Ancient Sumerians

We can get a general notion of an ancient society’s lifestyle, language, or beliefs by simply looking at its artifacts. However, if we delve deeper, we can learn about their political and social backgrounds. Years have been spent by experts attempting to decipher the complex symbols on clay tablets and texts. Gate guardian figures, intricately carved clay plaques and cylindrical seals, sculptures, relief carving, and mosaics—all of these portray their way of life and can provide answers to the most complex queries and dispel the most fascinating rumors about a society.

The Sumerians produced art that was primarily a reflection of their religious beliefs, like many other ancient cultures. Sumerians are known as one of the first explorers and supporters of the relationships between people and the gods, and plants and animals. These relationships are complicated, and so Sumerian art represents them in several different ways. Sumerian religion was basically characterised by polytheism. Gods represented places and powers in ancient Mesopotamia. Polytheism was a precursor of building temples, ziggurats and depicting gods. Practically all Sumerian sculpture served as adornment or ritual equipment for the temples.

Focusing on social and family life, anthropological evidence witnesses the fact of a changing from Egalitarianism to Patriarchy. Textual evidence indicates that they had a form of congress or assembly for making key political decisions using a consensual approach; and that they held courts to make legal judgements over such things as house ownership, divorce and inheritance settlements, and slave rights.

Due to the paintings of people, there can be made a colclusion about clothes and physical features of ancient sumarians. Men were depicted in skirts, had long hair, curly moustaches, long beards and large blue eyes which stands for nobility. Women wore dresses, off one shoulder. They had long hair, which they braided or wore up in fancy arrangements.

The existence of warfare explains why mainly war and peace were depicted. For example numerous fragments were found depicting vultures carrying heads or spear bearers. These are the world’s first depiction of modern, organized warfare, and the first depiction of a modern soldier, and provides the first evidence in human history of a standing professional army. The presence of, a well-crafted helmet indicated a major development in military technology that was so effective that it drove the mace from the battlefield. And the sickle-sword became the primary infantry weapon.

As we can see the art and life are strongly interwoven and mutually dependent. We, human beings, try to record everything that happens around us, leave a trace of ourselves and perpetuate our culture. And I hope having proved the influence of social, religious and political concepts in the artistic artifacts of ancient Sumerian society.

Bibliography:

Jeremy Black: The literature of ancient sumer, OUP Oxford, 2006; 438 p

Samuel Noah Kramer: The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, University Of Chicago Press, 1970; 355 p

http://www.arthistory.net/sumerian-art/

http://quatr.us/westasia/art/sumerians.htm