Small question; why is there a highlight on only one side of his neck? It makes me feel like the yellow side is extruding outwards and the blue side is flat...
(why yes; I do make the smallest and most ridiculous nitpicks )
He could paint one on with kohl, like they did back in Eannatum's day. Apparently, unibrows were considered attractive. Some folks say they complimented the eyes, some folks say that's just what they thought was attractive. Who knows.
Some were lucky enough to be born with them, but more often others would paint theirs on. I think women didn't look particularly unattractive with it, as seen here...
Though some of the hairstyles and headdresses of Sumerian women were fairly out-there...
A presumed Sumerian city-queen wore a particularly interesting one (I believe this one belonged to Kug-Bau...)
And women think they have it bad today... Heh. "I NEED TO WEAR TWENTY POUND OF GOLD IN MY HAIR OR I'LL NEVER BE PRETTY!!!"
I'd like to announce that we're looking for a Civilopedia writer for this project. Those who would like to try out should write a full frontpage for the Sumerians. For an example of a Pedia Frontpage, see here. Be sure to post your entry here in the thread.
Hello all. Pouakai referred me to this post and I decided to boldly take the challenge of making a pedia entry for the Sumerians. Better make this short cause this one's big. To make it easier to read I've grouped the sections into spoilers.
---
SpoilerHistory :
At times referred to as the 'land of the civilized kings' Sumer was an ancient civilization in southern Mesopotamia during the early Bronze Age. Historians assert that the land was first settled at about the early fifth millennium BC, even though known records go only as far back as c. 2900 BC. Sumer first rose in the Uruk period of the fourth millennium BC and continued to flourish during the Early Dynastic periods that followed. The following millennium saw a cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and their neighboring Akkadians, bilingualism was commonplace and Sumer and Akkad influenced each others languages and lexicons. Sumer remained independent until approximately 2270 BC, conquered by the emerging Akkadian Empire; Sumer enjoyed native rule during the Third Dynasty of Ur for a century before an Elamite invasion sacked Ur and Amorite rule developed in the region.
SpoilerGeography :
The term Mesopotamia is Greek in origin, meaning 'land between rivers', a simple observation. Sumer lies in the very heart of Mesopotamia, the cities run along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers that stem up from the Zargos Mountains in Turkey and meander down to the mouth of the Persian Gulf. In an otherwise seering mountainous desert the rivers so close to each other offer an abundant supply of fresh water and an uncommon density of farmable land. However, while the rivers offer vast sustainable to the people, the land has no vast amounts of buildable stone or timber for carpentry, this made Sumer very dependent on trade with other civilizations with access to such things.
SpoilerCity-States of the Fertile Crescent :
Before any unified Sumer rose to power the cities of Mesopotamia were separate city-states; they were physically divided by canals and boundary stones, culturally divided by their worship of a patron god or goddess, and politically divided by rule of either a governor or king who were intimately tied to the religious rites of the state they ruled. 28 states in all dotted and lined the Euphrates and Tigris; the cities that are said to have employed pre-dynastic kingship were Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar and Shuruppak.
SpoilerUbaid Period :
As far back as c. 6500 BC the Ubaid period saw a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery across Mesopotamia. Farmers who brought the Hadji Muhammad culture established Eridu, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia, in c. 5300; they pioneered irrigation agriculture and were a culture derived from the Samarran culture of the north. It is not actually known if they were the Sumerians noted in the Uruk period; nevertheless Eridu remained an important religious center, surpassing neighboring Uruk in size. Mesopotamian mythology may have reflected this in the story of Enki, god of wisdom, passing the 'gifts of civilization' to Inanna, goddess of love and war, as Enki is the patron god of Uruk and Inanna the patroness of Eridu. The Ubaid period also saw an urbanization of the city-states, where agriculture and animal husbandry were practiced across Mesopotamia. Three distinct influences amalgamated in this time; peasant Ubaidian farmers in mud-brick houses, nomadic Semitic pastoralists in black tents, and fishermen in reed huts.
SpoilerUruk Period :
The transition from the Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by the shift in pottery; from painted to bare, domestic to mass-produced by specialists. Starting at c. 4100 BC the Uruk period saw the volume of goods traded along the rivers in the south accelerating the rise of many large, stratified, temple-centered cities where the centralized governments employed specialists and enjoying populations of over 10,000. While not entirely certain, ample evidence suggests in this time that the city-states began to make use of slave labor, even in the earliest texts. The colonies of this time were founded over longer distances - as far north as the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, as far west as the Mediterranean Coast in the Middle East, as far east as central Iran. The city-states affected each other, slowly evolving their own economies and cultures to compete with their neighbors.
In the Uruk period the city-states were most likely theocratic, headed by an ensi - priest-king - and assisted by a council of elders of both men and women; it has been suggested that the pantheon of gods in Mesopotamia is modeled by this very structure of politics. Little evidence has been found to suggest either institutionalized violence or a professional army at this time and the cities were generally unwalled. Uruk became the most urbanized city in the world, reaching beyond 50,000 citizens. The Sumerian king list includes the names of early dynasties of many emerging cities from this time, however the first set of names is a list of kings who have reigned before a major flood affected the area, thus these many be fictional; names include Alulim of Eridu and Dumuzid the Shepherd. The end of the Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation, a dry period between c. 3200 and 2900 BC that ended the Holocene climate optimum, a wet and warmer climate over the region.
SpoilerCity-State Dynasties :
After the Uruk period came the early Dynastic period of Sumer where prominence shifted to the next dominant city-state. During this time figures such as Enmerkar and the legendary Gilgamesh reigned shortly before the historic record begins at c. 2700 BC. Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia despite rulers expanding beyond there own frontiers, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted a great deal of Sumerian culture to replace their own. Etana, the 13th king of the First Dynasty of Kish is the earliest king in the king list who appears in another legendary source, while Enmebaragesi of Kish is the earliest king authenticated in archaeological evidence; he is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which has historians leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself may be a historical king of Uruk, as opposed to fictional. In the epic it shows an increase in violence, cities walling to defend from marauders and increasing in size as undefended villages are wiped off the map.
One of these dynasties is the First Dynasty of Lagash, from c. 2500 to 2270 BC. While omitted from the king list Lagash I is well represented in the many monuments across Mesopotamia. Short in duration, Lagash I established one of the first empires in history under the command of Eannatum of Lagash; Eannatum annexed virtually the entirety of Sumer including large cities such as Kish, Uruk, Ur and Larsa, and made Umma a tributary. For more detail on Eannatum's conquest of Mesopotamia see his Civilopedia entry. Eannatum is noted for making use of terror as a weapon against his enemies, on his Stele of the Vultures the soldiers are depicted employing violent treatment of the malcontents. After his death the empire collapsed and ensi Lugal-Zage-Si of Umma overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in Umma, conquered Uruk and made an empire himself from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, adopting Uruk as the capital. Lugal-Zage-Si was the last king before the arrival of Sargon.
SpoilerRise and Fall of the Akkad :
Sargon of Akkad defeated Lugal-Zage-Si in the Battle of Uruk, conquering the empire he made. Sargon added this to his empire in the west and continued to pursue more territory; eventually Sargon built the Akkadian Empire that reached the Mediterranean, north to the Taurus Mountains - a Hittite text asserts Sargon fought the king Nurdaggal of Burushanda of the Hittites, east into Elam and far south into the Majan of Oman. His consolidation of the city-states reflected the growing economic and political power of Mesopotamia. Elam and northern Mesopotamia were subjugated while rebellions in Sumer were quashed. Throughout his life Sargon took great interest in the Sumerian pantheon, especially Inanna - his patroness - and Zababa the warrior god of Kish, calling himself "the anointed priest of Anu" and "the great ensi of Enlil". He even installed his daughter, Enheduanna as a priestess to Nanna at the temple of Ur.
Under Akkadian rule Sumer and much of the rest of Mesopotamia revolted almost continuously, Sargon and his son Naram-Sin continuously struck down the revolutions as the Akkadian Empire continued to rule the region. After the rule of Naram-Sin's son Shar-Kali-Sharri, Akkad had greatly weakened and in turn sparked a period of unrest between 2192 and 2168 BC. Shu-Durul seemed to have restored some of the authority but was not able to stop the collapse occurring from the invasion of the Gutians. After the downfall of Akkadian rule Gudea of Lagash led the Second Dynasty of Lagash, he continued the Akkadian practice of claiming divinity and promoted artistic development.
SpoilerSumerian Renaissance :
The Gutians were not much for agriculture nor record keeping; they let the herd animals freely roam Sumer, failed to date the next eight kings of Sumer and left no record of these king's doings to confirm their very existence. By the time the last Gutian king was ousted Sumer was crippled with famine and heavlily inflated prices of wheat and grain. Utu-hengal of Uruk driving out Tirigan began the 'Sumerian Renaissance'. Following Utu-hengal was Ur-Nammu and the start of the Third Dynasty of Ur; he created the Code of Ur-Nammu, probably the first law code since Urukagina of Lagash centuries earlier. Under Shulgi, Ur-Nammu's successor, significant changes took place in the Neo-Sumerian Empire; he attempted to centralize and standardize the procedures of the empire, standardizing the administrative processes, archival documentation, taxation and the calendar. Shulgi also established a standing army, and for all this Shulgi was deified during his lifetime, an honor generally reserved for deceased kings.
Even though the Sumerian language was revived during Ur III the kings did not ignore their ties to the Akkad Dynasty during the empire. Sumerian dominated the cultural sphere, the language of legal, administrative and economic documents while Akkadian was spread and used elsewhere, even newly founded towns gained Akkadian names. The kings of Ur III commissioned many projects, including irrigation systems and the centralization of agriculture. The labor force grew in the agricultural fields of industry such as irrigation, harvesting and sowing. Textiles became one of the most important industries in Ur. Run by the state, men, women and children were employed to produce clothing from wool and linen. The detail of the documentation is startling; some scholars profess that no other period in Mesopotamian history matches it. Trading was another big industry, Ur employed independent merchants to run commercial activities through the barter system; a system of weights was established to aid this process. Similarly coins made of copper, bronze, gold and silver were made in certain pre-set weights so merchants could easily extrapolate values. The work force is a subject of debate - originally the common laborer was just a serf, recent discoveries however suggest that there existed multiple groups of laborers; some worked under compulsion, others work to keep property or to gain rations from the state, others too were free men and women capable of achieving social mobility, families traveled together to find labor, amassing private property and even reaching higher positions. Slaves also made a crucial part of the work force; one scholar estimates that 40% of chattel slaves mentioned in documents were not born slaves but were made so due to debt, being sold to family members or other reasons. Literature during Ur III was mass produced and was 'revived', the term however is misleading as no evidence exists of a previous decline. Instead the literature was evolving, while Akkadian was the spoken language, Sumerian was the written. Some scholars suggest that the Epic of Gilgamesh was writing during Ur III into Sumerian; writers of Ur III attempted to establish ties with the then ancient kings of Uruk and their divinity by claiming familiar relations. Another text during Ur III is "the Death of Urnammu", where an underworld scene depicts Ur-Nammu showering "his brother Gilgamesh" with gifts.
SpoilerDecline :
The irony of the Fertile Crescent is that while the Euphrates and Tigris rivers gave life to the Sumerians millennia ago, the rivers were also their downfall. The agriculture during the Third Dynasty of Ur was compromised by the rising salinity in the soil due to the arid climate, high levels of evaporation and the poor quality of the irrigation; this all culminated to a severe reduction in agricultural yield. This prompted the kings of Ur III to shift from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but it was not enough and between 2100 and 1700 BC the population in Sumer declined by an estimated 60%. This greatly shifted the balance of power in Mesopotamia, weakening Sumerian speaking city-states and strengthening Akkadian speaking city-states. After an Elamite invasion and the sacking of Ur Sumer was under Amorite rule; independent Amorite states emerged in the 20th and 18th centuries BC, summarized in the Sumerian king list, before the rise of Babylon under Hammurabi in c. 1700 BC.
SpoilerFactoids :
Eridu was the world's first city; the three cultures of farmers, Semitic pastoralists and fishermen first co-existed during the Ubaid period of Sumer.
One surprising feature of the Third Dynasty of Ur is the slaves ability to accumulate assets and even property during their servitude to buy their freedom. Documents do reveal details about specific deals for the freedom of slaves negotiated with their slave-owners.
There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that Sumerians loved music, it appeared to have been a very important part of religious and civil life. Lyres were popular in Sumer, the most notable are the Lyres of Ur.
From c. 2600 BC Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tables and dealt with geometric exercises and division problems. Between c. 2700 and 2300 BC Sumerians developed the first abacus, and the Sumerians were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.
Hello all. Pouakai referred me to this post and I decided to boldly take the challenge of making a pedia entry for the Sumerians. Better make this short cause this one's big. To make it easier to read I've grouped the sections into spoilers.
---
SpoilerHistory :
At times referred to as the 'land of the civilized kings' Sumer was an ancient civilization in southern Mesopotamia during the early Bronze Age. Historians assert that the land was first settled at about the early fifth millennium BC, even though known records go only as far back as c. 2900 BC. Sumer first rose in the Uruk period of the fourth millennium BC and continued to flourish during the Early Dynastic periods that followed. The following millennium saw a cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and their neighboring Akkadians, bilingualism was commonplace and Sumer and Akkad influenced each others languages and lexicons. Sumer remained independent until approximately 2270 BC, conquered by the emerging Akkadian Empire; Sumer enjoyed native rule during the Third Dynasty of Ur for a century before an Elamite invasion sacked Ur and Amorite rule developed in the region.
SpoilerGeography :
The term Mesopotamia is Greek in origin, meaning 'land between rivers', a simple observation. Sumer lies in the very heart of Mesopotamia, the cities run along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers that stem up from the Zargos Mountains in Turkey and meander down to the mouth of the Persian Gulf. In an otherwise seering mountainous desert the rivers so close to each other offer an abundant supply of fresh water and an uncommon density of farmable land. However, while the rivers offer vast sustainable to the people, the land has no vast amounts of buildable stone or timber for carpentry, this made Sumer very dependent on trade with other civilizations with access to such things.
SpoilerCity-States of the Fertile Crescent :
Before any unified Sumer rose to power the cities of Mesopotamia were separate city-states; they were physically divided by canals and boundary stones, culturally divided by their worship of a patron god or goddess, and politically divided by rule of either a governor or king who were intimately tied to the religious rites of the state they ruled. 28 states in all dotted and lined the Euphrates and Tigris; the cities that are said to have employed pre-dynastic kingship were Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar and Shuruppak.
SpoilerUbaid Period :
As far back as c. 6500 BC the Ubaid period saw a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery across Mesopotamia. Farmers who brought the Hadji Muhammad culture established Eridu, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia, in c. 5300; they pioneered irrigation agriculture and were a culture derived from the Samarran culture of the north. It is not actually known if they were the Sumerians noted in the Uruk period; nevertheless Eridu remained an important religious center, surpassing neighboring Uruk in size. Mesopotamian mythology may have reflected this in the story of Enki, god of wisdom, passing the 'gifts of civilization' to Inanna, goddess of love and war, as Enki is the patron god of Uruk and Inanna the patroness of Eridu. The Ubaid period also saw an urbanization of the city-states, where agriculture and animal husbandry were practiced across Mesopotamia. Three distinct influences amalgamated in this time; peasant Ubaidian farmers in mud-brick houses, nomadic Semitic pastoralists in black tents, and fishermen in reed huts.
SpoilerUruk Period :
The transition from the Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by the shift in pottery; from painted to bare, domestic to mass-produced by specialists. Starting at c. 4100 BC the Uruk period saw the volume of goods traded along the rivers in the south accelerating the rise of many large, stratified, temple-centered cities where the centralized governments employed specialists and enjoying populations of over 10,000. While not entirely certain, ample evidence suggests in this time that the city-states began to make use of slave labor, even in the earliest texts. The colonies of this time were founded over longer distances - as far north as the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, as far west as the Mediterranean Coast in the Middle East, as far east as central Iran. The city-states affected each other, slowly evolving their own economies and cultures to compete with their neighbors.
In the Uruk period the city-states were most likely theocratic, headed by an ensi - priest-king - and assisted by a council of elders of both men and women; it has been suggested that the pantheon of gods in Mesopotamia is modeled by this very structure of politics. Little evidence has been found to suggest either institutionalized violence or a professional army at this time and the cities were generally unwalled. Uruk became the most urbanized city in the world, reaching beyond 50,000 citizens. The Sumerian king list includes the names of early dynasties of many emerging cities from this time, however the first set of names is a list of kings who have reigned before a major flood affected the area, thus these many be fictional; names include Alulim of Eridu and Dumuzid the Shepherd. The end of the Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation, a dry period between c. 3200 and 2900 BC that ended the Holocene climate optimum, a wet and warmer climate over the region.
SpoilerCity-State Dynasties :
After the Uruk period came the early Dynastic period of Sumer where prominence shifted to the next dominant city-state. During this time figures such as Enmerkar and the legendary Gilgamesh reigned shortly before the historic record begins at c. 2700 BC. Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia despite rulers expanding beyond there own frontiers, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted a great deal of Sumerian culture to replace their own. Etana, the 13th king of the First Dynasty of Kish is the earliest king in the king list who appears in another legendary source, while Enmebaragesi of Kish is the earliest king authenticated in archaeological evidence; he is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which has historians leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself may be a historical king of Uruk, as opposed to fictional. In the epic it shows an increase in violence, cities walling to defend from marauders and increasing in size as undefended villages are wiped off the map.
One of these dynasties is the First Dynasty of Lagash, from c. 2500 to 2270 BC. While omitted from the king list Lagash I is well represented in the many monuments across Mesopotamia. Short in duration, Lagash I established one of the first empires in history under the command of Eannatum of Lagash; Eannatum annexed virtually the entirety of Sumer including large cities such as Kish, Uruk, Ur and Larsa, and made Umma a tributary. For more detail on Eannatum's conquest of Mesopotamia see his Civilopedia entry. Eannatum is noted for making use of terror as a weapon against his enemies, on his Stele of the Vultures the soldiers are depicted employing violent treatment of the malcontents. After his death the empire collapsed and ensi Lugal-Zage-Si of Umma overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in Umma, conquered Uruk and made an empire himself from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, adopting Uruk as the capital. Lugal-Zage-Si was the last king before the arrival of Sargon.
SpoilerRise and Fall of the Akkad :
Sargon of Akkad defeated Lugal-Zage-Si in the Battle of Uruk, conquering the empire he made. Sargon added this to his empire in the west and continued to pursue more territory; eventually Sargon built the Akkadian Empire that reached the Mediterranean, north to the Taurus Mountains - a Hittite text asserts Sargon fought the king Nurdaggal of Burushanda of the Hittites, east into Elam and far south into the Majan of Oman. His consolidation of the city-states reflected the growing economic and political power of Mesopotamia. Elam and northern Mesopotamia were subjugated while rebellions in Sumer were quashed. Throughout his life Sargon took great interest in the Sumerian pantheon, especially Inanna - his patroness - and Zababa the warrior god of Kish, calling himself "the anointed priest of Anu" and "the great ensi of Enlil". He even installed his daughter, Enheduanna as a priestess to Nanna at the temple of Ur.
Under Akkadian rule Sumer and much of the rest of Mesopotamia revolted almost continuously, Sargon and his son Naram-Sin continuously struck down the revolutions as the Akkadian Empire continued to rule the region. After the rule of Naram-Sin's son Shar-Kali-Sharri, Akkad had greatly weakened and in turn sparked a period of unrest between 2192 and 2168 BC. Shu-Durul seemed to have restored some of the authority but was not able to stop the collapse occurring from the invasion of the Gutians. After the downfall of Akkadian rule Gudea of Lagash led the Second Dynasty of Lagash, he continued the Akkadian practice of claiming divinity and promoted artistic development.
SpoilerSumerian Renaissance :
The Gutians were not much for agriculture nor record keeping; they let the herd animals freely roam Sumer, failed to date the next eight kings of Sumer and left no record of these king's doings to confirm their very existence. By the time the last Gutian king was ousted Sumer was crippled with famine and heavlily inflated prices of wheat and grain. Utu-hengal of Uruk driving out Tirigan began the 'Sumerian Renaissance'. Following Utu-hengal was Ur-Nammu and the start of the Third Dynasty of Ur; he created the Code of Ur-Nammu, probably the first law code since Urukagina of Lagash centuries earlier. Under Shulgi, Ur-Nammu's successor, significant changes took place in the Neo-Sumerian Empire; he attempted to centralize and standardize the procedures of the empire, standardizing the administrative processes, archival documentation, taxation and the calendar. Shulgi also established a standing army, and for all this Shulgi was deified during his lifetime, an honor generally reserved for deceased kings.
Even though the Sumerian language was revived during Ur III the kings did not ignore their ties to the Akkad Dynasty during the empire. Sumerian dominated the cultural sphere, the language of legal, administrative and economic documents while Akkadian was spread and used elsewhere, even newly founded towns gained Akkadian names. The kings of Ur III commissioned many projects, including irrigation systems and the centralization of agriculture. The labor force grew in the agricultural fields of industry such as irrigation, harvesting and sowing. Textiles became one of the most important industries in Ur. Run by the state, men, women and children were employed to produce clothing from wool and linen. The detail of the documentation is startling; some scholars profess that no other period in Mesopotamian history matches it. Trading was another big industry, Ur employed independent merchants to run commercial activities through the barter system; a system of weights was established to aid this process. Similarly coins made of copper, bronze, gold and silver were made in certain pre-set weights so merchants could easily extrapolate values. The work force is a subject of debate - originally the common laborer was just a serf, recent discoveries however suggest that there existed multiple groups of laborers; some worked under compulsion, others work to keep property or to gain rations from the state, others too were free men and women capable of achieving social mobility, families traveled together to find labor, amassing private property and even reaching higher positions. Slaves also made a crucial part of the work force; one scholar estimates that 40% of chattel slaves mentioned in documents were not born slaves but were made so due to debt, being sold to family members or other reasons. Literature during Ur III was mass produced and was 'revived', the term however is misleading as no evidence exists of a previous decline. Instead the literature was evolving, while Akkadian was the spoken language, Sumerian was the written. Some scholars suggest that the Epic of Gilgamesh was writing during Ur III into Sumerian; writers of Ur III attempted to establish ties with the then ancient kings of Uruk and their divinity by claiming familiar relations. Another text during Ur III is "the Death of Urnammu", where an underworld scene depicts Ur-Nammu showering "his brother Gilgamesh" with gifts.
SpoilerDecline :
The irony of the Fertile Crescent is that while the Euphrates and Tigris rivers gave life to the Sumerians millennia ago, the rivers were also their downfall. The agriculture during the Third Dynasty of Ur was compromised by the rising salinity in the soil due to the arid climate, high levels of evaporation and the poor quality of the irrigation; this all culminated to a severe reduction in agricultural yield. This prompted the kings of Ur III to shift from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but it was not enough and between 2100 and 1700 BC the population in Sumer declined by an estimated 60%. This greatly shifted the balance of power in Mesopotamia, weakening Sumerian speaking city-states and strengthening Akkadian speaking city-states. After an Elamite invasion and the sacking of Ur Sumer was under Amorite rule; independent Amorite states emerged in the 20th and 18th centuries BC, summarized in the Sumerian king list, before the rise of Babylon under Hammurabi in c. 1700 BC.
SpoilerFactoids :
Eridu was the world's first city; the three cultures of farmers, Semitic pastoralists and fishermen first co-existed during the Ubaid period of Sumer.
One surprising feature of the Third Dynasty of Ur is the slaves ability to accumulate assets and even property during their servitude to buy their freedom. Documents do reveal details about specific deals for the freedom of slaves negotiated with their slave-owners.
There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that Sumerians loved music, it appeared to have been a very important part of religious and civil life. Lyres were popular in Sumer, the most notable are the Lyres of Ur.
From c. 2600 BC Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tables and dealt with geometric exercises and division problems. Between c. 2700 and 2300 BC Sumerians developed the first abacus, and the Sumerians were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.
The Euphrates starts as two rivers that conflux: The Kara, and the Murat. The Murat originates near Mount Ararat. The Kara isn't as important, because it's not the primary source of the river. So we can say that the Euphrates originates from Ararat.
The Tigris originates from Lake Hazar, in the Taurus mountains.
A precise date for Sumer losing its independence for the last time is ca. 1920 B.C. That's as precise as it gets for that part of history. Sumer losing its independence and Abram (Abraham) leaving Ur for the promised land are contemporary. Yes, Abraham was almost certainly a Sumerian.
You might want to try being a bit more humorous with the Gutians. They were a pretty hilarious people. In addition, certain crackpots try to link the Gutians (Guti) with the Goths (Also Guti I believe.) The gutians were said to be fair skinned and have blonde hair, so it's not as far of a stretch as you'd think. Still a stretch, though.
One of my original factoids for it was how Unug in Sumerian becomes Uruk in Akkadian, which becomes Erech in a few Semitic languages, which becomes Iraq in a certain semitic language: Arabic.
Overall, though, this will do. A few corrections here and there, but it's better than what I can produce. Welcome aboard!
All this taken in, this is our list of holdups before we go into Sumerian Beta...
3D Unit Art ( A couple of people have been tasked with this, we'll see if they deliver )
Civilopedia and text ( The Majority of this will probably be assigned to Mr. snifnisnifsin Chris. )
Balance Changes ( Irkalla and others )
Testing and Feedback ( Anyone and Everyone )
Oh, and some things that will hold us up for Sumerians 1.0
Sumerian Language Consultant (????)
Sumerian Voice Over (Irkalla most likely. Will homemake studio equipment.)
Audio Engineer familiar with VST. For leader musics.
Speaking of Language Consultants, I'm also looking for Attic and Doric Greek consultants.
Oh, and some things that will hold us up for Sumerians 1.0
Sumerian Language Consultant (????)
Sumerian Voice Over (Irkalla most likely. Will homemake studio equipment.)
Audio Engineer familiar with VST. For leader musics.
Not all languages are like "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Some are like "Over the lazy dog jumps the quick brown fox." Or "jumps the quick brown fox over the lazy dog." Or "The lazy dog Quick Brown Fox Over Jumps." Or even "Dog Lazy over Fox Brown Quick Jump now."
I believe Sumerian goes like "Up dog lazy verily fox quick brown jump" Thus, in lieu of a fluent Sumerian speaker, we might just ask a Hungarian speaker to form sentences like he would using a Sumerian lexicon. Note that verily seems to suggest that the action occurred in the past, and the the speaker is being truthful about his recounting of the event. From this, we get "Verily! The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
Or I could just talk with some of the people from the babylonian section of the u-penn museum. They might have some information for me. They have a lexicon up on the internet, the pennsylvania sumerian dictionary.
I think a study came out that concluded Sumerian was spoken loosely and moderately-fast paced, based on typographical irregularities and borrowings into Akkadian. I don't know how easily that would be done, but that definitely means no death growls like Nebuchadnezzar or anything remotely close to that.
I think a study came out that concluded Sumerian was spoken loosely and moderately-fast paced, based on typographical irregularities and borrowings into Akkadian. I don't know how easily that would be done, but that definitely means no death growls like Nebuchadnezzar or anything remotely close to that.
Well, here's my shot at Sumerian (MIGHT BE LOUD). Note that this is nothing close to the actual recording equipment, I've got boards, programs, a sweet ass condenser mic, and pop filters and pillows and all that junk.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
coool
.
)
If there are other pedia entries I can give them a go too.
