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94-454: The great commercial and trading connections between Mesopotamia and Dilmun were strong and profound to the point where Dilmun was a central figure to the Sumerian creation myth. Dilmun was described in the saga of Enki and Ninhursag as pre-existing in paradisiacal state, where predators do not kill, pain and diseases are absent, and people do not get old. Dilmun was an important trading centre. At

188-524: A "Sumerian renaissance" in the past. 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 founded several competing local powers in the south, including Isin , Larsa , Eshnunna and later, Babylonia. The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate

282-635: A century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100–2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some time. The Sumerians were entirely unknown during the early period of modern archeology. Jules Oppert was the first scholar to publish the word Sumer in a lecture on 17 January 1869. The first major excavations of Sumerian cities were in 1877 at Girsu by the French archeologist Ernest de Sarzec , in 1889 at Nippur by John Punnett Peters from

376-582: 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. In the early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest that There

470-583: A king's name. The short text reads, [La]'ù-la Panipa, daughter of Sumu-lěl , the servant of Inzak of Akarum . Sumu-lěl was evidently a third king of Dilmun from around this period. Servant of Inzak of Akarum was the king's title in Dilmun. The names of these later rulers are Amoritic . It seems that from at least 1500 BC, Dilmun was under the rule of the Akkadian-speaking Mesopotamian Sealand dynasty . The Sealand dynasty King Ea-gamil

564-445: A kurugu-hymn dedicated to the gods of Nippur mentions Ayadaragalama. A variant version of the Epic of Gilgameš relocates the hero to Ur and is a piece from this period. Excavations conducted between 2013 and 2017 at Tell Khaiber , around 20 km from Ur , have revealed the foundations of a large mudbrick fortress with an unusual arrangement of perimeter close-set towers. The site

658-680: A provincial official named Ilī-ippašra , in Dilmun, to his friend, Enlil-kidinni, the governor of Nippur. The names referred to are Akkadian . These letters, and other documents, suggest an administrative relationship between Dilmun and Babylon at that time. Following the collapse of the Kassite dynasty, in 1595 BC, Mesopotamian documents make no mention of Dilmun until Assyrian inscriptions (dated from 1250 BC to 1050 BC) proclaimed Assyrian kings to be rulers of Dilmun and Meluhha , as well as Lower Sea and Upper Sea. Assyrian inscriptions recorded tribute from Dilmun. There are other Assyrian inscriptions during

752-460: A surplus which enabled them to form urban settlements. The world's earliest known texts come from the Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr , and date to between c.  3350  – c.  2500 BC , following a period of proto-writing c.  4000  – c.  2500 BC . The term "Sumer" ( Akkadian : 𒋗𒈨𒊒 , romanized:  šumeru ) comes from the Akkadian name for

846-1985: Is also described as attacking Sealand and destroying a temple in "Dūr-Enlil". A serpentine or diorite mace head or possibly door knob found in Babylon, is engraved with the epithet of Ulaburariaš, “King of Sealand”. The object was excavated at Tell Amran ibn-Ali, during the German excavations of Babylon, conducted from 1899 to 1912, and is now housed in the Pergamon Museum . ( Shamshi-Adad dynasty 1808–1736 BCE) (Amorites) Shamshi-Adad I Ishme-Dagan I Mut-Ashkur Rimush Asinum Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi (Non-dynastic usurpers 1735–1701 BCE) Puzur-Sin Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi ( Adaside dynasty 1700–722 BCE) Bel-bani Libaya Sharma-Adad I Iptar-Sin Bazaya Lullaya Shu-Ninua Sharma-Adad II Erishum III Shamshi-Adad II Ishme-Dagan II Shamshi-Adad III Ashur-nirari I Puzur-Ashur III Enlil-nasir I Nur-ili Ashur-shaduni Ashur-rabi I Ashur-nadin-ahhe I Enlil-Nasir II Ashur-nirari II Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-rim-nisheshu Ashur-nadin-ahhe II Second Intermediate Period Sixteenth Dynasty Abydos Dynasty Seventeenth Dynasty (1500–1100 BCE) Kidinuid dynasty Igehalkid dynasty Untash-Napirisha Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt Smendes Amenemnisu Psusennes I Amenemope Osorkon

940-713: Is also speculated that Gilgamesh had to pass through Mount Mashu to reach Dilmun in the Epic of Gilgamesh , which is usually identified with the whole of the parallel Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges, with the narrow gap between these mountains constituting the tunnel. In 1987, Theresa Howard-Carter proposed that Dilmun of this era might be a still unidentified tell near the Arvand Rud (Shatt al-Arab in Arabic) between modern-day Quanah and Basra in modern-day Iraq. In favor of Howard-Carter's proposal, it has been noted that this area does lie to

1034-579: Is considerable evidence concerning Sumerian music . Lyres and flutes were played, among the best-known examples being the Lyres of Ur . 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

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1128-517: Is dated, by an archive of 152 (after joins were made) clay cuneiform tablets found there, to Ayadaragalama. Tablets at Tell Khaiber fell into the same short time period as those published from the Schoyen Collection, that being the later part of Pešgal and early part of Ayadara reigns. Excavators were also able to develop a stratified ceramic array for Sealand allowing other sites to be identified. Sealand ceramics and faunal remains were found at

1222-503: 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.  2334 –2279 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by

1316-407: 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. It is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by Sargon. c. 2193–2119 BC (middle chronology) c.  2200 –2110 BC (middle chronology) Following

1410-516: Is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf . The oldest evidence for occupation comes from Tell el-'Oueili , but, given that environmental conditions in southern Mesopotamia were favourable to human occupation well before the Ubaid period, it is likely that older sites exist but have not yet been found. It appears that this culture

1504-537: Is mentioned in a text found at Qal'at al-Bahrain. Ea-gamil was the last ruler of the Sealand dynasty. After his reign, Dilmun came under the rule of the Babylonian Kassite dynasty, as they took over the land of the Sealand dynasty. Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of Burna-Buriash II ( c.  1370 BC ), recovered from Nippur during the Kassite dynasty of Babylon. These letters were from

1598-404: Is most clearly seen at Tell el-'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

1692-518: The Amorite king of Babylon, and Samsu-iluna ’s son and successor, “set out to conquer Ilum-ma-ilī,” by damming the Tigris , to flush him out of his swampy refuge, an endeavor which was apparently confounded by Ilum-ma-ilī’s superior use of the terrain. The last surviving year-name for Ammi-ditana commemorates the “year in which (he) destroyed the city wall of Der /Udinim built by the army of Damqi-ilišu. In

1786-401: The Amorite state of Mari , in the northern Levant , are attested. Around this time, the largest royal burial mounds were erected. From about 1780 BC came several Akkadian-language inscriptions on stone vessels naming two kings of Dilmun, King Yagli-El (and Amoritic name) and his father, Rimum . The inscriptions were found in huge tumuli, evidently the burial places of these kings. Rimum

1880-612: The Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. Like nearby Elam , it is one of the cradles of civilization , along with Egypt , the Indus Valley , the Erligang culture of the Yellow River valley, Caral-Supe , and Mesoamerica . Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops,

1974-559: The Garden of Eden story. Dilmun was an important trading center from the late fourth millennium BC to 800 BC. At the height of its power, Dilmun controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium BC. Dilmun was conquered by the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC), and its commercial power began to decline between 1000 BC and 800 BC because piracy flourished in

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2068-575: The Indus Valley and Mesopotamia in its early stage and later between China and the Mediterranean. The Dilmun civilization is mentioned first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the late third millennium BC, found in the temple of the goddess Inanna , in the city of Uruk . The adjective Dilmun is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official; in addition there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun. One of

2162-694: The Karun in Iran, and the Pishon River would correspond to the Wadi al-Batin river system that once drained the now dry, but once quite fertile central part of the Arabian Peninsula. Only a few rulers of the Dilmun kingdom are known: Sumer Sumer ( / ˈ s uː m ər / ) is the earliest known civilization , located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq ), emerging during

2256-565: The Middle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East. However, contrary evidence strongly suggests that the first farming originated in the Fertile Crescent . Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. 2016 have suggested a partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Middle East, particularly Natufians , after testing

2350-589: The Neo-Babylonian Empire also existed. Traditionally, all that was known about Sealand came from a few Kings List entries and the stray chronicle mention. It has been suggested that much of the writing in this period used waxed wooden boards, as a way of explaining the paucity of standard tablets found. Recently (2009) 450 published tablets mainly from the Martin Schøyen collection , the largest privately held collection of manuscripts to be assembled during

2444-520: The University of Pennsylvania between 1889 and 1900, and in Shuruppak by German archeologist Robert Koldewey in 1902–1903. Major publications of these finds were " Decouvertes en Chaldée par Ernest de Sarzec " by Léon Heuzey in 1884, " Les Inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad " by François Thureau-Dangin in 1905, and " Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik " on Sumerian grammar by Arno Poebel in 1923. In

2538-501: 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

2632-626: The ziggurats in Uruk and Eridu , are described as taking place at a time "before Dilmun had yet been settled". Dilmun, sometimes described as "the place where the sun rises" and "the Land of the Living", is the scene of some versions of the Eridu Genesis , and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Utnapishtim ( Ziusudra ), was taken by the gods to live forever. Thorkild Jacobsen 's translation of

2726-415: The " Dynasty of Isin " in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi c. 1800 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. Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,000–80,000 at its height. Given

2820-453: The "Sumerians", the ancient non- Semitic -speaking inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia . In their inscriptions, the Sumerians called their land "Kengir", the "Country of the noble lords" ( Sumerian : 𒆠 𒂗 𒄀 , romanized:  ki-en-gi(-r) , lit.   ''country" + "lords" + "noble''), and their language "Emegir" ( Sumerian : 𒅴𒂠 , romanized:  eme-g̃ir or 𒅴𒄀 eme-gi 15 ). The origin of

2914-597: The 20th century, cover a 15 to 18 year period extending over part of each king’s reign. They seem to originate from a single cache but their provenance was lost after languishing in smaller private collections since their acquisition on the antiquities market a century earlier. Most of the tablets pertain to administration of resources. An additional 32 unpublished Sealand tablets are held in Brussels. The tablets include letters, receipts, ledgers, personnel rosters, etc., and provide year-names and references which hint at events of

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3008-435: 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

3102-647: The Arabian Gulf. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) conquered Dilmun, and in the 6th century BC the Neo-Babylonian Empire , and later the Achaemenid Empire , ruled Dilmun. The Dilmun civilization was the centre of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of the land—then utterly fertile due to artesian wells that have since dried, and due to a much wetter climate—with maritime trade between diverse regions such as

3196-608: The Eridu Genesis calls it "Mount Dilmun" which he locates as a "faraway, half-mythical place" . Dilmun is also described in the epic story of Enki and Ninhursag as the site at which the Creation occurred. The later Babylonian Enuma Elish , speaks of the creation site as the place where the mixture of salt water, personified as Tiamat met and mingled with the fresh water of Abzu . Bahrain in Arabic means "the twin waters", where

3290-683: The Indus region that are not native to Mesopotamia. Instances of all of these trade goods have been found. The importance of this trade is shown by the fact that the weights and measures used at Dilmun were, identical to those used by the Indus, and were not those used in Southern Mesopotamia. In regards to copper mining and smelting, the Umm al-Nar culture and Dalma ( United Arab Emirates ) and Ibri (Oman) were particularly important. Some Meluhhan vessels may have sailed directly to Mesopotamian ports but, by

3384-593: The Isin-Larsa Period, Dilmun monopolized the trade. The Bahrain National Museum assesses that its "Golden Age" lasted c.  2200–1600 BC . Discoveries of ruins under the Arabian Gulf may be of Dilmun. The population used cuneiform to write in the Akkadian language, and, like the Akkadians , Assyrians , Babylonians and Eblaites of Mesopotamia , are thought to have spoken an East Semitic language that

3478-560: The King of Babylon. The name of Dilmun fell from use after the collapse of Babylon , in 538 BC, with the area henceforth identified as Tylos during the Hellenistic period . The "Arabian Gulf" types of circular, stamped (rather than rolled) seals known from Dilmun—that appear at Lothal , Gujarat , India, and Failaka (as well as in Mesopotamia)—are evidence of long-distance sea trade. What

3572-429: 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 (Early Dynastic I), whose name is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh —leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period

3666-421: The Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black-Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People" ( Sumerian : 𒊕 𒈪 , romanized:  sag̃-gíg , lit.   ''head" + "black'', or 𒊕 𒈪 𒂵 , sag̃-gíg-ga , phonetically /saŋ ɡi ɡa/ , lit. "head" + "black" + relative marker). For example, the Sumerian king Shulgi described himself as "the king of

3760-746: The Sumerians’ sphere of influence (ordered from south to north): 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 . The Sumerian city-states rose to power during

3854-469: 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

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3948-500: 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 . 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

4042-422: 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

4136-496: The building of a “great ring against the Kalšu (Kassite) enemy” and a third records the “year when his land rebelled.” A year-name gives “year when Ayadaragalama was king – after Enlil established (for him?) the shepherding of the whole earth,” and a list of gods includes Marduk and Sarpanitum , the tutelary deities of the Sealand. A neo-Babylonian official took a bronze band dedicatory inscription of A-ia-da-a-ra , MAN ŠÚ “king of

4230-430: 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 labour captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in

4324-556: The commerce consisted of is less known; timber and precious woods, ivory , lapis lazuli , gold , and luxury goods (such as carnelian and glazed stone beads), pearls from the Arabian Gulf, shell and bone inlays were among the goods sent to Mesopotamia, in-exchange for silver , tin , woolen textiles, olive oil and grains. Copper ingots from Oman and bitumen (which occurred naturally in Mesopotamia) may have been exchanged for cotton textiles and domestic fowl , major products of

4418-699: 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 Sargonic kings ' claims to divinity. The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts. Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi (c. 2112–2004 BC, middle chronology), whose power extended as far as southern Assyria , has been erroneously called

4512-531: The earlier dynastic monarchs. The king list A totals the reigns to give a length of 368 years for this dynasty. The Synchronistic King List A.117 gives the sequence from Damqi-ilišu onward, but includes an additional king between Gulkišar and Pešgaldarameš, DIŠ-U-EN (reading unknown). This source is considered reliable in this respect because the forms of the names of Pešgaldarameš and Ayadaragalama match those on recently published contemporary economic tablets (see below). Ilum-ma-ilī, or Iliman ( ili-ma-an),

4606-491: The earliest inscriptions mentioning Dilmun is that of king Ur-Nanshe of Lagash ( c.  2300 BC ) found in a door-socket: "The ships of Dilmun brought him wood as tribute from foreign lands." From around 2050 BC onward, Dilmun seems to have been at its peak. Qal'at al-Bahrain was most likely the capital of Dilmun. From texts found at Isin , it is believed Dilmun became an independent kingdom, free from Mesopotamian rule; royal gifts to Dilmun are mentioned. Contacts with

4700-734: 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 western 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

4794-520: The east of Sumer ("where the sun rises"), and the riverbank where Dilmun's maidens would have been accosted aligns with the Shat al-Arab which is in the midst of marshes. The "mouth of the rivers" where Dilmun was said to lie is for her the union of the Tigris and Euphrates at Qurnah. A number of scholars have suggested that Dilmun originally designated the eastern province of modern Saudi Arabia , notably linked with

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4888-466: 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

4982-503: The first millennium BC, indicating Assyrian sovereignty over Dilmun. One of the early sites discovered in Bahrain suggests that Sennacherib , King of Assyria (707–681 BC), attacked northeast Arabia and captured the Bahraini islands. The most recent reference to Dilmun came during the Neo-Babylonian Empire ; Neo-Babylonian administrative records, dated 567 BC, stated that Dilmun was controlled by

5076-532: The first state that successfully united larger parts of Mesopotamia in the 23rd century BC. After the Gutian period , the Ur III kingdom similarly united parts of northern and southern Mesopotamia. It ended in the face of Amorite incursions at the beginning of the second millennium BC. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin " persisted until c.  1700 BC , when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Ubaid period

5170-541: The founder of the dynasty, is known from the account of his exploits in the Chronicle of Early Kings which describes his conflicts with his Amorite Babylonian contemporaries Samsu-iluna and Abi-ešuḫ. It records that he “attacked and brought about the defeat of (Samsu-iluna’s) army.” He is thought to have conquered Nippur late in Samsu-iluna’s reign as there are legal documents from Nippur dated to his reign. Abi-eshuh ,

5264-722: The four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people". The Akkadians also called the Sumerians "black-headed people", or ṣalmat-qaqqadi , in the Semitic Akkadian language. The Akkadians, the East Semitic-speaking people who later conquered the Sumerian city-states , gave Sumer its main historical name, but the phonological development of the term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew שִׁנְעָר Šinʿar , Egyptian Sngr , and Hittite Šanhar(a) , all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Sumer . Most historians have suggested that Sumer

5358-426: The fresh water of the Arabian aquifer mingles with the salt waters of the Persian Gulf . The promise of Enki to Ninhursag, the Earth Mother: For Dilmun, the land of my lady's heart, I will create long waterways, rivers and canals, whereby water will flow to quench the thirst of all beings and bring abundance to all that lives. Ninlil , the Sumerian goddess of air and south wind had her home in Dilmun. However, it

5452-466: The genomes of Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture-bearers. Craniometric analysis has also suggested an affinity between Natufians and ancient North Africans. Some scholars associate the Sumerians with the Hurrians and Urartians , and suggest the Caucasus as their homeland. This is not generally accepted. Based on mentions of Dilmun as the “home city of the land of Sumer” in Sumerian legends and literature, other scholars have suggested

5546-408: The glory days of the Dynasty of Isin . The third king of the dynasty was even named for the ultimate king of the dynasty of Isin, Damiq-ilišu . Despite these cultural motifs, the population predominantly bore Akkadian names and wrote and spoke in the Akkadian language . There is circumstantial evidence that their rule extended at least briefly to Babylon itself. In later times, a Sealand province of

5640-403: The height of its power, it controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. According to some modern theories, the Sumerians regarded Dilmun as a sacred place, but that is never stated in any known ancient text. Dilmun was mentioned by the Mesopotamians as a trade partner, a source of copper , and a trade entrepôt . The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for

5734-407: The ibex,” and Ayadaragalama, “son of the clever stag,” were successive kings and descendants ( DUMU , "sons" in its broadest meaning) of Gulkišar. Ayadaragalama’s reign seems to have been eventful, as a year-name records expelling the “massed might of two enemies,” speculated to be Elamites and Kassites , the Kassites having previously deposed the Amorites as rulers in Babylon. Another records

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5828-408: The idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia , today's Persian Gulf region, before it

5922-422: The last king of the first dynasty of Babylon. The text describes Gulkišar addressing his troops and being accompanied by the god Istar. The colophon of a tablet giving a chemical recipe for glaze reads “property of a priest of Marduk in Eridu,” thought to be a quarter of Babylon rather than the city of Eridu, is dated mu.us-sa Gul-ki-šar lugal-e "year after (the one when) Gul-kisar (became?) king.” A kudurru of

6016-514: 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. An incomplete list of cities that may have been visited, interacted and traded with, invaded, conquered, destroyed, occupied, colonized by and/or otherwise within

6110-411: The major Dilmunite settlements of Umm an-Nussi and Umm ar-Ramadh in the interior and Tarout on the coast. As of 2022, archaeologists have failed to find a site in existence from 3300 BC (Uruk IV) to 556 BC (Neo-Babylonian Era), when Dilmun appears in texts. According to Hojlund, no settlements exist in the Gulf littoral dating to 3300–2000 BC. In 1922, Eduard Glaser proposed that the Garden of Eden

6204-422: The marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians. Reliable historical records begin with Enmebaragesi ( Early Dynastic I ). The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. 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

6298-429: 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

6392-413: 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

6486-402: 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

6580-462: The original "MU am-mi-di-ta-na LUGAL.E BÀD.DA UDINIMki.MA (ÉREN) dam-qí-ì-lí-šu.KE4 BÍ.IN.DÙ.A BÍ.IN.GUL.LA". This is the only current contemporary indication of the spelling of his name, contrasting with that of the earlier king of Isin. Gulkišar, meaning “raider of the earth,” has left few traces of his apparently lengthy reign. He was the subject of a royal epic (Tablet HS 1885+ plus 2 recent fragment joins) concerning his enmity with Samsu-ditāna ,

6674-499: 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 27 million. The Sumerians spoke a language isolate . 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,

6768-543: The period of Babylonian king Enlil-nādin-apli , c. 1103–1100 BC, records the outcome of an inquiry instigated by the king into the ownership of a plot of land claimed by a temple estate. The governors of Bit-Sin-magir and Sealand, upheld the claim based on the earlier actions of Gulkišar who had “drawn for Nanse, his divine mistress, a land boundary.” It is an early example of a Distanzangaben statement recording that 696 years had elapsed between Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur , Enlil-nādin-apli’s father, and Gulkišar. Pešgaldarameš, “son of

6862-405: The period. Messengers from Elam are provisioned, Anzak, a god of Dilmun (ancient Bahrain) appears as a theophoric element in names, and Nūr-Bau asks whether he should detain the boats of Ešnunna , a rare late reference to this once thriving Sumerian conurbation. In addition to normal commercial activity, two omen texts from another private collection are dated to the reign of Pešgaldarameš and

6956-463: The possibility that the Sumerians originated from Dilmun, which was theorized to be the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. In Sumerian mythology, Dilmun was also mentioned as the home of deities such as Enki . The status of Dilmun as the Sumerians’ ancestral homeland has not been established, but archaeologists have found evidence of civilization in Bahrain, namely the existence of Mesopotamian-style round disks. A prehistoric people who lived in

7050-461: 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.  23rd century BC , when the language of the written records becomes easier to decipher, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. The Akkadian Empire was

7144-621: The region before the Sumerians have been termed the " 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. They drained the marshes for agriculture , developed trade, and established industries, including weaving , leatherwork , metalwork , masonry , and pottery . Some scholars contest

7238-433: 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 Ur III period 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

7332-598: 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 . The Akkadian Empire dates to c.  2234 –2154 BC ( middle chronology ), founded by Sargon of Akkad . The Eastern Semitic Akkadian language

7426-554: The short lived, and by this time crumbling Old Babylonian Empire , was named for the province in the far south of Mesopotamia , a swampy region bereft of large settlements which gradually expanded southwards with the silting up of the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (the region known as mat Kaldi " Chaldaea " in the Iron Age ). Sealand pottery has been found at Girsu, Uruk, and Lagash but in no site north of that. The later kings bore pseudo- Sumerian names and harked back to

7520-468: The site of Tell Sakhariya, a few miles east of Ur . The home city of the Sealand Dynasty is currently unknown. A kings list fragment states that Babylon's "kingship passed to E'urukuga". Given its site being known as uru.ku this capital has been speculated as being Lagash of which little is known in this period. Nippur, and Tell Deḥaila are also in consideration. Modern thinking is that the capital

7614-425: 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. First Sealand dynasty The First Sealand dynasty ( URU.KÙ ), or the 2nd Dynasty of Babylon (although it

7708-664: The south of Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire , just as the Old Assyrian Empire had already done 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 used. This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward

7802-419: The world,” to Tell en-Nasbeh , probably as an antique curio, where it was discarded to be found in the 20th century. Ea-gâmil, the ultimate king of the dynasty, fled to Elam ahead of an army led by Kassite chief Ulam-Buriaš , brother of the king of Babylon Kashtiliash III , who conquered the Sealand, incorporated it into Babylonia and “made himself master of the land.” Agum III, successor to Ulam-Buriaš,

7896-526: Was a Dūr-Enlil (or Dūr-Enlile or Dūr-Enlilē). There was a Dūr-Enlil in Neo-Babylonian times in the general area between Uruk and Larsa as well as one in Neo-Assyrian times. It is not clear it either is the same place as the potential Sealand capital. The king list references which bear witness to the sequence of Sealand kings are summarized below: An additional king list provides fragmentary readings of

7990-610: 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 Dumuzid , Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh —who reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2900 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

8084-503: Was already known to archaeology from the Durand Stone , discovered in 1879. A decline is visible from around 1720 BC. Many settlements were no longer used, and the building of royal mounds ceased. The Barbar Temple fell into ruins. A 'recovering' period is noted from around 1650 BC. New royal burial mounds were built; at Qal'at al-Bahrain, there is evidence for increased building activity. A seal from this period found at Failaka preserved

8178-410: 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. The dynasty of Lagash (c. 2500–2270 BC), though omitted from the king list, is well attested through several important monuments and many archaeological finds. Although short-lived, one of

8272-474: 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 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. The archaeological transition from

8366-465: Was either an Akkadian dialect or one close to it, rather than a Central Semitic language, and most of its known rulers had East Semitic names. Dilmun's main deity was named Inzak and his spouse was Panipa. However, there is no indication of population replacement having happened in the region. In the early epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta , the main events, which center on Enmerkar 's construction of

8460-471: Was first permanently settled between c.  5500  – c.  3300 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence), a non-Semitic and non- Indo-European agglutinative language isolate . Others have suggested that the Sumerians were a North African people who migrated from the Green Sahara into

8554-689: Was 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. The Sumerian city of Eridu , on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been one of the oldest cities , 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

8648-594: Was independent of Amorite -ruled Babylon), very speculatively c. 1732–1460 BC ( short chronology ), is an enigmatic series of kings attested to primarily in laconic references in the king lists A and B , and as contemporaries recorded on the Assyrian Synchronistic king list A.117 . Initially it was named the "Dynasty of the Country of the Sea" with Sealand later becoming customary. The dynasty, which had broken free of

8742-586: Was located in Eastern Arabia within the Dilmun civilization. Scholar Juris Zarins also believes that the Garden of Eden was situated in Dilmun at the head of the Persian Gulf (present-day Kuwait ), where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run into the sea, from his research on this area using information from many different sources, including Landsat images from space. In this theory, the Bible's Gihon would correspond with

8836-475: Was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian remained 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. 2028–2004 BC), Sumer came under Amorite rule (taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age ). The independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as

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