Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians and the First Kings

In the last episode I released on the Sumerians, we covered the Uruk period. At that time, the Sumerian city-states were ruled by high priests, governing from city temples. This episode will explore the next era of Sumerian history. This is the period that the first kings that we know of ruled, and the centre of government was not the temple, but the palace. So, the Sumerians lived in Zuma, in ancient Mesopotamia, between and around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. And, the era of these first kings is known as the Early Dynastic Period, which began from around 3100 to 2700 BC. During this period, the Sumerian civilization was still divided into many city-states. There was a collapse of the Sumerian city-states at the end of the Uruk period at around 3000 BC, not long after the Bronze Age began. Around this time, the temple leaders lost their monopoly on power. During the recovery, new opportunities emerged in trade and commerce. Some benefited and became rich and powerful, while most did not. This led to a new social order, a new class system based on wealth and power, as opposed to temple hierarchy. Why did kings appear? Well, the leading theory is that powerful men would have needed to assume a position of power and leadership when the city needed to organise a military defence against outside raiders, hordes and armies. This may have been done either by appointment from important members of the city, or, and probably more likely, self-appointment due to the power of one's own authority. The more wealthy a city became, the more attractive it became to outside forces wanting to take that wealth. And, the more often the city needed to defend itself, the more often it needed that position of leadership. This new leader soon had the authority to tax the population, for the defence of the city of course. But it wasn't long before most of the city's interests were in his hands, such as military campaigns, city construction projects and even justice. This position would eventually become not just a permanent role, but an inherited one. The term for king in ancient Sumer was lugau, which roughly translates to the big man. The responsibilities of the lugau consisted of planning and executing military campaigns, levying taxes, appointing city officials, choosing a suitable queen and producing an heir, forging alliances, planning and implementing building programmes, as well as performing rituals to appease the gods. As for his subjects, they were obliged to pay their taxes. They may even be called up for labour duty for some building project and of course military service when called upon. Although the king would have had a palace bodyguard to enforce his authority at home, his army would be made up of farmers, fishermen and trade people. So let's take a look at the king's army. The king was expected to personally command the army. It has been estimated that a Sumerian city-state could muster about 500 to 600 men for battle. The main weapons were a spear, axe or even a stone-headed mace. The bulk of a Sumerian army consisted of spearmen. They wore helmets and capes and had large shields forming a phalanx formation. This was the early bronze age, so these armies were equipped with bronze weapons. In support were the chariots. These chariots had four wheels and were pulled by four asses as opposed to horses that hadn't been domesticated yet. Sumerian chariots were slow and immobile and it is still debated on how they were actually used. Some have suggested that they were mainly used for carrying equipment and transport. Others have theorised that they were used to crash through the enemy ranks and that the charioteers used spears and javelins. Conflicts between the Sumerian city-states were common during the early dynastic period, normally ignited by royal ambition or some boundary dispute. As a result, there was a complex series of ever-changing allegiances and rivalries throughout the Sumerian political landscape. Each city-state had its own patron god or goddess and in the minds of the soldiers they represented not just their city-state but also their deity. Victory was seen as a sign that your god or goddess was pleased, whilst defeat was seen as an indication that your deity was dissatisfied for some reason. Maybe some offence or insult had been committed. Either way, it was important to ensure that you had done everything to appease your gods before battle. The early dynastic period saw the first kings that we know of in history and apart from a few exceptions, kingship became the standard government in the ancient world and would remain so long after that. Thank you for watching and if you like my content don't forget to leave a comment, like, share and subscribe. Have a great day!