TOOLS AND WEAPONS. The common tools were used, such as knives and drills; and great skill was developed in seal engraving upon hard stone cylinders. Of weapons there is a fine study on a carving of Eannatum (4400 B.C.), where spears of about 7 ft. long, with blade heads, are shown; also shields reaching from the neck to the ankles, straight-sided, and used edge to edge as a shield wall by a phalanx of soldiers; while the heads are covered by well-formed peaked helmets, with nose pieces, and reaching down to the nape of the neck. Bows and arrows and daggers were also used; and stone mace-heads, of the pear shape used in Egypt, were important ceremonially, and often bear inscriptions. Woodwork was elaborated with carving, and used for bed-steads and stools, as seen in the seats of the gods figured on seals and tablets.
CLOTHING. Clothing varied a good deal. A primitive custom of nudity when offering to the gods was continued down to the close of the Sumerian age, as shown on the tablet of Ur-en-lil. The kilt was worn with a fringe, not reaching the knee; or it was worn from the waist to the ankles, as by shepherds. A robe over the left shoulder reaching to the knee was used with a deep fringe all down the front edge and round the bottom. A long robe reaching to the ankles is shown on the figures of Gudea. But the most characteristic dress was that of ribbed woollen stuff, much like that of the fifth century B.C. in Greece, as on the Running Maiden. This stuff was worn as a flounced petticoat (Urnina 4500 B.C.), or in a longer form over the left shoulder and down to the ankles, as by Eannatum and Naram-Sin. A splendid flounced cape and long robe of this stuff is shown as worn by Ishtar on the Anubanini rock stele, about 3600 B.C.
SCIENCE AND ART. The system of number, weight, and measure was peculiarly Babylonian. Some people have theorised about all later standards having been derived in various intricate ways from those of Babylon. But it is very unlikely that standards should not arise in different centres, and still more unlikely that the complex derivations should be formed when the whole object would be to maintain a system in common.
Science in Sumeria
But there is no question of the great advance of the Sumerian in these matters. The sexagesimal system, which is far more convenient for many purposes than the decimal, and which we still retain for time and for angle, was due to the Sumerian intellect, while the standards of weight, the talent, maneh, and shekel, were also from the same source. And we cannot doubt that the cubit was already in use by a people living in cities and carrying on business.
The style of art was clumsy, owing to the habit of crowding together as much as possible into the space, in order to form the record. The human forms are thick and short, and detail is firmly and perseveringly repeated. It entirely lacks, in its early stages, the spontaneous truth of the early dynastic work in Egypt. At the close of the Sumerian age, under Naramsin, there is a fine bold design in groups of figures, well proportioned, and with good action, recalling curiously the spirit of late Greek work from Praxiteles to the Pergamene warriors. The stages of change cannot yet be distinguished, owing to the scarcity of the dated examples that we have.
Loss of History
LITERATURE AND WRITINGS. It is in literature that we know the Sumerian best. Unhappily, other branches of archæology have been neglected, and even destroyed, in the eager search for tablets, and yet more tablets. By the thousand they are found, and hurriedly removed, while the architecture, crafts, and art-history are thrown aside in the process. The hunter for tablets in Babylonia, and for papyrus in Egypt, is a heartless wrecker, without any interests beyond his own line. When so much has been sacrificed for the written record, we must glean all we can from it for the history of the civilisation, as most of the other material that might have been preserved has been sacrificed. The Sumerian language was the sole language of civilisation, until, at about 4000 B.C., the Semite began to conquer and to take part in the advance of the world. Yet the older tongue was by no means extinguished; it held its place as the official religious and literary language, like Latin in Europe. The literature of the world was in Sumerian, and only gradually did the new Semite intruders translate the older works or rise to writing a literature of their own.
The Sumerian literature was for long accompanied by a Semitic translation, like Latin and Saxon gospels; and syllabaries, vocabularies, and grammatical lists were written to teach the Semite the old religious language. Legal documents were drawn up in Sumerian, and it only gradually lost its precedence from 4000 B.C. down to 1600 B.C., when it was almost extinct, being only revived as a literary curiosity in the seventh century B.C.
How the Semite Made His Notes