History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine "Firsts" in Recorded History

Rating:
Summary: We are all Sumerians, whether we know it or not.
Review: Although I've been known to grumble at Kramer's dullness, the present book, far from being dull, ought to be of real interest to many. Professor Samuel Noah Kramer was the world's leading Sumerologist, but in this book he seems to have risen above the dry academic persona we find in some of his other books and allowed his love and enthusiasm for things Sumerian to show.

Basically the book sets out to explain and describe, using extensive quotations from Sumerian Literature, what Kramer took to be thirty-nine civilizational firsts of the Sumerians. Many new archaeological discoveries have been made since the 3rd revised edition of 'History Begins at Sumer' was published in 1981, and current thinking seems to be leaning towards the view that, far from beginning in Sumer, civilization first arose further East in India.

But whether it first began in Sumer or in India, since the Indus script hasn't yet been deciphered, and the Indians didn't write on imperishable clay tablets anyway, we have as yet no thirty-nine Vedic Indian firsts, and perhaps should give Kramer the benefit of the doubt and enjoy his splendid book.

After a brief Introduction, the thirty-nine firsts follow. Mutterings have been heard about the 'pop' overtones of the term 'firsts,' but it seems to me an interesting way of treating Sumer's history, and the book, in my opinion, is far more successful at capturing and holding one's attention than Kramer's later and more conventional study, 'The Sumerians.'

Most of the chapters are centered on a Sumerian text, some quite brief and others fairly long, which Kramer envelopes with his full and interesting commentary. Often we are given a line drawing of the actual cuneiform tablet from which the text was taken, and these have a special fascination all of their own. Besides the 28 line drawings, the book is further enriched with 34 halftones - sculptures, cuneiform tablets, stelae, artefacts, archaeological sites - which greatly add to the interest of the book.

Among the firsts covered are such things as: The First Schools, The First Case of Juvenile Delinquency, The First "War of Nerves," The First Bicameral Congress, First Historian, The First Case of Tax Reduction, The First Legal Precedent, The First Pharmacopoeia, The First Moral Ideals, The First Animal Fables, The First Literary Debates, The First Love Song, The First Library Catalogue, The First "Sick" Society, The First Long-Distance Champion, The First Sex Symbolism, Labor's First Victory, and so on.

Many of these and other chapters are memorable, and once having read them you'll never forget them. You'll never forget them because, in fact, they are about yourself. What I mean is that one of the more important things we learn from Kramer's fascinating book is that, whether we realize it or not, we are all, in a sense, Sumerians.

The patterns that were perhaps first laid down in Sumer - urbanization, monumental architecture, kingship, writing system, distinct social classes, laws, lawyers, lawcourts, taxes, formal education, libraries, a regular army, organized warfare, labor disputes, etc. - are still very much with us today. We usually refer to the whole package as 'Civilization,' without realizing how indebted to the Sumerians we all are. Or are we?

I say this because the second important thing I think we have to learn from Sumer, though it seems to have escaped most, including Kramer, is the simple fact that Civilization doesn't work. It doesn't work because 'Civilization' is a euphemism for exploitation. Sumer, after a relatively brief efflorescence, crashed in ruins.

Here are a few lines from Kramer's 'Sumerian History, Culture and Literature': "In the course of centuries Sumer became a "sick society" ... it yearned for peace and was constantly at war; it professed such ideals as justice, equity and compassion, but abounded in injustice, inequality and oppression; materialistic and shortsighted, it unbalanced the ecology essential to its economy.... And so Sumer came to a cruel, tragic end" (in Diane Wolkstein and S. N. Kramer, 'Inanna - Queen of Heaven and Earth,' page 126).

Perhaps the third and most important thing we can learn from 'History Begins at Sumer' is that, rather than persisting in this obviously unworkable and unjust and outmoded Sumerian pattern, we should be thinking about replacing it with a true civilization, one based not on the exploitation of one's fellow humans but devoted to realizing the full human potential of all men and women and children - a Civilization that would be about humans as humans, and not about humans as 'owners' and 'units of production.'

But perhaps you'd better read Professor Kramer's fascinating and thought-provoking book, and then you can make up your own mind about all this. It's a book you won't easily forget.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling Evidence for the Origin of Modern Religion
Review: I bought this book to further clarify the origin of the stories (myths) of the Bible -- Genesis creation story, Noah and the flood, Moses and the Law, resurrection stories, etc. This book enlightens one on this and much more. Easy and entertaining read (though serious). Fascinating to learn about the most ancient known civilization, and how its mythologists and poets and stories (as recorded on tablets) have shaped subsequent civilizations and gave rise to ancient pagan religions and our own modern religions.

Rating:
Summary: Enter Gilgamesh
Review: Our views of history have barely caught up with the archaeological revolution of the twentieth century. The sources of our traditions in Classical antiquity always had a murky prelude, the world of the Assyrians, a late Mesopotamia with an unknown provenance. And yet the sources of all this remained obscure, as if we had forgotten the Greeks behind the Romans. Now the full scope of the complete historical cycle of civilizations beginning in Sumer (and Egypt) has come into view throwing the whole of world history into its real pattern. For we see that the Sumerians were the real creators laying the foundations for what was to come. Our perceptions of the evolution of civilization have yet to catch up.

Rating:
Summary: Enter Gilgamesh
Review: Our views of history have barely caught up with the archaeological revolution of the twentieth century. The sources of our traditions in Classical antiquity always had a murky prelude, the world of the Assyrians, a late Mesopotamia with an unknown provenance. And yet the sources of all this remained obscure, as if we had forgotten the Greeks behind the Romans. Now the full scope of the complete historical cycle of civilizations beginning in Sumer (and Egypt) has come into view throwing the whole of world history into its real pattern. For we see that the Sumerians were the real creators laying the foundations for what was to come. Our perceptions of the evolution of civilization have yet to catch up.

Rating:
Summary: 39 examples of our Sumerian legacy
Review: This book is a collection of essays written by Samuel Noah Kramer regarding various cultural "firsts" in Western history as discovered on Sumerian cuneiform tablets. Kramer's experience and prolific career as a Sumerologist lend credence to the observations and interpretations that he puts forth here. Essay topics range from anecdotal illustrations of the first recorded lullaby and the first written description of an aquarium to more profound subjects such as the first cosmology and the first heroic age.

I particularly enjoyed Kramer's comparative discussion of the three "Heroic Age" cultures (Greek, Indian, Germanic) and the suggestions that this raises regarding the origin of the first Heroic Age in Sumer. Also interesting are his interpretations of literary imagery in Sumerian poetry, as well as his treatment of the extensive parallels that exist between the Sumerian literary tradition and the Bible.

All in all, "History Begins at Sumer" provides a well-rounded perspective of Sumerian spirituality and culture. However, since this book is really a collection of independent, stand-alone essays, the reader may find it difficult at times to extract a unified impression of what the author was trying to express.

Rating:
Summary: Clever format
Review: This book is essentially a summary of various cultural achievements of the Sumerians, listed as "39 firsts" in human history. It is not a chronological history of Sumer, so this book is more of a supplement to one's studies in ancient near east. The book covers little known aspects of Sumerian culture, like education ("1st Apple polishing"), sex ("1st Sexual Symbolism") and possibly even pets ("1st Animal Fables", "1st Aquarium"), as well as the facets that are well known--Gilgamesh, Utnaptishtim, Sargon, ect. The key theme that arises from this book is how civilized the ancients were--these were not clueless barbarians roaming the Mesopotamian plains, they were not idiots, but thoughtful people who tried to make sense out of their (oftentimes chaotic) lot in life. A good companion to the library of any ancient-history-ophile.

Rating:
Summary: Clever format
Review: This book is essentially a summary of various cultural achievements of the Sumerians, listed as "39 firsts" in human history. It is not a chronological history of Sumer, so this book is more of a supplement to one's studies in ancient near east. The book covers little known aspects of Sumerian culture, like education ("1st Apple polishing"), sex ("1st Sexual Symbolism") and possibly even pets ("1st Animal Fables", "1st Aquarium"), as well as the facets that are well known--Gilgamesh, Utnaptishtim, Sargon, ect. The key theme that arises from this book is how civilized the ancients were--these were not clueless barbarians roaming the Mesopotamian plains, they were not idiots, but thoughtful people who tried to make sense out of their (oftentimes chaotic) lot in life. A good companion to the library of any ancient-history-ophile.

Rating:
Summary: An anthology of "firsts" in history
Review: We owe much of our knowledge on Ancient Sumerian civilization to Mr Samuel Kramer. As one of the specialists on Sumerian cuneiform and written culture, he traced the clay tablets of Ancient Mesopotamia in various places and brought together the parts of puzzles that belonged to very early Sumerian myths. In this legendary work, Mr Kramer presents us the "39 firsts" of history, including "The First Farmers Almanac", "The First Law Codes", "The First Noah", "The First Resurrection" and so on. The book does not follow a chronological order but presents the achievements of the Ancient Sumerians in an "item-by-item" basis. You not only learn the historical basics on Ancient Mesopotamia in various chapters of this brilliant work, but have fun by reading the fascinating original Sumerian myths, including "Inanna's voyage to the land of the dead". If you're into ancient history, this book should be on your "Top 10" list. If you need further reading from Mr Kramer, "Sumerian Mythology" may well follow the suit.

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Summary: Needs Updating
Review: When this book was first published in 1956, it undoubtedly was one of the best books on the subject. Unfortunately, even though this is called the Third Revised Edition, it is not clear in what way this book has been updated. It contains the preface to the first edition, but no new preface or introduction is added for the third edition.

It does include a "Corrigenda and Addenda to the Second Edition" after the main body of texts, but the question is: Why weren't these addenda included in the text instead of put outside of the main text, and where are the addenda for the third edition? To make matters worse, the second edition addenda information uses page numbers that do not align with the third edition publication.

There is still a lot of valuable information in this book, but it is important for the buyer to be aware of what they are actually getting when they purchase it.