History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History (Paperback)

by Samuel Noah Kramer (Author) "THE SUMERIAN school was the direct outgrowth of the invention and development of the cuneiform system of writing, Sumer's most significant contribution to civilization..." (more)
Key Phrases: blackheaded people, first literary debates, literary tablets, University Museum, Epic of Gilgamesh, Lower Mesopotamia (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kramer ranked among the world's foremost Sumerologists. . . . The book will interest both the scholar and the general educated reader."--Religious Studies Bulletin

Product Description

Which civilization had the first system of law? The first formal educational system? The first tax cut? The first love song? The answers were found in excavations of ancient Sumer, a society so developed, resourceful, and enterprising that it, in a sense, created history. The book presents a cross section of the Sumerian "firsts" in all the major fields of human endeavor, including government and politics, education and literature, philosophy and ethics, law and justice, agriculture and medicine, even love and family.

History Begins at Sumer is the classic account of the achievements of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq during the third millennium B.C. They were the developers of the cuneiform system of writing, perhaps their greatest contribution to civilization, which allowed laws and literature to be recorded for the first time.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; 3rd edition (April 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812212762
• ISBN-13: 978-0812212761
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #313,789 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

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131 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We are all Sumerians, whether we know it or not., June 11, 2001

By	tepi "tepi" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Although I've been known to grumble at Kramer's dullness, the present book, far from being dull, ought to be of real interest to many. Professor Samuel Noah Kramer was the world's leading Sumerologist, but in this book he seems to have risen above the dry academic persona we find in some of his other books and allowed his love and enthusiasm for things Sumerian to show.

Basically the book sets out to explain and describe, using extensive quotations from Sumerian Literature, what Kramer took to be thirty-nine civilizational firsts of the Sumerians. Many new archaeological discoveries have been made since the 3rd revised edition of 'History Begins at Sumer' was published in 1981, and current thinking seems to be leaning towards the view that, far from beginning in Sumer, civilization first arose further East in India.

But whether it first began in Sumer or in India, since the Indus script hasn't yet been deciphered, and the Indians didn't write on imperishable clay tablets anyway, we have as yet no thirty-nine Vedic Indian firsts, and perhaps should give Kramer the benefit of the doubt and enjoy his splendid book.

After a brief Introduction, the thirty-nine firsts follow. Mutterings have been heard about the 'pop' overtones of the term 'firsts,' but it seems to me an interesting way of treating Sumer's history, and the book, in my opinion, is far more successful at capturing and holding one's attention than Kramer's later and more conventional study, 'The Sumerians.'

Most of the chapters are centered on a Sumerian text, some quite brief and others fairly long, which Kramer envelopes with his full and interesting commentary. Often we are given a line drawing of the actual cuneiform tablet from which the text was taken, and these have a special fascination all of their own. Besides the 28 line drawings, the book is further enriched with 34 halftones - sculptures, cuneiform tablets, stelae, artefacts, archaeological sites - which greatly add to the interest of the book.

Among the firsts covered are such things as: The First Schools, The First Case of Juvenile Delinquency, The First "War of Nerves," The First Bicameral Congress, First Historian, The First Case of Tax Reduction, The First Legal Precedent, The First Pharmacopoeia, The First Moral Ideals, The First Animal Fables, The First Literary Debates, The First Love Song, The First Library Catalogue, The First "Sick" Society, The First Long-Distance Champion, The First Sex Symbolism, Labor's First Victory, and so on.

Many of these and other chapters are memorable, and once having read them you'll never forget them. You'll never forget them because, in fact, they are about yourself. What I mean is that one of the more important things we learn from Kramer's fascinating book is that, whether we realize it or not, we are all, in a sense, Sumerians.

The patterns that were perhaps first laid down in Sumer - urbanization, monumental architecture, kingship, writing system, distinct social classes, laws, lawyers, lawcourts, taxes, formal education, libraries, a regular army, organized warfare, labor disputes, etc. - are still very much with us today. We usually refer to the whole package as 'Civilization,' without realizing how indebted to the Sumerians we all are. But Sumer, sadly, after a relatively brief efflorescence, crashed in ruins. Here are a few lines from Kramer's 'Sumerian History, Culture and Literature' describing that crash:

"In the course of centuries Sumer became a "sick society" ... it yearned for peace and was constantly at war; it professed such ideals as justice, equity and compassion, but abounded in injustice, inequality and oppression; materialistic and shortsighted, it unbalanced the ecology essential to its economy.... And so Sumer came to a cruel, tragic end" (in Diane Wolkstein and S. N. Kramer, 'Inanna - Queen of Heaven and Earth,' page 126).

Why, after achieving such brilliance, did Sumer crash in ruins? And Egypt? And Athens? And Rome? And why does this pattern seem to be repeating itself today in the West? Is civilization inherently unworkable? Or is there another answer? Personally, I think there is another answer. But you won't find it in the works of Professor Samuel Noah Kramer.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An anthology of "firsts" in history, May 11, 2000

By	Burak Eldem (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

We owe much of our knowledge on Ancient Sumerian civilization to Mr Samuel Kramer. As one of the specialists on Sumerian cuneiform and written culture, he traced the clay tablets of Ancient Mesopotamia in various places and brought together the parts of puzzles that belonged to very early Sumerian myths. In this legendary work, Mr Kramer presents us the "39 firsts" of history, including "The First Farmers Almanac", "The First Law Codes", "The First Noah", "The First Resurrection" and so on. The book does not follow a chronological order but presents the achievements of the Ancient Sumerians in an "item-by-item" basis. You not only learn the historical basics on Ancient Mesopotamia in various chapters of this brilliant work, but have fun by reading the fascinating original Sumerian myths, including "Inanna's voyage to the land of the dead". If you're into ancient history, this book should be on your "Top 10" list. If you need further reading from Mr Kramer, "Sumerian Mythology" may well follow the suit.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs Updating, November 25, 2004

By	Dave_42 "Dave_42" (Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

When this book was first published in 1956, it undoubtedly was one of the best books on the subject. Unfortunately, even though this is called the Third Revised Edition, it is not clear in what way this book has been updated. It contains the preface to the first edition, but no new preface or introduction is added for the third edition.

It does include a "Corrigenda and Addenda to the Second Edition" after the main body of texts, but the question is: Why weren't these addenda included in the text instead of put outside of the main text, and where are the addenda for the third edition? To make matters worse, the second edition addenda information uses page numbers that do not align with the third edition publication.

There is still a lot of valuable information in this book, but it is important for the buyer to be aware of what they are actually getting when they purchase it.