The Literature of Ancient Sumer

These translations of Sumerian literature constitute the most comprehensive collection ever published of the world's earliest literature. The compositions in this book were mainly inscribed on clay tablets dating to the 18th century BCE, the period from which the most extensive literary records have been recovered. They encompass a wide range of different genres which will be familiar to modern readers, such as narrative myths, lyrical hymns, proverbs, and love poetry, as well as much that will be less familiar. The compositions provide a stimulating insight into the culture of the world's first urban civilization, as well as extending our understanding of literary strategies and of such universal themes as love, sex, political ambition, and our desire to explain the world to ourselves. The translations thus provide an opportunity to appreciate an ancient literature in terms both of its own identity and of its similarities to much that has followed.

Jeremy Black was University Lecturer in Akkadian and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. Graham Cunningham is Researcher at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Eleanor Robson is University Lecturer in History of Science and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Gabor Zolyomi is Head of the Department of Assyriology and Hebrew Studies, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest.