All roads led to... Sumer?
That debunk post I wrote about the “secret Greek matriarchy” is still going around, and yesterday it was reblogged with an interesting comment. I’m creating a new post for it, because the comment was added by an actual, literal fascist (as in, far-right Italian person who supports Mussolini) and I don’t particularly feel like debating with an actual fascist, but their point nevertheless deserves mention.
I would rethink that part about us owing as much to the Sumerians as we do to Rome. Our alphabet - Rome. 70% of English vocabulary - Rome. Our law codes - Rome. The arch - Rome. Concrete - Rome. Paved roads - Rome. I could go on and on and on. The legacy of Rome still lives on in every aspect of life, because they united most of Europe, north Africa and the Middle East for centuries.
Fascist ideology aside, this is all true. Europe, and by extension many countries with a European colonial past, owe many elements of their society to Rome. This was the accepted theory for hundreds of years: Ancient Greece and Rome are the roots of Western society, and Europe was built on their foundation. Since the discovery of Mesopotamia and the decipherment of cuneiform, however, we have come to realise that our roots go far deeper than the 5th century BC.
We use the Latin alphabet. But the Romans did not invent the alphabet: it dates back to 13th century BC Ugarit. And Ugarit itself did not invent writing: that was the brainchild of the Sumerians, around the 32nd century BC. We may not think about it much, but as we use our Latin characters, we’re partaking in a 5000-year-old Sumerian tradition.
Many of our legal concepts are Roman. But the Romans did not come up with law itself: again, it was a Sumerian invention. The first legal codes were Sumerian, as were the first courts and prisons. Our laws may seem very different from Ur-Namma’s, but it’s thanks to him and to other Sumerian kings that we came up with the idea of law at all.
Law and writing are both important if you want to have a functioning city. Unsurprisingly, the first cities were built in Mesopotamia as well. Along with them came agriculture, large-scale irrigation (the word “canal” is thought to derive from Sumerian), trade and roads (the Sumerian ones may not have been paved, but by 2000 BC, the Minoan ones were), elaborate architecture, literature, astronomy, and much more. The Sumerians were also the first people to claim authorship for what they did: I, Gudea, built this. I, Enḫeduanna, wrote this. I, Ur-Iškur, bought this.
This is why they, and Mesopotamia in general, matter to us. We owe to them the very foundations of our society - and we don’t even realise it, because of how fundamental those foundations are. By focusing too much on the design of the room, we’ve forgotten who built the walls. (It was the Mesopotamians. They invented bricks too.) Of course we owe a lot to Rome. Of course we owe a lot to Greece. But we were given just as much, if not even more, by the Sumerians.
pixelskylines
ellievsbear
kianamaiart
areudirty
yousharknotpass
jacobvanloon
stormborns
