- The general location on a modern map, and main cities of Sumer with ancient coastline. The coastline nearly reached Ur in ancient times.
Sumerians — the accepted scholarly designation for the ancient population of Southern Mesopotamia who spoke the Sumerian language; the Sumerians are usually associated with the emergence of civilization in the Tigris and Euphrates valley — one of the first civilizations in human history. The origin of this population group and the genetic relationships of the Sumerian language are part of a major historical problem known in scholarly literature as the "Sumerian problem." The ethnonym "Sumerians" is a scholarly abstraction used to designate the ancient non-Semitic population of Mesopotamia who spoke a known language. The "Sumerians" themselves did not clearly distinguish themselves from their neighbors, the Semitic Akkadians: both had a common self-name — "black-headed" (Sumerian: sag-gig-ga, Akkadian: șalmat qaqqadim). The name is taken from the country name in the title of the ancient Assyrian kings "King of Sumer and Akkad." Since the Semitic-speaking population of Mesopotamia — the Akkadians, Babylonians, and ancient Assyrians — called their language "Akkadian," the other, difficult-to-decipher language was designated by early researchers as "Sumerian," and its speakers as "Sumerians."
From the mid-20th century, research on the Sumerian problem definitively moved into the field of linguistics. At their core, these works sought genetic connections of the Sumerian language, which is today considered an isolate. These searches are complicated by the double distortion of the language: Sumerian cuneiform was deciphered through the completely alien Akkadian language, and that, in turn, through other unrelated languages, including Ancient Greek. As a result, many hypotheses were put forward connecting Sumerian with many languages of Eurasia, but to date none of these hypotheses is universally accepted.
The Sumerians themselves, in their myths, call the island of Dilmun the ancestral homeland of humanity, in the description of which archetypal features of the Golden Age and the lost paradise are present. The toponym "Dilmun" also appears in texts of historical times and is identified with modern Bahrain, but Mesopotamian finds in Bahrain are younger than Sumerian ones. On the other hand, recent geological and archaeological studies indicate the probability of the existence, during the Pleistocene era, of a vast oasis located on the site of the Persian Gulf before the latter was flooded by the waters of the Indian Ocean (the so-called Gulf Oasis), but due to insufficient material, it is not yet possible to draw any reliable parallels.
The Sumerian language is agglutinative; forms and derived words are formed by adding unambiguous affixes (unlike fusional languages such as Russian, where affixes are usually polysemous). Agglutinative languages also include Turkic, some Finno-Ugric, Mongolian, Tungusic-Manchurian, Korean, Japanese, Georgian, Basque, Abkhaz-Adyghe, Dravidian, some Native American, and some African languages. From the perspective of verb actant coding strategy, Sumerian is an ergative language, meaning that its grammar is dominated not by the opposition of subject and object (as in nominative-accusative languages) but by the opposition of agent (the doer of the action) and patient (the bearer of the action). This feature is characteristic of the languages of the Caucasian peoples, Burushaski, Basque, Papuan, Australian, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, and Native American languages. Phonology is reconstructed only in the most general terms. Nouns were divided into classes and had categories of number (1 singular and 6 plural), case (9 in total), and possession. The verb had categories of person, number, class, aspect, mood, and orientation. There were 12 moods. The usual word order in Sumerian is SOV (subject — object — verb). Two dialects are known: eme-gir and eme-sal.
Sumerian writing underwent an evolution from semi-pictographic script, which, according to D. Schmandt-Besserat, goes back to accounting tokens (known in the Near East since the 9th millennium BC), to relatively standardized cuneiform. After Sumerian fell out of everyday use, it continued to be used for a long time as a language of liturgy and scholarship.
Modern researchers see no obstacles to the existence of a population in Lower Mesopotamia in the pre-Ubaid era (i.e., before the 6th-5th millennia BC); however, it is not yet possible to determine whether the ancestors of the Sumerians were among this population. From approximately the 6th millennium, traces of colonization of the region by newcomers from Central and Upper Mesopotamia, possibly Elam and the Eastern Mediterranean, are recorded. Connections with one or another region are evidenced by architectural features, ceramic styles, and some other characteristics. Apparently, the main role was played by people from the north (representatives of the Samarra and Halaf cultures), who possessed skills in irrigation, monumental construction, craft specialization, economic accounting, etc. In Lower Mesopotamia, they founded autonomous colonies (such as Tell el-'Oueili), which lived off irrigation and the resources of the surrounding rivers and marshes. Over time, some colonies turned into large centers, proto-cities (the most striking example is Eridu, continuously inhabited from the Ubaid 1 phase to historical times). It is not excluded that early contacts with northern colonists led to the Sumerians borrowing a number of "cultural terms" (the so-called "Proto-Euphratean substrate"); the names of some well-known cities of Lower Mesopotamia — Larsa, Babylon, and others — also have non-Sumerian etymology.
In the Ubaid period (roughly the 5th — beginning of the 4th millennium BC), an economic rise in Lower Mesopotamia is recorded. When using irrigation, the local alluvium is particularly fertile; the abundance of agricultural products leads to rapid population growth, accumulation of surpluses, and deepening social differentiation. The skills of the early farmers of Northern Mesopotamia — monumental construction, interregional exchange, economic accounting, division of labor, metalworking, etc. — develop rapidly in the south as well. As a result, by the end of the Ubaid period, the first temples (in Eridu, Uruk) appeared in Lower Mesopotamia, proto-cities, the first irrigation networks, the first nomes, etc., were formed. The ethnic composition of Lower Mesopotamia in the Ubaid period is unclear, but the ancestors of the Sumerians could have been among the local population. In any case, the obvious continuity of the material culture of this time with the subsequent "Sumerian" eras allows some researchers to call the culture of Ubaid Southern Mesopotamia "proto-Sumerian."
Further progress is observed in the Uruk period (second half of the 4th millennium BC). The vast majority of researchers accept the thesis of the presence or predominance of the Sumerian population in Lower Mesopotamia at this time. Uruk is a Bronze Age culture that replaced the Chalcolithic Ubaid. The expansion of irrigation networks, the development of production specialization, the rapid growth of proto-cities against the background of deepening social differentiation could have been the causes of such a phenomenon as Sumerian colonization. Sumerian colonies were well-fortified fortresses with carefully planned layouts (examples — the sites of Habuba Kabira, Jebel Aruda, etc.), created in strategically important places (at crossings, on trade routes, etc.). The main object of colonization was Northern Mesopotamia, where southern influence had already become strong in the Ubaid period (the so-called "Northern Ubaid"). In the core zone of Sumerian civilization, the foundations of statehood were laid. At the end of the Uruk period, in the Jemdet Nasr period (late 4th — early 3rd millennium BC; often it is distinguished as a separate period), images of rulers, priest-kings appear, semi-pictographic writing already exists, city-states are formed, a complex temple administration is established, monumental construction is carried out, and predatory campaigns are conducted against neighboring countries. Thus, by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, the foundations of Sumerian civilization were formed.
The subsequent Early Dynastic period (roughly 28th — 24th centuries BC) was the heyday of Sumerian civilization. At that time, the latter covered the territories of Lower Mesopotamia — the regions of Ki-Engi (Sumer proper) and Ki-Uri (later — Akkad). For unknown reasons, Uruk colonization had ceased by the ED period, and the presence of the Sumerian population in centers north of Ki-Uri is a subject of debate. In the Early Dynastic era, Lower Mesopotamia was a conglomerate of continuously warring city-states or nomes. The most important centers of Sumer (Ki-Engi) were Ur and Uruk, and in Ki-Uri — Kish. A special place was occupied by the extensive nome of Lagash, which was initially apparently under the hegemony of Kish. At the end of the Early Dynastic period, the vast majority of the nomes of Sumer and Ki-Uri were united under the rule of Lugalzagesi. However, the Akkadian revolt put an end to this confederation.
From ancient times, the Eastern Semites lived alongside the Sumerians. The circumstances and time of their appearance in Lower Mesopotamia remain a matter of debate and are not known for certain. The Eastern Semites constituted a minority in Sumer (Ki-Engi), but in the Ki-Uri region, their share was significant. In the 24th century BC, the Akkadian Kingdom arose in Ki-Uri, whose rulers and language were Semitic. The Akkadians (as the Eastern Semites have been called since that time) managed to establish control over the city-states of Sumer. The suppression of revolts and the terror of the Akkadian kings led to a decline in culture in Sumer. In the 22nd century BC, the lands of Sumer and Akkad were united under the rule of the Third Dynasty of Ur, whose kings patronized Sumerian culture in every possible way. Despite the apparent "Sumerian revival," at this time a peak of Semitization of the Ki-Engi population is noted: Akkadian rapidly displaces Sumerian from everyday speech.
After the collapse of the power of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the lands of Sumer and Akkad fell under the rule of the Amorites. Subsequently, this territory was subjugated by the Babylonian kings. In the 2nd millennium BC, as a result of the mixing of Sumerians with Akkadians and some other ethnic groups, the Babylonian people were formed.
VARIANT NAMES: Sumerian sag-gig-ga (black-headed), Akkadian șalmat qaqqadim, Russian Shumery, English Sumerians.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015