Mesopotamia divided into independent city-states, about 12 in
each of two general regions
Northern Mesopotamia = Akkad (Akkadian language)
Southern Mesopotamia = Sumer (Sumerian language)
hard to distinguish the two groups in this period
similar cultural features
Akkadians used Sumerian script
script called cuneiform (wedge-shaped); each sign stands
for a syllable or a word
Sumerian culture
government: each city-state ruled by people with three
titles; distinctions not clear
lugal ("big man") is king
ensi usually translated 'governor'; subordinate
to king
en seems to have religious duties
rulers hold power as agents of gods, though church and
state separate by end of this period
religion
Sumerians had hundreds of gods, from major sky god to
god of bricks, plow, writing; each city had its own guardian
guard
Anu: god of sky and heavens
Enlil: lord of the air (replaces Anu as guardian god of
Uruk in this period)
Marduk: storm god, creator of universe and human
race
Inanna (Ishtar): goddess of love and war
creation myth (called Enuma Elish, "When on
high"):
as in Egypt, begins with watery chaos
Apsu (fresh water, male) and Tiamat (salt water,
female) produce children, then try to suppress them
their son Ea (god of intelligence) kills Apsu; his
son Marduk (storm god) eventually kills Tiamat and
creates universe as we know it
history and society
Sumerian king-list (oldest copy surviving dates to
beginning 2nd millenium)
records rulers from earliest times for each
city-state, before and after the Flood
First Dynasty of Ur is among those recorded
temples, palaces are coordinating focal points of
authority
Epic of Gilgamesh:
see summary in Nagle; he is depicted as master of
animals
Monuments
Ur, First Dynasty, 2500-2350 B.C. (Sumerian)
royal cemetery excavated by Leonard Woolley (starting in
1927)
most bodies laid on side, in mat or coffin, at bottom of
a vertical shaft
grave goods: personal possessions, like cylinder seal,
dagger, jewelry; also vessels for food and drink, weapons,
makeup
17 more elaborate built graves&emdash;several chambers;
vaults&emdash;Royal burials
contain dozens of attendants as well as the principal
body
one pair of royal tombs placed one above the other;
lower called King's Grave
lower grave (RT 789): sloping ramp with skeletons of
six armed soldiers at bottom, then wagons pulled by oxen,
then over 50 male and female skeletons
lyre with bull's head, inlaid scenes on
box&emdash;one of two found with group of female
skeletons
more bodies, and model boats in copper and silver
near door; chamber robbed
upper grave (RT 800): five bodies on ramp, wooden
sledge decorated with mosaics of lapis and shell, and
gold and silver lions' and bulls' heads; drawn by oxen
in chamber, body of a woman with cylinder seal
inscribed 'Puabi, queen', and two attendants; one
attendant has elaborate headdress
another tomb robbed, but outer area ('Great Death Pit')
preserved (RT 1237)
74 elaborately adorned attendants (soldiers,
musicians, servants) in a space less than 9x8 m.
statuettes of "ram caught in a thicket"
in two other graves, several items inscribed with name
of King Meskalamdug (known from King List)
