Sumerians

Paul Collins is Keeper of the Middle East Department at the British Museum. His books include Mountains and Lowlands: Ancient Iran and Mesopotamia (2016) and The Assyrians (Reaktion Books, 2024).

A highly readable, fully authoritative account of all aspects of the ways of life of the Sumerians, one of the most important peoples of the ancient world. Paul Collins also covers the issue of the discovery and rediscovery of the Sumerians very effectively, bringing to life not just the Sumerians themselves but also the early travellers and antiquarians who first engaged with them. The book, too, is superbly illustrated. - Roger Matthews, Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Reading[A] stimulating new book, The Sumerians, the latest contribution to the Lost Civilizations series . . . The Sumerians, for all their doubtful status as a formal society, have a remarkable list of achievements to their credit. Besides being the world’s earliest attested civilization in the fourth millennium BCE, they invented cuneiform – the world’s earliest writing – and the sexagesimal system of mathematics. Their cities, such as Uruk and Ur, were the headquarters of the world’s earliest city-states, with bureaucracies, legal codes, divisions of labor, and a money economy . . . a civilization made vivid by Collins’s clear and expert text. - ScienceIn this fascinating monograph, Collins provides a thought-provoking study of the Sumerians as representing the most ancient of all civilizations. Instead of presenting a traditional descriptive account, Collins explores how archaeological and textual sources were used over the past 150 years to construct multiple and often-conflicting notions of the ancient land called Sumer and the people who became known as the Sumerians . . . Well-written, well-illustrated, and well-documented, this volume will be of great interest to both scholars and students. Highly recommended. - ChoiceThis is an important book . . . a vital and thought-provoking contribution to the study of the ancient Middle East, and is written in such a way that readers beyond those working in the field will also find it accessible. The book is attractively laid out, with beautiful color illustrations and the text formatted in a clear, readable font. - Amanda H. Podany, Journal of the American Oriental Society