The Sumerians (lost Civilizations)

Description

By (author) Collins, Paul

Short /annotation:
The loss, discovery and reinvention of the world’s earliest civilization, the Sumerians

:
The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world’s earliest civilization on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BC. They have been credited with inventions no lesser than cities, writing and the wheel, and therefore hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. But is this picture correct? Paul Collins reveals how the idea of a Sumerian people was assembled from the archaeological and textual evidence uncovered in Iraq and Syria over the last 150 years. Reconstructed through the biases of those who unearthed them, the Sumerians were never simply lost and found, but reinvented a number of times, both in antiquity and in the more recent past.

Biographical note:
Paul Collins is Keeper of the Middle East Department at the British Museum. His books include Mountains and Lowlands: Ancient Iran and Mesopotamia (2016) and The Assyrians (Reaktion Books, 2024).

Excerpt:
Chronology1 Origins2 The Sumerian Problem3 Invasion, Occupation and Ownership4 The First Cities5 The First Writing6 Back to the BeginningReferencesBibliographyAcknowledgementsPhoto AcknowledgementsIndex

Errata:
A new account of the world’s earliest civilization, the Sumerians.

Errata:
Evaluates the archaeological and textual evidence of the Sumerians uncovered in Iraq and Syria over thelast 150 years.

Errata:
Assesses the many accepted truths about the Sumerians, such as they invented cities, writing and the wheel.