Early Dynastic Sumer
The centuries from ca. 2900 to 2334 b. c.e. are known as the Early Dynastic (ED) period, divided into three phases: ED I, ED II, and ED III. A time of great change, it saw the transformation of southern Mesopotamia into a historical civilization. Although ED I is shrouded in legend and almost entirely dependent on archaeological evidence, by the end of ED III we are dealing with an albeit fragmentary historical landscape in which known individuals performed historical deeds. The intervening centuries are a mixture of legend, history, and archaeological information, coming slowly into focus.
Surveys in various parts of southern Mesopotamia suggest that major landscape changes occurred around 3000-2800 b. c.e., reducing the number of minor water courses and concentrating water in the main river channels. Although water was still abundant, considerable work had to be put into building and maintaining canals to irrigate the crops during the growing season. Disastrous floods seem likely periodically to have swept through southern Mesopotamia, destroying fields and villages, breaking down dams, and overflowing canals. Such inundations, either overtaking different areas at different times or accumulating into a catastrophic flood that inundated the whole region around 2900 b. c.e., as some scholars suggest, are marked archaeologically by thick accumulations of sterile silt in cities like Kish, and entered the memory of the Mesopotamian people as the great Flood recorded in later literature.
The Flood legend also reflects the substantial growth of population in southern Mesopotamia. Settlement was concentrated in the fertile land along major waterways, creating the city-states familiar from later Mesopotamian history. By about 2500 b. c.e., around 80 percent of the population of southern Mesopotamia dwelt in cities "threaded like pearls along the main watercourses" (Nissen 1988: 141)—largely branches of the Euphrates and the Diyala, rather than the Tigris. Cultivation focused within the lands surrounding major settlements, their high productivity able to support cities with populations reckoned in tens of thousands. These provided a focus for services, industry, and political control, and, increasingly, defense.
A Sumerian votive statue, probably depicting a priest. (Zev Radovan/Land of the Bible Picture Archive)
Legend places the building of the first cities' walls in the Late Uruk period, as does archaeological evidence, the earliest coming from Abu Salabikh. Each city controlled its surrounding territories; beyond them lay the edin, land that was not cultivated or settled, a buffer zone between the territories of individual city-states that provided grazing for the animals of pastoral groups, either affiliated to the cities or independent.
Increasing evidence of warfare appears in ED II. As cities increased in size, inevitably conflicts developed between them over land, water rights, and political power.
Archaeological and historical sources combine to suggest the increasing importance of secular authority within the cities as the need for defense put power into the hands of war lead-ers—probably originally appointed by the council to lead individual defensive or aggressive military actions against hostile neighboring cities but through time becoming a permanent authority, although still governing in the name of the city deity and backed by his or her authority.
The Sumerian King List and the epic literature surrounding Gilgamesh and the house of
Uruk reflect developments in this period, although they were written down at a later date and were influenced both by propaganda and by anachronisms from the time of writing and compilation (Ur III to Old Babylonian times). One series of poems recounts attempts by King Enmerkar of Uruk and his son Lugalbanda to control trade with distant lands in essential and luxury goods. By military threat and religious intimidation, Enmerkar persuades the king of Aratta (somewhere in eastern Iran, now being identified with the recently discovered civilization of Jiroft on the Halil River in the southwestern province of Kerman) to exchange precious metals and "mountain stones" for grain. In another poem, Enmerkar's grandson Gilgamesh, who may have lived around 2600 B. C.E., comes into conflict with Agga, king of Kish, emerging triumphant.
Ruins of the important Sumerian city of Kish, whose king may have exercised some authority over other Sumerian rulers. (Corel Corp.)
Gilgamesh is credited with refurbishing and extending Uruk's city walls, traditionally built earlier by the Seven Sages. Plano-convex bricks, typical of the ED period, were used in the sections of Uruk's walls and towers that have been excavated, confirming their claimed age.
Gilgamesh and Agga are among the kings listed in the Sumerian King List. This enumerates each city's rulers as if they had ruled consecutively, the gods dictating that one city should hold supreme authority until divine sanction backed human conflict to transfer hegemony to another city-state. This is an anachronism from the later period when the region was united under a single imperial line; in reality many of the dynasties of these cities ruled concurrently. Although the length of individual kings' reigns cannot be taken at face value— many are immensely long, particularly in the period before the Flood—its genealogical information is often borne out by scraps of contemporary written material. For example, Agga of Kish is the son of Enmebaragesi in the King List. A bowl with a dedicatory inscription attests to the historical existence of Mebaragesi (en—a title meaning ruler—Shaving been erroneously attached to his name by a later scribe). Several other kings who appear in the King List have also had their existence substantiated by the discovery of their inscriptions, including a number in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.
The “Peace” side of the Standard of Ur, probably the sounding box of a lyre, found in the largest tomb in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. It shows goods and animals being brought to furnish the royal banquet depicted in the upper register. (Bettmann/Corbis)
A number of cities have yielded seals bearing the names of several other cities, from ED I onward, and it has been suggested that these indicate the existence of cooperative leagues of cities. Texts recovered from Shuruppak, apparently written within the last six months before its violent destruction early in ED IIIa, repeatedly refer to the cities of Adab, Lagash, and Umma on the eastern branch of the Euphrates and Uruk and Nippur on the same, western, branch as Shuruppak. They also mention huge numbers of gurush, men and officials from cities outside Shuruppak, apparently drafted in to undertake various services, both military and civil. Although we do not know the form that cooperation between these states took, it probably included joint military expeditions and collaborative work on major public enterprises, such as erecting temples and other major public buildings, digging canals, and building dams. When Shuruppak was sacked, it was probably by Ur, not a member of this league.
Ur, situated on the Euphrates at the head of the Gulf and therefore ideally placed for trade to the south and east, was occupied from the Ubaid period and in ED times was developing into a major city. By early ED IIIa, its wealth and power were reflected in a series of sixteen spectacular graves within a large cemetery south of its sacred precinct. Several of these graves have yielded inscribed material, linking them to the tenuous historical information of the King List. A remarkable golden helmet in the form of a wig bore the name of King Meskalamdug; a large grave pit, richly furnished, contained a seal belonging to a queen, Puabi, and in the tomb below lay the remains of a king identified as Akalamdug, Meskalamdug's successor. All belong to the period before the kingship passed to Ur, according to the King
List. The First Dynasty of Ur listed here begins with Mesanepada, son of Meskalamdug, and his son A-anepada, both known from contemporary inscribed material. The spectacularly furnished graves included exquisite jewelry and fine artifacts such as wooden lyres with bull or cow heads ornamented in gold and lapis lazuli, reflecting well-developed and wide-ranging trading links extending as far as Badakhshan in Afghanistan and Gujurat in India.
Mesanepada, king of Ur in the King List, is identified on his seal as King of Kish. Kish was a major city in the third millennium b. c.e., ruled in ED II by Mebaragesi and Agga. A number of third-millennium rulers bore the title "King of Kish"—in addition to Mesanepada of Ur, these included Mesalim who may have ruled Der, Eannatum of Lagash, and the late Early Dynastic king Lugalzagesi of Umma. The existence of the title should provide some insight into political organization. Did it represent physical conquest of Kish and political hegemony over much of Sumer, or, more probably, acknowledgment of the preeminence in some other sense of the ruler who bore the title? The King of Kish was evidently respected by other city rulers and on at least one occasion acted as arbitrator in a border dispute between rival cities. The Gilgamesh poem that deals with Uruk's conflict with Kish implies that Gilgamesh had originally accepted Agga as his overlord. The ensis of Adab and Lagash acknowledged the authority of Mesalim, lugal of Kish, and the presence of a bowl at Khafajeh dedicated by Mebaragesi also implies that Khafajeh recognized Kish's hegemony. Although military action took place between states from early ED times, for most of the period these seem to have been skirmishes rather than full-scale conquest, with the victor receiving the submission rather than the allegiance of the vanquished. City-states retained their territorial independence, although, like Shuruppak, they might be sacked. It is not until late ED III that there is evidence for the carving out of more substantial domains.
A final power point in ED times was the city of Nippur, which exercised spiritual rather than secular authority. Opinions are divided on how early this developed, ranging from 3000 b. c.e. (e. g., Reade) to late ED III (e. g., Leick). Each Sumerian city identified itself as the property of its tutelary deity—Uruk of Inanna, Ur of the moon god Nanna (Sin), Eridu of Enki. The prosperity of the city depended on the presence and favor of the city's god, and in turn the god or goddess depended on the service of the citizens. Nippur was the city of the god Enlil, acclaimed as chief of the gods by the end of ED III. By this time, or possibly earlier, Nippur was regarded as the seat of the council of the gods, where early kings also met in council, and Enlil's temple at Nippur, the Ekur, was the acknowledged religious center of Sumer. The approval of Enlil was a prerequisite for success for any city's ruler, and his backing was invoked by kings anxious to extend their domains or attack their enemies. The priesthood of Enlil therefore exercised a powerful role in power politics in the region by the twenty-fourth century b. c.e., although an apocryphal story from the reign of the later king Naram-Sin suggests that Nippur was not immune from attack if the god's decree was found unacceptable.
A detail showing Sumerian foot soldiers from the “Stele of the Vultures” erected by King Eannatum of Lagash around 2450 B. C.E. to celebrate his victory over the rival state of Umma. (Bettmann/Corbis)
Aggrandizing States
Toward the end of the Early Dynastic period, the historical sources become more informative, revealing that some states were developing territorial ambitions.
The first substantial contemporary text reflecting the political situation comes from Lagash. The city of Lagash was the capital of an eponymous state on the
Euphrates: By the mid-third millennium b. c.e., another city, Girsu, had overtaken Lagash city as the major center within Lagash state. Girsu was located only 30 kilometers south of Umma, capital of another state on the same branch of the river, and as the cities grew in size and increased their areas of influence, inevitably they came into conflict over the ownership and usufruct of lands along their mutual border. The problem was brought to arbitration by Mesalim, King of Kish around 2550 b. c.e.: He erected a stele marking the boundary line and awarded farming rights on the disputed lands to Umma, with an annual payment to Lagash from the produce. Border disputes broke out again during the reign of Ur-Nanshe of Lagash (ca. 2494-2465 b. c.e.), who also built temples and city walls: He became King of Kish and claimed to have defeated not only Umma but also Ur. His grandson Eannatum (ca. 2450 b. c.e.) also became involved in the dispute: He defeated Umma and also claimed to have defeated Uruk, Ur, Mari, and Akshak, as well as Elam and Susa in the east and Subartu in the north. The monument he erected, known now as the Stele of the Vultures, vividly depicts his stoutly armed and disciplined infantry and their doughty leader, the slain enemy attacked by vultures, and prisoners held in a net by Ningirsu, god of Girsu. The conflict between Umma and Lagash rumbled on for more than a century, with several attempts at arbitration.
Eannatum is unlikely actually to have conquered distant lands, but his victories nearer home may represent an early attempt to gain control over neighboring states rather than merely defeating them—such endeavors were to become increasingly common over the following century. Eannatum's nephew Enmetena made a pact with Lugal-kineshe-dudu, king of Uruk, who also gained control of Ur and Umma and held the title King of Kish. Around 2350 b. c.e. Uru-inim-gina became king of Lagash and brought in a series of domestic reforms aimed at improving the lot of the ordinary citizen, eliminating abuses practiced by officials, and restoring the eroded power of the temple. He fell foul of Lugalzagesi, governor (ensi) of Umma, who sacked Girsu, a disaster bitterly recorded by Uru-inim-gina. According to his own inscriptions, Lugalzagesi subsequently became the ruler of Ur, Uruk, and the other cities of southern Mesopotamia and gained control of the lands "from the Lower Sea" (the Gulf) "along the Tigris and Euphrates to the Upper Sea" (the Mediterranean). He commemorated his victories by dedicating more than fifty stone vessels at the Ekur (Enlil's shrine) at Nippur. In his inscription, he glorified the peace and prosperity he had brought the lands under his rule.
But this was not to last. Some years later, Lugalzagesi found himself again at the Ekur—but this time in a neck-stock, the humbled and defeated prisoner of Sargon of Akkad, who united the region into the first enduring territorial empire.
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