishtushu (2269–2255 BC) succeeded him. The latter seems to have fought a sea battle against 32 kings who had gathered against him and took control over their pre-Arab country, consisting of modern-day United Arab Emirates and Oman. Despite the success, like his brother he seems to have been assassinated in a palace conspiracy.

Naram-Sin

Main article: Naram-Sin of Akkad

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, celebrating victory against the Lullubi from Zagros 2260 BC. He is wearing a horned helmet, a symbol of divinity, and is also portrayed in a larger scale in comparison to others to emphasize his superiority. Brought back from Sippar to Susa as war prize in the 12th century BC.

Naram-Sin Rock Relief at Darband-i-Gawr, Qaradagh Mountain, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan

Manishtushu's son and successor, Naram-Sin (2254–2218 BC), due to vast military conquests, assumed the imperial title "King Naram-Sin, king of the four quarters" (Lugal Naram-Sîn, Šar kibrat 'arbaim), the four quarters as a reference to the entire world. He was also for the first time in Sumerian culture, addressed as "the god (Sumerian = DINGIR, Akkadian = ilu) of Agade" (Akkad), in opposition to the previous religious belief that kings were only representatives of the people towards the gods. He also faced revolts at the start of his reign, but quickly crushed them.

Naram-Sin also recorded the Akkadian conquest of Ebla as well as Armanum and its king. Armanum location is debated; it is sometimes identified with a Syrian kingdom mentioned in the tablets of Ebla as Armi, the location of Armi is also debated; while historian Adelheid Otto identifies it with the Citadel of Bazi – Tall Banat complex on the Euphrates River between Ebla and Tell Brak, others like Wayne Horowitz identify it with Aleppo. Further, if most scholars place Armanum in Syria, Michael C. Astour believes it to be located north of the Hamrin Mountains in northern Iraq.

To better police Syria, he built a royal residence at Tell Brak, a crossroads at the heart of the Khabur River basin of the Jezirah. Naram-Sin campaigned against Magan which also revolted; Naram-Sin "marched against Magan and personally caught Mandannu, its king", where he instated garrisons to protect the main roads. The chief threat seemed to be coming from the northern Zagros Mountains, the Lulubis and the Gutians. A campaign against the Lullubi led to the carving of the "Victory Stele of Naram-Suen", now in the Louvre. Hittite sources claim Naram-Sin of Akkad even ventured into Anatolia, battling the Hittite and Hurrian kings Pamba of Hatti, Zipani of Kanesh, and 15 others. This newfound Akkadian wealth may have been based upon benign climatic conditions, huge agricultural surpluses and the confiscation of the wealth of other peoples.

Inscription of Naram Sin found at the city of Marad in Iraq, c. 2260 BC

The economy was highly planned. Grain was cleaned, and rations of grain and oil were distributed in standardized vessels made by the city's potters. Taxes were paid in produce and labour on public walls, including city walls, temples, irrigation canals and waterways, producing huge agricultural surpluses.

In later Assyrian and Babylonian texts, the name Akkad, together with Sumer, appears as part of the royal title, as in the Sumerian LUGAL KI-EN-GI KI-URI or Akkadian Šar māt Šumeri u Akkadi, translating to "king of Sumer and Akkad". This title was assumed by the king who seized control of Nippur, the intellectual and religious center of southern Mesopotamia.

During the Akkadian period, the Akkadian language became the lingua franca of the Middle East, and was officially used for administration, although the Sumerian language remained as a spoken and literary language. The spread of Akkadian stretched from Syria to Elam, and even the Elamite language was temporarily written in Mesopotamian cuneiform. Akkadian texts later found their way to far-off places, from Egypt (in the Amarna Period) and Anatolia, to Persia (Behistun).

Collapse

The empire of Akkad fell, perhaps in the 22nd century BC, within 180 years of its founding, ushering in a "Dark Age" with no prominent imperial authority until Third Dynasty of Ur. The region's political structure may have reverted to the status quo ante of local governance by city-states.

Shu-Durul appears to have restored some centralized authority, however he was unable to prevent the empire eventually collapsing outright from the invasion of barbarian peoples from the Zagros Mountains known as the Gutians.

Little is known about the Gutian period, or how long it endured. Cuneiform sources suggest that the Gutians' administration showed little concern for maintaining agriculture, written records, or public safety; they reputedly released all farm animals to roam about Mesopotamia freely, and soon brought about famine and rocketing grain prices. The Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (2112–2095 BC) cleared the Gutians from Mesopotamia during his reign.

The Sumerian King List, describing the Akkadian Empire after the death of Shar-kali-shari, states:

Who was king? Who was not king? Irgigi the king; Nanum, the king; Imi the king; Ilulu, the king—the four of them were kings but reigned only three years. Dudu reigned 21 years; Shu-Turul, the son of Dudu, reigned 15 years. ... Agade was defeated and its kingship carried off to Uruk. In Uruk, Ur-ningin reigned 7 years, Ur-gigir, son of Ur-ningin, reigned 6 years; Kuda reigned 6 years; Puzur-ili reigned 5 years, Ur-Utu reigned 6 years. Uruk was smitten with weapons and its kingship carried off by the Gutian hordes.

However, there are no known year-names or other archaeological evidence verifying any of these later kings of Akkad or Uruk, apart from a single artifact referencing king Dudu of Akkad. The named kings of Uruk may have been contemporaries of the last kings of Akkad, but in any event could not have been very prominent.

In the Gutian hordes, (first reigned) a nameless king; (then) Imta reigned 3 years as king; Shulme reigned 6 years; Elulumesh reigned 6 years; Inimbakesh reigned 5 years; Igeshuash reigned 6 years; Iarlagab reigned 15 years; Ibate reigned 3 years; ... reigned 3 years; Kurum reigned 1 year; ... reigned 3 years; ... reigned 2 years; Iararum reigned 2 years; Ibranum reigned 1 year; Hablum reigned 2 years; Puzur-Sin son of Hablum reigned 7 years; Iarlaganda reigned 7 years; ... reigned 7 years; ... reigned 40 days. Total 21 kings reigned 91 years, 40 days.

"Cylinder Seal with King or God and Vanquished Lion" (Old Akkadian). The Walters Art Museum.

The period between c. 2112 BC and 2004 BC is known as the Ur III period. Documents again began to be written in Sumerian, although Sumerian was becoming a purely literary or liturgical language, much as Latin later would be in Medieval Europe.

One explanation for the end of the Akkadian empire is simply that the Akkadian dynasty could not maintain its political supremacy over other independently powerful city states.

Drought

Main article: 4.2 kiloyear event

One theory associates regional decline at the end of the Akkadian period (and of the First Intermediary Period following the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt) was associated with rapidly increasing aridity, and failing rainfall in the region of the Ancient Near East, caused by a global centennial-scale drought. Harvey Weiss et al. have shown "Archaeological and soil-stratigraphic data define the origin, growth, and collapse of Subir, the third millennium rain-fed agriculture civilization of northern Mesopotamia on the Habur Plains of Syria. At 2200 BC, a marked increase in aridity and wind circulation, subsequent to a volcanic eruption, induced a considerable degradation of land-use conditions. After four centuries of urban life, this abrupt climatic change evidently caused abandonment of Tell Leilan, regional desertion, and collapse of the Akkadian empire based in southern Mesopotamia. Synchronous collapse in adjacent regions suggests that the impact of the abrupt climatic change was extensive.". Peter B. deMenocal, has shown "there was an influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the stream flow of the Tigris and Euphrates at this time, which led to the collapse of the Akkadian Empire".

Excavation at Tell Leilan suggests that this site was abandoned soon after the city's massive walls were constructed, its temple rebuilt and its grain production reorganised. The debris, dust and sand that followed show no trace of human activity. Soil samples show fine wind-blown sand, no trace of earthworm activity, reduced rainfall and indications of a drier and windier climate. Evidence shows that skeleton-thin sheep and cattle died of drought, and up to 28,000 people abandoned the site, seeking wetter areas elsewhere. Tell Brak shrank in size by 75%. Trade collapsed. Nomadic herders such as the Amorites moved herds closer to reliable water suppliers, bringing them into conflict with Akkadian populations. This climate-induced collapse seems to have affected the whole of the Middle East, and to have coincided with the collapse of the Egyptian Old Kingdom.

This collapse of rain-fed agriculture in the Upper Country meant the loss to southern Mesopotamia of the agrarian subsidies which had kept the Akkadian Empire solvent. Water levels within the Tigris and Euphrates fell 1.5 metres beneath the level of 2600 BC, and although they stabilised for a time during the following Ur III period, rivalries between pastoralists and farmers increased. Attempts were undertaken to prevent the former from herding their flocks in agricultural lands, such as the building of a 180 km (112 mi) wall known as the "Repeller of the Amorites" between the Tigris and Euphrates under the Ur III ruler Shu-Sin. Such attempts led to increased political instability; meanwhile, severe depression occurred to re-establish demographic equilibrium with the less favourable climatic conditions.

Richard Zettler has critiqued the drought theory, observing that the chronology of the Akkadian empire is very uncertain, and that available evidence is not sufficient to show its economic dependence on the northern areas excavated by Weiss and others. He also criticizes Weiss for taking Akkadian writings literally to describe certain catastrophic events.

According to Joan Oates, at Tell Brak the soil "signal" associated with the drought lies below the level of Naram-Sin's palace. However, evidence

may suggest a tightening of Akkadian control following the Brak 'event', for example the construction of the heavily fortified 'palace' itself and the apparent introduction of greater numbers of Akkadian as opposed to local officials, perhaps a reflection of unrest in the countryside of the type that often follows some natural catastrophe.

Furthermore, Brak remained occupied and functional after the fall of the Akkadians.

Government

The Akkadian government formed a "classical standard" with which all future Mesopotamian states compared themselves. Traditionally, the ensi was the highest functionary of the Sumerian city-states. In later traditions, one became an ensi by marrying the goddess Inanna, legitimising the rulership through divine consent.

Initially, the monarchical lugal (lu = man, gal =Great) was subordinate to the priestly ensi, and was appointed at times of troubles, but by later dynastic times, it was the lugal who had emerged as the preeminent role, having his own "é" (= house) or "palace", independent from the temple establishment. By the time of Mesalim, whichever dynasty controlled the city of Kish was recognised as šar kiššati (= king of Kish), and was considered preeminent in Sumer, possibly because this was where the two rivers approached, and whoever controlled Kish ultimately controlled the irrigation systems of the other cities downstream.

As Sargon extended his conquest from the "Lower Sea" (Persian Gulf), to the "Upper Sea" (Mediterranean), it was felt that he ruled "the totality of the lands under heaven", or "from sunrise to sunset", as contemporary texts put it. Under Sargon, the ensis generally retained their positions, but were seen more as provincial governors. The title šar kiššati became recognised as meaning "lord of the universe". Sargon is even recorded as having organised naval expeditions to Dilmun (Bahrain) and Magan, amongst the first organised military naval expeditions in history. Whether he also did in the case of the Mediterranean with the kingdom of Kaptara (possibly Cyprus), as claimed in later documents, is more questionable.

With Naram-Sin, Sargon's grandson, this went further than with Sargon, with the king not only being called "Lord of the Four Quarters (of the Earth)", but also elevated to the ranks of the dingir (= gods), with his own temple establishment. Previously a ruler could, like Gilgamesh, become divine after death but the Akkadian kings, from Naram-Sin onward, were considered gods on earth in their lifetimes. Their portraits showed them of larger size than mere mortals and at some distance from their retainers.

One strategy adopted by both Sargon and Naram-Sin, to maintain control of the country, was to install their daughters, Enheduanna and Emmenanna respectively, as high priestess to Sin, the Akkadian version of the Sumerian moon deity, Nanna, at Ur, in the extreme south of Sumer; to install sons as provincial ensi governors in strategic locations; and to marry their daughters to rulers of peripheral parts of the Empire (Urkesh and Marhashe). A well documented case of the latter is that of Naram-Sin's daughter Tar'am-Agade at Urkesh.

Records at the Brak administrative complex suggest that the Akkadians appointed locals as tax collectors.

Economy

The population of Akkad, like nearly all pre-modern states, was entirely dependent upon the agricultural systems of the region, which seem to have had two principal centres: the irrigated farmlands of southern Iraq that traditionally had a yield of 30 grains returned for each grain sown and the rain-fed agriculture of northern Iraq, known as the "Upper Country."

Southern Iraq during Akkadian period seems to have been approaching its modern rainfall level of less than 20 mm (1 in) per year, with the result that agriculture was totally dependent upon irrigation. Before the Akkadian period the progressive salinisation of the soils, produced by poorly drained irrigation, had been reducing yields of wheat in the southern part of the country, leading to the conversion to more salt-tolerant barley growing. Urban populations there had peaked already by 2,600 BC, and demographic pressures were high, contributing to the rise of militarism apparent immediately before the Akkadian period (as seen in the Stele of the Vultures of Eannatum). Warfare between city states had led to a population decline, from which Akkad provided a temporary respite. It was this high degree of agricultural productivity in the south that enabled the growth of the highest population densities in the world at this time, giving Akkad its military advantage.

The water table in this region was very high and replenished regularly—by winter storms in the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates from October to March and from snow-melt from March to July. Flood levels, that had been stable from about 3,000 to 2,600 BC, had started falling, and by the Akkadian period were a half-meter to a meter lower than recorded previously. Even so, the flat country and weather uncertainties made flooding much more unpredictable than in the case of the Nile; serious deluges seem to have been a regular occurrence, requiring constant maintenance of irrigation ditches and drainage systems. Farmers were recruited into regiments for this work from August to October—a period of food shortage—under the control of city temple authorities, thus acting as a form of unemployment relief. Gwendolyn Leick has suggested that this was Sargon's original employment for the king of Kish, giving him experience in effectively organising large groups of men; a tablet reads, "Sargon, the king, to whom Enlil permitted no rival—5,400 warriors ate bread daily before him".

Sea shell of a murex bearing the name of Rimush, king of Kish, c. 2270 BC, Louvre, traded from the Mediterranean coast where it was used by Canaanites to make a purple dye.

Harvest was in the late spring and during the dry summer months. Nomadic Amorites from the northwest would pasture their flocks of sheep and goats to graze on the stubble and be watered from the river and irrigation canals. For this privilege, they would have to pay a tax in wool, meat, milk, and cheese to the temples, who would distribute these products to the bureaucracy and priesthood. In good years, all would go well, but in bad years, wild winter pastures would be in short supply, nomads would seek to pasture their flocks in the grain fields, and conflicts with farmers would result. It would appear that the subsidizing of southern populations by the import of wheat from the north of the Empire temporarily overcame this problem, and it seems to have allowed economic recovery and a growing population within this region.

As a result, Sumer and Akkad had a surplus of agricultural products but was short of almost everything else, particularly metal ores, timber and building stone, all of which had to be imported. The spread of the Akkadian state as far as the "silver mountain" (possibly the Taurus Mountains), the "cedars" of Lebanon, and the copper deposits of Magan, was largely motivated by the goal of securing control over these imports. One tablet reads "Sargon, the king of Kish, triumphed in thirty-four battles (over the cities) up to the edge of the sea (and) destroyed their walls. He made the ships from Meluhha, the ships from Magan (and) the ships from Dilmun tie up alongside the quay of Agade. Sargon the king prostrated himself before (the god) Dagan (and) made supplication to him; (and) he (Dagan) gave him the upper land, namely Mari, Yarmuti, (and) Ebla, up to the Cedar Forest (and) up to the Silver Mountain".

Culture

Art

In art there was a great emphasis on the kings of the dynasty, alongside much that continued earlier Sumerian art. Little architecture remains. In large works and small ones such as seals, the degree of realism was considerably increased, but the seals show a "grim world of cruel conflict, of danger and uncertainty, a world in which man is subjected without appeal to the incomprehensible acts of distant and fearful divinities who he must serve but cannot love. This sombre mood ... remained characteristic of Mesopotamian art..."

Language

See also: Sumerian language

During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a sprachbund. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around 2000 BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD.

Poet–priestess Enheduanna

Sumerian literature continued in rich development during the Akkadian period. Enheduanna, the "wife (Sumerian dam = high priestess) of Nanna [the Sumerian moon god] and daughter of Sargon" of the temple of Sin at Ur, who lived c. 2285–2250 BC, is the first poet in history whose name is known. Her known works include hymns to the goddess Inanna, the Exaltation of Inanna and In-nin sa-gur-ra. A third work, the Temple Hymns, a collection of specific hymns, addresses the sacred temples and their occupants, the deity to whom they were consecrated. The works of this poet are significant, because although they start out using the third person, they shift to the first person voice of the poet herself, and they mark a significant development in the use of cuneiform. As poet, princess, and priestess, she was a personality who, according to William W Hallo, "set standards in all three of her roles for many succeeding centuries"

In the Exultation of Inanna,

Enheduanna depicts Inanna as disciplining mankind as a goddess of battle. She thereby unites the warlike Akkadian Ishtar's qualities to those of the gentler Sumerian goddess of love and fecundity. She likens Inanna to a great storm bird who swoops down on the lesser gods and sends them fluttering off like surprised bats. Then, in probably the most interesting part of the hymn, Enheduanna herself steps forward in the first person to recite her own past glories, establishing her credibility, and explaining her present plight. She has been banished as high priestess from the temple in the city of Ur and from Uruk and exiled to the steppe. She begs the moon god Nanna to intercede for her because the city of Uruk, under the ruler Lugalanne, has rebelled against Sargon. The rebel, Lugalanne, has even destroyed the temple Eanna, one of the greatest temples in the ancient world, and then made advances on his sister-in-law.

Curse of Akkad

Later material described how the fall of Akkad was due to Nara-Sin's attack upon the city of Nipper. When prompted by a pair of inauspicious oracles, the king sacked the E-kur temple, supposedly protected by the god Enlil, head of the pantheon. As a result of this, eight chief deities of the Anunnaki pantheon were supposed to have come together and withdrawn their support from Akkad.

For the first time since cities were built and founded,

The great agricultural tracts produced no grain,

The inundated tracts produced no ostriches,

The irrigated orchards produced neither wine nor syrup,

The gathered clouds did not rain, the masgurum did not grow.

At that time, one shekel's worth of oil was only one-half quart,

One shekel's worth of grain was only one-half quart. . . .

These sold at such prices in the markets of all the cities!

He who slept on the roof, died on the roof,

He who slept in the house, had no burial,

People were flailing at themselves from hunger.

The kings of Akkad were legendary among later Mesopotamian civilizations, with Sargon understood as the prototype of a strong and wise leader, and his grandson Naram-Sin considered the wicked and impious leader (Unheilsherrscher in the analysis of Hans Gustav Güterbock) who brought ruin upon his kingdom.

Technology

Bassetki Statue from the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad with an inscription mentioning the construction of a temple in Akkad

Tablets from the periods reads, "(From the earliest days) no-one had made a statue of lead, (but) Rimush king of Kish, had a statue of himself made of lead. It stood before Enlil; and it recited his (Rimush's) virtues to the idu of the gods". The copper Bassetki Statue, cast with the lost wax method, testifies to the high level of skill that craftsmen achieved during the Akkadian period.

Achievements

The empire was bound together by roads, along which there was a regular postal service. Clay seals that took the place of stamps bear the names of Sargon and his son. A cadastral survey seems also to have been instituted, and one of the documents relating to it states that a certain Uru-Malik, whose name appears to indicate his Canaanite origin, was governor of the land of the Amorites, or Amurru as the semi-nomadic people of Syria and Canaan were called in Akkadian. It is probable that the first collection of astronomical observations and terrestrial omens was made for a library established by Sargon. The earliest "year names", whereby each year of a king's reign was named after a significant event performed by that king, date from Sargon's reign. Lists of these "year names" henceforth became a calendrical system used in most independent Mesopotamian city-states. In Assyria, however, years came to be named for the annual presiding limmu official appointed by the king, rather than for an event.

MISC

First Dynasty of Ur (3500-3000 BCE)

Secular and religion life in Ur

Late in the fourth or early in the third millennium BCE, the Sumerians, a non-Semitic people from Anatolia, the geographical region including Turkey, began to build the city of Ur.

Located about 200 miles (325 kilometers) southeast of present-day Baghdad, Ur became the capital of the whole of southern Mesopotamia during the 25th centuryBCE (first dynasty of Ur).

Throughout its history prior to Abraham, Ur had variously been an independent city-state ruled by a king, a city-state in vassalage to some other southern Mesopotamian city, or the seat of power that ruled over the entirety of southern Mesopotamia.

In all three phases, a system of city administration and government was established. Labor was highly specialized, and included agriculture, fishing, staff to service the temple, and various skilled craftsmen, such as sculptors, seal engravers, smiths, carpenters, potters, and workers in reeds and textiles.

Such specialization in labor was made possible by a system in which part of the population received its daily sustenance from a central distribution supply, in return for its labor in non-agricultural pursuits. Agricultural enterprises formed the mainstay of the economy of ancient Ur.

Utilizing a rotational system, approximately 3,000 acres.

The period usually refers to the 141 years circa 2334-2193BCE defined by the reign of the five kings of the Sargonic Dynasty. The area extended from north of Nippur to Sippar.

Some scholars add another 40 years to this period to include the two later kings of the city-state Akkad--which has not yet been found by archaeologists.

Sargon was King of Kish which implied suzerainty over northern Babylonia when he defeated the principal ruler in Sumer -- King Lugalzagesi of Uruk thus uniting the non-Semitic Sumer with the more northerly Akkad under one kingship.

Third Dynasty of Ur (2112-2002 BCE)=

Ancient historiography ascribed to King Utu-Khegal of city-state Uruk (2133-2113 BCE) the actual role of liberating Sumer by ousting the Gutian hordes. After the death of Utukhegal his brother and general Ur-Nammu asserted his independence and established a kingship in Ur and its surroundings--thus establishing the Third Dynasty of Ur in 2112 BCE. At first however the kingdom of Ur was probably overshadowed by Lagash.

The period between ca. 2112-2004 BCE is known as the Ur III period. Documents again began to be written in Sumerian, although Sumerian was becoming a purely literary or liturgical language, much as Latin later would be in MedievalEurope.

The Dynasty of King Gudea partly overlaps the reign of Ur-Nammu. Ur-Nammu consolidated his control by defeating the rival dynasty in Lagash and soon gained control of all of the Sumerian city-states. The Third Dynasty of Ur came to an end when the Elamites destroyed the city-state and captured Ibbi-Sin (2029-2002 BCE) and deported him to Elam.

The city-state ruler who finally achieved a temporary supremacy and whose dynasty was in some senses the heir to the Third Dynasty of Ur was Ishbi-Erra of Isin. Larsa alternated with Isin in controlling southern Mesopotamia in the first two centuries of the 2nd millennium BCE. Neither state could properly be regarded as sole legitimate ruler of Babylonia

The Sumerian legacy included: cuneiform writing and epic narratives; architectural innovations (the column, arch, vault, and dome); increased specialization of the work force (sculptors, seal engravers, smiths, carpenters, shipbuilders, potters, and workers in reeds and textiles) and agricultural irrigation; etc.

By the late 24th century BCE, the Akkadians, under Sargon I, had established their capital at the newly built city of Akkad (Accad or Agade), north of Ur in the northern portion of southern Mesopotamia, and had created a large empire including: Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon; parts of Turkey and Iran; and possibly Egypt, Ethiopia, and Cyprus. In short, the Akkadian Empire was essentially an empire of the entire known world at that time. In the process, a large percentage of the Akkadians had become urbanized.

Map of the Akkadian Empire (brown) and the directions in which military campaigns were conducted (yellow arrows)

After coming to power in Kish, Sargon soon attacked Uruk, which was ruled by Lugal-Zage-Si of Umma. He captured Uruk and dismantled its famous walls. The defenders seem to have fled the city, joining an army led by fifty ensis from the provinces. This Sumerian force fought two pitched battles against the Akkadians, as a result of which the remaining forces of Lugal-Zage-Si were routed. Lugal-Zage-Si himself was captured and brought to Nippur; Sargon inscribed on the pedestal of a statue (preserved in a later tablet) that he brought Lugal-Zage-Si "in a dog collar to the gate of Enlil." Sargon pursued his enemies to Ur before moving eastwards to Lagash, to the Persian Gulf, and thence to Umma. He made a symbolic gesture of washing his weapons in the "lower sea" (Persian Gulf) to show that he had conquered Sumer in its entirety.

Another victory Sargon celebrated was over Kashtubila, king of Kazalla. According to one ancient source, Sargon laid the city of Kazalla to waste so effectively "that the birds could not find a place to perch away from the ground."

To help limit the chance of revolt in Sumer he appointed a court of 5,400 men to "share his table" (i.e., to administer his empire). These 5,400 men may have constituted Sargon's army. The governors chosen by Sargon to administer the main city-states of Sumer were Akkadians, not Sumerians. The Semitic Akkadian languagebecame the lingua franca, the official language of inscriptions in allMesopotamia, and of great influence far beyond. Sargon's empire maintained trade and diplomatic contacts with kingdoms around the Arabian Sea and elsewhere in the Near East. Sargon's inscriptions report that ships from Magan,Meluhha, and Dilmun, among other places, rode at anchor in his capital of Agade.

The former religious institutions of Sumer, already well-known and emulated by the Semites, were respected. Sumerian remained, in large part, the language of religion and Sargon and his successors were patrons of the Sumerian cults. Sargon styled himself "anointed priest of Anu" and "great ensi of Enlil". While Sargon is often credited with the first true empire, Lugal-Zage-Si preceded him; after coming to power in Umma he had conquered or otherwise come into possession of Ur, Uruk, Nippur, and Lagash. Lugal-Zage-Si claimed rulership over lands as far away as the Mediterranean. He was king for 50 years and his empire lasted 100 years after he died.

Around the last half of the 23rd century BCE, the Akkadian Empire was ruled by Naram-Sin, the grandson of Sargon I. Naram-Sin was a man of despotic pride and arrogance, who took the royal titles of "king of the four quarters of the earth" and "god of Akkad". It may be noted here that he installed his daughter, Enmenanna, in the office of high priestess of the Akkadian moon god, Sin, at the temple in Ur, which was one of the major cult cities in ancient Mesopotamia where the moon was the center of worship.

The Empire of Akkad in 2154 BCE, within 180 years of its founding, ushering in a period of regional decline that lasted until the rise of the Third Dynasty of Ur in 2112 BCE. By the end of the reign of Naram-Sin's son, Shar-kali-sharri (2217–2193 BCE), the empire had weakened. There was a period of anarchy between 2192 BC and 2168 BCE. Shu-Durul (2168–2154 BCE) appears to have restored some centralized authority, however he was unable to prevent the empire eventually collapsing outright from the invasion of barbarian peoples from the Zagros Mountains known as the Gutians.

Little is known about the Gutian period, or how long it endured. Cuneiform sources suggest that the Gutians' administration showed little concern for maintaining agriculture, written records, or public safety; they reputedly released all farm animals to roam about Mesopotamia freely, and soon brought about famine and rocketing grain prices. The decline coincided with severe drought, possibly connected with climatic changes reaching all across the area from Egypt to Greece. The Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (2112–2095 BCE) cleared the Gutians from Mesopotamia during his reign.

It has recently been suggested that the regional decline at the end of the Akkadian period (and of the First Intermediary Period that followed the Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom) was associated with rapidly increasing aridity, and failing rainfall in the region of the Ancient Near East, caused by a global centennial-scale drought. H. Weiss et al. have shown "Archaeological and soil-stratigraphic data define the origin, growth, and collapse of Subir, the third millennium rain-fed agriculture civilization of northern Mesopotamia on the Habur Plains of Syria. At 2200 BCE BCE, a marked increase in aridity and wind circulation, subsequent to a volcanic eruption, induced a considerable degradation of land-use conditions. After four centuries of urban life, this abrupt climatic change evidently caused abandonment of Tell Leilan, regional desertion, and collapse of the Akkadian empire based in southern Mesopotamia. Synchronous collapse in adjacent regions suggests that the impact of the abrupt climatic change was extensive.". Peter B. deMenocal, has shown there was an influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the stream flow of the Tigris and Euphrates at this time, which led to the collapse of the Akkadian Empire".

The Sumerian King List, describing the Akkadian Empire after the death of Shar-kali-shari, states:

"Who was king? Who was not king? Irgigi the king; Nanum, the king; Imi the king; Ilulu, the king—the four of them were kings but reigned only three years. Dudu reigned 21 years; Shu-Turul, the son of Dudu, reigned 15 years. … Agade was defeated and its kingship carried off to Uruk. In Uruk, Ur-ningin reigned 7 years, Ur-gigir, son of Ur-ningin, reigned 6 years; Kuda reigned 6 years; Puzur-ili reigned 5 years, Ur-Utu reigned 6 years. Uruk was smitten with weapons and its kingship carried off by the Gutian hordes.

However, there are no known year-names or other archaeological evidence verifying any of these later kings of Akkad or Uruk, apart from a single artifact referencing king Dudu of Akkad. The named kings of Uruk may have been contemporaries of the last kings of Akkad, but in any event could not have been very prominent.

In the Gutian hordes, (first reigned) a nameless king; (then) Imta reigned 3 years as king; Shulme reigned 6 years; Elulumesh reigned 6 years; Inimbakesh reigned 5 years; Igeshuash reigned 6 years; Iarlagab reigned 15 years; Ibate reigned 3 years; … reigned 3 years; Kurum reigned 1 year; … reigned 3 years; … reigned 2 years; Iararum reigned 2 years; Ibranum reigned 1 year; Hablum reigned 2 years; Puzur-Sin son of Hablum reigned 7 years; Iarlaganda reigned 7 years; … reigned 7 years; … reigned 40 days. Total 21 kings reigned 91 years, 40 days.

Evidence from Tell Leilan in Northern Mesopotamia shows what may have happened. The site was abandoned soon after the city's massive walls were constructed, its temple rebuilt and its grain production reorganized. The debris, dust and sand that followed show no trace of human activity. Soil samples show fine wind-blown sand, no trace of earthworm activity, reduced rainfall and indications of a drier and windier climate. Evidence shows that skeleton-thin sheep and cattle died of drought, and up to 28,000 people abandoned the site, seeking wetter areas elsewhere. Tell Brak shrank in size by 75%. Trade collapsed.Nomadic herders such as the Amorites moved herds closer to reliable water suppliers, bringing them into conflict with Akkadian populations. This climate-induced collapse seems to have affected the whole of the Middle East, and to have coincided with the collapse of the Egyptian Old Kingdom.

This collapse of rain-fed agriculture in the Upper Country meant the loss to southern Mesopotamia of the agrarian subsidies which had kept the Akkadian Empire solvent. Water levels within the Tigris and Euphrates fell 1.5 meters beneath the level of 2600 BCE, and although they stabilized for a time during the following Ur III period, rivalries between pastoralists and farmers increased. Attempts were undertaken to prevent the former from herding their flocks in agricultural lands, such as the building of a 180 km (112 mi) wall known as the "Repeller of the Amorites" between the Tigris and Euphrates under the Ur III ruler Shu-Sin. Such attempts led to increased political instability; meanwhile, severe depopulation occurred to re-establishdemographic equilibrium with the less favorable climatic conditions.

verses: torah

ויחי תרח שבעים שנה ויולד את אברם את נחור ואת הרן׃ ואלה תולדת תרח תרח הוליד את אברם את נחור ואת הרן והרן הוליד את לוט

"Teraḥ lived seventy years and beget Abrâm, Nâḥôr, and Hârân." "Now these (are) the generations of Teraḥ; Teraḥ beget Abrâm, Naḥor, and Hârân; and Hârân, the father of Lôṭ." [ Genesis 11:26-27 ]

וימת הרן על פני תרח אביו בארץ מולדתו באור כשדים

"Hârân died in the presence of his father, Teraḥ; in the land of his birth, in Ur Kaśdîm." [ Genesis 11:28 ]

ויקח אברם ונחור להם נשים שם אשת אברם שרי ושם אשת נחור מלכה בת הרן אבי מלכה ואבי יסכה

"Abrâm and Nâḥôr took (themselves) wives; the name of Abrâm's wife was Sârây, and the name of Nâḥôr's wife was Milkâh, the daughter of Hârân– –the father of Milkâh, the father of Yiskâh. [ Genesis 11:29 ]

:ותהי שרי עקרה אין לה ולד

"And come Sârây (be) barren, had no child." [ Genesis 11:30 ]

ויקח תרח את אברם בנו ואת לוט בן הרן בן בנו ואת שרי כלתו אשת אברם בנו ויצאו אתם מאור כשדים ללכת ארצה כנען ויבאו עד חרן וישבו שם

"And Teraḥ took his son, Abrâm, and Lôṭ ben Hârân–his grandson–with his son; and Sârây, his daughter-in-law, his son, Abraham's wife." [ Genesis 11:31 ]

verses: qur'an

۞ وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ لِأَبِيهِ آزَرَ أَتَتَّخِذُ أَصْنَامًا آلِهَةً ۖ إِنِّي أَرَاكَ وَقَوْمَكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ

"And when Abraham said to his father Azar, "Do you take idols as deities? Indeed, I see you and your people to be in manifest error." [ Qur'an 6:74 ]

۞ وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ لِأَبِيهِ آزَرَ أَتَتَّخِذُ أَصْنَامًا آلِهَةً ۖ إِنِّي أَرَاكَ وَقَوْمَكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ

"And when Abraham said to his father Azar, "Do you take idols as deities? Indeed, I see you and your people to be in manifest error." [ Qur'an 6:74 ]

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Typhoon approaches. Destruction of Temple of Enlil at Nippur (fall of "Tower of Babel")

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îâôêûšŠṭḥ

Teraḥ

Abrâm

Sârây

Lôṭ

Milkâh

Yiskâh

Naḥor I

Naḥor II

Hârân I

Hârân II

misc.

Table 2: The Genealogy of Abraham

Naḥor I

Teraḥ

Hanal?

Hârân I

Azar

Amathlai (='Edna?)

Yiskâh*

Naḥor II

Hârân II

Milkâh

Lôṭ

Hagar

Sarah

Abraham

Keturah*

Ishmael

Isaac

Zimran

Joktan

Midian

Midian

Ishbak

Shuah

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Whether Abraham was born into an urbanized or a nomadic Akkadian family remains unanswered. Judaeo-Christian scripture, the Qur'an, and Sahih Ahadith provide no concrete evidence regarding whether Abraham's family was urbanized and lived full time in Ur, or whether they were still nomadic and migrated around the rural areas surrounding Ur.

Likewise, one simply doesn't know whether Azar and his sons were skilled artisans working in the city, or whether they were agricultural workers or shepherds, who tended their flocks in the countryside.

It was probably during, or slightly before, the reign of the fourth Akkadian king, Naram-Sin, that Abraham was born.[see Appendix XX]]

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Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam) stated: All converts are considered descendants of Abraham because the Torah calls him the father of...nations, and therefore a convert can be called a son of Abraham. This means that the spiritual mission of mankind, which began with Adam, was now transferred to Abraham.Abraham back to Adam. Terah is the tenth descendant from Noah, who fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran; Haran fathered Lot. In addition, B'resheith lists two brothers of Abram, i.e. Nahor II and Haran II, and one nephew, i.e. Lot, the son of Haran II.

<-----Sixth or fifth century BCE P strand of B'resheith11:26-27.----->

According to the P strand of B'resheith, there were ten generations from Noah to Abraham. The Mishnah illustrates that it demonstrates how patient GOD is, for all generations kept provoking Him, until the patriarch Abraham came and received the reward of them all.

<-----Mishnah Pirkei Avot 5:2----->

There had been ten generations from Adam to Noah, giving humankind the opportunity to fulfill its responsibility to carry out the plan of Creation; they failed, and the Flood wiped them away. Then the mission fell to Noah and his offspring. The cycle was repeated: the next generation failed as well, but this time Abraham was able to prevent destruction. So great was he and so concerned with helping others that he was able to save the world. Simultaneously, he assumed the role that had previously been that of the entire race: He and his offspring would be the people of GOD, and bear the primary responsibility for bringing the Divine Plan to fruition. The children of Noah would be left with the seven universal laws, but Abraham's progeny would accept the Torah with its 613 commandments.

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There have been over two hundred attempts to match the biblical chronology to dates in history, few of the more influential being:

• Traditional Jewish dates (circa 1812 BCE to 1637BCE).
• 17th century Archbishop James Ussher (circa 1976 BCE to 1801BCE).
• According to the Tanakh, a standardized Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, places Abraham's birth 1,948 years after the Creation, or 1948 anno mundi. The two other major textual traditions have different dates, the translated Greek Septuagint putting it at 3312AM and the Samaritan version of the Torah at 2247AM. All three agree that he died at the age of 175.
• Abraham appears to have been born circa 2,166 BCE.

In the book of Genesis, J strand, indicates that Abraham's original name was Abram. Etymologically the name suggests it was had really beenAbi-ram [i.e. "the (my) father is exalted"]. The tractate Berachos 13a interprets the verse (Genesis 17:5) as positive and negative commandments, it is strictly forbidden to refer to Abraham as "Abram."

Three factors should be considered in evaluating the name change as reported inB'resheith.

1. the name change is obviously in response to the birth of Ishmael, as Ishaq, عليهم السلام reportedly was not yet born. It is suggested that the name change reported inPstrand ofB'resheith was to thread together two separate traditions, possible two different individuals, and had been merged into theB'resheith/Genesis narrative.
2. the etymology utilized in B'resheith is wrong. "Ancestor of a multitude (of nations)" would be "Abhamon", not "Abraham".
3. two different traditions according to the documentary hypothesis,JandEstrands, merged into the B'resheith narrative.

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The rabbinical view holds that since after the Flood, Creation now begins anew, for it was Abraham who would bear the burden of holiness in the world.

• According to Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi), Abraham's name signified this; at first he was named 'Abram', a contraction of אב ארם, father [i.e., teacher] of Aram, for he began as a leader of only his own nation, but ultimately he became a father to the whole world.

Furthermore, Abram's name was changed toAbraham, a contraction representing his new status as av hamon—father of a multitude—whereas the name Avram represented his former status as only av Aram—father of Aram, his native country. Although he was no longer associated only with Aram, the letter was retained.

Abraham's new description as father of a multitude of nations was not rhetorical; it has halakhic implications that shed light on its deeper meaning. In explaining how converts who bring their 'first fruits' (bikkurim) to the Temple can recite the required formula thanking GOD for the land He swore to give ourfathers (Devarim 26:3)—though converts do not descend from the Patriarchs.

Bibliography

• The Chumash (in Hebrew/English). Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications, Ltd. 2009. ISBN 978-0899060149. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Qur'an (in Dr. al-Hilali & Khan [trans.]). Madinah, Saudi Arabia: King Fahd Complex. 1951. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

• Dirks, Jerald F. (2009). Beltsville, Maryland: Amana Publications. ISBN 978-1590080092. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)
• al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir (1987). Ta'rikh al-Rusul Wa'l-Muluk. History of al-Tabari (in Brinner and W.M. [trans.]). Vol. II. Albany, New York: University of New York Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir (1989). Ta'rikh al-Rusul Wa'l-Muluk. History of al-Tabari (in Rosenthal and F. [trans.]). Vol. I. Albany, New York: University of New York Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

• Rohl, David M. (1995). New York: Crown Publishers. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)

• Josephus, T. Flavius (1995). The New Complete Works of Josephus (in Whiston and William [trans.]). New York: Crown Publishers. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

• Josephus, T. Flavius (1999). Josephus, The Essential Writings: A Condensation of Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War (in Maier and Paul [trans.]). Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |book-title= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

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• "Biblical Chronology, Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)". Newadvent.org. 1 November 1908. Retrieved March 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

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