The Sumerians: A History from Beginning to End

by Hourly History

Discover the remarkable history of The Sumerians... Free BONUS Inside! The Sumerians settled in the area known as Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, around five thousand years ago. They produced many fundamental changes to the way in which human societies developed—these were the first city-builders, the first people to use wheeled vehicles, the first methodical astronomers, and the first people to develop a sophisticated written language. The Sumerians also produced art, music, and literature as well as created some of the first professional soldiers the world had ever seen. But for all that we know about the Sumerians, one central mystery We have no idea where the Sumerians came from when they suddenly arrived in Mesopotamia five thousand years ago. Many people have put forward answers ranging from the plausible to the esoteric to the (literally) out of this world, but none of the solutions suggested to date appears to provide a complete or final answer. When looking at how Homo sapiens have developed from primitive tribes of hunter-gatherers to today’s urban dwellers, the Sumerians represent one of the biggest and most dramatic single periods of change ever achieved by the human race. This is the story of the advanced, ingenious, and mysterious Sumerians. Discover a plethora of topics such as The Black Heads Arrive The Conquest of Sumer Sumerian Society and Religion Technology and Writing Music and Art Mysteries of the Sumerians And much more!So if you want a concise and informative book on The Sumerians, simply scroll up and click the "Buy now" button for instant access!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Ebooks, Mythology

116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2018

About the author

At Hourly History, we focus on publishing history books that are concise, straightforward and take no longer than one hour to read.

Receive our new eBooks for free every Friday.
Sign up at: www.hourlyhistory.com/free

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

short review for busy readers:
A well-done overview of the history and culture of the first "civilisation" in Mesopotamia. Interesting, easy to read and with a lot of points highlighted for the interested reader to further explore.

Covers the mysterious origins of the Sumerians, a general outline of their history, achievements in science and technology, religion, warfare, social hierarchies and daily life.

It's very interesting to note that a lot of our current hierarchical and social problems were present even then. There are a number of cultural and scientific ideas we inherited from the Sumerians, one wonders if we inherited their ideas of how cultures are supposed to be stratified by privilege, too. (random thought)

A useful volume from the Hourly Histories series!

[Sportyrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hourly History, as discovered by Berengaria, publishes bite-sized books on popular topics every week (~100 pages). They are produced as a learning snack for curious peoples who might decide to delve into deeper research. Forget the lack of citations and references. It’s just a matter of, if this is interesting, go and explore some more.

So Sumerians. I knew four or five things about them beforehand. Now I know some more. The most curious thing is, ‘where did they come from originally?’. From what is known, they were blow ins. They brought brains and made the most of some challenging terrain. They mastered irrigation which allowed more time to finetune their mathematics, and even invented things like the wheel*, pottery*, the calendar* and improved other things. During a buddy read with the mythological goddess, Berengaria, we pondered and guessed our way through their origins. There’s a case for aliens which I’d love to be true, but my best guess is they were a splintered group of scholars or explorers who made the most of a bad situation and remained. They excelled in the brainy topics. Currently there are no answers! Still a mystery and very unfair.

I was mildly interested in the many “firsts” and how their society was structured. How the priests and then warlords ruled. They were ceded by others who maintained their language (similar to how Latin lingered) yet they are not traced anywhere by DNA or language etc.

If anyone is tempted to read this, please share your opinion on their origin.

*so did some others, but probably them first/too.

3.5 stars rounded up.

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because of my reading interests, books like this one pop-up every once in a while either as recommendations, or just randomly. I almost always bypass because it's an anonymous book that's interior, once I actually got one and read it, was about what I'd expect and why I'd been avoiding.

There are no citations. No bibliography. No "if you liked this, also read this other stuff about Sumerians". Quite repetitive. Written either like a relatively bright high school student writing a term paper, or by a scholar with a long history in the subject but whose first language isn't English, and they are happy enough to just spit out some facts and move on (or, more likely something of a combo of the too - someone relaying what they heard someone else said). On the other hand, maybe "Hourly History" is a highly accredited and acclaimed scholar of ancient history, specifically that located in the Mesopotamian region. But decided to write anonymously, without citations or bibliography, and . . . um . . . stuff.

As a quick glance at "who and what are these Sumerians I may or may not have heard of at some point" (I, personally, had heard of them before, though never examined them) I'd say this isn't a bad way to spend the time. Quick short read. That took me 2 days to read despite being around 50 pages in length. Give you some idea of the information. Possibly completely and utterly incorrect information (how'd I know? I barely know the Sumerians beyond what I've seen mentioned when reading other history books, and what I'd read on Wikipedia. And as I keep noting, there's nothing citing where these random factoids are coming from. So I can't check to see, well, anything (quality of source, etc. etc.).

Not sure if "A History from Beginning to End" is supposed to be capturing everything this author is putting out, or specifically connected to the Sumerians. If connected to the Sumerians: this is by no means "a history from beginning to end" of the Sumerians. Book has them appear randomly in Mesopotamia, somewhat fully formed with their own culture, religion, advanced (for their time) tech base, etc. etc. Simple enough reason why that could be the case: where they came from is not known. Language doesn't pull anything in. Some of their stuff looks more Olmec (Mesoamerican culture, not Mesopotamian, that came later in time than the Sumerians, so even if there's some weird connection, it'd be the other way around - Sumerians to Olmecs) than anything else, but that's more because there's not much similarity between Sumerians and those others around them roughly of the same time period, so a desperate search would pick up and focus on anything vaguely similar. And the similarities are quite vague.

Right, where was I? Sumerians came fully formed. Settled. Did better than the people there before, so spread. City-states in beginning, then various city leaders started conquering neighboring cities, then those civilizations nearby. Then they themselves were taken over by the Akkadians. But they let the Sumerian city states keep their culture. Then some "more primitive" (as noted by this book) people took over, and let things like irrigation canals fall apart. Then a resurgence of Sumerian culture after one or more cities broke free. And then, um, they poofed. Connections between them and others are obviously spotted, like that 60 minutes, 60 seconds, etc. etc. thingie still around today (they used a base 60 math or something). And certain words like legal probably have a connection to them. Oral language died early on after their civilization's collapse. Written language continued.

Course I'd picked up most of what I picked up on the Sumerians from the wikipedia entry I read (and no, this is not one of those situations wherein someone pulled the Wiki article and then published it, as happens, a lot). Not 100% sure what I specifically picked up from this book as opposed to Wiki. hmm. This book might have put more stress on the power women had in the society as compared to others of their time, or before, or after (women & men were not limited in what job they could do, at least not by gender, by social position - yes, but not specifically by gender, other than male gods had male priests, but there were female gods as well, so . .. Had economic power, and ability to own land. etc. etc.). Don't recall if that part was stressed as much in the Wiki article I read.

Right, better stop before review longer than book.

Rating: 3.3
June 18 2022

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

HH have been my steady 3 star history books. But this is an exception. I found the book very descriptive, less to none repetitions and informative. After learning about Sumerians in school 30 years ago, this is the first time I've touched the subject and it wasn't disappointing at all.

Book #02 of 2025..
Hourly History#08

[Cali · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and simple read. I wish there were footnotes or sources sites though.

[Tom Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick reference

These books are amazing. In a quantitative, yet still qualitative method, they can be the reader’s introduction to many topics. In this case, the Sumerian culture is presented . There is informative, clear writing, and, like a classroom lecture, it is scholarly and fact-filled. There are even quotes such as:
“For his pleasure he got married. On his thinking it over he got divorced.” —Sumerian proverb. Five stars!

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable and informative book. Short but highly recommended.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mystery civilization

One thing that I liked about this article is the lack of definite evidence. This important because you are told the various theories about the Sumerian and whether there is any proof or not. It is a case of we know a lot, but there is still more to discover. So there are mysteries to solve about them.

[Michael Grenier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read.

A nice summary of the Sumerian way of life.
Wish there was more to this story.
A short but well written book.

[stephanie suh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been interested in this mysterious ancient people who were the first inventor of the systematic written language in the history of human civilization. No eminent academics have ascertained where they were from. Subsequently, many a civilization claimed to be their descendants, ranging from the Caucasians to the Indians and even to the Far Easterners. But one thing is certain that the civilization of this enigmatic people merits itself as the cradle of civilization on the grounds of the following characteristics: (1) social structure based upon diverse economic sectors; (2) religious system concomitant with system of government; (3) advances in technology contributing to the cultural and scientific enterprises; and (4) written language, which is the bedrock of any known human civilization. They were the Sumerians. In fact, the Sumerian legacies are the sine qua non of a broad substratum of our modern cultural and social infrastructure. Notwithstanding such contributions, the Sumerians are still veiled in mysterious mist; no one knows for sure where these people came from and then vanished, leaving us with their brilliant legacies as their gifts to human history. Which makes the Sumerians all the more interesting and enigmatic as vividly and elegantly related in this book.

The Sumerian civilization burgeoned in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, also known as one of the River-Valley Civilizations, in modern day Iraq for almost 4,000 years. The staging of the Sumerians in history was akin to a dramatic entrance of a dark horse on stage. In around 3,300 B.C. a group of outsiders with “straight black heads” from nowhere, and they called themselves “Sumerians.” However shady and murky their backgrounds might be, the Sumerians were already smart and practical when they arrived at the land with their already fully developed written language and scientific knowledge, especially on irrigation systems. To elucidate, the priests oversaw the design and building of irrigation systems as something of civil engineers who also controlled the building of embankments to prevent flooding of agricultural land during rainy season in order to allow the rapid transport of produce from farms to cities. In fact, these two inventions are regarded as the most highly advanced and influential enterprises that betoken their cultural sophistication and engineering feats that are hardly inferior to those of ours in modern time. The irrigation resulted from a need of bringing water from the rivers to the fields, and the whole procedure was exclusively operated by the priests, who negotiated with farmers for water supply in exchange of a portion of the harvested crop.

With respect to the writing system, it is known as “the cuniform” engraved in the form of wedge-shaped markings made in wet clay using sharp reeds. And this the necessity of writing came from an accounting need of recording the amounts of agricultural produce. But the Sumerian writing was more than a language of commerce. It also blossomed into an art of literature modeled for other writings, such as famous biblical stories of the Garden of Eden, the Ark of Noah, and the Book of Job were all based upon Sumerian stories allegedly based upon true events that had occurred to them. Also, the words “saffron” and “cane” we use today are derived from the cuniform.

Since Sumerians also instituted farming of the land, instead of being a nomadic hunter-gather people, they established a village as a permanent settlement, which begot food surpluses, creating diverse social structures, including a compartmentalized class system and various types of work unrelated to farming. Sumerians also produced the first codes of law and the first written literature in the form of pieces of writing, such as the Sumerian proverbs as wittingly inserted in the beginning of every chapter of this book. For instance, on the subject of married life one Sumerian man uttered thus: “For his pleasure he got married. On his thinking it over, he got divorced.”Which also bespeaks a permission of divorce in Sumerian society. Sumerians treasured monogamous marriage in which a man gave gifts to the bride and her family upon agreement to a marriage contract. Besides, women were not confined in domestic restraints; they could work as scribes, weavers, and proprietress of businesses.

There were four strata of social class in Sumerian society as follows:

Nobles: Senior priests and warriors and their families who owned the most of the land. The nobles distinguished themselves by resplendent clothing made of fine fabrics and impressive jewelry with their shaved heads. They all lived in temples and palaces in the center of the cities where the irrigation systems and commercial centers were located.
Commoners: Traders, artisans, merchants, scribes, and craftsmen. In fact, scribes were held in high esteem because of their dual role as accountants. Commoners also owned a small portion of land.
Clients: Senior administrators and temple personnel working for nobles who lived in small houses in highly congested streets close to the city walls or outside cities on farms.
Slaves: Manual laborers who were prisoners of war or sold into slavery due to the inability to pay the debts. Also, fathers of free people could sell their children into slavery to raise the funds. (So Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge in which a man sold his wife and daughter in a public market had its legal foundation in the Sumerian practice.) However, slaves could merry free people and purchase manumission themselves.

The emergence of the above-referenced class system indicates that the Sumerian economic infrastructure was constituted by a variety of business sectors developed in the cities with food surpluses, highly advanced irrigation systems to transport water from the rivers to the farms, and solid military prowess endowed by professional solders and inventions of steel chariots used at war for the first time in history.

In conclusion, the Sumerian contributions to our modern civilization as a collective enterprise are deeply entrenched in many aspects of our life, whether or not we know or even care, because well, let’s face it, history is written by a winner, a victor, a survivor who lives to tell beyond the boundaries of time and space. In this regard, the Sumerians might not be ostentatious de riguer per se victors because just like their mysterious origin, their demise as a sovereign entity with their direct descendants to whom their cultural artifacts and legacies stunned the proliferation of its heritage. Nonetheless, the Sumerian civilization bestrides one of the world’s most significant ancient civilizations that left indelible marks on our cumulative cultural progress as elliptically put by the following Sumerian proverb: “What comes out from the heart of the tree is known by the heart of the tree.” You see, the Sumerians were indeed brilliant. Nothing could be further from the truth.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful

This is a great first step for getting an overview of ancient middle eastern history. It needs to be edited for typos and repetition, but it is very readable. The material is handled well and concise. Recommend.

[Rubin Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sumerians an amazing history

This Hourly History on the Ancient Sumerian culture touches on many different civilization advances and influences and is done with depth and clarity well done

[ricard flay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who wrote this and what is their expertise? Without this information how do I know this wasn't an elaborate cut and paste from Wikipedia?

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hourly History's mission is to publish history books that are concise, straightforward and take no longer than one hour to read. They have accomplished that mission with this volume.

This book provides a good overview of the socioeconomic, technological, and political developments in Mesopotamia between 3300 BCE and 1940 BCE. The focus is on the Sumerians because we know more about them than we do about other contemporary societies in the Fertile Crescent. This due to the fact that many of the tablets on which the Sumerians wrote have survived and have been deciphered.

So much of the world has been shaped by a civilization that most of us don't know much about. The Sumerians appeared abruptly in the history of the world with a fully-formed, sophisticated language which was quite different from any other language before or since. In a remarkably short period of time they advanced the development of humankind with a number of technological leaps—they were the first city-builders, they invented wheeled transport, writing, and the calendar, and they introduced such advances in agriculture that they changed the very landscape in which they lived.

They also produced myths and legends which have persisted in the thousands of years since the Sumerians disappeared, many of which have become incorporated in religions across the globe.

A short book like this can't capture the centuries of history but at least it can provide a good introduction.

I have read other reviews that complain that these little books do not have any citations or bibliography. That's a fair complaint if you plan on using them as a source to support your writing. So don't.

Hourly History's books are best used as samplers or study guides similar to Cliff Notes or SparkNotes. Use them to see what you want to learn and then seek out the works of the experts. Or use them to prime yourself for trivia night. You can also use them to run up your score for the annual Goodreads Reading Challenge. Use your imagination.

I found this particular volume readable and interesting.

[Robert ferreira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incomplete but worthwhile reading

The author is apparently unaware of the decoding and translations of thousands of Sumerian clay tablets that describe exactly the origins of early sumerians. So this book falls far short on that aspect. The emphasis here is more on the culture of the Sumerian and not so much about how and when they originated. There is the typical attitude that a whole civilization just appeared from nowhere with hardly a question about it. I recommend reading the series of books by Zecchariah Sitchen for a more thorough treatment of the Sumerian Gods.

[John W Hodgkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

More questions than answers!

This book albeit short was fascinating ! Although it begs more questions than it has answers for. Out of one or two million cuneiform tablets, only 60,000 have been deciphered! Why?
Surely there has to be more interest than this shows. No one knows where the Sumerians came from! I would like to know. Anyone that reads this book and is not intrigued probably knows nothing about Quantum mechanics either.

[Jer Wilcoxen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent primer for beginners...

For what it is, it's well written. Meant for absolute beginners in learning ancient history, it's easy to read and succinctly written. There's a bit of wild speculation at the end; but all in all, a fine summary of the Sumerians. Good refresher if you haven't read anything about them since your Early Western Civilizations class in college; not worth reading you're any more advanced than that.

[Ruth clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting insight into the Sumerians. The fact that they were so civilised and advanced 5 thousand years ago, and that nobody can trace where they came from originally is something i was not aware of. they arrived in the Middle East, with advanced knowledge of writing, music, mathematics and knowledge of how to trace and map the appearance of an asteroid in Austria with an exact date, 29 June, 3123 BCE. Quite an educational experience!

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic primer on the Sumerians. It does indeed read in about an hour. Some of the assumptions seem shaky or are based on superseded research, which is odd as it mentions the Hobby Lobby smuggled tablets, which becamed public in 2018. Only surprise for me was mention of the city of Irisagrig, which I had never heard of before. Now i need to do research on it, so the book works as a springboard for research.

[Carol E. Dunham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love History Again!

Thought this would be a time consuming, possibly dry read but it was so well written though concise, and engaging. Hadn't heard of Hourly History before and I now look forward to reading all their books. Many are free, on Kindle Unlimited, and offered at a low price for those they sell. Glad I happened upon this book and site.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very concise and readable overview of ancient Sumer and its people

For what this book is (an overiew of ancient Sumeria), it is very well written. It covers many macro aspects (geography, religion, class structure, etc) of ancient Sumeria, all while writing in very accessible language. Highly recommended for a quick overview of the Sumerians.

[Tom Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading

This book is a good read for those of us that are interested in the oldest civilization to invent writing, and record their history. The author provides a summary of the known facts about the Sumerian civilization without the rhetoric of theories that most others do.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the main concepts!!!

I love this book and it has prompted me to read the rest of the Mesopotamian hourly history books. I even got them on audio so that I can hear the awesome pronunciation of the ancient words. Of the Mesopotamian history from hourly history, The Sumerians is my favorite.

[Tracy Deziel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sumerian make you think... WOW I have been possibly lied to all these yrs.

Loved reading about the possibility that the flood of Noah and Eden happened years before. Very interesting to read and understand the Bible could possibly be a fraud. Proven by Sumerian tablets and writings. Great read for any one wanting more answers.

[William McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good source of information

This book was a good source of information. It was short and precise and didn't go to a lot of


unnecessary detail who gave a good overview of this Sumerian life and culture. Is it good source of information for any research project someone might need to do as a paper for school or just for general information. Would recommend it

[Joyannah Lonnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edifying overview

A fascinating overview of the earliest city builders in the fertile Valley called Mesopotamia.
Creators of religious stories that made their way into the old Testament. Inventors of writing and the wheel. This culture is even more extraordinary than ancient Egypt. Easy read.

[Kathy Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who are the Sumerians?

I found this short book to be quite interesting and very informative about one of the first modern civilizations on our planet, the Sumerians, who resided in Mesopotamia. I appreciate that the author kept her personal perspective as objective as possible. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in this subject.

[Kendrick Hardin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like a shoddy PowerPoint. Basically, the layout of supposed "facts" with no sources, little description, and added opinion for some flavor. Some parts of this seem directly counter to longer, more detailed works like Susan Wise Bauer, Henry Freeman, and Samuel Kramer.

Save time and read something else.

[Keith Leggott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. As someone fairly new to this subject I found it interesting and with enough of an overview on the subject to pursue further reading. Usually I read these Hourly History books as a quick reminder of the subject but this eggs first time I have read one as an almost introduction and found it very helpful.

[Kevin Burley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an interesting read. I learned a lot about a culture that I didn’t know much about. The invention of the wheel, contributions to agriculture, their language, the cities they built. It’s a short and easy read. Their are many mysteries left to be solved yet, but it satisfied my curiosity for now.