Sumerian literature

Sumerian literature is the oldest known collection of written stories and records in the world. It was created by the Sumerian people, who lived in ancient Mesopotamia, a land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These writings date back to the third and second millennia BC, during a time called the Middle Bronze Age.

The Sumerians were also the inventors of one of the first writing systems, called Sumerian cuneiform. They developed this writing from earlier picture-like systems around the 30th century BC. Even after the Sumerian language was no longer spoken everyday, it was still used in important documents and literature by later empires like the Akkadian and Babylonian empires.

Sumerian literature included many different kinds of texts. There were stories about gods and heroes, historical records, letters, legal documents, poems where two characters debate, and collections of wise sayings called proverbs. These writings show us how people thought and lived thousands of years ago, and they had a big influence on the literature of later cultures.

Poetry

Most Sumerian literature was written in lines that lined up on the left side. We don’t fully know what the Sumerians thought of as poetry, but these lines sometimes had patterns like pairs or groups. The writing wasn’t rhymed, but writers used clever sounds and word endings to make the text feel musical. Because of how the writing worked, it’s hard to find rhythms or repeating sounds like in poems we know today.

Literary genres and topics

Sumerian literature has many kinds of stories and poems. These stories often had a poetic feel, with lines that painted pictures and made comparisons. The characters could be people, gods, talking animals, or even things that couldn’t move. The stories aimed to keep readers interested and sometimes made them laugh. They were first told by speaking and later written down by scribes. Some stories might have been sung with music.

Experts today sort Sumerian literature into groups such as lists of books, stories about heroes and gods, poems about history and kings, letters and laws, hymns to gods, and wise sayings. One famous set of stories is from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which includes tales like Gilgamesh and Huwawa and Inanna's Descent to the Underworld. There are also poems praising kings and cities, and many proverbs that give advice.