Near East Kingdoms

Sumer's Kings 'Before the Flood' (Antediluvian)

Ancient Mesopotamia (Intro) Canaanite States & Groups Israelites & Israel Mesopotamian States & Groups Rome Syrian States & Groups

The Sumerians were a non-Semitic people who may have moved southwards into Mesopotamia in the mid-fifth millennium BC. Archaeological evidence suggests a cultural continuity which originates them in central Mesopotamia, but they may have started out as a mountain folk on the edge of the Pottery Neolithic.

This period had seen Neolithic Farmer practices spread far and wide across the Near East and beyond, and the early Sumerians were the ones who carried it into southern Mesopotamia. Neolithic farming soon gave birth to substantial improvements in the region.

A regional civilisation emerged and expanded across the entire fourth millennium BC. The earliest document which describes that Sumerian invention, the wheel, dates to circa 3500 BC. It may have existed shortly before that, in a largely experimental fashion which did not initially generate large-scale adoption, but the wheel certainly existed by this date.

Its use exploded across the ancient world, even reaching the comparatively isolated proto-Indo-Europeans across the Caucuses within a century or so to transform their society and create at least part of the basis for the massively-influential Yamnaya horizon.

Something less obvious to many is that cannabis may have travelled in the opposite direction - from the Pontic-Caspian steppe to Mesopotamia. The Greek kdnnabis and proto-Germanic *baniptx seem to be related to the Sumerian kuriibu. Sumerian died out as a widely-spoken language after around 2000 BC, so the connection (probably with the Maikop culture of the North Caucuses and the Yamnaya horizon) must have been a very ancient one. The international trade of the Late Uruk IV period (circa 3300-3100 BC) provides a suitable context for this trade.

The other important subject here is the 'Great Flood', and the Antediluvian period which led up to it. This event so scarred Sumerian society that its story became ingrained within that society to the extent that Israelites of the first millennium BC - whose core ruling group may have had Mesopotamian origins - wrote down a variation of it. The Sumerian king list (see feature link) states that eight kings ruled in five cities before the 'Great Flood' swept over the land.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City, Gwendolyn Leick (Penguin Books, 2001), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Noah Kramer ('List 1' of Sumerian rulers, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000, Vol I & II), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from The Archaeology of Mesopotamia, S Lloyd (Revised Ed, London, 1984), from Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J N Postgate (Routledge, 1994), from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), from The Age of the God-Kings, Kit van Tulleken (Ed, Time Life Books, Amsterdam 1987), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and The Sumerian Kings List, J A Black, G Cunningham, E Fluckiger-Hawker, E Robson, & G Zólyomi ('List 2' of Sumerian rulers, available via the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford, 1998), and Ancient History, Anthony Michael Love ('List 3' of Sumerian rulers at Sarissa.org), and The Flood: Mesopotamian Archaeological Evidence (National Center for Science Education).)

c.5300 BC

The Sumerian city states rise to power during the prehistoric Ubaid, Uruk IV, and Jemdet Nasr periods (5300-2900 BC). The ending of the latter sees large towns and small villages gradually turn into cities but the apparent social unity of the Uruk-led fourth millennium BC fragments into one of rival city states between about 3000-2800 BC.

The historical record only begins to emerge with the 'Early Dynastic' period from circa 2900-2334 BC, although it remains rather thin until the Lagash dynastic period begins circa 2550 BC.

This reconstruction of a Sumerian temple provides some idea of how such religious buildings would have connected with the city around them

The early city states of Sumer in order of ascendance are as follows: Eridu (from about 5400-5300 BC), Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, Shuruppak, and Nippur (usually without a kingship of its own). Other antediluvian cities exist ('Before the Flood'), but without any known kingships of their own. Instead these flourish later.

c.4900 BC

The 'Early Ubaid Level XV' archaeology at Eridu displays one of the earliest temples here. It is still primitive, being a like-for-like Ubaid period rebuild of the original temple. It is located on a raised 'dune of clean sand' which is largely surrounded by a depression around six metres below the level of surrounding land.

Some of the earliest cities, such as Sippar, Borsippa, and Kish in the north, and Ur, Uruk, and Eridu in the south, formed the endpoints of what became the complex Sumerian network of cities and canals (click or tap on map to view full sized)

c.3900 BC

As early as 8000 BC, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, small clay tokens of various distinctive shapes are evidently being used by Near Eastern farmers to keep an inventory of their commodities. A cone-shaped token, for instance, may indicate that a farmer has a certain amount of barley in his granary.

This already-ancient system is greatly expanded during the Uruk IV period which begins around 3900 BC. The ancient Sumerian religious centre of Eridu - already a millennium old - is gradually surpassed in size by the nearby city of Uruk.

Metalwork also appears, marking the beginning of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) and the fading of the stone age period which had seen Neolithic Farmer practices transform human lives between about 10,000-4000 BC.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) lasted in the Levant until the middle of the sixth millennium BC, but the lack of pottery certainly did not prevent rapid advances in early farming techniques and the creation of settled town life, as shown by this sample PPN house at Beidha

c.3500 BC

Twentieth century AD excavations in Ur by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley discover a flood layer in various test pits and then larger shafts. This can be dated to around 3500 BC, at the crossover point between the Ubaid period and the early 'Proto-Literate' period.

Given the facts that writing is yet to progress beyond stock-keeping records and Sumer has little in the way of an ingrained oral tradition, this is likely to be too early to be the 'Great Flood'.

However, this is the same approximate period in which the wheel can demonstrably said to be created. Initially it is used on small carts, having provided potters with production wheels since perhaps 4200 BC. Its used quickly spreads across across the Caucuses to transform society on the steppe and create at least part of the basis for the massively-influential Yamnaya horizon.

The first wheeled carts were very simple in their design, with that wheel having been developed from a potter's wheel at a point between about 3500-3350 BC

c.3100 - 2900 BC

The Uruk IV influence suddenly fades around 3100 BC (or 3200 BC in some modern sources) for reasons unknown. Local traditions re-emerge in places which had previously taken on board Uruk influences. Elam's advanced city of Susa experiences an influx of immigrants who introduce great changes there.

The Uruk III or Jemdet Nasr period in Sumer (3100-2900 BC) is one of comparative isolation as it rebuilds a new social structure which will become a fundamental part of the successive 'Early Dynastic' period. A host of early cities are mentioned at this time, on seals which are discovered at Jemdet Nasr itself. These cities include Kesh, Larsa, Nippur, Ur, Uruk, and Zabalam.

Uruk itself is suddenly rebuilt, with construction taking place in more permanent mudbrick. The city continues to thrive in the Jemdet Nasr period but an entirely new complex of buildings is erected over the carefully-levelled remains of those of the previous period. Sumer remains culturally inward-looking for this period.

c.3000 - 2900 BC

Further twentieth century AD archaeological excavations confirm two more large flood events. Both are in the area around Kish. Both take place within the same period, towards the end of 'Early Dynastic I' and the beginning of 'Early Dynastic II', between about 3000-2900 BC or 2900-2800 BC (depending on which dating structure is being used for the 'Early Dynastic'). Both are much later than Ur's great flood.

c.2900 - 2750 BC

The Jemdet Nasr period fades around 2900 BC in favour of a new, outward-looking 'Early Dynastic' period. True writing now blossoms as it moves closer to spoken Sumerian, archives explode with mercantile records and administrative acts, and the first urban rulers begin to appear as leading city figures take on more duties and increasing power, ostensibly as deputies of the gods themselves.

Nippur becomes the focus of Sumer's unified cult practices, in favour of Ur. Positioned centrally in Sumer, perhaps this location is more satisfactory for the region's other cities. All of them seem to be joined together when it comes to paying homage to the Sumerian pantheon of gods, headed by Enlil who is Nippur's patron (another good reason for making this city the religious centre).

This unique status lasts until the eighteenth century BC which witnesses the rise of Babylon. Seals mention it frequently, even when they are found in small or obscure Sumerian cities such as Abu Salabikh, Arina, Kesh, Urum, and Zabalam. Other small cities emerge at this time, such as Eshnunna.

Archaeologists discover flood deposits at Kish, Shuruppak, and Uruk. These may belong to the same flood which has been dated to about 3000-2900 BC, but local dating places it between about 2900-2750 BC, hinting at the possibility of an entirely separate flood event.

The Sumerian flood story includes a depiction of a large vessel which is packed with various objects and, presumably, animals, clearly showing a basis for the later Old Testament flood story of Noah and the ark

c.2600 BC

One further large-scale flood event is discovered around the city of Kish of the 'First Dynasty'. This one is even more impressive in terms of its extent and depth than the two (or three) at the beginning of the millennium. It is dated to the 'Early Dynastic III' period.

Ziusudra of the Sumerian flood story was either king of Shuruppak, or a prince or lord of that city, his father having been king, while he is the central figure who would later be known as Noah

Like the Nile, if the seasonal meltwater in the Euphrates and Tigris is excessive then the river banks can be breached and the surrounding farming lands inundated. Opinion seems to favour either Woolley's flood or this one as the basis for the Sumerian and Biblical flood story.

Given the approximate dating for the Sumerian king list, it is likely that this latest flood - a large one by any understanding - is the 'Great Flood' being referred to, but the overall story seems to be composed from a mish-mash of several floods. None are apocalyptic but, even so, Sumerian society places subsequent events 'After the Flood'.