User:SomeGuyWhoRandomlyEdits/Pre-dynastic period of Sumer

Origin
The history of Sumer is taken to include: the prehistoric period of the Ubaidians, the protoliterate period of the Urukeans, the historic periods for the archaeological culture from Jemdet Nasr, Early Dynasties (ED); furthermore, the Akkadian, Guti, Ur III empires, and Isin-Larsa kingdoms (c. 5500 BCE). Sumerian civilization originated in the southeastern reaches of the Fertile Crescent—a region once widely regarded by the general consensus of mainstream historians to be the only cradle in which the first known complex, non-nomadic, agrarian civilization (that being Sumer) spread out from by influence. Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled c. 5500 BC by a West Asian people who spoke Sumerian (a non-Semitic, non-Indo-European, agglutinative, language isolate). However, the ethnic composition of Mesopotamia throughout this period cannot be determined with certainty. Furthermore: it is not yet known whether or not these were actual Sumerians who are identified with the much later culture(s) centered at sites such as those of Uruk, Tell Jemdet Nasr, Tell al-Uhaymir, and Tell el-Muqayyar—all of which were already inhabited during the Ubaid and most would rise to power as influential city-states throughout the Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, and/or ED period(s).

Mesopotamia was inhabited by several distinct, flourishing cultures in between the end of the Last Glacial Period (c. 14000 BCE) and beginning of the Copper Age (c. 5000 BCE). Archaeological sites such as those of the Samarran and Halafian cultures were centered at Middle and Upper Mesopotamia (Central and Northern Iraq); later settlements in Lower Mesopotamia required complicated irrigation methods. It appears that the archaeological culture of the Ubaidians' may have been derived from that of the Samarrans'. The first among these Lower Mesopotamian settlements were tells el-'Oueili, al-'Ubaid, and Abu Shahrain. Sumerian religion and literature would later relate over the millennia that Sumer was founded at Tell Abu Shahrain (the modern Arabic name for the city known to the Sumerians as Eridu).

Eridu was a settlement founded during the Eridu phase of the Ubaid period (c. 5400 BCE) and may have been abandoned during the Late Ubaid/Early Uruk period (c. 4200 BCE). Eridu is named ias the city of the first kings on the SKL and was long considered the earliest city in lower Mesopotamia. The settlement of Eridu may have been at the confluence of three separate ecosystems from where three peoples (each with distinct cultures and/or lifestyles) came to an agreement about access to fresh water in a desert environment. Eridu had already recovered by the EDI (c. 2900 BCE) and may have had anywhere from 4,000—20,000 citizens. It was abandoned again sometime during the Neo-Babylonian period (626 – 539 BCE).

Others have suggested that the Sumerians migrated from North Africa (during the Green Saharan period) into West Asia and were responsible for the spread of farming throughout the Fertile Crescent. Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, researchers have suggested a partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Near East (particularly Natufians) after testing the genomes of Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture-bearers; alternatively, a genetic analysis of four ancient Mesopotamian skeletal DNA samples suggests an association of the Sumerians with the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization (possibly as a result of ancient Indus-Mesopotamia relations). Sumerians (or at least some of them) may have been related to the original Dravidian population of India.

The Sumerian city-states may have risen to power at some point throughout the Ubaid, Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, and/or ED period(s). The recorded history of Sumer may go as far back as the 29th century BCE (and/or even centuries before); however, the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III (EDIII) period (c. 2600 BCE) when a (now-deciphered) syllabary writing system was developed—which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian empire in the 24th century BCE. There was a brief, Neo-Sumerian revival and renaissance during the 22nd century BCE—cut short in the 21st century BCE by the invasions of a West Semitic people—the Amorites. The predominantly Amorite dynasties of the Isin-Larsa period persisted until c. 1763 BCE—when Mesopotamia was re-united by an Amorite dynasty of Babylonia.

Language
Ever since the decipherment of the Sumerian cuneiform script; it has been the subject of much effort to relate it to a wide variety of languages. Proposals for linguistic affinity sometimes have a nationalistic background because it has a peculiar prestige as one of the most ancient written languages. Such proposals enjoy virtually no support among linguists because of their unverifiability.

Some have argued that by examining the structure of the Sumerian language, its names for occupations; as well as toponyms and hydronyms, one can suggest that there was once an ethnic group in the region that preceded the Sumerians. These pre-Sumerian people are now referred to as Proto-Euphrateans (or Ubaidians), and are theorized to have developed out of the culture centered at the Samarra Archaeological City (c. 6200 BCE). The Ubaid culture spread into northern Mesopotamia and was adopted by the Halaf culture c. 5000 BCE. This is known as the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period of northern Mesopotamia.

Proto-Euphratean is considered by some to have been the substratum language of the people that introduced farming into southern Mesopotamia during the Early Ubaid period (c. 5300 BCE). Proto-Euphratean may have exerted an areal influence on it (especially in the form of polysyllabic words that sound "un-Sumerian")—making researchers suspect them of being loanwords—and untraceable to any other known language. There is little speculation as to the affinities of this substratum language; therefore, it remains unclassified. A related proposal is that the language of the proto-literary texts from the Late Uruk period (c. 3350 BC) is really an early Indo-European language termed Euphratic. Sumerian was once widely held to be an Indo-European language; but, that view later came to be almost universally rejected. It has also been suggested that Sumerian descended from a late prehistoric creole language.

Other scholars think that the Sumerian language may have originally been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the Mesopotamian Marshes and the Eastern Arabia littoral region; additionally, were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Some archaeologists believe that the Sumerians lived along the Persian Gulf coast of the Arabian Peninsula before a flood at the end of Last Glacial Period c. 10000 BCE. Many scholars have proposed historical and genetic links between the present-day Marsh Arabs and the Sumerians of ancient Iraq based off of: their methods for house-building (mudhifs), homeland (Mesopotamian Marshes), and shared agricultural practices; however, there is no written record of the marsh tribes until the ninth century CE—and the Sumerians had already lost their distinct ethnic identity some 2,700 years prior.

Sumerian King List
The Sumerian King List (SKL) is an ancient regnal list written using cuneiform script, listing: the kings of Sumer, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of kingship. This text is preserved in several recensions. The list of kings is sequential; although, modern research has indicated that many were contemporaries–reflecting the belief that kingship was handed down by the gods and could be transferred from one city to another–asserting to a hegemony in the region. The SKL is important to the chronology of the Ancient Near East (ANE) for the third millennium BCE. However, the fact that many of the dynasties listed reigned simultaneously from varying localities makes it difficult to reproduce a strict linear chronology.

Most of the dates for the predynastic kings have been approximated to certain centuries (rather than specific years), and are only partially based on any available archaeological data. For most kings listed, the SKL is itself the lone source of information. The SKL initially (and presumably) mixes mythical, pre-dynastic kings enjoying implausibly lengthy reigns; then, gradually working its way into the more plausible, historical dynasties. Although the primal kings are historically unattested, this does not necessarily preclude their possible correspondence with the historical (some of which may have later been mythicized, deified, and/or demonized). Some sumerologists and assyriologists think of the primal monarchs as fictional characters that were invented several centuries and/or even millennia after their purported reigns.

While there is no evidence that they ever reigned as such, the Sumerians purported the predynastic kings to have lived in a mythical era before a flood. None of the antediluvian kings have been verified as being historical through archaeological excavations, epigraphical inscriptions, or otherwise. The antediluvian reigns were measured using two Sumerian numerical units (a sexagesimal system). There were "sars" (units of 3,600 years each) and "ners" (units of 600 years). Attempts have been made to map these numbers into more reasonable regnal lengths.

Some modern scholars believe the Sumerian deluge story corresponds to localized river flooding at Shuruppak and various other cities as far north as Kish (as revealed by a layer of riverine sediments radiocarbon dated to c. 2900 BCE) which interrupt the continuity of settlement. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period was discovered immediately below this Shuruppak flood stratum. Archaeologists have confirmed the presence of a widespread layer of riverine silt deposits shortly after the Piora oscillation that interrupted the sequence of settlement. It left a few feet of yellow sediment in the cities of Shuruppak and Uruk and extended as far north as Kish. The polychrome pottery characteristic of the Jemdet Nasr period below the sediment layer was followed by EDI artifacts above the sediment layer.

The mythological, predynastic period of the SKL portrays the passage of power in antediluvian times from Eridu to Shuruppak in the south, until a major deluge occurred. Some time after that, the hegemony reappears in the northern city of Kish at the start of the ED period. The earliest tablets from this period were retrieved from Jemdet Nasr in 1928. They depict complex arithmetic calculations such as the areas of field-plots. However, they have never been fully deciphered, and it is not even certain that the few words on them represent the Sumerian language.