The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character

"The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums B.C. With the help of large-scale irrigation the Sumerians transformed the hot, arid, windswept land into a pleasant dwelling place. They devised such useful tools and skills as the brick mold, potter's wheel, seed plow, sailboat, copper and bronze casting, and engraving. They developed a system of writing in clay that was borrowed and used all over the Near East for more than two thousand years. Their ideas and literary works permeated the thought and writings of all the people of western Asia and to some extent even those of the Aegean world. Written by an outstanding authority on the Sumerians, this book is an unparalleled compendium of what is known about them. Professor Kramer communicates his enthusiasm for his subject as he outlines the history of the Sumerian civilization and describes their cities, religion, literature, education, scientific achievements, social structure, and psychology. Finally, he considers the legacy of Sumer to the ancient and modern world. Sumerian origin and influence are still discernible in a Mosaic law, in the tears of Job, in a Hindu myth, a Euclidean theorem, a heraldic design, the degree of an angle, the writing of a number. Much of the content of this book is based on the Sumerian literary documents which have become available only in recent years and largely through the concentrated efforts of the author. Although most of the approximately five thousand tablets and fragments on which Sumerian literature is inscribed were excavated more than a half-century ago, Professor Kramer had to comb museums and collections the world over to identify, study, copy, and catalogue the scattered documents. Both text and appendixes include many translations of cuneiform inscriptions, the large majority of which were prepared by the author or under his guidance." --