What was the history of Sumer? The culture of ancient Sumer in brief. Sumerian culture

1. RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEW AND ART OF THE POPULATION OF LOWER MESOPOTAMIA

The human consciousness of the early Eneolithic (Copper-Stone Age) had already advanced far in the emotional and mental perception of the world. At the same time, however, the main method of generalization remained an emotionally charged comparison of phenomena on the principle of metaphor, that is, by combining and conditionally identifying two or more phenomena with some common typical feature (the sun is a bird, since both it and the bird soar above us ; earth is mother). This is how myths arose, which were not only a metaphorical interpretation of phenomena, but also an emotional experience. In circumstances where verification by socially recognized experience was impossible or insufficient (for example, outside the technical methods of production), “sympathetic magic” was obviously at work, by which here is meant the indiscriminateness (in judgment or in practical action) of the degree of importance of logical connections.

At the same time, people began to realize the existence of certain patterns that affected their life and work and determined the “behavior” of nature, animals and objects. But they could not yet find any other explanation for these patterns, except that they are supported by the intelligent actions of some powerful beings, in which the existence of the world order was metaphorically generalized. These powerful living principles themselves were presented not as an ideal “something”, not as a spirit, but as materially active, and therefore materially existing; therefore, it was assumed that it was possible to influence their will, for example, to appease them. It is important to note that logically justified actions and magically justified actions were then perceived as equally reasonable and useful for human life, including production. The difference was that logical action had a practical, empirically visual explanation, and a magical (ritual, cult) explanation had a mythical explanation; it represented in the eyes ancient man repetition of a certain action performed by a deity or an ancestor at the beginning of the world and performed in the same circumstances to this day, because historical changes in those times of slow development were not really felt and the stability of the world was determined by the rule: do as the gods or ancestors did at the beginning of time. The criterion of practical logic was not applicable to such actions and concepts.

Magical activity - attempts to influence the personified patterns of nature with emotional, rhythmic, “divine” words, sacrifices, ritual movements - seemed as necessary for the life of the community as any socially useful work.

In the Neolithic era (New Stone Age), apparently, there was already a feeling of the presence of certain abstract connections and patterns in the surrounding reality. Perhaps this was reflected, for example, in the predominance of geometric abstractions in the pictorial representation of the world - humans, animals, plants, movements. The place of a chaotic heap of magical drawings of animals and people (even if very accurately and observantly reproduced) was taken by an abstract ornament. At the same time, the image did not lose its magical purpose and at the same time was not isolated from everyday human activity: artistic creativity accompanied the home production of things needed in every household, be it dishes or colored beads, figurines of deities or ancestors, but especially, of course, the production of objects intended, for example, for cult-magical holidays or for burial (so that the deceased could use them in the afterlife) .

The creation of objects for both household and religious purposes was creative process, in which the ancient master was guided by artistic flair (whether he realized it or not), which in turn developed during work.

Neolithic and early Chalcolithic ceramics show us one of the important stages of artistic generalization, the main indicator of which is rhythm. The sense of rhythm is probably organically inherent in man, but, apparently, man did not immediately discover it in himself and was far from immediately able to embody it figuratively. In Paleolithic images we feel little rhythm. It appears only in the Neolithic as a desire to streamline and organize space. From the painted dishes of different eras, one can observe how a person learned to generalize his impressions of nature, grouping and stylizing the objects and phenomena that were revealed to his eyes in such a way that they turned into a slender, geometrized plant, animal or abstract ornament, strictly subordinated to rhythm. Starting from the simplest dot and line patterns on early ceramics to complex symmetrical, as if moving images on vessels of the 5th millennium BC. e., all compositions are organically rhythmic. It seems that the rhythm of colors, lines and forms embodied a motor rhythm - the rhythm of the hand slowly rotating the vessel during sculpting (up to the potter's wheel), and perhaps the rhythm of the accompanying chant. The art of ceramics also created the opportunity to capture thought in conventional images, for even the most abstract pattern carried information supported by oral tradition.

We encounter an even more complex form of generalization (but not only of an artistic nature) when studying Neolithic and early Eneolithic sculpture. Figurines sculpted from clay mixed with grain, found in places where grain was stored and in hearths, with emphasized female and especially maternal forms, phalluses and figurines of bulls, very often found next to human figurines, syncretically embodied the concept of earthly fertility. The Lower Mesopotamian male and female figurines of the early 4th millennium BC seem to us to be the most complex form of expression of this concept. e. with an animal-like muzzle and inserts for material samples of vegetation (grains, seeds) on the shoulders and in the eyes. These figures cannot yet be called fertility deities - rather, they are a step preceding the creation of the image of the patron deity of the community, the existence of which we can assume at a slightly later time, exploring the development of architectural structures, where evolution follows the line: open-air altar - temple.

In the IV millennium BC. e. Painted ceramics are replaced by unpainted red, gray or yellowish-gray dishes covered with glassy glaze. Unlike ceramics of previous times, which were made exclusively by hand or on a slowly rotating pottery wheel, it is made on a rapidly rotating wheel and very soon completely replaces hand-made dishes.

The culture of the Proto-Literary Period can already be confidently called Sumerian, or at least Proto-Sumerian, at its core. Its monuments are spread throughout Lower Mesopotamia, covering Upper Mesopotamia and the region along the river. Tiger. The highest achievements of this period include: the flourishing of temple building, the flourishing of the art of glyptics (seal carving), new forms of plastic arts, new principles of representation and the invention of writing.

All the art of that time, like the worldview, was colored by cult. Let us note, however, that when speaking about the communal cults of ancient Mesopotamia, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the Sumerian religion as a system. True, common cosmic deities were revered everywhere: “Heaven” An (Akkadian Anu); “Lord of the Earth,” the deity of the World Ocean on which the earth floats, Enki (Akkadian Eya); "Lord of the Breath", the deity of ground forces, Enlil (Akkadian Ellil), also the god of the Sumerian tribal union centered in Nippur; numerous “mother goddesses”, gods of the Sun and Moon. But of greater importance were the local patron gods of each community, usually each with his wife and son, with many associates. There were countless small good and evil deities associated with grain and livestock, with the hearth and grain barn, with diseases and misfortunes. They were for the most part different in each of the communities, different myths were told about them, contradictory to each other.

Temples were not built to all gods, but only to the most important ones, mainly to the god or goddess - the patrons of a given community. The outer walls of the temple and the platform were decorated with projections evenly spaced from each other (this technique was repeated with each successive rebuilding). The temple itself consisted of three parts: a central one in the form of a long courtyard, in the depths of which there was an image of the deity, and symmetrical side chapels on both sides of the courtyard. At one end of the courtyard there was an altar, at the other end there was a table for sacrifices. The temples of that time in Upper Mesopotamia had approximately the same layout.

Thus, in the north and south of Mesopotamia, a certain type of religious building was formed, where some building principles were consolidated and became traditional for almost all later Mesopotamian architecture. The main ones are: 1) construction of the sanctuary in one place (all later reconstructions include the previous ones, and the building is thus never moved); 2) a high artificial platform on which the central temple stands and to which stairs lead on both sides (subsequently, perhaps precisely as a result of the custom of building a temple in one place instead of one platform, we already encounter three, five and, finally, seven platforms, one above the other with a temple at the very top - the so-called ziggurat). The desire to build high temples emphasized the antiquity and originality of the origin of the community, as well as the connection of the sanctuary with the heavenly abode of God; 3) a three-part temple with a central room, which is an open courtyard on top, around which side extensions are grouped (in the north of Lower Mesopotamia such a courtyard could be covered); 4) dividing the outer walls of the temple, as well as the platform (or platforms), with alternating projections and niches.

From ancient Uruk we know a special structure, the so-called “Red Building” with a stage and pillars decorated with mosaic patterns - presumably a courtyard for public gatherings and council.

With the beginning of urban culture (even the most primitive), a new stage opens in the development of the fine arts of Lower Mesopotamia. The culture of the new period becomes richer and more diverse. Instead of stamp seals, a new form of seals appears - cylindrical.

Sumerian cylinder seal. Saint Petersburg. Hermitage

The plastic art of early Sumer is closely related to glyptics. Amulet seals in the form of animals or animal heads, which were so common in the Protoliterate Period, can be considered a form combining glyptics, relief and circular sculpture. Functionally, all these items are seals. But if this is a figurine of an animal, then one side of it will be cut flat and additional images will be carved on it in deep relief, intended for imprinting on clay, usually associated with the main figure, so on back side The lion's head, executed in rather high relief, has small lions carved on it, and on the back there are figures of a ram - horned animals or a person (apparently a shepherd).

The desire to convey the depicted nature as accurately as possible, especially when it comes to representatives of the animal world, is characteristic of the art of Lower Mesopotamia of this period. Small figurines of domestic animals - bulls, rams, goats, made in soft stone, various scenes from the life of domestic and wild animals on reliefs, cult vessels, seals amaze, first of all, with an accurate reproduction of the body structure, so that not only the species, but also the breed is easily determined animal, as well as poses and movements, conveyed vividly and expressively, and often surprisingly laconically. However, there is still almost no real round sculpture.

Another characteristic feature of early Sumerian art is its narrative nature. Each frieze on the cylinder seal, each relief image is a story that can be read in order. A story about nature, about the animal world, but most importantly - a story about yourself, about a person. For only in the Protoliterate period does man, his theme, appear in art.

Stamp seals. Mesopotamia. End of IV - beginning of III millennium BC. Saint Petersburg. Hermitage

Images of man are found even in the Paleolithic, but they cannot be considered an image of man in art: man is present in Neolithic and Eneolithic art as a part of nature, he has not yet isolated himself from it in his consciousness. For early art Often a syncretic image is characteristic - human-animal-vegetal (such as, say, frog-like figurines with dimples for grains and seeds on the shoulders or an image of a woman feeding a baby animal) or human-phallic (i.e., a human phallus, or simply a phallus, as a symbol of reproduction).

In the Sumerian art of the Protoliterate Period, we already see how man began to separate himself from nature. The art of Lower Mesopotamia of this period appears before us, therefore, as a qualitatively new stage in man’s relationship to the world around him. It is no coincidence that the cultural monuments of the Protoliterate period leave the impression of the awakening of human energy, a person’s awareness of his new capabilities, an attempt to express himself in the world around him, which he is mastering more and more.

Monuments of the Early Dynastic period are represented by a significant number archaeological finds, which allow us to speak more boldly about some general trends in art.

In architecture, the type of temple on a high platform was finally taking shape, which was sometimes (and even usually the entire temple site) surrounded by a high wall. By this time, the temple was taking on more laconic forms - the auxiliary rooms were clearly separated from the central religious premises, their number was decreasing. Columns and half-columns disappear, and with them the mosaic cladding. The main technique decoration Among the monuments of temple architecture, the division of the outer walls into projections remains. It is possible that during this period the multi-stage ziggurat of the main city deity was established, which would gradually displace the temple on the platform. At the same time, there were also temples of minor deities, which were smaller in size, built without a platform, but usually also within the temple site.

A unique architectural monument was discovered in Kish - a secular building, which represents the first example of a combination of a palace and a fortress in Sumerian construction.

Sculpture monuments are mostly small (25-40 cm) figures made of local alabaster and softer types of stone (limestone, sandstone, etc.). They were usually placed in cult niches of temples. The northern cities of Lower Mesopotamia are characterized by exaggeratedly elongated, and the southern, on the contrary, exaggeratedly shortened proportions of figurines. All of them are characterized by a strong distortion of proportions human body and facial features, with a sharp emphasis on one or two features, especially often the nose and ears. Such figures were placed in temples so that they would represent there and pray for the one who placed them. They did not require a specific resemblance to the original, as, say, in Egypt, where the early brilliant development of portrait sculpture was due to the requirements of magic: otherwise the soul-double could confuse the owner; here a short inscription on the figurine was quite enough. Magical goals were apparently reflected in the emphasized facial features: large ears (for the Sumerians - receptacles of wisdom), wide-open eyes, in which a pleading expression is combined with the surprise of magical insight, hands folded in a prayer gesture. All this often turns awkward and angular figures into lively and expressive ones. The transfer of the internal state turns out to be much more important than the transfer of the external bodily form; the latter is developed only to the extent that it meets the internal task of sculpture - to create an image endowed with supernatural properties (“all-seeing”, “all-hearing”). Therefore, in the official art of the Early Dynastic period we no longer encounter that original, sometimes free interpretation that marked the best works of art of the Protoliterate period. The sculptural figures of the Early Dynastic period, even if they depicted fertility deities, are completely devoid of sensuality; their ideal is the desire for the superhuman and even inhuman.

In the nome-states that were constantly at war with each other, there were different pantheons, different rituals, there was no uniformity in mythology (except for the preservation of the common main function of all deities of the 3rd millennium BC: these are primarily communal gods of fertility). Accordingly, despite the unity of the general character of the sculpture, the images are very different in detail. Cylinder seals with images of heroes and rearing animals begin to dominate in glyptics.

Jewelry of the Early Dynastic period, known mainly from materials from excavations of Ur tombs, can rightfully be classified as masterpieces of jewelry creativity.

The art of Akkadian times is perhaps most characterized central idea a deified king who appears first in historical reality, and then in ideology and art. If in history and legends he appears as a man not from the royal family, who managed to achieve power, gathered a huge army and, for the first time in the entire existence of nome states in Lower Mesopotamia, subjugated all of Sumer and Akkad, then in art he courageous man with emphatically energetic features of a lean face: regular, clearly defined lips, a small nose with a hump - an idealized portrait, perhaps generalized, but quite accurately conveying the ethnic type; this portrait fully corresponds to the idea of ​​the victorious hero Sargon of Akkad, which has developed from historical and legendary data (such, for example, is a copper portrait head from Nineveh - the alleged image of Sargon). In other cases, the deified king is depicted making a victorious campaign at the head of his army. He climbs the steep slopes ahead of the warriors, his figure is larger than the others, the symbols and signs of his divinity shine above his head - the Sun and the Moon (the stele of Naram-Suen in honor of his victory over the highlanders). He also appears as a mighty hero with curls and a curly beard. The hero fights with a lion, his muscles tense, with one hand he restrains the rearing lion, whose claws scratch the air in impotent rage, and with the other he plunges a dagger into the predator’s scruff (a favorite motif of Akkadian glyptics). To some extent, changes in the art of the Akkadian period are associated with the traditions of the northern centers of the country. People sometimes talk about "realism" in the art of the Akkadian period. Of course, there can be no talk of realism in the sense as we now understand this term: what is recorded is not what is actually visible (even if it is typical), but what is essential to the concept of this subject traits. Nevertheless, the impression of the life-likeness of the person depicted is very acute.

Found in Susa. Victory of the king over the Lullubeys. OK. 2250 BC

The events of the Akkadian dynasty shook the established Sumerian priestly traditions; Accordingly, the processes taking place in art for the first time reflected interest in the individual. The influence of Akkadian art lasted for centuries. It can also be found in monuments of the last period Sumerian history- III dynasty of Ur and Issin dynasty. But in general, the monuments of this later time leave an impression of monotony and stereotyping. This corresponds to reality: for example, the masters-gurushas of the huge royal craft workshops of the III dynasty of Ur worked on the seals, having cut their teeth on the clear reproduction of the same prescribed theme - the worship of the deity.

2. SUMERIAN LITERATURE

In total, we currently know about one hundred and fifty monuments of Sumerian literature (many of them have been preserved in the form of fragments). Among them are poetic records of myths, epic tales, psalms, wedding and love songs associated with the sacred marriage of a deified king with a priestess, funeral laments, laments about social disasters, hymns in honor of kings (starting from the III dynasty of Ur), literary imitations of royal inscriptions; Didactics are very widely represented - teachings, edifications, debates, dialogues, collections of fables, anecdotes, sayings and proverbs.

Of all the genres of Sumerian literature, hymns are the most fully represented. Their earliest records date back to the middle of the Early Dynastic period. Of course, the hymn is one of the most ancient ways of collectively addressing the deity. The recording of such a work had to be done with special pedantry and punctuality; not a single word could be changed arbitrarily, since not a single image of the anthem was accidental, behind each there was mythological content. Hymns are designed to be read aloud - by an individual priest or choir, and the emotions that arose during the performance of such a work are collective emotions. The enormous importance of rhythmic speech, perceived emotionally and magically, comes to the fore in such works. Usually the hymn praises the deity and lists the deeds, names and epithets of the god. Most of the hymns that have come down to us are preserved in the school canon of the city of Nippur and are most often dedicated to Enlil, the patron god of this city, and other deities of his circle. But there are also hymns to kings and temples. However, hymns could only be dedicated to deified kings, and not all kings in Sumer were deified.

Along with hymns, liturgical texts are laments, which are very common in Sumerian literature (especially laments about public disasters). But the oldest monument of this kind known to us is not liturgical. This is a “cry” for the destruction of Lagash by the king of Umma, Lugalzagesi. It lists the destruction caused in Lagash and curses the culprit. The rest of the laments that have come down to us - the lament about the death of Sumer and Akkad, the lament “Curse on the city of Akkad”, the lament about the death of Ur, the lament about the death of King Ibbi-Suen, etc. - are certainly of a ritual nature; they are addressed to the gods and are close to spells.

Among the cult texts is a remarkable series of poems (or chants), starting with Inapa's Walk into the Underworld and ending with the Death of Dumuzi, reflecting the myth of dying and resurrecting deities and associated with the corresponding rituals. The goddess of carnal love and animal fertility Innin (Inana) fell in love with the god (or hero) shepherd Dumuzi and took him as her husband. However, she then descended into the underworld, apparently to challenge the power of the queen of the underworld. Killed, but brought back to life by the cunning of the gods, Inana can return to earth (where, meanwhile, all living things have ceased to reproduce) only by giving a living ransom for herself to the underworld. Inana is revered in different cities of Sumer and in each has a spouse or son; all these deities bow before her and beg for mercy; only Dumuzi proudly refuses. Dumuzi is betrayed to the evil messengers of the underworld; in vain his sister Geshtinana (“Vine of Heaven”) three times turns him into an animal and hides him; Dumuzi is killed and taken to the underworld. However, Geshtinana, sacrificing herself, ensures that Dumuzi is released to the living for six months, during which time she herself goes into the world of the dead in return for him. While the shepherd god reigns on earth, the plant goddess dies. The structure of the myth turns out to be much more complex than the simplified mythological plot of the dying and resurrection of the fertility deity, as it is usually presented in popular literature.

The Nippur canon also includes nine tales about the exploits of heroes attributed by the “Royal List” to the semi-legendary First Dynasty of Uruk - Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh. The Nippur canon apparently began to be created during the III dynasty of Ur, and the kings of this dynasty were closely connected with Uruk: its founder traced his family back to Gilgamesh. The inclusion of Uruk legends in the canon most likely occurred because Nippur was a cult center that was always associated with the dominant city of the time. During the III dynasty of Ur and the I dynasty of Issin, a uniform Nippurian canon was introduced in the e-dubs (schools) of other cities of the state.

All heroic tales that have come down to us are at the stage of forming cycles, which is usually characteristic of epic (grouping heroes by place of their birth is one of the stages of this cyclization). But these monuments are so heterogeneous that they can hardly be united under the general concept of “epic”. These are compositions from different periods, some of which are more perfect and complete (like the wonderful poem about the hero Lugalbanda and the monstrous eagle), others less so. However, it is impossible to form even an approximate idea of ​​the time of their creation - various motifs could be included in them at different stages of their development, and the legends could be modified over the centuries. One thing is clear: before us is an early genre from which the epic will subsequently develop. Therefore, the hero of such a work is not yet an epic hero-hero, monumental and often tragic figure; he is rather a lucky fellow from a fairy tale, a relative of the gods (but not a god), a mighty king with the features of a god.

Very often in literary criticism, the heroic epic (or primordial epic) is contrasted with the so-called mythological epic (in the first, people act, in the second, gods). Such a division is hardly appropriate in relation to Sumerian literature: the image of a god-hero is much less characteristic of it than the image of a mortal hero. In addition to those mentioned, two epic or proto-epic tales are known, where the hero is a deity. One of them is a legend about the struggle of the goddess Innin (Inana) with the personification of the underworld, called “Mount Ebeh” in the text, the other is a story about the war of the god Ninurta with the evil demon Asak, also an inhabitant of the underworld. Ninurta simultaneously acts as a hero-ancestor: he builds a dam-embankment from a pile of stones to isolate Sumer from the waters of the primordial ocean, which overflowed as a result of the death of Asak, and diverts the flooded fields into the Tigris.

More common in Sumerian literature are works devoted to descriptions of the creative acts of deities, the so-called etiological (i.e., explanatory) myths; at the same time, they give an idea of ​​the creation of the world as it was seen by the Sumerians. It is possible that there were no complete cosmogonic legends in Sumer (or they were not written down). It is difficult to say why this is so: it is hardly possible that the idea of ​​the struggle between the titanic forces of nature (gods and titans, elder and younger gods, etc.) was not reflected in the Sumerian worldview, especially since the theme of the dying and resurrection of nature (with the passing deities in underground kingdom) in Sumerian mythography is developed in detail - not only in the stories about Innin-Inan and Dumuzi, but also about other gods, for example about Enlil.

The structure of life on earth, the establishment of order and prosperity on it is perhaps the favorite topic of Sumerian literature: it is filled with stories about the creation of deities who should monitor the earthly order, take care of the distribution of divine responsibilities, the establishment of a divine hierarchy, and the settlement of the earth with living beings and even about the creation of individual agricultural implements. The main active creator gods are usually Enki and Enlil.

Many etiological myths are composed in the form of debate - the dispute is waged either by representatives of one or another area of ​​the economy, or by the economic objects themselves, who are trying to prove their superiority to each other. The Sumerian e-duba played a major role in the spread of this genre, typical of many literatures of the ancient East. Very little is known about what this school was like in its early stages, but it existed in some form (as evidenced by the presence of textbooks from the very beginning of writing). Apparently, the special institution of e-oak took shape no later than the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Initially, the goals of training were purely practical - the school trained scribes, surveyors, etc. As the school developed, training became more and more universal, and at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. e-duba becomes something like an “academic center” of that time - all branches of knowledge that existed then are taught there: mathematics, grammar, singing, music, law, they study lists of legal, medical, botanical, geographical and pharmacological terms, lists of literary essays, etc.

Most of the works discussed above were preserved in the form of school or teacher records, through the school canon. But there are also special groups of monuments, which are usually called “e-duba texts”: these are works telling about the structure of the school and school life, didactic works (teachings, teachings, instructions), specially addressed to students, very often compiled in the form of dialogues and disputes , and, finally, monuments of folk wisdom: aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes, fables and sayings. Through e-duba, the only example of a prose fairy tale in the Sumerian language has reached us.

Even from this incomplete review one can judge how rich and varied the monuments of Sumerian literature are. This heterogeneous and multi-temporal material, most of which was recorded only at the very end of the 3rd (if not at the beginning of the 2nd) millennium BC. e., apparently, has hardly yet been subjected to special “literary” processing and has largely retained the techniques characteristic of oral verbal creativity. The main stylistic device of most mythological and pre-epic stories is multiple repetitions, for example, repetition of the same dialogues in the same expressions (but between different successive interlocutors). This is not only an artistic device of threefold, so characteristic of epics and fairy tales (in Sumerian monuments it sometimes reaches ninefold), but also a mnemonic device that promotes better memorization of a work - a legacy of the oral transmission of myth, epic, a specific feature of rhythmic, magical speech, according to form reminiscent of shamanic rituals. Compositions composed mainly of such monologues and dialogue-repetitions, among which the undeveloped action is almost lost, seem to us loose, unprocessed and therefore imperfect (although in ancient times they could hardly be perceived this way), the story on the tablet looks like just a summary, where the records of individual the lines served as memorable milestones for the narrator. However, why then was it pedantic, up to nine times, to write out the same phrases? This is all the more strange since the recording was made on heavy clay and, it would seem, the material itself should have suggested the need for conciseness and economy of phrases, a more concise composition (this only happens in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, already in Akkadian literature). The above facts suggest that Sumerian literature is nothing more than a written record of oral literature. Unable, and not even trying, to break away from the living word, she fixed it on clay, preserving all the stylistic devices and features of oral poetic speech.

It is important, however, to note that the Sumerian “literary” scribes did not set themselves the task of recording all oral literature or all its genres. The selection was determined by the interests of the school and partly the cult. But along with this written protoliterature, the life of oral works that remained unrecorded continued, perhaps much richer.

It would be wrong to represent this Sumerian written literature, taking its first steps, as being of little artistic value or almost devoid of artistic, emotional impact. Myself metaphorical image thinking contributed to the figurativeness of language and the development of such a characteristic technique of ancient Eastern poetry as parallelism. Sumerian verses are rhythmic speech, but they do not fit into a strict meter, since it is not possible to detect either a count of stress, or a count of longitudes, or a count of syllables. That's why the most important means The rhythm is emphasized here by repetitions, rhythmic enumeration, epithets of the gods, repetition of initial words in several lines in a row, etc. All these, strictly speaking, are attributes of oral poetry, but nevertheless retain their emotional impact in written literature.

Written Sumerian literature also reflected the process of collision between primitive ideology and the new ideology of class society. When getting acquainted with the ancient Sumerian monuments, especially mythological ones, what is striking is the lack of poeticization of images. The Sumerian gods are not just earthly creatures, the world of their feelings is not just the world of human feelings and actions; The baseness and rudeness of the nature of the gods and the unattractiveness of their appearance are constantly emphasized. Primitive thinking, suppressed by the unlimited power of the elements and the feeling of one’s own helplessness, was apparently close to the images of gods creating a living creature from the dirt from under their fingernails, in a drunken state, capable of destroying the humanity they had created out of one whim, causing a Flood. What about the Sumerian underworld? According to the surviving descriptions, it seems extremely chaotic and hopeless: there is no judge of the dead, no scales on which people’s actions are weighed, there are almost no illusions of “posthumous justice.”

Ideology, which was supposed to do something to counteract this elemental feeling of horror and hopelessness, at first itself was very helpless, which was expressed in written monuments, repeating the motifs and forms of ancient oral poetry. Gradually, however, as the ideology of class society strengthens and becomes dominant in the states of Lower Mesopotamia, the content of literature also changes, which begins to develop in new forms and genres. The process of separating written literature from oral literature is speeding up and becoming obvious. The emergence of didactic genres of literature at the later stages of the development of Sumerian society, cyclization mythological stories etc. mark the increasing independence acquired by the written word, its different direction. However, this new stage in the development of Western Asian literature was essentially continued not by the Sumerians, but by their cultural heirs - the Babylonians or Akkadians.

In the development of astronomy and astrology, a special place belongs to the Sumerians and Babylonians. The world learned about the Sumerians and their highly developed culture in the 19th century - thanks to archaeological excavations that discovered hundreds of thousands of clay “manuscripts” in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal (668-626 BC), consisting of both new records and from copies of texts from earlier times.

All significant temples regularly sent reports to the king with an interpretation of what happened in heaven. The library of Ashurbanipal served as a kind of scientific center where these reports were concentrated.

At the end of the 19th century. French archaeologists discovered a huge archive of economic documents of the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash with income and expenditure records, plans of land plots with size indications and calculation of areas. This archive is very interesting for studying the social history of the Sumerians.

No less important for the history of architecture, mathematics and astronomy were the cuneiform tablets from the library at the Temple of Enlil in Nippur. The library occupied more than 80 rooms. School premises were also discovered near the temple, where textbooks and texts for students to exercise in writing, grammar, mathematics and astronomy were preserved.

The deciphering and reading of ancient texts became the sensation of the century and shed light on a forgotten era of human culture five thousand years ago. It became known that Mesopotamia was inhabited by Sumerians in the south and Akkadians in the north. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. Sumerian big cities in the south (near the Sea of ​​Eridu, on the border with the desert Ur, Nippur, Lagash, Uruk, Larsa) reached their greatest prosperity. They were not isolated from the ancient civilizations of Mohenjo-Daro in the east and Egypt in the west; trade and economic contacts existed between them.

In the northern cities of Mesopotamia (Babylon, Agada, Sitara, Borsippa), the Akkadians adopted the Sumerian culture. Around 2500 BC e. The Akkadians took possession of the entire country. At this time, the military forces consisted of Akkadians, while the Sumerians were the scribes, government officials and temple priests. The dominant position in the next century returned to the south: the rulers of Ur and Lagash called themselves “kings of Sumer and Akkad.” Subsequently, Babylon becomes the capital and cultural and economic center of the country.

S. N. Kramer, based on studies of cuneiform manuscripts, in his book “History Begins in Sumer”, highlighted such issues of the cultural history of the ancient class society as education, international relations, politic system, social reforms, codes of laws, justice, medicine, agriculture, natural philosophy, ethics, religious views: paradise, flood, the first legend of the resurrection from the dead, other world, epic literature - tales of Gilgamesh.

A simple listing of the questions raised by Kramer about the history of Sumerian culture testifies to the breadth and depth of the author's research.

The Sumerians made great contributions to humanity in the development of mathematics and astronomy. Sumerian mathematical culture was multinational: it developed through cultural communication and international overseas trade with Egypt and India (Mohenjo-Daro), whose social and cultural development was on a par with Sumer.

Astronomical science also developed in the fertile valleys of the Indus, Nile, Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These valleys have different natural and geographical conditions, and rivers behave differently. However, they are united by a very significant factor - the absence of precipitation for many months of the year. Because of this, at the dawn of sedentary agricultural culture, grain growers used river floods and artificial irrigation of the soil. The beginning of agricultural work depended on the time of melting of snow in the mountains, the time of river flooding, on the timely annual cleaning of canals and irrigation networks from sediments amounting to many thousands of cubic meters of silt, on the construction and repair of dams, on the organization of the correct and timely distribution of water in the irrigation network.

Various agricultural works had to be carried out in a certain sequence during all year round, being interconnected throughout the entire irrigated valley. Such work could not be organized by small principalities. Due to economic necessity, centralized states were created, unified for the entire irrigated valley, with the gods of individual tribes united into pantheons; priests created calendars, which was necessary to coordinate agricultural production; For this purpose, astronomical observations are carried out. Calendars were also needed by nomadic and sedentary pastoralists to regulate grazing in the valleys and driving them to mountain pastures, shearing sheep taking into account the time of lambing and much more.

Religions of the peoples of Mesopotamia in the Sumerian era until the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. - This is the veneration of the gods Anu, Ea and Enlil.

Scientists associate the origin of Anu with the personification of Heaven (an sky). Enlil (lil wind) - with the wind that brings rain from the mountains, and Ea - with the water element. In this pantheon of Sumerian gods, one can trace the personification of the forces of nature and the main deity - Sky. In the Semitic era (from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC), the ancient Sumerian gods were preserved, but new ones also appeared.

The rise of Babylon as the cultural, economic, commercial and political center of the country leads to the declaration of Marduk as the main deity. For the first time the idea of ​​monotheism arises. Babylonian priests are trying to create a doctrine that there is only one god, Marduk, and all others are just his different manifestations. This was reflected in the policy of centralization of power in the country.

Subsequently, the idea of ​​deifying the kings of Babylon, ruling the nations on behalf of the heavenly sun god Shamash, was put forward, who presented King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) with a scroll of laws. The Babylonians built temples dedicated to the Sun, and ziggurats were erected - artificial mountains intended for prayer on their top.

The inhabitants of the Nile Valley worshiped local noma patron deities (sacred animals). This cult was influenced by the domestication of useful animals in the prehistoric past - the cow (goddess Hathor), who gave people milk, the arable ox, who made the work of the farmer easier, the cat (goddess Bastet), who exterminated rodents, the crocodile (goddess Sobek), who cleared the Nile from pollution with waste and carrion. , lionesses (goddess Sokhmet), queens of animals, etc.

During the first unification of Egypt at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. under the rule of people from the Edfu region, the tribal deity of this region turned into the pan-Egyptian sun god. During the rise of Memphis (around 3700 BC), the Memphis god Ptah becomes the main god of Egypt. In connection with the movement of the center of Egypt to the city of Heliopolis, the local god Atum (Ra) turns into the supreme deity of the country (about 2700 BC). Political changes in the country lead (around 2100 BC) to the creation of the center of the state in Thebes. The cult of the local deity of Thebes, Amun, is moving closer to the cult of the former god Ra. As a result, the god Amun-Ra becomes the supreme deity of the new unification of Egypt.

Scientists trace the creation of several pantheons of Egyptian gods: the Theban triad - Khonsu, Mut, Amun; the Memphis one - Ptah, Sokhmet, Nefertum and the Enneads (nine gods), among which the Heliopolis one was especially popular, consisting of four pairs of gods led by Ra, these are Shu and Tefnut, Ge and Nut, Set and Nephthys, Osiris and Isis.

The architecture of Egyptian temples is the embodiment of the idea of ​​​​the eternity of the universe. Multi-stage Mesopotamian ziggurats expressed the idea of ​​communication with the Cosmos by a person who, rising above the surrounding space, became closer to the sky.

The architecture of Indian stupas symbolized the essence of the universe based on its four sides of a sphere-covered dome.

The proportions and architectural proportions of antiquity reflected the achievements of priestly mathematics, often dressed in a mystical garb, but which grew out of the practice of economic management of the state, the calculation of time, and the art of land surveying. Mathematical knowledge became the basis for harmonization in architecture and order in construction production.

The architects of Mesopotamia and Egypt were skilled geometers and in establishing the proportionality of the structure they used both arithmetic relations and geometric constructions. This is confirmed by a number of immutable facts.

For example, Herodotus (5th century BC), based on the stories of Egyptian priests, reports that “the area of ​​the edge of the Cheops pyramid is equal to a square built at the height of the pyramid.” This historian’s message was confirmed by an analysis of full-scale measurements of the Cheops pyramid.

The relief images of mason-builders preserved on the walls of temples from the era of the Old Kingdom, as well as studies of the proportionality of the monuments of ancient Egypt, leave no doubt that the priest-architects widely used simple relationships small sizes, “sacred” integer triangles with sides 3: 4: 5; 5:12:13; 20: 21: 29, as well as irrational quantities: the diagonal of a square, the diagonal of two squares, its half, etc.

China

India

Egypt

V. BC -Babylon rises among the Sumerian cities.

Around 3000 BC e. in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates, on the territory of Sumer, the city-states of the Sumerians began to take shape.

Sumer

CHRONOGRAPH

OK. 3000 BC e. - originated in Sumer writing - cuneiform.

24th century BC e.- founder of the great Akkadian power (fell in the 22nd century BC) Sargon the Ancient united Sumer, stretching from Syria to the Persian Gulf.

1792-1750 BC e. – years of reign Hammurabi, construction ziggurat Etemenanki, known as the Tower of Babel.

2nd half 8th-1st floor 7th centuries BC e.- the period of the highest power of Assyria.

7th century BC. - The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal founded the largest known library in his palace of Nineveh,

605-562 BC e. – the heyday of Babylonia under the king Nebuchadnezzar II.

70s of the 19th century- opening George Smith The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Early Kingdom (c. 3000-2800 BC)- the emergence of writing - hieroglyphs; at the beginning of the third millennium BC, writing material began to be made from papyrus (a herbaceous plant).

Old Kingdom (2800-2250 BC) – construction of pyramids.

Middle Kingdom(2050-1700 BC)

New Kingdom (c. 1580 - c. 1070)- construction of huge temple complexes.

Late period (c. 1070 - 332 BC)

ser. 3rd - 1st half. 2nd millennium BC uh- Harappan civilization - archaeological culture Bronze Age in India and Pakistan.

OK. 1500 BC – decline of Harappan culture; settlement of the Indus Valley by the Aryans.

10th century BC. – design of the Rig Veda - the oldest collection of Vedas.

20s 20th century- opening Harappan civilization.

Around 2500 BC – Longshan culture, one of the first dynasties.

ca.1766-1027 BC- the first known examples of Chinese writing on oracle bones dating back to Shang Dynasty.

XI to VI centuries BC e. - “Book of Songs” (“Shi Zing”)- a collection of works of Chinese song and poetry.

The basin of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is called Mesopotamia, which means in Greek Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia. This natural area became one of the largest agricultural and cultural centers of the Ancient East. The first settlements in this territory began to appear already in the 6th millennium BC. e. In 4-3 millennia BC, ancient states began to form on the territory of Mesopotamia.

A revival of interest in the history of the ancient world began in Europe with the Renaissance. It took several centuries to come close to deciphering the long-forgotten Sumerian cuneiform script. Texts written in Sumerian were read only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and at the same time archaeological excavations of Sumerian cities began.

In 1889, an American expedition began exploring Nippur, in the 1920s, the English archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley conducted excavations on the territory of Ur, a little later, a German archaeological expedition explored Uruk, British and American scientists found the royal palace and necropolis in Kish, and, finally, In 1946, archaeologists Fuad Safar and Seton Lloyd, under the auspices of the Iraqi Antiquities Authority, began digging into Eris. Through the efforts of archaeologists, huge temple complexes in Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Eridu and other cult centers of the Sumerian civilization. Colossal stepped platforms freed from sand - ziggurats, which served as the basis for Sumerian sanctuaries, indicate that the Sumerians already in the 4th millennium BC. e. laid the foundation traditions of religious construction on the territory of Ancient Mesopotamia.

Sumer - one of the most ancient civilizations of the Middle East, which existed at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the Southern Mesopotamia, the region of the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the south of modern Iraq. Around 3000 BC e. on the territory of Sumer, the city-states of the Sumerians began to take shape (the main political centers there were Lagash, Ur, Kish, etc.), who fought among themselves for hegemony. The conquests of Sargon the Ancient (24th century BC), the founder of the great Akkadian power, which stretched from Syria to the Persian Gulf, united Sumer. The main center was the city of Akkad, whose name served as the name of the new power. The Akkadian Empire fell in the 22nd century. BC e. under the onslaught of the Gutians - tribes that came from the western part of the Iranian plateau. With its fall, a period of civil strife began again on the territory of Mesopotamia. In the last third of the 22nd century. BC e. marks the heyday of Lagash, one of the few city-states that maintained relative independence from the Gutians. Its prosperity was associated with the reign of Gudea (d. ca. 2123 BC), a builder king who erected a grandiose temple near Lagash, concentrating the cults of Sumer around the Lagash god Ningirsu. Many monumental steles and statues of Gudea, covered with inscriptions glorifying his construction activities, have survived to this day. At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. the center of Sumerian statehood moved to Ur, whose kings managed to reunite all the regions of the Lower Mesopotamia. The last rise is associated with this period Sumerian culture.

In the 19th century BC. among the Sumerian cities rises Babylon [Sumer. Kadingirra (“gate of god”), Akkadian. Babilu (same meaning), Greek. Babulwn, lat. Babylon] is an ancient city in northern Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Euphrates (southwest of modern Baghdad). It was apparently founded by the Sumerians, but was first mentioned during the time of the Akkadian king Sargon the Ancient (2350-2150 BC). It was an insignificant city until the establishment of the so-called Old Babylonian dynasty of Amorite origin, the ancestor of which was Sumuabum. The representative of this dynasty, Hammurabi (ruled 1792-50 BC), turned Babylon into the largest political, cultural and economic center not only of Mesopotamia, but of all of Western Asia. The Babylonian god Marduk became the head of the pantheon. In his honor, in addition to the temple, Hammurabi began to erect the ziggurat of Etemenanki, known as the Tower of Babel. In 1595 BC. e. The Hittites, led by Mursili I, invaded Babylon and plundered and destroyed the city. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. The king of Assyria, Tukulti-Ninurta I, defeated the Babylonian army and captured the king.

The subsequent period of the history of Babylon was associated with the ongoing struggle with Assyria. The city was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. From the time of Tiglath-pileser III, Babylon was included in Assyria (732 BC).

Ancient state in Northern Mesopotamia Assyria (in the territory of modern Iraq) in the 14th-9th centuries. BC e. repeatedly subjugated Northern Mesopotamia and surrounding areas. The period of the highest power of Assyria was the 2nd half. 8 – 1st floor. 7th centuries BC e.

In 626 BC. e. Nabopolassar, the king of Babylon, destroyed the capital of Assyria, proclaimed the separation of Babylon from Assyria and founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty. Babylon grew stronger under his son, the king of Babylonia Nebuchadnezzar II(605-562 BC), who led numerous wars. During the forty years of his reign, he turned the city into the most magnificent in the Middle East and in the entire world of that time. Nebuchadnezzar led entire nations into captivity in Babylon. Under him, the city developed according to a strict plan. The Ishtar Gate, the Processional Road, the fortress-palace with the Hanging Gardens were built and decorated, and the fortress walls were again strengthened. From 539 BC Babylon practically ceased to exist as an independent state. It was conquered by the Persians, the Greeks, A. Macedonian, and the Parthians. After the Arab conquest of 624, a small village remains, although the Arab population retains the memory of a majestic city hidden under the hills.

In Europe, Babylon was known by references in the Bible, reflecting the impressions it once made on the ancient Jews. In addition, a description of the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Babylon during his journey, compiled between 470 and 460 BC, has been preserved. e., but in details the “father of history” is not entirely accurate, since he did not know the local language. Later Greek and Roman authors did not see Babylon with their own eyes, but were based on the same Herodotus and the stories of travelers, always embellished. Interest in Babylon arose after the Italian Pietro della Valle brought bricks with cuneiform inscriptions from here in 1616. In 1765, the Danish scientist K. Niebuhr identified Babylon with the Arab village of Hille. Systematic excavations began with the German expedition of R. Koldewey (1899). She immediately discovered the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace in Qasr Hill. Before the First World War, when work was curtailed due to the advance of the British army, a German expedition excavated a significant part of Babylon during its heyday. Numerous reconstructions are presented in the Museum of Western Asia in Berlin.

One of the largest and most significant achievements of early civilizations was the invention of writing. . The world's oldest writing system was hieroglyphs, which were originally pictorial in nature. Subsequently, hieroglyphs turned into symbolic signs. Most hieroglyphs were phonograms, that is, they denoted combinations of two or three consonant sounds. Another type of hieroglyphs - ideograms - denoted individual words and concepts.

Picturesque character hieroglyphic writing lost at the turn of the 4th–3rd millennium BC. e.. Around 3000 BC. originated in Sumer cuneiform. This term was introduced into early XVIII century Kaempfer to designate the letters used by the ancient inhabitants of the Tigris and Euphrates valley. Sumerian writing, which went from hieroglyphic, figurative signs-symbols to the signs that began to write the simplest syllables, turned out to be an extremely progressive system that was borrowed and used by many peoples who spoke other languages. Thanks to this circumstance, the cultural influence of the Sumerians in the ancient Near East was enormous and outlived their own civilization for many centuries.

The name cuneiform corresponds to the shape of the signs, which have a thickening at the top, but is true only for their later form; the original one, preserved in the most ancient inscriptions of the Sumerian and first Babylonian kings, bears all the features of pictorial, hieroglyphic writing. Through gradual reductions and thanks to the material - clay and stone, the signs acquired a less rounded and coherent shape and finally began to consist of individual strokes thickened upward, placed in different positions and combinations. Cuneiform is a syllabic letter consisting of several hundred characters, of which 300 are the most common. These include more than 50 ideograms, about 100 signs for simple syllables and 130 for complex ones; There are signs for numbers in hexadecimal and decimal systems.

Although Sumerian writing was invented exclusively for economic needs, the first written literary monuments appeared among the Sumerians very early. Among the records dating back to the 26th century. BC e., there are already examples of folk wisdom genres, cult texts and hymns. Found cuneiform archives brought to us about 150 monuments of Sumerian literature, among which there are myths, epic tales, ritual songs, hymns in honor of kings, collections of fables, sayings, debates, dialogues and edifications. The Sumerian tradition played a large role in the spread legends compiled in the form of a dispute - a genre typical of many literatures of the Ancient East.

One of important achievements Assyrian and Babylonian cultures were created libraries. The largest library known to us was founded by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (7th century BC) in his palace of Nineveh - archaeologists discovered about 25 thousand clay tablets and fragments. Among them: royal annals, chronicles of the most important historical events, collections of laws, literary monuments, scientific texts. Literature as a whole was anonymous, the names of the authors were semi-legendary. Assyro-Babylonian literature was completely borrowed from Sumerian literary plots, only the names of the heroes and gods were changed.

The most ancient and significant monument of Sumerian literature is Epic of Gilgamesh(“The Tale of Gilgamesh” - “The One Who Has Seen It All”). The history of the discovery of the epic in the 70s of the 19th century is associated with the name George Smith, an employee of the British Museum, who, among the extensive archaeological materials sent to London from Mesopotamia, discovered cuneiform fragments of the legend of the Flood. A report on this discovery, made at the end of 1872 by the Biblical Archaeological Society, created a sensation; Seeking to prove the authenticity of his find, Smith went to the excavation site in Nineveh in 1873 and found new fragments cuneiform tablets. J. Smith died in 1876 in the midst of work on cuneiform texts during his third trip to Mesopotamia, bequeathing in his diaries to subsequent generations of researchers to continue the study of the epic he had begun.

Epic lyrics They consider Gilgamesh to be the son of the hero Lugalbanda and the goddess Ninsun. The “Royal List” from Nippur - a list of the dynasties of Mesopotamia - dates the reign of Gilgamesh to the era of the First Dynasty of Uruk (27–26 centuries BC). The duration of Gilgamesh's reign is determined by the "Royal List" to be 126 years.

There are several versions of the epic: Sumerian (3rd millennium BC), Akkadian (late 3rd millennium BC), Babylonian. The Epic of Gilgamesh is written on 12 clay tablets. As the plot of the epic develops, the image of Gilgamesh changes. The fairy-tale hero-hero, boasting of his strength, turns into a person who has learned the tragic transience of life. The powerful spirit of Gilgamesh rebels against the recognition of the inevitability of death; Only at the end of his wanderings does the hero begin to understand that immortality can be brought to him by the eternal glory of his name.

The Sumerian tales of Gilgamesh are part of ancient tradition, closely related to oral creativity and having parallels with the stories of other peoples. The epic contains one of the oldest versions of the Flood, known from bible book Genesis. The intersection with the motif of the Greek myth of Orpheus is also interesting.

Information about musical culture are of the most general nature. Music was included as the most important component in all three layers of art of ancient cultures, which can be distinguished in accordance with their purpose:

• Folklore (from the English Folk-lore - folk wisdom) - folk song and poetry with elements of theatricality and choreography;
• Temple art is cult, liturgical, growing out of ritual actions;
• Palace - secular art; its functions are hedonic (to give pleasure) and ceremonial.

Accordingly, music was played during religious and palace ceremonies, and at folk festivals. We have no way to restore it. Only individual relief images, as well as descriptions in ancient written monuments, allow us to make certain generalizations. For example, frequently seen images harps make it possible to consider it a popular and revered musical instrument. From written sources it is known that in Sumer and Babylon they revered flute. The sound of this instrument, according to the Sumerians, was capable of bringing the dead back to life. Apparently, this was due to the very method of sound production - breathing, which was considered a sign of life. At annual festivals in honor of Tammuz, the eternally resurrecting god, flutes were played to represent the resurrection. On one of the clay tablets it was written: “In the days of Tammuz, play for me on the azure flute...”

There are few trees and stones in Mesopotamia, so the first building material there were mud bricks made from a mixture of clay, sand and straw. The basis of the architecture of Mesopotamia consists of secular (palaces) and religious (ziggurats) monumental buildings and buildings. The first of the Mesopotamian temples that have reached us date back to the 4th-3rd millennia BC. These powerful cult towers, called ziggurats (ziggurat - holy mountain), were square and resembled a stepped pyramid. The steps were connected by stairs, and along the edge of the wall there was a ramp leading to the temple. The walls were painted black (asphalt), white (lime) and red (brick). The design feature of monumental architecture was going back to the 4th millennium BC. the use of artificially erected platforms, which is explained, perhaps, by the need to isolate the building from the dampness of the soil, moistened by spills, and at the same time, probably, by the desire to make the building visible from all sides. Another characteristic feature, based on an equally ancient tradition, was the broken line of the wall formed by the projections. Windows, when they were made, were placed at the top of the wall and looked like narrow slits. The buildings were also illuminated through a doorway and a hole in the roof. The roofs were mostly flat, but there was also a vault. Residential buildings discovered by excavations in the south of Sumer had an internal open courtyard around which covered rooms were grouped. This layout, which corresponded to the climatic conditions of the country, formed the basis for the palace buildings of the southern Mesopotamia. In the northern part of Sumer, houses were discovered that, instead of an open courtyard, had a central room with a ceiling.

One of the most famous works of Sumerian literature is considered to be the "Epic of Gilgamesh" - a collection of Sumerian legends, later translated into Akkadian. Tablets with the epic were found in the library of King Ashurbanipal. The epic talks about legendary king Uruk Gilgamesh, his savage friend Enkidu and the search for the secret of immortality. One of the chapters of the epic, the story of Utnapishtim, who saved humanity from the Flood, is very reminiscent biblical story about Noah's Ark, which suggests that the epic was familiar even to the authors of the Old Testament. Although, it is unlikely that Moses (the author of Genesis, the book of the Old Testament that tells the story of the flood) used this epic in his writings. The reason for this is the fact that the Old Testament contains much more details about the flood, which are consistent with other sources. In particular, the shape and size of the ship.

Monuments of the New Stone Age, preserved in the territory of Western Asia, are very numerous and diverse. These are cult figurines of deities, cult masks, vessels. The Neolithic culture that developed on the territory of Mesopotamia in 6-4 thousand BC largely preceded the subsequent culture of the early class society. Apparently, the northern part of Western Asia occupied an important position among other countries already during the period of the tribal system, as evidenced by the remains of monumental temples and preserved ceramic products (in the settlements of Hassuna, Samarra, Tell Halaf, Tell Arpagia, in Elam, neighboring Mesopotamia). , used during funeral ceremonies. Thin-walled, regular-shaped, elegant and slender vessels of Elam were covered with clear brownish-black motifs of geometric painting on a light yellowish and pinkish background. Such a pattern, applied by the confident hand of a master, was distinguished by an unmistakable sense of decorativeness and knowledge of the laws of rhythmic harmony. It was always located in strict accordance with the form. Triangles, stripes, rhombuses, bags of stylized palm branches emphasized the elongated or rounded structure of the vessel in which the bottom and neck were especially highlighted with a colorful stripe. Sometimes the combinations of the pattern that decorated the cup told about the most important actions and events for a person of that time - hunting, harvesting, cattle breeding. In the figured patterns from Susa (Elam) you can easily recognize the outlines of hound dogs rushing in a circle, proudly standing goats crowned with huge steep horns. And although the close attention shown by the artist to the transmission of animal movements is reminiscent of primitive paintings, the rhythmic organization of the pattern and its subordination to the structure of the vessel speak of a new, more complex stage of artistic thinking.

In the n. 4th millennium BC in the fertile plains of the Southern Mesopotamia the first city-states arose, which by the 3rd millennium BC. filled the entire Tigris and Euphrates valley. The main ones were the cities of Sumer. The first monuments of monumental architecture grew in them, and the types of art associated with it flourished - sculpture, relief, mosaics, various kinds of decorative crafts.

Cultural communication between different tribes was actively promoted by the invention of writing by the Sumerians, first pictography (the basis of which was picture writing), and then cuneiform. The Sumerians came up with a way to immortalize their records. They wrote with sharp sticks on damp clay tablets, which were then fired over a fire. Writing widely disseminated legislation, knowledge, myths and beliefs. The myths written on tablets brought to us the names of the patron deities of various tribes associated with the cult of the fruit-bearing forces of nature and the elements.

Each city honored its gods. Ur honored the moon god Nanna, Uruk - the fertility goddess Inanna (Innin) - the personification of the planet Venus, as well as her father god An, the ruler of the sky, and her brother - the solar god Utu. The inhabitants of Nippur revered the father of the moon god - the god of air Enlil - the creator of all plants and animals. The city of Lagash worshiped the god of war, Ningirsu. Each of the deities had its own temple, which became the center of the city-state. In Sumer, the main features of temple architecture were finally established.

In a country of turbulent rivers and swampy plains, it was necessary to raise the temple onto a high embankment platform. Therefore, an important part of the architectural ensemble became long, sometimes laid around the hill, stairs and ramps along which city residents climbed to the sanctuary. The slow ascent made it possible to see the temple from different perspectives. The first powerful structures of Sumer at the end of 4 thousand BC. there were the so-called “White Temple” and “Red Building” in Uruk. Even from the surviving ruins it is clear that these were austere and majestic buildings. Rectangular in plan, devoid of windows, with walls dissected in the White Temple by vertical narrow niches, and in the Red Building by powerful half-columns, simple in their cubic volumes, these structures clearly stood out on the top of the bulk mountain. They had an open courtyard, a sanctuary, in the depths of which there was a statue of the revered deity. Each of these structures was distinguished from the surrounding buildings not only by its rise, but also by its color. The White Temple got its name from the whitewashed walls. The Red building (it apparently served as a place for public meetings) was decorated with a variety of geometric ornament made of fired clay cone-shaped carnations “zigatti”, the caps of which are painted red, white and black. This variegated and fragmented ornament, reminiscent of carpet weaving close up, merging from a distance acquired a single soft reddish hue, which gave rise to its modern name.

The transition to agriculture and livestock breeding began earliest in the Middle East region. There were already large settlements there in the 6th millennium, whose inhabitants knew the secrets of agriculture, pottery production and weaving. By the turn of the 3rd millennium, the first civilizations began to take shape in this region.

As already noted, the founder of anthropology L. G. Morgan used the concept of “civilization” to designate a higher stage of development of society than barbarism. IN modern science the concept of civilization is used to designate the stage of development of society at which there exist: cities, class society, state and law, writing.

Those features that distinguish civilization from the primitive era arose in the 4th millennium, and fully manifested themselves in the 3rd millennium BC. e. in the lives of people who developed the valleys of rivers flowing in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Later, in the middle of the 3rd millennium, civilizations began to emerge in the Indus River Valley (in the territory of modern Pakistan) and in the Yellow River Valley (China).

Let us trace the process of formation and development of the first civilizations using the example of the Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer.

Irrigation agriculture as the basis of civilization

The Greeks called Mesopotamia (Interfluve) the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which in the territory of modern Iraq flow almost parallel to each other. In southern Mesopotamia, a people called the Sumerians created the first civilization in the region. It existed until the end of the 3rd millennium and became the basis for the development of other civilizations in the region, primarily for the Babylonian culture of the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. e.

The basis of Sumerian, like all other eastern civilizations, was irrigation agriculture. The rivers brought fertile silt from their upper reaches. Grains thrown into the mud gave high yields. But it was necessary to learn how to drain excess water during the flood period and supply water during the drought period, that is, to irrigate the fields. Irrigation of fields is called irrigation. As the population grew, people had to irrigate additional areas of land, creating complex irrigation systems.

Irrigation agriculture was the basis for the civilizational breakthrough. One of the first consequences of the development of irrigation was an increase in the population living in one area. Now dozens of clan communities, i.e. several thousand people, lived together, forming a new community: a large territorial community.

In order to support complex system irrigation and ensure peace and order in a district with a large population, special authorities were required. This is how the state arose - an institution of power and management, which stood above all the tribal communities of the district and performed two internal functions: economic management and socio-political management (maintaining public order). Management required knowledge and experience, therefore, from the clan nobility, which had accumulated management skills within the clan, a category of people was formed who carried out the functions of public administration on an ongoing basis. State power extended to the entire territory of the district, and this territory was quite defined. This is where another meaning of the concept of state arose - a certain territorial entity. It was necessary to defend its territory, so the main external function of the state became the protection of its territory from external threats.

The appearance in one of the settlements of governing bodies, whose power extended to the entire district, turned this settlement into the center of the district. The center began to stand out among other villages in size and architecture. The largest buildings of secular and religious nature, crafts and trade developed most actively. This is how cities appeared.

In Sumer, cities with adjacent rural areas existed independently as city-states for a long time. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium, Sumerian city-states such as Ur, Uruk, Lagash, and Kish numbered up to 10 thousand inhabitants. By the middle of the 3rd millennium, population density increased. For example, the population of the city-state of Lagash exceeded 100 thousand people. In the second half of the 3rd millennium, a number of city-states were united by the ruler of the city of Akkad, Sargon the Ancient, into the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad. However, the unification was not durable. More durable large states existed in Mesopotamia only in the 2nd and 1st millennia (Old Babylonian Kingdom, Assyrian Empire, New Babylonian Kingdom, Persian Empire).

Social order

How the city-state of Sumer was structured in the 3rd millennium. It was headed by a ruler (en or ensi, then lugal). The power of the ruler was limited by the people's assembly and the council of elders. Gradually, the position of ruler from an elective one became hereditary, although for a long time the procedures for confirming the right of a son to take over the post of his father by the people's assembly remained in place for a long time. The formation of the institution of hereditary power was due to the fact that the ruling dynasty had a monopoly on management experience.

Important role The process of sacralization of the ruler’s personality played a role in the formation of hereditary power. It was stimulated by the fact that the ruler combined secular and religious functions, since religion among farmers was closely intertwined with industrial magic. Main role The cult of fertility played a role, and the ruler, as the main manager of economic work, performed rituals designed to ensure a good harvest. In particular, he performed the ritual of “sacred marriage”, which was carried out on the eve of sowing. If the main deity of the city was feminine, then the ruler himself entered into a sacred marriage with him, if it was masculine, then the daughter or wife of the ruler. This gave the ruler’s family special authority; it was considered closer and more pleasing to God than other families. The deification of living rulers was atypical for the Sumerians. Only at the end of the 3rd millennium did rulers demand to consider themselves living gods. They were officially called that, but it does not follow from this that people believed that they were ruled by living gods.

The unity of secular and religious power was also secured by the fact that at first the community had a single administrative, economic and spiritual center - a temple, the house of God. There was a temple economy attached to the temple. It created and stored grain reserves to insure the community in case of crop failure. Plots were allocated on the temple land for officials. Most of them combined administrative and religious functions, which is why they are traditionally called priests.

Another category of people who separated from the community were fed from the temple reserves - professional artisans who donated their products to the temple. Weavers and potters played an important role. The latter made ceramics on a potter's wheel. Foundry workers melted copper, silver and gold, then pouring them into clay molds; they knew how to make bronze, but there was little of it. A significant part of the artisans' products and surplus grain were sold. The centralization of trade in the hands of the temple administration made it possible to more profitably purchase those goods that were not available in Sumer itself, primarily metals and wood.

A group of professional warriors was also formed at the temple - the embryo of a standing army, armed with copper daggers and spears. The Sumerians created war chariots for leaders, harnessing donkeys to them.

Irrigation agriculture, although it required collective work to create an irrigation system, at the same time made it possible to make the patriarchal family the main economic unit of society. Each family worked on a plot of land allocated to it, and other relatives had no right to the result of the family’s labor. Family ownership of the produced product arose because each family could feed itself, and therefore there was no need to socialize and redistribute this product within the clan. Availability private property on the produced product of labor was combined with the absence of complete private ownership of land. According to the Sumerians, the land belonged to God, the patron saint of the community, and people only used it, making sacrifices for it. So in religious form Collective ownership of land was maintained. Community land could be leased for a fee, but there are no firmly established cases of sale of community land to private ownership.

The emergence of family property contributed to the emergence of wealth inequality. Due to dozens of everyday reasons, some families became richer, while others became poorer.

However, a more important source of inequality was professional differentiation in society: wealth was concentrated primarily in the hands of the managerial elite. The economic basis of this process was the emergence of a surplus product - an excess in food products. The greater the surplus, the greater the opportunity for the managerial elite to appropriate part of it, creating for themselves certain privileges. To a certain extent, the elite had the right to privileges: managerial work was more qualified and responsible. But gradually property received according to merit became a source of income disproportionate to merit.

The ruler's family stood out for its wealth. This is evidenced by the burials of the mid-3rd millennium in Ur. Here the tomb of the priestess Puabi was found, buried with a retinue of 25 people. Beautiful utensils and jewelry made of gold, silver, emeralds and lapis lazuli were found in the tomb. Including a crown of golden flowers and two harps decorated sculptural images bull and cow. The bearded wild bull is the personification of the Ur god Nanna (god of the Moon), and the wild cow is the personification of Nanna's wife, the goddess Ningal. This suggests that Puabi was a priestess, a participant in the ritual of sacred marriage with the moon god. Burials with a retinue are rare and are associated with some very significant event.

The nature of the jewelry shows that the nobility was already living a different life. Ordinary people at this time were content with little. Men's clothes in summer consisted of a loincloth, women wore skirts. In winter, a woolen cloak was added to this. The food was simple: barley cake, beans, dates, fish. Meat was eaten on holidays associated with the sacrifice of animals: people did not dare to eat meat without sharing it with the gods.

Social stratification gave rise to conflicts. Most serious problems arose when impoverished community members lost their land and fell into bondage to the rich due to their inability to repay what they borrowed. In cases where the community was threatened with major conflicts caused by debt bondage, the Sumerians used a custom called “return to the mother”: the ruler canceled all bonded transactions, returned the mortgaged plots of land to its original owners, and freed the poor from debt slavery.

So, Sumerian society had mechanisms that protected community members from loss of freedom and livelihood. However, it also included categories of unfree people, slaves. The first and main source of slavery was intercommunal wars, that is, people who were strangers to the community became slaves. At first, only women were taken prisoner. Men were killed because it was difficult to keep them in obedience (a slave with a hoe in his hands was little inferior to a war with a spear). Women slaves worked in the temple economy and gave birth to children who became temple workers. These were not free people, but they could not be sold; they were trusted with weapons. They differed from the free ones in that they could not receive plots of communal land and become full members of the community. As the population grew, men were also taken prisoner. They worked at the temple and on family farms. Such slaves were sold, but they, as a rule, were not subjected to harsh exploitation, since it gave rise to the danger of an uprising and associated losses. Slavery in Sumer was predominantly patriarchal in nature, that is, slaves were viewed as junior and inferior members of the family.

These were the main features of the social structure of the Sumerian city-states of the first half of the 3rd millennium.

Spiritual culture

Writing. We know about the Sumerians because they invented writing. The growth of the temple economy made it important to record land, grain reserves, livestock, etc. These needs became the reason for the creation of writing. The Sumerians began writing on clay tablets, which dried in the sun and became very durable. The tablets have survived to this day in large quantities. They are deciphered, although sometimes very roughly.

At first, the letter took the form of stylized pictograms indicating the most important objects and actions. The sign of the foot meant “go”, “stand”, “bring”, etc. Such writing is called pictographic (pictured) or ideographic, since the sign conveyed a whole idea, an image. Then signs appeared to indicate the roots of words, syllables and individual sounds. Since the signs were extruded on clay with a wedge-shaped stick made of reed, scientists called the Sumerian script wedge-shaped or cuneform (kuneus - wedge). Squeezing out the signs was easier than drawing on clay with a stick. It took six centuries for writing to evolve from reminder signs into a system for transmitting complex information. This happened around 2400 BC. e.

Religion. The Sumerians moved from animism to polytheism (polytheism): from animation and veneration of natural phenomena to belief in gods as supreme beings, creators of the world and man. Each city had its own main patron god. In Uruk, the supreme god was An, the god of the sky. In Ur - Nanna, god of the moon. The Sumerians sought to place their gods in the sky, believing that it was from there that the gods watched over and ruled the world. The heavenly or stellar (astral) nature of the cult increased the authority of the deity. Gradually, a common Sumerian pantheon emerged. Its basis was: An - the god of the sky, Enlil - the god of the air, Enki - the god of water, Ki - the goddess of the earth. They represented the four main, according to the Sumerians, elements of the universe.

The Sumerians imagined the gods as anthropomorphic beings. Special temples were dedicated to the gods, where priests performed certain rituals every day. In addition to temples, each family had clay figurines gods and kept them in special niches in the house.

Mythology and literature

The Sumerians composed and recorded many myths.

At first, myths were created orally. But with the development of writing, written versions of myths also appeared. Fragments of surviving records date back to the second half of the 3rd millennium.

There is a well-known cosmogonic myth about the creation of the world, according to which the primary element of the world was water chaos or the great ocean: “It had neither beginning nor end. Nobody created it, it has always existed.” In the depths of the ocean, the sky god An, depicted with a horned tiara on his head, and the earth goddess Ki were born. Other gods came from them. As can be seen from this myth, the Sumerians had no idea of ​​a creator God who created the earth and all life on earth. Nature in the form of watery chaos existed forever, or at least until the rise of the gods.

Myths associated with the cult of fertility played an important role. A myth has reached us about a ruler named Dumuzi, who achieved the love of the goddess Inanna and thereby ensured the fertility of his land. But then Inanna fell into the underworld and, in order to get out of it, she sent Dumuzi there in her place. For six months of the year he sat in a dungeon. During these months, the earth became dry from the sun and gave birth to nothing. And on the day of the autumn equinox, the New Year holiday began: Dumuzi came out of the dungeon and entered into marital relations with his wife, and the earth gave a new harvest. Every year, the cities of Sumer celebrated the sacred marriage between Inanna and Dumuzi.

This myth gives insight into the Sumerian attitude towards the afterlife. The Sumerians believed that after death their souls fell into the underworld, from which there was no way out, and there it was much worse than on earth. That's why earthly life they considered it as the highest reward that the gods bestowed on people in exchange for service to the gods. It was the Sumerians who created the idea of ​​an underground river as the border of the underworld and of a carrier that transports the souls of the deceased there. The Sumerians had the beginnings teachings about retribution: Wars who died in battle, as well as parents with many children, receive clean drinking water and peace in the underworld. You could improve your life there by properly observing funeral rites.

Heroic or epic myths played an important role in shaping the worldview of the Sumerians - tales of heroes. The most famous myth is about Gilgamesh, the ruler of Uruk at the end of the 27th century. Five stories of his exploits have survived. One of them was a trip to Lebanon for a cedar tree, during which Gilgamesh kills the guardian of the cedars, the giant Humbaba. Others are associated with victories over a monstrous bull, a gigantic bird, magic snake, communicating with the spirit of his deceased friend Enkidu, who spoke of a gloomy life in the underworld. In the next, Babylonian, period of Mesopotamian history, a whole cycle of myths about Gilgamesh will be created.

In total, more than one hundred and fifty monuments of Sumerian literature are currently known (many are only partially preserved). Among them, in addition to myths, there are hymns, psalms, wedding and love songs, funeral laments, laments about social disasters, psalms in honor of kings. Teachings, debates, dialogues, fables, anecdotes, and proverbs are widely represented.

Architecture

Sumer is called the civilization of clay, because clay bricks were used as the main material in architecture. This had dire consequences. Not a single surviving architectural monument has survived from the Sumerian civilization. The architecture can only be judged by the surviving fragments of the foundations and lower parts of the walls.

The most important task was the construction of temples. One of the early temples was excavated in the Sumerian city of Eredu and dates back to the end of the 4th millennium. This is a rectangular building made of bricks (clay and straw), at the ends of which there was, on the one hand, a statue of a deity, and on the other hand, a table for sacrifices. The walls are decorated with protruding blades (pilasters) that break up the surface. The temple was placed on a platform made of stone, since the area was swampy and the foundation sank.

Sumerian temples were quickly destroyed, and then a platform was made from the bricks of the destroyed temple and placed on it new temple. Thus, gradually, by the middle of the 3rd millennium, a special Sumerian type of temple emerged - a stepped tower ( ziggurat). The most famous is the ziggurat at Ur: the 21 m high temple stood on three platforms decorated with tiles and connected by ramps (XXI century BC).

The sculpture is mainly represented by small figures made of soft stones, which were placed in the niches of the temple. Few statues of deities have survived. The most famous is the head of the goddess Inanna. Of the statues of rulers, several have survived sculptural portraits Gudei - ruler of the city of Lagash. Several wall reliefs have survived. There is a known relief on the stele of Naram-Suen, the grandson of Sargon (circa 2320 BC), where the king is depicted at the head of an army. The figure of the king is larger than the figures of the warriors; the signs of the Sun and Moon shine above his head.

Glyptics, stone carving, is a favorite form of applied art. Carving was done on signets, first flat, then cylindrical seals appeared, which were rolled over clay and left friezes ( decorative composition in the form of a horizontal strip).

One of the seals preserves a relief depicting King Gilgamesh as a mighty hero with a curly beard. The hero fights with a lion, with one hand he restrains the rearing lion, and with the other he plunges a dagger into the predator’s scruff.

ABOUT high level The development of jewelry is evidenced by the above-mentioned Puabi jewelry - a harp, a crown of golden flowers.

Painting represented mainly by painting on ceramics. The surviving images allow us to judge the canons. The person was depicted like this: face and legs in profile, eyes in front, torso turned 3/4. The figures are shortened. The eyes and ears are shown emphatically large.

The science. The economic needs of the Sumerians laid the foundation for the development of mathematical, geometric, and astronomical knowledge. To keep track of temple reserves, the Sumerians created two counting systems: decimal and sexagesimal. And both have survived to this day. Hexadecimal was preserved when calculating time: there are 60 minutes in 1 hour, 60 seconds in 1 minute. The number 60 was chosen because it was easily divisible by many other numbers. It was convenient to divide by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. The needs associated with laying irrigation systems, measuring field areas, and constructing buildings led to the creation of the foundations of geometry. In particular, the Sumerians used the Pythagorean theorem 2 thousand years before the Greeks formulated it. They were probably the first to divide the circle into 360 degrees. They made observations of the sky, linking the positions of the luminaries with river floods. Various planets and constellations were identified. Particular attention was paid to those luminaries that were associated with deities. The Sumerians introduced standards for measures of length, weight, area and volume, and value.

Right. Order could exist only if there were laws known to everyone, that is, mandatory norms. The set of mandatory norms protected by the power of the state is usually called law. Law arises before the emergence of the state and exists in the form of customs - norms developed on the basis of tradition. However, with the advent of the state, the concept of “law” is always associated with state power, since it is the state that officially establishes and protects legal norms.

From the III dynasty of Ur, the oldest known set of laws, compiled by the ruler of Shulgi, son of Ur - Nammu (XXI century BC), has reached us, although not completely. Laws protected the property and personal rights of citizens: the fields of community members from seizures, from flooding by negligent neighbors, from lazy tenants; provided for compensation to the owner for damage caused to his slave; protected the wife's right to monetary compensation in the event of a divorce from her husband, the groom's right to the bride after paying her father a marriage gift, etc. Obviously, these laws were based on a long legal tradition that has not reached us. The Sumerian legal tradition had a religious basis: it was believed that it was the gods who created a set of rules that everyone must follow.

Legacy of Sumerian civilization

Around 2000, the Third Dynasty of Ur fell under the blows of a new wave of Semitic tribes. The Semitic ethnic element became dominant in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian civilization seems to be disappearing, but in fact all the main elements of its culture continue to live within the framework of the Babylonian civilization, which was named after Babylon, the main city of Mesopotamia in the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. e.

The Babylonians took the cuneiform writing system from the Sumerians and for a long time used the already dead Sumerian language as the language of knowledge, gradually translating Sumerian scientific, legal, religious documents, as well as monuments of Sumerian literature. It was the Sumerian heritage that helped the most famous king of the Old Babylonian kingdom, Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC), create the largest set of laws of the Ancient World, consisting of 282 articles, regulating in detail all the main aspects of the life of Babylonian society. The famous Tower of Babel, which became a symbol of the New Babylonian kingdom, which existed in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e., was also a direct descendant of the stepped Sumerian ziggurats.