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What is Flood
Sumer historians was recording their kings' names and there is a break in this king list. They divided their history into two parts: Ante-Deluvian and Post-Deluvian which means before and after flood. There is a flood tablet that was found in Nippur where is the Holy Land of Sumerians. In this tablet, there are the names of five cities and their kings' names. It is called Sumerian King List. (Finegan, 23) . In this tablet this explanation is written: "These are the five cities, eight kings ruled them for 241 000 years. Then the flood swept over the land. After that kingship was lovered again from heaven. (Finegan, 25) In addition to this in Gilgamesh legend, flood is mentioned and according to the legend, Gilgamesh restored the cities which were destroyed by the flood (Tablet IX) But our contemporary archeologists do not confirm that flood although in some of Sumer cities they found flood layers (Snell, 17)
From my perspective, it seems that the flood legend is parallel with Noah's flood story in Quran. Moreover Gilgamesh is one of the Uruk Kings who belongs to Post-Deluvian age.
Why People Sedentarizated
Human had been at work altering their environment in the hill country that surrounds Mesopotamia, especially by domesticating plants and animals. And it is one of the questions, why domestication occured. There are two theories about this subject: First theory, a family can harvest enough grain from still existing wheat stands in the region to the last entire year by chance. Second Theory, perceived population pressure let people to move to less productive land to bring along seeds and animals that they were used to backhome. It was then discovered that plants grew more luxuriantly and animals could be conveniently managed. It is another point that the first wild goat and emmer was domesticated in Iraq because there are a lot of goat and emmer in the region. Furthermore it is interesting that before sedentarization there was trade with central Turkiye because archeologists found Obsidian rock in Mesopotamia. Obsidian is a glass like volcanic rock that is only found around central Anatolia.
Lands of Mespotomia is not valuable without water. Lands are available to Irrigating . Sumerian people made water canal. The first canals were made by Ubaid villagers. Ubaid villagers were settled Eupheratis coasts. White people are being tought they are the first villagers but it is not certain, however archeologists couldn't find more older villagers than it yet. 3300 BC archeologists found tablets containing numbers that are called numerical notation tablets. First writing system was used in Uruk.This writing is very complex and contains a lot of signs. We call this writing system "Cuneiform Nail Shaped"
The invention of writing open up Vistas of self expression but probably not at first. For several hundred years, writing was in all likelihood confirm to the mundane efforts of administrators to record surplus and the workers list.Also Sumerians made first lexical studyings and they invented dictionaries.
Sumerian Language
Sumerian Language is not related to other languages and we know xxxxx through lexical texts provided with translations into better known languages like Babylonians and Ashurians for people who were trying to learn Sumerian language. The idea of writing was check and control surpluss. According to Linguistics, Sumerians are not from Semithic Nation like Ashurians and Babylonians. There are some theories about Sumerians' origin. In Babylonian language, Sumerian refer to sacred land of Dilmun where the sun rises. At the meaning of this, they came from East (so then Iran, Indusvalley or Bahrain) () According to other opinion, Sumer is a Babylonian word derived from Kengir means civilized land and Babylonians used this word for their Southern lands. (Buccellati, 17)
Mesopotamia Geography
Meso means between, potamia means rivers in Latin language. Mesopotamia is the lands between Eupratis (Fýrat) and Tigris (Dicle) . Geographers divide Mesopotamia into two parts : upper and lower Mesopotamia according to sources of rivers. Some Mesopotamians like Daniel C. Snell and Wolfram Von Soden. Upper Mesopotamia is Akadia and Northern Mesopotamia was Sumerian country. Because in North a Semithic folk Akadians were living and in south Sumerians were living. Semithic means, belongs to Semithes which are the ancestors of Arabs and Hebrews. According to a legend, after Noah's flood, only Noah and his family were alive and one of the Noah's Sons' name was Samih and his children were called Semithes.
Sumerians found city govenrments which are called sites. The most famous sites are Ur, Uruk, Kish, Susa and Nippur . Sometimes the kings of this sites occupied other sites and found a big government that contains Syria the Mediterrean Sea () In Meantime I want to mention about the history of Sumerians. After people have started the agriculture and the first sedentraizations started and some people settled down the southern coasts of Euprates and founded first villages. The first village is Ubaid Village according to archeologists. Because they haven't found each older than it yet. Ubaid people are being thought that hey are the ancestors of SUmerians claims Snell. But it is not certainly true. This is Snels theory.
Some dynasties ruled Sumer country the past diluvean dynasties are chronogically Kish Dynasty, Uruk Dynasty, Uruk Dynasty and eventually Lagash Dynasty. After this Sargon and Akad dynasties ruled Sumer cities. Historians guess that there was approximately 30 sites. Note: The first post-deluvian city is Eridu (Finegan, 23)
The common properties of these sites are all of them settled coast of Eupeheratis and Tigris. Mesopotamia is a wide plain. Sumerians firsly made pottery. In Uruk Sumerians bake mud and they invent first bricks. This bricks were used when they build Ziggurats and they built first palaces like constructions. () Ziggurat is the name of Sumerian temples. Early temples are seemed to be imprtant economic centers that organized much trade activity and the harvests are stored in ziggurats.
In the invention of writing as early 3300 BC, historians began to get what they call numerical notation tablets (They are small pillows of clay which there are marks that seem to represent numbers. These numbers show the quantities of surplus harvest)
This kinds of tablets are found widely world of Mesopotamia from Susa at the eastern edge of Iraqi plain (Habuba Kabira) And the first writing system is found in Uruk. This writing system is very complex and has a lot of signs. This writing are pitchographie and we call them "nail shaped" because they use nails instead of pen or pencil. (Snell, 16)
Finally I want to mention about Nippur. Nippur is a site that is important trade center. Soon it became a religious capital of plain and the first orimitive Democracy was existed in Nippur. The administrators or important people of sites were met in Nippur (Finegan, 30)
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