07 he Sumerian "Hundred Years War"

he Sumerian "Hundred Years War" 





Lagash and Umma were two Sumerian cities located 18 miles apart. These documents were found on clay cylinders and date from about 2500 BC At the time of the events recorded here, Entemena is king of Lagash. His uncle, Eannatum, had been king earlier and was responsible for the treaty with Lagash mentioned in these documents. The names of the rulers of Lagash are confusing: Eannatum was king of Lagash at the time the original treaty with Umma was negotiated. Enannatum was Eannatum's brother and succeeded him on the throne. Entemena, Enannatum's son and Eannatum's nephew, was king of Lagash at the time of the dispute


The war between Umma and Lagash had been going on for quite some time before Mesalim was called upon to settle the dispute. As the king of Kish, Mesalim held suzerainty over the region and his word carried considerable weight and authority. Mesalim apportioned the land between the cities and a stele was erected at the border to announce his decision. Then a trench was dug with earthen levees on either side to separate the two territories. Nonetheless, Mesalim’s arbitration did little to resolve the problem. Apparently his decision greatly favored Lagash (the larger and more powerful of the two cities) much to Umma’s lingering resentment. The wars would continue unabated for more than a century.



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The Umma-Lagash border conflict

t relates a series of conflicts during the Early Dynastic III period over land and canal management in the Eden district between Lagaš and Umma, the latter a neighbour to the north along the Tigris.demarcating the border between Lagaš and Umma, and then in a historic event, the third-party king Me-silim of Kiš (at a distance to the northeast of the two city-states) erects monuments to mark the border between the two. After king UŠ of Umma commits the first border transgression, he is defeated   king of Umma, Ur-lumma, does not repay this debt but diverts water from the canal and attacks the monuments and chapels established by Eanatum. This is during the reign of En-metena (son of En-anatum and nephew of Eanatum) - En-metena defeats Ur-Lumma, who is then killed in his own city. When Il of Zabala takes control of Umma and continues to transgress against Lagaš, the narrative ends by stating that “Enlil and Ninhursag did not give him [success in] this”, then giving blessings to En-metena and curses against any who would transgress the “boundary of Ningirsu”.

Cities, Power and Politics..

Sumerian cities grew from what had been the place where a temple was located. At least twelve cities arose among the Sumerians. Among them were Ur, Uruk, Kish and Lagash – Ur, for example, becoming a city of about 24,000 people. In the center of each city was a temple that housed the city's gods, and around each city were fields of grain, orchards of date palms, and land for herding. According to Samuel Noah Kramer, early in Sumerian civilization a temple corporation owned "some of the land, which it rented to sharecroppers; the remainder was the private property of individual citizens. ^note4

Sumerian priests had once worked the fields alongside others, but now they were separated from commoners. A corporation run by priests became the greatest landowners among the Sumerians. The priests hired the poor to work their land and claimed that land was really owned by the gods. Priests had become skilled as scribes, and in some cities they sat with the city's council of elders. These councils wielded great influence, sometimes in conflict with a city's king. And the priests told commoners that their drudgery was necessary to allow the gods their just leisure.

Hunter-gatherer societies have been described as matrilineal – families traced through the mother. Scholars are not describing Sumerian society as having been matrilineal, but Sumerian society has been described as patrimonial – property traced through the father. ^note5 And patrimonial societies in ancient times tended to treat women as property and to give authority to males. The tribal societies that followed the smaller hunter-gatherer societies tended to be warrior societies, and it was the warriors who got together and made decisions for their entire society. Presumably before the time of the Sumerians, kings were chosen by the warriors, with the king as the leading warrior. Kings are described as working in conjunction with the priesthood. "The ruler needed the endorsement of the gods as delivered by the priests, and if they withdrew their support his rule was in grave danger.

With economic inequality there was need for authoritarian rule, for control, supplied by the king and supported by priests and other elite members of society. Sumerians remained illiterate and without political power or credibility. It was the religious duty of common people to accept the authority of the king and priests.

Kings drafted common people to work on community projects, and common people were obliged to pay taxes to the government in the form of a percentage of their crops, which the city could either sell or use to feed soldiers and other agents of the king.