Societal hierarchy

Introduction

The Law Code of Hammurabi was established to administer justice in Sumerian society. This code divided society into three main classes.

• The upper class included the kings, nobles, priests, government officials and warriors.
• The middle class included merchants, traders and artisans.
• The lowest class included commoners and slaves.

Occupations included soldiers, doctors, merchants, boatmen, fishermen, stone masons, carpenters, potters and jewellers.

Kings and the upper class

The Sumerians called their king lugal, which means 'ruler'. In ancient Sumer, kings could obtain their kingship from military conquests.

There were constant wars between cities to compete for access to water. Most Sumerian kings were involved with wars and could obtain their kingship through military action. The kings would later 'legalise' their kingship before passing it on to their descendants. Refer Image 1

A king was a judge, a 'righter of wrongs,' the ultimate authority that any citizen could appeal to if they needed help. Kings also began to take on a religious role, appealing to the gods for good weather and harvests.

In early Uruk, the ruler was called an en, which means 'high priest'.Kings and queens were buried in magnificent tombs. The soldiers and court ladies of the kings were killed and buried with their master.The Sumerians believed that the King would need these people with him in the afterlife.

Kings were believed to owe their power to the gods. They were expected to give precious offerings to the gods and to rebuild or improve their temples. Kings were not obliged to be involved in the rituals of worshipping. Priests performed most of the holy tasks and controlled the temples.

Priests

The priests had a great deal of power in ancient Sumer. As well as controlling the religious life of the community, priests were responsible for developing the economy. Priests distributed land, employed workers and managed trade.

According to Sumerian myth, human beings were created to do the manual labour the gods were unwilling to do for themselves. After each crop, farmers took their produce to the priests at the ziggurat (temple) to donate to their gods. After the priests had 'fed' and 'clothed' the gods, the remainder was redistributed to the people of the community.

Scribes

Below the priests were the scribes, who were the secular (non-religious) attendants of the temple. Scribes supervised every aspect of the city's economic life. It was the scribes who developed a judicial system. Beyond the temple officials, society was divided between an elite, or noble, group of large landowners and military leaders. Refer Image 2

Merchants

Merchants from Sumer traded grain and manufactured items, such as pottery and tools, which were produced by the Sumerian cities. Sumer imported natural resources, building materials, and precious metals that Sumer lacked.

During the Akkad Dynasty merchants were independent. They could even petition King Sargon (2334-2279BC) to pay the expenses of opening the trade routes to the north-west.

In 3000 BC (Ur III Dynasty), Sumer merchants acted as agents for the palace, but they were not members of the bureaucracy or employees of the king.

Farmers

Early in Sumerian civilisation, 80 to 90 per cent of farmers owned their land. When the crops failed and they did not have enough food for themselves, they borrowed from people with surplus food. The farmers hoped they would be able to pay off the debt in the next harvest. If the next harvest failed, however, they were forced to surrender their lands to the lender or to work for him.

When Sumerians lost their land, they, or their descendants, became sharecroppers. They had to work the lands of successful landowners and were only given a portion of the crops they grew. In this way, many farmers had lost their lands by the late stage of Sumer civilisation.

Women

In Sumerian mythology, a mother-goddess was the central figure of creation. As large city-states emerged with warriors as their leaders, male gods gradually replaced the mother-goddesses.

In the early city-states, wives of rulers enjoyed special powers and duties. Women also had more power in the early farming communities As the civilisation developed, however, women stayed at home and gradually lost their roles.

Men gradually dominated women as they were physically stronger. This domination was enforced by law. Mesopotamian women were not considered part of its class system and received no protection under the law. If a husband died, the widow had to yield to her husband's father or brother, or a grown son if she had one. Refer Image 3

Slaves and Slavery

Slavery was a common feature of Sumerian society. The majority of the population of ancient Sumer were serfs and slaves. Slaves performed all manual and domestic work. Refer animation

Slaves were taken at the end of wars between the city-states. The Sumerians captured other peoples and made them slaves. Eventually, even Sumerians were made slaves. Among them were debtors, poor children, orphans and criminals.

To justify slavery, the Sumerians argued that their gods had given them victory over an inferior people. The Sumerians called a female slave a mountain girl, and a male slave mountain man. Slaves were the property of temples, palaces and of the owners of wealthy estates. Slaves who tried to escape or disobeyed their masters received harsh punishments.

Despite being the property of their masters, slaves still had many rights. They could hold property, participate in business, marry a free man or women, and eventually even purchase their own freedom.