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La Famille dans la Mésopotamie Antique: Veiller les uns sur les autres tout au long de la vie et après la mort
Dans la Mésopotamie antique, la famille était considérée comme l'unité essentielle qui assurait la stabilité sociale dans le présent, maintenait les traditions du passé et garantissait la continuité de ces traditions, coutumes et stabilité pour l'avenir. La cellule familiale était d'une telle importance que la hiérarchie des palais et des temples était fondée sur elle.
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Vie Quotidienne en Ancienne Mésopotamie: Le reflet du monde moderne
La vie quotidienne dans l'ancienne Mésopotamie ne peut pas être décrite de la même manière que la vie dans la Rome ou la Grèce antique. La Mésopotamie n'a jamais été une civilisation unique et unifiée, pas même sous l’empire akkadien de Sargon d'Akkad (le Grand, r. de 2334 à 2279 avant notre ère). La région était composée de nombreuses ethnies et de royaumes très différents les uns des autres.
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If i regularly played minecraft i would collect as much copper as i could get and revive the sumerian empire with my high end trade conglomerate based off of only copper-based items
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Gouvernement de l'Ancienne Mésopotamie: Assister et servir les dieux
Le gouvernement de l'ancienne Mésopotamie reposait sur l'idée que les êtres humains avaient été créés pour aider et servir les dieux. Le grand prêtre, le roi, l'assemblée des anciens, les gouverneurs et tous les autres fonctionnaires étaient considérés comme des intendants choisis par les dieux pour s'occuper du peuple, de la même manière qu'un père devait s'occuper de sa famille.
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Ur: The Great Biblical City Abandoned by the Gods
Ur was a city in the region of Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, and its ruins lie in what is modern-day Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq. According to biblical tradition, the city is named after the man who founded the first settlement there, Ur, though this has been challenged. The city is famous for its biblical associations and as an ancient trade center.
The city’s other biblical link is to the patriarch Abraham, who left Ur to settle in the land of Canaan. This claim has also been contested by scholars who believe that Abraham’s home was further north in Mesopotamia in a place called Ura, near the city of Harran, and that the writers of the biblical narrative in the book of Genesis confused the two.
Whatever its biblical connections may have been, Ur was a significant port city on the Persian Gulf, which began, most likely, as a small village in the Ubaid period of Mesopotamian history (6500-4000 BCE) and was an established city by 3800 BCE, continually inhabited until 450 BCE. Ur’s biblical associations have made it famous in the modern day, but it was a significant urban center long before those narratives were written, and it was highly respected in its time.
The Early Period & Excavation
The site became famous in the modern era in 1922 when Sir Leonard Wooley excavated the ruins and discovered what he called The Great Death Pit (an elaborate grave complex), the Royal Tombs, and, more significantly to him, claimed to have found evidence of the Great Flood described in the book of Genesis. This claim was later discredited but continues to find supporters.
In its time, Ur was a city of enormous size, scope, and opulence, which drew its vast wealth from its position on the Persian Gulf and the trade this allowed with regions as far away as the Indus Valley Civilization. The present site of the ruins of Ur is much further inland than it was at the time when the city flourished, owing to silting of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
From the beginning, Ur was an important trade center, owing to its location at a pivotal point where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run into the Persian Gulf. Archaeological excavations have substantiated that, early on, Ur possessed great wealth and the citizens enjoyed a level of comfort unknown in other Mesopotamian cities.
As with other great urban complexes in the region, the city began as a small village, which was most likely led by a priest or priest-king. The king of the First Dynasty, Mesannepadda, is only known through the Sumerian King List and from inscriptions on artifacts found in the graves of Ur.
The Second Dynasty is known to have had four kings, but about them, their accomplishments, or the history during this time, nothing is known. The early Mesopotamian writers did not consider it worthwhile to record the deeds of mortals and preferred to link human achievements to the work and will of the gods. Ancient hero-kings, such as Gilgamesh of Uruk, or those who performed amazing feats, such as Etana or those recorded in the Myth of Adapa, were worthy of record, but mortal kings were not afforded that same level of concern regarding the details of their reigns.
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Sumerian King List: Who Was King? And Who Was Not King?
The Sumerian King List (abbreviated as SKL and also known as Chronicle of the One Monarchy) is an ancient Sumerian document whose earliest version is dated to Mesopotamia’s Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE) relating how kingship was first established and how it was passed on from city to city from Eridu to the Dynasty of Isin (circa 1953 to circa 1717 BCE) and its contemporary, the Dynasty of Larsa (circa 1961 to circa 1674 BCE).
The document was heavily redacted and revised as city-states came to use it to legitimize their right to rule over the region, and so the latter part recognizing the Isin-Larsa period did not appear in the original version, nor in others until the Isin dynasty found it useful. The purpose of the text was to legitimize rulers, not to document actual history.
Further, the early section of the original manuscript lists kings who ruled for impossible lengths of time and are not historically attested to elsewhere. Some early variants of the text omit the antediluvian kings entirely, and one reason could be these impossible lifespans (such as Alulim of Eridu ruling for 28,800 years) but some scholars have suggested that the ‘years’ given could be read as months or that the long lifespans were given as a sign of respect and a nod to the divine nature of kingship – but these claims are speculative.
These are among the many problems noted by historians regarding the SKL as a reliable primary source, as noted by scholar Marc Van de Mieroop:
Some parts – especially the earlier portions – are certainly unreliable, and for others we are unable to establish historical accuracy. Consequently, the list loses much of its value as a historical source, although it remains our primary means of structuring the Early Dynastic history…These texts are more important for the view they provide on the Sumerians’ sense of the past than as sources on the Early Dynastic Period.
(Near East, 43-44)
The Sumerians’ sense of the past included the history of their cities, and the SKL shows how the Sumerians understood that history, even though later archaeology has come to tell another story. According to the SKL, the first five cities that ruled in Mesopotamia before the Great Flood were:
- Eridu
- Bad-tibira
- Larak
- Sippar
- Shuruppak
After the flood, according to the SKL, kingship passes in an unbroken line down through the Isin-Larsa period. Other texts and archaeological evidence have proven this progression fictional. Actually, many of the dynasties mentioned ruled at the same time, and the transfer of power did not follow the ordered progression the SKL suggests.
The Sumerian King List is still important, however, as it shows how ancient Mesopotamian scribes blended history with myth in creating documents to present a certain worldview. The actual event that had taken place was not as important as the worldview it could be used to support (a literary conceit that defines Mesopotamian naru literature). The SKL is also an important example of political propaganda and clearly expresses the Sumerian concept of kingship as divine in origin. It is no longer considered a reliable historical source, however, and some scholars have advocated ignoring the piece completely.
History of the SKL & Uses
The earliest complete text of the SKL comes from the Ur III period and would have been written to legitimize the city of Ur as the divinely appointed ruler of the region. To the Sumerians, the city of Eridu was the first city established by divine will and so the SKL begins by stating, “After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu” and then, according to the view of the SKL, kingship was handed down in succession – except for the chaotic interruption of the Gutian invasion – to Ur. The Gutians’ rule is sometimes understood as characterized by the line, “Then who was king? Who was not king?” as the world the scribes knew seemed to have lost all order and sense.
The last part of some versions of the SKL, bringing kingship to the Isin-Larsa period, are later additions but, in some versions, so is the entire introductory section that mentions the first five cities reigning before the Great Flood. The purpose of later revisions and redactions, and most likely the purpose of the original composition, was to
- establish the divine nature of kingship
- link the diverse kings together in a long line of succession
- legitimize a reigning dynasty as part of that succession.
There are 16 known copies of the SKL (known as A-P versions), all written in Sumerian cuneiform, and suggesting the Sumerian scribes were interested in creating a document that legitimized their rule of the region from the establishment of the first city in the world to the time of the SKL’s composition.
Other rulers, such as the Akkadians, are included in the succession, but, clearly, it is the Sumerians of cities like Kish, Uruk, and Ur, among many others, who are divinely appointed to rule.
The most complete version of the Sumerian King List is the Weld-Blundell Prism (circa 1800 BCE), discovered in the ruins of ancient Larsa in 1922. Most modern-day translations rely on this version of the SKL, though some prefer one of the other versions. Even though it is no longer considered a reliable primary source historically, it remains culturally significant for what it says about the people who wrote and revised the document, what they valued, and how they presented their history to themselves and others.
The piece is closely associated with the Eridu Genesis, the earliest Great Flood story that inspired later works, or sections of works, including the Atrahasis, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Book of the Heavenly Cow, and the story of Noah’s Ark from the biblical Book of Genesis.
The question, “Then who was King? Who was not King?” is at the heart of interpreting the Sumerian King List, as in many sections, it is difficult – or impossible – to determine historical fact from historical fiction.
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Hymne à la Houe
L’Hymne à la Houe est un poème sumérien qui célèbre la houe pour ses multiples usages et la relie à la création du monde par le grand dieu Enlil. L'économie de la Mésopotamie étant presque entièrement basée sur l'agriculture, il n'est pas surprenant de trouver un outil agricole comme sujet d'un hymne de louange.
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Standing female worshipper statue of limestone, inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli, Nippur, Mesopotamia, Sumerian, c. 2600-2500 BCE.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (ID: 62.70.2)
This statue of a standing woman with her hands clasped in front of her chest was found in the plasterings of a mud-brick bench located in one of the cellas of the Nippur temple of Inanna (Level VIIB), the Sumerian goddess of abundance. Her garment is draped over her left shoulder and falls in folds indicated by two incised lines along the border of the otherwise smooth fabric. The feet are carved in high relief against the back support and the toes and ankles are clearly indicated. The wavy hair is held in place by two plain bands, and curly locks hang down on either side of the face. Inlay of shell and lapis lazuli survives in her left eye. (MET)
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New proposed translation of the Sumerian “dog walks into a bar” joke:
A dog walks into a tavern and says “I can’t see anything [i.e. the place is empty, there’s no beer or furniture]. I’ll open one [my own tavern] like this.”
In other words, “this bar is so bad even a dog could run it.”
The two big developments in this proposed deciphering of the joke:
“I’ll open this one”to “I’ll open one like this” (OP’s prior video covers this)- verifying that the verb we have translated as “open” can be used in the context of founding a new establishment, and not just opening a jar or keg
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Les conseils d'un superviseur à un jeune scribe
Les conseils d'un superviseur à un jeune scribe est un texte sumérien qui relate un dialogue entre un scribe âgé et un jeune diplômé de son école. Ce texte date de la période babylonienne ancienne (c. 2000-1600 av. J.-C.) et, bien qu'il ait été initialement interprété comme une description fidèle de la vie d'un scribe, il pourrait également être considéré comme une satire.
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Ludlul-bēl-nēmeqi
Ludlul-bēl-nēmeqi est un poème sumérien (daté d'environ 1700 av. J.-C.), repris par la suite dans la tradition babylonienne, qui aborde le thème de la souffrance injuste et pourrait avoir influencé le Livre biblique de Job. Couramment appelé Poème du juste souffrant, le titre se traduit par “Je louerai le Seigneur de la Sagesse” et figure parmi les œuvres les plus connues de la littérature mésopotamienne antique.
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Fragment of a chlorite vase, likely from Girsu, c. 2430 BCE, with a depiction of a goddess often identified as Nisaba in modern scholarship.
Pergamon Museum, Berlin (ID: VA 7248)
Nisaba was the Mesopotamian goddess of writing and grain, among the earliest Sumerian deities recorded in writing. She remained influential across Mesopotamian history and was especially revered by scribes, with many texts ending in the doxology “praise to Nisaba.” Her worship declined after the Old Babylonian period with the rise of the scribe god Nabu but persisted in attestations as late as the Neo-Babylonian period.
In myths and god lists, Nisaba belonged to Enlil’s circle and was married to Haya. In the myth Enlil and Sud, she plays a key role as the mother of Sud, whose marriage to Enlil she must consent to, aided by his sukkal Nuska. This and other sources highlight her close bond with her daughter.
Outside Mesopotamia, her name was used logographically for other deities, such as the Syrian Dagan, Hurrian Kumarbi, and Hittite Ḫalki, regardless of their character.
Photo: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)
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vase shard with ibex | c. 3900 - 3500 BCE | found in Ĝirsu (modern-day iraq)
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“Going to the garden” was a ubiquitous sexual metaphor across the ancient Near East, and “gardener” was a name for a lover. It was no mistake that Mary Magdalene called the glowing, radiant, resurrected Jesus the “gardener.” Jesus was her gardener. And in the Song of Songs we read:
“May my beloved come into his garden
And eat its choice fruits!”