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Mesopotamian Protohistory

[Introduction] [Mesopotamian Prehistory] [Mesopotamian Protohistory]
[Mesopotamian Bronze Age]
Find your way around on this page
[Writing] [The Sumerians] [The Sumerian King Lists] [Early Cities]
[The Flood Story] [Jemdet Nasr Period] [Old Sumerian Age] [The Golden
Age] [The Heroic Age]
[Early Dynastic-III]

Writing

History starts per definition with the invention of writing (around
3200 BC). However, the first written documents are scarce, difficult
to read, mostly economic in nature and thus revealing little about the
political situation. Most of the oldest records are still
undeciphered. The earliest historic period is often called
protohistory, the period of scarcely written documents. In Europe for
example the period of the Carolines and Merovines in the early middle
ages are called the protohistory.

Some scholars emphasize the literary component in those societies and
speak about the protoliterate which is divided in several parts,
called A, B, C and D.

The small amount of available documents is supplemented by texts
written many centuries later but referring to these early stages. In
combination with archeological records, these should be taken
seriously. A legendary king becomes real when e.g. votive inscriptions
carrying his name are found.

The most important aspects of the society in the protohistory are the
beginning of monumental buildings (temples, palaces, fortifications),
the accumulation of capital and the economic use of metal and writing,
leading to the first city states. As in the neolithic one speaks about
the agricultural revolution, this age witnesses the urban revolution.
Sumerian protohistory is divided into the Jemdet Nasr period (the
foundation of the first city states) for which no contemporary records
are available and the Old Sumerian period. The Old Sumerian period
lasts until the seizure of power by the Semitic king Sargon of Akkad
(around 2350 BCE). The period is divided into dynastics determined by
the hegemony of a certain city.

The Sumerians

Sumerians are very conscious about their civilization and held a high
opinion of it. The urban revolution starting around 3100 BC has
impressed the Sumerians themselves. It was a heroic age. The
circumstances in those times are a source for many myths and legends.
An epic tradition started with heroic poems going back to real social
phenomena. In origin historical events (at least in part) are chanted
and told from generation to generation, adding and deleting with
literary freedom. Many centuries later stories from oral tradition
were written down, usually schematically and as loose fragments. Still
later (a millennium, in the Old Babylonian period, 19th century BC)
the fragments were arranged and composed into complete epics. They got
standardized into canonical literature, when they were written and
copied by generations of scribes (often in schools). There is a
general analogy with other 'heroic ages' in later times, (Homer, the
Indian Maghabharata, the Germanic Heroic age). The similarity probably
shows a common political and social structure.

The Sumerian epic bear witness to a political structure in which a
leader as king of a city or small state (city with subordinate cities)
maintains hegemony by personal courage. The king has a retinue of
armed and loyal supporters. Kings of different city states are in
competition, but basically have a good relation. They form an
aristocracy, separated from ordinary people. The divine world is
structured in a similar way.

Sumerian King Lists: Some early texts are the Sumerian King Lists,
known in ancient times by the first line or the first few opening
words: (Sumerian) nam.lugal meaning `kingship' with lugal `king', the
sign nam introduces an abstract noun in Sumerian (and later in
Akkadian compound logograms). These lists are composed in the 22th
century BC, many centuries after the times they refer to. The lists
are copied by generations of scribes and standardized in this process
until in the Old Babylonian time a canonical version exists extended
with kings up to that time period. The Lists are first studied by
Jacobsen and published in 1939. It is a basic tool in the earliest
history of Mesopotamia. The purpose of these lists was probably to
show that Sumer and Akkad ``always'' served under one kingship and
consequently may have distored the truth to serve the purpose. The
lists sometimes contradicts other epic stories. E.g. certain kings
should be contemporaneous, whereas they don't show to do so in the
King Lists. In the lists Kingship is seen as a divine institution: it
descended from heaven. The opening line of the text is: `When kingship
was lowered from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu.' Because of this,
kingship is seen as an institution that is shared by different cities.

Each city takes its turn during a certain period. The Sumerian sign
for `government' or `year(s) of government' is the same sign for
`turn', bala taken as loan word by the Akkadians as palû. It is
written with the sign BAL which in later New Assyrian orthography is .
In Akkadian it is used as a logogram. The sign developed from a
pictogram of the shuttle of a loom (the rotating part, to weave
tissue, together with the determinative for `wood' it still means
`shuttle of a loom') and was used for words meaning `to rotate',
`turn' and thus also 'government'. The hegemony of a city in the
Sumerian King Lists does not always mean that the cited kings really
had supremacy over kings in neighboring city states.

From the lists an important caesure becomes apparent, the great Flood
or Deluge. Names and events are either antediluvial or postdiluvial.
In later epics the Flood signals the end of mythological times, when
things were formed, and inaugurates the beginning of historical times.
About eight (in other versions ten) antediluvial kings are mentioned
together with their periods of government. Extremely large ages were
attributed to the kings before the Flood. Added together they would
have ruled for 241200 years..... The antediluvial period is also seen
as the era of divine revelations, such as the invention of
agriculture, the invention of writing etc. Some of the antediluvial
cities mentioned are Eridu, Sippar and urruppak. 

Eridu, the first city mentioned, is the city of the water god Enki/Ea
(one of the top three deities in the Sumerian pantheon). It is
situated in the extreme south of Mesopotamia near the sea or a lagoon.
It is said that the `principle of agriculture' was revealed by a god
to the first king of Eridu: Emmeduranki.

Sippar was to become the city of the sun god, Sumerian utu, later
called ama in Akkadian. It is said that the secrets of divination were
shown to a king of Sippar, also by divine revelation. Gods make their
will, intentions and answers known to the people by supernatural
means: numerous omens and signs that needed explanation. The exegesis
of omens was seen as a discipline (`science') to inquire the gods. It
was an official institution, used by the king to collect information.

No decision of any importance was taken without proper consulting. The
sun god utu is in particular connected with the discipline of
divination. He is in a position to oversee everything, so also the
future.

Urrupak is a city on the banks of the Euphrates, near modern Fara. The
last king of Urruppak was the hero in the Flood story.

The Flood Story:

The motive of the Flood, a 'word wide' catastrophe, circulates in all
of antiquity. All kinds of versions of the catastrophe are passed down
from generation to generation and from country to country. There are
Sumerian, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Hittite versions and probably
independently in much of the world's folklore elsewhere. When the
first texts about the Flood (Akkadian abübum, a devastating storm
surge) were discovered in 1872 by George Smith, it made headline news
in all papers, because of the similarities with the story in the bible
(dated almost two millennia later). Fantasy was further stirred by the
English archeologist Sir L. Woolley. He found (1929) in excavations a
deposit of silt of a few meters thickness, under which artifacts were
found dated to the 5th millennium. These deposits, however, are always
localized to a small area, as Woolley himself has later discovered.
Time, place and extend of this flood are inconsistent with the
literary tradition. A local breakthrough of the river is a sufficient
explanation.

All alluvial plains and river deltas in the world have suffered from
major floods. A serie of floods in the 15th century CE, called the The
St. Elisabeth Floods, has shaped part of the Netherlands in the Rhine
delta. Millions of people even now are in constant danger because of
flood threat, so it is not surprising that the story still addresses
the imagination. There is no doubt that floods did have a great impact
on the Mesopotamian civilization and that some of them occurred around
2900 BCE.

The various versions and fragments of the epic point to different
traditions in Flood stories. The Sumerian Flood hero (the early Noah)
is called Ubar-Tutu (`Friend of the god Tutu'), in other versions
Ziusudra (`Life of long days') In the Akkadian version he is called
Utnapitim (`he has found (everlasting) life') elsewhere also Atrahasïs
(`exceedingly wise'). The epic named after the latter is very famous
and is in Old Babylonian form dated to 1635 BCE. It exists also in
later traditions.

The First Cities (Jemdet Nasr)

The urban revolution, the building of the first cities, took place in
3100-2900 BCE in the transition from prehistory to history. The change
in human settlement pattern from isolated settlements to larger
village communities, described before, continued. The dry climate at
the end of the 4th millennium now allowed habitation of the great
plains in the extreme south of Mesopotamia, the area later called
Sumer. Inadequate rainfall stimulated the continuing development of
irrigation works. The production of bronze, an alloy of copper and
other metals, mainly tin, allows the manufacturing of new weapons, for
which protection was sought by the construction of fortifications
around the villages and walls around cities.

Old Sumerian Age

The bloom and further development of the city states is called the
Early Dynastic period (2900-2400 BCE) or Old Sumerian period. It is
divided into three periods in which different cities dominate. The Old
Sumerian period is characterized by strong rivalry between city states
and an increasing division between state and religion. Monumental
buildings that should be called palaces as opposed to temples are
attested for the first time. Despite the rivalry there are strong
similarities in architecture, building materials, motives of ornaments
etc., The people shared a common religion and spoke the same language.
So in general one could speak of a Sumerian art and culture.

Old Sumerian is the language used in the Old Sumerian age. A large
fraction of texts in Old Sumerian and most of our knowledge on this
language is derived from texts already found before 1900 CE in Nippur,
a holy city, the religious capital of Sumer, seat of Enlil, the
supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon. These tablets (more than 30000)
can now be found in Istanbul, Jena and Philadelphia. These tablets
include the oldest versions of literary works, such as the Gilgamesh
Epic and the Creation Story, as well as administrative, legal, medical
and business records, and school texts.

The Golden Age (2900-2700 BC)

Kish, a city in the north of Babylonia near modern Tel el-ehêmir, is
the first postdiluvial city mentioned in the Sumerian King Lists.
After the great Flood, `kingdom lowered again from heaven'. The first
kings had Semitic names. It is an age in which `the four quarters of
the world' lived in harmony.

From excavations it appears indeed that Kish has been an important
city. It is the center of the first Sumerian dynasty, called Early
Dynastic-I. The findings point to a specialization in labor and a high
quality of craftsmanship, which must have been the result of a long
tradition. Beautiful golden daggers and other artifacts are found in
tombs. In Kish archeologist found the first monumental building which
must have been a palace, rather than a temple. The king is in power,
and not the en the high priest.

The title King of Kish: The importance attached to Kish is also shown
in the title `King of Kish', in Akkadian ar ki ati. This title was
used by kings even many centuries later to show prestige, as if it
meant `king of the whole world'. The title was even used when another
king was actually the king of Kish and also long after Kish had ceased
to be the seat of kingship. It is possible that the title was more
than just prestige. Kish is situated in the north of the plains of
southern Mesopotamia on a critical spot at the Euphrates river. A
breakthrough of the river to the lowlands in the direction south west
(to modern An Najat, where the Euphrates flows nowadays) would mean
that a whole system of irrigation channels would be without water
supply. The control of the Euphrates in the neighborhood of Kish thus
was of vital importance to the rulers in the south of Mesopotamia. The
title `king of Kish' could have indicated the ruler that exercised
this control.

The Heroic Age (2700-2500 BC) 

Uruk (Sumerian unug, in the bible Erech) is situated near modern Warka
(still showing the same root consonants *'rk but with a different
vocalization). This period under the hegemony of Uruk is also called
the Heroic Age. Dynasties are known from epics written some time
later. Uruk is the city of the goddess Inanna and the supreme god An.
Kings of Uruk are called en `lord'. A reconstruction from later
mythology shows this period to be a primitive democracy. Major
decisions are taken by the king after consultance of a counsel of
elderly men.

Enmerkar, king of Uruk and Kullub, has as epithet `he who build Uruk'
and is known from two epics. There is no known inscription or plaque
that bears his name, so there is no archeological proof of his
existence. The texts refer to commercial and military contacts with a
city called Aratta (not yet localized, probably in Iran), where the
Sumerian goddess Inanna (later Akkadian Itar) and Dumuzi were also
worshiped. These epics are seen as a proof of trade contacts, e.g. the
trade in precious stones, like lapis lazuli. Enmerkar was the first,
according to legend, to write on clay tablets.

Lugalbanda (lugal `king', banda `small', so `junior king') was the
third king in the first dynasty of Uruk, and also featuring in
heroic-epic Sumerian poems, the so called Lugal banda-epic (two parts,
together 900 lines).

Gilgame is grandson of Enmerkar. His fame spread over a large region
through the Gilgamesh-epic. An Assyrian version is found in the
library of A urbanipal (around 650 BCE) and probably dates back to
1700 BCE. Smaller Sumerian fragments with only a few hundred lines are
dated around 2000 BCE. The spread in time and location indicates that
the epic was known for more than 15 centuries in a large region up to
Anatolia. It is nowadays (as one of the few Mesopotamian epics) still
played on stage. The Gilgamesh epic is further explained elsewhere on
the Web.

Gilgamesh was responsible for the construction of the city walls of
Uruk. Indeed, it appears from archeological records that these walls
were expanded around 2700 BCE with its typical plano-convex type of
bricks. Archeologists take the use of this material as a
characteristic for the start of Early Dynamic-II. There is no
archeological evidence for the existence of Gilgamesh. An other royal
name in this dynasty, Mesannepada, has been found written on a golden
plate (dated to 2600 BCE) with a votive inscription.

Early Dynastic-III (2500-2350 BC) 

The Early Dynastic-III period is outside protohistory and usually
considered to be part of history. Many source and archives are known.
One of them, contemporaneously with the archeological stratus of
Uruk-IVa with archaic pictographical texts, is found in uruppak
(modern Fara). Another site is only known by its modern name, the
village Abu salabih, with Old Sumerian texts. The majority of these
texts have an economical/administrative nature.

Ur: Officially, according to the Sumerian King Lists, Ur has the
hegemony in this era, the Early Dynastic-III. In practice `hegemony'
probably was fairly marginal. Ur is a port with connection to the
Persian Gulf.

Laga and the religious metropolis Girsu are both cities in the extreme
south of Mesopotamia. Many Old Sumerian texts have been found here,
mostly on hard materials like albast, copper and gold, e.g. the royal
inscriptions of Lagash and texts about the eternal border conflicts
between Lagash and the nearby city Umma. The conflicts often concern
water rights and were sometimes settled by mediation of the king of
Kish.

The patron deity of Lagash is Ningursu, later associated with Ninurta,
a warrior god and central in the elimination of demons. Some of the
kings of lagash are:

Eannatum , (E-ana-tum) the first king who called himself 'King of
Kish', `he who overrules the countries'. He boasts that his territory
extends from Kish in the north, to Mari in the west, Uruk in the south
and Elam in the east, although it is not clear what the `ruling' over
these cities actually means. He has had a long reign, but after his
reign his territory was reduced again to its original size.

Famous is the victory depicted on the so called vulture stela of
Eannatum, (see figure of the vulture stela at UCLA Art History). It is
the oldest direct witness of the political and military power of a
king, of which 1/3 is preserved. The texts announces new borders and
the victory of Eannatum of Lagash over the ruler of Umma. It depicts
military high lights, imprisoning of the enemy, the burial of the dead
and the vultures who escape with the bones of the dead. It is shown as
a serie of unrelated pictures. It is either an artist impression of a
historical battle or just expresses the intention of such a battle.
Urukagina is the last and pious king of the dynasty in Lagash, also
called uru-inimgina. The name is written with the sign ka `mouth',
which also stands for inim `word'. Proper names often do not give
enough context to know the correct reading of the sign. He was the
last king of the first dynasty of Lagash, and introduced many reforms
(`social reforms of Uru-inimgina') and enacted edicts related to the
problem of enslavements which were caused by running up debts. High
extortionate rates of the interest on capital (often 33.3 percent) had
to be paid by enslaving one's children until the debts were paid off.
Uru-inimgina remits the debts by decree.