102,863
edits
Changes
Created page with "File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame ==Origin== The term "Sumerian" is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic inhabitants of Mesopotamia,..."
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Sumeranu.jpg|right|frame]]
==Origin==
The term "Sumerian" is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic inhabitants of [[Mesopotamia]], Sumer, by the Semitic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire Akkadians]. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg-ga, phonetically uŋ saŋ giga, literally meaning "the black-headed people", and to their land as ki-en-gi(-r) ('place' + 'lords' + 'noble'), meaning "place of the noble lords". The Akkadian word ''Shumer'' may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term ''šumerû'' is uncertain. Hebrew ''Shinar'', Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of ''Shumer''.
==Definition==
*1: an [[ancient]] region in southwestern Asia, in present-day [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Iraq], comprising the southern part of [[Mesopotamia]]. From the 4th millennium bc it was the site of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer#City-states_in_Mesopotamia city states] that became part of ancient [[Babylonia]].
==Description==
'''Sumer''' was one of the ancient civilizations and historical regions in southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq, during the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcolithic Chalcolithic] and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Bronze_Age Early Bronze ages]. Although the earliest specimens of [[writing]] in the region do not go back much further than c. 2500 BC, modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a non-Semitic people who spoke the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_language Sumerian language] (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence).
These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called "proto-Euphrateans" or "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubaid_period Ubaidians]", and are theorized to have evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria Assyria]). The Ubaidians (though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves) are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for [[agriculture]], developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.
However, some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. It has been suggested by them and others, that the Sumerian language was originally that of the [[hunter]] and fisher peoples, who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region, and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Reliable historical records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before Enmebaragesi (c. 26th century BC). Professor Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians were settled along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf region, before it flooded at the end of the Ice Age.
Sumerian civilization took form in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruk_period Uruk] period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemdat_Nasr_period Jemdat Nasr] and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a close cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians (who spoke a language no relatives of which are known today; see language isolate) and the Semitic Akkadian speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. Sumerian culture appears to have appeared as a fully formed civilization, with no pre-history. A theory is that the Sumerian culture appeared 3500-3000BC as the Western European Grooved Ware People disappeared from the North-West coastal regions of Europe. The Grooved Ware People were sea-going people, and the stone builders who built Stonehenge; which pre-dates the Pyramids of Egypt by a few hundred years. Theory posits that the Pyramids of Egypt were built with the help of technology and stone building methods brought to Sumeria by the Grooved Wear People, who were known at their time in Western Europe as makers of fine quality stone and copper axes, as well as other felling and construction implements. Their language remains a mystery, though their religious beliefs share some commonalities with the earliest writings of the Jewish faith, which perhaps sprang forth from the "new" Sumerian Culture homology.
The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the 3rd millennium BC as a ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprachbund Sprachbund]''. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire Akkadian Empire] around 2270 BC (short chronology), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language.
Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Dynasty_of_Ur Third Dynasty of Ur] (Sumerian Renaissance) approximately 2100-2000 BC, but the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_language Akkadian language] also remained in use. The Sumerian city of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridu Eridu], on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been the world's first city, 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 the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.
Sumer was also the site of early [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing development of writing], progressing from a stage of proto-writing in the mid 4th millennium BC to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_cuneiform writing proper] in the 3rd millennium BC (see [Jemdet Nasr period]).[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer]
[[Category: History]]
==Origin==
The term "Sumerian" is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic inhabitants of [[Mesopotamia]], Sumer, by the Semitic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire Akkadians]. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg-ga, phonetically uŋ saŋ giga, literally meaning "the black-headed people", and to their land as ki-en-gi(-r) ('place' + 'lords' + 'noble'), meaning "place of the noble lords". The Akkadian word ''Shumer'' may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term ''šumerû'' is uncertain. Hebrew ''Shinar'', Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of ''Shumer''.
==Definition==
*1: an [[ancient]] region in southwestern Asia, in present-day [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Iraq], comprising the southern part of [[Mesopotamia]]. From the 4th millennium bc it was the site of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer#City-states_in_Mesopotamia city states] that became part of ancient [[Babylonia]].
==Description==
'''Sumer''' was one of the ancient civilizations and historical regions in southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq, during the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcolithic Chalcolithic] and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Bronze_Age Early Bronze ages]. Although the earliest specimens of [[writing]] in the region do not go back much further than c. 2500 BC, modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a non-Semitic people who spoke the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_language Sumerian language] (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence).
These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called "proto-Euphrateans" or "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubaid_period Ubaidians]", and are theorized to have evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria Assyria]). The Ubaidians (though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves) are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for [[agriculture]], developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.
However, some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. It has been suggested by them and others, that the Sumerian language was originally that of the [[hunter]] and fisher peoples, who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region, and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Reliable historical records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before Enmebaragesi (c. 26th century BC). Professor Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians were settled along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf region, before it flooded at the end of the Ice Age.
Sumerian civilization took form in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruk_period Uruk] period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemdat_Nasr_period Jemdat Nasr] and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a close cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians (who spoke a language no relatives of which are known today; see language isolate) and the Semitic Akkadian speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. Sumerian culture appears to have appeared as a fully formed civilization, with no pre-history. A theory is that the Sumerian culture appeared 3500-3000BC as the Western European Grooved Ware People disappeared from the North-West coastal regions of Europe. The Grooved Ware People were sea-going people, and the stone builders who built Stonehenge; which pre-dates the Pyramids of Egypt by a few hundred years. Theory posits that the Pyramids of Egypt were built with the help of technology and stone building methods brought to Sumeria by the Grooved Wear People, who were known at their time in Western Europe as makers of fine quality stone and copper axes, as well as other felling and construction implements. Their language remains a mystery, though their religious beliefs share some commonalities with the earliest writings of the Jewish faith, which perhaps sprang forth from the "new" Sumerian Culture homology.
The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the 3rd millennium BC as a ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprachbund Sprachbund]''. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire Akkadian Empire] around 2270 BC (short chronology), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language.
Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Dynasty_of_Ur Third Dynasty of Ur] (Sumerian Renaissance) approximately 2100-2000 BC, but the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_language Akkadian language] also remained in use. The Sumerian city of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridu Eridu], on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been the world's first city, 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 the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.
Sumer was also the site of early [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing development of writing], progressing from a stage of proto-writing in the mid 4th millennium BC to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_cuneiform writing proper] in the 3rd millennium BC (see [Jemdet Nasr period]).[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer]
[[Category: History]]