Summary
Highlights
In 1625, Italian aristocrat Pietro della Valle embarked on a journey through the Middle East. A prolific traveller, he visited Asia, North Africa, and India. While navigating the dangerous landscape of Mesopotamia, Della Valle and his guides sought refuge in a massive ruin. He spent several nights there, exploring and documenting strange inscriptions on clay fragments and bricks. Unbeknownst to him and his wife, they had discovered the ruins of Ur, a city at the heart of one of the earliest human civilisations: Sumer.
Paul Cooper, host of 'The Fall of Civilizations' podcast, introduces this episode dedicated to Sumer, often considered the first technological civilisation. The episode aims to explore how Sumerians created a society that influenced everything that followed, inventing writing, mathematics, the wheel, and building grand cities, ultimately seeking to understand the causes of their devastating decline.
The Taurus Mountains in Turkey, with their high rainfall, feed the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which flow through what is now Iraq, a region known as Mesopotamia ('the land between the rivers'). These rivers deposit silt, a fertile soil type, making the arid desert surprisingly productive. Despite the extreme heat, lack of natural resources beyond clay and silt, and unpredictable flooding, Mesopotamia became a cradle of civilisation. Early hunter-gatherers, around 13,000 years ago, began to settle and cultivate land, leading to the development of agricultural communities.
Around 6500 BCE, human settlements along the rivers multiplied, forming what is now called the Ubaid period. These early inhabitants discovered the benefits of date palm cultivation, which provided both food and shade for other delicate crops like pomegranates, grapes, and various vegetables. Crucially, they developed irrigation canals to redirect water to inland areas, transforming the arid landscape into a green oasis. Their mastery of irrigation led to highly productive lands and the cultivation of diverse crops.
Mesopotamia was home to two major peoples: the Sumerians and the Akkadians. While the Akkadians spoke a Semitic language, related to Aramaic, the Sumerians spoke an isolated language, leading to 'the Sumerian problem' for archaeologists. Theories suggest the Sumerians might have migrated into southern Iraq, possibly by sea, bringing with them advanced urban culture. Myths such as the tale of Oannes, a fish-human who taught agriculture and civilisation, support this migration theory. The story of a great flood, shared with later Babylonian and Hebrew texts, also hints at a significant historical event possibly linked to a rise in sea levels after the last ice age.
The Sumerians, who called themselves 'the black-headed people', were technologically advanced. They crafted bricks from river mud, developed pottery, invented the potter's wheel, wagon wheel, plough, and sailboat. Their architectural innovations included complex arches and domes. They mastered metallurgy, working with copper and bronze, and were keen mathematicians, dividing time into minutes and seconds and using a base-60 numeral system (the origin of 360 degrees in a circle). Their extensive irrigation systems fostered a complex social organisation, leading to the emergence of city-states governed by priest-kings and councils.
According to Sumerian texts, Eridu was the first city, founded around 5400 BCE. Early Sumerian city-states were relatively peaceful, often unwalled. However, a darker side emerged with practices like slavery. Around 3200 BCE, Uruk rose to prominence during the Uruk period, becoming the largest and most powerful city. This era saw the invention of writing (cuneiform), initially pictographic, later evolving into a more abstract, phonetic system. This marked a significant leap in human intellectual development, allowing for record-keeping and the transmission of knowledge.
Uruk's booming economy, evidenced by clay tablets detailing mass production and worker wages, made it the largest city in the world at the time, with 50,000 inhabitants. The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature, begins in Uruk, describing its formidable walls and vibrant urban life. The city was a hub of trade, markets and industry. Despite the harsh climate and sanitation issues, Uruk flourished with houses made of baked bricks and a famous White Temple, reflecting the Sumerians' ingenuity and advanced social structure. Beer was a staple drink, and everyday concerns were captured in Sumerian proverbs.
Ur, located at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, became a wealthy commercial port. Unlike resource-poor southern Iraq, the Sumerians produced vast quantities of food, allowing them to trade for metals (copper, tin, silver, gold) and prized cedar wood from distant lands like Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Lebanon. Their trade networks extended to Bahrain, Oman, and even the Indus Valley Civilization, bringing spices and precious stones like lapis lazuli to Ur. This wealth is spectacularly evident in the artefacts found in Ur's royal tombs, such as 'The Standard of Ur,' depicting scenes of peace and war.
By the mid-third millennium, the influence of Ur waned as a more militarised era began. Lagash, a city that enriched itself through raiding and enslavement, rose to power. A conflict between Lagash and the neighbouring city of Umma over agricultural land is immortalised in the 'Stele of the Vultures,' depicting King Eannatum's brutal victory over Umma. Lagash established what some historians consider the 'first true empire,' but its reign was short-lived and marked by internal strife due to its oppressive regime.
Lugalzaggesi, the king of Umma, led a fierce rebellion against Lagash. He conquered Ur and Uruk, eventually sacking and burning Lagash. He then expanded his dominion, claiming to control all lands from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Although likely an exaggeration, this ambition set a precedent for future Mesopotamian rulers. However, like his predecessors, Lugalzaggesi overextended his resources, leading to civil wars and rebellions among Sumerian cities, creating an opportunity for the Akkadians.
Sargon, an Akkadain, rose to power, leading a rebellion against the Sumerian Empire in the 24th century BCE. His legendary origin, mirroring Moses's story, highlighted his ambition. Starting as a cup-bearer, Sargon seized Uruk when Lugalzaggesi was away, destroying its famous walls. He then defeated Lugalzaggesi's vast army, captured him, and established Akkad as his new capital. Sargon then embarked on a series of conquests, destroying city walls to prevent future rebellions and unifying a vast territory from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, ushering in the Akkad Empire.
Sargon, though a progressive ruler in many aspects, was an Akkadian nationalist. He replaced Sumerian with Akkadian as the official language and appointed Akkadians to key government positions, garrisoning his troops in Sumerian cities. This alienated the Sumerians and gradually led to the decline of the Sumerian language. Akkadian, being part of the Semitic language family and easier to learn for many neighboring peoples, became dominant, leading to the gradual linguistic assimilation of Sumerians.
Sargon's great-grandson, Naram-Sin, temporarily restored the empire's glory, adopting the title 'King of Sumer and Akkad.' However, the empire faced environmental and political challenges. Around 2213 BCE, the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp (visible again in 1997) was seen by some as an omen. Shortly after, a sudden climate event, the '4200 BP event,' caused a catastrophic drought across the globe, severely impacting Mesopotamia. Famine set in, leading to the abandonment of northern cities. Following Naram-Sin's death, the Akkad Empire plunged into chaos. Into this weakened state, the nomadic Guti people, whom Sumerian texts described as barbaric, invaded and conquered Akkad, burning it to the ground.
The Guti's rule over southern Iraq lasted over 150 years and was marked by neglect and destruction. Their illiteracy and nomadic lifestyle led to infrastructure collapse, famine, and higher grain prices. This Period of misery, described in texts like 'The Curse of Akkad,' fostered resentment among the Sumerians. Seizing an opportunity, Utu-Hengal, a Sumerian governor of Uruk, led a rebellion against the Guti king, Tirigan. Utu-Hengal, after making an offering to the storm god Iškur, defeated the Guti generals and pursued Tirigan, eventually capturing him. This victory initiated the Third Dynasty of Ur, also known as the Neo-Sumerian Renaissance.
Utu-Hengal's reign was short, ending mysteriously after seven years when a dyke he was inspecting broke, leading some to suspect his ambitious general, Ur-Nammu, of foul play. Ur-Nammu proved to be an effective ruler, standardising weights and currency, and establishing the world's first surviving legal code, predating Hammurabi's. He was also a prodigious builder, constructing temples and ziggurats (stepped towers) across Sumerian cities, with the Great Ziggurat of Ur being his most impressive achievement. These architectural marvels underscored the power of Ur and its gods.
Despite this late flourishing, the Sumerian civilisation faced an existential threat from soil salinization. The extensive irrigation, combined with high evaporation rates in the arid climate, led to salt accumulation in the soil, hindering plant growth. Sumerian scribes documented a gradual decline in wheat production over centuries, while barley, more salt-resistant, remained stable. Although Sumerians understood agricultural practices like fallowing and drainage, the problem persisted, ultimately contributing to food scarcity as the population grew and droughts continued.
The weakening Sumerian state, further impacted by salinization, became vulnerable to external forces. Ur-Nammu died fighting the Guti in the mountains, marking the beginning of the end. Subsequent Sumerian kings struggled against nomadic tribes like the Martus (Amorites) from Syria and Lebanon, whom Sumerian texts described as savage yet fearsome. King Shu Sin attempted to stem the Martu invasion by building a 300-kilometre 'Amorite Wall,' a remarkable feat of engineering but ultimately ineffective due to the need for constant garrisons and the empire's declining strength.
The last Sumerian king, Ibbi-Sin, saw his empire rapidly disintegrate. Independent cities like Eshnunna and Susa (Elam) broke away. The Amorite Wall collapsed, allowing Martu invasions that led to widespread famine and skyrocketing grain prices in Ur. Ibbi-Sin's desperation compelled him to send his general Ishbi-Erra to acquire grain, but Ishbi-Erra, an Akkadian, betrayed him, establishing his own rule in Isin. Eventually, the Elamites besieged Ur, sacked it, and captured Ibbi-Sin, who died in captivity, marking the end of Sumerian rule.
The destruction of Ur and other Sumerian cities was lamented in poignant poems. The fall of Ur marked a dark age, as city-states competed over the ruins of the empire. Drought and salinization led to a mass exodus of Sumerian people to the north, where their culture gradually faded as they adopted Akkadian. The Martus and exiled Sumerians mingled with native Akkadians, giving rise to future Mesopotamian powers like Babylon and Assyria. Sumerian became a dead language, preserved in religious texts, influencing later civilisations that revered Sumerian kings as mythical figures. Over millennia, environmental changes, including shifts in river courses and sea levels, gradually buried Ur and Uruk beneath the desert sands.
The ruins of Uruk and Ur, once grand cities, now stood as mounds of brick and dust, visited only by occasional travellers like Pietro della Valle. The memory of Sumer persisted in myths like the Tower of Babel, but the knowledge of their language was lost for centuries. Their clay tablets, however, preserved their history, music, prayers, and sorrows for future archaeologists to rediscover. The episode concludes with a poignant excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a melancholic reflection on mortality and loss, urging listeners to imagine the desolation and despair faced by the last Sumerians as their world crumbled around them.
Paul Cooper thanks his voice actors and listeners, inviting them to connect on social media and support the podcast via Patreon. He also highlights Book Aid, a charity dedicated to rebuilding the University of Mosul's library in Iraq, which was destroyed by ISIS. He encourages listeners to contribute to this cause, which aims to restore the gift of writing to the place where it began.