Rating: 
Summary: In a city without watchdogs, the fox is the overseer
Review: Based on few and hardly decipherable documents, Prof. Kramer sketches us the originality, importance, history and legacy of a till recent times unknown people, the Sumerians.
He gives us a fair view of their city organization (a bicameral congress), social organization (individualism and family), laws (written), agriculture (irrigation), cuneiform language, education (schools and mathematics), architecture (ziggurats) and anthropomorphic religion.Of course, we are still in a very primitive society with legal selling of children, extremely brutal justice, temple prostitution and where the price of a grown man slave is less than the price of an ass. We get also a good idea of the 'modern' Sumerian character: aggressive competition, drive for prestige and superiority, the importance of material prosperity and their counterparts: fear, hatred and wars. Prof. Kramer gives us also an excellent explanation of cuneiform writing and mathematics. The meaning of the words is identical with the objects pictured. So, words are a picture of the external world (Wittgenstein!). A large part of the book concerns the high quality of the Sumerian literature. It influenced the Bible (the paradise and the creation of man), the Greek and most of all the Acadian literature with 'The Descent of Ishtar in the Underworld' (to raise the dead) and the Epic of Gilgamesh (the quest for eternal life). The Sumerian history shows us that from the beginning of mankind very 'modern' problems surfaced: taxation to finance wars, the struggle between the temple and the palace or the battle between the few (powerful) and the many. A very interesting book, not only for historians.
Rating: 
Summary: Biased and Superficial
Review: If you enjoy being bored to tears, buy this book. If you like nothing better than to read the dry and uninspired prose of a bloodless, superficial, and unimaginative pedant, you'll love it. But be warned. Kramer will kill forever any budding interest that you may have had in the Sumerians, convinced as he is that they were a bunch of simple-minded boobies who simply stumbled upon the ideas which set the pattern for all future civilization. As a non-Semitic people, he assures us that the Sumerians were nowhere near as smart as the Semitic peoples (Babylonians, Assyrians, Kramer, etc.,) who followed after them. Sad to say, Kramer positively drips with arrogance, and with the extreme subjectivity which passes for 'objectivity' in the world of conventional learning. Whatever does not fit in with his thesis (Semites are smarter), and with his narrow and superficial view of things, he either belittles or altogether ignores. I struggled vainly for a long time to read his book, have re-started it several times, and once even got as far as page 150 before shuddering yet again to a despairing halt. Happily the gods intervened at that point and directed me providentially to Zechariah Sitchin's 'The 12th Planet.' Chapter 2 of Sitchin's book, 'The Sudden Civilization,' gives a wonderful overview of the Sumerians and their achievements from which you will learn far more than from Kramer, for Sitchin, though every bit as learned as Kramer, gives us scholarship minus prejudice plus a welcome and generous helping of the insight and imagination which Kramer so evidently lacks, all written up in a lively and vigorous style and with far more facts. He may even leave you, as he did me, with a desire to set about learning the language of this amazing people. But Kramer simply irritates and bores, though his book does contain some useful appendixes and interesting photographs.
Rating:
Summary: Biased and Superficial
Review: If you enjoy being bored to tears, buy this book. If you like nothing better than to read the dry and uninspired prose of a bloodless, superficial, and unimaginative pedant, you'll love it. But be warned. Kramer will kill forever any budding interest that you may have had in the Sumerians, convinced as he is that they were a bunch of simple-minded boobies who simply stumbled upon the ideas which set the pattern for all future civilization. As a non-Semitic people, he assures us that the Sumerians were nowhere near as smart as the Semitic peoples (Babylonians, Assyrians, Kramer, etc.,) who followed after them. Sad to say, Kramer positively drips with arrogance, and with the extreme subjectivity which passes for 'objectivity' in the world of conventional learning. Whatever does not fit in with his thesis (Semites are smarter), and with his narrow and superficial view of things, he either belittles or altogether ignores. I struggled vainly for a long time to read his book, have re-started it several times, and once even got as far as page 150 before shuddering yet again to a despairing halt. Happily the gods intervened at that point and directed me providentially to Zechariah Sitchin's 'The 12th Planet.' Chapter 2 of Sitchin's book, 'The Sudden Civilization,' gives a wonderful overview of the Sumerians and their achievements from which you will learn far more than from Kramer, for Sitchin, though every bit as learned as Kramer, gives us scholarship minus prejudice plus a welcome and generous helping of the insight and imagination which Kramer so evidently lacks, all written up in a lively and vigorous style and with far more facts. He may even leave you, as he did me, with a desire to set about learning the language of this amazing people. But Kramer simply irritates and bores, though his book does contain some useful appendixes and interesting photographs.
Rating:
Summary: Academic, but approachable
Review: Kramer is a scholar whose research and writing have done an incredible service to those who are interested in finding out about one of the world's earliest cultures -- the Sumerians. I read this book around the same time I read his book with Diane Wolkstein, "Inanna: Queen of Heaven" and Andrew Collins' "From the Ashes of Angels," and the three tied together nicely. The only thing that could have improved this book is a more detailed lexicon of Sumerian words -- a dictionary, if you will, that would help interested folks learn that ancient language.
Rating:
Summary: The Standard Survey Work - Buy it, Read it
Review: Kramer stumbles (as many do) in trying to find the origin of the Biblical flood story in the fragmentary Sumerian flood story, but I recommend this book. Examples of interesting facts include that the names the Sumerians used for the Tigris, Euphrates, and most of their best known cities were not Sumerian names. Whoever their predecessors were, they left no other known traces. Appendices include the Sumerian king list. I got a good laugh about the recent story regarding the Tell Hamoukar site in Syria. Not only isn't it the oldest city (admittedly it is larger than older sites), it isn't even too close. Catal Huyuk was abandoned in 5500 BC, and was occupied for thousands of years prior to that. The fact that the Sumerians migrated into the area and found "their" cities already in existence under their now well-known names shows the great antiquity of civilization. I recommend this title, along with Mary Settegast's "Plato Prehistorian" and Ryan and Pitman's "Noah's Flood", both of which are related to the topic but cover an earlier era.
Rating:
Summary: The Standard Survey Work - Buy it, Read it
Review: Kramer stumbles (as many do) in trying to find the origin of the Biblical flood story in the fragmentary Sumerian flood story, but I recommend this book. Examples of interesting facts include that the names the Sumerians used for the Tigris, Euphrates, and most of their best known cities were not Sumerian names. Whoever their predecessors were, they left no other known traces. Appendices include the Sumerian king list. I got a good laugh about the recent story regarding the Tell Hamoukar site in Syria. Not only isn't it the oldest city (admittedly it is larger than older sites), it isn't even too close. Catal Huyuk was abandoned in 5500 BC, and was occupied for thousands of years prior to that. The fact that the Sumerians migrated into the area and found "their" cities already in existence under their now well-known names shows the great antiquity of civilization. I recommend this title, along with Mary Settegast's "Plato Prehistorian" and Ryan and Pitman's "Noah's Flood", both of which are related to the topic but cover an earlier era.
Rating:
Summary: Kramer's Logic
Review: Kramer uses many elements in "The Sumerians..." his great organization and insite is aweinspiring. He helped me understand Sumer in a more indepth and exciting way, every book I read by Kramer is full of detail and is outstanding
Rating:
Summary: Cradle of civilization
Review: Sumer is the lower half of Mesopotamia. The Sumerians, third millennium B.C., had a flair for technological invention and possessed creative intellect. They used irrigation. Their system of writing was used all over the Mideast for two thousand years. Sumerians cooperated with each other of necessity. In their agriculture they had surplus, cash crops. Their culture and civilization spread through trade and military action. The Sumerians were the first to compile laws and codes.
A hundred years ago the existence of a Sumerian culture was
unsuspected. Although Sumer existed five thousand years ago, modern man can find his prototype in ancient Sumer. Scholars looking for Assyrians ran into Sumerians. Decipherment of Sumerian writing came through Semitic Akkadian known as Assyrian or Babylonian. For Akkadian the key was found in Old Persian. Inscriptions at Persepolis led to the decipherment of cuneiform. Georg Friedrich Grotefend deciphered the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, (the writings at Persepolis were trilingual). H.C. Rawlinson by 1837 had translated some two hundred lines of a trilingual inscription at Behistun. Edward Hincks and Jules Oppert confirmed and extended the findings and laid the groundwork for the decipherment of Akkadian and Sumerian.
Structural analysis revealed to scholars that cuneiform was probably invented by non-Semitic language speakers. In 1869 Oppert declared the people and their language should be called Sumerian, basing his conclusion of the title, King of Sumer and Akkad, found on some of the inscriptions. The Sumerian language had affinities to Turkish, Finnish, and Hungarian.
The first significant excavation of a Sumerian site began in 1877. Sumerians existed from around 4500 B.C. to 1750 B.C. Writing developed from its early pictographic form to a syllabic form. There are lamentations, hymns, and wisdom literature.
The name of pre-Sumerian settlers is not known. The first dynasty came after the flood. Gilgamesh was a Sumerian ruler whose deeds won him reknown. The first three Sumerian dynasties were Kish, Erech, and Ur. Sargon, although a Semite, began his career as a cup bearer to a Sumerian king. Sargon's conquest ranged to Ethiopia, India, and Egypt. He stationed military garrisons at key outposts.
The ruler after Sargon was his son, Rimush. He was followed by his brother, Manishtushu who had many military successes. The invasion of Gutians from the East brought confusion and anarchy to Sumer. With Hammaurabi, the Semite ruler from Babylonia, the history of Sumer comes to an end.
Sumerian civilization was urban. In the third millennium there were a dozen or so city-states. The population consisted of nobles, commoners, clients, and slaves. The basic unit was the family. Written law played a large role in the Sumerian city.
Many documents have been found describing court proceedings. Writings on astronomy, mathematical texts, religious temples, and many objects have been unearthed. Medical doctors, teachers of many kinds of knowledge, musicians, sculptors, and metal workers were among the city dwellers. The Sumerians developed religious ideas. Creation was attributed to a divine pantheon. Sumerian literary works were not all religious in character. Hundreds of practice tablets have been unearthed. The Sumerian school was known as the edubba, 'tablet house'. There is a wealth of data from the Sumerian schools. The Semitic conquerors, the Akkadians, treasured the Sumerian literary works and the works of Sumerian scholars and had them translated.
Short translations of texts, tables of language signs and notations, photographs, and other matters of interest appear in the book. The legacy of Sumer appears in the fields of religion and mathematics among others.
Rating:
Summary: A Nice Overview
Review: This book describes the history, society, religion, literature, education, and character of the ancient sumerains. The book is written in a style that is easy to understand for the layman. The literature and religion chapters (which is the bulk of the book) contain many excerpts from different sumerian texts which I personally found interesting, but can be found in other. I was also attracted to the chapter on the sumerian school. In the essay "Schooldays" one gets a sense of what a bad day in a sumerian school was like. The book ends with the chapter of "Legacy of Sumer" which is self explanatory and also touches upon the Sumerians indirect influence on Hebrews. The book also contains appendixes A - I. Appendixes A and B are about Sumerian writing and language. Appendix C contains an thirty-five votive inscriptions based on Arno Poebels work. Appendix D includes some sample "date-formulas". Appendix E is a revised translations of the Sumerian King List. Appendix F - G contains information on the votive inscriptions. Appendix H contains "The Code of Lipit-Ishtar." Appendix I is a translation of the Farmer's almanac.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book on Sumer.
Review: This book is an in-depth study of ancient Sumer, with a great focus on the actual writings of the Sumerians themselves. The author has chapters on history, society, religion, literature, education, and character. As a real bonus, instead of just referencing various Sumerian writings, the author actually reproduces them here with great frequency. This is a great book, an excellent resource on Sumerian culture. Unfortunately, having been written in 1963, it is rather out-of-date, but is still a fascinating read, and is quite accurate in all of the important points. If you are interested in ancient Sumer, then you must read this book.
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