Hello, everybody. Welcome to the human History Podcast. I'm your host James Baldwin. And on this podcast. We take a dive into the history of humans mainly through our civilizations focusing on a general understanding of the events Innovations and figures which make up the history of us want to begin each Episode byMeaning everyone that I am neither historian or an archaeologist as podcast is simply a way for me to share some information with you all about subject which I find incredibly fascinating the first season in the human History Podcast will naturally start at the beginning with ancient history and the world's earliest civilizations. We're going to start with the earliest known civilizations in recorded history and then move our way around the map as we move through time. We're going to explore the Sumerians and other The Empire's the Harappan in India the progenitors of the Chinese and Central Asia will eventually make our way to the Han Dynasty in China the Romans the Gupta Empire in India, which lasted until 543 ad we're also cross the oceans will also cross the oceans to discover the early peoples of mesoamerica. So we got a lot going on. We'll also have a few non civilization centered episodes about things which I think are. Interesting and also just important for kind of attaining that General understanding of the history that we're shooting for here. Just an example we're going to do an episode or maybe two on the Silk Road. So I'm looking forward to that one. Just a quick note. A lot of ancient history is known to us through the archaeological record. So different discoveries and texts and a lot of these texts especially are you know, they're mythological or the religious in nature or some of them are just clerical. So a lot of it can be interpreted in different ways. So we don't have a quote unquote clear history of the ancient world, but we do have General idea of what happened and who did what beginning around right around the middle of the third millennium BC and that's the story. I'm attempting to share with you here. So that being said I am using some specific sources for this and other episodes, which does mean that for certain things. I'll be giving one historian or one archaeologists point of view. But in cases where it seems to be there seems to be a lot of debate or a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to the dating. I've done my best to point this out so that you guys know when something is maybe a little bit less hard fact a little bit more speculation or hearsay. Okay. So here we go on today's episode. We are talking about a civilization which some credit with inventing the wheel building the first cities developing the earliest system of writing and building the first Empires. Today we're talking about the Sumerians. The first thing I want to do before we start is acknowledge my sources. I'll put a full full list of all the sources in the show notes, but the main sources that I used for this episode that I'll you're going to probably hear me reference. First. One is the history of the ancient world from the earliest accounts to the fall of Rome by Susan wise Bauer. This is going to be probably one of my main sources for a few of the episodes. Obviously as you can tell by the title. She does a great job. Her chapters are really concise and they run through a nice chronological history given a good understanding of kind of just the background events and characters that kind of made up the story. So I'm going to be referencing her a We also have the Sumerian World which is edited by Harriet Crawford. And I also used the online ancient history encyclopedia. And then one more quick note one of the main sources of information for all of these sources and all of information about ancient Sumerians in ancient Sumer. It's the Kings list, which you're going to hear me reference during this episode just for some context. The Kings list is an ancient Sumerian texts preserved on clay tablets that records each of Summers Kings goes from the earliest of Who may or may not have been mythological to the end of the Sumerians in the beginning of this and Dynasty? around or in the late 3rd Century, BC Okay. Many thousands of years ago the Sumerian king Al ulam ruled over. Irri do a walled City a safe space carved out of the unpredictable and harsh River Valley that the Romans would later name Mesopotamia al-alem's rise to power marked the beginning of civilization in his Reign lasted for almost thirty thousand years. I want to begin by just providing a brief introduction to the Sumerians from there. I'll introduce you to some of the key figures who inhabited Sumer during this time period and then we'll move on to a discussion of the main events some of the key Innovations from the Sumerian era. So to start off with where are we? The land known as Sumer occupied the Southern Plains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers the northern Terminus of the Persian Gulf and modern day Iraq and Kuwait. If you look at a map, you can still see the area quite clearly. You can see the two rivers beginning at the gulf and then sort of diverging slowly creating almost a V and it's in the southern. Part of this River Valley between them where we find ancient Sumer. The Sumerians were one of the first civilizations of recorded human history on top of devising agricultural techniques and building roads and canals as part of some of the world's first cities Sumerians were responsible for an amazing number of Firsts for our species. They gave us the first epic hero. The first monotheists has Bauer says the invention of the wheel and of writing the first written set of laws. It was really them along with the Elements in the Indus Valley in India and in Asia which we'll talk about in future episodes the truly began the process of building civilizations and it can provide us with solid look at some of the earliest historical records of human beings as they made that shift from wandering hunter gatherers and two collections of small villages into towns and eventually into cities and engaging in essentially international trade. So the name Sumerian actually comes from Acadian, which is the language of the north of Mesopotamia. It's a later Empire that we'll talk about and will reference it during this episode as well. But an akkadian Sumerian means land of the Civilized Kings they were once believed to be descendant of group which came from the north to invade the Southern Plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, but more recent Nations using modern technology and I believe it was sonar technology tells kind of a different story kind of tells a story of a slow coming together of people different peoples from the north. But as well as the South and the East over many different Generations, it was definitely one of the earliest agricultural civilizations to develop and this intermingling theory that is more recent is further supported by the language. The Sumerian words are mostly built on one syllable routes by the time they began to write their language. It was peppered with two syllable Roots like the City of Erie do for example, and these words are Semitic and the Semitic people came as We Know. From other history they originated from the south and west of Sumer. another thing is that the Semitic loanwords that we see in Sumerian are almost all names for farming techniques plow or Furrow farmer in other occupations, which go along with farming basket maker and Carpenter and Bauer says this next part in fact, but I'm just going to use the term that's very possible that the semites were the ones who introduced the Aryans to these agricultural skills in these farming techniques as far as when we're talking about the most recent archaeological evidence suggests that people's were inhabiting the land of summer long before around 4500 BC possibly as far back as around 50 400 BC some historians continue to prefer the name Sumerians as it applies to the peoples of the area from about 32 BC onwards, but that I think is Has a lot to do with just being a maybe not call it a relic but it has to do with the evidence that suggested the Sumerians were a distinct group who invaded from the north rather than the amalgamation of groups from the north south and east which quote-unquote seeped into the land known as Sumer and constant phases of settlement and the end of Sumerian civilization can be placed right about 2004. BC when the city of UR fell to heal my Invaders which we will talk about. In terms of the different time periods of the Sumerian era you'll hear historians and archaeologists talk about these different time periods. Now the earliest and again with different archaeologists and different historians, you may you know, there is some different verbiage used as far as the Time periods are concerned as far as I understand it hits these names the ones that I'm going to give to you come from. Pottery that was discovered in these areas and that's where the names come from. So the period the really early period and Sumerian history from prior to about 40 200. BC is referred to as the ooh by Ed period which is you be a ID and then once we get closer to around 4000 into third 800 BC we're getting into the early Uruk period which is you are UK and we have an early and an early middle and late middle and a late aruch period and that lasts until right around 3000 right around 3000 BC. And then after that we have what some call the the aruch the third period or the third aruch period others have started calling it The Jump Nasser period this is all mostly just for your guys information. I know this is kind of a lot but it's just kind of interesting and then right around 2900 BC is when you start the early dynastic first and second periods. We move into the early dynastic third. third periods right around 2600 and then it's right around the 25 2300 time where we get the first dynasty of UR not last for a couple hundred years until the akkadian Empire takes over and then we have the third dynasty of UR which comes back after the akkadian Empire and there's a few other dynasties that are in there that will talk about but these are just kind of the main the main time periods that that you're going to hear talked about the third dynasty of UR coming after the acadians. You'll see it if you see it in writing you'll see it as our which is you are or the third or they do in Roman numerals. So those are the kind of the main time periods. As far as the Sumerians go that you'll see historians and archaeologists talk about and it's actually kind of an interesting story as far as why this area kind of became what would become known as the cradle of civilization? So at the end of the last ice age starting right around 11 Thousand BC the temperatures started to rise the land north of the Persian Gulf became dried out. And you know as the these temperatures are rising these glaciers from the Ice Age were receding and then each year the streams would flood and then they would recede into their beds and they would deposit silt onto the banks of the intertwining streams. It would cause these streams to be pushed apart. So the Gulf of the Persian Gulf actually started creep northwards, you know, about 11 or 10,000 BC. They think that the northern coast of the Persian Gulf was closer to modern day Qatar, which is about 300 miles south of where currently sits which is pretty incredible. So the gulf continue to creep northwards as melting glaciers cause a sea levels to rise the people on the southern playing closest to the gulf had a deal with the shifting landscape and then you combine that with a seasonal floods. And there was also a lack of stone. There was no Timber there was no grasslands what the people in this area did have were the Reeds which grew along the banks of the streams and they had mud obviously and the mud could be molded out and dried you can mix it with reeds and you could bake it and from that you get bricks and those bricks would form the very first houses of the very first Villages and they would eventually A form the city walls and they would eventually be used to form some of the earliest pots and dishes that humans would use in our history. I'm going to post a link. There's this amazing video on YouTube of a gentleman who is just out in the woods just going through this process just showing you how you can essentially make read mud bricks. It's pretty phenomenal. So I'll post that. guys can check that out in as far as kind of how these people were able to you know go from the what we always hear about the hunter-gatherers who wandered through a lot of those a lot of those areas for a long time and even after the Sumerians continued to exist and to this day, we still have some tribes of hunter-gatherers, but it seems to be that the way that they were able to kind of settle or maybe I would say the reason that they settled was these Advanced farming Techniques that we saw come about which as we said likely came from the Semitic tribes who moved into the area from the southwest and then also the Innovations in construction like the mud brick which allowed them to construct the homes and eventually the cities. The early peoples of the Sumerian planes built the community's really slowly but by about 3600 BC they built one of the world's earliest cities. They had invented the wheel and the sailboat and the first form of writing so You know 3600 BC. We're looking at 5,000 years ago. You know. A little bit more than we're looking at more than 5,000 years ago 5,500 years ago. We had the wheel we had the sailboat. We had the first form of writing the world's earliest cities and it's all kind of coming from just this one one little spot right on the right on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. It's pretty it's pretty incredible. Think about so we're going to talk about some of the key figures in Sumerian history. We have I mean in the Sumerian record, we have some of the most fascinating and you terminal characters from our human history. We have Gilgamesh which is a name sure. A lot of you will recognize who's the first epic hero of literature gudea, the prince of lagash his statues are probably some of the most recognizable in the archaeological record. A lot of you have probably seen him in museums. Then not maybe not known who he was but his statues a lot of his statue survived to this day. We also have Abram who power calls them first monotheists and he would become Abraham the father of three world religions. We have ur-nammu qinger nemu who would lead the Sumerian Renaissance. He would set down the world's first known written set of laws or might have been essential gear. Not really. A hundred percent sure on that but along with essentially they both built a huge Monument which still Towers over the Iraqi landscape to this day, which we will talk about later in the show. So in the city of Uruk around 2800 BC a king named mezquia. Gosh who ruled the time aruch may have been the largest city in the world with a population of between 40 and 80 thousand people mezquita. She expanded her Works trade to secure Copper from McGann in modern-day Oman on the southern end of the Golf and Tennis. in from the mountain tribes of the Zagros Mountains to the east ensuring rukh's access to the metal it needed for weapons and just a couple of quick notes Here the Sumerians started adding 10% ten or arsenic to their copper to produce bronze as early as around 3000 BC some put it a little bit earlier some a little bit later which but I mean That in and of itself puts them in the Bronze Age full 700 years prior to the northern European civilizations, which is pretty incredible. And another note is that under a mask? I go sure right around 2800 BC and possibly earlier. The Sumerians were using Reed boats at the cult with bitumen which was capable of carrying up to 20 tons of metal which they could use to trade grain oil and wool for copper at the ports of McGann, which I that just blows my mind the fact that 5000 years ago people were building boats out of reeds growing on the sides of rivers that could carry 20 tons of metal hundreds of miles. Through the sea is is pretty incredible. And in case you guys aren't familiar bitumen is essentially tar the viscous form of petroleum, which is a natural byproduct of the decomposition of plants. It's essentially the early version of what we use to pave our Rose today, but some interesting facts is that it's actually been used by humans for at least 40,000 years. So one of the earliest one of the earlier discoveries of humans, it's pretty useful. So actually so this is from thought co.com in some places bitumen extrudes naturally from territorial sources and others. It appears in liquid pools, which can Harden into mounds and in still others. It uses from under water seeps washing up is tarballs long sandy beaches and Rocky shorelines. So I just have this image of this ancient Sumerian or probably group of them. Just going out to this tar pit that they know. Of just collecting just masses of the stuff and using it in large scale. You know, I mean at least maybe not large scale as in size, but as an you know mass production of boats, it's pretty incredible. So mezquia sure went down to am on to get copper went over over to the east to get 10 so that they could secure weapons and when he died his son and Mark are took over in an apparent bid to live up to his father's reputation actually launched an attack against the elamites city of Errata, which was a trade partner of Uruk relatively boom. City quote on this is a quote admired for its riches. It's metal workers and it's skilled Stone Cutters and actually this story about an armored car and its attack on a Radha is one of the earliest stories that we have available to us in the written human record, but the attack did presumably fail and he and we're card died without having children and he was succeeded by a man named lougle Banda who was a fellow Warrior of unmarked cars. He was actually the star of a few epic tales in his own, right? you know the stories that I story that was talking about where they wrote about the This attack from Enric are on Errata and Lugo Banda came out as one of the one of the one of the stars of that show. I guess I would put it but apparently the attack did not go well, but according to Wikipedia the Sumerian Kings list tells us that lougle Bando was the second king of Uruk and he ruled for 1,200 years. The Epic Tales are based on his time as a warrior and the army of Mr. Carr. Willing to take a red-eye as we said. Yeah, and so he ruled he ruled for a while and then after him it was an unrelated Warrior and it doesn't seem to be any hereditary succession after that and then seems to be about a hundred years later when we come across a new king and a new bid for power from aruch and this king's name was Mesh from ancient history encyclopedia. This is a quote known as Bill gum ass in Sumerian Gil gamos in Greek and Associated closely with the figure of dumuzi from the Sumerian poem The Descent of inanna Gilgamesh is widely accepted as the historical fifth king of Uruk who reigned in the 26th Century BCE and quote. So Gilgamesh, he was a real person. He really did exist. He was likely in a surpr to the throne, which was not uncommon for that time and that place his father was likely a high priest in the service of the God on this from Bauer quote the Kings list their the king list calls him leeloo a word which implied demonic powers. So that's fun Gilgamesh claimed Lugo band as his father, which maybe is a good call if people think that your father has demonic Powers Lugo Banda. I mean like we said, it's been about a hundred years. But again, this isn't something this is something that you'll see again. And again in a lot of these ancient civilizations is when a new king comes to power, you know, he'll claim Him descent from whoever he believes is going to give him the strongest claim to the throne and I really doesn't matter if that person you're claiming as your father lived a hundred years earlier. But he did, you know, he did succeed. He took the throne of Uruk and then he turned his eye to Kish which is another early Sumerian city. And by that time it was the pearl of the Sumerian world and it was the home to the man claiming superiority over the Sacred City of Nipper and of the Sumerian were region. So at that time it was essentially the person running Kish essentially claim themselves. To be they call themselves The King of Kish which essentially meant that they were calling themselves the king of Sumer. So it was really the central place kind of the main the main goal for anybody who really wanted to consolidate power and Rule so Gilgamesh turned his eye there. But after campaign North are I'm sorry, so he took a campaign North into the woods so that he could secure some Timber to build fortified walls. Which in the Epic of Gilgamesh which is the you know that earliest of Epic Tales it talks about Stone and copper walls, but that was that was an exaggeration. They would have been it would have been wood Timber walls, which Gilgamesh would have had to take. Soldiers North into the land of I'm trying to remember I think it would have been the elamites where they were going to get this wood but he goes and gets it and he builds these 45s fortified walls. So now he's ready. He's ready for Kish. So he marched on City ruled by a man named n and my Baraga see and he's the first Sumerian king. Rain can actually be estimated as being on the throne around 2700 BC and my Baraga see ruled for years before Gilgamesh ever came to power and aruch. He was not the only king of Kish or he was not only the came Kish but like I said, he was the protector of the Sacred City of napur and so Gilgamesh gathered his arm. He's got his Siege weapons got his horses and he marched on Kish. And he failed we know this because and myrrh and member gissy actually died on the throne and he passed his rule down to his son, Agha. Who actually reached out to Gilgamesh for peace when he came to power but Gilgamesh actually attacked Kish again. He attacked gah, and this was actually against the wishes of the Council of Elders, but with the support of the Council of the younger able-bodied men, which Bauer tells us is a common form of government in Sumer. You have these two groups similar to Parliament. I guess you could you could sort of relate it that way or to the Senate and in Greece in ancient Greece there were essentially just these councils that the leader would go to and kind of seek advice and sometimes permission depending on the power situation. Action, but yeah, I was generally There Was You Know older wise with older wiser men and then there would be the younger more able-bodied men in this would be a common form of government that you would see so Gilgamesh was offered peace and he apparently saw it as a sign of weakness rather than as a sign of peace. Peace and he attacked and he failed again and we know this because actually the first dynasty of Kish which is the dynasty that in my berry guess see and I got were a part of is actually eventually brought down by the king of her whose name was messing up a top. I'm sorry messing up Hada. He'd been quietly waiting in the wings for decades as Gilgamesh kind of ran himself up against Kish and after he retreated for the second time the king of UR moved in and he took down a guy and claim the throne in the title of Kish her. Yeah, so he took the title of Kish, but he also ruled or earlier and Nipper. And so this time Gilgamesh it's a little bit more patient. He waited until The Old King messing a potted died and he passed the throne to his son más. Que El gouna and then he finally made a third attempt and a successful attempt to take Kish. So at this point he taken control of Kish earlier work, which was hist City. And / and this is more land than any Sumerian king before him. But he did die shortly after consolidating all this power and he left everything to his son. So now I want to talk a little bit about the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is the story that I'm sure a lot of you have heard of it is known as the oldest piece of Epic literature and world history. It's a composite of six different stories and a PostScript which is been translated from bits and pieces of clay tablets written in the number of languages including Sumerian and Assyrian, which Come later on later Empire of the region and the stories that we find come from are dated from anywhere between 2100 BC and 626 BC. It was first discovered in its akkadian version in the mid 19th century by Hormuz Rasam, Austen Henry layard and WK Loftus on clay tablets Unearthed from the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal who is the last great Assyrian king who ruled until about 6 26-6 27 BC. So the six stories that you find in the Epic of Gilgamesh are the tale of an kaidu which tells a story of the people seeking deliverance from the Tyrant Gilgamesh. So the gods send the creature in kaidu down but Gilgamesh actually claims him and they become friends but that in that still creates peace in the process. And if you re different interpretations, it's essentially a talks about in kaidu being gilgamesh's own struggles for Essentially being responsible leader on maturing. It's very interesting. I mean we could probably do an entire episode just on the story of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but we won't do that yet. So the second story is the journey to the cedar Forest which actually tells the story of the campaign into the Northwoods to go and get that Timber that they needed to fortify the Balls before they marched on Kish and in this story Gilgamesh defeats the giant hugeness or in I believe it Sumerian. His name is humbaba. The third story is the bowl of Heaven Gilgamesh spurns the advances of the Goddess inanna, so she sends the bull of heaven after him and in Chi do but they do kill it. But as punishment inanna who is actually also known as Ishtar you may have heard she senses and kaidu to death and kills him. Unfortunately. The fourth story is gilgamesh's Journey. And Gilgamesh is so torn after the death of his friend. He goes on a search for immortality and he reaches the land of boot not p-stim Putin a piece Tim. Who is the Sumerian Noah figure and I think I haven't decided but I do think that I am going to do an episode. solely devoted to ancient flood myths because I think that's an interesting subject and we would talk more about it and I pushed him and the Sumerian flood myth there, but for story Gilgamesh goes and he actually finds him fifth Story is the story of the flood in which una pitched him tells him the story and that's where the story actually the ancient Sumerian flood story comes from comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh or at least that's Where it has been recorded and where we found it I should say the six story is gilgamesh's Quest in which he searches and fails to find immortality. There's obviously, you know, there's a lot more a lot more to all of these stories just giving a very brief description to just kind of give you an idea of the stories behind the Epic of Gilgamesh and then there is a PostScript which laments his death and only the first two stories in the PostScript can actually be said with relative confidence to be from within Striking Distance of his lifetime, you know talking closer to that 2100 BC range and Bauer comments on the relationship between death and the oldest epic story known to mankind which is kind of interesting Gilgamesh, you know, as we know he attained Godlike status within only about a hundred years of his Actual lifetime but a part of a story is his death and its eventual inability to attain immortality and actually the lament from the PostScript to the Epic of Gilgamesh goes like this. You were given the kingship everlasting life was not your destiny. You had power to bind and loose Supremacy over the people victory in battle, but do not abuse this power deal justly with your servants in the palace. So guys if you haven't heard about anchor it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain it's free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or your computer and anchor will distribute your podcast for you. So it can be heard on Spotify a podcast and many more you can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything you need to make a Cast in one place download the free anchor app or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started. So that's Gilgamesh one of the earliest characters of human literature known to us. And who is the star of the oldest piece of Epic literature and it and you know, I do find interesting. This is one of one of the reasons that I do love history as finding things like this where you know, I'd always known about the Epic of Gilgamesh. I've heard of it. I knew I knew what it was. I didn't know, you know, I'd never read it. I didn't know the details, but I did know that it was the story of an epic hero and his name was Gilgamesh. Just essentially all I knew so it's interesting. Going to kind of go back and see that you know, we do know that he was a real person. We do know that he You know and then the interesting facts about his life, you know that he was likely he's likely in a circular to the throne which again carries a lot more negative connotation in modern context. And in those days was really not that it wasn't it was quite normal. So don't think that I'm maligning Gilgamesh at all Gilgamesh fans out there, but you know just the the idea of his struggles to take Kish his failure. And his eventual success which was short-lived but then for him to come back, you know, so short after to be immortalized that way to a point where 5,000 years later. We still know. His name is I'm still talking about him is pretty incredible. So we are going to go on to another figure in Sumerian history gaudia or gudea of lagash the prince of lagash and Lille of the gosh. These are all different names for him. And I just want to take a second here to just say at this point of time because I'm kind of doing a little chronological order with these figures, so I want to just talk about for a quick minute. The akkadian Empire which will cover more fully in another episode formed under Sargon and around 20 334 BC. So he created the akkadian Empire essentially which ruled for about 200 years and then the fall of a god which was the akkadian capital have been around 2150. There was a an invasion Augustin Invasion, which we'll talk a little bit about the point. I'm trying to get to here is that in the middle of the Sumerian era Sargon came in and establish the akkadian Empire which ruled for about two hundred or so years. After which we saw we see the Sumerian Renaissance which began with good idea. The whole point is a lot of you'll see some historians and some archaeologists. They'll refer to the time after the akkadian Empire as a Neo Sumerian era, but for the purposes of this podcast, I am just going to call them all summer. Ends up until the fall of her in 2004 BC. But I just kind of wanted to give you guys that little side note just in case if you ever come across the term Neo Sumerian, you'll know you'll know what they're talking about. So good idea of lagash. He he's pretty well known for as I talked about a little bit earlier. He's known for the numerous distinctive statues of him which have survived to this day as far as who he was as a person. He likely came from outside the city of lagash lagash being another one of The main Sumerian cities during this time. He married the daughter of lagash is ruler were Baba. Her name was Anna Nala which secured him as entry into the Royal house. Now. I kind of mentioned it briefly but there was an invasion from the north from people called The goossens Who were roaming tribal people who came in and just Really wreak some stuff kind of took over the acadians couldn't fight them and you know, the Sumerians were essentially under Katie and Rule subjugated at this point not very powerful. So the yushins came in and essentially took down the acadians and set up I don't want to say set up shop because you know, they were they were much of a much different culture than And the people of the Sumerian plane, they didn't necessarily set up cities and societies and things and that matter. So we do see the fall of the acadians and then a little bit after the fall of the acadians which was around 2150 BC with the fall of their Capital. That's when we see gaudia start to begin the process of an uprising essentially. He was responsible for kicking all the goosh ins out of lagash and eventually took over as its king. He's not listed on the Sumerian king list. Empower suggest that his power never reached beyond the walls of lagash, but from other sources that I saw what it seems to me is that you do is never really interested in being a king. So he kept the title of an allele which is essentially if I understand it correctly is more governor governor of the city the city state so less of a king and I think that may have more to do with the fact that he's not listed as a Sumerian king is because he never pretended to be a king or called himself a king, but he rained for about 20 years in the gosh from 2142 2120 BC and he instituted some social reforms he Canceled debts. He allowed women to own family land just a couple of the examples. And so this so actually this is from Sumerian Shakespeare.com kind of going back to what we were just talking about says although gudea use the title NC which was ruler Governor rather than the more exalted title of lougle, which was King. He was a king in all but name So that's interesting. So, I mean he had I mean the people followed him the people he had the power to make changes and obviously, you know Institute these social forms, so he essentially was a king. He just doesn't seem to have called himself a king which whether or not that has to do with his own personal principles or whether he was just clever. And maybe didn't want to call himself a king. It's not really any way to know that but we do know because there were Victory tablets clay tablets. They do claim claim that gudea re-established trade with the elamites for copper with India for red stones and with Northern parts of Mesopotamia. And we do know that he brought Stone from McGann to build statues because we still have a lot of these statues and a lot of statues show him in plain ceremonial clothing with hands clasped humbly in front of him the very recognizable. You'll see him. He looks very as I said very humble and you know again Historians and archaeologists talk about what this means and whether or not this kind of shows a true deference to the gods and a true Pious honest and humbleness for his position or whether he just knew that it would be smarter to play it that way. Either way. It's pretty interesting and again, We still have these we still have these statues to this day, which I find fascinating and we do know he did build a temple to the God of War and the patron deity of lagash, which is in gear Sue we have his recounting of this experience preserved on clay tablets and it's known as actually known as the building of nin gear Sue's Temple. And so today I was really interesting figure. He's kind of the one you could say who he was the initial figure of the Sumerian Renaissance. I mean, we'll get to earn emulator who kind of did a little bit more expanded a little bit but as far as in the immediate aftermath of the akkadian Empire following good deal was Pretty quick, too. re-establish control of his own city state and Institute some pretty important social reforms that, you know, come down to us even to this day and then his statues and know I mean and that's the thing we see these Stones coming from Oman hundreds and hundreds of miles away kind of gives you that's kind of one of those things where archaeologists and historians can say, okay they had some level of Prosperity to be able to do those types of things not only to be able to build the boats. and you know to be able to have a place where you have the experts to be able to do those things and to be able to get the materials to build them, but then to be able to safely travel hundreds of miles in the ancient world, you know, you have to you have to have established some level of power and you can see that okay, so now I want to talk about someone who you could probably put on a list of most influential people In human history, and I don't mean influential as in necessarily as in you know, their direct actions created a direct influence in their time more. The Abram was a person who lived and within. You know within about a thousand years of him living I would say within. Yeah, but then one or two thousand years of him living. You have three world religions essentially based off of his life. And those three world religions dominate the world that we live in today and it's all I mean, it can all really be. I mean, honestly, I guess you could make the argument that he would be the most important or influential figure as far as Being able to draw a direct line. From obviously Judaism and Islam directly to Abraham and then there's a direct line from Christianity to Judaism. And I mean so and I mean to be honest with you I wasn't even aware of. The fact that Abraham was a real figure. I honestly thought that he was historical biblical figure. I wasn't a very good Catholic growing up apparently and I didn't read my Bible and didn't do my research, but I honestly thought that he was I thought that he was a historical figure but he was very real and he was Sumerian which is very interesting. And yeah, so we're going to talk about him. So the freedom of lagash undergo Dia was followed closely by freedom of Uruk, which remember was the home of Gilgamesh under its king a to who goal. And again, some of these pronunciations are going to be my interpretation and you may hear them differently and honestly, there are slightly different variations in spelling depending on which source you're you're pulling from. So but in general I think you know, if you were to see some of these things in writing you would know you would know what I was talking about. So a to hook all freed aruch from the kushans, but then he expanded his power beyond aruch. So following the expulsion, 's equal to his soldiers marched in their wake out like a spreading Ripple of circles to ur to eridu south of UR probably as far north as the ancient Sacred City of Nipper and quote. It was during this March when he was going to err, which he would later lose to ur-nammu who will talk about in a little bit that a citizen of her name Tara decided to move his household including its livestock servants wives Sons his sons and their families and they were going to move Westward. Towards a land called Canaan which was not known as Canaan then it's a little bit anachronistic but among his household was his son Abram and his wife Sarai. Or Sarah sa Rai Tara Tara was likely either Acadian or a related tribe Genesis from the Bible traces his ancestry back to Shem who Bauer points out is the biblical progenitor of the semites. According to Genesis Abram received a message from God telling him both that he would be made into a great nation and that he must leave his country and people or and go quote to the land. I will show you and quote. Bauer notes that the chronology here is kind of ambiguous. It's not really clear whether Abram received the message inner and then convince Tara to Head West after which they were Sidetrack to a different place, which we'll talk about or whether Tara headed west for other reasons and then was sidetracked to Haram and then Abram received the message to head back West when they were already in her on so the chronology is I said like most things in a History, it's a little ambiguous. But this was interesting because people living in Iran the second millennium BC were most likely worshippers of the Moon God sin and his daughter and Donna who were the patron deities of the city and the family names themselves show a connection to the akkadian and Sumerian Pantheon. Which that that in and of itself is a whole thing. But so and so here this is from Bauer quote by Blood. Abram was no different from the semites around him and not so different from the people who inhabited the land. He was headed towards but by Divine Fiat, he was separated from the rest and began something new Once Semite out of the rest one God Rising above the chaos of polytheism. He was the first monotheists. She has this idea of you know, regardless of the chronology of it this idea of receiving a message from the God was not something we've seen in human history up to this point, which is you know, it's very it's gets really interesting. So either way Tara and his family headed Northwest along the Euphrates, they eventually sidetracked a bit and settled in the town of her on which was a moon worshipping town on a while travel trade Hub after a number of years. It was a while long enough for her nemu to have taken a way to hook also thrown and then he rules for 18 years and then he passed it on to his son shogi who ruled from The for five years and it was about that time when Abram took Sarai and headed back out west towards Canaan. And like I said Canaan is anachronistic there really wasn't a name for the land that we now call Israel or Palestine at the time of Abram. It's been inhabited by Western semites. Related to those who settled sorry, so it was inhabited by Western semites who were related to the semites who settled with the original Sumerians, but they just continued on along the coast of the Mediterranean and so it had been inhabited for centuries, they built a network of cities and trade routes nothing really of note and there's not really records left behind. And Abram is really the first Oracle character of note to come out to come out to us from this area. There was a combination of ecological factors and the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt who in Egypt was the main trading partner for the Western semites of that region. So it caused Abram the ecological factors and the collapse of the Old Kingdom caused Abram to move South out of the land of Canaan and Egypt he arrived there right around 2085 BC and the reception of Egyptians to Western semites was not exactly warm. This is a quote from act or the third whose Reign would have not been far off from Abraham's arrival in Egypt. So this is a quote from the ruler of Egypt. The vile AZ attic it goes ill with the place where he is lacking in water and covered in Brushwood. He never dwells in one place, but has been forced to stray through want traversing the lands on foot. The Asiatic is a crocodile on the riverbank. He snatches on the Lonely Road and quote. So tells you a little bit about how the Egyptians felt about the Western semites. So actually while he was in Egypt Abram had to pretend that sir. I was his sister to keep from being killed by any pharaoh who may want to marry her and the sphere actually came true apparently and she was brought into the house of the current pharaoh. But Abram just says it was his it was his sister. So he was given all sorts of gifts from the Pharaoh. Thank you so much for bringing your sister to me. She's beautiful. Except after that the pharaoh's Palace was cursed and then he returned he returned to Sarai to Abram and they went back to Canaan settling near a town called Hebron. so it has been a while since they've received the message about fathering a new nation and sir, I was Getting closer to being past childbearing age. So in a practice not uncommon in Sumer at the time Abram conceived a son with psoriasis servant Hagar. So apparently God was not pleased with this and he reminded Abram of the promise and he reiterated that he he meant that the new nation would be of him and sir. I specifically and it's at this point that God renames Abraham and Sarah to seal the bond between them and there's different interpretations of the meaning of Abraham. The father is exalted is one interpretation or father of many is another from ancient Hebrew dot-org while many suggest that Abram means exalted father and Abraham means father of a multitude both names and fact mean exactly the same thing father lifted up or exalted father. so soon after soon after that soon after God reiterates his promise and renames Abraham and Sarah they run into another king who takes Sarah as his wife seems to be some bad luck on Abraham's part or Sarah's just incredibly beautiful. So this king's name was abimelech and he ruled the city of gege. in the region between Egypt and Canaan, I'm sorry the city of guerard gehrer ger AR, but he too was cursed so every woman in his Palace became Barren and he was apparently unable to perform until he finally gave Sarah back to Abraham he gave Abraham a bunch of gifts and told him he could On any of his lands, so then years later. So there's an interesting story a years later in a dispute over. Well Abraham offered a pact with the be Melech and gave him livestock as proof. He had dug the well, so there was a problem. I think if I'm remembering correctly the backstory is something like some people intruded on Abraham's well, and then abimelech came out and basically said, you know was back in these people up, but then Abraham was like didn't want to cause trouble so we offered him a packed gave him some livestock. But you also, you know, the games of livestock is proof that he was the one who dug the well and then to commemorate The Pact he planted a Grove at the site of the well, which they call Beersheba, which is a town that you can still visit to this day and you can still visit the well actually so God's promise was eventually fulfilled and Abraham and Sarah gave birth to Isaac. when both were in old age has Abraham at a hundred and Sarah was around 91 when they gave birth to Isaac so This would Mark the beginning of a new race and Abraham's instructed to circumcise the baby and himself and all the males have his family Bauer says quote presumably the sign would remind them at the crucial moment that they were not to mingle their blood with other races and quote. So that's quite interesting origin story. And then, you know, you see this when it comes to finding time when it comes time to find Isaac a wife Abraham sends a servant back to Northwest Mesopotamia and brings back his great niece Rebecca. She's from the relations. He'd stayed behind in her on and that was essentially, you know, that's essentially what we call the beginning of of the Jewish people or all abrahamic all abrahamic people. Well, no, that would be I'm sorry. So when her guard became pregnant sir, I actually with Abraham's permission with Abraham's permission send her away, but the story goes that she was approached by an Angel on the road who told her that her son would also be the father of a nation of people so she returned to Abram and raise her son Ishmael in his household according to the Quran. Ishmael was grown he and Abraham in the Quran is Ibrahim travel to Mecca and built the Kaaba which is the first house for the worship of Allah. This is the place to which all people of the book are told to turn and pray people of the book meaning followers of the Koran followers of Islam quote wherever you are turn your faces in that direction. So this is and then so Abraham essentially is the direct father of Judaism and Islam and Through that's the I mean, I obviously the stories about his sons and about the timeline of it all giving birth at a hundred ninety-one. I mean, these are all stories that were related later on but we do know that Abraham was a real Sumerian who lived some time in the third Century or third millennium, BC Who moved from Earth and moved up to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean down into Egypt and back and I mean, we do know that he was a real person who existed and these stories about his sons come to us from the Bible and it is fascinating to me how these stories have basically shaped the world that we live in. And just so you know, I guess I do have to mention. I guess the most well known in the western world one of the most well-known of all the Bible stories. So I'm just going to honestly I'm just going to quote Wikipedia here at some point quote at some point in Isaac's youth Abraham was commanded by God to offer son up as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah the patriarch traveled three days until he came to the mount that God told them of he then commanded the servants to remain while he and Isaac proceeded alone into the mount Isaac carry the wood upon which you would be sacrificed along the way Isaac asked his father where the animal for the burnt offering was to which Abraham replied. God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son. He was interrupted by the angel of the Lord and He Saw behind him a ram caught in a Thicket by his horns, which he sacrificed instead of his son for his obedience. He received another promise of numerous descendants and abundant Prosperity after this event Abraham went to Beersheba. end quote So after Sarah's death, she lived obviously to be quite old as the story is told Abraham did marry again a concubine named Keturah and he had six more Sons with her their names words. Imran joke chicken jokes on met on midden million-ish Bach. Shoog sure. I'm sorry. Sorry some of these names are. little bit little bit difficult for me and they're a bit a little bit obscured from where I type them they were being My word processor obviously did not like them very much. So he fathered six more Sons as Imran jokes on Madan Midian is Bach and schwa and Abraham is actually believed by some to be the father of many peoples including Israelites ishmaelites the edomites the amalekites the Canaanites the mid didn't some people think he actually followed the Assyrians as well. The midianites and it said that he died at a hundred and seventy-five years old. So quite I mean You know again similar to Gilgamesh where there's obviously a large mix of mythological and historical. Information intermingled as far as our understanding of the person it is it is really it is really interesting things for me is interesting in particular to understand his history in the context of something so secular as just talking about ancient civilizations and talking about cities of arou canner. It's a very It just shows you. The power of story honestly, I guess Gilgamesh and Abram were both very. Very good examples of the power of story. So we're going to go on now. We're going to talk about her nemu now. Our nemu was a king who was a part of the what some call the Neo Sumerian Empire after driving the yushins out of or let me just to give a little background on earn a move because we've talked we've mentioned it a little bit but just to give you a little reminder a to hug all who after driving the yushins out of her. he actually gave the city of UR over to a son-in-law who was her nemu and some accounts speak vaguely about two goals sudden death and earn a moose quickness to take advantage of the power vacuum, you know, they kind of talk about it as a natural a kind of things you say drowned or you suddenly just suddenly died and ur-nammu is there and but Bauer actually gives a little bit of a different take and she says quote after driving the yushins out of her a to hug all lefter nemu in charge of the city with troops on hand shortly afterwards earned him who sent his soldiers against his own King and quote so could be possible that a to ago met with a sudden natural death and ur-nammu was as his right-hand man, the natural one to claim power also seems quite possible that our namu seized power in a an incredibly hostile and fragile post. Akkadian Sumerian Revival, which is much as I am understanding about the way that things went at that point. It's probably something that I'm more inclined to believe. But again, it's not something that we know for a fact And such as ancient history regardless of how Israel began once he was in power or nemu seems to have been pretty universally regarded as truly competent and thoughtful. He's known for expanding the Sumerian Empire through some military force but mainly through Alliance and negotiations, he built a lot of temples like gudea to restore the glory of the Sumerian gods. He was a builder and Rebuilder. He built roads walls built canals to bring fresh water into the cities and he built he along with his son built the Great ziggurat of UR, which is just a phenomenal piece of ancient architecture that you can still see today. It still stands in Iraq. And it's just huge it's and talk a little bit about the great ziggurat of UR. Oh, no, I mean I just I mean I'll just tell you so I mean the ziggurats were essentially. The first large-scale temples. It's not entirely, you know, there's not a it's not a huge agreement on how exactly they use them. It's most likely that they were essentially just temples to the Gods Not So Much burials like the Egyptian pyramids. But so this is from can khanacademy.org quote. What Woolly and Willie was the person who? I believe discovered this or was the first Western person to go and see it and categorize it I guess is what I should say. What will he found was a massive rectangular pyramidal structure oriented to True North 210 by a hundred and fifty feet constructed with three levels of terraces standing originally between 70 and a hundred feet on a hundred feet high three Monumental staircase has led up to it. 8 the first Terrace level next single staircase Rose to a second Terrace which supported a platform on which a temple and the final and highest tears stood. So it was quite a quite a large quite a large structure and actually in our next episode. I'm going to talk about ziggurats a little bit more, but I just wanted to I think it's really cool. So I wanted to kind of just give you that little that little bit about that one right now. Earn em. Ooh, he encouraged arts and culture to revitalize the economy of ER and the other city-states that were under his control. So Historians and archaeologists like to talk about this time as the Sumerian Renaissance and they say that essentially not essentially this was this was the beginning of the third dynasty of UR in terms of the time periods of Sumerians. And another thing that we'll talk about in terms of ur-nammu is that he is actually the one Or his son again one of those ancient history things. We're not entirely certain but he is the one who established the code of ur-nammu, which was as far as human history goes our earliest record of written laws. And like I said, it's not a hundred percent certain whether it was established by her nemu or son shogi who was a successor, but regardless, The text of these clay tablets represents the earliest known written set of laws in human history possibly written down sometime around 2150 BC and it's clear that in order for this set of codes to have been accepted and widely used the people must have had a universal respect for the Gods in their Messengers, which were the Kings. So while standing armies are helpful in the enforcement of laws their success really depends more deeply on the acceptance by the people of the authority of the laws themselves. I thought they came directly from God. And so this is a just an excerpt from a book called Babylon Mesopotamia and the birth of civilization. It's published by Thomas Dunne books in 2010 quote. Although it is neither a true law code being far from comprehensive nor some say even introduced by ur-nammu, but by his son shogi code or no, although we only have fragments they are enough to show that the laws covered both civil and criminal matters among criminal Provisions it specifies which should be capital offenses murder robbery deflowering another man's virgin wife and adultery when committed A woman for other misdemeanors the penalty was a fine in silver urn. Emma's code stands in contrast to the more famous laws of Hammurabi drafted some three centuries later with its Savage provision of an eye for an eye tooth for tooth and quote. So just some examples and we're going to talk about Hammurabi and the Babylonians and his code in another episode, but just some examples of the loss from the code of ur-nammu. These I just find really interesting. So this was probably sometime around 2100 2150 BC and ancient Sumeria some of the earliest cities some of the earliest Empires collections of cities. These laws were to be understood by tens of thousands. If not more if not hundreds of thousands of citizens for the first time. These laws were essentially understood throughout an Empire. If a man committed a kidnapping he has to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver if a man preceded by force and deflower the Virgin slave woman of another man that man must pay five shekels of silver. If a man appeared as a witness and was shown to be a perjurer he must pay 15 shekels of silver. If a man knocked out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out half a mean of silver if a man knocked out a tooth of another man, he shall pay to shekels of silver if a man in the course of a scuffle Smash the limb of another man with a club. He shall pay one Mina of silver. So, you know, it's pretty it's pretty interesting it is as you know, as an author said I think the author author of Babylon must potamia in the birth of civilization crew was thick as he said I get stands in pretty stark contrast to Hammurabi's code. Which we see referenced in the Bible and I mean still referenced in law codes to this day and eye for an eye tooth for tooth. But we see these codes this code of loss from ur-nammu from 300 years earlier is very it's very measured it's very and you know, obviously we can have the discussion. I don't think it'd be worth having discussion about whether or not these laws are fairly written because it's a completely different time a completely different culture. Its we would have really no way to accurately have that discussion. But I think what can be said is that they are very The written in a way that it's very thoughtful. They're not they're not harsh. They're not. I guess brutal is the right word. I think that they convey a level of society. That exists. That is far beyond what a lot of people would probably think existed, you know, 4,000 years ago. Okay, so that's our first episode on the Sumerians. We are going to come back and do episode to talk about the key events in the Innovations and Sumerian civilization from the Sumerian civilization. It's going to be now it's so interesting. I mean because it's some of the earliest things I mean some of the earliest cities. We have the wheel. The earliest forms of writing will go into kind of the idea behind how writing developed very quickly. Obviously it's not going to be anything in depth. We're going to talk more about the ziggurats because I think those are very cool and we're going to talk about the rise of the akkadian empire the rise and fall of the akkadian Empire. We're not going to go too in depth into the Empire itself just because we're going to save that for another episode. And then, you know, we'll talk a little bit more about that the Sumerian renaissance' under who namu and talk about shogi a little bit. And we will talk about the fall of the Sumerians under a piece in the fall over. So there's a lot of pretty exciting stuff to talk about next time. I want to thank you guys for listening and I will I guess I won't see you next time. I guess the terrible way to end a podcast to say I'll see you next time. I guess the better thing to say is be excellent to each other.
Welcome! In this first episode of The Human History Podcast we're going back to one of the earliest human civilizations. The peoples responsible for bringing us the wheel, who developed one of the earliest forms of writing, invented the sailboat, gave us our first written laws, cities, and more. Their figures are eternal: Gilgamesh, Abram (Abraham), Gudea, Ur-Nammu. In part one of this two part series we'll introduce you to one of the most fascinating civilizations of all time - on top of being one of the earliest - as well as dive in to the main figures who guide much of ancient Sumerian history. ***NOTES*** Sources: The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome - Emily Wise Bauer https://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-World-Earliest-Accounts/dp/039305974X The Sumerian World - Edited by Harriet Crawford  https://www.amazon.com/Sumerian-World-Routledge-Worlds/dp/1138238635/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+sumerian+world+crawford&qid=1573607885&s=books&sr=1-1 https://www.ancient.eu thoughtco.com khanacademy.org wikipedia.org   ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 