The history of the formation of the state of Ancient Sumer. Caucasus and Nagorno-Karabakh

Sumerians

SUMERIANS, the first of the peoples living on the territory of Ancient Babylonia (in modern Iraq) who reached the level of civilization. Probably still ok. 4000 BC the Sumerians came to the swampy plain (Ancient Sumer) in the upper reaches of the Persian Gulf from the east or descended from the mountains of Elam. They drained swamps, learned to regulate river floods and mastered agriculture. With the development of trade with Iran, Elam, Assyria, India and the Mediterranean coast, the Sumerian settlements turned into prosperous city-states, which by 3500 BC. created a mature civilization of an urban type with developed metalworking, textile crafts, monumental architecture and a writing system.

The Sumerian states were theocracies, each of them was considered as the property of a local deity, whose representative on earth was the high priest (patesi), endowed with religious and administrative power. The most important centers in this early historical period were the cities of Ur, Uruk (Erech), Umma, Eridu, Lagash, Nippur, Sippar, and Akkad, a Semitic state in northern Mesopotamia. Cities were constantly at war with each other, and if a city managed to capture several neighboring ones, then for a short time a state arose that had the character of a small empire. However, around the middle of the III millennium BC. the Semitic tribes from the Arabian Peninsula, who settled in the northern regions of Babylonia and adopted the Sumerian culture, became so strong that they began to pose a threat to the independence of the Sumerians. OK. 2550 BC Sargon of Akkad conquered them and created a power that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Approximately after 2500 BC. the Akkadian power fell into decline, and for the Sumerians a new period of independence and prosperity began, this is the era of the third dynasty of Ur and the rise of Lagash under the rule of Gudea. It ended ok. 2000 BC with the strengthening of the Amorite kingdom - a new Semitic state with its capital in Babylon; the Sumerians lost their independence forever, and the territory of the former Sumer and Akkad was absorbed by the power of Hammurabi.

Although the Sumer people disappeared from the historical scene and the Sumerian language ceased to be spoken in Babylonia, the Sumerian writing system (cuneiform) and many elements of religion formed an integral part of the Babylonian, and later Assyrian culture. The Sumerians laid the foundations for the civilization of a large part of the Middle East; the ways of organizing the economy, technical skills and scientific knowledge inherited from them played an extremely important role in the life of their successors.

The following is a summary of the most significant rulers of Mesopotamia.

Urukagina (c. 2500 BC), ruler of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash Before he reigned in Lagash, the people suffered from excessive taxes levied by greedy palace officials. The practice included illegal confiscations of private property. The reform of Urukagina was to abolish all these abuses, to restore justice and grant freedom to the people of Lagash.

Lugalzagesi (c. 2500 BC), son of the ruler of the Sumerian city-state of Umma, who created the short-lived Sumerian empire. He defeated the Lagash ruler Urukagina and subjugated the rest of the Sumerian city-states. In the campaigns he conquered the lands north and west of Sumer and reached the coast of Syria. The reign of Lugalzagesi lasted 25 years, his capital was the Sumerian city-state of Uruk. He was eventually defeated by Sargon I of Akkad. The Sumerians regained political power over their country only two centuries later, under the 3rd Dynasty of Ur.

Sargon I (c. 2400 BC), creator of the first lasting empire known in world history, which he himself ruled for 56 years. Semites and Sumerians lived side by side for a long time, but political hegemony belonged mainly to the Sumerians. The accession of Sargon marked the first major breakthrough of the Akkadians into the political arena of Mesopotamia. Sargon, a court official in Kish, first became the ruler of this city, then conquered the south of Mesopotamia and defeated Lugalzagesi. Sargon united the city-states of Sumer, after which he turned his eyes to the east and captured Elam. In addition, he carried out aggressive campaigns in the country of the Amorites (Northern Syria), Asia Minor and, possibly, Cyprus.

Naram-Suen (c. 2320 BC), grandson of Sargon I of Akkad, who gained almost the same fame as his famous grandfather. Ruled the empire for 37 years. At the beginning of his reign, he suppressed a powerful uprising, the center of which was in Kish. Naram-Suen led military campaigns in Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, Assyria, the Zagros mountains northeast of Babylonia (the famous stele of Naram-Suen glorifies his victory over the local inhabitants of the mountains), in Elam. Perhaps he fought with one of the Egyptian pharaohs of the VI dynasty.

Gudea (c. 2200 BC), ruler of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash, a contemporary of Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, the first two kings of the III dynasty of Ur. Gudea, one of the most famous Sumerian rulers, left behind numerous texts. The most interesting of them is the hymn, which describes the construction of the temple of the god Ningirsu. For this major construction, Gudea brought materials from Syria and Anatolia. Numerous sculptures depict him seated with a plan of the temple on his knees. Under the successors of Gudea, power over Lagash passed to Ur.

Rim-Sin (ruled c. 1878–1817 BC), king of the South Babylonian city of Larsa, one of the strongest opponents of Hammurabi. The Elamite Rim-Sin subjugated the cities of southern Babylonia, including Issin, the seat of a rival dynasty. After 61 years of reign, he was defeated and captured by Hammurabi, who by this time had been on the throne for 31 years.

Shamshi-Adad I (reigned c. 1868–1836 BC), king of Assyria, older contemporary of Hammurabi Information about this king is drawn mainly from the royal archives in Mari, a provincial center on the Euphrates, which was subordinate to the Assyrians. The death of Shamshi-Adad, one of the main rivals of Hammurabi in the struggle for power in Mesopotamia, greatly facilitated the expansion of Babylonian power to the northern regions.

Hammurabi (reigned 1848-1806 BC, according to one system of chronology), the most famous of the kings of the 1st Babylonian dynasty. In addition to the famous code of laws, many private and official letters, as well as business and legal documents, have been preserved. The inscriptions contain information about political events and military actions. From them we learn that in the seventh year of Hammurabi's reign, Uruk and Issin were taken from Rim-Sin, his main rival and ruler of the powerful city of Lars. Between the eleventh and thirteenth years of Hammurabi's reign, the power of Hammurabi was finally strengthened. In the future, he made aggressive campaigns to the east, west, north and south and defeated all opponents. As a result, by the fortieth year of his reign, he led an empire that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the upper Euphrates.

Tukulti-Ninurta I (reigned 1243–1207 BC), king of Assyria, conqueror of Babylon. Around 1350 BC Assyria was liberated from Mitanni rule by Ashshuruballit and began to gain more and more political and military power. Tukulti-Ninurta was the last of the kings (including Ireba-Adad, Ashshuruballit, Adadnerari I, Salmanasar I), under whom the power of Assyria continued to grow. Tukulti-Ninurta defeated the Kassite ruler of Babylon, Kashtilash IV, for the first time subjugating the ancient center of Sumero-Babylonian culture to Assyria. When trying to capture Mitanni, a state located between the eastern mountains and the Upper Euphrates, met with opposition from the Hittites.

Tiglath-pileser I (reigned 1112–1074 BC), Assyrian king who tried to restore the power of the country, which it had enjoyed during the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta and his predecessors. During his reign, the main threat to Assyria was the Arameans, who invaded the territories in the upper Euphrates. Tiglathpalasar also undertook several campaigns against the country of Nairi, located north of Assyria, in the vicinity of Lake Van. In the south, he defeated Babylon, the traditional rival of Assyria.

Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 BC), energetic and cruel king who restored the power of Assyria. He delivered devastating blows to the Aramaic states located in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Ashurnasirpal became the next Assyrian king after Tiglathpalasar I, who went to the Mediterranean coast. Under him, the Assyrian Empire began to take shape. The conquered territories were divided into provinces, and those into smaller administrative units. Ashurnasirpal moved the capital from Ashur to the north, to Kalakh (Nimrud).

Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC; 858 was considered the year of the beginning of his reign, although in reality he could ascend the throne a few days or months before the new year. These days or months were considered the time of the reign of his predecessor). Shalmaneser III, son of Ashurnasirpal II, continued to subdue the Aramaic tribes to the west of Assyria, in particular, the warlike tribe of Bit-Adini. Using their captured capital, Til-Barsib, as a stronghold, Shalmaneser pushed west into northern Syria and Cilicia and attempted to conquer them several times. In 854 BC at Karakar on the Oronte River, the combined forces of twelve leaders, among whom were Benhadad of Damascus and Ahab of Israel, repelled the attack of the troops of Shalmaneser III. The strengthening of the kingdom of Urartu to the north of Assyria, near Lake Van, made it impossible to continue expansion in this direction.

Tiglath-Pileser III (reigned c. 745–727 BC), one of the greatest Assyrian kings and the true builder of the Assyrian Empire. He removed three obstacles that stood in the way of establishing Assyrian dominance in the region. Firstly, he defeated Sarduri II and annexed most of the territory of Urartu; secondly, he proclaimed himself king of Babylon (under the name of Pulu), subjugating the Aramaic leaders, who actually ruled Babylon; finally, he decisively crushed the resistance of the Syrian and Palestinian states and reduced most of them to the level of a province or tributaries. As a method of management, he widely used the deportation of peoples.

Sargon II (reigned 721–705 BC), king of Assyria Although Sargon did not belong to the royal family, he became a worthy successor to the great Tiglath-pileser III (Salmaneser V, his son, ruled for a very short time, in 726-722 BC). The problems that Sargon had to solve were basically the same that faced Tiglath-Pileser: a strong Urartu in the north, an independent spirit that reigned in the Syrian states in the west, the unwillingness of Aramaic Babylon to submit to the Assyrians. Sargon began to solve these problems with the capture of the capital of Urartu Tushpa in 714 BC. Then in 721 BC. he conquered the fortified Syrian city of Samaria and deported its population. In 717 BC he took possession of another Syrian outpost, Karchemysh. In 709 BC, after a short stay in the captivity of Marduk-apal-iddina, Sargon proclaimed himself king of Babylon. During the reign of Sargon II, the Cimmerians and Medes appeared on the arena of the history of the Near East.

Sennacherib (reigned 704–681 BC), son of Sargon II, king of Assyria who destroyed Babylon. His military campaigns were aimed at the conquest of Syria and Palestine, as well as the conquest of Babylon. He was a contemporary of the Jewish king Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. Besieged Jerusalem, but could not take it. After several trips to Babylon and Elam, and most importantly, after the murder of one of his sons, whom he appointed ruler of Babylon, Sennacherib destroyed this city and took the statue of its main god Marduk to Assyria.

Esarhaddon (reigned 680–669 BC), son of Sennacherib, king of Assyria He did not share his father's hatred of Babylon and rebuilt the city and even the temple of Marduk. The main act of Esarhaddon was the conquest of Egypt. In 671 BC he defeated the Nubian pharaoh of Egypt, Taharqa, and destroyed Memphis. However, the main danger came from the northeast, where the Medes were intensifying, and the Cimmerians and Scythians could break through the territory of the weakening Urartu into Assyria. Esarhaddon was unable to resist this onslaught, which soon changed the entire face of the Middle East.

Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–626 BC), son of Esarhaddon and last great king of Assyria. Despite the success of military campaigns against Egypt, Babylon and Elam, he was unable to resist the growing power of the Persian state. The entire northern border of the Assyrian Empire was under the rule of the Cimmerians, Medes and Persians. Perhaps Ashurbanipal's most significant contribution to history was the creation of a library in which he collected priceless documents from all periods of Mesopotamian history. In 614 BC Ashur was captured and plundered by the Medes, and in 612 BC. The Medes and Babylonians destroyed Nineveh.

Nabopolassar (reigned 625–605 BC), the first king of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) dynasty. In alliance with the Median king Cyaxares, he participated in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire. One of his main deeds is the restoration of the Babylonian temples and the cult of the main god of Babylon, Marduk.

Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 604–562 BC), second king of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty. He became famous for his victory over the Egyptians at the Battle of Karchemysh (in the south of modern Turkey) in the last year of his father's reign. In 596 BC captured Jerusalem and captured the Jewish king Hezekiah. In 586 BC recaptured Jerusalem and put an end to the existence of an independent kingdom of Judah. Unlike the Assyrian kings, the rulers of the Neo-Babylonian Empire left few documents testifying to political events and military enterprises. Their texts are mostly about construction activities or glorify deities.

Nabonidus (reigned 555–538 BC), last king of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom Perhaps, in order to create an alliance against the Persians with the Aramaic tribes, he moved his capital to the Arabian desert, to Tayma. He left his son Belshazzar to rule Babylon. The veneration of the moon god Sin by Nabonidus caused opposition from the priests of Marduk in Babylon. In 538 BC Cyrus II occupied Babylon. Nabonidus surrendered to him in the city of Borsippa near Babylon.

Bibliography

For the preparation of this work, materials from the site were used. http://www.middleeast.narod.ru/

Plan. 1. The concept of myth and religion…………………………………………..……3 2. “Ancient East”………………………………………………… ..……3 2.1. Ancient Sumer…………………………………………………4 2.2. Babylon…………………………………………………….….5 3. Religion and mythology of Ancient Mesopotamia…………………….6 4. Mesopotamian mythological creatures and deities… ……….7 5. Priesthood………………………………………………………….….12 6. Demons…………………………………… ………………………….…..13 7. Magic and mantic……………………………………………………..13 8. Achievements of the peoples of Ancient Mesopotamia… ……………..……14 9. Conclusion………………………………………………………..…..15 10. References……………… ………………………………....17 1. The concept of myth and religion. Myth and religion are forms of culture that reveal a deep relationship in the course of history. Religion, as such, presupposes the presence of a certain worldview and attitude, centered on the belief in the incomprehensible, deities, the source of the existing. The religious view of the world and the accompanying type of attitude are initially formed within the boundaries of mythological consciousness. Different types of religion are accompanied by dissimilar mythological systems. Myth is the first form of rational comprehension of the world, its figurative-symbolic reproduction and explanation, resulting in the prescription of actions. Myth turns chaos into space, creates the possibility of comprehending the world as a kind of organized whole, expresses it in a simple and accessible scheme that could be transformed into a magical action as a means of conquering the incomprehensible. Mythological images are understood as real-life. Mythological images are highly symbolic, being the product of a combination of sensory-concrete and conceptual moments. Myth is a means of removing socio-cultural contradictions, of overcoming them. Mythological representations receive the status of religious not only through their orientation towards the incomprehensible, but also due to their connection with the rites and the individual life of believers. Religion is one of the forms of social consciousness, one of the forms of ideology. And any ideology is, ultimately, a reflection of the material existence of people, the economic structure of society. In this respect, religion can be placed on a par with such ideological forms as philosophy, morality, law, art, and so on. Both in the primitive community and in class society there are general conditions that support belief in the supernatural world. This is man's impotence: his helplessness in the struggle against nature under the primitive communal system and the impotence of the exploited classes in the struggle against the exploiters in class society. It is this kind of impotence that inevitably gives rise to distorted reflections in the human mind of the social and natural environment in the form of various forms of religious beliefs. Thus, religion is not only a reflection of some real phenomena of life, but also a replenishment of the forces that a person lacks. 2. "Ancient East". The term "Ancient East" consists of two words, one of which is a historical characteristic, the second - geographical. Historically, the term "ancient" refers in this case to the very first civilizations known to mankind (starting from the 4th millennium BC). The term "East" in this case goes back to ancient tradition: this is the name of the former eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and the territories adjacent to them, that is, what was east of Rome. What we call the East today: Central and South Asia, the Far East, etc. not included in the concept of "Ancient East". In general, oriental refers to the cultures of peoples with non-antique cultural roots. In ancient times, mighty civilizations flourished in the Middle East: Sumer, Egypt, Babylon, Phoenicia, Palestine. In socio-political terms, a common distinguishing feature of all these civilizations was their belonging to the Eastern despotisms, which, to one degree or another, are characterized by monopolization and centralization of power (features of totalitarianism), personification of power in the figure of a despot (king, pharaoh), sacralization, that is, absolute obedience to religious norms throughout the life of society, the presence of systems of permanent physical and psychological terror, cruel oppression of the masses. The state played a huge role here. This role was expressed in the implementation of irrigation, prestigious construction (pyramids, palaces, etc.), in control over all aspects of the life of subjects, and in the conduct of external wars. "Mesopotamia" means "Land between the rivers" (between the Euphrates and the Tigris). Now, Mesopotamia is understood mainly as a valley in the lower reaches of these rivers, and lands are added to it east of the Tigris and west of the Euphrates. In general, this region coincides with the territory of modern Iraq, with the exception of mountainous regions along the borders of this country with Iran and Turkey. Mesopotamia is the country where the oldest civilization in the world arose, which existed for about 25 centuries, starting from the time of the creation of writing and ending with the conquest of Babylon by the Persians in 539 BC. 2.1. Ancient Sumer. To the east of Egypt, in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates, starting from the 4th millennium BC. arise, replacing each other, a number of state formations. This is Sumer, which is now considered the most ancient civilization known to mankind, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria. Unlike Egyptian culture, in the Mesopotamia, numerous peoples rapidly replaced each other, fought, mixed and disappeared, so the overall picture of culture appears extremely dynamic and complex. In the south of Mesopotamia, where agriculture was widely carried out, ancient city-states developed: Ur, Uruk (Erech), Kish, Eridu, Larsa, Nippur, Umma, Lagash, Sippar, Akkad, etc. The heyday of these cities is called the golden age of the ancient state of the Sumerians . The Sumerians are the first of the peoples living on the territory of Ancient Mesopotamia who reached the level of civilization. Probably around 4000 B.C. the Sumerians came to the swampy plain (Ancient Sumer) in the upper reaches of the Persian Gulf from the east or descended from the mountains of Elam. They drained swamps, learned to regulate river floods and mastered agriculture. With the development of trade, the Sumerian settlements turned into prosperous city-states, which by 3500 BC. created a mature civilization of an urban type with developed metalworking, textile crafts, monumental architecture and a writing system. The Sumerian states were theocracies, each of them was considered as the property of a local deity, whose representative on earth was the high priest (patesi), endowed with religious and administrative power. Cities were constantly at war with each other, and if a city managed to capture several neighboring ones, then for a short time a state arose that had the character of a small empire. However, around the middle of the III millennium BC. the Semitic tribes from the Arabian Peninsula, who settled in the northern regions of Babylonia and adopted the Sumerian culture, became so strong that they began to pose a threat to the independence of the Sumerians. Around 2550 BC Sargon of Akkad conquered them and created a power that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Approximately after 2500 BC. the Akkadian power fell into decline, and for the Sumerians a new period of independence and prosperity began, this is the era of the third dynasty of Ur and the rise of Lagash. It ended around 2000 BC. with the strengthening of the Amorite kingdom - a new Semitic state with its capital in Babylon; the Sumerians lost their independence forever, and the territory of the former Sumer and Akkad was absorbed by the power of the ruler Hammurabi. Although the Sumerian people disappeared from the historical scene, and the Sumerian language ceased to be spoken in Babylonia, the Sumerian writing system (cuneiform) and many elements of religion formed an integral part of the Babylonian, and later Assyrian culture. The Sumerians laid the foundations for the civilization of a large part of the Middle East; the ways of organizing the economy, technical skills and scientific knowledge inherited from them played an extremely important role in the life of their successors. At the end of the II millennium BC. e. the Sumerians assimilated with the Babylonians. The ancient slave-owning state of Babylon flourished, which lasted until the 6th century BC. BC e. The Babylonian, Chaldean and Assyrian civilizations took a lot from the culture of the Sumerians. 2. Babylon. Babylon in the ancient Semitic language was called "Bab-ilu", which meant "Gate of God", in Hebrew this name was transformed into "Babel", in Greek and Latin - into "Babylon". The original name of the city has survived the centuries, and still the northernmost of the hills on the site of ancient Babylon is called Babil. The ancient Babylonian kingdom united Sumer and Akkad, becoming the heir to the culture of the ancient Sumerians. The city of Babylon reached its pinnacle when King Hammurabi (reigned 1792-1750) made it the capital of his kingdom. Hammurabi became famous as the author of the world's first set of laws, from where we have come down to, for example, the expression "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." The political system of Babylon differed from the ancient Egyptian one in the lesser importance of the priesthood as an apparatus for managing state irrigation and agriculture in general. The Babylonian political regime was a model of theocracy - the unity of secular and religious power, concentrated in the hands of a despot. This hierarchical structure of society is reflected in the Babylonian ideas about the structure of the world. Assyro-Babylonian culture became the successor of the culture of Ancient Babylonia. Babylon, which was part of the mighty Assyrian state, was a huge (about one million inhabitants) eastern city, proudly calling itself the "navel of the earth." It was in Mesopotamia that the first centers of civilization and statehood appeared in history. 3. Religion of Ancient Mesopotamia. The religion of Mesopotamia in all its major moments was created by the Sumerians. Over time, the Akkadian names of the gods began to replace the Sumerian ones, and the personifications of the elements gave way to star deities. Local gods could also lead the pantheon of a particular region, as happened with Marduk in Babylon or Ashur in the Assyrian capital. But the religious system as a whole, the view of the world and the changes taking place in it differed little from the initial ideas of the Sumerians. None of the Mesopotamian deities was the exclusive source of power, none had supreme power. The fullness of power belonged to the assembly of the gods, who, according to tradition, elected the leader and approved all important decisions. Nothing was set forever or taken for granted. But the instability of the cosmos led to intrigues among the gods, and therefore promised danger and gave rise to anxiety among mortals. The cult of the ruler-symbol, mediator between the world of the living and the dead, people and gods, was closely connected not only with the idea of the holiness of the powerful, possessing magical powers, but also with the certainty that it was the prayers and requests of the leader that would most likely reach the deity and will be most effective. The Mesopotamian rulers did not call themselves (and others did not call them) the sons of the gods, and their sacralization was practically limited to granting them the prerogatives of the high priest or the right recognized for him to have direct contact with the god (for example, an obelisk with the image of the god Shamash, handing Hammurabi a scroll with laws, has been preserved) . The low degree of deification of the ruler and the centralization of political power contributed to the fact that in Mesopotamia quite easily, without fierce rivalry, many gods got along with each other with temples dedicated to them and priests serving them. The Sumerian pantheon already existed at the early stages of civilization and statehood. Gods and goddesses entered into complex relationships with each other, the interpretation of which changed over time and depending on the change of dynasties and ethnic groups (the Semitic tribes of the Akkadians, mixed with the ancient Sumerians, brought with them new gods, new mythological subjects). The world of spiritual culture of the Sumerians is also based on mythology. The mythology of Mesopotamia includes stories about the creation of the earth and its inhabitants, including people molded from clay, in which the images of the gods were imprinted. The gods breathed life into man, i.e. created him to serve them. A complex cosmological system was developed from several heavens, covering the earth as a semi-arch, floating in the world's oceans. Heaven was the abode of the higher gods. The myths tell about the beginning of the world, about the gods and their struggle for the world order. It is a question of primitive chaos - Apsu. This, perhaps, is the male personification of the underground abyss and underground waters. Tiamat is a female personification of the same abyss or the primeval ocean, salt water, depicted as a four-legged monster with wings. There was a struggle between the born gods and the forces of chaos. The god Marduk becomes the head of the gods, but with the condition that the gods recognize his primacy over all others. After a fierce struggle, Marduk defeats and kills the monstrous Tiamat, cuts her body and creates heaven and earth from its parts. There was also a story about a great flood. The famous legend of the great flood, which subsequently spread so widely among different peoples, entered the Bible and was accepted by Christian teaching, is not an idle invention. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia could not perceive catastrophic floods - the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers - otherwise, as a great flood. Some details of the Sumerian story about the great flood (the message of the gods to the virtuous king about the intention to arrange a flood and save him) are reminiscent of the biblical legend of Noah. In Sumerian mythology, there are already myths about the golden age of mankind and paradise life, which eventually became part of the religious ideas of the peoples of Asia Minor, and later - in biblical stories. Most of the Sumerian-Akkadian-Babylonian gods had an anthropomorphic appearance, and only a few, such as Ea or Nergal, bore zoomorphic features, a kind of recollection of totemic ideas of the distant past. Among the sacred animals, the Mesopotamians attributed the bull, personifying power, and the snake, the personification of the feminine. 4. Mesopotamian deities and mythological creatures. Anu, the Akkadian form of the name of the Sumerian god An, is the king of heaven, the supreme deity of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. He is the "father of the gods", his domain is the sky. According to the Babylonian creation hymn Enuma Elish, Anu is descended from Apsu (originally fresh water) and Tiamat (sea). Although Anu was worshiped throughout Mesopotamia, he was especially revered in Uruk and Dera. Enki or Ea, one of the three great Sumerian gods (the other two are Anu and Enlil). Enki is closely associated with Apsu, the personification of fresh water. Because of the importance of fresh water in the religious rituals of Mesopotamia, Enki was also considered the god of magic and wisdom. He did not awaken fear in the hearts of people. In prayers and myths, his wisdom, benevolence and justice are invariably emphasized. In the Enuma Elish, he is the creator of man. As the god of wisdom, he ordered life on earth. The cult of Enki and his consort Damkina flourished in Eridu, Ur, Lars, Uruk and Shuruppak. Enki received from his father An the divine laws - "me" to pass them on to people. "Me" played a huge role in the religious and ethical system of views of the Sumerians. Modern researchers call "me" "divine rules", "divine laws", "factors ordering the organization of the world." "Me" was something like established and controlled by Enki patterns prescribed for each phenomenon of nature or society, relating to both the spiritual and material side of life. They included a variety of concepts: justice, wisdom, heroism, kindness, justice, lies, fear, fatigue, various crafts and arts, concepts associated with a cult, etc. Enlil, along with Anu and Enki, is one of the gods of the main triad of the Sumerian pantheon. Initially, he is the god of storms (Sumerian "en" - "master"; "lil" - "storm"). In Akkadian, he was called Bel ("lord"). As the "lord of storms" he is closely associated with the mountains, and therefore with the earth. This god was truly feared. Perhaps even more feared than honored and respected; he was considered a ferocious and destructive deity, rather than a kind and merciful god. In Sumero-Babylonian theology, the universe was divided into four main parts - heaven, earth, water and the underworld. The gods who ruled over them were respectively Anu, Enlil, Ea and Nergal. Enlil and his wife Ninlil ("nin" - "lady") were especially revered in the religious center of Sumer Nippur. Enlil was the god who commanded the "heavenly host" and who was especially enthusiastically worshiped. Ashur, the chief god of Assyria, as Marduk, the chief god of Babylonia. Ashur was the deity of the city that bore his name from ancient times, and was considered the main god of the Assyrian Empire. The temples of Ashur were called, in particular, E-shara ("House of omnipotence") and E-hursag-gal-kurkura ("House of the great mountain of the earth"). "Great Mountain" is one of the epithets of the god Enlil, which passed to Ashur when he became the main god of Assyria. Marduk is the chief god of Babylon. The temple of Marduk was called E-sag-il. The temple tower, the ziggurat, served as the basis for the creation of the biblical legend of the Tower of Babel. In fact, it was called E-temen-an-ki ("House of the foundation of heaven and earth"). Marduk was the god of the planet Jupiter and the main god of Babylon, in connection with which he absorbed the features and functions of other gods of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. Since the rise of Babylon, from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, Marduk has come to the fore. He is placed at the head of the host of gods. The priests of the Babylonian temples compose myths about the primacy of Marduk over other gods. They are trying to create something like a monotheistic doctrine: there is only one god Marduk, all other gods are just his different manifestations. Political centralization was reflected in this inclination towards monotheism: the Babylonian kings just took over the entire Mesopotamia and became the most powerful rulers of Western Asia. But the attempt to introduce monotheism failed, probably due to the resistance of the priests of local cults, and the former gods continued to be revered. Dagan is a non-Mesopotamian deity by origin. Entered the pantheons of Babylonia and Assyria during the massive penetration of Western Semites into Mesopotamia around 2000 BC. The names of the kings of the north of Babylonia of the Issin dynasty Ishme-Dagan (“Dagan heard”) and Iddin-Dagan (“given by Dagan”) testify to the prevalence of his cult in Babylonia. One of the sons of the king of Assyria Shamshi-Adad (a contemporary of Hammurabi) was named Ishme-Dagan. This god was revered by the Philistines under the name Dagon. Ereshkigal, the cruel and vengeful goddess of the underworld of the dead. Only the god of war, Nergal, who became her husband, could pacify her. The Sumerians called the land of the dead Kur. It is a haven for the shadows of the dead, wandering without any hope. Hell is not an abyss where only sinners are plunged, there are good and bad people, great and insignificant, pious and wicked. The humility and pessimism that permeate the pictures of hell are the natural result of ideas about the role and place of man in the world around him. After death, people found eternal refuge in the gloomy kingdom of Ereshkigal. The border of this kingdom was considered a river, through which the souls of the buried were transported to the kingdom of the dead by a special carrier (the souls of the unburied remained on earth and could cause a lot of trouble to people). In the “land of no return”, there are immutable laws that are binding on both people and gods. Life and death, the kingdom of heaven and earth and the underworld of the dead - these principles were clearly opposed in the religious system of Mesopotamia. In Sumerian culture, for the first time in history, a person made an attempt to morally overcome death, to understand it as a moment of transition to eternity. The Sumerian paradise was not meant for humans. It was a place where only the gods could dwell. The fear of death, the fear of an inevitable transition to the country of Ereshkigal - all this gave rise not only to humility and humility, but also to protest, longing for a different, better and more worthy fate for a person. The Sumerians understood that eternal life, which is the lot of the gods alone, is unattainable for mere mortals, and yet they dreamed of immortality. Gilgamesh, the mythical ruler of the city of Uruk and one of the most popular heroes of Mesopotamian folklore, is the son of the goddess Ninsun and a demon. His adventures are recorded in a long tale on twelve tablets; some of them, unfortunately, have not been completely preserved. Beauty Ishtar, goddess of love and fertility, the most significant goddess of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. Later, she was also assigned the functions of the goddess of war. The most interesting figure in the host of the Sumerian goddesses. Her Sumerian name is Inanna ("lady of heaven"), among the Akkadians she was called Eshtar, among the Assyrians - Istar. She is the sister of the sun god Shamash and the daughter of the moon god Sin. Identified with the planet Venus. Her symbol is a star in a circle. Like other similar female fertility deities, Ishtar also showed the features of an erotic goddess. As the goddess of physical love, she was the patroness of temple harlots. She was also considered a merciful mother, standing up for people before the gods. In the history of Mesopotamia in different cities she was revered under different names. One of the main centers of the Ishtar cult was the city of Uruk. As a goddess of war, she was often depicted sitting on a lion. The god Damuzi (also known as Tammuz) was the male counterpart of the goddess Ishtar. This is the Sumerian-Akkadian god of vegetation. His name means "true son of Apsu". The cult of Damuzi was widespread in the Mediterranean. According to the surviving myths, Tammuz died, descended into the world of the dead, was resurrected and ascended to earth, and then ascended to heaven. During his absence, the land remained barren and the herds fell. Because of the proximity of this god with the natural world, fields and animals, he was also called the "Shepherd". Damuzi is an agricultural deity, his death and resurrection is the personification of the agricultural process. The rites dedicated to Damuzi undoubtedly bear the imprint of very ancient ceremonies associated with the mourning of everything that dies in the autumn-winter period and is reborn to life in the spring. The Thunderer Ishkur - the god of thunder and strong winds - originally represented the same forces as Ningirsu, Ninurta or Zababa. All of them personified the powerful forces of nature (thunder, thunderstorm, rain) and at the same time patronized animal husbandry, hunting, agriculture, military campaigns - depending on what their admirers were doing. As a deity of thunder, he was usually depicted with lightning in his hand. Since agriculture in Mesopotamia was irrigated, Ishkur, who controlled the rains and annual floods, occupied an important place in the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. He and his wife Shala were especially revered in Assyria. Nabu, god of the planet Mercury, son of Marduk and patron deity of scribes. Its symbol was "style" - a reed rod used to mark cuneiform signs on unbaked clay tablets for writing texts. In Old Babylonian times it was known under the name of Nabium; his veneration reached its highest point in the neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire. The names Nabopolassar (Nabu-apla-ushur), Nebuchadnezzar (Nabu-kudurri-ushur) and Nabonidus (Nabu-naid) contain the name of the god Nabu. The main city of his cult was Borsippa near Babylon, where his temple of Ezid ("House of Firmness") was located. His wife was the goddess Tashmetum. Shamash, the Sumerian-Akkadian god of the sun, in Akkadian his name means "sun". The Sumerian name for the god is Utu. Every day he made his way from the eastern mountain towards the western mountain, and at night he retired to the “inside of heaven”. Shamash is the source of light and life, as well as the god of justice, whose rays illuminate all evil in a person. The main centers of the cult of Shamash and his wife Aya were Larsa and Sippar. Nergal, in the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon, the god of the planet Mars and the underworld. His name in Sumerian means "Power of the great abode". Nergal also assumed the functions of Erra, originally the plague god. According to Babylonian mythology, Nergal descended into the World of the Dead and took power over it from his queen Ereshkigal. Ningirsu, god of the Sumerian city of Lagash. Many of his attributes are the same as those of the common Sumerian god Ninurta. He is a god who does not tolerate injustice. His wife is the goddess Baba (or Bau). Ninhursag, mother goddess in Sumerian mythology, also known as Ninmah ("Great Lady") and Nintu ("Lady giving birth"). Under the name Ki ("Earth"), she was originally An's consort; from this divine couple all the gods were born. According to one myth, Ninmah helped Enki create the first man out of clay. In another myth, she cursed Enki for eating the plants she created, but then she repented and cured him of the diseases resulting from the curse. Ninurta, Sumerian god of the hurricane, as well as war and hunting. His emblem is a scepter surmounted by two lion heads. The wife is the goddess Gula. As the god of war, he was highly revered in Assyria. His cult especially flourished in the city of Kalhu. Sin, Sumerian-Akkadian deity of the moon. Its symbol is the crescent. Since the Moon was associated with the measurement of time, he was known as the "Lord of the Month". Sin was considered the father of Shamash, the god of the sun, and Ishtar, the goddess of love. The popularity of the god Sin throughout Mesopotamian history is attested by the large number of proper names of which his name is an element. The main center of the cult of Sin was the city of Ur. The functions of the Sumerian goddesses were even more similar than the gods. Called differently, the goddesses, in fact, represented one idea - the idea of mother earth. Each of them was the mother of the gods, the goddess of harvest and fertility, the adviser of her husband, the co-ruler and patroness of the city that belonged to the god-spouse. All of them personified the feminine, the mythological symbol of which was Ki or Ninhursag. Ninlil, Nintu, Baba, Ninsun, Geshtinanna, in essence, did not differ much from the mother of the gods Ki. In some cities, the cult of the patron goddess was older than the cult of the patron god. Fate, more precisely, the essence or something "determining destiny" among the Sumerians was called "namtar"; the name of the demon of death, Namtar, also sounded. Perhaps it was he who made a decision about the death of a person, which even the gods could not cancel. For everything that happened on earth, it was necessary to thank the gods. Above each city, temples "raised their hands" to heaven, from where the gods watched their servants. The gods had to be constantly prayed for help and assistance. Appeal to the gods took a variety of forms: the construction of temples and a network of canals, sacrifices and the accumulation of temple wealth - "God's property", prayers, spells, pilgrimages, participation in the mysteries, and much more. But even the most powerful gods could not escape their fate. Like humans, they also suffered defeat. The Sumerians explained this by the fact that the right to make the final decision belonged to the council of the gods, against which none of its members could oppose. 5. Priesthood. Priests were considered intermediaries between people and supernatural forces. Priests - servants of temples, usually came from noble families, their title was hereditary. One of the ritual requirements for candidates for the priesthood was the requirement not to have physical defects. Along with the priests, there were also priestesses, as well as temple servants. Many of them were associated with the cult of the goddess of love Ishtar. The same goddess was also served by eunuch priests, who wore women's clothes and performed women's dances. The cult was generally strictly regulated. The Babylonian temples were a very impressive sight, they served as an occasion for the creation of the Jewish legend about the construction of the Tower of Babel. Only the priests had access to the temples - the "dwellings of the gods". Inside the temple was a labyrinth of economic, residential, religious premises, decorated with extraordinary splendor, splendor and wealth. The priests at the same time were scientists. They monopolized the knowledge that was necessary for the conduct of an organized irrigation and agricultural economy. In Babylonia, astronomical science developed very early, not inferior to Egyptian. Observations were made by priests from the height of their temple towers. Orientation of knowledge to the sky, the need for continuous observations of the luminaries, as well as the concentration of these observations in the hands of the priests - all this was significantly reflected in the religion and mythology of the peoples of Mesopotamia. The process of astralization of deities began quite early. Gods and goddesses became associated with heavenly bodies. God Ura-Sin was identified with the Moon, Nabu with Mercury, Ishtar with Venus, Nergal with Mars, Marduk with Jupiter, Ninurta with Saturn. It was from Babylonia that this custom of naming heavenly bodies, especially planets, by the names of the gods passed to the Greeks, from them to the Romans, and the Roman (Latin) names of the gods have been preserved in the names of these planets up to the present day. The months of the year were also dedicated to the gods. The astral orientation of the religion of Babylon also influenced the creation of the calendar, a 12-decimal time system, subsequently inherited by Europeans. The Babylonian priests attributed a sacred meaning to the numerical relations of time intervals and divisions of space. This is connected with the appearance of sacred numbers - 3, 7, 12, 60, etc. These sacred numbers were also inherited by European and other peoples. 6. Demons. In the religion of Mesopotamia, extremely ancient beliefs about numerous lower spirits, mostly evil, destructive, played a large role. These are the spirits of the earth, air, water - Anunaki and Igigi, the personification of diseases and all sorts of misfortunes that affect a person. To combat them, the priests made up many spells. Spells list their names and "specialties". To protect against evil spirits, in addition to numerous incantation formulas, amulets-apotropa (amulets) were widely used. As amulets, for example, the image of the most evil spirit was used, so disgusting in appearance that, upon seeing it, the spirit must run away in fear. The Sumerians explained death and the illnesses that preceded it by the intervention of demons, which, according to their ideas, were evil and cruel creatures. According to the beliefs of the Sumerians, in the hierarchy of supernatural beings, demons stood one step below the most insignificant deities. However, they managed to torment and torment not only people, but also powerful gods. True, there were also good demons, those that guarded the gates of temples, private houses, guarded the peace of man, but there were few of them compared to the evil ones. Demons could cause various diseases. The more difficult it was to cure the disease, i.e. the more powerful were the demons that caused the disease, the more complex was the spell formula. Among the most cruel, invincible, bringing especially much harm to people, were the Udug demons. There were seven of these powerful demons. They were called "spirits of death", "skeletons", "breath of death", "persecutors of people". Only the spells of priests initiated into the secrets of the most complex conspiracies, who knew the name of a suitable deity for the occasion, could drive away Udug. The demons were not limited to the destruction of people's health. Through their fault, travelers lost their way in the desert, storms destroyed their homes, tornadoes destroyed crops. Demons were created in order to bring misfortune, create difficulties, torment people, complicate their lives. 7. Magic and mantic. At the service of the gods, magic and mantles, which had achieved considerable success, were put. Descriptions of magical rites, along with texts of conspiracy spells, have come down to us in large numbers. Among them are known rituals of healing and protective, harmful, military magic. Healing magic was mixed, as is usually the case, with folk medicine, and it is not easy to separate one from the other in the surviving recipes; but in some the magic appears quite distinctly. The system of mantika - various divination - was extremely developed. Among the priests were special experts-fortunetellers (baru); not only private individuals, but also kings turned to them for predictions. Dreams were interpreted to the bar, fortune telling was based on animals, on the flight of birds, on the shape of oil spots on the water, and so on. But the most characteristic method of mantika was divination by the entrails of sacrificial animals, especially by the liver. The technique of this method (hepatoscopy) has been developed to the point of virtuosity. The sacrificial ritual was complex: there was the burning of incense, and the libation of sacrificial water, oil, beer, wine; sheep and other animals were slaughtered on sacrificial tables. The priests who were in charge of these rites knew what dishes and drinks were pleasing to the gods, what could be considered “clean” and what was “unclean”. During the sacrifices, prayers were offered for the well-being of the donor. The more generous the gifts, the more solemn the ceremony. Specially trained priests accompanied the worshipers by playing lyres, harps, cymbals, tambourines, flutes and other instruments. 8. Achievements of the peoples of Ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerian priests were engaged not only in theology, but also in the exact sciences, medicine, agriculture, and administrative management. Through the efforts of the priests, much was done in the field of calendar astronomy, mathematics and writing. At the same time, it should be noted that, although all this pre-scientific knowledge had a completely independent cultural value, their connection with religion (and the connection is not only genetic, but also functional) is undeniable. Many sources testify to the high mathematical achievements of the Sumerians, their building art (it was the Sumerians who built the world's first step pyramid). They are the authors of the most ancient calendar, recipe guide, library catalogue. The Sumerians made important discoveries: they were the first to learn how to make colored glass and bronze, invented the wheel and cuneiform writing, formed the first professional army, compiled the first legal codes, invented arithmetic, which was based on a positional calculation system (accounts). They learned to measure the area of geometric shapes. The priests calculated the length of the year (365 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes, 41 seconds). This discovery was kept secret by the priests and was used to strengthen power over the people, compose religious and mystical rituals and organize the leadership of the state. They were the first to divide an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds. Priests and magicians used knowledge about the movement of the stars, the Moon, the Sun, about the behavior of animals for divination, foreseeing events in the state. They were subtle psychologists, skilled psychics, hypnotists. They learned to distinguish the stars from the planets and dedicated each day of the seven-day week "invented" by them to a separate deity (traces of this tradition were preserved in the names of the days of the week in the Romance languages). The artistic culture of the Sumerians is quite highly developed. Their architecture and sculpture are notable for their beauty and artistic perfection. In Uruk, a complex of sacred structures, zakgurats, was built, which became the center of spiritual culture. In Sumer, gold was first used in combination with silver, bronze and bone. In verbal art, the Sumerians were the first to use the method of continuous storytelling of events. This made it possible to create the first epic compositions, the most famous and attractive of which is the epic legend "Gilgamesh". The characters of the world of animals and plants that appeared in fables were very loved by the people, just like proverbs. Sometimes a philosophical note slips through literature, especially in works devoted to the theme of innocent suffering, but the attention of the authors is focused not so much on suffering as on the miracle of liberation from it. The Babylonians also left to their descendants astrology, the science of the alleged connection of human destinies with the location of heavenly bodies. 9. Conclusion. The Babylonian religious and mythological system, associated with the extensive knowledge of the Babylonian priests, especially in the field of astronomy, time reckoning, metrology, spread beyond the country. It influenced the religious ideas of the Jews, the Neoplatonists, the early Christians. In the ancient and early medieval era, the Babylonian priests were considered the keepers of some unprecedented, deep wisdom. Demology has left a lot behind: the entire medieval European phantasmagoria about evil spirits, which inspired the inquisitors for their wild persecution of "witches", goes back mainly to this source. Ancient Jews widely used Sumerian legends, ideas about the world and human history, cosmogony, adapting them to new conditions, to their ethical principles. The results of such a processing of Sumerian ideas sometimes turned out to be unexpected and very far from the prototype. Vivid evidence of Mesopotamian influence is also found in the Bible. The Jewish and Christian religions have invariably opposed the spiritual direction that was formed in Mesopotamia, but the legislation and forms of government discussed in the Bible owe to the influence of Mesopotamian prototypes. Like many of their neighbors, the Jews were subject to legislative and social regulations that were generally characteristic of the countries of the Fertile Crescent and largely dated back to Mesopotamian. It should be noted that by no means all aspects of life, not the entire system of ideas and institutions of ancient Mesopotamia were determined by religious ideas. In the rich Babylonian literature, one can find some glimpses of a critical look at religious traditions. In one philosophical text - about the "innocent sufferer" - its author raises the question of the injustice of the order in which a deity punishes a person without any fault, and no religious rituals help him. Also, the texts of the laws of Hammurabi convince us that the rules of law were practically free from them. This very significant point indicates that the religious system of Mesopotamia, in the image and likeness of which similar systems of other Middle Eastern states were subsequently formed, was not total, i.e. did not monopolize the entire sphere of spiritual life. It is possible that this played a certain role in the emergence of freethinking in antiquity. The history of the cultures of Mesopotamia provides an example of the opposite type of cultural process, namely: intensive mutual influence, cultural inheritance, borrowings and continuity. 10. References: 1. Avdiev V.I. History of the Ancient East. - M., 1970. 2. Afanasyeva V., Lukonin V., Pomerantseva N., The Art of the Ancient East: A Small History of Art. - M., 1977. 3. Belitsky M. The Forgotten World of the Sumerians. - M., 1980. 4. Vasiliev L.S. History of the Religions of the East. - M., 1988. 5. History of the Ancient East. - M., 1979. 6. Culture of the peoples of the East: Old Babylonian culture. - M., 1988. 7. Lyubimov L.D. Art of the Ancient World: A Book to Read. - M., 1971. 8. Tokarev S.A. Religion in the history of the peoples of the world. - M., 1987.

The beginning of the Ancient Chinese civilization dates back to 2-3 millennia BC, when the first human settlements arose on the banks of the Huang He. Basically, the settlers lived in the valleys of the large rivers - the Yangtze and the Yellow River, where the climate was quite severe, the winters were cold, and the soil was very difficult to cultivate.

In ancient China, they came to irrigate the land in the 1st millennium BC, which is much later than in ancient Egypt and Sumer. It was during this period that they began to develop large valleys near the two main rivers in China.

The origin of civilization was directly related to the emergence of the first large settlements, which considered themselves city-states and constantly fought among themselves.

A few centuries later, these cities were united into one powerful state, which from now on possessed a vast territory.

The first ruling dynasty of the Celestial Empire

Qin is considered the first ruling dynasty in ancient China. The emperor's name was Qin Shi Huangdi, which meant "the first emperor of Qin", and he himself called himself the Son of Heaven, so his empire began to be called the Celestial Empire.

The empire he formed was an example of oriental despotism, all the property of the empire belonged to the emperor, the lives of his subjects also belonged only to him. The emperor could punish and kill anyone.

His despotism reached the point that he ordered to burn all the records and books of the Chinese sages - he was afraid that the books would make his subjects think about their position and about his reign.

Qin Shi Huang was more than anything afraid of conspiracies, so he was very suspicious: he never slept in the same room for more than two nights in a row, he constantly moved from his palaces.

He waged wars with neighboring states and managed to subjugate the nearby territories, rice, ivory, and various products were imported from there. Military settlements were created there, and the local population was forced to work and harvest for the Celestial Empire.

Despotism against the Huns: The Great Wall of China

Ancient China was afraid of the attacks of the nomadic tribes of the Huns, whose strength inspired terror and fear. The Huns were terrible and cruel warriors who attacked Chinese settlements and disappeared instantly - no one could catch up with them.

Therefore, the emperor, pushing them to the north, decided to build a large wall that would protect the territory of Ancient China. Thus, the famous and indestructible Great Wall of China was built.

Hundreds of thousands of slaves and prisoners of war were gathered for its construction. As a result of exhausting work, during which a large number of people died, the wall stretched for five thousand kilometers.

Special towers were installed on it, which were guarded by soldiers. Thus, they could warn the population if foreign troops were approaching the wall of Ancient China. The Great Wall of China was built so solidly and firmly that it has survived to this day.

But neither despotism nor such a powerful structure as a wall helped Qin rule further. After the death of the first emperor, a popular uprising broke out. The Qin dynasty was overthrown. And the next dynasty of Ancient China was the Han Empire, which was formed in the 3rd century BC.

» Sumerians

For thousands of years, people believed in the supernatural nature of the gods, attributing to them the ability to live forever, and themselves sought to achieve divine immortality. The Sumerian king Gilgamesh wandered in search of the flower of eternal life, the legendary conqueror Alexander the Great was looking for a stream of living water, the navigators Christopher Columbus and Ponsade Leon showed miracles of courage, trying to discover the Fountain of Youth in the Western Hemisphere. Little by little, immortality became a myth. However, in ancient times, people could become like gods and live ten times longer than their fellow tribesmen.

Sumerians- this is the first of the peoples living on the territory of Ancient Babylonia (in modern Iraq) who reached the level of civilization. Probably still ok. 4000 BC the Sumerians came to the swampy plain (Ancient Sumer) in the upper reaches of the Persian Gulf from the east or descended from the mountains of Elam. The Sumerians drained the swamps, learned to regulate river floods and mastered agriculture. With the development of trade with Iran, Elam, Assyria, India and areas of the Mediterranean coast, the Sumerian settlements turned into prosperous city-states, which by 3500 BC. created a mature civilization of an urban type with developed metalworking, textile crafts, monumental architecture and a writing system.

Where did the ancient people have such amazing knowledge? Thousands of Sumerian texts and illustrations on astronomy and mathematics have been discovered. Among them are works on fundamental mathematics, calculating the areas of complex figures, extracting roots, solving equations with two and three unknowns. The Sumerians used the most complex sexagesimal calculus, based on a combination of the numbers b and 10. Complex calculus systems of this kind began to be used in the modern world quite recently, with the advent of computers. Among ufologists, there is a version that the Sumerians received knowledge ... from aliens. Here is a summary of these ideas.

The Sumerian texts contain information about the origin, development and structure of the solar system, including a list and characteristics of the planets. One of the drawings depicts the solar system. In the center is the Sun, surrounded by all the planets known today. Only the Sumerians placed Pluto next to Saturn and described it as its satellite. And between Mars and Jupiter, the Sumerians "saw" an unknown large planet. They called it Nibiru, which means "crossing". Nibiru allegedly had a very elongated and inclined orbit and passed between Mars and Jupiter once every 3600 years. It was from this planet, as they read in the Sumerian texts, that the Anunaki came to Earth, "descending from heaven to Earth" about 445 thousand years ago. (Before that, they studied all the planets of the solar system from their observatories.) Why did the inhabitants of Nibiru land on Earth?

Moreover, according to the Sumerian writings, not once, but regularly, every 3600 years? It turns out that the planet Nibiru is facing an environmental problem. To protect their increasingly thin atmosphere, the Anunaki created a shield of golden particles. (Exactly the same idea is used in modern spacecraft to protect astronauts from radiation).

The Anunnaki needed gold. They discovered it on the seventh planet, counting from outside to inside - that is, on planet Earth - and sent the first expedition to Earth. At first they unsuccessfully tried to extract the precious metal from the waters of the Persian Gulf, and then they took up the development of mines in Southeast Africa. About 300,000 years ago, the Anunnaki, who worked in the gold mining, got tired of the hard work and rebelled. Then alien scientists with the help of genetic manipulations created special workers - Homo sapiens. Aliens endowed them with their knowledge and skills. Gradually, there was a merger of two civilizations - terrestrial and alien, Homo sapiens and Anunaki had common children.

Modern archaeological research has confirmed that there were indeed mining operations in South Africa during the Stone Age. Archaeologists have discovered extensive gold mines up to 20 meters deep and determined the age of the mines - from 80 to 100 thousand years! By the way, Zulu legends say that flesh-and-blood slaves artificially created by the "first people" worked in these mines. The existence of the dead planet Nibiru is indirectly confirmed by the discovery of American astronomers. They found fragments of the planet that revolve around the Sun in a highly elongated elliptical orbit, passing just between Mars and Jupiter.

The most important centers in this early historical period were the cities of Ur, Uruk (Erech), Umma, Eridu, Lagash, Nippur, Sippar, and Akkad, a Semitic state in northern Mesopotamia. Cities were constantly at war with each other, and if a city managed to capture several neighboring ones, then for a short time a state arose that had the character of a small empire. However, around the middle of the III millennium BC. the Semitic tribes from the Arabian Peninsula, who settled in the northern regions of Babylonia and adopted the Sumerian culture, became so strong that they began to pose a threat to the independence of the Sumerians. OK. 2550 BC Sargon of Akkad conquered them and created a power that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Approximately after 2500 BC. the Akkadian power fell into decline, and for the Sumerians a new period of independence and prosperity began, this is the era of the third dynasty of Ur and the rise of Lagash under the rule of Gudea. It ended ok. 2000 BC with the strengthening of the Amorite kingdom - a new Semitic state with its capital in Babylon; the Sumerians lost their independence forever, and the territory of the former Sumer and Akkad was absorbed by the power of Hammurabi.

In the state structure, the Sumerians had all the attributes of a modern developed state. Judge for yourself: a jury trial, a bicameral parliamentary system consisting of elected deputies, civil councils (similar to self-government committees). And this is the fourth millennium BC! In medicine, the Sumerians used herbal medicine, knew anatomy and chemistry, pharmaceuticals, astronomy, and many sections of modern mathematics well. Developed weaving and textile industry, progressive efficient agriculture could be an example for similar modern industries.

Very few architectural monuments of the Sumerian era have survived. But according to the amazing temples, we can safely say that the religion of the Sumerians was highly developed. The Sumerian temple was built on a rammed clay platform. Long stairs or ramps led to it - gentle sloping platforms. Raised above the residential part of the city, the temple reminded people of the inseparable connection between Heaven and Earth. The temple had no windows, the light penetrated into the premises through openings under flat roofs and high entrances in the form of arches. The walls of the Sumerian temples were decorated with reliefs that told about historical events in the life of the city and about everyday affairs. The relief consisted of several tiers. Events unfolded in front of the viewer sequentially from tier to tier. All the characters were the same height - only the king was always portrayed larger than the others. Sumerian ziggurats are known. A ziggurat is a stepped pyramid, on top of which there was a small sanctuary. The lower tiers were painted black, the middle tiers red, and the upper tiers white. In Ur, a three-tiered ziggurat was built, the height of which was 21 meters. Later it was rebuilt, increasing the number of tiers to seven.

Introduction

The Sumerians were the first of the peoples living on the territory of Ancient Babylonia (in modern Iraq) who reached the level of civilization. Probably still ok. 4000 BC the Sumerians came to the swampy plain (Ancient Sumer) in the upper reaches of the Persian Gulf from the east or descended from the mountains of Elam. They drained swamps, learned to regulate river floods and mastered agriculture. With the development of trade with Iran, Elam, Assyria, India and the Mediterranean coast, the Sumerian settlements turned into prosperous city-states, which by 3500 BC. created a mature civilization of an urban type with developed metalworking, textile crafts, monumental architecture and a writing system.

1.History of the formation of the state of Ancient Sumer

In the second half of the 4th millennium BC. e. in southern Mesopotamia, the Sumerians appeared - a people who, in later written documents, call themselves "black-headed" (Sumer. "Sang-ngiga", Akkad. "Tsalmat-Kakkadi"). They were a people ethnically, linguistically and culturally alien to the Semitic tribes who settled northern Mesopotamia at about the same time or somewhat later. The Sumerian language, with its bizarre grammar, is not related to any of the languages that have survived to this day. They belong to the Mediterranean race. Attempts to find their original homeland have so far ended in failure. Apparently, the country where the Sumerians came from was somewhere in Asia, rather in a mountainous area, but located in such a way that its inhabitants could master the art of navigation. Evidence that the Sumerians came from the mountains is their way of building temples, which were erected on artificial mounds or on terraced hills made of bricks or clay blocks. It is unlikely that such a custom could have arisen among the inhabitants of the plains. It, along with beliefs, had to be brought from their ancestral home by the inhabitants of the mountains, who paid honors to the gods on the mountain peaks. And one more evidence - in the Sumerian language, the words "country" and "mountain" are written the same way. Much also speaks for the fact that the Sumerians came to Mesopotamia by sea. First, they primarily appeared in the mouths of rivers. Secondly, the gods Anu, Enlil and Enki played the main role in their ancient beliefs. And, finally, having barely settled in Mesopotamia, the Sumerians immediately took up the organization of an irrigation economy, navigation and navigation along rivers and canals. The first Sumerians to appear in Mesopotamia were a small group of people. At that time, it was not necessary to think about the possibility of mass migration by sea. The Sumerian epic mentions their homeland, which they considered the ancestral home of all mankind - the island of Dilmun, but there are no mountains on this island.

Having settled in the mouths of the rivers, the Sumerians captured the city of Eredu. This was their first city. Later they began to consider it the cradle of their statehood. After a number of years, the Sumerians moved deep into the Mesopotamian plain, building or conquering new cities. For the most distant times, the Sumerian tradition is so legendary that it has almost no historical significance. It was already known from the data of Berossus that the Babylonian priests divided the history of their country into two periods: “before the flood” and “after the flood”. Berossus, in his historical work, notes 10 kings who ruled "before the flood", and gives fantastic figures for their reign. The same data is given by the Sumerian text of the 21st century BC. e., the so-called "Royal List". In addition to Eredu, the "Royal List" names Bad-Tibira, Larak (subsequently insignificant settlements), as well as Sippar in the north and Shuruppak in the center as "antediluvian" centers of the Sumerians. This newcomer people subjugated the country, not displacing - this the Sumerians simply could not - the local population, but on the contrary, they adopted many achievements of the local culture. The identity of material culture, religious beliefs, socio-political organization of various Sumerian city-states does not at all prove their political community. On the contrary, it can rather be assumed that from the very beginning of the Sumerian expansion deep into Mesopotamia, rivalry arose between individual cities, both newly founded and conquered.

I Early Dynastic Period (c. 2750-2615 BC)

At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. in Mesopotamia there were about a dozen city-states. Surrounding, small villages were subordinate to the center, headed by the ruler, who was sometimes both a commander and a high priest. These small states are now commonly referred to by the Greek term "nomes".

Of the cities of the Sumerian-East Semitic culture outside Lower Mesopotamia, it is important to note Mari on the Middle Euphrates, Ashur on the Middle Tigris, and Der, located east of the Tigris, on the road to Elam.

The cult center of the Sumerian-East Semitic cities was Nippur. It is possible that originally it was Mr. Nippur who was called Sumer. In Nippur there was E-kur - the temple of the common Sumerian god Enlil. Enlil was revered as the supreme god for thousands of years by all the Sumerians and Eastern Semites (Akkadians), although Nippur never represented a political center either in historical or, judging by Sumerian myths and legends, in prehistoric times.

Analysis of both the "King's List" and archaeological data show that the two main centers of Lower Mesopotamia from the beginning of the Early Dynastic period were: in the north - Kish, dominating the network of channels of the Euphrates-Irnina group, in the south - alternately Ur and Uruk. Eshnunna and other cities of the Diyala river valley, on the one hand, and Lagash nome on the I-nina-gena channel, on the other, were usually outside the influence of both the northern and southern centers.

II Early Dynastic Period (c. 2615-2500 BC)

The defeat of Aga under the walls of Uruk caused, as it seems, the invasion of the Elamites, subjugated by his father. The Kish tradition places after the I dynasty of Kish the dynasty of the Elamite city of Avan, which, obviously, established its hegemony, in addition to Elam, in the northern part of Mesopotamia. That part of the "list" where one would expect the names of the kings of the Avan dynasty is damaged, but it is possible that one of these kings was Mesalim.

In the south, parallel to the Avan dynasty, the I dynasty of Uruk continued to exercise hegemony, the ruler of which Gilgamesh and his successors managed, as documents from the archive of the city of Shuruppak testify, to rally a number of city-states around themselves into a military alliance. This union united the states located in the southern part of Lower Mesopotamia, along the Euphrates below Nippur, along Iturungal and I-nina-gene: Uruk, Adab, Nippur, Lagash, Shuruppak, Umma, etc. If we take into account the territories covered by this union, we can , probably, to attribute the time of its existence to the reign of Mesalim, since it is known that under Meselim the Iturungal and I-nina-gena channels were already under his hegemony. It was precisely a military union of small states, and not a united state, because in the documents of the archive there is no data on the intervention of the rulers of Uruk in the affairs of Shuruppak or on the payment of tribute to them.

The rulers of the “nome” states included in the military alliance, unlike the rulers of Uruk, did not wear the title “en” (the cult head of the nome), but usually called themselves ensi or ensia[k] (Akkad. ishshiakkum, ishshakkum). This term apparently meant "master (or priest) laying structures." In reality, however, the ensi had both cult and even military functions, as he led a squad of temple people. Some rulers of the nomes sought to appropriate the title of military leader - lugal. Often this reflected the ruler's claim to independence. However, not every title "lugal" testified to hegemony over the country. The military leader-hegemon called himself not just “lugal of his nome”, but either “lugal of Kish” if he claimed hegemony in the northern nomes, or “lugal of the country” (lugal of Kalama), in order to obtain such a title, it was necessary to recognize the military supremacy of this ruler in Nippur as the center of the Sumerian cult union. The rest of the lugals practically did not differ from the ensi in their functions. In some nomes there were only ensi (for example, in Nippur, Shuruppak, Kisur), in others only lugals (for example, in Ur), in others, both at different periods (for example, in Kish) or even, perhaps, simultaneously in a number of cases (in Uruk, in Lagash) the ruler temporarily received the title of lugal along with special powers - military or otherwise.

III Early Dynastic Period (c. 2500-2315 BC)

Stage III of the Early Dynastic period is characterized by a rapid growth of wealth and property stratification, exacerbation of social contradictions and a relentless war of all the nomes of Mesopotamia and Elam against each other with an attempt by the rulers of each of them to seize hegemony over all the others.

During this period, the irrigation network expanded. From the Euphrates in a southwestern direction, new canals Arahtu, Apkallatu and Me-Enlil were dug, some of which reached the strip of western swamps, and some completely gave their water to irrigation. In the southeast direction from the Euphrates, parallel to the Irnina, the Zubi canal was dug, which originated from the Euphrates above the Irnina and thereby weakened the significance of the nomes of Kish and Kutu. New nomes were formed on these channels:

Babylon (nowadays a number of settlements near the city of Hilla) on the Arakhtu canal. Dilbat (now Deylem settlement) on the Apkallatu canal.
Marad (now the settlement of Vanna va-as-Sa'dun) on the Me-Enlil canal. Casallu (exact location unknown).
Push on the Zubi channel, in its lower part.

New canals were diverted from Iturungal, as well as dug inside the Lagash nome. Accordingly, new cities arose. On the Euphrates below Nippur, probably based on dug canals, cities also grew up claiming an independent existence and fighting for water sources. It is possible to note such a city as Kisura (in Sumerian “border”, most likely, the border of the zones of northern and southern hegemony, now the settlement of Abu-Khatab), some nomes and cities mentioned in inscriptions from the 3rd stage of the Early Dynastic period cannot be localized.

The raid on the southern regions of Mesopotamia, undertaken from the city of Mari, dates back to the 3rd stage of the Early Dynastic period. The raid from Mari roughly coincided with the end of the hegemony of the Elamite Avan in the north of Lower Mesopotamia and the 1st dynasty of Uruk in the south of the country. Whether there was a causal connection is hard to say. After that, two local dynasties began to compete in the north of the country, as can be seen on the Euphrates, the other on the Tigris and Irnina. These were the II dynasty of Kish and the dynasty of Akshak. Half of the names of the Lugals who ruled there, preserved by the "Royal List", are East Semitic (Akkadian). Probably both dynasties were Akkadian in language, and the fact that some of the kings bore Sumerian names is explained by the strength of cultural tradition. Steppe nomads - Akkadians, who apparently came from Arabia, settled in Mesopotamia almost simultaneously with the Sumerians. They penetrated into the central part of the Tigris and Euphrates, where they soon settled and switched to agriculture. Approximately from the middle of the 3rd millennium, the Akkadians established themselves in two large centers of northern Sumer - the cities of Kish and Aksha. But both of these dynasties were of little importance compared to the new hegemon of the south - the lugals of Ur.

According to the ancient Sumerian epic, about 2600 BC. e. Sumer is united under the rule of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, who later transferred power to the dynasty of Ur. Then the throne is seized by Lugalannemundu, the ruler of Adab, who subjugated the space from the Mediterranean to southwestern Iran to Sumer. At the end of the XXIV century. BC e. the new conqueror - the king of Umma Lugalzagesi expands these possessions to the Persian Gulf.

In the XXIV century BC. e. most of Sumer was conquered by the Akkadian king Sharrumken (Sargon the Great). By the middle of the II millennium BC. e. Sumer was swallowed up by the growing Babylonian Empire. Even earlier, towards the end of the III millennium BC. e., the Sumerian language lost its status as a spoken language, although it persisted for another two millennia as the language of literature and culture.

2. Socio-economic structure

Although a number of temple archives have come down from ancient Sumer, including those dating back to the period of the Jemdet-Nasr culture, however, the social relations reflected in the documents of only one of the Lagash temples of the 24th century have been sufficiently studied. BC e. According to one of the most common points of view in Soviet science, the lands surrounding the Sumerian city were divided at that time into naturally irrigated and high fields that required artificial irrigation. In addition, there were also fields in the swamp, that is, in the territory that did not dry out after the flood and therefore required additional drainage work in order to create soil suitable for agriculture here. Part of the naturally irrigated fields was the "property" of the gods, and as the temple economy passed into the jurisdiction of their "deputy" - the king, it actually became royal. Obviously, high fields and fields-“swamps” until the moment of their cultivation were, along with the steppe, that “land without a master”, which is mentioned in one of the inscriptions of the ruler of Lagash, Entemena. The processing of high fields and fields-“swamps” required large expenditures of labor and funds, so relations of hereditary ownership gradually developed here. Apparently, it is about these ignoble owners of high fields in Lagash that the texts relating to the 24th century speak. BC e. The emergence of hereditary ownership contributed to the destruction from within the collective farming of rural communities. True, at the beginning of the III millennium, this process was still very slow.

The lands of rural communities have been located in naturally irrigated areas since ancient times. Of course, not all naturally irrigated land was distributed among rural communities. They had their allotments on that land, on the zeros of which neither the king nor the temples conducted their own economy. Only lands that were not in the direct possession of the ruler or the gods were divided into allotments, individual or collective. Individual allotments were distributed among the nobility and representatives of the state and temple apparatus, while collective allotments were reserved for rural communities. The adult males of the communities were organized into separate groups, which, both in war and in agricultural work, acted together, under the supervision of their elders. In Shuruppak they were called gurush, i.e. "strong", "well done"; in Lagash in the middle of the III millennium they were called Shublugal - "subordinates of the king." According to some researchers, the “subordinates of the king” were not community members, but workers of the temple economy already cut off from the community, but this assumption remains controversial. Judging by some inscriptions, the “subordinates of the king” are not necessarily considered as the staff of any temple. They could also work on the land of the king or ruler. We have reason to believe that in the event of war, the "subordinates of the king" were included in the army of Lagash.

The allotments given to individuals, or perhaps, in some cases, to rural communities, were small. Even the allotments of the nobility at that time amounted to only a few tens of hectares. Some allotments were given free of charge, while others were given for a tax equal to 1/6 -1/8 of the crop.

The owners of allotments worked in the fields of temple (later also royal) households, usually for four months. Draft cattle, as well as a plow and other tools of labor, were given to them from the temple economy. They also cultivated their fields with the help of temple cattle, since they could not keep cattle on their small plots. For four months of work in the temple or royal household, they received barley, in a small amount - emmer, wool, and the rest of the time (i.e., for eight months) they fed on the harvest from their allotment. There is also another point of view on social relations in early Sumer. According to this point of view, both naturally flooded and high lands were communal lands, since the irrigation of the latter required the use of communal water reserves and could be carried out without large expenditures of labor, possible only with the collective work of communities. According to the same point of view, persons who worked on the land allocated to temples or the king (including - as indicated by the sources - and on land reclaimed from the steppe) have already lost contact with the community and were subjected to exploitation. They, like slaves, worked in the temple economy all year round and received in-kind allowances for their work, and at the beginning they also received land plots. Harvest on the temple land was not considered the harvest of the communities. The people who worked on this land had neither self-government, nor any rights in the community or benefits from the conduct of the community economy, therefore, according to this point of view, they should be distinguished from the community members themselves, who were not involved in the temple economy and had the right, with the knowledge of the great families and the communities they belonged to, buy and sell land. According to this point of view, the land holdings of the nobility were not limited to the allotments that they received from the temple.

Slaves worked all year round. Prisoners captured in the war were turned into slaves, slaves were also bought by tamkars (trading agents of the temples or the king) outside the state of Lagash. Their labor was used in construction and irrigation works. They guarded the fields from birds and were also used in horticulture and partly in cattle breeding. Their labor was also used in fishing, which continued to play a significant role.

The conditions in which the slaves lived were extremely difficult, and therefore the mortality rate among them was enormous. The life of a slave was little valued. There is evidence of the sacrifice of slaves.

3.State system

Sumer was not a single state. On its territory there were several dozen independent cities and regions. The most famous were the cities of Eridu, Ur, Lagash, Umma, Uruk, Kish.

At the head of the city and the region was the ruler, who bore the title of "ensi" ("patesi"). It was the high priest of the main city temple. If the power of the ruler went beyond the city, the ruler was given the title of "lugal". Their functions were the same and were reduced to the management of public construction and irrigation, the temple economy; they led the community cult, led the army, presided over the council of elders and the people's assembly.

The council of elders and the people's assembly elected the ruler, gave him recommendations in all important matters, carried out general control over his activities, carried out court and management of community property. Thus, these were the organs that limited the power of the ruler.

4. The most ancient code of laws of the Sumerians

The fate of great archaeological discoveries is sometimes very interesting. In 1900 During excavations at the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur, an expedition from the University of Pennsylvania discovered two badly damaged fragments of a clay tablet with an almost illegible text. Among other more valuable exhibits, they did not attract much attention and were sent to the Museum of the Ancient East, which was located in Istanbul. Its keeper F. R. Kraus, having connected the parts of the table with each other, determined that it contains the texts of ancient laws. Kraus cataloged the artifact in the Nippur Collection and forgot about the clay tablet for five long decades.

Only in 1952. Samuel Kramer, at the prompt of the same Kraus, again drew attention to this table, and his attempts to decipher the texts were partially crowned with success. The poorly preserved, cracked tablet contained a copy of the legal code of the founder of the Third Dynasty, Urra, who ruled at the very end of the third millennium. BC, - King Ur-Nammu.

In 1902, the discovery of the French archaeologist M. Jacquet, who found during excavations in Susa, a slab of black diorite, a more than two-meter stele of King Hammurabi with a code of laws engraved on it, thundered all over the world. The Code of Ur-Nammu was composed more than three centuries earlier. Thus, the dilapidated tablets contained the text of the earliest legal code that has come down to us.

It is likely that it was originally carved on a stone stele, as was the codex of King Hammurabi. But, neither it, nor even its modern or later copy has survived. The only thing that researchers have at their disposal is a partially damaged clay tablet, so it is not possible to fully restore the code of laws of Ur-nammu. To date, only 90 of the 370 lines that scholars believe constitute the full text of Ur-Nammu's legal code have been deciphered.

In the prologue to the code, it is said that Ur-Nammu was chosen by the gods as their earthly representative in order to establish the triumph of justice, to eradicate disorder and lawlessness in Ur in the name of the welfare of its inhabitants. Its laws were designed to protect "an orphan from the arbitrariness of a rich man, a widow from those in power, a person with one shekel from a person with one mine (60 shekels)".

Researchers have not come to a consensus on the total number of articles in the Ur-Nammu code. With a certain degree of probability, it was possible to recreate the text of only five of them, and then only with certain assumptions. Fragments of one of the laws speak of the return of the slave to the owner, in another article the question of the guilt of witchcraft is considered. And only three laws, however, also not completely preserved and difficult to decipher, are extremely interesting material for the study of social and legal relations that have developed in Sumerian society.

They sound like this:

“If a person damages the foot of another person with a tool, he will pay 10 shekels in silver”
"If a man breaks another man's bone with a tool, he pays one mina in silver"
"If a person damages another person's face with a tool, then he pays two-thirds of a mina of silver."

All this indicates that already at the very beginning of the second millennium BC in the city-states of Sumer there was a humane and fair legislation, which was alien to the principle of blood feud - "an eye for an eye". The perpetrator was not subjected to corporal punishment, but had to repair the damage or pay a fine.

Of course, in many respects the basis of this humane, from our point of view, law was the prevailing socio-economic conditions. At the same time, based on all the documents found, it seems that the Sumerians inherited from previous centuries the "instinct of justice" and a sense of community of people striving for virtue, order and law. In their official declarations, the rulers of Sumer proclaim their main function in this world is the strengthening of laws, the establishment of order and justice. Their direct duty is to protect the poor from the oppression of the rich, the weak from the arbitrariness of the powerful of this world, the eradication of thieves and criminals. The Code of Ur-Nammu is based on traditional Sumerian law that has been developed over many centuries and is based on ancient customs and claims from earlier periods.

A document has come down to us that tells about the reign of King Uruinimgin in Lagash, three hundred years before Ur-Nammu, approximately in the middle of the twenty-fourth century BC.

It was a difficult time for Lagash, a time of lawlessness and violence. Consumed by ambition and a thirst for power, the rulers waged predatory wars and carried out predatory raids on neighboring cities. But the period of power, domination over all the city-states of Sumer ended, Lagash returned to its former borders. In order to raise and equip an army, the palace nobility deprived each individual citizen of their social and personal rights, imposed incredible taxes on all their income and property, bringing them to complete poverty. And in peacetime, the rulers continued the same policy and even took possession of the property of the temples. Residents were thrown into prison under the most insignificant pretexts, for the slightest offense, and often without it, on trumped-up charges. The spirit of cynicism and self-enrichment reigned in the country, when the rich became richer, robbing and oppressing the weak and defenseless.

It was at this catastrophic time that the supreme deity of the city chooses a new ruler from among its citizens - Uruinimgin, who was called upon to restore the "divine laws" forgotten and despised by his predecessors. An ancient chronicler relates that Uruinimginu and his supporters were proud of the social and legal reforms they made.

He removed the palace bureaucracy, banned and reduced all kinds of extortions and taxes from which the inhabitants suffered. He put an end to the injustice and abuse of the rich and powerful towards the poorer and weaker citizens. Uruinimgina concluded an agreement with the god Ningirsu that "a man with strength" would not do injustice to the most defenseless and vulnerable, widows and orphans.

In addition, this document is of great importance for the history of law in another aspect. One of its provisions says that special emphasis in the Sumerian courts was placed on the written registration of all cases. It was mandatory to indicate the guilt and the punishment incurred. Thus, we see that legal regulation and legislative activity were the norm for the states of Sumer by the middle of the third millennium BC, and it is possible that the traditions of legal proceedings date back to even more distant times in the mists of time. All discovered documents refer to the decline of the Sumerian civilization, but affect the norms and customs of earlier periods.

5. Family and inheritance law of the ancient Sumerians.

Children were the main value of the Sumerian family. According to the law, sons became full heirs of all their father's property and household, continuers of his craft. It was a great honor for them to provide for the posthumous cult of their father. They were to see to it that his ashes were properly buried, that his memory was constantly honored, and that his name was perpetuated.

Even at a minor age, children in Sumer had fairly broad rights. According to the deciphered tablets, they had the opportunity to perform acts of sale, trade transactions and other business transactions.
All contracts with underage citizens, according to the law, had to be fixed in writing in the presence of several witnesses. This was to protect inexperienced and not very intelligent youth from deceit and prevent excessive wastefulness.

Sumerian laws imposed many duties on parents, but they also gave quite a lot of power over children, although it cannot be considered complete and absolute. Parents, for example, had the right to sell their children into slavery to pay off debts, but only for a fixed period, usually no more than three years. Moreover, they could not deprive them of their lives, even for the most serious offense and self-will. Disrespect for parents, filial disobedience, was considered a grave sin in Sumerian families and severely punished. In some Sumerian cities, recalcitrant children were sold into bondage, they could cut off their hand.

The duty of the father was to fully provide for the children. The father had to allocate funds for the wedding ransom to his son from his property. He must also provide a dowry for his daughters in the amount required by law. The process of dividing the inheritance after the deceased parents took place strictly in accordance with the laws, practically unchanged in most Sumerian city-states.

As already noted, all property after the death of the head of the family passed to the sons. Usually, they did not break it into parts, they ran a common household and shared the income received from the property. Sumerian families were usually small. Court records usually list no more than four heirs. The eldest son was endowed with a privileged right in the division of the inherited property, which was expressed in a somewhat large share in the income from the father's inheritance. The rights of the other brothers were equal.

Daughters received a wedding dowry and had no further share in the division of their father's household, except in cases where there were no sons in the house. Here the legislation showed some liberalism, and in the absence of males in the offspring, daughters had full rights to property and household after the death of their father.

Sumerian legislation clearly regulated the rights and obligations of heirs and was extremely scrupulous in its approach to the issue of a fair distribution of rights and income. Thus, the funds for the ransom of the bride to the younger brother were provided from their share of the inherited property by the sons who managed to get married during the life of their father and receive money for the wedding ransom from him. Part of the property was allocated to the daughter as a dowry. If she became a priestess and renounced family life, after the death of her father, it also went to her brothers. But they had to support her for life, provide proper care for her property and pay her due part of the income from the economy. The sister had the right to entrust the management of her dowry to third parties, but after her death, her share returned to the family household.

After the death of their father and the division of property, the sons took full care of their mother, she remained in their house, where she needed to provide careful care, respect and reverence. She had the right to dispose of her personal property received in the form of gifts or "widow's share", and at her discretion bequeath it to her sons in shares, depending on her own preferences.

Deprivation of an inheritance is the last resort that a father could take in case of extreme disrespect or disobedience to the parental will. In some cities, for this it was necessary to expose the son twice in insulting acts in relation to the father. In any case, the final decision rested with the court. If the court's verdict was negative, a fine or confiscation of property was imposed on the father who illegally disinherited his son.

Childlessness was the greatest grief for the Sumerian family. Therefore, in the city-states of Sumer, the practice of adopting children was widespread. Usually childless spouses warmed up a homeless foundling or a child of large neighbors. Legislation strictly regulated all issues of adoption and monitored the protection of the rights of the parties to this procedure at all stages. The child's parents, dissatisfied with the order and maintenance of their son in a foster family, had the right to demand him back from the adoptive parents. Spouses, after the birth of their child, could abandon their adopted son. At the same time, according to the laws, it was supposed to pay to the natural parents at least a third of the share due to the adopted child as the legal heir. Adopted children did not have the right to decide on their own with whom to live. Unauthorized return to the native family, as well as slander and disrespect for foster parents, were severely punished according to the laws of Sumer, up to cutting off the tongue.

Sumerian laws in the field of family law were fair and fairly liberal and resolutely took the side of the victim or the innocent, regardless of the social and property status, and often gender, of the conflicting parties. They were based on citizens' respect for public order, a clear awareness of their duties and guarantees of rights, on the protection of which the entire state system stood.

5.1 Women's rights in Sumerian society

A Sumerian woman had almost equal rights with a man. It turns out that far from our contemporaries managed to prove their right to vote and equal social status. At a time when people believed that the gods lived side by side, hated and loved like people, women were in the same position as they are today. It was in the Middle Ages that the female representatives, apparently, became lazy and themselves preferred embroidery and balls to participation in public life.

Historians explain the equality of Sumerian women with men by the equality of gods and goddesses. People lived in their likeness, and what was good for the gods was good for people. True, legends about the gods are also created by people, therefore, most likely, equal rights on earth nevertheless appeared earlier than equality in the pantheon.

A woman had the right to express her opinion, she could get divorced if her husband did not suit her, however, they still preferred to give out their daughters under marriage contracts, and the parents themselves chose the husband, sometimes in early childhood, while the kids were small. In rare cases, a woman chose her husband herself, relying on the advice of her ancestors. Each woman could defend her rights herself in court, and she always carried her own small seal-signature with her.

She could have her own business. The woman led the upbringing of children, and had a dominant opinion in resolving controversial issues relating to the child. She owned her property. She was not covered by the debts of her husband, made by him before marriage. She could have her own slaves who did not obey her husband. In the absence of a husband and in the presence of minor children, the wife disposed of all property. If there was an adult son, the responsibility was shifted to him. The wife, if such a clause was not specified in the marriage contract, the husband in the case of large loans, could be sold into slavery for three years - to work off the debt. Or sell forever. After the death of her husband, the wife, as now, received her share of his property. True, if the widow was going to marry again, then her part of the inheritance was given to the children of the deceased.

5.2 Rights of a man

The husband could not be faithful, and even had the right to have concubines for himself. A husband could send his wife home if she was barren. True, at the same time he returned the dowry and paid her monetary compensation. True, if this was not allowed by the marriage contract, a man could take a second wife into the house, but she was powerless when the first one was alive. Customs are very similar to harem laws in Arab countries. The second wife had to obey the first, wait on her, wash her feet, carry a chair to the temple. There is an opinion that the first wife allowed the presence of the second, only then the husband could bring another woman into the house. He could demand this permission if his wife fell ill with something. In such cases, a new agreement was concluded on the obligations of the husband to look after the first wife and support her. If the husband took a concubine, then, having given birth, the girl could become free. It just didn't get any rights. Sometimes the wives themselves looked for concubines for their husbands, tired of marital duties, or fell ill.

5.3 Moral aspect of marriage

Over the centuries, women gained more and more rights in the Sumerian state, and by the end of the third millennium, monogamous marriage became the norm. Although in this case, the brides were infringed more than the grooms. If the groom refused marriage, his family returned the gifts received during the engagement and the money that the bride's family gave. But if the bride refused, her family had to pay double compensation for the shame inflicted on the failed husband. By the way, the dowry that the girl brought to her husband's family remained her property, and when she died, she divided it at will between her children. If a woman died childless, part of what her parents accumulated was returned to her father, and part remained to her husband.

In ancient times, apparently, treason was not considered a reason for terminating the union. In principle, before marriage, a woman, like a man, could meet with other representatives of the opposite sex, if she had not already been promised to someone. But if a woman did not fulfill her duties in the marital bed, the husband could well file for divorce, and his claim would be satisfied. But by the end of the third millennium, with the advent of monogamy, the requirements of morality were simultaneously tightened. Perhaps the strengthening of the positions of religious institutions played a role. Now, in case of treason, a woman was waiting for the death penalty by drowning.

At the conclusion of marriage, the property of the bride and groom were united, the marriage itself was sealed before the judges under oath. Although the poor Sumerians may still have married for love. This fact is supported by some Sumerian proverbs and examples of paternal instructions. For example, there is a teaching where a father advises his son not to marry a priestess, that is, a young man could take a girl without the permission of his parents. There is a proverb: "Marry the girl you like." Although, perhaps, such a choice was possible only for the male part of the Sumerian civilization.

The court was equally loyal to all people, regardless of their gender. This is evidenced by numerous clay tablets about litigation of a domestic nature.

5.4. The rights of the child in the Sumerian family

Until the child became an adult, the parents had the right to dispose of his fate as they pleased. Beat for disobedience, marry off a few months old, disinherit even adults. They could curse their child, expelling not only from the house, but also from the city. They could sell into slavery and forever deprive not only their families, but also the right to manage their lives. An adult son could claim his share of the inheritance through his father, however, then after death he could no longer claim anything. Girls received the same share of the inheritance as brothers. And if they decided to become priestesses, they received their share during the life of their parents. Adopted children had equal rights with relatives, if the father recognized them as his own. They even had the right to inheritance.

6.Criminal law

Along with the everyday, everyday, to some extent formal cases discussed above, the Sumerian courts also dealt with criminal offenses: theft, fraud, and murder. Let us turn to this “reverse side of life” displayed in court documents, especially in those whose interpretation, due to the good preservation of the text, leaves minimal room for any doubt.

How much interesting information is already contained in the first short phrases of this document! We learn that the complaint was filed directly by the ensi, that Mashkim, appointed by the ruler, himself conducted an investigation into this case, that the investigation did not find the culprit of the theft. In the next, not shown here, badly damaged part of this tablet, it is said that the alleged perpetrator was brought to justice.

It is difficult to say how things were in reality: either Mashkiy, with all his efforts, failed to cope with his task, or whether the accusation was unfounded. The text of the second half of the tablet is too damaged to make any assumptions. We remember that mashkims performed the functions of bailiffs, so to speak, "on a voluntary basis." It is not surprising that the conduct of the investigation could present certain difficulties for them. Without questioning either the abilities, let alone the honesty of Ur-Mami.

Court records from Lagash tell of the processes associated with the theft of cattle, sheep, and various property. Even a document has been preserved that tells about the trial of the theft of the onion. All these documents shed light not only on the peculiarities of the Sumerian legal proceedings, but also on the daily life and concerns of the ancient Sumerians. Sumerian legal documents, like other written sources, tell what constituted the wealth of a Sumerian farmer or pastoralist, what crops the ancient Sumerians cultivated and what professions they owned. Let's take Mashkims as an example. On the basis of court protocols, more than ten professions were established, representatives of which could be appointed by mashkims. Among them are scribes, heralds, overseers, warriors, musicians, royal messengers, butlers, bearers of the throne of a deity, etc. Court documents more than any other texts make it possible to judge the social relations that existed in Sumer.

7. Sumerian legal proceedings

Most of the known Sumerian court documents were discovered during the excavation of the famous "hill of tablets" in Lagash. According to the assumptions of scientists, it was here that the court archive was located, where the protocols of trials were kept. Tablets containing court records are arranged in a certain order established by customs and are strictly systematized. They have a detailed "card file" - a list of all documents, in accordance with the dates of their writing.

A huge contribution to the deciphering of court documents from Lagash was made by French archaeologists. J.-V. Sheil and Charles Virollo, who at the very beginning of the 20th century were the first to copy, publish and partially translate the texts of the tablets from the found archive. Later, already in the middle of the twentieth century, the German scholar Adam Falkenstein published dozens of detailed translations of court records and sentences, and it is largely thanks to these documents that we can today quite accurately restore the legal procedures in the city-states of Sumer.

The record of court decisions among the most ancient secretaries was called ditilla, which literally means “final verdict”, “completed trial”. All legal and legislative regulation in the city-states of Sumer was in the hands of enzi - the local rulers of these cities. They were the supreme judges, it was they who were supposed to administer justice and monitor the implementation of laws.

In practice, on behalf of the ensi, the righteous court was carried out by a specially appointed panel of judges who made decisions in accordance with established traditions and existing laws. The composition of the court was not permanent. There were no professional judges, they were appointed from representatives of the city nobility - temple officials, prefects, sea merchants, clerks, augurs. The trial was usually led by three judges, although in some cases there could be one or two. The number of judges was determined by the social status of the parties, the severity of the case, and a number of other reasons. Nothing is known about the methods and criteria for appointing judges, nor is it clear for how long judges were appointed and whether they were paid.

The documents also mention the “royal judges”, which could mean their professional affiliation, and the “seven royal judges of Nippurr”, which is mentioned in one of the texts, is apparently something like a higher court, where those dissatisfied with the decision could appeal sentence.

In all ditillahs found, the names of the judges were always preceded by the name of the mashkim. On the functions of this judicial officer, the opinions of researchers differ. His duties probably included preparing the case for trial and conducting the preliminary investigation. According to some assumptions, he could act as an intermediary between the parties to the process in attempts to pre-trial resolution of the conflict. The position of mashkim was not permanent and professional; citizens from the highest social strata were appointed to it.

The temple played almost no role in judicial conflict resolution and legal administration, although one of the documents found mentions a man who is called the judge of the main temple of Ur. This may indicate that in some exceptional cases, the temple leadership could appoint its own special judges to consider the case.

Litigation was initiated by one of the parties by filing a complaint with the mashkim. If it was not possible to resolve the conflict, then the case was referred to the court for consideration by the judges.
In the presence of the plaintiff and the defendant, the judges considered evidence, which could be the testimony of witnesses or one of the parties, as a rule, under oath. Written documents drawn up by representatives of high ranks could act as evidence.

The court decision was made conditionally and came into force only after the administrative confirmation in the temple of the oath, of the party from which the court required it. If the written assurance of one of the parties acted as evidence, then its confirmation in the temple was not required. When making their decision, the judges relied on existing legal norms or on existing precedents. After the verdict was written, no one had the right to cancel it, the judges were threatened with resignation and public censure for this. The convict retained the right to appeal to higher instances, except in cases where the verdict of the court was approved by the supreme judge - ensi. Usually the punishment for the guilty was a fine or confiscation of property. The judge himself supervised the execution of the decision.

The text of the court record was very concise. It was a brief report listing, without undue detail, information about the reasons for the initiation of the lawsuit, the content of the plaintiff's claims, the testimony of witnesses, or the oath of the parties. The verdict itself was most often formulated in one sentence, something like "X (winning trial) took the slave as his" or "Y (losing trial) must pay." Sometimes, but not always, the reason for this decision was given. This was followed by a listing of the names of judges, mashkim and ensi, and the date of the trial was recorded.

List of used literature:

1. Kramer Samuel Noah. Sumerians. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2002.

2. Emelyanov VV Ancient Sumer: Essays on culture. - SPb.: ABC-classics: St. Petersburg. Oriental studies, 2003.

3. Belitsky M. Sumerians. Forgotten world. - M.: Veche, 2000.

4. Reader on the history of the Ancient East, parts 1-2, - M., 1980