What Was Done for the First Time

We know that history begins with the Sumerians. They were among the first peoples to begin to write and to leave for posterity the things that happened in their times. They wrote down every day everything that happened, and thus we were able to discover contracts, letters, laws, sanctions and more things that they noted on clay tablets, using the style of letters called cuneiform, which are letters in straight and not rounded form. These letters were written on the tablets with a pointed metal before putting them in the oven. We are speaking of an era almost more than five thousand five hundred years ago. The Egyptians began to write after the Sumerians, but they wrote in the form we call 'hieroglyphic', where the words came from figures. Cuneiform comes from the Latin word 'cuneus', which means nail. Indeed, what they used to write on a clay tablet was like a nail that could leave traces in the still-soft clay, before putting it in the oven to make it solid, hard.

The Sumerians lived in the region we call Mesopotamia, a region where countries like Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait and a part of Iran are situated. Better said, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates (Dicle/Fırat), and the peoples that formed this region were varied: those of Akkad, who were Semitic, the Hittites and still other peoples. Another thing that began for the first time with the Sumerians was copper. Before the Sumerians we have no example of any work done with copper. They were the first to see that with copper they could make many things. For the first time they made a mould mixing copper with tin (kalay) and obtained bronze more than three thousand five hundred years ago. The first objects they made of copper were arrowheads, which were very important for making war and for hunting, hooks for catching fish, jars and pitchers. They were also the ones who found the spinning wheel (çıkrık) 5,100 years ago. Thus they made the famous cloths with which the kings and queens of the neighbouring countries had sumptuous garments sewn.

The first work of literature we know, the epic of 'Gilgamesh', was written 5,400 years ago. This famous epic, where eternal life is sought, including the story of the Flood, was written long before Homer's epics of the 'Iliad and the Odyssey'. The whole epic was written on clay tablets. Another work of literature, also by the Sumerians, is 'The Instructions of Shuruppak'. These instructions were texts of wisdom, and to give a few examples, they say: 'A loving heart maintains the family, a hating heart destroys the family.' 'Do not pass judgement when you drink beer.' (Beer was a form of paying the employee. We have clay tablets where they mark bars for the quantity of beer the employee received as salary.) In the epic of Gilgamesh we also find the first urban plan. The cities of Ur and Uruk are described with great exactness of streets and buildings constructed of bricks and stones (5,500 years ago). This urbanization also greatly helped the development of the economy.

Let us not forget that the world knows Hippodamus as the first urban architect, born in our country, in Miletus, not very far from İzmir. He is known as the first architect who made beautiful streets in straight lines, crossing at 90-degree angles, but this was much later than the Sumerians. In tourism we give the names of Miletus and Priene as examples of ancient cities of our country that have this plan. This plan served in many cities of the United States of America and certain cities of Europe. Games resembling draughts or chess were played among the Sumerians, and tablets with signs of these games were found at 'Başur Höyük', the archaeological site in the south-east of Turkey, to the north of Mesopotamia, territory of the Sumerians. The first soap for washing was made in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians. They mixed animal fat with ash and water. These first soaps were for the religious officials, who used them to purify themselves before prayer. The clay tablets also tell us that soap served to cure skin diseases.

Hammurabi, who lived in the 18th century before our era, is a king of the Sumerians, and it is said that the first laws of justice were made by him. But we have clay tablets from the 20th century before our era where we read laws of justice. These tablets are in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, translated by Prof. Samuel Kramer, known as the author of the famous book 'History Begins at Sumer'. These are tablets known by the name 'The Code of Ur-Nammu'. Ur-Nammu was the king of the Sumerians who lived in the years 2112–2085 before our era; he says that the damage one can cause to a human body can be paid with money or with similar objects of value. On the other hand, killing, adultery and the violation of young girls were punished by the death penalty. These laws were much more tolerant than the laws of Hammurabi, who lived 300 years later and who says 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'. The Sumerians were a very brilliant light that illuminated for centuries the paths of humanity.