what race were sumerians
The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. Standing Male Worshipper, 2900 BCE, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as Alulim and Dumizid. Affinities exist between Nubia ware and pottery from Ennedi and Tibesti. WebWhat race were the ancient Sumerians? The Akkadian Empire dates to c. 22342154 BC (middle chronology). [6][9][10], The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People"[6][11][12][13] ( , sag-gg, lit. [15] Hebrew .mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:"SBL Hebrew","SBL BibLit","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey David CLM","Keter YG","Shofar","David CLM","Hadasim CLM","Simple CLM","Nachlieli",Cardo,Alef,"Noto Serif Hebrew","Noto Sans Hebrew","David Libre",David,"Times New Roman",Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans} inar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite anhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Sumer. Mesopotamia Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke Although the idea of the Sumerians as a distinct people was initially challenged (in a very acrimonious scholarly debate informed by anti-Semitic prejudice), a historical framework was established in which they were thought to have arrived from outside Mesopotamia, introducing civilization to the region. This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. The development into a (Sumerian) state in Babylonia seems to have been more gradual than in Egypt and likely concluded slightly earlier as well: 3200 BC in Mesopotamia while 3000 BC in Egypt, but the absolute dating of the archaeological material used to establish these things has such a margin of error that it is not , The only reference to Sumer in the Bible is to `the Land of Shinar (Genesis 10:10 and elsewhere), which people interpreted to most likely mean the land surrounding Babylon, until the Assyriologist Jules Oppert (1825-1905 CE) identified the biblical reference with the region of southern Mesopotamia known as Sumer and, . Ancient Mesopotamia The infantry carried spears, wore copper helmets, and carried rectangular shields. Ki. Sumer (/sumr/) is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. The world population at this time has been estimated at 27 million.[54]. 77 The mortals were indeed the Sumerians, a non-Semitic racial type that conquered southern Babylonia, and the deities Sumerian gods were often associated with different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with those cities' political power. Sumerians caught many fish and hunted fowl and gazelle.[83]. The gods were said to have created human beings from clay for the purpose of serving them. If you already receive ANE Today in your email, you do not need to enter your email address here. Yet these texts had been written at a time when mothers were no longer talking to their children in Sumerian. This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 06:54. WebAncient Mesopotamia proved that fertile land and the knowledge to cultivate it was a fortuitous recipe for wealth and civilization. [28], Some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. [44] It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was used. Please e-mail info@asor.org if you have questions or need help. There were fire-places and fire-altars. They drained the marshes for agriculture, developed trade, and established industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery. What was the race of Sumerians? ProfoundAdvice Henceforth, Sumerian would remain only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe. The decipherment of cuneiform in the mid nineteenth century revealed that a majority of the known inscriptions recorded a Semitic language that would come to be termed Akkadian. What race were the ancient Sumerians? AnswersAll Read More, The Sumerian language is unrelated to any other language past or present. The Sumerian military used carts harnessed to onagers. Konfirst wanted to see if a drought that spanned about 200 years may have caused the decline. The only reference to Sumer in the Bible is to `the Land of Shinar (Genesis 10:10 and elsewhere), which people interpreted to most likely mean the land surrounding Babylon, until the Assyriologist Jules Oppert (1825-1905 CE) identified the biblical reference with the region of southern Mesopotamia known as Sumer and. How did the Sumerians know about human DNA over 5000 years ago? [93] About twenty seals have been found from the Akkadian and Ur III sites, that have connections with Harappa and often use Harappan symbols or writing. What is the origin of human beings according to Sumerian texts? This is consistent with Andonite genetic heritage, which gave rise 500,000 years ago to the six Sangik races. Genetics will not solve the puzzle, but it may help in elucidating relationships. The origins of the Sumerians are murky, but many scholars have suggested that they may have arrived from the south (the oldest city, Eridu, is in the south). Others have suggested that the Sumerians descended from the mountains of the northeast. Rev. The government required individuals to work on the canals in a corve, although the rich were able to exempt themselves. WebThe Sumerians and Mesopotamia. They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including a mixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. A woman (munus) went from being a daughter (dumu-mi), to a wife (dam), then if she outlived her husband, a widow (numasu) and she could then remarry another man who was from the same tribe. It was believed that when people died, they would be confined to a gloomy world of Ereshkigal, whose realm was guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people entering or leaving. (Both Enmerkar and Gilgamesh are credited with having built the walls of Uruk.)[47]. Some authors have proposed that there may be evidence of a substratum or adstratum language for geographic features and various crafts and agricultural activities, called variously Proto-Euphratean or Proto Tigrean, but this is disputed by others. The Sumerians had three main types of boats: Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid-4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and Akkad", such as Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC. Plants were also grown in pots or vases. Whatever the assertions of cosmography here, when modern-day archaeologists carve out areas of exploration based on physical-remains and other data, there is an emphasis on three, Leick, Gwendolyn (2003), Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City' (Penguin). What is the media tool used in Mesopotamia in 2400 BC? Left: Sculpture of the head of Sumerian ruler. The products of that union, Lahm and Lahmu, "the muddy ones", were titles given to the gate keepers of the E-Abzu temple of Enki in Eridu, the first Sumerian city. [33] Reliable historical records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before Enmebaragesi (Early Dynastic I). The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts. The beginning of the tablet is lost, but the surviving portion begins by recounting how the gods An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursanga created the Sumerians and comfortable conditions for the animals to live and procreate. Beer brewing was very important to the Sumerians. Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,00080,000 at its height;[53] given the other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. "Sumeria" redirects here. 1132. As early as 1849 Hincks had also concluded that the language of the inventors of cuneiform was not in fact Akkadian and that the system of writing derived from a people who spoke a non-Semitic language. [84] The farmers would use threshing wagons, driven by oxen, to separate the cereal heads from the stalks and then use threshing sleds to disengage the grain. and became expansive and sang with joy!"[80]. Register today for FREE to become a Friend of ASOR so that you can join our team and receive exclusive benefits (The Ancient Near East Today and Online Resources). AbydosDynasty Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. Beds, stools and chairs were used, with carved legs resembling those of an ox. [58], Sumerian culture was male-dominated and stratified. (1985). Some slaves worked in the fields, but this was pretty uncommon since the wealthy were generally not involved in farming. WebAre Sumerians and Akkadians the same? [70], Early writing tablet for recording the allocation of beer; 31003000 BC; height: 9.4cm; width: 6.87cm; from Iraq; British Museum (London), Cuneiform tablet about administrative account with entries concerning malt and barley groats; 31002900 BC; clay; 6.8 x 4.5 x 1.6cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), Bill of sale of a field and house, from Shuruppak; c. 2600 BC; height: 8.5cm, width: 8.5cm, depth: 2cm; Louvre, Stele of the Vultures; c. 2450 BC; limestone; found in 1881 by douard de Sarzec in Girsu (now Tell Telloh, Iraq); Louvre, The Sumerians credited their divinities for all matters pertaining to them and exhibited humility in the face of cosmic forces, such as death and divine wrath. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change. Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi (c. 21122004 BC, middle chronology), whose power extended as far as southern Assyria, has been erroneously called a "Sumerian renaissance" in the past. A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, including personal and business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, and daily records. Unfortunately, the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian uppu(m) ?) The interest rate was set at 1/60 a month (one shekel per mina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years. He drank the beer-seven jugs! The credit for this must go to the Reverend Edward Hincks (1792-1866). This led them to live in larger communitiesthe first cities. [48] Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at the severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. The necessity to manage temple accounts with this organization led to the development of writing (c. 3500 BC). [22][23] Alternatively, a recent (2013) genetic analysis of four ancient Mesopotamian skeletal DNA samples suggests an association of the Sumerians with Indus Valley Civilization, possibly as a result of ancient Indus-Mesopotamia relations. Mark M. Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash, By the sweat of thy brow: Work in the Western world, Melvin Kranzberg, Joseph Gies, Putnam, 1975, harvcolnb error: no target: CITEREFIfrah2001 (, British Museum notice: "Gold and carnelians beads. drought Examples of Sumerian technology include: the wheel, cuneiform script, arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, Sumerian boats, lunisolar calendar, bronze, leather, saws, chisels, hammers, braces, bits, nails, pins, rings, hoes, axes, knives, lancepoints, arrowheads, swords, glue, daggers, waterskins, bags, harnesses, armor, quivers, war chariots, scabbards, boots, sandals, harpoons and beer. 'head' + 'black', or , sag-gg-ga phonetically /sa i a/, lit. pp. 77 The mortals were indeed the Sumerians, a non-Semitic racial type that conquered southern Babylonia, and the deities were Semitic, taken over by the newly arrived Sumerians from the indigenous Semites. Read More, American Society of Overseas ResearchThe James F. Strange Center209 Commerce StreetAlexandria, VA 22314, 2023 ASOR All rights reserved.Images licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, Contact UsMembershipGiveFriends of ASORASOR Cultural Heritage InitiativesTerms of Use. As is known from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after the Spring equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. 'head' + 'black' + 'carry'). ", The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization, "Complexity, Diminishing Marginal Returns and Serial Mesopotamian Fragmentation", "Flutes of Gilgamesh and Ancient Mesopotamia", "Chapter 3: Sex in Ancient Civilizations", Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary, Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and the Death of Sumerian, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-017-9106-2, "The Role of shell in Mesopotamia: evidence for trade exchange with Oman and the Indus Valley", "Indus stamp-seal discovered in Ur BM 123208", "Indus stamp-seal discovered in Ur BM 120228", "History of Constellation and Star Names", Ancient Sumer History The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium, ETCSL: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, CDLI: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Iraq Region, Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia and Persia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sumer&oldid=1142050435, States and territories established in the 4th millennium BC, States and territories established in the 3rd millennium BC, States and territories disestablished in the 20th century BC, Populated places established in the 6th millennium BC, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from March 2012, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Wikipedia introduction cleanup from October 2022, Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from October 2022, All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from May 2022, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, Articles containing Sumerian-language text, Articles containing Akkadian-language text, Articles containing Ancient Egyptian-language text, Articles containing Hittite-language text, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from August 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2011, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Articles lacking reliable references from March 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Early Dynastic IIIb period: c. 25002334 BC, "Pottery was very plentiful, and the forms of the vases, bowls and dishes were manifold; there were special jars for honey, butter, oil and wine, which was probably made from dates. Next they made oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. Sumerian writing is considered to be a great milestone in the development of humanity's ability to not only create historical records but also in creating pieces of literature, both in the form of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws. Nonetheless, these were not exclusive; the gods of one city were often acknowledged elsewhere. What was the race of Sumerians? Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there is little break in historical continuity between the pre- and post-Sargon periods, and that too much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a "Semitic vs. Sumerian" conflict. They have been discovered by Leonard Woolley when the Royal Cemetery of Ur has been excavated between from 1922 and 1934. Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had become dominant. [24] According to some data, the Sumerians are associated with the Hurrians and Urartians, and the Caucasus is considered their homeland. According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in a difficult environment. What was the race of the Sumerians? Were they African Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asianpeople who The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god)[46] towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Dumuzid, Lugalbanda and Gilgameshwho reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2900 BC, when the now deciphered syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. Servants, slaves, and soldiers wore short skirts, while royalty and deities wore long skirts. The Best Technical and Innovative Podcasts you should Listen, Essay Writing Service: The Best Solution for Busy Students, 6 The Best Alternatives for WhatsApp for Android, The Best Solar Street Light Manufacturers Across the World, Ultimate packing list while travelling with your dog. )/la naqbat (Akk.) Although short-lived, one of the first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa, and reduced to tribute the city-state of Umma, arch-rival of Lagash. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. [21] However, with evidence strongly suggesting the first farmers originated from the Fertile Crescent, this suggestion is often discarded. The frequent violent floods of the Tigris, and less so, of the Euphrates, meant that canals required frequent repair and continual removal of silt, and survey markers and boundary stones needed to be continually replaced. The credit for this must go to the Reverend Edward Hincks (1792-1866). Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form. What race were Sumerians? Kyoto2.org They have been understood as a distinct people, speaking a common language, who occupied the alluvial plains of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) between approximately 3500 and 2000 BCE. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. [59]:34. 77 The mortals were indeed the Sumerians, a non-Semitic racial type that conquered southern Babylonia, and the deities were Semitic, taken over by the newly arrived Sumerians from the indigenous Semites. The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. In particular, the metals of all types had to be imported. What was the race of Sumerians? Sage-Answer Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from the north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. Required fields are marked *. By 3000 B.C.E., most Sumerians lived in walled city-states. Small stones of all kinds, including more precious stones such as lapis lazuli, alabaster, and serpentine, were used for cylinder seals. A group of Semitic people called the Akkadians settled north of Sumer along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. They built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian artifacts show great detail and ornamentation, with fine semi-precious stones imported from other lands, such as lapis lazuli, marble, and diorite, and precious metals like hammered gold, incorporated into the design. [64][63][60], Prostitution existed but it is not clear if sacred prostitution did. Perhaps it is time to abandon them as a coherent ethnic and linguistic entity a people we would like to believe existed, but possibly never did. The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods, such as wood, that were scarce in Mesopotamia. In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. The Sumerians' cuneiform script is the oldest (or second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the Jiahu symbols and Tartaria tablets is controversial). [63] The Sumerians widely believed that masturbation enhanced sexual potency, both for men and for women,[63] and they frequently engaged in it, both alone and with their partners. [106] They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal. Ancient sculpture was used to distinguish Sumerian men (identified as clean shaven with round heads) from their Semitic counterparts (with beards and long heads). The ancient name of this language was controversial until 1889 when a bilingual cuneiform text noted that the term, 2023 Call for Member-Organized Sessions and Workshops, ASOR-AFFILIATED RESEARCH CENTERS FELLOWSHIPS, The Sumerian King List or the History of Kingship in Early Mesopotamia, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. The Sumerians called themselves the black headed people and their land, in cuneiform script, was simply the land or the land of the black headed peopleand, in the biblical Book of Genesis, Sumer is known as Shinar. The Sumerians came from the Sahara before it became a desert. There is a consensus among Egyptologists that the Great Pyramids were not built by slaves. While Shuruppaks fatherly wisdom is one of the most ancient examples of written literature, historys oldest known fictional story is probably the Epic of Gilgamesh, a mythic poem that first appeared as early as the third millennium B.C. White slaves were brought to Egypt from the eastern coast of the Black Sea and from the Circassian settlements of Anatolia via Istanbul. Ki is the Sumerian word for earth, and she was personified as a goddess and female counterpart to An (the heaven god). Triangular or wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. By the side of the house was an enclosed garden planted with trees and other plants; wheat and probably other cereals were sown in the fields, and the shaduf was already employed for the purpose of irrigation. [93] Various inscriptions also mention the presence of Meluhha traders and interpreters in Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in the standard Sumerian cuneiform. The story of the passing of the gifts of civilization (me) to Inanna, goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk. The rich finds from the Royal Graves of Ur as well as the discovery of sculptures of men and women dedicated in temples at sites such as Tell Asmar helped to transform the Sumerians from a subject of ethnographic study to one in which they were understood as the makers of art. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC (short chronology), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three-fifths. They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard. Many texts survive in multiple copies because they were repeatedly transcribed by scribes in training. This period saw the occupation of Mesopotamia by the British Empire during and after the First World War, leading to the establishment of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1921. Sumerians harvested during the spring in three-person teams consisting of a reaper, a binder, and a sheaf handler. What race were the ancient Sumerians? Tracks-movie.com Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at the end of the last Ice Age. Rulers with names in italics are considered fictional. Since Sumerian writing emerged c. 3200 BC. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. The text usually referred to as the Sumerian King List (SKL) is a composition somewhere between a literary text and a list proper, which deals with the history of kingship in Babylonia from the beginning of time to the early centuries of the second millennium BCE. Not a Friend of ASOR yet? After around 2000 B.C., ancient Sumerian gradually died off as a spoken language in the region. A prime example of cuneiform writing would be a lengthy poem that was discovered in the ruins of Uruk. Sumerians were called Black headed, because they most likely had black heads. Explanations based on hypothetical migrations have fallen out of favour as evidence for significant cultural continuity in prehistory has been identified, including the development of recording technologies that led to practices of book-keeping and the origins of writing. Religion. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. Sumer - Wikipedia Summary. (Adaside dynasty1700722 BCE)Bel-bani Libaya Sharma-Adad I Iptar-Sin Bazaya Lullaya Shu-Ninua Sharma-Adad II Erishum III Shamshi-Adad II Ishme-Dagan II Shamshi-Adad III Ashur-nirari I Puzur-Ashur III Enlil-nasir I Nur-ili Ashur-shaduni Ashur-rabi I Ashur-nadin-ahhe I Enlil-Nasir II Ashur-nirari II Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-rim-nisheshu Ashur-nadin-ahhe II, Second Intermediate PeriodSixteenthDynasty Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus from which enabled them to form urban settlements. Of course, there is no such thing as a Sumerian king list. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. [105], Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans. Many transactions involved debt, for example goods consigned to merchants by temple and beer advanced by "ale women". To the south of the region of The Standing Male Worshipper is a simple but significant artifact which is a testament to the Mesopotamians deep religious convictions that their pantheon of gods Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an institution (such as a temple), in this case the arrears were considered to be lent to the debtor. At a basic level, the Sumerians can be defined by their language, which is recognisable in cuneiform texts dating from around 2800 BCE to the early centuries CE. [2][3], The Akkadian word umer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term umer is uncertain. The Sumerian language is generally regarded as a language isolate in linguistics because it belongs to no known language family; Akkadian, by contrast, belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages.