| Revision as of 18:57, 24 July 2007 editNochi (talk | contribs)495 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 21:25, 1 June 2024 edit undoCBDunkerson (talk | contribs)Administrators15,424 editsm Removed protection from "Sumerian people": Indefinite protection not required | ||
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| {{Infobox Ethnic group | |||
| ] | |||
| |group = Sumerians | |||
| (Šumer) | |||
| |image = ] | |||
| |caption = | |||
| |population = 500,000 | |||
| |region1 = {{flagcountry|Iraq}} | |||
| |pop1 = 500,000 (claiming) | |||
| |languages = ], ] | |||
| |religions = ] | |||
| |related = Unknown. | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Sumerians''' (''Šumer'') where a people who lived in the southern portion of ] from around 3500 B.C. to 1800 B.C.. The Sumerian people lived in twelve city states, famous among which are ] and ]. They shared a common language, ]. Sumerian has no modern day descendants, it seems to have disappeared from human history as a spoken language, but lived on in written language. | |||
| The Sumerians were an ] people, and they raised ] in three areas. Inside the city, highly cultivated gardens were kept. The main source of food and surplus came from fields outside of the cities, irrigated by a system of canals from the ] and ] rivers. The third agricultural region was the large tracts of land away from water sources. These were used for grazing animals, hunting, and for collecting fuel. The date was an especially important food of the Sumerians, it was highly nutritious, it kept well, and it could be grown in salty or stagnant water. It only needed to be kept wet in order to produce fruit. Other important crops included corn and flax. | |||
| == Orgin == | |||
| The origin of the Sumerians is simply unknown. What is known is that they were non-]. They didn’t originate from the region for which they are known. This presents some problems for archaeologists such as what were the pre-Sumerian cultures present in the region if the Sumerians are immigrants. And from where did the Sumerians originate. Linguistically speaking, Sumerian is an isolate. It has no known language family, making it even more difficult to pin down the origin of the culture. | |||
| One hypothesis is that the Sumerians were invaders at around the Ubaid or Uruk period, but this doesn’t follow since the archaeological record shows continuity from the early Ubaid through the Dynastic periods. Excavations at temple sites show occupation that is clearly Sumerian through lower levels where characteristically Sumerian features aren’t found. Identifiably Sumerian artifacts are found no earlier than the ]period, but temples like the one at ] have levels that go back much further. The best evidence points to a type of acculturation occurring where a cultural exchange happened rather than an invasion. | |||
| But that still leaves the question of from where did the Sumerians come? One hypothesis that has fallen in and out of favor (mostly out as near as scientists can tell) is that the Sumerians arrived from the east via the ]. Another is that they arrived from the north from mountainous regions. The latter might explain their affinity for “mountain-like” ziggurats as they attempted to recreate the conditions by which they worshipped in their homelands where shrines may have been constructed atop mountains. Their unique skills in metalworking might also offer a similar clue since ores for such trades would be more readily available in a mountainous homeland. Perhaps they are expatriates or refugees who fled the inundation of the ] around 7150 years ago. This might even have provided an originating source of the flood myth prominent in the ] and ]. | |||
| ==Modern Sumerians== | |||
| There are some people in Southren ] wich claim to be the decentants of the acient Sumerians, like the ] and other "Arabs" in southern ]. | |||
Latest revision as of 21:25, 1 June 2024
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