Sumerian History

Third-millennium Mesopotamia has provided an impressive quantity of sources for the study of ancient slavery, among them a collection of standards (the so-called Laws of Ur-Namma). Despite the volume of documents, Mesopotamian slavery remains elusive in its general traits. This is partly due to the nature of the sources, but also to the approaches and interpretations of modern scholars. Slavery in ancient Mesopotamia has been the focus of several studies in the 1960s and 1970s that interpreted the sources using comparative approaches and Marxist analyses. Since then, the topic has seldom been revisited. In this article, I present the status quaestionis with an overview of the available sources and related studies, together with a sketch of the different types of bonded and forced labor in the Neo-Sumerian period (21st cent. bce).

O presente trabalho pretende discutir a construção da ideia de prostituição sagrada no Antigo Crescente Fértil a partir da análise de trabalhos historiográficos do século XIX, XX e início do século XXI. Analisaremos como as relações de gênero e o contexto histórico dos autores têm reflexos sobre a leitura e interpretação das fontes bem como sobre o desenvolvimento de sua obra, contribuindo assim para a construção da ideia que cada autor desenvolve.

This article examines 15 cuneiform tablets from the late 3rd millennium BC from southern Mesopotamia. As administrative tools of the Ur III state bureaucracy, the texts are primarily concerned with the administrative and economic affairs of the central authority, but they also offer important information on the individuals living in the Ur III state and their different roles within the state's bureaucratic structures.

Full-text access to articles in ORIENT: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/orient/

Interpretation of the Sumerian Hymn, based on the insight in the Sumerian religion as a form of Agama and Tantric tradition and on the understanding given by the Tamil version of the Sumerian text.

Has included the description of Krisna´s abode in Goloka as we find it given in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana 2nd chapter and the desrciption of Tillai found in the Tiruvasagam  for comparing it to the Sumerian Hymn.

At the end of the 24th century, c.2300±30 bce, Sargon of Akkade (2324–2285±30 bce) defeated Lugalzagesi, king of Uruk, unified the whole of Babylonia proper in a single territorial state, and laid the foundation of the Akkadian Empire. Sargon, his sons Rimush and Manishtushu, and his grandson Naramsuen led their armies as far as the Mediterranean in the west, reached the springs of Euphrates and Tigris in the north, and campaigned as far as highland Iran in the east and the Arabian Gulf in the south, dominating the political landscape of Mesopotamia for more than a century (2300–2181±30 bce). Under Sharkalisharri, westerners and Guteans penetrated the empire, provinces defected, and Akkade was reduced to a petty state. After a short period of confusion, Dudu and Shudurul (2177–2142±30 bce) presided over an Akkadian resurgence, but the Guteans successively conquered central and northern Babylonia and thus eliminated Akkade from the political stage.

THE NEPHILIM, KINGS OF AN EPIC AGE, is a pioneering work tracking down the story of the enigmatic scions of the gods or Nephilim in ancient Middle Eastern tradition. Commencing with the most ancient strata of traditions of Sumer and Egypt, the focus falls on the earliest known and perhaps greatest of heroic ages, the Epic Age of great Sumerian kings like Gilgamesh and mighty Akkadian god-kings who ruled over the ends of the known world. Their epic traditions, which include some of the greatest legends and myths our world has seen, are brought to life in an unprecedented way.

THE NEPHILIM also explores their secret doctrine. Although many authors have written about the strange world of the ancients, this work explores the secrets and enigmas specifically associated with the Sumerians and the Akkadians, something that has never been done before. The author’s newly published chronology for the ancient Middle Eastern world, dramatically confirmed by the recent discovery of an important cuneiform text, is utilised to shed new light on many gaps in our knowledge and to unlock those mysteries.

Also investigated and studied is the relationship between the Sumero-Akkadian and the Israelite, Persian, Indian and Egyptian traditions as well as the history of religion. Readers intrigued by the ancient world and all its marvels will find this work truly fascinating and absolutely worth the read.

#1. Neolithic technology, especially technology involving the use of reeds and weaving, was highly advanced long before the beginning of Sumerian civilizations. Many of these technologies were based on 'basket weaving technology' and were involved in the creation of a wide variety of products from bitumen treated basket-buckets used in irrigation to large reed ships.
#2. These advanced Neolithic technologies formed the bedrock, the foundation, for the emergence of these civilizations. These technologies were crucial, for example, to the development of irrigation and dredging the canals.
#3. When more advanced technologies appeared such as copper, bronze, and fired bricks (many treated with bitumen), the earlier technologies played a supporting role and were involved in their development and their production.
#4. Although new technologies emerged, they did not entirely replace the older technology which continued to be used in a variety of roles both traditional and in support of the new technologies.
#5. There have been many misconceptions about the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia which has made it hard to grasp the 'big picture'. Housing made of reeds, for example, may have been much more widespread than previously thought and a huge fleet of reed boats and coracles made with reeds may have been as important, if not more important, than the large wooden ships that were developed to haul heavy cargoes and to import goods from distant ports. In addition, there was an extensive reed industry that existed from Neolithic times and continued with the Sumerian civilizations but this industry has not been properly identified.

Представлена детальная реконструкция систем мер длины, применявшихся на территории Древней Месопотамии до завоевания ее персами.
(There is detailed reconstruction of the systems of measures of length used on the territory of ancient Mesopotamia until its conquest by the Persians.)
(Das ist detaillierte Rekonstruktion der Systemen der Maßen der Länge, der  auf dem Gebiet des Alten Mesopotamien bis zur Eroberung durch die Perser  verwendet.)

Study of the Sumerian Temple Hymns with Tamil version, English translation and view on the philosophy of Agama andTantric tradition of ancient India.
All the Sumerian temply hymns are taken from the Electronic text corpus of Sumerian Literature. Their version in Tamil offer new and often better translations of the poems than found in electronic text corpus.

The story of "the curse of Agade" in view of philosophy the ancient Indian Agama and Tantric texts, especially the Saiva Siddanta. With Sumerian texts, version in Tamil language ann English translation.
With lexical notes and an appendix on Sumerian music and the Sumerian lyre in view to Tamil and Sanskrit texts on music

A first study in the historical evolution of the Tamil Verbal System.

During my studies of the ancient Sumerian texts in the light of the Classical Tamil grammar I found many grammatical features in the Sumerian texts, which match very well with the rules and definitions found in the Tolkappiyam, but at the same time we find grammatical features, which are problematic. The first chapter on the morphology of the verb is a first small step for to try to explain these problematic features..

The first civilization after the Flood appeared "ready made", as gift by the Sumerians' Guardians or Gods, the Anunnaki.
Zecharia Sitchin was the scholar who succeed in popularizing the Sumerian civilization among the normal people all over the world, explaining the Mesopotamian tablets as reports of real events

Study o fthe Sumerian temple and gods in the light of the Agama and Tantric scriptures.
Sumerian Gods Enli, In - Anna, Enki and Asar - lu - hi as found in the temple hymns and other texts..
Has included an interpretation  of the golden panel of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun

Uno dei massimi problemi della filosofia è certamente rappresentato dalla figura dell’uomo nel suo complesso: la sua origine, la sua natura e la sua destinazione. Nel presente lavoro abbiamo voluto prendere in considerazione le risposte date a tali questioni da parte di alcune culture antiche, generalmente considerate pre-filosofiche:  la cultura sumerica, assira, babilonese, ebraica (tenendo conto della sola Bibbia ebraica) e greca (pre-platonica). L’ordine di esposizione delle tematiche è il seguente: i) concezioni della morte e del regno dei morti; ii) concezioni relative alla possibilità di raggiungere una qualche forma di immortalità; iii) concezioni della nascita, o creazione, dell’umanità e del suo scopo, o missione.

When the Akkadian empire lost its pre-eminence during the chaotic rule of the last kings of the Akkade Dynasty, the Gutians became the most important rulers and the dominant element in Mesopotamia. The paper discusses and interprets different available sources that allow making conclusions about the formation of the Neo Sumerian state. It is concluded that the versions of the Sumerian King List and the Sumerian Temple Hymns that considered Eridu the first city might all have been developed as an ideological programme for confirming the legitimate status of the city of Ur as the seat of kingship and for underlining the Ur III dynasty’s certain divine genealogical relations. It is argued that it seems stange that the Sumerian King List does not mention any dynasty of the powerful Lagašite kings. The complete omittance of Lagaš leads to the conclusion that the list might have been composed by an ideology that considered Lagaš as its enemy or rival. As testified by the Utu-hegal inscriptions and the later incorporation of the state of Lagaš under the control of the centralized Ur III empire, the kings of Ur had a serious rivalry and most probably violent confrontation with Lagaš.

"Thousands of Sumerian and Old Akkadian personal names from 3rd millennium BCE Mesopotamia are known and documented. The present study inspects names containing the royal appellatives, Sumerian lugal and Akkadian śarrum. The study aims at uncovering the relationships between personal names and the development of early historical kingship and religious thought in the area. An overview of Sumerian and Old Akkadian names and name-giving serves as a starting point for semantic investigations of lugal- and śarrum-names. Sumerian and Old Akkadian names are to a large extent meaningful, and the literal meaning can be used to arrive at an understanding of the symbolic value, which led to the coining of the name. Discussions rely on comparable passages of contemporary and later written traditions. To facilitate discussion and comparisons between the languages, names are divided into semantic groups based on characteristic traits found in contemporary royal inscriptions and religious texts. Parallel constructions are noted whenever such constructions are known. Names are assigned human or divine referents when possible. A look at political and religious developments puts the distribution of certain name types over time and space into perspective. Local and regional traditions and types are displayed and related either to royal ideological traits or to theological speculation. Besides locally significant gods, a few other deities can be identified as referents in names. A brief statistical overview of different archives shows that names featuring the figure of the lugal experience an increase in popularity at the expense of other types. A system of annotation gives approximate numbers for bearers of names belonging to the types investigated. Lists of attestations, which document date and archival context, form the basis for discussions and conclusions and make the material available for inspection and further exploration."

Sümerlerde bireyin, ibadet ve ritüellerle çevrili konumu, dini inanışlarda yer alan antropogoniler aracılığıyla belirlenmiştir. Buna göre insan sadece panteonda bulunan tanrıların ihtiyaçlarını gidererek hizmet etmek için yaratılmıştır. İbadet ve
ritüellerin mitlerden esinlenerek, otorite tarafından oluşturulduğu görülmektedir. Sümer inançlarında özel bir yeri olan büyü, fal ve kehanet gibi uygulamalar ise toplum
açısından “kutsal” kabul edilenle bir iletişim aracı olarak görülmüş, siyasi ve dini idareciler tarafından, otoritenin sağlam bir şekilde korunması için kullanılmıştır. Bu çalışmada Sümer dini içerisinde yer alan çeşitli ibadet ve ritüeller, büyü, fal ve kehanet uygulamaları, kutsal evlilik törenleri ve cenaze törenleri mitolojiyle ilişkisi dikkate alınarak anlatılmıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Sümerler, Ritüel, Dini Otorite, Enki, Mit, Kehanet.

Position of individual which has been surrounded by practices and rituals originates from anthropogony which is in the religious belief. For that reason, human has been created only to serve Gods in the pantheon. It is observed that with the
effect of myths, the rituals and ceremonies have been founded by the authorities. Magic, fortune telling, prophecy which have a significant place in the Sumerian belief, have been seen by the society as a communication tool with the “holy” and by the religious and political authorities, as a tool to protect their authority. In this article, various practices, rituals, magic, fortune telling, prophecy, holy marriage ceremonies and funeral ceremonies have been studied in case of their relation with mythology.

Key Words: The Sumerians, Ritual, Religious Authority, Enki, Myth, Fortune Telling.

Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh can lead to confusion insofar as the versions of the story and the variations of character names therein. Moreover, since the unearthing of the cuneiform tablets over a century ago at Nineveh, there have been exponential developments in the field which lead to a challenging literature review: continuous new discoveries of texts; progressive improvement in decipherment superseding past works; new publications of private collections; lack of accreditment to, or complete omission of, the works of early pioneering researchers; and multifarious interpretations of the Sumerian and Semitic texts among scholars. This paper assists readers with a perspicuous review of nascent writing systems, geocultural timelines, Mesopotamian city-states, and the Dynastic Periods. A historical overview is provided on the works of the early pioneers of Assyriology. Modern scholarship is then briefly analyzed for the most current data available, including the questionable epilogue of Tablet XII. Students outside of philological or Assyriological studies will benefit from this comprehensive, well-encompassed guide on the discoveries of the cuneiform tablets, their decipherment, and the metamorphoses of Gilgamesh from Ancient Sumerian tales to Akkadian epic through millennia.
(International Journal of Literary Humanities 14.4 (2016): 39-54.)

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, held 3rd-14th June 1992, launched the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which operates through its annual roadshow the UN Conference of Parties (COP) that seeks to establish sustainable management of the global climate system.

The  'Earth Summit' by UN in 1992 brought the problems  in climate to the attention of even some of the world's most remote and isolated nations. One of these nations was the Hopi Nation in Arizona, a non-sovereign nation - which the UN labels as 'indigenous peoples'. In a long chain of events beginning from the League of Nations' decision in 1926 to deny the First Nations of Americas and the small island nations' representation in that international forum, its successor the United Nations, turned down four attempts by the Hopi Nation to raise the issue between 1948 and 1992. Finally, in the immediate aftermath of the Rio Earth Summit (1992), the United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar authorised the Hopi Nation to table the matter to the floor of UN General Assembly 10th-11th December 1992.

The First Nations of Americas Ethnoclimatology Motion and the Tradition-Keepers ('Faith-Keepers') background to that motion is elaborated here in this UNFCCC submission with further points were raised in 1st-2nd October 2018 at CRIAS conference. This contextualises the First Nations of Americas UN General Assembly Investigation Request 101292 which was the Concluding Plea of the World Indigenous Peoples' Joint Summit with the United Nations Parties ('Member States') Delegations to open the first UN Year of the Indigenous People (1993) to other ethnoclimatologies appearing world wide. The Geophysical Annotations were discussed at the Cochabamba-Tiquipaya Climate Summit (CMPCC1) in aftermath of the collapsed Copenhagen Climate Summit COP15 (2009) with the request from the UNESCO Delegation of the Plurinational State of Bolivia on 7th January 2010 and His Excellency President Evo Morales Ayma.

The key tenents of the Geophysical Annotations being:

(1) A signal noise from a substantial radiocarbon-dilution effect due to major sea level retreats and rises during the Ice Ages that depressurised methane clathrates - releasing copious amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into air from depressurised seabed clathrates and also from thawing terra firma permafrost; this results in regressive, or sideway, 14C  readings in tree rings ("tree rings in a wrong order"). Thus, the Ice Ages era (the last glacial maxium to holocene thermal maximum period) cores of the tree trunks can appear substantially 14C-younger than the tree trunks' latest (outermost) tree-rings which cannot be the case due to the extreme steadiness of the radiocarbon's decay rate.

(2) Methane accumulates to upper troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere: hence any methane signature in the ice cores is only from methane-in-transit. Additionally the global warming episode that ended the ice ages had heavy methane loads that warmed and melted away most of the era's recent ice surfaces, thus obliterating the-then-most recently laid down snow stratum (leaving behind the earlier less methane rich snow layers). This caused incomplete records (time gaps) in the ice cores, and hence "global warming" always appears "before" higher atmospheric CO2 or CH4 levels (hence appearing as if them being 'respondents', rather than the drivers of climate warning).

(3) Noting that the partial melting equations can also be run inverse direction, it is proposed that the Pleistocene glaciations resulted in damage to Peridotite which partially melted producing basalt deposition in a large scale onto the seafloor in vast effusive eruptions with field emission of heat rather than radial spot emission of heat like in modern-day Surtseyan eruptions that have only a minimal heat crossing to sea surface due to small spatial extent of hot subsea surface. The vaporisation of sea water in field emission is vast due to spatial extent of hot subsea surface greatly exceeding the thickness of overlying water column, leading to runaway snowfalls. This caused an inflated size hydrological cycle which effectively washed out atmosphere-generated radiocarbon while geological seabed-associated depressurised carbon-12 was being released en masse leading to negligible carbon-14 readings (the radiocarbon-dilution effect by the Pleistocene's hydrological cycle / sea bed depressurisation).

On these three premises, the First Nations of Americans Ethnoclimatology Motion at the United Nations General Assembly on 10th-11th December 1992 is proposed as a variant possibility to the climate theories advocated aggressively by the Western Group of Nations and their influential academia. Its implications to present-day climate change suggest that the Polar Ice Caps will continue on their much-faster-than-anticipated loss trajectory to violent collapses. This aspect was highlighted in Sea Research Society's Evidence Giving at the UK Houses of Parliament in Environmental Audit Committee evidence giving on 5th and 24th April 2017. The urgency of situation is underlined by the fact that despite world-wide economic shut down by covid-19, carbon dioxide has continued its rapid rise to 417 parts per million indicating that time to act is running out as the remaining North Pole marine ice cap is soon to melt away and then destabilise the surrounding glaciers post Arctic sea ice (most notably the Greenland Ice Sheet).

Publication and critical edition of 521 Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform tablets, archival records of palace and temple households, legal documents, and a number of school tablets.
The book contains the photographs, transliterations, translations, and commentary of these texts thus making these fascinating 3rd mill BC documents available to the broader public.
These cuneiform documents offer new data on the topics such as history of the early Sumerian states and the Akkadian Empire, management of irrigated land, management of personnel, textile and metal industries, slavery, hired labor, finanacial activities, agriculture and animal husbandry, food production, priesthood and cult, the role of women, and almost any aspect of the life how it was almost 5000 years ago.

SUMMARY
This thesis shall identify the date origin of the composite bow within Mesopotamia and Elam. and both identify and quantify the design factors which lead to increased performance possible with composite construction. To accomplish this, the thesis begins by summarizing the problems and flaws that currently exist in the field of history as it applies specifically to archery and bow use. With problems identified, the thesis will then introduce the reader to the basics of bow mechanics, thereby laying the basis for physical testing. This in turn will empirically demonstrate flaws in the current iconographical method of bow identification. The thesis will then devise a new method for iconographic identification of composite construction that has greater proven accuracy, based upon proportional length, which will link extant artifacts with both physical test results and iconographic evidence.

The reader shall then be led through a complete reevaluation of iconographical evidence for Mesopotamia and Elam starting at the beginning of the second millennium BCE and working backwards using this new method of iconographic evaluation to determine the point at which composite bow technology first appears in the ancient Near East. The thesis will finish with an overview of the above accomplishments and their potential impact on the study of ancient and military history.

KEY TERMS
Ancient History, Military History, Archery, Bow, Composite, Experimental Archaeology, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Elam, Arrow

Aim This review puts a previous paper on the Neolithic into context with later historical periods, and discusses the luni-solar calendar described in the non-canonical biblical books of Jubilees, Enoch and Jasher in relation to a theoretical geocentric-based calendar described previously (Iliffe 2019). The texts were written or copied in about 200-100 BC, and were embedded within a context of 300 BC Greek astronomy and science, describing a solar calendar that was designed for a latitude of midway between the equator and the pole.
Main findings The texts describe a geocentric-based 364-365 day solar year calendar based on sunrises and sets through portals, which could have been timber or stone, or hypothetical. Despite the calendar text being found at the northern end of the Dead Sea, near Jerusalem and Jericho, at 31.75 degrees north, it relates to a more northern latitude of 49 degrees, as the day-length in midsummer was twice that in midwinter. Locations of the portals, could have been anywhere along that latitude, from Morbihan, though the Hallstatt regions, to the Danube, areas that had close links to Anatolia and Mediterranean cultures. The 'generations of heaven and earth' from Adam to Moses also appear to be a description of a calendar of the solar year with 365 days, with the flood story illustrating the seasons. The biblical antediluvians appear to be modelled on Babylonian marker stars for the solar year, therefore the biblical timeline should start at Abraham not Adam.

Sídla, ktoré spĺňajú všetky atribúty v mnohých prípadoch aj súčasného mesta vrátane jeho správy a byrokracie, sa jednoznačne a plnohodnotne vyformovali aj počas existencie sumerskej civilizácie v dolnom povodí riek Eufrat a Tigris. V tých časoch začali byť neoddeliteľnou súčasťou riadenia a existencie mesta aj písomné, úradné záznamy.

Sümerlerin Ön Asyadaki hususî mevkileri: Sümerler İsa'dan üçbin yıl önceki zamandan evvel Irak'ın güne­ yini yurt edinmiş ve bu mıntakanın, yani Irak'ın kuzey kısmına bile tam mânasile yerleşememiş küçük bir kavimdir. Göçlerinin tarihini nisbî kronolojiye, yani kazılarla ortaya çıkan tabakalardan hangisine rast­ ladığına göre bile, tesbit edemiyoruz; kaldı ki mutlak kronoloji ile, yani müspet yıllarla tespit edilebilsin. Sümerler Irak topraklarını 1000 yıldan fazla bir zaman Sami Akad-larla paylaşmışlardır. Daha İsa'dan 2000 yıl öncelerinde bile, kendileri ve dilleri artık ölmüş bulunduğu halde, Sümer dili Babil mekteplerinde İsa'nın doğumuna kadar okutulmuş ve Babil mabetlerinde Sümer ilâhi­ leri terennüm edilmişti. Babil yazısının yayılması ile Sümer dili batıya kadar yayılmış bulunuyor, 1400 ile 1200 yılları arasına rastlayan dev­ rede Eti devletinin merkezindeki mekteplerde de Sümerce okutuluyor­ du. İkinci bin yıl ortalarında bir taraftan Babillilerin yurtları, diğer ta­ raftan Anadolu ve Mısır olmak üzere sınırlanmış bölgede de Sümerce okutuluyordu. Bu sebepten dolayı 4 üncü bin yıldan beri Ön Asyadaki yerleşmelerini takip edebildiğimiz müteaddit kavimler içinde, Sümerlerin ayrıca bir yeri vardır. Sümerlerin, gerek arkalarında bıraktıkları, ge­ rekse uzak illere kadar yaydıkları tesirlerde, Babil yazısına iyice hakim olabilmede, Sümerce bilmenin şart oluşunun büyük bir dokunağı oldu­ ğunu da anmamız lâzımdır. Fakat, bunu söylemekle de Sümerlerin asıl kültür tesirleri izah edilmiş olmaz. Hiç şüphe yoktur ki, Sümerler bu müstesna mevkilerini kendilerinin, o devirde diğer kavimlerin yüksele­ medikleri bir kültür seviyesine erişmiş olmalarına borçludurlar. Bu kül­ türün üstünlüğünü, bir kaç ana çizgi ile, tafsilâta girişmeden evvel be­ lirtelim: 1) Öyle teşkilâtlandırılmış bir memur devleti ki, hammalını, kırla­ rında çalı çırpı toplayan adamını bile bu teşkilât içine alabilmiştir. 2) Yalnız isimlerini öğrenebildiğimiz sayısız tanrılarından büyük bir çokluğu, bir sistem içinde yer almış bulunuyordu. Bu kavmin doğurucu fantazisi, bu tanrıları teolojik mücerret birer mefhum olarak bırakma­ mış; gerek kültte, gerek mitde kökleşmiş canlı ve belli simalar olarak ortaya koymuştur. 3) Edebiyatlarına gelince: bilhassa lirik mahiyette olan edebi