The Sumerian culture
3200-2800 BC. Protohistoric period. Sumerians are found in southern Mesopotamia ("land between the rivers").
Stratigraphic surveys in Iraq see them as the first culture ever, and there are no significant layers (except Neolithic ones) underlying the layers relating to their cities, so for archaeology their origin is obscure. Perhaps they are related to the founders of the Indus culture.
The fertility of the soil allows cattle breeding and date palm cultivation. Knowledge of metals, already known and widespread, makes possible the preparation of efficient weapons and advanced agricultural implements.
The territory is divided into city-states. Centers of the cities are monumental brick temples erected on high platforms, their walls covered in mosaic-like fashion with "nails" of colored clay. They stand in the middle of an enclosure consecrated to the god of the city to which the territory belongs.
Highest authority is the prince (lugal: "big man"), representative of political power, high priest and head of the army. The temple is the political, religious and economic center. The administrative apparatus uses writing as a means of recording (at first ideographic, later abstract signs, engraved with stilettos in soft clay: cuneiform writing), including on media such as metal, stone and alabaster (see the Uruk-Warka "female head").
Cylinder seals (official seals for sealing amphorae with provisions in the enclosure of time) are characteristic of Sumerian culture.
The oldest Sumerian trinity is that of ENLIL, AN and ENKI. Other deities are: UTU, god of the Sun; NANNA, god of the Moon; INANNA, goddess of love.
A 12-month lunar calendar prevails in the Sumerian civilization. We inherit from the Sumerians the sexagesimal system in the division of the day (24 hours, 60 minutes, 60 seconds) and the circle (360 degrees).
2800 - 2500 BC. Protodynastic period.
Slow infiltration of Semites takes place. MESILIM OF KISH becomes the first "great king" and Nippur the religious center. "Theocratic socialism" (unity of State and Temple) is abandoned. All cities build city walls (in Uruk by Gilgamesh).
The temple, previously erected on another platform, later takes the form of ziqurrat (tower with several superimposed floors, connected by stairs, serving as a basement to the temple proper, built at the top).
From 2500 BC onward first dynasty of Ur, founded by MESANNEPADDA. The tombs of the kings unearthed by the 1922 Wolley excavations are famous.
2500 - 2360 BCE. Beginning of the historical period
First dynasty of Lagash, whose founder UR-NANSHE demolishes the hegemony of Kish. Of the deeds of his son EANNATUM we are informed by the "Vulture Stele," the first known monument depicting historical facts. The successor ENTEMENA struggles against the influence of the priestly caste, which helps the fourth ruler, LUGALANDA, settle on the throne. The usurper URUKAGINA implements social reforms ("agreement with the god NINGIRSU": reduction of priestly rents, protection of widows and orphans).
With the support of the priestly caste discontented with URUKAGINA's reforms, LUGALZAGGISI ("king of the countries"), prince of Umma, conquers Lagash, then Ur, Uruk, Larsa, Kish and Nippur and pushes on to the Mediterranean.
The Kingdom of LUGALZAGGISI, the last Sumerian ruler, is replaced by the Kingdom of Akkad.
2350 - 2300 BC. Sargon I of Akkad, "lord of the four parts of the world," conquered Mesopotamia, parts of Syria and Asia Minor, and Elam. The military superiority of the Akkadians derives from their employment of a tactic of movement, with extensive use of throwing weapons (javelin, bow and arrow), against which the Sumerian army, deployed in sparsely mobile phalanxes, armed with heavy spears and large shields, can do nothing.
SARGON founds a large state with centralized power (official inscriptions are now in the Akkadian language) and builds a new capital: Akkad.
The new Akkadian deities are ISHTAR and the sun god SHAMASH.
When SARGON dies, revolts break out.
2270 - 2230 BC. Naram-sin (grandson of SARGON) reconsolidates the Akkadian kingdom. Wars in southern Arabia and the Zagros Mountains (depicted on the "Stele of Naram-sin"). Upon his death, the Akkadian Kingdom falls apart and another foreign rule is established.
2150 - 2050 BC. Gutei (invaders from Iran) who are driven back, however, by UTUKEGAL prince of Uruk. Sumerian restoration.
2050 - 1950 BC. 3rd Dynasty of Ur (rulers: URNAMMU, SHULGI, BURSIN or AMARSIN, SHU-SIN, IBI-SIN). Restoration of the Kingdom of Sumer and Akkad; temple restoration work.
Under SHULGI the kings of the cities become governors (patesi) of the provinces of the new kingdom. With the "sacred wedding" ceremony (the custom is probably a symbolic repetition of the wedding between the goddess INANNA-represented by the first priestess-and her beloved, the god of the underworld DUMUZI, represented by the king) SHULGI becomes a god.
Construction of a large underground tomb in the royal cemetery of Ur for himself and his parents. Under SHU-SIN Western Semitic tribes press the borders and a line of fortifications is built on the middle Euphrates.
Trade relations with India.
Kingdom is weakened by struggles against the Elamites and the king of Mari. This is the heyday of Sumerian literature. Power is based on an economic structure (State and Temple) framed within a massive bureaucratic apparatus.
At the beginning of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur, GUDEA, patesi of Lagash, attempts a restoration of the Sumerian Golden Age by devoting himself to works of peace. The wealth that flowed in through trade (cedars of Lebanon, marbles, diorites, gold, silver and copper) made possible the construction of great shrines (NINGIRSU) and civil works.
From 2000 BCE the Canaanite Semites invaded the Kingdom and intense semiticization resulted: formation of states in Isin, Larsa and Babylon (Bab-ili = Gate of God): however, Sumerian remained as the language of worship. The Sumerian Kingdom goes through a final political and cultural flowering under RIM-SIN, prince of Larsa (1758 - 1698 BCE).
So far the story ascertained from archaeological excavations, but a translator from Sumerian, Zacharia Sitchin, has taken to considering literally the tales of the tablets written in cuneiform characters, tales that were previously considered by scholars to be "Sumerian mythology": relations between men and the gods such as might have been those of Greek or Roman mythology, a codified and organized religion with a priestly caste and tales with a strong symbolic value, aimed solely at engaging the hearts of the faithful. Sitchin, continuing in the wake of authors such as Barry Downing (The Bible and Flying Saucers, 1968), Erich Von Daniken and Peter Kolosimo (the progenitors of the so-called "Space Archaeology"), is the first to consider the Sumerian gods as truly lived beings, not myths but History.
According to Sitchin, the Sumerian gods were aliens, whom he calls Annunaki and who would come from Nibiru, the 10th planet of the solar system (relatives, it seems, of Swiss Meier's "Pleiadians"). The aliens called the Sumerians the "Black-headed People."
The Annunaki would have come to Earth 445,000 years ago to mine gold (needed to repair the atmosphere of their planet Nibiru) and would have left as soon as they finished transferring the material to Nibiru and in any case after the militarist faction (of ENLIL) had finally annihilated the resistance of the human peoples loyal to the scientist and pro-human faction (of EA-ENKI) in 2023 B.C. with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by means of nuclear bombs. In the division of Earth's territories made by the aliens Sumer was the First region, Egypt and Nubia constituted the Second, the Indus Valley (Pakistan) was the Third, the Sinai Peninsula was the Fourth. They also had bases in Africa (Zimbabwe) in a place called Abzu (Black Land) and in America (Land beyond the Seas).
Geographically, the aliens had divided Earth into three bands separated by the 30th parallel North and South: the Northern Way of Enlil, the Middle Way of Anu, and the Southern Way of Enki. Chronologically, the aliens referred to Earth's Count of Years, beginning with ANU's visit to Earth; the Nippur calendar started from 3760 BCE.
AN or ANU was the first king on Nibiru after unification (following the total war between North and South) and by honor was also the name of the planet we call Uranus. ENLIL was the son of ANU and ANTU, his sister and bride, thus legally the firstborn son who held the right to succession on the throne of Nibiru in place of EA-ENKI, who, though really the first son, was born of concubine.
Military commander and administrator, sent to Earth to organize large-scale gold mining operations, father of NINURTA, had by his half-sister NINMAH; father of NANNAR and ISHKUR had by NINLIL, his wife; opposed the creation of the Earthlings.
He tried to bring about the extinction of humankind through the Flood and authorized the use of nuclear weapons against MARDUK.
EA ("He whose home is water," as he was among the very first to move into the Sumerian swamps), was associated by honor with the zodiacal sector of the Aquarian sky; eldest son of ANU, half-brother of ENLIL; leader of the first group of Annunaki who came to Earth; the creator of Mankind and the one who saved it from the Flood; several epithets are attributed to him: NUDIMMUD ("Skillful Creator"), PTAH ("He Who Shaped Things") in Egypt, ENKI ("Lord of the Earth"); father of MARDUK.
INANNA was the daughter of NANNAR and NINGAL, twin sister of UTU; betrothed to DUMUZI; fierce in war; lustful in love; mistress of Uruk and the Third Region (called Aratta, see excavations at Harappa and Moenjo-daro); in Akkad she was known by the name ISHTAR, associated with the planet we call Venus. She was ANU's lover, so much so that the Eanna, ANU's seven-stepped temple at Uruk, was later offered as a gift from ANU to INANNA.
