Table of Contents
History with Cy tells Sumer as a long climb from river villages to the first territorial state, then a fall. The country between the Tigris and the Euphrates still had to be read from pots, shrines, and tablets. Samarran and Halaf farmers give way to the Ubaid horizon. Eridu is remembered as Enki’s ancient home, already trading copper and obsidian while its shrine grew toward a ziggurat, and Uruk’s surge is said to produce the earliest true city. Picture signs for grain, beer, and herds become the script called proto-cuneiform, while rule shifts from village elders toward religious, military, and political elites. Rulers known as lugal and ensi fight over boundary fields, above all Lagash against Umma. Lugalzagesi’s boast of a world realm is treated as inflated, while Sargon of Akkad is credited with a real kingdom centered on Agade. Drought and hunger, more than Gutian raids alone, are offered as the crack in that kingdom, before Ur’s third dynasty builds a clerical state that Amorite pressure and an Elamite sack finally end.
Key points
- Akkadian and its neighbors were recovered from trilingual inscriptions, which let scholars separate Sumerian as its own language.
- Ubaid towns such as Eridu grow temples, trade metal, and sit on the older floodplain near a gulf shoreline then farther inland.
- Uruk is presented as the first true city, with pictographic accounts that develop into proto-cuneiform.
- Kingship appears as lugal and ensi over city gods who act like humans, with a long Lagash and Umma border war.
- Sargon, unlike Lugalzagesi, is credited with an actual realm from the gulf toward the Mediterranean.
- Famine and drought, then Gutian pressure, are given as the Akkadian collapse, before Ur’s bureaucracy falls to Amorites and Elam.
Short quotes
Archaeologists have determined that the site of Eridu may have been inhabited as far back as 8000 BC, over 10,000 years ago.
History with Cy, Sumerians and early Mesopotamia
Eridu is given a depth far behind the later Sumerian king lists. Watch at 9:37
In the past, villages were believed to have been ruled by a small council of elders presided over by a tribal chieftain.
History with Cy, Sumerians and early Mesopotamia
He contrasts village councils with the class society that cities produced. Watch at 15:04
We call this very early script proto-cuneiform.
History with Cy, Sumerians and early Mesopotamia
The first tablet signs, used for goods, receive their scholarly name. Watch at 18:26
Sumerian deities, like later Greek and Roman ones, took human form and often behaved like people.
History with Cy, Sumerians and early Mesopotamia
The gods of the cities are described as personalities, not abstract forces. Watch at 24:10
We know him as Sargon of Akkad, or Sargon the Great.
History with Cy, Sumerians and early Mesopotamia
The Akkadian founder is introduced after Lugalzagesi’s weaker claim to empire. Watch at 42:13
Recent findings seem to indicate that severe famine and drought may have been the real culprit
History with Cy, Sumerians and early Mesopotamia
Climate stress, not only the Gutian attack, is offered as the cause of the collapse. Watch at 51:15
Video by History with Cy. Watch on YouTube.