How The Sumerians Became Rich: With Sumerian Cuneiform Sign List and Sign Readings Index Second Edition

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John A. Halloran (Author)
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John A. Halloran (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
ISBN-13: 978-0978642938
ISBN-10: 0978642937
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Editorial Reviews

Review

How the Sumerians Became Rich is an excellent read. It not only explores the evolution of the language, but also the culture and society of the Sumerians. It was well researched, with 16 pages of bibliography references, and a few citations to online articles for those of us that cannot dive too deep in the weeds but would like to learn more. I feel the greatest benefit of owning the book is having the comprehensive sign list. I once asked my professor what the best book would be for Sumerian and I was pointed to an online resource. As far as I know, until now, there was never a published sign list for Sumerian this comprehensive. Even my study guide has only a fraction of the signs that are included in How the Sumerians Became Rich. I would recommend this book to anyone with interest in the Sumerians or their language. (PJ Green)
 
This is an excellent book that should be read by anyone interested in Sumerian society. But it is more than that. Without being tendentious, Halloran has included parallels with modern society, as well. The Sumerians made choices regarding the relative merits of collective vs. individual rights and responsibilities. We face similar pressures. The book is very well documented linguistically, as one would expect from the author of the Sumerian Lexicon. The title may or may not appeal to everyone, but the content is extremely valuable. Scholarship does not have to be boring, nor esoteric. This book is very readable. There is very little available on the Sumerians. Most of the material that is published (and rapidly goes out-of-print) is arcane linguistic trivia. Halloran's books are a very nice exception to this trend. (Fred Lord M.Sc. in Applied Linguistics)
 
The title of John Alan Halloran's new book says it all: How the Sumerians Became Rich. The Sumerians prospered even though they didn't have a lot of natural resources. Exactly how they managed to do this has never been fully understood by the scholars. Until now. Sumerian civilization was destroyed more than 4,000 years ago, so only a few of their artifacts remain - except for thousands of cuneiform tablets. Fortunately, John Alan Halloran is an expert on the Sumerian language (he is also the author of the Sumerian Lexicon). He uses the Sumerians' own words to describe their expertise in farming, herding, business, and government, showing how they created enough surplus wealth to develop their great civilization (when most of the world was still living in the Stone Age). Halloran also uses modern history and sociology to offer genuine insight into how the Sumerians dealt with the same problems that still exist in the world today. Although this is a scholarly book, Halloran's clear presentation of his ideas is easily understood by all readers. Taken together, both of Halloran's books provide important contributions to the study of Sumerian history. The Sumerian Lexicon is essential to understanding the Sumerian language. How the Sumerians Became Rich is essential to understanding the Sumerian people. (Jerald Jack Starr)

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How the Sumerians Became Rich by John Halloran is a thorough and thought-provoking reappraisal of the rise of the first civilisation. This ground breaking work could be read as a series of essays on aspects of Sumerian epistemology and in this Halloran succeeds splendidly. Halloran's perspective focuses on the transition by way of culture of man from a state of nature (and the consequent uncontrolled vagaries of existence) to a state of greater certainty, and therefore of human control. He argues convincingly that economic factors account for the cultural impetus which would result in Sumer's unique achievements. As well as calling upon archaeological and linguistic evidence and economic theory Halloran draws his thinking from a wide range of disciplines not previously regarded as significant to Sumerology. His arguments are supported by illustrations which are effective in enhancing the message. The descriptive list of a thousand signs in the final appendix is one of my favourite parts of Halloran's book. It is based upon decades of work by the author and is an extremely useful cuneiform dictionary. It will be appreciated by both novice Sumerologists and those more advanced in the subject. (Allan Speedy, BCom MCom FRAS)  
 
I very much enjoyed this book, and frankly learned a lot. The author has a truly deep knowledge of this subject. The Sumerian people left a profound imprint on human history. Although they had a language unrelated to any other (a language isolate), they invented writing before anyone else, and most writing systems in the world today descend from it. They evolved the world's first complex, diverse, and stratified cities. Throw in accounting, taxes, project management, and religion (from which the trio of Abrahamic religions descended) and the like, and their importance should be obvious. Knowing about them is essential to a good understanding of how the world came to be as it is. The book's 200 page summary of Sumerian history and culture is both concise and wide-ranging, and somewhat idiosyncratically formatted in doublespaced business style paragraphs. However, I found this a strangely effective device; each paragraph functions as a concise essay on a specific topic. Gathered into broad chapters, from the diffusion of the Neolithic and agriculture through culture, trade, and economics, they make a mosaic that conveys a well-rounded sense of the language, invention, and culture of these mysterious people. The chapters are liberally sprinkled with topical vocabulary lists, which give a feel for how thought and language interacted. The book includes a number of appendices on topics like the development of language, cosmetics, tally-sticks, an interlinear text of an important hymn, plus an extensive sign list and sign reading index, plus bibliography. It is a rich companion to Halloran's Sumerian Lexicon, which I have used since it came out in 2006. (Rob Swigart)
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Logogram Publishing; Second Edition (November 5, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0978642937
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0978642938
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 11 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 6 x 0.79 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.1 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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  1. John Alan Halloran

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    John A. Halloran, the proprietor of the sumerian.org web site, has loved the Sumerians and their language since he created in 1983 the first version of his Sumerian Lexicon dictionary. After studying with Robert K. Englund at UCLA, he published version 4 of the Sumerian Lexicon as a book in 2006. In 2020-2021 he found it possible to explore and summarize the achievements of the Sumerians using his intimate knowledge of Sumerian language and culture and put it all within a larger framework that contrasts life in a state of nature with life in a state of civilization. In his new 432-page book, How The Sumerians Became Rich, you will see for yourself that the Sumerians pioneered long-lasting social and technological solutions to many of the same issues that we face today. How The Sumerians Became Rich is also a companion reference book to the Sumerian Lexicon because it uses Unicode to supply the 100-page cuneiform sign list and sign readings index that was missing from the 2006 book.

    See more on the author's page

  2. John A. Halloran

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    John A. Halloran, the proprietor of the sumerian.org web site, has loved the Sumerians and their language since he created in 1983 the first version of his Sumerian Lexicon dictionary. After studying with Robert K. Englund at UCLA, he published version 4 of the Sumerian Lexicon as a book in 2006. In 2020-2021 he found it possible to explore and summarize the achievements of the Sumerians using his intimate knowledge of Sumerian language and culture and put it all within a larger framework that contrasts life in a state of nature with life in a state of civilization. In his new 432-page book, How The Sumerians Became Rich, you will see for yourself that the Sumerians pioneered long-lasting social and technological solutions to many of the same issues that we face today. How The Sumerians Became Rich is also a companion reference book to the Sumerian Lexicon because it uses Unicode to supply the 100-page cuneiform sign list and sign readings index that was missing from the 2006 book.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

3.1 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

Edward Kyle Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Sumerian Culture must be studied in order to continue as a world society.
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2022
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5.0 out of 5 stars Sumerian Culture must be studied in order to continue as a world society.
By Edward Kyle Jones on May 3, 2022
Dr. Halloran's works are indispensible for knowing the time capsuled language held by the Sumerians. He brilliantly shows us that Sumerian society thrived on working together with tight knit family values that fit within their culture. Dr. Halloran shows us in his "How the Sumerians Became Rich" that the Sumerian's ability to develop as a group that could 'reach out', 'branch out' with roots to who they were, their "name" or geneology. I have carried with me his Sumerian Lexicon like 'the other Bible' for ca 20 years. To boot: Dr. Halloran has taken the time to teach and explain to me what questions I have had. With patience he has done so. I must say, whoever made that ridiculous review, "this book sucks", has obviously no idea about John, Sumerian language and culture. Nonetheless, this book is very approachable. I gave it an "advanced" rating because of the scholarship level to want/ need to read it and the seemingly unending knowledge of John.
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Area Man
2.0 out of 5 stars Vanity published "scholarship"
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2022
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Elber Galarga
1.0 out of 5 stars the book sucks
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2022
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John E. Dickenson
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect companion to Sumerian Lexicon
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2021
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