"

At that time Ziugiddu was king,

In humility prostrating himself,

Daily and perseveringly standing in attendance."

- (A Description of the Sumerian Noah, the First Good Man.)

"That which midnight hath brought unto me, its meaning I understand not."

KING GUDEA'S DREAM.

SUM

EARTH'S OLDEST LANGUAGE

(INTRODUCTION)

UMERIAN, as already explained, is the oldest of the four languages found among the ruins of the Euphrates valley. So old is it that the earliest glimpses of history which we have rescued from oblivion show us only the decay and downfall of the ancient Sumerian cities. These were spread along the banks of the lower Euphrates and the seacoast at its mouth. We find them fighting through the centuries in a valiant but gradually weakening struggle against the Akkadian people of the upper Euphrates. Among the last of the cities of the Sumerians to hold military power was Lagash, and their last great religious city was Nippur, the gods of which continued to be worshiped even by the Akkadians long after all political supremacy had been lost to the Sumerians forever. The two cities of Lagash and Nippur have been carefully unearthed, and much of our knowledge of Sumerian comes from their rediscovered inscriptions.

Even more of our present Sumerian knowledge is due to Ashur-banipal's great Assyrian library. Many texts have been found there written in the old Sumerian or religious language, just as our own printing-presses still occasionally issue Greek and Hebrew texts. In columns by the side of the Sumerian, the scribes of Ashur-banipal wrote its Assyrian translation.

This interesting old scholar-king, speaking of himself in one of his volumes, says, "Among the craftsmen I busied myself; the counsel and wisdom of the heavens with the wise masters I solved. I read the dreadful mysteries which should not be revealed. To translate into Akkadian the skilfully made tablets which were obscure in Sumerian, I was rest

less." The Sumerian of the later days is thus presented to us as a "dead language," studied by the Babylonian and Assyrian priesthood. But when we unearth its remnants in Lagash and Nippur we find its earlier and living form, in which both the writing and its meaning change, as all living languages change with the passing centuries.

is

The first inscription given in this section of our volume among the oldest, and probably the very oldest, yet found. It was purchased from a modern Arab, and hence we do not know from what old Sumerian city it was unearthed, but its writing is of a very early type, a picture-writing in which the pictures are still drawn with enough clearness to be recognized. In our volume we have throughout employed the chronology regarded as probable by our most recent authorities; and these have much reduced the reckoning of years which was accepted a decade ago. Yet even our latest scholars say of this tablet that it is about six thousand years old (4000 B.C.), and the reckoners of the last decade would unhesitatingly have added to this another two thousand years.

At this period, then, man makes his first appearance in surviving literature. How and upon what is he found employed at this our earliest glimpse within his heart? What is his line of thought; what the level of his intellect in this opening record of his exceedingly busy and energetic career? We meet in this brief account two kinds of men: a group of farmers and a priest. The fields are affected by a plague of locusts, and their owners seek a priest, or magician, who drives the locusts away by a charm. It is a business transaction; careful note is made of the number of fields cleared for each owner, and of the price to be paid a curious price, "a tall palm-tree." Yet in a way is it not as human as it is ancient, this medley of superstition and religion, of business and agriculture, with the plaguy locusts and caterpillars behind?

No names can be attached to this first record. The earliest name that looms up to us from the darkness is of later date; our estimate says of about 3250 B.C. It is the name

of a victorious Akkadian king, Mesilim, who had so far conquered Sumer, and had been so far conquered by its greater culture and religion, that he sends a boastful offering to the temple of Lagash. It is a rather remarkable stone mace-head of colossal size, far too large for human use and apparently intended so that the god of the city, Nin-gursu, could employ it himself. The stone is carved with a circle of six lions each attacking the one before him, and over them, on the end of the mace, is a carved eagle. The brief inscription runs: Mesilim, King of Kish, builder of the temple of Ningursu, deposited this mace-head for Nin-gursu, while Lugalshag-engur was priest-king of Lagash.”

Of course this might mean merely that Mesilim had built in his own Akkadian city a temple to Nin-gursu, and wished to proclaim this generosity at the god's chief shrine. A

priest-king," however, was frequently subordinate to some larger ruler, and the probable case is that Mesilim held sway over Lagash and was engaged, as we shall find many a later Akkadian conqueror, in rebuilding the ancient temple, which either time or his own destructive assault had reduced to ruin. These Babylonian temples and towers were built of brick and were forever crumbling.

Our second text is the first lengthy one surviving. It dates from about Mesilim's time, or perhaps from a generation later, when Lagash had again asserted its independence. Its king, Enkhegal, is no longer a mere priest-king; the text calls him a "subduer" and "the uniter of the land." It also speaks of his building or improving canals; so the land was already extensively farmed, scientifically irrigated. We note also that many ways of irrigation were used, by oxen, by rain, etc., that grain had a "royal standard of purity," that bronze was used for money, and so on. We have stumbled on a complex civilization.

After this the surviving records become more numerous. They are chiefly royal inscriptions from Lagash. King Ur-nina, who ruled about 3000 B.C., left several offerings to the god Nin-gursu. So did Uru-kagina, who is perhaps the most interesting of these early rulers; for we find that he