Sumer

Background

Sumer refers both to the region along the lower Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in what is today southern Iraq, and to the civilization that arose there. Mesopotamia, the name for the broader region, is a Greek term meaning "land between the rivers." The name "Sumer" derives from a later Akkadian term. The Sumerians themselves are thought to have called their land "Kiengi," among other names.

The Sumerian language is unrelated to the Semitic languages, the family to which Akkadian and Hebrew belong. Because no related language has been identified, it is classified as a language isolate. Although the region received little rainfall, the Sumerians sustained a large population through irrigated agriculture, drawing water through canals, and they built large cities from an early period.

Development

The dates below are approximate, following the chronology commonly used by scholars, and they can vary by several decades or more from one scholar to another.

• Fourth millennium BC (Uruk period): Large cities such as Uruk emerged. Around 3200 BC, pictographic writing began to develop into cuneiform. Cuneiform is a script formed by pressing the tip of a reed into clay tablets to make wedge-shaped strokes.
• c. 2900–2350 BC (Early Dynastic period): Numerous city-states, including Ur, Uruk, Lagash, and Nippur, competed with one another, each with its own patron deity and temple.
• c. 24th century BC: Sargon of Akkad unified Mesopotamia. As a result, the Akkadians, a Semitic people, came to rule the region.
• Late 22nd–21st century BC (Third Dynasty of Ur): Under the dynasty founded by Ur-Nammu, Sumerian culture flourished once again. The Great Ziggurat of Ur, a stepped temple tower, was built during this time. The Code of Ur-Nammu, produced in this period, is regarded as one of the oldest surviving law codes.
• c. 2004 BC: Ur fell to an Elamite invasion, bringing Sumer to an end as a political power.

Outcome and Influence

Sumerian died out as a spoken language, but it continued to be used in Mesopotamia for a long time afterward as a language of scholarship and religious ritual. Sumer's legacy, including its writing system, the sexagesimal (base-60) number system, written law, epic literature such as the Gilgamesh stories, and the ziggurat, passed on to the later civilizations of Babylon and Assyria.

Sumerian civilization was rediscovered in the nineteenth century, when scholars deciphering cuneiform identified a language distinct from Akkadian. In the twentieth century, Leonard Woolley excavated Ur (1922–1934), bringing the royal cemetery and other finds to public attention.

Relation to the Bible

• Erech and Accad, cities "in the land of Shinar" according to Genesis 10:10, are commonly identified with Uruk and Akkad, respectively.
• The account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 describes construction using brick and slime (Genesis 11:3). Many scholars point to the ziggurat as the background of this account.
• Since Woolley's excavations, the identification of Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:31), the homeland of Abraham, with the southern city of Ur has become widely known. Some, however, identify it with another site in northern Mesopotamia.
• The Sumerian-language flood story and the reference to a flood in the Sumerian King List have been compared with Noah's Flood.

Assessment

Approaches to connecting the results of Sumerian excavations with the Bible tend to divide according to one's view of Scripture rather than along denominational lines.

• Conservative evangelical view: Archaeological discoveries are seen as supporting the historicity of the place names and historical settings found in the Bible. The similarities among various flood traditions are often interpreted as preserved memories of an actual event. This position is closely linked to biblical inerrancy.
• Historical-critical scholarship: The writer of Genesis is held to have known Mesopotamian traditions and to have reworked them in light of Israel's faith.
• Mediating view: Some scholars regard Genesis as a text that critiques and rewrites polytheistic myths from the perspective of monotheistic faith.

The flood deposit Woolley found at Ur is today generally interpreted as evidence of a flood confined to that region.