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Sumerian Language › Antique Origins
Definition and Origins
The Sumerian language was spoken in southern Mesopotamia before the 2nd millennium BCE and was the first language to be written in the cuneiform script. It is an isolate language meaning we know of no other languages that relate to it ancestrally. Although there are some theories that Sumerian is a member of the Uralic languages like Hungarian and Finnish, or other language families, this is a minority view with insufficient evidence to make a definite claim. The language was spoken in a region where Semitic languages were also spoken, particularly Akkadian, and it eventually fell out of use in favor of those languages by the turn of the 2nd millennium BCE. However, a literary form of the language continued to be written for another 2000 years, and it also had notable influences on other languages of the region with respect to their lexicon, grammar, and writing.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE LANGUAGE
Little is known about when Sumerian-speaking people arrived in southern Mesopotamia, assuming they did not originate there.Either way, from a very early period a multilingual environment existed in southern Mesopotamia, which included languages like Sumerian, an early form of Akkadian, other Semitic languages, and Hurrian. Some scholars have posited the possibility of an otherwise unknown substrate, or influencing language of the area, due to the presence of words of unknown origin in Sumerian writings. It has been demonstrated, however, that these words either originated in other known languages, are compounds in Sumerian, or words common to many languages of no clear origin.
THE FIRST INSTANCE OF THE LANGUAGE IN WRITING IS FROM A GROUP OF TEXTS DATING TO THE URUK IV PERIOD (C. 3200 BCE).
The first instance of the language in writing is from a group of texts dating to the Uruk IV period (c. 3200 BCE). Most of these are administrative texts, but some are wordlists used for scribal education. It has been challenged that these texts are indeed Sumerian, due to the fact that ideograms abound, which can be read in any language. For instance, three strokes along with a depiction of an ox could be read as “three oxen” in English, “drei Ochsen” in German, “tres bueyes” in Spanish, etc. The meaning of the writing would not change. However, the presence of phonetic complements as well as phonetic spellings that cue the reader to an actual pronunciation makes it almost certain that the language was indeed Sumerian. Around 400 years later, the next group of texts we have come from Ur c. 2800 BCE. Again, these are mostly administrative texts together with a number of wordlists for scribal education.
Our knowledge of Sumerian literature, in fact the earliest known literature, comes alive during the Early Dynastic Period III (EDIII) c. 2500 BCE, especially at the sites of Fara (ancient Shuruppak) and Abu Salabikh. Here we gain the first instances of such works as the Kesh Temple Hymn, the Instructions of Shuruppak, and Lugalbanda and Ninsun (the parents of Gilgamesh), which broke through the boundaries of the practical realm of economy and administration, and delved into the sphere of mythology and cosmology. Even though these texts are difficult to read, we can ascertain literary themes like the formation of the world, divine temple building, and other divine activities, sometimes of an adult nature. In these texts, we also encounter a large number of names of scribes and functions which are Akkadian in origin, suggesting that the two languages were very intermixed, as stated above. This was the time of the Sumerian's greatest worldly influence, as evidenced by texts outside the Mesopotamian realm from Mari, Ebla, Tell Beydar, and Tell Brak which utilized the cuneiform script for Sumerian as well as their local Semitic languages.
We do not have a lot of evidence for Sumerian writing during the Sargonic period (c. 2300 – c. 2100 BCE). Scribes were centrally trained in Agade and then sent out to help conduct the affairs of every part of the realm, but they used Akkadian as their language, giving Sumerian a backseat. Even so, there were still local towns using Sumerian writing to run the local administration.
There was somewhat of a resurgence of Sumerian writing during the Ur III period (c. 2100 – c. 2000 BCE) as the first kings of this period, Ur-Namma and Shulgi used Sumerian cuneiform in their administrations. However, at this stage the written language would not have reflected any spoken vernacular. In the realm of literature, Shulgi replaced the earlier ED III mythological tradition with a new scribal curriculum introducing such genres as royal and divine hymns and songs. This was also the period where such famous works like The Curse of Agade and the Law Code of Ur-Namma were first composed.Contemporary with Ur-Namma was Gudea, the king of Lagash/Girsu who is famous for being the focal point of texts on cylinders and statues. In one account, the city god Ningirsu came to him in a dream and commanded him to build the Eninnu (lit. “50 House”) temple at Girsu, which he of course dutifully did.
Map of Sumer
By the Old Babylonian Period (c. 2000 BCE), most scholars are in agreement that people had stopped speaking Sumerian entirely (if not earlier). However, even though the language ceased to be a spoken one, it was revitalized by Old Babylonian scribes as a literary one. In fact, most of the Sumerian literature that comes down to us is from this period. As such, there is much debate over how in tune to reality the Old Babylonian versions were to the previously living language. Many of these texts come from southern Babylonian sites like Ur and Nippur but only before and during the reign of Samsu-iluna under whom a rebellion led to the abandonment of Nippur. In northern Babylonia, the tradition was not interrupted until the invasion of Mursili I (c. 1595 BCE). Some famous texts either initially written in this period or copied from an earlier period include the Sumerian King List, Lamentation of Ur, Inanna ’s Descent into the Underworld, and the hero myths of Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, and Gilgamesh.
WRITING
Sumerian is written in the cuneiform script. In fact, it is the first language we know to be written using cuneiform and most likely cuneiform was developed for use by this language. The script was originally written using ideograms, symbols which express an idea rather than a word or sound, and thus can technically be understood in any language. As the script developed though, Sumerian scribes attributed syllabic values to the signs based on how the word sounded in the language. For instance, a picture of a mouth would represent the word 'ka' and so the sign could now represent the syllable 'ka' in any word containing that syllable.
The writing system of Sumerian has the principles of polyphony and homophony. Polyphony means that some signs have multiple syllabic values, for instance the DU sign could be read either 'du', 'ra 2 ', 'ša 4 ', etc., each having different but often related meanings. Homophony means that there are multiple signs having the same syllabic value. You may have noticed the use of subscripts ( 2 ) in the sign values. This is because syllables like 'ra' had multiple sign renderings like RA, the aforementioned DU, and others. Incredibly, some syllables had more than 10 different signs representing them.
This principle of homophony and the fact that one syllable in Sumerian often comprises the entire word have led some scholars to believe that Sumerian contained a tonal system. How can there be so many homophones without there being some other feature to distinguish them? Countering this notion, other scholars have noted that these single syllables often differ by their final consonant, which falls out of pronunciation at the end of the word eg the sign for ox 'gu 4 ' has another value 'gud', the 'd' falling out when the word is final. Another suggestion is the potential existence of consonant clusters, which the writing system had no means of representing.
DIALECTS?
There was an interesting system of sign value variation which occurred only during the ED III period. This is commonly referred to as UGN or UD.GAL.NUN as the signs spell out. This manner of writing is characterized by atypical readings for certain signs. For example, the signs UD.GAL.NUN had the anomalous reading of diŋir.en.lil 2 which would reference the god (diŋir) Enlil, which had nothing to do with the typical sign reading. There are a number of instances of these irregular readings but it seems to fall out of practice after this period.
Eme-sal is commonly referred to as a dialect of Sumerian as opposed to eme-gir 15 or the “main dialect” of Sumerian. The writing of eme-sal is limited to ritual texts, particularly the lamentation texts for gala-priests, and the words spoken by certain goddesses, although in other places these goddesses speak eme-gir 15. Because the sign SAL can have a reading as munus meaning “woman”, scholars have posited that eme-sal is a genderlect or special dialect for speech by women. However, the sign SAL also has the reading sal which means “thin” or “soft” and could simply refer to a special variant for the goddesses or ritual-performing priests as stated before. Another suggestion put forth is that the gala-priests were eunuchs, but there is no evidence for castration in ancient southern Mesopotamian culture.
THE LEGACY OF SUMERIAN
As stated above, the Sumerian language enjoyed a resurrection during the Old Babylonian period as a literary and liturgical language. The scribes in this period considered the language as essential for maintaining the traditions of a very old period, and wanted to recapture an archaic time of magic and legend. After this period ending c. 1595 BCE, the scribal usage of Sumerian decreased significantly. The repertoire of texts was reduced, particularly the royal/divine hymns of the Ur III period, and even the ones that continued were written only in bilingual renditions with Akkadian and other languages. However, Sumerian was still being studied in scribal schools and even chanted in liturgy through the Persian and Hellenistic periods.There even exist student exercise tablets with cuneiform on one side and Greek on the other. The last known cuneiform tablet was an astronomical work dating to 75 CE from Babylon, but it is possible that the script finally fell out of use later than this.
Today, Sumerian is taught at only a select number of universities around the world. In total, probably not more than a few hundred people have a working knowledge of the language and there is still much debate over even the basics of the grammar. Even top scholars in the field are uncertain of the meanings of certain passages. Sumerian offers a challenging yet fascinating puzzle on the lives and literature of those who first accomplished the task of immortalizing their words in writing. It is a truly intriguing language reflecting the intriguing people who wrote it down.
Queen of Sheba › Who Was
Definition and Origins
The Queen of Sheba is the monarch mentioned in the Bible and then in later works who travels to Jerusalem to experience the wisdom of King Solomon (c. 970-931 BCE) of Israel first-hand. The queen is first mentioned in I Kings 10:1-13 and in II Chronicles 9:1-12 in the Bible, then in the later Aramaic Targum Sheni, then the Quran, and finally the Ethiopian work known as the Kebra Negast ; later writings featuring the queen, all religious in nature, come basically from the story as first told in the Bible. There is no archaeological evidence, inscription, or statuary supporting her existence outside of these texts.
The region of Sheba in the Bible has been identified as the Kingdom of Saba (also sometimes referred to as Sheba) in southern Arabia but also with Ethiopia in East Africa. In the biblical tale, the queen brings Solomon lavish gifts and praises his wisdom and kingdom before returning to her country. Precisely where she returned to, however, is still debated as the historian Flavius Josephus (37-100 CE) famously identified her as a queen of Ethiopia and Egypt but the probable (and most commonly accepted) dates for Solomon argue in favor of a monarch from southern Arabia; even though no such monarch is listed as reigning at that time.
ETHIOPIA OR ARABIA
The debate concerning whether the queen came from Ethiopia or Arabia has been going on for centuries and will no doubt continue, even though there is no hard evidence said queen even existed. Those who argue for an Ethiopian queen claim that she reigned over the Kingdom of Axum; but Axum did not exist during the reign of Solomon nor even when the Book of Kings was composed (c. 7th/6th century BCE). Axum only existed as a political entity c. 100 - c. 950 CE. It supplanted or evolved from an earlier kingdom known as D'mt which was influenced by the Sabean culture of southern Arabia.
THE DEBATE CONCERNING WHETHER THE QUEEN CAME FROM ETHIOPIA OR ARABIA HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR CENTURIES, EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NO HARD EVIDENCE SAID QUEEN EVEN EXISTED.
D'mt flourished between the 10th and 5th centuries BCE from its capital at Yeha but little else is known about the culture.Sabean influence is evident in the temple to the moon-god Almaqah, the most powerful Sabean deity, which still stands.Scholars are divided on how much the Sabeans influenced the culture of D'mt but the existence of the temple and linguistic similarities indicate a significant Sabean presence in D'mt.
This should not be surprising since Saba was a growing power c. 950 BCE and the wealthiest kingdom in southern Arabia c.8th century BCE through 275 CE when it fell to the invading Himyarites. Whether D'mt was originally a Sabean colony is disputed, and the claim has largely been discredited but the proximity of the two kingdoms and obvious Sabean presence in D'mt suggest a close interaction. Saba was the trading hub in southern Arabia for the Incense Routes, and it would certainly make sense for them to have established friendly relations, if not a colony, just across the Red Sea.
It is possible, then, that the Queen of Sheba was a Sabean ruler of D'mt and that her legend then became associated with Ethiopia by the time Flavius Josephus was writing. It is more probable, however, that the association of Saba with D'mt led later historians, including Josephus, to claim she journeyed from Ethiopia when she actually came from Arabia. There is also, of course, the probability that she never journeyed from anywhere to anywhere because she never existed but the persistence of her legend argues for an actual historical figure.
THE QUEEN IN THE BIBLE
The Books of I Kings and II Chronicles relates the story of the queen's visit, and it is upon these works (or whatever sources the author of Kings worked from) that later versions of the story are based. According to the biblical tale, once Solomon became king he asked his god for wisdom in ruling his people (I Kings 3:6-9). God was pleased with this request and granted it but also added riches and honor to the king's name which made Solomon famous far beyond his borders.
The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's great wisdom and the glory of his kingdom and doubted the reports; she, therefore, traveled to Jerusalem to experience it for herself. The Bible only states that the monarch is “the queen of Sheba” (I Kings 10:1) but never specifies where “Sheba” is. Her purpose in coming to see the king was “to prove him with hard questions” (I Kings 10:1) and, once he had answered them and shown her his wisdom, she presented Solomon with lavish gifts:
And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon. (I Kings 10:10)
The 120 gold talents would amount to approximately $3,600,000.00 in the present day and this kind of disposable wealth would certainly be in keeping with the affluence of the Sabean monarchy though not necessarily during Solomon's reign. The mention of the great amount of gold and, especially, the “abundance of spices” certainly suggest Saba, whose main source of wealth was the spice trade, but evidence suggests Saba was most prosperous only from the 8th century BCE onward.
Two Riddles of the Queen of Sheba
After giving Solomon these gifts, the queen then receives from him “all her desire, whatsoever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty” and then returns to her country with her servants (I Kings 10:13). Following her departure, the narrative details what Solomon did with her gifts and with the almug trees and gold which Hiram of Tyre had brought him from the land of O'phir (I Kings 10:11-12, 14-26). Nothing further is mentioned of the queen in I Kings and her appearance in II Chronicles 9:1-12 follows this same narrative.
THE TARGUM SHENI VERSION
By the time the story is repeated in the Targum Sheni, however, it has expanded with significantly more detail. The Targum Sheni is an Aramaic translation of the biblical Book of Esther with commentary but includes the story of the Queen of Sheba as one of its ancillary tales. This version takes the biblical tale of the queen's visit and embellishes it with touches of mythologywhich most likely had grown up around the figure of Solomon. Solomon's wisdom, according to the Bible, enabled him to understand the language of the trees, animals, and birds (I Kings 4:33). The Targum Sheni picks up on this thread and begins its story with Solomon inviting all the birds and animals of his kingdom to a great feast.
The creatures all gratefully accept the invitation except for the woodcock who declines, pointing out that Solomon is not as great a monarch as the Queen of Sheba and so does not deserve this level of respect. Solomon then invites the queen to his palace to do homage to him and prove the woodcock wrong and, in order to make a greater impression on her, has one of the spirits under his command transport the queen's throne to him. When the queen arrives she is suitably impressed, walking across a floor of glass which seems water, but still tests Solomon by asking him difficult riddles which, through his wisdom, he is able to answer; the queen then pays him homage, and presumably, the woodcock is satisfied.
The Targum Sheni comes from the genre of rabbinic literature known as the midrash: commentaries and interpretation of scripture. The work has been dated to between the 4th-11th centuries CE with different scholars arguing for an earlier or later date based on textual clues. This debate, like the one surrounding the queen's country of origin, continues but it seems likely that the Quran borrows the story from the Targum Sheni since the Islamic work regularly makes use of other older material. To cite only one such example, the Greek story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus appears in a revised form in Sura 18. Like the tale of the Seven Sleepers, the story of the queen of Sheba changes in the Quran to fit the overall vision of the work.
THE QUEEN IN THE QURAN
In the Quran, the queen is known as Bilqis and rules over the mighty kingdom of Sheba. In this version of the story, as in the Bible, Solomon (given as Sulayman) is given the gift of the speech of birds, animals, and the spiritual entities known as jinn(genies). He assembles his hosts one day to inspect them but does not find the hoopoe bird among the company. Solomon says:
How is it with me that I do not see the hoopoe? Or is he among the absent? Assuredly I will chastise him with a terrible chastisement, or I will slaughter him, unless he bring me a clear authority [provide a good excuse]. (Sura 27:20)
The hoopoe bird appears and tells Solomon that he has been flying far and came to the land of Sheba where, he says, “I found a woman ruling over them and she has been given of everything and she possesses a mighty throne” (Sura 27:20). The bird then goes on to say how the people of Sheba worship the sun, not the god of Solomon, Allah, and how Satan has led them astray so that, although they have a great kingdom, they “are not guided, so that they prostrate not themselves to God” (Sura 27:25). Solomon forgives the bird his earlier absence and sends him with a letter to the queen, inviting her to visit his kingdom.
When the queen receives the letter, she calls a council and reads aloud how Solomon wishes her to come to him in submission to his god. She asks the council for advice, and they tell her they are ready to fight for her but the decision must finally be hers. She decides to send Solomon a gift through a messenger, but the king rejects it and tells the messenger that, unless the queen complies, he will “come against them with hosts they have not power to resist and we shall expel them from there, abased and utterly humbled” (Sura 27:35). After the messenger leaves, Solomon remembers what the hoopoe bird said about the queen's throne and asks his council-members who among them can bring him the royal seat before the queen arrives. A jinn assures him it can be done and brings him the throne.
King Solomon and the Hoopoe
Once the throne is installed in a pavilion made of crystal, Solomon disguises it. When the queen arrives, he asks her if it is her throne and she replies that it seems to be the same. She is then told to enter the pavilion where she bares her legs before stepping onto the floor because it is so clear she thinks it is water. The wonder of the crystal pavilion and the appearance of her own throne there overwhelms the queen, and she says, “My lord, indeed I have wronged myself and I surrender with Solomon to God, the Lord of all Being” (Sura 27:45). Once the queen has submitted to Solomon's god the narrative in the Quran ends but Islamic tradition and legend suggests that she married Solomon.
THE KEBRA NEGAST VERSION
In the Kebra Negast (“The Glory of Kings”) of Ethiopia this story is retold but developed further. Here, the queen's name is Makeda, ruler of Ethiopia, who is told of the wonders of Jerusalem under Solomon's reign by a merchant named Tamrin.Tamrin has been part of an expedition to Jerusalem supplying material from Ethiopia for the construction of Solomon's temple.He tells his queen that Solomon is the wisest man in the world and that Jerusalem is the most magnificent city he has ever seen.
Intrigued, Makeda decides to go visit Solomon. She gives him gifts and is given gifts in return and the two spend hours in conversation. Toward the end of their time together, Makeda accepts Solomon's god and converts to Judaism. Solomon commands a great feast to celebrate Makeda's visit before her departure, and she spends the night in the palace. Solomon swears an oath that he will not touch her as long as she does not steal from him.
Makeda agrees but, in the night, becomes thirsty and finds a bowl of water which Solomon has placed in the center of the room. She is drinking the water when Solomon appears and reminds her that she swore she would not steal and yet here she is drinking his water without permission. Makeda tells him he can sleep with her since she has broken her oath.
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
Before she leaves Jerusalem, Solomon gives her his ring to remember him by and, on her journey home, she gives birth to a son whom she names Menilek (“son of the wise man”). When Menilek grows up and asks who his father is, Makeda gives him Solomon's ring and tells him to go find his father.
Menilek is welcomed by Solomon and stays in Jerusalem for some years studying the Torah. In time, however, he must leave and Solomon decrees that the first-born sons of his nobles will accompany Menilek back home (possibly because the nobles had suggested Menilek should leave). Before the group departs, one of the sons of the nobles steals the ark of the covenant from the temple and replaces it with a duplicate; as the caravan leaves Jerusalem, the ark goes with them.
The theft of the ark is discovered soon after, and Solomon orders his troops to pursue but they cannot catch up. Menilek, meanwhile, has discovered the theft and wants to return the ark but is persuaded that this is the will of God and the ark is supposed to travel to Ethiopia. In a dream, Solomon is also told that it is God's will the ark was taken and so calls off his pursuit and tells his priests and nobles to cover up the theft and pretend the ark in the temple is the real one. Menilek returns to his mother in Ethiopia with the ark which is enshrined in a temple and, according to legend, remains there to the present day.
CONCLUSION
There are other later sources which also feature the mysterious queen and argue for or against her historicity. The Christian canticles of the Middle Ages, drawing on the New Testament references to a “Queen of the South” as the Queen of Sheba (Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31), represented her as a mystical figure. Christian art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance often chose the queen as a subject depicted either alone or in the company of Solomon.
The Talmud claims that there never was such a queen and that the reference to a queen in I Kings is meant to be understood figuratively: the “queen of Sheba” should be understood to mean the “kingdom of Sheba”, not an actual person (Bava Batra 15b). Other traditions seem to indicate there was such a queen but who she was and where she came from remains a mystery.
There is no reason to question the claim that a diplomatic mission may have been sent from Saba to Jerusalem during the reign of Solomon and that the emissary would have been a woman. The queen could have been the daughter of one of the Sabean kings or perhaps ruled on her own after the death of her husband.
There is, as noted, no record of a queen of Saba but neither is there any indication of a queen of Sheba named Makeda in Ethiopia or any record of a queen name Bilqis outside of the Quran. Historically, the Queen of Sheba remains a mystery but her legend has endured for millennia and she continues to inspire literature and art in her honor in the present day.
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