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Lecture 6: III and Neo-Sumerian

Plan of the of , with indications of property boundaries during the . Paris, .

HIST 213 Spring 2012

Post Akkadian (Gutian) 2160-2100 Sumerian Revival (Ur III) 2100-2000 • Last Akkadian King Shar-kali-sharri overthrown • Series of Gutian Warlords from – capital at Agade – proved to be very poor rulers of • crude administrators • prosperity declined • canal network failed • famine • lack of literature • let south rule themselves assumes control over S. – 2nd Dynasty of Lagash • (2144-2124 BCE)

Seated Statue of Gudea from Lagash Neo-Sumerian c. 2100 BCE

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Gudea foundations of temples

• Gudea built numerous temples • rekindled religious practice

Sumerians rise again in Ur III period • Utu-hegal of fends of Gutians and takes over several other city-states – installs brother Ur- as of Ur • When Utu-hegal dies, Ur-Nammu takes new title – King of Sumer and – 5 generations of same family (70 years) – starts Ur III Period

Detail of reconstructed of Ur-Nammu

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Ur III Dynasty (2112-2004 BCE)

Sumerian “Renaissance” • 5 generations of Sumerian rulers over unified Mesopotamia • improvements in: – bureaucracy – urban density – literacy – centralized administration – religious practices

Ur III Empire

Smaller than Akkad • more centralized 3 districts A. heartland – 20 provinces – ensi ruled on behalf of king (hereditary) Ur B. military zone – generals – foreign names C. trade zone

Ur III (Sumerian Renaissance) Incredible amount of extant written records – 40,000 texts published – comparable to what remains of Greece and Rome • military campaigns • building activity – fabulous at Ur • economic and bureaucratic texts • religious hymns – hymns of • Law Codes – Ur-Nammu

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Long-Range Economic planning Textiles were a particularly important industry in Ur • run by the state • Men, women, and children alike were employed to produce wool and clothing. – startling amount of centralization – scholars have gone so far as to say no other period in Mesopotamian history reached the same level.

Trading was another huge industry. • The state employed independent merchants to run such commercial activities through a barter system. • A standard system of weights was Plan of a real estate of the city of established to aid this process. Umma, with indications of the – Coins made of , bronze, , or silver surfaces of the parts. Ur III were produced in certain, pre-set weights so Louvre. merchants could easily discern values

Standardized Weights and Measures

5-mina weight with the name of Shu-Shin, king of Sumer and Akkad. , ca. 2030 BCE From Telloh, ancient .

• Akkadian form of bureaucratic centralization • measurement used all over the Empire

Ur III Economy: the bala-fund System of taxation called bala (exchange) • each province gave what resource they had in abundance – Girsu gave grain – Umma gave manufactured goods • each province’s contribution was calculated in advance on the basis of it’s production potential • Royal chancellor (sukka-mah) represented the interests of the crown supervised the system

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Ur III Economy: Labor Highest level of urbanization and population density in Mesopotamia • men and women conscripted into the bala-fund 2 classes of workers A. labor all year round B. ½ year labor Paid in rations from the bala-fund • barley, oil, wood • specific tasks: weaving, harvesting, cutting reeds

Methods of Centralization

• Uniform • schools established • system of weights and measures • standardized calendar – became of standard – for official business only • Religious worship – children placed as high and priestesses – deification of King Shulgi

Kings of the Ur III Period • Ur-Nammu (2112-2095 BCE) – Founded dynasty – Moved capital to Ur – United Sumerian and Akkadian – First law-code – Constructed ziggurat at Ur • Shulgi (2094-2047 BCE) – Greatest king – Patron of the arts – Court poetry and literature – Sumerian disappeared as a spoken language – Created a highly organized hierarchical state – Defeated northern and eastern barbarians – Built a great defensive wall 120 mile long • Shu- (2037-2029 BCE)

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Ziggurat at Ur built by King Ur-Nammu

Ziggurat at Ur 70 feet high 150 x 200 foot base 8’ thick layer of brick • set in bitumen

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Significance of Monumental Architecture Indicates social and cultural sophistication • control of resources from distant lands • control of needed in construction – applied mathematics and technical skill • control of labor force (population)

Centralized governmental and taxation system

The Deification of Shulgi

• his first 20 years are concerned with cultic matters • becomes “divine” in the middle of his reign • names such as “Shulgi is my god” becomes popular • one of many innovations during his rule • scholars see this as a “reinvigoration of the state” • main architect of the Ur III Period

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Divine Kingship

• What were the perks of “divine” kingship? – we don’t know • What difference did it make how a ruler portrayed himself? – seem purely ideological • What was the difference to the average peasant? – very little

Hymn to Shulgi

I am accomplished in wisdom, I vie with wisdom´s true word, I love justice, I do not love evil, I hate the evil word, I, Shulgi, a mighty king, supreme am I.

Because I am a powerful man rejoicing in his loins, I enlarged the footpaths, straightened the highways of the land, I made travel secure, built there big house [rest houses for travelers] Planted gardens alongside of them, established resting places there Settled there friendly folk

I will raise my spear against the enemy I will set my banner against the border of a foreign land I will fill my quiver. My bow is ready to shoot like a raging . The crushed people of the rebellious land. I will cut them down with my bow and sling like locusts.

The inscription on the door-socket of King Shu-Sin reads:

For the god Shara, distinguished one of the god , beloved son of the goddess , his (Shu-Sin’s) father, the divine Shu-Sin, purification of the god An, anointed priest with clean hands for the gods , , and the great gods, the king whom the god Enlil lovingly chose in his (own) heart for the shepherdship of the land, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters, when he built the Amorite wall (called) “It keeps Tidnum at a distance” and returned the foot of the Inscribed Door-Socket of a Temple Umma, Sumer, modern , reign to their land, he built for him (Shara) of King Shu–Sin (2037–2029 BCE), and for his (own) life, E-shage-pada, his Ur III Period (2112–2004 BCE). Stone. beloved temple.

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Life of the Average Peasant • Crowded urban life • houses: – 1- or 2- story houses made of thick mud brick – shared common walls – garden attached • staple was barley • vegetables, cheese milk and beer • children could be disinherited or sold into slavery • schools for promising students – temple or palace bureaucracy

The Lament for Urim (~2000 BCE)

lines 218-229: The heads of its men slain by the were not covered with a cloth. Like a gazelle caught in a trap, their mouths bit the dust. Men struck down by the spear were not bound with bandages. As if in the place where their mothers had labored, they lay in their own blood. Its men who were finished off by the battle-mace were not bandaged with new (?) cloth.

important trading post on the Middle

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