Sumerian culture. The culture of Sumerian, the first civilization on Earth

1. RELIGIOUS WORLD VIEW AND THE ART OF THE POPULATION OF LOWER MESOPOTAMIA

Human consciousness of the early Eneolithic (copper-stone age) has already advanced far in the emotional and mental perception of the world. In this case, however, the main method of generalization remained an emotionally colored comparison of phenomena according to the principle of metaphor, that is, by combining and conditionally identifying two or more phenomena with some common typical feature (the sun is a bird, since both it and the bird hover above us ; earth is mother). This is how myths arose, which were not only a metaphorical interpretation of phenomena, but also an emotional experience. In circumstances where testing by socially recognized experience was impossible or insufficient (for example, outside the technical methods of production), obviously, “sympathetic magic” also worked, which here means nondiscrimination (in judgment or in practical action) of the degree of importance of logical connections.

At the same time, people have already begun to realize the existence of certain laws that relate to their life and work and determine the "behavior" of nature, animals and objects. But they could not yet find any other explanation for these laws, except that they are supported by the rational actions of some powerful creatures in which the existence of the world order was metaphorically generalized. These powerful living principles themselves were presented not as an ideal “something”, not as a spirit, but as materially acting, and therefore materially existing; therefore, it was assumed that it was possible to influence their will, for example to appease. It is important to note that actions that were logically grounded and actions that were magically grounded were then perceived as equally reasonable and useful for human life, including production. The difference was that the logical action had a practical, empirically visual explanation, while the magic (ritual, cult) had a mythical explanation; in the eyes of ancient man, it was a repetition of an action performed by a deity or an ancestor at the beginning of the world and performed under the same circumstances to this day, because historical changes in those times of slow development were not really felt and the stability of the world was determined by the rule: do as you did gods or ancestors at the beginning of time. The criterion of practical logic was inapplicable to such actions and concepts.

Magical activity - attempts to influence the personified laws of nature with emotional, rhythmic, "divine" words, sacrifices, ritual body movements - seemed as necessary for the life of the community as any socially useful work.

In the Neolithic (New Stone Age), apparently, there was already a feeling of the presence of some abstract connections and patterns in the surrounding reality. Perhaps this was reflected, for example, in the predominance of geometric abstractions in the pictorial transmission of the world - man, animals, plants, movements. The place of the disorderly heap of magical drawings of animals and people (even if very accurately and observationally reproduced) was taken by an abstract ornament. At the same time, the image still did not lose its magical purpose and at the same time did not isolate itself from the daily activities of a person: artistic creativity accompanied the home production of things necessary in every household, be it dishes or colored beads, figurines of deities or ancestors, but especially, of course, making items intended, for example, for cult-magical holidays or for burial (so that the deceased could use them in the afterlife).

The creation of both household and cult objects was a creative process in which the ancient master was guided by artistic flair (regardless of whether he realized it or not), which in turn developed during his work.

Pottery of the Neolithic and Early Eneolithic shows us one of the important stages of artistic generalization, the main indicator of which is rhythm. The sense of rhythm is probably organically inherent in man, but, apparently, the man did not immediately discover it in himself and was far from immediately able to figuratively embody it. In Paleolithic depictions, we have little sense of rhythm. It appears only in the Neolithic as a desire to streamline, organize space. From the painted dishes of different eras, one can observe how a person learned to generalize his impressions of nature, so grouping and stylizing objects and phenomena that opened to his eyes, that they turned into a slender geometrized plant, animal or abstract ornament, strictly subordinate to the rhythm. Starting from the simplest dot and line patterns on early ceramics and ending with complex symmetrical, as if moving images on vessels of the 5th millennium BC. e., all compositions are organically rhythmic. It seems that the rhythm of colors, lines and shapes embodied the motor rhythm - the rhythm of the hand slowly rotating the vessel during molding (before the potter's wheel), and possibly the rhythm of the accompanying melody. The art of ceramics also created the opportunity to fix thought in conventional images, for even the most abstract pattern carried information supported by oral tradition.

We come across an even more complex form of generalization (but not only of an artistic order) in the study of Neolithic and Early Neolithic sculpture. Figurines sculpted from clay mixed with grain, found in places where grain was stored and in hearths, with emphasized female and specially maternal forms, phalluses and figurines of bulls, very often found next to human figurines, syncretically embodied the concept of earthly fertility. The most complex form of expressing this concept seems to us to be the Lower Mesopotamian male and female figurines of the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. NS. with an animal-like muzzle and inserts for material samples of vegetation (grains, bones) on the shoulders and in the eyes. These figurines cannot yet be called fertility deities - rather, they are a step preceding the creation of the image of the patron deity of the community, the existence of which we can assume at a somewhat later time, examining the development of architectural structures, where evolution proceeds along the line: an open-air altar - a temple.

In the IV millennium BC. NS. painted ceramics are replaced by unpainted red, gray or yellowish-gray dishes covered with glassy glaze. Unlike the ceramics of the previous period, made entirely by hand or on a slowly rotating potter's wheel, it is made on a rapidly rotating wheel and very soon completely replaces hand-sculpted dishes.

The culture of the Proto-Written period can already confidently be called in its essence Sumerian, or at least Proto-Sumerian. Her monuments are distributed throughout Lower Mesopotamia, capture Upper Mesopotamia and the region along the river. Tiger. The highest achievements of this period include: the flourishing of temple building, the flourishing of the art of glyptics (carving on seals), new forms of plastics, new principles of visualization and the invention of writing.

All the art of that time, like the worldview, was colored by a cult. Note, however, that speaking about the communal cults of ancient Mesopotamia, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the Sumerian religion as a system. True, the common cosmic deities were worshiped everywhere: "Heaven" An (Akkad. Anu); "Lord of the Earth", the deity of the World Ocean, on which the earth floats, Enki (akkad. Eyya); "Lord-Breath", the deity of ground forces, Enlil (Akkad. Ellil), he is also the god of the Sumerian tribal union with the center in Nippur; numerous "mother goddesses", the sun and moon gods. But of greater importance were the local patron gods of each community, usually each with his wife and son, with many close associates. There were innumerable small good and evil deities associated with grain and cattle, with the hearth and the grain barn, with diseases and misfortunes. For the most part, they were different in each of the communities, they were told about different, conflicting myths.

Temples were not built for all gods, but only for the most important ones, mainly for a god or a goddess - the patrons of a given community. The outer walls of the temple and the platform were decorated with protrusions evenly spaced from each other (this technique is repeated with each successive reconstruction). The temple itself consisted of three parts: the central one in the form of a long courtyard, in the depth of which was placed the image of a deity, and symmetrical side chapels on both sides of the courtyard. At one end of the courtyard was an altar, at the other end was a table for sacrifices. Temples of that time in Upper Mesopotamia had approximately the same layout.

So in the north and south of Mesopotamia, a certain type of religious structure is formed, where some building principles are fixed and become traditional for almost all later Mesopotamian architecture. The main ones are as follows: 1) the construction of the sanctuary in one place (all later reconstructions include the previous ones, and the building, therefore, is never transferred); 2) a high artificial platform on which the central temple stands and to which stairs lead from both sides (later, perhaps, as a result of the custom to build a temple in one place instead of one platform, we already meet three, five and, finally, seven platforms, one above the other with a temple at the very top - the so-called ziggurat). The desire to build high temples emphasized the antiquity and originality of the origin of the community, as well as the connection of the sanctuary with the heavenly abode of God; 3) a three-part temple with a central room, which is an open-top courtyard, around which side annexes are grouped (in the north of Lower Mesopotamia, such a courtyard could be covered); 4) articulation of the outer walls of the temple, as well as platforms (or platforms) with alternating ledges and niches.

From ancient Uruk, we know a special building, the so-called "Red Building" with a stage and pillars decorated with mosaic patterns, presumably a courtyard for a people's gathering and council.

With the beginning of urban culture (even the most primitive), a new stage opens in the development of the visual arts of Lower Mesopotamia. The culture of the new period is becoming richer and more diverse. Instead of seals-stamps, a new form of seals appears - cylindrical.

Sumerian cylindrical seal. St. Petersburg. hermitage Museum

The plastic art of early Sumer is closely related to glyptics. Seals-amulets in the form of animals or heads of animals, which are so common in the Proto-Written period, can be considered a form connecting glyptics, relief and round sculpture. Functionally, all of these items are seals. But if this is a figurine of an animal, then one side of it will be cut flat and additional images will be cut in deep relief on it, intended for imprinting on clay, usually associated with the main figure, for example, on the back of the lion's head, executed in a rather high relief , small lions are carved, on the back there are figures of a ram - horned animals or a man (apparently, a shepherd).

The desire to convey the depicted nature as accurately as possible, especially when it comes to representatives of the animal world, is characteristic of the art of Lower Mesopotamia of this period. Small figurines of domestic animals - bulls, rams, goats, made in soft stone, various scenes from the life of domestic and wild animals on reliefs, cult vessels, seals are striking, first of all, by an accurate reproduction of the structure of the body, so that not only the species, but also the breed is easily determined animal, as well as postures, movements, conveyed vividly and expressively, and often surprisingly laconic. However, there is almost no real round sculpture.

Another characteristic feature of early Sumerian art is its narrative. Each frieze on a cylindrical seal, each relief image is a story that can be read in order. A story about nature, about the animal world, but the main thing is a story about oneself, about a person. For it is only in the Proto-Written Period that a person, his theme, appears in art.

Stamp seals. Mesopotamia. End IV - early III millennium BC St. Petersburg. hermitage Museum

Images of a person are found even in the Paleolithic, but they cannot be considered an image of a person in art: a person is present in Neolithic and Eneolithic art as a part of nature, he has not yet distinguished himself from it in his consciousness. Early art is often characterized by a syncretic image - a human-animal-plant (like, say, frog-like figurines with dimples for grains and bones on the shoulders, or an image of a woman feeding a cub) or human-phallic (that is, a human-phallus, or just a phallus, as a symbol of procreation).

In the Sumerian art of the Proto-Written period, we already see how man began to separate himself from nature. The art of Lower Mesopotamia of this period appears before us, thus, as a qualitatively new stage in the relation of man to the world around him. It is no coincidence that cultural monuments of the Proto-Written period leave the impression of awakening human energy, a person's awareness of his new capabilities, attempts to express himself in the world around him, which he is mastering more and more.

Monuments of the Early Dynastic period are represented by a significant number of archaeological finds, which make it possible to speak more boldly about some general trends in art.

In architecture, the type of temple on a high platform is finally formed, which sometimes (and the entire temple site is even usually) was surrounded by a high wall. By this time, the temple takes on more laconic forms - the auxiliary rooms are clearly separated from the central religious ones, their number is decreasing. Columns and semi-columns disappear, and with them the mosaic cladding. The main method of decorating the monuments of temple architecture is the division of the outer walls with protrusions. It is possible that during this period, the multi-stage ziggurat of the main city deity was affirmed, which will gradually replace the temple on the platform. At the same time, there were also temples of minor deities, which were smaller, built without a platform, but usually also within the boundaries of the temple site.

A peculiar architectural monument was discovered in Kish - a secular building, which is the first example of the connection of a palace and a fortress in Sumerian construction.

Most of the monuments of sculpture are small (25-40 cm) figurines made from local alabaster and softer rocks (limestone, sandstone, etc.). They were usually placed in the cult niches of temples. For the northern cities of Lower Mesopotamia, exaggeratedly elongated are characteristic, for the southern ones, on the contrary, exaggeratedly shortened proportions of figurines. All of them are characterized by a strong distortion of the proportions of the human body and facial features, with a sharp emphasis on one or two features, especially often - the nose and ears. Such figures were placed in churches in order for them to represent there, to pray for the one who installed them. They did not require a specific resemblance to the original, as, say, in Egypt, where the early brilliant development of portrait sculpture was due to the requirements of magic: otherwise the twin soul could confuse the owner; here a short inscription on the figurine was quite enough. Magical goals, apparently, were reflected in the emphasized facial features: large ears (for the Sumerians - the receptacle of wisdom), wide-open eyes, in which a pleading expression is combined with surprise of magical insight, hands folded in a prayer gesture. All this often turns awkward and angular figures into lively and expressive ones. The transfer of the inner state turns out to be much more important than the transfer of the external bodily form; the latter is developed only to the extent that it meets the internal task of sculpture - to create an image endowed with supernatural properties ("all-seeing", "all-hearing"). Therefore, in the official art of the Early Dynastic period, we no longer find that peculiar, sometimes free interpretation, which marked the best works of art of the time of the Proto-Written period. The sculptural figures of the Early Dynastic period, even if they depicted fertility deities, are completely devoid of sensuality; their ideal is the pursuit of the superhuman and even the inhuman.

There were different pantheons, different rituals in the constantly warring nome-states, there was no uniformity in mythology (except for the preservation of the common main function of all deities of the 3rd millennium BC: these are, first of all, the communal gods of fertility). Accordingly, despite the unity of the general character of the sculpture, the images are very different in details. In glyptics, cylindrical seals with images of heroes and rearing animals begin to prevail.

Jewelry of the Early Dynastic period, known mainly from the excavations of the Ur tombs, can rightfully be attributed to the masterpieces of jewelry art.

The art of Akkadian time is perhaps most characterized by the central idea of ​​a deified king, who appears first in historical reality, and then in ideology and art. If in history and in legends he appears as a person not of a royal family, who managed to achieve power, gathered a huge army and, for the first time in the entire existence of the states-nomes in Lower Mesopotamia, subdued all of Sumer and Akkad to himself, then in art he is a courageous man with emphatically energetic features of a lean face: regular, well-defined lips, a small nose with a hump - an idealized portrait, perhaps generalized, but quite accurately conveys an ethnic type; this portrait is quite consistent with the idea of ​​the victorious hero Sargon of Akkad, which has developed from historical and legendary data (such is, for example, a copper portrait head from Nineveh - the alleged image of Sargon). In other cases, the deified king is depicted as making a victorious campaign at the head of his army. He climbs the steep slopes in front of the warriors, his figure is given larger than the figures of the others, the symbols-signs of his divinity - the Sun and the Moon - shine above his head (the Naram-Suena stele in honor of his victory over the highlanders). He also appears as a mighty hero in curls and a curly beard. The hero fights with a lion, his muscles are tense, with one hand he restrains the rearing lion, whose claws scratch the air in impotent rage, and with the other he plunges a dagger into the scruff of the predator's neck (a favorite motif of Akkadian glyptics). To some extent, changes in the art of the Akkadian period are associated with the traditions of the northern centers of the country. Sometimes they talk about "realism" in the art of the Akkadian period. Of course, there can be no talk of realism in the sense that we now understand this term: not really visible (even if typical) features are recorded, but essential for the concept of a given object. All the same, the impression of the life-likeness of the depicted is very sharp.

Found in Susa. The victory of the king over the lullubi. OK. 2250 B.C.

Paris. Louvre

The events of the Akkadian dynasty shattered the established priestly Sumerian traditions; accordingly, the processes taking place in art, for the first time, reflected an interest in an individual person. The influence of Akkadian art has been felt over the centuries. It can be found in the monuments of the last period of Sumerian history - the III dynasty of Ur and the Issin dynasty. But on the whole, the monuments of this later period leave an impression of monotony and stereotype. This corresponds to reality: for example, the gurushi masters of the huge royal craft workshops of the III dynasty of Ur worked on the seals, and they got their hands on a clear reproduction of the same prescribed theme - the worship of a deity.

2. SCHUMERIC LITERATURE

In total, we currently know about one hundred and fifty monuments of Sumerian literature (many of them have survived as fragments). Among them are verse recordings of myths, epic legends, psalms, wedding love songs associated with the sacred marriage of a deified king with a priestess, funeral laments, laments about social disasters, hymns in honor of kings (starting from the III dynasty of Ur), literary imitations of royal inscriptions; didactics is very widely represented - teachings, edifications, debates, dialogues, collections of fables, anecdotes, sayings and proverbs.

Of all the genres of Sumerian literature, hymns are best represented. The earliest records of them date back to the middle of the Early Dynastic period. Undoubtedly, the hymn is one of the most ancient ways of collectively addressing the deity. The recording of such a work had to be made with special pedantry and punctuality, not a single word could be changed arbitrarily, since not a single image of the hymn was accidental, each had a mythological content. Hymns are designed to be read aloud - by an individual priest or by a chorus, and the emotions that arose during the performance of such a piece are collective emotions. The tremendous importance of rhythmic speech, perceived emotionally and magically, comes to the fore in such works. Usually, the hymn praises the deity and lists the deeds, names and epithets of the god. Most of the hymns that have come down to us have been preserved in the school canon of Nippur and are most often dedicated to Enlil, the patron god of this city, and other deities of his circle. But there are also hymns to kings and temples. However, hymns could only be dedicated to deified kings, and not all kings were deified in Sumer.

Along with hymns, liturgical texts are laments, which are very common in Sumerian literature (especially laments about popular disasters). But the most ancient monument of this kind, known to us, is not a liturgical one. This is a "lament" about the destruction of Lagash by the king of Umma Lugalzagesi. It lists the destruction carried out in Lagash and curses the culprit. The rest of the laments that have come down to us - lament about the death of Sumer and Akkad, lament "Curse to the city of Akkad", lament over the death of Ur, lament about the death of King Ibbi-Suen, etc. - of course, of a ritual nature; they are directed to the gods and close to spells.

Among the cult texts is a wonderful series of poems (or chants), starting with Inapa's Walking into the Underworld and ending with The Death of Dumuzi, reflecting the myth of dying and resurrecting deities and associated with the corresponding rituals. The goddess of carnal love and animal fertility Innin (Inana) fell in love with the god (or hero) of the shepherd Dumuzi and took him as her husband. However, then she descended into the underworld, apparently to challenge the power of the queen of the underworld. Mortified, but brought back to life by the cunning of the gods, Inana can return to earth (where, meanwhile, all living things have ceased to multiply), only giving the underworld a living ransom for itself. Inana is venerated in different cities of Sumer and in each has a spouse or son; all these deities bow before her and pray for mercy; only one Dumuzi proudly refuses. Dumuzi is devoted to the evil messengers of the underworld; in vain his sister Geshtinana ("Vine of Heaven") turns him into an animal three times and hides him; Dumuzi is killed and taken to the underworld. However, Geshtinana, sacrificing herself, seeks that Dumuzi was released to the living for six months, during which time she herself, in return for him, leaves for the world of the dead. While the shepherd god reigns on earth, the plant goddess dies. The structure of the myth turns out to be much more complex than the simplified mythological plot of the dying and resurrection of the deity of fertility, as it is usually described in popular literature.

The Nippur canon also includes nine legends about the exploits of the heroes referred by the "Tsar's List" to the semi-legendary I dynasty of Uruk - Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh. The Nippur canon, apparently, began to be created in the period of the III dynasty of Ur, and the kings of this dynasty were closely associated with Uruk: its founder traced his family back to Gilgamesh. The inclusion of Uruk legends in the canon was most likely because Nippur was a cult center that was always associated with the dominant city at a given time. During the 3rd dynasty of Ur and the 1st dynasty of Isshin, a uniform Nippurian canon was introduced in the e-oaks (schools) of other cities of the state.

All heroic legends that have come down to us are at the stage of formation of cycles, which is usually characteristic of an epic (grouping of heroes according to their place of birth is one of the stages of this cyclization). But these monuments are so heterogeneous that they can hardly be united by the general concept of "epic". These are compositions of different times, some of which are more perfect and complete (like a wonderful poem about the hero Lugalbanda and the monstrous eagle), others less. However, it is impossible to even get an approximate idea of ​​the time of their creation - various motives could be included in them at different stages of their development, legends could change over the centuries. One thing is clear: we have before us an early genre, from which the epic will develop later. Therefore, the hero of such a work is not yet an epic hero-hero, a monumental and often tragic person; it is rather a lucky fellow from a fairy tale, a relative of the gods (but not a god), a mighty king with the features of a god.

Very often in literary criticism, the heroic epic (or praepos) is contrasted with the so-called mythological epic (in the first, people act, in the second, the gods). Such a division is hardly appropriate in relation to Sumerian literature: the image of a hero-god is much less peculiar to it than the image of a mortal hero. In addition to these, two epic or pro-epic legends are known, where the hero is a deity. One of them is the story of the struggle of the goddess Innin (Inana) with the personification of the underworld, named in the text "Mount Ebeh", the other is the story of the war of the god Ninurta with the evil demon Asak, also an inhabitant of the underworld. Ninurta also acts as a primordial hero at the same time: he builds a dam-embankment from a pile of stones to isolate Sumer from the waters of the primordial ocean, which overflowed as a result of Asaka's death, and diverts the flooded fields to the Tigris.

More widespread in Sumerian literature are works devoted to descriptions of the creative deeds of deities, the so-called etiological (ie, explanatory) myths; at the same time they give an idea of ​​the creation of the world as it was seen by the Sumerians. It is possible that there were no complete cosmogonic legends in Sumer (or they were not recorded). It is difficult to say why this is so: it is hardly possible that the idea of ​​the struggle of the titanic forces of nature (gods and titans, older and younger gods, etc.) is not reflected in the Sumerian worldview, especially since the theme of the dying and resurrection of nature (with the departure deities into the underworld) in Sumerian mythography is developed in detail - not only in stories about Innin-Inan and Dumuzi, but also about other gods, for example about Enlil.

The arrangement of life on earth, the establishment of order and prosperity on it is almost a favorite topic of Sumerian literature: it is filled with stories about the creation of deities who must follow the earthly order, take care of the distribution of divine responsibilities, the establishment of a divine hierarchy, and the settlement of the earth with living beings and even the creation of separate agricultural implements. The main acting creator gods are usually Enki and Enlil.

Many etiological myths are drawn up in the form of a debate - either representatives of one or another area of ​​the economy, or the household items themselves, are trying to prove their superiority to each other. The Sumerian e-oak played an important role in the spread of this genre, which is typical for many literatures of the ancient East. Very little is known about what this school was in the early stages, but in some form it existed (as evidenced by the presence of teaching aids from the very beginning of writing). Apparently, as a special institution of e-oak, it was formed no later than the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. NS. Initially, the educational goals were purely practical - the school trained scribes, land surveyors, etc. As the school developed, education became more and more universal, and at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. e-oak becomes something like an "academic center" of that time - all branches of knowledge that then existed are taught in it: mathematics, grammar, singing, music, law, they study lists of legal, medical, botanical, geographical and pharmacological terms, lists of literary essays, etc.

Most of the works discussed above have survived precisely in the form of school or teacher records, through the school canon. But there are also special groups of monuments, which are usually called "e-oak texts": these are works telling about the structure of school and school life, didactic compositions (teachings, legal teachings, instructions), specially addressed to schoolchildren, very often composed in the form of dialogues-disputes , and, finally, monuments of folk wisdom: aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes, fables and sayings. Through the e-oak, the only example of a prosaic tale in the Sumerian language has reached us so far.

Even from this incomplete review, one can judge how rich and diverse the monuments of Sumerian literature are. This heterogeneous and multi-temporal material, most of which was recorded only at the very end of the 3rd (if not at the beginning of the 2nd) millennium BC. e., apparently, has not yet undergone special "literary" processing and largely retained the techniques inherent in oral verbal creativity. The main stylistic device of most mythological and pre-epic stories is multiple repetitions, for example, the repetition of the same dialogues in the same expressions (but between different consecutive interlocutors). This is not only an artistic device of threefoldness, so characteristic of epics and fairy tales (in Sumerian monuments it sometimes reaches ninefold), but also a mnemonic device that contributes to better memorization of the work - the legacy of oral transmission of myth, epic, a specific feature of rhythmic, magical speech, according to form reminiscent of shamanic rituals. Compositions composed mainly of such monologues and dialogues-repetitions, among which the undeveloped action is almost lost, seem to us loose, unprocessed and therefore imperfect (although in ancient times they could hardly have been perceived as such), the story on the tablet looks like just a synopsis, where records of individual lines served as a kind of memorable milestones for the narrator. However, why then was it pedantic, up to nine times, to write out the same phrases? This is all the more strange since the recording was made on heavy clay and, it would seem, the material itself should have suggested the need for conciseness and economy of the phrase, for a more concise composition (this occurs only by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, already in Akkadian literature). These facts suggest that Sumerian literature is nothing more than a written record of oral literature. Not knowing how, and not trying to tear herself away from the living word, she fixed it on clay, retaining all the stylistic devices and features of oral poetic speech.

It is important, however, to note that the Sumerian "literary" scribes did not set themselves the task of recording all oral creativity or all its genres. The selection was determined by the interests of the school and, in part, the cult. But along with this written protoliterature, the life of oral works that remained unrecorded continued - perhaps much richer.

It would be wrong to present this Sumerian written literature, which is making its first steps, as unarticulate or almost devoid of artistic, emotional impact. The very metaphorical way of thinking contributed to the imagery of the language and the development of such a technique as characteristic of ancient Eastern poetry as parallelism. Sumerian verses are rhythmic speech, but they do not fit into a strict size, since it is not possible to find any stress counts, longitude counts, or syllable counts. Therefore, the most important means to emphasize the rhythm here are repetitions, rhythmic enumerations, epithets of the gods, the repetition of the initial words in several lines in a row, etc. All these, in fact, are attributes of oral poetry, but nevertheless retain their emotional impact in written literature.

Written Sumerian literature also reflected the process of collision of primitive ideology with the new ideology of class society. When one gets acquainted with the ancient Sumerian monuments, especially mythological ones, the absence of poeticization of images is striking. The Sumerian gods are not just earthly beings, the world of their feelings is not just the world of human feelings and actions; the baseness and rudeness of the nature of the gods, the unattractiveness of their appearance are constantly emphasized. Primitive thinking, suppressed by the unlimited power of the elements and the feeling of its own helplessness, apparently were close to the images of the gods, creating a living creature from the dirt from under the nails, in a drunken state, capable of destroying the humanity they had created out of a whim, by staging the Flood. And the Sumerian underworld? According to the surviving descriptions, it seems extremely chaotic and hopeless: there is no judge of the dead, no scales on which the actions of people are weighed, there are almost no illusions of "posthumous justice."

The ideology, which was supposed to oppose something to this spontaneous feeling of horror and hopelessness, at first was itself very helpless, which found expression in written monuments repeating the motives and forms of ancient oral poetry. Gradually, however, as in the states of Lower Mesopotamia the ideology of class society becomes stronger and becomes dominant, the content of literature also changes, which begins to develop in new forms and genres. The process of separating written literature from oral literature is accelerated and becomes obvious. The emergence of didactic genres of literature at the later stages of the development of Sumerian society, the cyclization of mythological plots, etc. signify an ever greater independence acquired by the written word, its other direction. However, this new stage in the development of Near Asian literature, in essence, was no longer continued by the Sumerians, but by their cultural heirs - the Babylonians, or Akkadians.

China

India

Egypt

B.C. - Babylon rises among the Sumerian cities.

Around 3000 BC NS. in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates, on the territory of Sumer, the city-states of the Sumerians began to take shape.

Sumer

CHRONOGRAPH

OK. 3000 BC NS. - arose in Sumer writing - cuneiform.

24 c. BC NS.- the founder of the great Akkadian state (fell in the 22nd century BC) Sargon the Ancient united Sumer, stretching from Syria to the Persian Gulf.

1792-1750 BC NS. - years of government Hammurabi, construction ziggurat Etemenanki, known as the Tower of Babel.

2nd floor 8-1st floor. 7th century BC NS.- the period of the highest power of Assyria.

7 c. BC. - Assyrian king Ashurbanapal founded the largest known library in his palace Nineveh,

605-562 BC NS. - the heyday of Babylonia under the king Nebuchadnezzar II.

70s of the 19th century- opening George Smith Epic of Gilgamesh.

Early kingdom (c. 3000-2800 BC)- the appearance of writing - hieroglyphs; at the beginning of the third millennium BC, papyrus (a herbaceous plant) was used to make writing material.

Ancient kingdom (2800-2250 BC) - construction of pyramids.

Middle Kingdom(2050-1700 BC)

New kingdom (c. 1580 - c. 1070)- construction of huge temple complexes.

Late period (c. 1070 - 332 BC)

ser. 3rd - 1st floor. 2nd millennium BC NS- Harappan civilization - archaeological culture of the Bronze Age in India and Pakistan.

OK. 1500 BC - the decline of the Harappan culture; the settlement of the Indus Valley by the Aryans.

10c. BC. - registration of the "Rig Veda" - the oldest collection of the Vedas.

20s 20th century- opening Harappan civilization.

Around 2500 BC – Longshan culture, one of the first dynasties.

about 1766-1027 BC- the first known examples of Chinese writing on oracular bones, dating back to the time the Shang dynasty.

XI to VI c. BC NS. - "Book of Songs" ("Shi Tsznn")- a collection of works of song and poetic creativity of the Chinese.

The basin of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is called Mesopotamia, what is translated from Greek means Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia. This natural area has become one of the largest agricultural and cultural centers of the Ancient East. The first settlements on this territory began to appear already in the 6th millennium BC. NS. In 4-3 millennia BC, the most ancient states began to form on the territory of Mesopotamia.

The revival of interest in the history of the ancient world began in Europe with the Renaissance. It took several centuries to come close to deciphering the long-forgotten Sumerian cuneiform. The texts written in the Sumerian language were read only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, at the same time archaeological excavations of Sumerian cities began.

In 1889, an American expedition began to explore Nippur, in the 1920s the English archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley conducted excavations on the territory of Ur, a little later a German archaeological expedition explored Uruk, British and American scientists found the royal palace and necropolis in Kish, and finally, in 1946, archaeologists Fuad Safar and Seton Lloyd, under the auspices of the Iraqi Antiquities Authority, began digging in Eridu. Through the efforts of archaeologists, huge temple complexes were discovered in Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Eridu and other cult centers of the Sumerian civilization. Colossal stepped platforms freed from the sand ziggurats, which served as the basis for the Sumerian sanctuaries, testify that the Sumerians already in the 4th millennium BC. NS. laid the foundation for traditions of religious construction on the territory of the Ancient Mesopotamia.

Sumer - one of the oldest civilizations in the Middle East, which existed at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. in the Southern Mesopotamia, the area of ​​the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the south of modern Iraq. Around 3000 BC NS. On the territory of Sumer, the city-states of the Sumerians began to take shape (the main political centers were Lagash, Ur, Kish, etc.), who fought among themselves for hegemony. The conquests of Sargon the Ancient (24th century BC) - the founder of the great Akkadian state, stretching from Syria to the Persian Gulf, united Sumer. The main center was the city of Akkad, whose name served as the name of the new state. The Akkadian state fell in the 22nd century. BC NS. under the onslaught of the Kutis - tribes who came from the western part of the Iranian Highlands. With its fall on the territory of Mesopotamia, the period of civil strife began again. In the last third of the 22nd century. BC NS. the heyday of Lagash, one of the few city-states that retained relative independence from the Kutians, fell. Its prosperity was associated with the rule of Gudea (d. C. 2123 BC) - the king-builder, who erected a grandiose temple near Lagash, concentrating the cults of Sumer around the Lagash god Ningirsu. Many monumental stelae and statues of Gudea have survived to this day, covered with inscriptions glorifying his construction activities. At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. NS. the center of Sumerian statehood moved to Ur, whose kings managed to reunite all the regions of the Lower Mesopotamia. The last rise of Sumerian culture is associated with this period.

In the XIX century. BC. Babylon rises among the Sumerian cities [Sumerian. Kadingirra ("gates of god"), akkad. Babilu (the same meaning), Greek. Babulwn, lat. Babylon] is an ancient city in the north of Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Euphrates (southwest of modern Baghdad). Founded, apparently, by the Sumerians, but was first mentioned during the time of the Akkadian king Sargon the Ancient (2350-2150 BC). It was an insignificant city until the establishment of the so-called Old Babylonian dynasty of Amorite origin in it, the ancestor of which was Sumuabum. The representative of this dynasty, Hammurabi (ruled 1792-50 BC), turned Babylon into the largest political, cultural and economic center not only in Mesopotamia, but throughout Asia Minor. The Babylonian god Marduk became the head of the pantheon. In his honor, in addition to the temple, Hammurabi began to erect the Etemenanki ziggurat, known as the Tower of Babel. In 1595 BC. NS. the Hittites under the leadership of Mursili I invaded Babylon, plundering and ravaging the city. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. NS. the king of Assyria Tukulti-Ninurta I defeated the Babylonian army and captured the king.

The subsequent period in the history of Babylon was associated with the incessant struggle with Assyria. The city was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. From the time of Tiglathpalasar III, Babylon was incorporated into Assyria (732 BC).

The ancient state in the Northern Mesopotamia of Assyria (on the territory of modern Iraq) in the 14-9 centuries. BC NS. repeatedly subjugated Northern Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas. The period of the highest power of Assyria is the 2nd half. 8 - 1st floor 7th century BC NS.

In 626 BC. NS. Nabopalasar, king of Babylon, destroyed the capital of Assyria, proclaimed the separation of Babylon from Assyria and founded the New Babylonian dynasty. Babylon Strengthened Under His Son, King of Babylonia Nebuchadnezzar II(605-562 BC), who fought numerous wars. During forty years of his reign, he turned the city into the most magnificent in the Middle East and in the entire then world. In Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar brought entire nations into captivity. The city under him developed according to a strict plan. The Ishtar Gate, the Processional Road, the castle-palace with the Hanging Gardens were built and decorated, and the fortress walls were reinforced. From 539 BC Babylon practically ceased to exist as an independent state. It was conquered by the Persians, the Greeks, the A. Macedonian, or the Parthians. After the Arab conquest of 624, a small village remains, although the Arab population retains the memory of the majestic city hidden under the hills.

In Europe, Babylon was known for Bible references that reflected the impressions it once made on the ancient Jews. In addition, there is a description of the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Babylon during his travels, compiled between 470 and 460 BC. e., but in details the "father of history" is not entirely accurate, since he did not know the local language. Later Greek and Roman authors did not see Babylon with their own eyes, but based on the same Herodotus and the stories of travelers, always embellished. Interest in Babylon flared up after the Italian Pietro della Valle in 1616 brought bricks with cuneiform inscription from here. In 1765, the Danish scientist K. Niebuhr identified Babylon with the Arab village of Hille. Systematic excavations were initiated by the German expedition of R. Koldewey (1899). She immediately discovered the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace in Qasr Hill. Before the First World War, when the work was curtailed due to the offensive of the British army, the German expedition excavated a significant part of Babylon during its heyday. Numerous reconstructions are presented at the Museum of Western Asia in Berlin.

One of the greatest and most significant achievements of early civilizations was the invention of writing . The world's oldest writing system was hieroglyphs, which were originally of a picturesque character. Later, hieroglyphs turned into symbolic signs. Most of the hieroglyphs were phonograms, that is, they denoted combinations of two or three consonants. Another type of hieroglyphs - ideograms - denoted individual words and concepts.

The hieroglyphic writing lost its pictorial character at the turn of 4–3 millennia BC. BC .. Around 3000 BC. arose in Sumer cuneiform. This term was introduced at the beginning of the 18th century by Kempfer to designate the letters used by the ancient inhabitants of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. Sumerian writing, which went from hieroglyphic, figurative signs-symbols to the signs with which the simplest syllables began to be written, turned out to be an extremely progressive system that was borrowed and used by many peoples who spoke other languages. Due to this circumstance, the cultural influence of the Sumerians in the ancient Near East was enormous and outlived their own civilization for many centuries.

The name of cuneiform corresponds to the shape of the signs with a thickening at the top, but is true only for their later form; the original one, preserved in the oldest inscriptions of the Sumerian and first Babylonian kings, bears all the features of pictorial, hieroglyphic writing. Through gradual reductions and thanks to the material - clay and stone, the signs acquired a less rounded and coherent shape and finally began to consist of separate thickened strokes placed in different positions and combinations. Cuneiform is a syllabic letter consisting of several hundred characters, of which 300 are the most commonly used. Among them there are more than 50 ideograms, about 100 signs for simple syllables and 130 for complex ones; there are signs for numbers, in the sixtieth and decimal systems.

Although the Sumerian writing system was invented exclusively for economic needs, the first written literary monuments appeared among the Sumerians very early. Among the records dating from the 26th century. BC e., there are already examples of genres of folk wisdom, cult texts and hymns. Found cuneiform archives brought to us about 150 monuments of Sumerian literature, among which there are myths, epic legends, ritual songs, hymns in honor of kings, collections of fables, sayings, debates, dialogues and edification. The Sumerian tradition played a large role in spreading legends composed in the form of a dispute - genre typical for many literatures of the Ancient East.

One of the important achievements of the Assyrian and Babylonian cultures was the creation libraries. The largest library known to us was founded by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (VII century BC) in his palace of Nineveh - archaeologists have discovered about 25 thousand clay tablets and fragments. Among them: the royal annals, chronicles of the most important historical events, collections of laws, literary monuments, scientific texts. The literature as a whole was anonymous, the names of the authors were semi-legendary. Assyro-Babylonian literature is completely borrowed from Sumerian literary plots, only the names of heroes and gods have been changed.

The most ancient and significant monument of Sumerian literature is Epic of Gilgamesh("The Legend of Gilgamesh" - "About everything that has seen"). The history of the discovery of the epic in the 70s of the 19th century is associated with the name George Smith, an employee of the British Museum, who, among the vast archaeological materials sent to London from Mesopotamia, discovered cuneiform fragments of the legend of the Flood. The report of this discovery, made in late 1872 at the Biblical Archaeological Society, caused a sensation; Seeking to prove the authenticity of his find, Smith went to an excavation site in Nineveh in 1873 and found new fragments of cuneiform tablets. J. Smith died in 1876 in the midst of working on cuneiform texts during his third trip to Mesopotamia, bequeathing in his diaries to subsequent generations of researchers to continue the study of the epic that he had begun.

Epic texts consider Gilgamesh to be the son of the hero Lugalbanda and the goddess Ninsun. The "royal list" from Nippur - a list of dynasties of Mesopotamia - relates the reign of Gilgamesh to the era of the 1st dynasty of Uruk (c. 27-26 centuries BC). The duration of the reign of Gilgamesh is determined by the "Royal List" at 126 years.

There are several versions of the epic: Sumerian (3rd millennium BC), Akkadian (late 3rd millennium BC), Babylonian. The Epic of Gilgamesh is set out on 12 clay tablets. As the plot of the epic develops, the image of Gilgamesh changes. The fabulous hero-hero, boasting of his strength, turns into a person who has learned the tragic transience of life. The mighty spirit of Gilgamesh revolts against the recognition of the inevitability of death; only at the end of his wanderings does the hero begin to understand that immortality can bring him the eternal glory of his name.

The Sumerian legends about Gilgamesh are part of an ancient tradition closely associated with oral creativity and having parallels with the stories of other peoples. The epic contains one of the oldest versions of the Flood, known from the biblical book of Genesis. The intersection with the motif of the Greek myth of Orpheus is also interesting.

Information about the musical culture is of the most general nature. Music was included as the most important component in all three layers of art of ancient cultures, which can be distinguished in accordance with their purpose:

• Folklore (from English Folk-lore - folk wisdom) - folk song and poetry with elements of theatricalization and choreography;
• Temple art - cult, liturgical, which grew out of ritual acts;
• Palace - secular art; its functions are hedonistic (to give pleasure) and ceremonial.

Accordingly, the music sounded during cult and palace ceremonies, at folk festivals. We have no way to restore it. Only a few relief images, as well as descriptions in ancient written monuments, make it possible to make certain generalizations. For example, common images harps make it possible to consider it a popular and respected musical instrument. It is known from written sources that in Sumer and Babylon they revered flute. The sound of this instrument, according to the Sumerians, was able to bring the dead back to life. Apparently, this was due to the very way of producing sound - breathing, which was considered a sign of life. At the annual festivities in honor of Tammuz, the eternally resurrecting god, flutes sounded, personifying the resurrection. One of the clay tablets read: "In the days of Tammuz, play for me the azure flute ..."

pouring wine

Sumerian pottery

The first schools.
The Sumerian school arose and developed before the appearance of writing, the very cuneiform, the invention and improvement of which was the most significant contribution of Sumer to the history of civilization.

The first written monuments were discovered among the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk (biblical Erech). More than a thousand small clay tablets covered with pictographic writing were found here. These were mainly business and administrative records, but among them there were several educational texts: lists of words for memorization. This suggests that at least 3000 years before and. NS. the Sumerian scribes were already engaged in teaching. Over the next centuries, Erech business developed slowly, but by the middle of the III millennium BC. c), on the territory of Sumer). Seemingly there was a network of schools for the systematic Teaching of reading and writing. In ancient Shuruppak-pa, the homeland of the Sumerian ... during excavations in 1902-1903. a significant number of tablets with school texts were found.

From them, we learn that the number of professional scribes at that time reached several thousand. Scribes were divided into junior and senior: there were royal and temple scribes, scribes with a narrow specialization in any one area and highly qualified scribes who held important government posts. All this suggests that many fairly large schools for scribes were scattered throughout Sumer, and that considerable importance was attached to these schools. However, none of the tablets of that era still gives us a clear idea of ​​the Sumerian schools, the system and methods of teaching in them. To obtain this kind of information, it is necessary to refer to the tablets of the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. From the archaeological layer corresponding to this era, hundreds of educational tablets were extracted with all kinds of tasks completed by the students themselves during the lessons. All stages of training are presented here. Such clay "notebooks" make it possible to draw many interesting conclusions about the teaching system adopted in the Sumerian schools and about the curriculum that was studied there. Fortunately, the teachers themselves loved to write about school life. Many of these records have also survived, albeit in fragments. These records and educational tablets give a fairly complete picture of the Sumerian school, its tasks and goals, about students and teachers, about the program and teaching methods. In the history of mankind, this is the only case when we can learn so much about the schools of such a distant era.

Initially, the goals of education in the Sumerian school were, so to speak, purely professional, that is, the school had to prepare scribes necessary in the economic and administrative life of the country, mainly for palaces and temples. This task remained central throughout the existence of Sumer. As the network of schools develops. and as the curriculum expands, schools are gradually becoming centers of Sumerian culture and knowledge. Formally, the type of a universal "scientist" is a specialist in all branches of knowledge that existed in that era: in botany, zoology, mineralogy, geography, mathematics, grammar and linguistics, accounting is rare. pog ^ shahi knowledge of their ethics. and not an era.

Finally, unlike modern educational institutions, the Sumerian schools were a kind of literary centers. Here they not only studied and rewrote literary monuments of the past, but also created new works.

Most of the students who graduated from these schools, as a rule, became scribes at palaces and temples or on the farms of rich and noble people, but a certain part of them devoted their lives to science and teaching.

Like the university professors of our day, many of these ancient scholars earned their living by teaching, devoting their free time to research and literary work.

The Sumerian school, which originally appeared as an appendage of the temple, eventually separated from it, and its program acquired a mostly purely secular character. Therefore, the teacher's work was most likely paid for by student contributions.

Of course, there was no universal or compulsory education in Sumer. Most of the students came from rich or well-to-do families - after all, it was not easy for the poor to find the time and money for long studies. Although Assyriologists came to this conclusion long ago, it was only a hypothesis, and it was only in 1946 that the German Assyriologist Nikolaus Schneider was able to back it up with witty evidence based on documents from that era. Thousands of published household and administrative tablets dating back to about 2000 BC. e .. about five hundred names of scribes are mentioned. Many of them. To avoid mistakes, next to their name they put the name of their father and indicated his profession. Having carefully sorted out all the tablets, N. Schneider established that the fathers of these scribes - and all of them, of course, studied in schools - were the rulers, "city fathers", envoys, temple managers, military leaders, ship captains, high tax officials, priests of various ranks, contractors, overseers, scribes, keepers of archives, bookkeepers.

In other words, the scribes' fathers were the wealthiest townspeople. Interesting. that none of the fragments contains the name of the woman scribe; apparently. and only boys were taught in the Sumerian schools.

At the head of the school was an ummia (knowledgeable person. Teacher), who was also called the father of the school. The students were called the "sons of the school" and the assistant teacher was called the "elder brother." His duties, in particular, included the production of calligraphic plates-samples, which were then copied by the students. He also checked the written assignments and forced the students to recount the lessons they had learned.

Among the teachers were also an art teacher and a Sumerian language teacher, a mentor who monitored attendance, and the so-called "fluent"> (obviously the supervisor in charge of school discipline). It is difficult to say which of them was considered higher in rank We only know that the "father of the school" was its actual headmaster. We do not know anything about the sources of the school staff. Probably, the "father of the school" paid each of them his share of the total amount received in payment of tuition.

As for school programs, here we have at our service the richest information gleaned from the school tablets themselves - a truly unique fact in the history of antiquity. Therefore, we do not need to resort to circumstantial evidence or the writings of ancient authors: we have the primary sources, tablets of pupils, ranging from the scribbles of "first graders" to the works of "graduates", so perfect that they can hardly be distinguished from the tablets written by teachers.

These works make it possible to establish that the course of study followed two main programs. The first gravitated towards science and technology, the second was literary, developing creative features.

Speaking about the first program, it should be emphasized that it was by no means prompted by the thirst for knowledge, the desire to find the truth. This program gradually developed in the course of teaching, the main purpose of which was to teach Sumerian writing. Based on this Basic task, the Sumerian teachers created a teaching system. based on the principle of linguistic classification. The vocabulary of the Sumerian language was divided by them into groups, in support of words and expressions were connected by a common one. These words were memorized and hired until the pupils got used to reproducing them on their own. But by the III millennium BC, e. school educational texts began to expand noticeably and gradually turned into more or less stable teaching aids, adopted in all schools in Sumer.

Some texts contain long lists of names for trees and reeds; in others, the names of all kinds of creatures (animals, insects and birds): in the third, the names of countries, cities and villages; fourthly, the names of stones and minerals. Such lists testify to the considerable knowledge of the Sumerians in the field of "botany", "zoology", "geography" and "mineralogy" - a very curious and little-known fact. which has only recently attracted the attention of scientists studying the history of science.

Sumerian teachers also created all kinds of mathematical tables and compiled collections of problems, accompanying each with a corresponding solution and answer.

Speaking about linguistics, it should first of all be noted that, judging by the numerous school tablets, special attention was paid to grammar. Most of these tablets are long lists of complex nouns, verb forms, etc. This suggests that the Sumerian grammar was well developed. Later, in the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. BC, when the Semites of Akkad gradually conquered Sumer, the Sumerian teachers created the first "dictionaries" we know. The fact is that the Semitic conquerors adopted not only the Sumerian writing: they also highly appreciated the literature of ancient Sumer, preserved and studied its monuments and imitated them even when Sumerian became a dead language. This gave rise to the need for "dictionaries". where the translation of Sumerian words and expressions into the language of Akkad was given.

Let us now turn to the second curriculum, which had a literary bias. Training in this program consisted mainly of memorizing and rewriting literary works of the second half of the III millennium BC. e .. when literature was especially rich, as well as in imitation of them. There were hundreds of such texts, and almost all of them were poetic works ranging in size from 30 (or less) to 1000 lines. Judging by those of them. which we managed to compose and decipher. these works fell into different canons: myths and epic legends in verse, glorifying songs; Sumerian gods and heroes; hymns of praise to the gods; to kings. cry; ruined, biblical cities.

Among the Literary tablets and their ilomkop. recovered from the ruins of Sumer, many are school copies, copied by the hands of students.

We still know very little about the methods and techniques of teaching in the schools of Sumer. In the morning, upon arriving at school, the students dismantled the sign that they had written the day before.

Then the elder brother, that is, the teacher's assistant, prepared a NEW tablet, which the students began to disassemble and rewrite. Older brother. and also the father of the school, apparently, barely / followed the work of the students, checking whether they were rewriting the text correctly. undoubtedly, the successes of the Sumerian students largely depended on their memory, teachers and their assistants had to accompany the too dry word lists with detailed explanations. tables and literary texts rewritten by students. But these lectures, which could provide us with invaluable assistance in the study of Sumerian scientific and religious thought and literature, apparently were never written down, and therefore are forever lost.

One thing is certain: teaching in the schools of Sumer had nothing to do with the modern teaching system, in which the assimilation of knowledge largely depends on initiative and independent work; the student himself.

With regard to discipline. then it was not without a stick. It is possible that. without refusing to reward students for their successes, the Sumerian teachers still relied more on the Intimidating effect of the stick, which instantly punished by no means heavenly. He went to school every day and was just there from morning to evening. Probably, during the year some kind of vacation was arranged, then we have no information about this. The training lasted for years, the child managed to turn into a young man. it would be interesting to see. whether the Sumerian students had the opportunity to choose a job or a different specialization. and if so. then to what extent and at what stage of training. However, about this, as well as about many other details. sources are silent.

One in Sippar. and the other is in Ur. But besides that. that in each of these buildings a large number of tablets were found, they are almost indistinguishable from ordinary residential buildings, and therefore our guess may be wrong. Only in the winter of 1934.35, French archaeologists discovered in the city of Mari on the Euphrates (north-west of Nippur) two rooms, which, in their location and features, clearly represent classrooms. Rows of baked brick benches have been preserved in them, designed for one, two or four students.

But what did the students themselves think about the school of that time? To give at least an incomplete answer to this question. Let us turn to the next chapter, which contains a very interesting text about school life in Sumer, written almost four thousand years ago, but only recently collected from numerous passages and finally translated. This text provides, in particular, a clear picture of the relationship between students and teachers and is a unique first document in the history of pedagogy.

Sumerian schools

reconstruction of the Sumerian oven

Babylonian Seals 2000-1800

O

Silver boat model, checkers game

Ancient Nimrud

Mirror

Life Sumerian, scribes

Writing boards

Classroom at school

Plow-seeder, 1000 B.C.

Wine Vault

Sumerian literature

Epic of Gilgamesh

Sumerian pottery

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Ur

Uruk

Uruk

Ubeid culture

Copper relief depicting the Imdugud bird from the El-Ubeid Temple. Sumer

Fragments of fresco paintings in the palace of Zimrilim.

Marie. XVIII century BC NS.

Sculpture of the professional singer Ur-Nin. Marie.

Ser. III millennium BC NS

A lion-headed monster, one of the seven evil demons, who was born in the Mountain of the East and lives in pits and ruins. It causes strife and disease among the people. Geniuses, both evil and good, played a large role in the life of the Babylonians. 1st millennium BC NS.

Carved stone bowl from Ur.

III millennium BC NS.

Silver rings for donkey harness. Tomb of Queen Pu-abi.

Lvl. III millennium BC NS.

Head of the goddess Ninlil - wife of the moon god Nann, patron saint of Ur

Terracotta figure of a Sumerian deity. Tello (Lagash).

III millennium BC NS.

Statue of Kurlil, the chief of the granaries of Uruk. Uruk. Early Dynastic period, 3rd millennium BC NS.

A vessel with the image of animals. Susa. Con. IV millennium BC NS.

Stone vessel with colored inlays. Uruk (Warka) .Con. IV millennium BC NS.

"White Temple" in Uruk (Warka).

Reed dwelling house of the Ubeid period. Modern renovation. Ctesiphon National Park

Reconstruction of a private house (courtyard) Ur

Ur-royal grave

Everyday life

Everyday life

Sumer carries a lamb for sacrifice

Rulers, nobles and temples required property accounting. To indicate who, how much and what belonged, special signs-drawings were invented. Pictography is the most ancient writing with the help of drawings.

Cuneiform writing in Mesopotamia was used for almost 3 thousand years. However, she was later forgotten. For tens of centuries, cuneiform kept its secret, until, in 1835, H. Rawlinson. English officer and lover of antiquities. did not decipher it. On a steep cliff in Iran, the same inscription in three ancient languages, including Old Persian. Rawlinson first read the inscription in this language known to him, and then managed to understand another inscription, identifying and deciphering more than 200 cuneiform characters.

The invention of writing was one of the greatest achievements of mankind. Writing made it possible to preserve knowledge, made it available to a large number of people. It became possible to keep the memory of the past in records (on clay tablets, on papyrus), and not only in oral retelling, passed down from generation to generation "by word of mouth." Until now, writing remains the main repository information for humanity.

2. The birth of literature.

The first poems were written in Sumer, depicting ancient legends and stories about heroes. Writing has allowed them to be brought to our time. This is how literature was born.

The Sumerian poem about Gilgamesh tells the story of a hero who dared to challenge the gods. Gilgamesh was the king of the city of Uruk. He boasted before the gods of his power, and the gods were angry with the proud man. They created Enkidi, a half-man-half-beast with great strength, and sent him to fight Gilgamesh. However, the gods miscalculated. The forces of Gilgamesh and Enkidu were found to be equal. Recent enemies have become friends. They went on a journey and experienced many adventures. Together they defeated the terrible giant who guarded the cedar forest, and performed many other feats. But the sun god was angry with Enkidu and doomed him to death. Gilgamesh mourned his friend's death inconsolably. Gilgamesh realized that he could not defeat death.

Gilgamesh set out to seek immortality. At the bottom of the sea, he found the herb of eternal life. But as soon as the hero fell asleep on the shore, the evil snake ate the magic grass. So Gilgamesh could not fulfill his dream. But a poem about him created by people made his image immortal.

In the literature of the Sumerians, we find an exposition of the myth of the flood. People stopped obeying the gods and their behavior caused their anger. And the gods decided to destroy the human race. But among people there was a man named Utnapishtim, who obeyed the gods in everything and led a righteous life. The water god Ea took pity on him and warned of the impending flood. Utnapishtim built a ship, loaded his family, pets and property on it. For six days and nights his ship rushed along the raging waves. On the seventh day, the storm subsided.

Then Utnapnshtim released the raven. And the raven did not return to him. Utnapishtim understood that the raven saw the land. That was the top of the mountain, to which Utnapishtim's ship docked. Here he made a sacrifice to the gods. The gods have forgiven people. The gods granted immortality to Utnapnshtim. The waters of the flood receded. Since then, the human race began to multiply again, mastering new lands.

The myth of the flood existed among many peoples of antiquity. He entered the Bible. Even the ancient inhabitants of Central America, cut off from the civilizations of the Ancient East, also created a legend about the Flood.

3. Knowledge of the Sumerians.

The Sumerians learned to observe the Sun, Moon, stars. They calculated their path through the sky, identified many constellations and gave them names. It seemed to the Sumerians that the stars, their movement and location determine the fate of people and states. They discovered the zodiac belt - 12 constellations that form a large circle along which the Sun makes its way throughout the year. The learned priests made calendars, calculated the timing of lunar eclipses. One of the oldest sciences, astronomy, was founded in Sumer.

In mathematics, the Sumerians knew how to count in tens. But the numbers 12 (a dozen) and 60 (five dozen) were especially revered. We still use the Sumerian heritage, when we divide the hour by 60 minutes, the minute by 60 seconds, the year by 12 months, and the circle by 360 degrees.

The first schools were established in the cities of Ancient Sumer. Only boys studied in them, girls were given home education. The boys went to class at sunrise. Schools were organized at the temples. The priests were the teachers.

The classes lasted the whole day. It was not easy to learn to write in cuneiform, to count, to tell legends about gods and heroes. For poor knowledge and violation of discipline, they were severely punished. Anyone who successfully completed school could get a job as a scribe, official, or become a priest. This made it possible to live without knowing poverty.

Despite the severity of discipline, school in Sumer was likened to a family. Teachers were called "father" and students were called "sons of the school." And in those distant times, children remained children. They loved to play and play pranks. Archaeologists have found games and toys for children to play with. The younger ones played the same way as modern kids. They carried toys on wheels with them. Interestingly, the greatest invention, the wheel, was immediately used in toys.

IN AND. Ukolova, L.P. Marinovich, History, grade 5
Submitted by readers from internet sites

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Table of contents

Introduction
The culture of Babylon has been little studied due to the frequent destruction.
Central Babylonia was located downstream of the Euphrates from where the Euphrates and Tigris converge. The ruins of Babylon are located 90 km from the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The Bible says about Babylon: "A great city ... a mighty city." In the VII century. BC. Babylon was the largest and richest city in the Ancient East. Its area was 450 hectares, straight streets with two-story houses, a water supply and sewerage system, a stone bridge across the Euphrates. The city was surrounded by a double ring of fortress walls up to 6.5 m thick, through which eight gates led to the city. The most important were the twelve-meter gate of the goddess Ishtar, resembling a triumphal arch in shape, made of turquoise glazed bricks with an ornament of 575 lions, dragons and bulls. The whole city was crossed by a processional road going through the northern gate dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. She walked along the walls of the citadel to the walls of the temple of Marduk. In the middle of the fence stood a 90-meter stepped tower, which went down in history as the "Tower of Babel". It consisted of seven multi-colored floors. It contained a golden statue of Marduk.
By order of Nebuchadnezzar, "hanging gardens" were laid out for his wife Amltis. The palace of Nebuchadnezzar was erected on an artificial platform, hanging gardens were laid out on bulk terraces. The floors of the gardens were raised by ledges and connected by gentle staircases.
The greatness of Babylon was so great that even after the final loss of independence by the New Babylonian state in October 539 BC. after its capture by the Persians, it retained its position as a cultural center and remained one of the most significant cities in the world. Even Alexander the Great, who had seen more than one capital, decided that Babylon in Mesopotamia, along with Alexandria in Egypt, was worthy to become the capital of his vast empire. Here he made sacrifices to Marduk, was crowned and gave the order to restore the ancient temples. It was here, in Babylon, that this conqueror died on June 13, 323 BC. However, the beauty of this Mesopotamian city did not prevent Alexander the Great from destroying one of the most remarkable Babylonian architectural ensembles - the seven-tiered ziggurat of Etemenanki ("Tower of Babel"), which so amazed the creators of the Old Testament and inspired them to create one of the most beautiful stories about the origin of languages ... “Commentators are probably right in attributing the origin of the legend to the deep impression that the great city made on the simple-minded nomad Semites who came here directly from the secluded and silent desert. They were amazed by the incessant noise of streets and bazaars, blinded by a kaleidoscope of colors in a bustling crowd, deafened by the clatter of human dialect in languages ​​they did not understand. They were frightened by tall buildings, especially huge terraced temples with roofs that sparkled with glazed bricks and, as it seemed to them, rested against the sky itself. It is not surprising if these simple-minded inhabitants of the huts imagined that the people who climbed the long stairs to the top of the huge pillar, from where they seemed to be moving points, really coexisted with the gods.
Babylon became famous in the ancient world for its science, and especially for mathematical astronomy, which flourished in the 5th century. BC, when schools worked in Uruk, Sippar, Babylon, Borsippa. The Babylonian astronomer Naburian managed to create a system for determining the lunar phases, and Kyden discovered the solar precession. Most of what can be seen without a telescope was plotted on the star map in Babylon, and from there it got to the Mediterranean. There is a version that Pythagoras borrowed his theorem from Babylonian mathematicians.

The theme I have chosen is very relevant to this day. Scientists have been studying the history of Ancient Babylon to this day, since much is still unsolved, unconsciously, unsolved. The works of the following authors helped me to achieve the desired result: I.G. Klochkov. 1, which showed the culture and life of Babylon; Kramer S.N. 2, which elaborated on the topic of priests and overseers in Sumer; Oganesyan A.A. 3, thanks to the work of which I learned about the origin of writing; Mirimanov V.B. 4, reflecting the general central image of the picture of the world; Petrashevsky A.I. 5, deeply revealing the themes of the Sumerian pantheon; Turaev B.A. 6, Hook S.G. 7, the works of which, provided a complete perception and formation of the whole picture that reigned in Ancient Babylon, their culture, mythology and everyday life.

Chapter 1. Sumerian culture

1.1. Chronological framework

Sumerian culture (along with Egyptian) is the most ancient culture that has come down to us in the monuments of its own writing. It had a significant impact on the peoples of the entire biblical-Homeric world (the Middle East, Mediterranean, Western Europe and Russia), and thus laid the cultural foundations not only of Mesopotamia, but also, in a sense, the spiritual support of the Judeo-Christian type of culture.
Modern civilization divides the world into four seasons, 12 months, 12 signs of the zodiac, measures minutes and seconds in six tens. We first find this among the Sumerians. The constellations have Sumerian names translated into Greek or Arabic. The first school known from history appeared in the city of Ur at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC.
Jews, Christians and Muslims, referring to the text of the Holy Scriptures, read stories about Eden, the Fall and the Flood, about the builders of the Tower of Babel, whose languages ​​were confused by the Lord, going back to Sumerian sources processed by Jewish theologians. Known from Babylonian, Assyrian, Jewish, Greek, Syrian sources, the hero-king Gilgamesh is a character in Sumerian epic poems telling about his exploits and campaigns for immortality, was revered as a god and an ancient ruler. The first legislative acts of the Sumerians contributed to the development of legal relations in all parts of the ancient region. eight
The currently accepted chronology is as follows:
Proto-written period (XXX-XXVIII centuries BC). The time of the arrival of the Sumerians, the construction of the first temples and cities and the invention of writing.
Early Dynastic period (XXVIII-XXIV centuries BC). Formation of the statehood of the first Sumerian cities: Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Lagash, etc. Formation of the main institutions of Sumerian culture: temple and school. The internecine wars of the Sumerian rulers for supremacy in the region.
Period of the Akkad dynasty (XXIV-XXII centuries BC). Formation of a single state: the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad. Sargon I founded the capital of the new state Akkad, which united both cultural communities: Sumerians and Semites. Rule of kings of Semitic origin, immigrants from Akkad, Sargonids.
The era of the Kutians. The Sumerian land is attacked by savage tribes who have ruled the country for a century.
The era of the III dynasty of Ur. The period of centralized government of the country, the dominance of the accounting and bureaucratic system, the heyday of the school and the verbal and musical arts (XXI-XX centuries BC). 1997 BC - the end of the Sumerian civilization, which perished under the blows of the Elamites, but the main institutions and traditions continue to exist until the coming to power of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC).
For about fifteen centuries of its history, Sumer created the basis of civilization in Mesopotamia, leaving a legacy of writing, monumental structures, the idea of ​​justice and law, the roots of a great religious tradition.

1.2. State structure

The organization of the main canal network, which existed without radical changes until the middle of the second millennium, was decisive for the history of the country. The main centers of education of the states - cities - were also connected with the network of channels. They arose on the site of the original agricultural settlements, which concentrated on drained and irrigated areas reclaimed from swamps and deserts in the previous millennia.
Three or four interconnected cities arose in one district, but one of them was always the main one (Uru). It was the administrative center of general cults. In Sumerian this district was called ki (land, place). Each district created its own main canal and, as long as it was maintained in good condition, the district itself existed as a political force.
The center of the Sumerian city was the temple of the main city deity. The high priest of the temple stood both at the head of the administration and at the head of the irrigation works. The temples had an extensive agricultural, cattle-breeding and handicraft economy, which made it possible to create stocks of bread, wool, fabrics, stone and metal products. These temple warehouses were needed in case of crop failure or war, their valuables served as an exchange fund in trade and, most importantly, for the performance of sacrifices. For the first time, writing appeared in the temple, the creation of which was caused by the needs of economic accounting and accounting of victims. nine
The Mesopotamian district, ki (nom, by analogy with the Egyptian territorial unit), the city and the temple were the main structural divisions that played an important political role in the history of Sumer. In it, four starting stages can be distinguished: rivalry between the nomes against the background of a common tribal military-political union; Semitic attempt to absolutize power; seizure of power by kutia and paralysis of external activity; the period of the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization and the political death of the Sumerians.
If we talk about the social structure of Sumerian society, then it, like all ancient societies, is divided into four main strata: communal farmers, artisans, merchants, warriors and priests. The ruler (en, lord, owner, or ensi) of the city in the initial period of the history of Sumer combines the functions of a priest, military leader, head of the city and the elder of the community. His duties included: leadership of the cult, especially in the rite of sacred marriage; construction management, especially irrigation and temple construction; the leadership of the army, consisting of persons dependent on the temple and actually from it; chairmanship of community meetings and the council of elders. En and the nobility (head of the temple administration, priests, council of elders) had to ask permission for certain actions from the community meeting, which consisted of the "young men of the city" and "elders of the city." Over time, with the concentration of power in the hands of one group, the role of the popular assembly faded away.
In addition to the position of the head of the city, the title "lugal" ("big man") is known from the Sumerian texts, which is translated as king, master of the country. Initially, this was the title of a military leader. He was chosen from among the Aenus by the supreme gods of Sumer in the sacred Nippur using a special rite and temporarily occupied the position of the master of the country. Later, they became kings not by choice, but by inheritance, while maintaining the Nippur rite. Thus, one and the same person was an ene of some city, and a lugal of the country, so that the struggle for the royal title went on throughout the history of Sumer. ten
During the reign of the Kutians, not a single en had the right to bear the title, since the invaders called themselves lugal. And by the time of the III dynasty, Ura en (ensi) were officials of city administrations, obeying the will of the Lugal. But, apparently, the earliest form of government in the Sumerian city-states was the alternating rule of representatives of neighboring temples and lands. This is evidenced by the fact that the very term for the term of Lugal's rule means “turn”, and, in addition, some mythological texts indicate the order of the reign of the gods, which can also serve as an indirect confirmation of this conclusion. After all, mythological representations are a direct form of reflection of social life. At the bottom rung of the hierarchical ladder there were slaves (noise. "Deflated"). The first slaves in history were prisoners of war. Their labor was used in private households or in temples. The prisoner became ritually slain and was part of whoever he belonged to. eleven

1.3. Picture of the world

Sumerian ideas about the world are reconstructed from many texts of different genres. When the Sumerians talk about the integrity of the world, they use a compound word: Heaven-Earth. Initially, Heaven and Earth were one body, from which all spheres of the world originated. Having divided, they did not lose their properties to be reflected in each other: the seven heavens correspond to the seven divisions of the underworld. After the separation of Heaven from Earth, the endowing of the deities of the earth and air with the attributes of the world order begins: Mepotencies, expressing the desire of an entity to find its form, external manifestation; fate (to us) - that which is in its form; ritual and order. The world makes a circle throughout the year, "returning to its place." 12
This means for the Sumerian-Babylonian culture a general renewal of the world, which implies a return "to square one" - this is not only a return to the previous state (for example, forgiving debtors, freeing criminals from prisons), but also the restoration and reconstruction of old temples, the publication of new royal decrees and often the introduction of a new countdown. Moreover, this novelty makes sense in the context of the development of culture based on the principles of justice and order. From the area of ​​the seventh heaven, essences (Me) of all forms of culture descend into the world: the attributes of royal power, professions, the most important actions of people, character traits. Each person must correspond to his essence as much as possible, and then he has the opportunity to receive a "favorable fate", and the fate can be given by the gods on the basis of the name or deeds of a person. Thus, cyclicality has the meaning of correcting one's own destiny.
The creation of man is the next step in the development of the universe. In the Sumerian texts, two versions of the origin of man are known: the creation of the first people from clay by the god Enki and that people made their way out of the ground like grass. Every person is born to work for the gods. At birth, the child was given an object in his hands: the boy received a stick in his hands, the girl received a spindle. After that, the baby acquired the name and “fate of people” who diligently performed their duty and did not have either the “fate of a king” (namlugal) or “the fate of a scribe”.
"The fate of the king." At the very beginning of the Sumerian statehood, the king was chosen in the sacred Nippur through magical procedures. The royal inscriptions mention the hand of a god who snatched the meadows from the many citizens of Sumer. Subsequently, the elections in Nippur became a formal act and the succession to the throne became the norm of state policy. During the III dynasty of Ur, the kings were recognized as equal to the gods and had divine relatives (the famous Gilgamesh was Shulga's brother).
The "fate of the scribe" was different. From the age of five to seven, the future scribe studied at school ("the house of tablets"). The school was a large room divided into two parts. The first was a classroom in which the students sat, holding a clay tablet in their left hand and a reed style in their right. In the second part of the room there was a vat of clay for the production of new tablets, which were made by the teacher's assistant. In addition to the teacher, there was an overseer in the class who beat the students for any offense. 13
At schools, thematic lists of signs were compiled. It was necessary to write them correctly and know all their meanings. They taught how to translate from Sumerian into Akkadian and vice versa. The student had to master words from the everyday life of various professions (the language of priests, shepherds, sailors, jewelers). Know the intricacies of singing and calculation. At the end of school, the student received the title of scribe and was assigned to work. The state scribe was in the service in the palace, he drew up royal inscriptions, decrees and laws. The temple scribe conducted business calculations, wrote down theological texts from the lips of the priest. A private scribe worked in the household of a large nobleman, and the scribe-translator was at diplomatic negotiations, at war, etc.
The priests were civil servants. Their duties included maintaining the statues in the temples, conducting urban rituals. Female priests participated in sacred marriage rites. The priests passed on their skills by word of mouth and were mostly illiterate. fourteen

1.4. Ziggurat

The most important symbol of the institution of the priesthood was the ziggurat - a temple structure in the form of a stepped pyramid. The upper part of the temple was the abode of the deity, the middle - the place of worship of people living on earth, the lower - the afterlife. Ziggurats were built in three or seven floors, in the latter case, each represented one of the seven main astral deities. The three-story ziggurat can be compared with the distinction of the sacred space of the Sumerian culture: the upper sphere of the planets and stars (an), the sphere of the inhabited world (kalam), the sphere of the lower world (ki), which consists of two zones - the area of ​​groundwater (abzu) and the area of ​​the world of the dead (chickens). The number of heavens in the upper world reached seven. 15
The upper world is ruled by the main deity An, seated on the throne of the seventh heaven, it is the place from which the laws of the universe originate. It is revered by the middle world as a standard of stability and order. The middle world consists of "our land", "steppe" and foreign lands. It is in the possession of Enlilius - the god of the winds and the forces of his space. "Our land" is the territory of a city-state with a temple of the city deity in the center and with a powerful wall surrounding the city. Outside the wall is the "steppe" (open space or desert). Alien lands lying outside the "steppe" are called the same as the land of the dead of the lower world. So, apparently, because neither the laws of a foreign world, nor the laws of the lower one are accessible to understanding within the city wall, equally lie outside the understanding of “our country”.
The area of ​​underground waters of the lower world is subject to Enki, the creator god of man, the keeper of crafts and arts. The Sumerians associate the origin of true knowledge with deep underground springs, because well and ditch waters bring mysterious strength, power and help. 16

1.5. Cuneiform and clay tablets

The preconditions for the emergence of writing are created in the 7th-5th millennia BC, when "subject writing" appears. On the territory of Mesopotamia, archaeologists have found small objects made of clay and stone of geometric shape: balls, cylinders, cones, discs. Perhaps they were counting chips. A cylinder could mean "one sheep", a cone - "a jug of butter." Counting chips began to be placed in clay envelopes. To “read” the information placed there, it was necessary to break the envelope. Therefore, over time, the shape and number of chips began to be depicted on the envelope. According to scientists, this is how the transition from "subject writing" to the first drawing signs on clay - to drawing writing took place. 17
Writing emerged at the end of the 4th millennium BC in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Elam. In Mesopotamia, writing was invented by the Sumerians. The first economic documents were drawn up in the temple of the city of Uruk. They were pictograms - signs of picture writing. At first, objects were depicted accurately and resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics. But on clay it is difficult to depict real objects quickly enough, and gradually pictographic writing turns into abstract cuneiform (vertical, horizontal and oblique lines). Each writing sign was a combination of several wedge-shaped lines. These lines were imprinted with a three-edged stick on a plate made of raw clay mass, the tablets were dried or, less often, burned like ceramics.
Cuneiform consists of about 600 characters, each of which can have up to five conceptual and up to ten syllabic meanings (verbal and syllabic writing). Before the Assyrian time, only lines were distinguished when writing: there were no word divisions and punctuation marks. Writing became a great achievement of the Sumerian-Akkadian culture, was borrowed and developed by the Babylonians and spread widely throughout Asia Minor: cuneiform was used in Syria, Persia and other ancient states, it was known and used by the Egyptian pharaohs.
Currently, about half a million texts are known - from a few characters to thousands of lines. These are economic, administrative and legal documents kept in palaces sealed in earthen vessels or piled in baskets. Religious texts were kept in school premises. They were accompanied by a catalog in which each work was named on the first line. The royal construction and dedicatory inscriptions were located in the inaccessible sacred places of the temples. eighteen
Written monuments can be divided into two large groups: the actual Sumerian written monuments (royal inscriptions, temple and royal hymns) and Sumerian post-Sumerian (texts of the literary and ritual canon, bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian dictionaries). In the texts of the first group, everyday ideological and economic life is recorded: economic relations, reports of the kings to the gods on the work done, the praise of temples and deified kings as the basis of the universe. The texts of the second group were no longer created by the Sumerians themselves, but by their assimilated descendants, who wanted to legitimize the succession of the throne, to remain faithful to tradition.
In the post-Sumerian time, the Sumerian language becomes the language of the temple and school, and the oral tradition, in which a wise person is called “heeding” (in the Sumerian language, “mind” and “ear” are one word), that is, who can listen, and therefore reproduce and convey, gradually loses its sacred-secret deep connection that eludes fixation.
The Sumerians compiled the world's first library catalog, a collection of medical prescriptions, developed and recorded a farmer's calendar; the first information about protective plantations and the idea of ​​creating the world's first fish reserve, we find also recorded with them. According to most scholars, the Sumerian language, the language of the ancient Egyptians and the inhabitants of Akkad, belongs to the Semitic-Hamitic language group. 19

Chapter 2. Culture of Babylonia

2.1. Right

Compared with the ancient law of Sumer and the legislative activity of the kings of the III dynasty of Ur, the law of the Babylonian state was in a certain sense a step forward. Early Sumerian history was ruled by community elders and a collective tradition. The leader is chosen based on his personal qualities. During this period, the biosocial nature of the structure of society is recorded. The future leader is tested for a long time, they ask the gods about him, and only then they declare that he is God's chosen one, because a knowledgeable and experienced leader who understands tradition well is the basis for the survival of the collective.
Only in the era of the early state can we talk about the hereditary principle, when the problem of survival becomes less important than the problem of stability of society (or rather, the emphasis of survival is transferred from the natural level to the socio-cultural), the guarantee of which is the preservation of cultural continuity, which is necessary in connection with changes in social structure. The son, as the father's successor, was not insured by nature against the lack of the necessary qualities in him, but he had consultant priests who were always ready to come to the rescue. For example, the category of “return to mother” in the inscriptions of the chosen kings of Enmetena and Urukagina in Old Sumerian time eloquently confirms the biosocial structure of early society: “He (the king) established a return to his mother in Lagash. The mother returned to the son, the son returned to the mother. He established a return to his mother to pay off debts for grain in growth (cancellation of debt obligations for the payment of barley with interest). Then to Enmetena to the god Lugalemush, the Emush temple in Bad Tiber ... built, returned to its place (restoration of the old temple). For the sons of Uruk, the sons of Larsa, the sons of Bad Tibir, the return to their mother was established ... (release with the return home of citizens of other cities).
From the point of view of rational thinking, the metaphor of "returning" to the womb here is actually a universal principle of counting time again, from scratch, from the initial state, i.e. return "to square one." By the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur, a written code of laws was required. Preserved 30 - 35 provisions of the Shulga code of laws. Most likely, they were reports to the city gods about the work done. The need to create a new set of laws for the Babylonian state was already recognized by the second king of the 1st Babylonian dynasty - Sumulailu, whose laws are mentioned in the documents of his successors. twenty

2.2. Hammurabi Code of Laws

King Hammurabi, with his legislation, tried to formalize and consolidate the social system of the state, the dominant force in which was to be small and medium-sized slave owners. What great importance Hammurabi attached to his legislative activity is evident from the fact that he started it at the very beginning of his reign; the second year of his reign is named the year when "he established the right to the country." True, this early collection of laws did not reach us; the laws of Hammurabi known to science date back to the end of his reign.
These laws were immortalized on a large black basalt pillar. At the top of the obverse of the pillar is depicted a king standing in front of the sun god Shamash, the patron saint of the court. Shamash sits on his throne and holds the attributes of power in his right hand, and a flame shines around his shoulders. Under the relief, the text of the laws is inscribed, filling both sides of the pillar. The text is split into three parts. The first part is an extensive introduction in which Hammurabi announces that the gods have handed over the kingdom to him "so that the strong will not oppress the weak." This is followed by a listing of the benefits that were rendered to Hammurabi to the cities of his state. Among them are mentioned the cities of the extreme south, headed by Larsa, as well as cities along the middle reaches of the Euphrates and the Tigris - Mari, Ashur, Nineveh, etc. Consequently, the basalt pillar with the laws of Hammurabi was erected by him after the subordination of the states located along the middle reaches of the Euphrates and Tiger, that is, in the early 30s of his reign. Presumably, copies of the laws were made for all the major cities of his kingdom. After the introduction, articles of laws follow, which, in turn, end with a detailed conclusion.
The monument is generally well preserved. Only the articles in the last columns of the obverse were erased. Obviously, this was done at the behest of the Elamite king, who, after his invasion of Mesopotamia, transported this monument from Babylonia to Susa, where it was found. Based on the remaining traces, it can be established that 35 articles were inscribed on the scraped-out place, and in total there are 282 articles of the law of civil, criminal, administrative law in the monument. On the basis of various copies found in the excavated ancient libraries of Nineveh, Nippur, Babylon, and others, it is possible to restore most of the articles destroyed by the Elamite conqueror. 21
Hammurabi's legislation does not contain instructions for the intervention of the gods. The only exceptions are Articles 2 and 132, which allow the application of the so-called "divine judgment" against a person accused of witchcraft or a married woman accused of adultery. The decisions on punishment for bodily injuries in accordance with the principle "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" go back to the distant past. The legislation of King Hammurabi expanded the application of this principle both to a doctor for damage from an unsuccessful operation, and to a builder for an unsuccessful construction; if, for example, a collapsed house killed the owner, then the builder was killed, and if in this case the owner's son died, then the builder's son was killed.
The laws of King Hammurabi should be recognized as one of the most significant monuments of legal thought in ancient Eastern society. This is the first detailed collection of laws known to us in world history that protected private property and established the rules for interaction between the structures of the Old Babylonian society, consisting of full citizens; legally free, but not full; and slaves.
The study of the laws of Hammurabi in connection with the surviving royal and private letters, as well as private law documents of that time, makes it possible to determine the direction of the measures of the royal power.
This code of law allows us to draw a conclusion about the social composition of Babylonian society. It distinguishes three categories of people - full-fledged citizens, muskenums (dependent tsarist people), slaves - whose responsibility for crimes was determined in different ways. The Hammurabi Code recognized property as an institution, regulated the conditions of rent and its payment, rent, and property pledge. The punishments for crimes were very harsh ("If a son hit his father, then his hands will be cut off"), and the offender was often punished with the death penalty. The main difference between the laws of Hammurabi and the more ancient Mesopotamian codes is that the main principle of sentencing is talion: 22
"196. If someone injures the eye of the husband's son, they will injure his own eye.
197. If he broke the bone of the husband's son, then they will break his bone ”.
The laws of Hammurabi clearly show the property nature of the legislation of the Babylonian kingdom. For bodily harm caused to someone else's slave, it was required, as in relation to livestock, compensation for the loss to its owner. The one guilty of killing a slave gave another slave in return to the owner. Slaves, like cattle, could be sold without any restrictions. The slave's marital status was not taken into account. When a slave was sold, the law was concerned only with protecting the buyer from deception on the part of the seller. Legislation protected slave owners from stealing slaves and harboring escaped slaves.
The laws of Hammurabi know the qualified death penalty - burning for incest with the mother, imprisoning a wife for participating in the murder of her husband, etc. The death penalty threatened not only the one who stole, but also the concealer of the slave. Severe punishment was also threatened for the destruction of the sign of slavery on the slave. In a separate slave-owning family, there were usually from 2 to 5 slaves, but there are cases when the number of slaves reached several dozen. Private law documents speak of a wide variety of transactions involving slaves: buying, donating, exchanging, hiring, and bequesting. Slaves were replenished under Hammurabi from among the "criminals", from among the prisoners of war, as well as purchased in neighboring areas. The average price of a slave was 150-250 grams of silver. 23

2.3. Art culture

In the preliterate period in the Mesopotamian culture, there were cylindrical seals on which miniature images were carved, then such a seal was rolled on clay. These round seals are one of the greatest achievements of Mesopotamian art.
The earliest writings were made in the form of drawings (pictograms) with a reed stick on a clay tablet, which was then fired. On these tablets, in addition to records of an economic nature, samples of literature have been preserved.
The world's oldest story is the epic of Gilgamesh.
The two main centers of the Southern Mesopotamia from the beginning of the early Dynastic period were Kish and Uruk. Uruk became the center of the military alliance of the cities. The oldest inscriptions that have come down to us are the inscriptions in three or four lines of the Kish lugal: “Enmebaragesi, lugal Kisha”.
With
etc.................