sumertraveljournal

[sumertraveljournal]

Works Cited

Mark, Joshua J. "Enheduanna - Poet, Priestess, Empire Builder." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 12 Oct 2010. Web. 09 Aug 

2020. Mark, Joshua J. "Sumer." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 28 Apr 2011. Web. 09 Aug 2020.

Mark, Joshua J. "Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 15 Apr 2014. Web. 07 Aug 2020.

Bauer, Susan Wise. “The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome.” Google Books, W. W. Norton & Company, 17 Mar. 2007, books.google.com/books?id=HmShg3dnLSMC.

The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Version, With an Introduction. Rev. ed. Harmondsworth ; New York: Penguin, 1972.

Hallo, William W, J J. A. Dijk, and Enheduanna. The Exaltation of Inanna. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968. Print.

[sumertraveljournal]

As had been described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, I wanted to see for myself the wall that surrounded the city that “shined like copper.”  As such, I left the fields of crops and came back towards the city, and indeed did see that there was a wall that completely encapsulated the city.  It was also built from mud brick, though it had been covered in a plaster that gave off a metallic sheen.  Sometimes epics and poems can really be accurate in their portrayals of places, it seems!  It is easy to believe that the Sumerians would have exaggerated claims about the size and beauty of their city and its fortifications, but this seemed to hold very true upon seeing it for myself.  This feat of architecture helped to maintain a sense of order for the city as well as protected it from outside invasion, as was common during this time.  

I left the wall to travel close to the heart of the city, as I wanted to see one last area before I made my way back to my own timeline.  The upper echelons of society lived right next to the ziggurat, in complex and large multi-story structures, and the working farming class lived outside the walls in their humble abodes which I have already discussed.  I wanted to see how the people of the middle rungs of society lived and operated, the merchants, artisans, and musicians.  I came to find that the large market places were all over the city, but the largest that I could find was indeed quite close to the center.  It was a complex bazaar of sights, smells, and sounds, all out in the middle eastern sun.  There were artisans who sold pottery, jewelry, and clothing, along with farmers who were selling their foodstuffs.  There were brewers who were selling vats of beer (easily the most common drink) as well as strong wines.  Livestock was being bought and sold as well, as the people milled about trying to conduct their personal business.  I noticed that a great number of people in this marketplace were inscribing upon clay tablets to record the transactions being made, which we still find evidence of in today’s times!  Not only was written language being used for governmental and religious purposes, but indeed economic ones as well!  It truly was akin to seeing our own civilization in its infancy, and truly spectacular to behold.  Most people dressed plainly, with men wearing long robes of animal hide, and women tunics of woven fabric.  Everyone wore open-toed sandals, with the women’s being slightly more ornate in their design.  There was no over-indulgence in luxury at this level, but the people did seem to have a common idea of what was expected to be worn.   

[sumertraveljournal]

From the heart of Ur, I left the ziggurat in my wake to head to the outskirts of the city-state.  I chose to do this because I wanted to see for myself the lifeblood of this great civilization.  Though religion, education, and war were very important aspects of the Sumerian civilization, none of these aspects would have been possible if it not for the surplus of food that was created on the backs of the humble farming community who supported all the other crafts.  If they had not improved upon previous farming technology in the way that they did, there would not have been enough food for division of labor to occur, which led to the rise of organized religion, bureaucratic government, and specialized military forces.  I saw stretched before a wonderfully complex system of farmland, growing a vast range of crops.  I saw orchards of cherries, apples, pears, figs, and dates, fields of lettuce, cucumbers, and turnips, and fields of barley as far as the eye could see.  This extensive network was made possible by many innovations, such as the highly effective irrigation system that they had devised.  They dug out and maintained canals with basic tools and their hands which allowed an inflow of water from the Euphrates river to keep their fields at the right level of hydration to ensure good crop growth.  In addition, they employed the use of the yoke to allow beasts of burden, mostly cattle, to pull along specialized plows, which allowed them to till up previously undreamt amounts of land, which in turn supported an ever-growing population.  

Among these fields were the houses and barns of the agrarian folk.  Though more rustic in their design and construction materials, these dwellings were still marvelous to look at.  Some had been built from reed plants that were staked in the ground in bundles and then woven together to form domed structures.  Others were formed from sun-dried bricks that used the silt from the river, which were noticeably much less sturdy than the fire-baked variety of brick used for the ziggurat, girupa, and noble dwellings.  I saw this in the chips and marks of the buildings, which were absent from the fire-brick buildings.  Their houses contained no windows, and almost overwhelmingly only had one floor and one entrance/exit.  Though simple, their architecture was efficient.  I saw that the people out here, much like in the city, were very concerned with maintaining a religious life.  They prayed to the gods when planting their seed, when droughts struck, and when the harvest was completed.  In addition, daily meals were precluded with prayer, much as we see today in many societies.  

The insides of these dwellings also took me by surprise in their likeness to common modern day ammenities.  They had wooden tables and chairs like we do, bedframes with four feet, and even had access to indoor plumbing.  The nicer houses even had a separate bathroom, walled off with privacy.  This plumbing all connected with the irrigation system and eventually flowed out into the river, which in turn helped to fertilize the surrounding area.  The presence of dogs also took me by surprise, as I saw these people had already grown so close to their canine companions.  They even had leashes for them that were nearly identical to modern day leashes!  Although these people lived more humble lives, they truly were the reason for Sumer’s rise to power and heavy influence on the world.  

[sumertraveljournal]

I chose to see the shining city of Ur next, and it was already well established by this time.  Like all Mesopotamian city-states at the time, the city was built around a ziggurat and giparu (a complex of temples, quarter rooms, and living and dining areas for the priests and priestesses).  This was the center of all organized religious activity, and where many ceremonies took place that bonded the people of the city in their shared beliefs and faith.  It also housed schooling facilities (among the first in the world!) and areas for prayer.  Being at the very heart of the city, it is not hard to discern that religion was a very important factor in the people of Mesopotamia’s lives and culture.  They chose to literally put it at the center of their civilizations, aiding in the idea that humans were placed upon Earth to work with one another and in tandem with the gods to create order from the chaos, as the gods had done when they gave rise to the Earth itself and the wildlife that lived upon it.  The main ziggurat at Ur became dedicated to the goddess of love, Inanna, and its fired mud-brick construction and tiered structure ensured that it was the sturdiest structure in the entire city.  This is seen in modern times as it is easily the best preserved feature of the city, with many other buildings being lost to the erosive power of time.  In its glory it stood above all the other structures in the city, painted a pearlescent white so that it shined like a jewel in the heart of multitudes of smaller earth-colored structures.  It was from this religious epicenter of Ur that arose the world’s first named author: Enheduanna.  

She was appointed by Sargon himself to be religious overseer of the city-state, and her many poets, songs, and daily interactions with the people led her to be a prominent figure of the city.  She was charged with the grueling task of trying to combine the Akkadian and Sumerian pantheons, as Ur was now a melting pot of diversity due to its conquest and integration of many neighboring peoples.  Enheduanna did this by seeing the similarities in the two pantheons and merging them into one, combining parallel deities so that the people would have but one god to worship for the different aspects of life.  Inanna, for example, she melded with the Akkadian goddess Ishtar, making her out to be not just the goddess of love, but the ruler of the heavens.  She blended their personalities into one entity and the newly formed goddess soon became the patron god of Ur.  I saw her writing (already an uncommon skill for women at the time) her famous dedications to the goddess, which would soon influence the greater Ur area and captivate the minds and hearts of readers for centuries following her death.  I heard her read aloud some lines of her most famous work The Exhaltation of Inanna, in which she states “let it be known that you are lofty as the heavens, let it be known that you are broad as the earth, let it be known that you destroy the rebel lands.”  In this work, she is taking from the Akkadian pantheon of Ishtar, who is known to be war-like and vengeful, and combining it with the softer and calmer side of the Sumerian Inanna.  Although we today may be the most atheistic as a species as we have ever been, this was downright unheard of in Enheduanna’s time.  Religion was a facet of everyday life, from great wars, to architecture, to family meals, to medicine.  

[sumertraveljournal]

To begin my journey, I wanted to test the historical accuracy of the ancient clay tablets that spoke of a man named Sargon of Akkad.  As described in his own biography, he was a man of humble beginnings, the illegitimate son of a “changeling,” thought to be a priestess of the goddess Inanna, and some man, whom Sargon himself said “I knew not.”  I chose to see this man in action as he formed the world’s first multiethnic empire, where before the land of mesopotamia had operated strictly as a loose collection of rival city-states.  As the machine began to whir and rumble, I doubted my own work and calculations.  Could such a machine even be built or would my own desire for god-like power be my hubris and demise?  After the noise and light became too much to bear, I blacked out for an unknown amount of time.  When I awoke, I saw that my work had not been for naught, as I was staring at the space and time stream as I described in my notes and mathematical formulae.  I configured the machine to take me closer and see if the tales of this legendary man were true. 

I found his mother, indeed a priestess at a temple of Inanna, already pregnant with the future king.  The legends, however, seem to have been exaggerated over time, as she did not seal him in a basket with tar and float him down the river.  Instead, she merely took him to the bank of the Euphrates outside of her home city-state of Umma and left him on the shore.  She obviously could not care for an illegitimate son on her own, and spared herself the trouble.  It was from this bank that Sargon was rescued by a rather plain looking man, Akki, who was trying to get water for his family.  Being able to move along the timeline at will, I sped up the course of his life.  He grew to be a humble gardener for his father, but through a series of charm, wit, and connections, he began to rise up through the ranks of the local court system.  He eventually found himself to be King Lugalzagesi’s personal cup bearer, which was not simply a position of subservience, but an honorable title given only to one of the King’s most trusted personnel. 

It was from this position of cupbearer that Sargon saw his king march across Mesopotamia and conquer city after city, including the famed Kish. (Bauer, 97) Due to my inability to understand their discourse, I was unable to parse as to why Lugalzagesi and Sargon became enemies, but as Sargon marched out of Kish with his own army, overtook Uruk, and the two eventually met in battle.  Sargon was victorious, his spearmen and chariots able to win the day over his former ruler.  From this historic event birthed the Akkadian Empire, which was easily the largest single empire on the planet at its time.  Even in this bloodthirsty brawl, I saw elements of religion being transposed into the actions of the soldiers and the commanders.  They prayed for victory in battle over their enemies, and gave thanks when they were victorious.  We oftentimes talk about how the people of this area interwove religion into every aspect of their lives, and this to me cemented that idea firmly in my head.  Sargon marched the defeated Lugalzagesi through the gates of Enlil, his patron god and shamed him publicly, so that all would know of Enlil’s weakness and inferiority to Sargon’s own pantheon.

[sumertraveljournal]

And so my efforts have finally paid off.  After many years of toil and strife I have finally managed to build a working time machine.  This is the culmination of the effort of so many people, so many that I surely cannot name them all here, but I am eternally grateful for their help in my struggles.  Rather than trying to insert myself into the time stream outside of my natural life, I have instead opted for a use of gravity and quantum forces as the driving force in order to create a small parallel universe which can effectively remove itself from this universe’s dimensions.  In doing so, I will be able see the history of the entire earth, humanity’s civilizations included, laid out before me as a stream of time and space.  By removing myself, I ensure that I will simply be an observer to the past, rather than attempting to insert myself in the past and cause untold destruction to the fabric of this world. 

This small blog will chronicle my adventures into the past, specifically Sumer of 2200BCE.  I have long been fascinated by this rich and vibrant culture, a blend of many different peoples, religions, and backgrounds.  I chose this point in time specifically as it marks the midpoint of the rule of Sargon, who came from Akkad (in the northern area of mesopotamia) and brought the many competing city-states of the region under one crown and rule.  The Sumerians were a very pioneering people in that they invented many facets of advanced civilization to the forefront.  This includes everything from our base-60 time keeping system, written language, the first schools, and the first bicameral congress (Mark, 1).  I hope this journey will not only be affirming for the archaeological records, but for myself and any readers of this journal.