document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2023 FAQS Clear - All Rights Reserved [93] In particular, carnelian beads with an etched design in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley, and made according to a technique of acid-etching developed by the Harappans. [93] About twenty seals have been found from the Akkadian and Ur III sites, that have connections with Harappa and often use Harappan symbols or writing. Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk enclosed by a dome. Each of these cities was like an independent country. Wall plaque showing libations to a seated god and a temple. Different approaches to understanding the Sumerians have, however, emerged in the last forty years. What race were Sumerians? - TimesMojo 77 The mortals were indeed the Sumerians, a non-Semitic racial type that conquered southern Babylonia, and the deities Explanations based on hypothetical migrations have fallen out of favour as evidence for significant cultural continuity in prehistory has been identified, including the development of recording technologies that led to practices of book-keeping and the origins of writing. Sumer, or the land of civilized kings, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. The wheel initially took the form of the potter's wheel. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}32N 46E / 32N 46E / 32; 46, (Shamshi-Adad dynasty18081736 BCE)(Amorites)Shamshi-Adad I Ishme-Dagan I Mut-Ashkur Rimush Asinum Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi These deities formed the main pantheon, and in addition to this there were hundreds of other minor gods. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide areafrom the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as western Iran. The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000 BC. 2001. What skin color were the Sumerians? This was corroborated by other scholars including, Chandra Chakaberty, who asserted in his book A Study in Hindu Social Polity that based on the statuaries and steles of Babylonia, the Sumerians were of dark complexion (chocolate colour ), short stature, but of sturdy frame, oval face, stout nose, straight hair, Naked priest offering libations to a Sumerian temple (detail), "The area in question (the extreme south of Mesopotamia) may now be called Sumer, and its inhabitants Sumerians, although these names are only English approximations of the Akkadian designations; the Sumerians themselves called their land Kengir, their language Emegir, and themselves Sag-giga, "black-headed ones." The government required individuals to work on the canals in a corve, although the rich were able to exempt themselves. Credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing and the wheel, they hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. While spears, bows, arrows, and daggers (but not swords) were employed in war. WebWho were the ancestors of the Sumerians? The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish (Early Dynastic I), whose name is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgameshleading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. Sumerians They wrapped around the body and tied with a belt at the waist to hold the skirts up. During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three-fifths. At a basic level, the Sumerians can be defined by their language, which is recognisable in cuneiform texts dating from around 2800 BCE to the early centuries CE. [43]:23, The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists (like that found at Tell Brak), had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The Bible is a history book and it informs us of who these black Sumerians were. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. To the south of the region of According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in a difficult environment. [65]:151. The development into a (Sumerian) state in Babylonia seems to have been more gradual than in Egypt and likely concluded slightly earlier as well: 3200 BC in Mesopotamia while 3000 BC in Egypt, but the absolute dating of the archaeological material used to establish these things has such a margin of error that it is not , The only reference to Sumer in the Bible is to `the Land of Shinar (Genesis 10:10 and elsewhere), which people interpreted to most likely mean the land surrounding Babylon, until the Assyriologist Jules Oppert (1825-1905 CE) identified the biblical reference with the region of southern Mesopotamia known as Sumer and, . Thus, in the later Akkadian Enuma Elish, creation was seen as the union of fresh and salt water, between male Abzu, and female Tiamat. The obligations, loans and prices in general were usually denominated in one of them. "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". The Ubaid period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami transitional ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (c. 57004900 BC C-14) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. We can now understand the complex urban, literate world of Sumer as much more than simply the product of a single, definable population group. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters. In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as Alulim and Dumizid. [41][42], By the time of the Uruk period (c. 41002900 BC calibrated), the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, stratified, temple-centered cities (with populations of over 10,000 people) where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. The Sumerians had three main types of boats: Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid-4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. In Sumerian myth, An and Ki produced a variety of plants on the earth. These early chariots functioned less effectively in combat than did later designs, and some have suggested that these chariots served primarily as transports, though the crew carried battle-axes and lances. The oldest evidence for occupation comes from Tell el-'Oueili, but, given that environmental conditions in southern Mesopotamia were favourable to human occupation well before the Ubaid period, it is likely that older sites exist but have not yet been found. and became expansive and sang with joy!"[80]. How did the Sumerians know about human DNA over 5000 years ago? [40], The archaeological transition from the Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery domestically produced on a slow wheel to a great variety of unpainted pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. [107] The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2450 BC on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures. The Best Technical and Innovative Podcasts you should Listen, Essay Writing Service: The Best Solution for Busy Students, 6 The Best Alternatives for WhatsApp for Android, The Best Solar Street Light Manufacturers Across the World, Ultimate packing list while travelling with your dog. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. Rulers with names in italics are considered fictional. The Sumerians and Mesopotamia (article) | Khan Academy 'country' + 'lords' + 'noble') as seen in their inscriptions. WebOthers have suggested that the Sumerians were a North African people who migrated from the Green Sahara into the Middle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in What race were Akkadians? "[56], The Sumerians were one of the first known beer-drinking societies. 11., 1939), Jacobsen, Thorkild (1976), "The Harps that Once; Sumerian Poetry in Translation" and "Treasures of Darkness: a history of Mesopotamian Religion", George, Andrew (Translator) (2003), "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (Penguin Classics). Sumerian [22][23] Alternatively, a recent (2013) genetic analysis of four ancient Mesopotamian skeletal DNA samples suggests an association of the Sumerians with Indus Valley Civilization, possibly as a result of ancient Indus-Mesopotamia relations. Sumer - Wikipedia Plants were also grown in pots or vases. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change. [105] By the Ur III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley as their principal crop. While it can be read, making sense of things requires understanding how Sumerians used metaphors. The story of the passing of the gifts of civilization (me) to Inanna, goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk. The adventure-filled tale centers on a Sumerian king named Gilgamesh who is . In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf. After the Gutian period, the Ur III kingdom similarly united parts of northern and southern Mesopotamia. They were made by a technique developed by the Harappan civilization", For a full list of discoveries of Indus seals in Mesopotamia, see. The rest of the resources and tools that Sumerian slaves used were rather typical of Later Stone Age and Early Bronze Age technology. The potters used a bow drill to produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. Since stone was rare it was reserved for sculpture. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 21002000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some time. Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form. (Adaside dynasty1700722 BCE)Bel-bani Libaya Sharma-Adad I Iptar-Sin Bazaya Lullaya Shu-Ninua Sharma-Adad II Erishum III Shamshi-Adad II Ishme-Dagan II Shamshi-Adad III Ashur-nirari I Puzur-Ashur III Enlil-nasir I Nur-ili Ashur-shaduni Ashur-rabi I Ashur-nadin-ahhe I Enlil-Nasir II Ashur-nirari II Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-rim-nisheshu Ashur-nadin-ahhe II, Second Intermediate PeriodSixteenthDynasty Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. Our accumulated body of knowledge, most notably, suggests that these writings are scientifically grounded and authentic and their content is clear. Konfirst wanted to see if a drought that spanned about 200 years may have caused the decline. [35], The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been one of the oldest cities, where three separate cultures may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.[35]. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad.[35]. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. (1985). It tells of a king from the early Dynastic II period named Gilgamesh or "Bilgamesh" in Sumerian. pp. He drank the beer-seven jugs! [104], Large institutions kept their accounts in barley and silver, often with a fixed rate between them. Sumerian structures were made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. Cylinder seal and impression in which appears a ritual scene before a temple faade; 35003100 BC; bituminous limestone; height: 4.5cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), Ram in a Thicket; 26002400 BC; gold, copper, shell, lapis lazuli and limestone; height: 45.7cm; from the Royal Cemetery at Ur (Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq); British Museum (London), Standard of Ur; 26002400 BC; shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli on wood; length: 49.5cm; from the Royal Cemetery at Ur; British Museum, Bull's head ornament from a lyre; 26002350 BC; bronze inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli; height: 13.3cm, width: 10.5cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art. WebWhat race were the ancient Sumerians? [59]:78 One Sumerian proverb describes the ideal, happy marriage through the mouth of a husband who boasts that his wife has borne him eight sons and is still eager to have sex. The wheel was invented in the 4th century BC in Lower Mesopotamia(modern-day Iraq), where the Sumerian people inserted rotating axles into solid discs of wood. They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard. In this way the Sumerians were appreciated and valued in new ways, especially through museum displays in London, Philadelphia and Chicago where a substantial number of the excavated objects had been sent as a result of the division of finds. [6][7][8] The Sumerians referred to their land as Kengir, the 'Country of the noble lords' (, k-en-gi(-r), lit. The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in the zodiac and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks. [52] This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. They were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.[87]. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use of slave labour captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in the earliest texts. All knowledge of their history, language and technologyeven their namewas eventually forgotten. [68], Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC,[69] but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Babylonia and Assyria until the 1st century AD. [24] According to some data, the Sumerians are associated with the Hurrians and Urartians, and the Caucasus is considered their homeland. Mesopotamia They developed the first known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails, and government records. Ancient Mesopotamia Through 7 Key Artifacts. The first set of names on the list is of kings said to have reigned before a major flood occurred. [51] Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. Sumerians During the great drought, two waves of marauding nomads descended upon the region, sacking the capital city of Ur. For another list of Mesopotamian finds of Indus seals: Roux, Georges (1992), "Ancient Iraq" (Penguin). Origin and race of sumerians | e n e n u r u - ProBoards [61] Neither Sumerian nor Akkadian had a word exactly corresponding to the English word 'virginity', and the concept was expressed descriptively, for example as a/-nu-gi4-a (Sum. What was the race of the Sumerians? Were they African Sumerian was afterwards preserved in scribal schools as a prestigious written language, thereby creating a Sumero-Akkadian culture mastered by a small royal and scribal elite who were sufficiently privileged to receive a formal education. WebAre Sumerians and Akkadians the same? A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, including personal and business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, and daily records. Sumer, located in Mesopotamia, is the first known complex civilization, having developed the first city-states in the 4th millennium BCE. The interest rate was set at 1/60 a month (one shekel per mina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years. What race were Sumerians? [105], Periodically, rulers signed "clean slate" decrees that cancelled all the rural (but not commercial) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes. However, no affinity of Natufians to sub-Saharan Africans is evident in our genome-wide analysis, as present-day sub-Saharan Africans do not share more alleles with Natufians than with other ancient Eurasians" in, Margarethe Uepermann (2007), "Structuring the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia" (, Leick, Gwendolyn (2003), "Mesopotamia, the Invention of the City" (Penguin), "The stepped design of the Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara, the oldest known pyramid along the Nile, suggests that it was borrowed from the Mesopotamian ziggurat concept." Sumerians caught many fish and hunted fowl and gazelle.[83]. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. For example, Imports to Ur came from many parts of the world. They were Hamitic (Africans). It is one of the cradles of civilization in the world, along with ancient Egypt, Elam, the Caral-Supe civilization, Mesoamerica, the Indus Valley civilisation, and ancient China. The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. What was the Sumerian religion based upon? Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c. 23rd century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. [15] Hebrew .mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:"SBL Hebrew","SBL BibLit","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey David CLM","Keter YG","Shofar","David CLM","Hadasim CLM","Simple CLM","Nachlieli",Cardo,Alef,"Noto Serif Hebrew","Noto Sans Hebrew","David Libre",David,"Times New Roman",Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans} inar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite anhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Sumer. The cart was composed of a woven basket and the wheels had a solid three-piece design. Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and Akkad", such as Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until c. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. They were thought to be the offspring of the goddess Nammu and were originally united as one. Some female slaves were used as concubines by the master. As early as 1849 Hincks had also concluded that the language of the inventors of cuneiform was not in fact Akkadian and that the system of writing derived from a people who spoke a non-Semitic language. What Is The Difference Between Implicit And Imply? The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period. As is known from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after the Spring equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. The five "first" cities, said to have exercised pre-dynastic kingship "before the flood": (2an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia). In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. The Sumerian military used carts harnessed to onagers. The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts. Examples of Sumerian technology include: the wheel, cuneiform script, arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, Sumerian boats, lunisolar calendar, bronze, leather, saws, chisels, hammers, braces, bits, nails, pins, rings, hoes, axes, knives, lancepoints, arrowheads, swords, glue, daggers, waterskins, bags, harnesses, armor, quivers, war chariots, scabbards, boots, sandals, harpoons and beer. [55] However, the archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (53004700 BC C-14) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. Apparently there were at least 30,000 slaves in Egypt at different times of the nineteenth century, and probably many more. [63] Entu priestesses were forbidden from producing offspring[64][60] and frequently engaged in anal sex as a method of birth control. 1132. 'head' + 'black', or , sag-gg-ga phonetically /sa i a/, lit. A problem was therefore created around determining the supposed original homeland of the Sumerians and the exact point in time at which they had arrived in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was used. Examples of racial types from D.M MacKenzie, Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, 1915. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in the standard Sumerian cuneiform. Not only was Mesopotamia one of the first places to develop agriculture, it was also at the crossroads of the Egyptian and the Indus Valley civilizations. 77 The mortals were indeed the Sumerians, a non-Semitic racial type that conquered southern Babylonia, and the deities 77 The mortals were indeed the Sumerians, a non-Semitic racial type that conquered southern Babylonia, and the deities were Semitic, Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke Paul Collins is Jaleh Hearn Curator for Ancient Near East at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, and a Hugh Price Fellow at Jesus College. Summary. The Akkadians adopted WebAncient Mesopotamia proved that fertile land and the knowledge to cultivate it was a fortuitous recipe for wealth and civilization. [62]:9193 It is unclear whether terms such as iitu in Akkadian medical texts indicate the hymen, but it appears that the intactness of the hymen was much less relevant to assessing a woman's virginity than in later cultures of the Near East, and most assessments of virginity depended on the woman's own account. drought Crucially, a better understanding of the languages of Mesopotamia has revealed a much more complex and nuanced picture. Metals such as gold, silver, copper, and bronze, along with shells and gemstones, were used for the finest sculpture and inlays. At an early stage, following the dawn of recorded history, Nippur, in central Mesopotamia, replaced Eridu in the south as the primary temple city, whose priests exercised political hegemony on the other city-states. [21] However, with evidence strongly suggesting the first farmers originated from the Fertile Crescent, this suggestion is often discarded. White slaves were brought to Egypt from the eastern coast of the Black Sea and from the Circassian settlements of Anatolia via Istanbul. Mesopotamia is a region of southwest Asia in the Tigris and Euphrates river system that benefitted from the areas climate and geography to host the beginnings of human civilization. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf region, before it was flooded at the end of the Ice Age. World's most ancient race traced in DNA study. The San people of southern Africa, who have lived as hunter-gatherers for thousands of years, are likely to be the oldest population of humans on The system crossed village boundaries, so the Sumerians had to cooperate with one another. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art. Rather, it was farmers who built the pyramids during flooding, when they could not work in their lands. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. The Babylonians dress similar to the Sumerians, and they sometimes wore skirts and shawls as well. Henceforth, Sumerian would remain only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe. First, transport: the wheel began to be used on carts and battle chariots. Some slaves worked in the fields, but this was pretty uncommon since the wealthy were generally not involved in farming. Mud-brick buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great (c. 23342279 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by the scribes. Sign up here to receive ANE Today in your inbox weekly! Many transactions involved debt, for example goods consigned to merchants by temple and beer advanced by "ale women". The ancient Sumerians, the "black-headed ones," lived in the southern part of what is now Iraq. Almost everyone in the ancient times had jet black hairs, so this distinction couldnt have been based on the color of their hairs. [109][unreliable source] They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.[110]. Required fields are marked *. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, and date to between c. 3500 and c. 3000 BC. They have been understood as a distinct people, speaking a common language, who occupied the alluvial plains of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) between approximately 3500 and 2000 BCE. [22] Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. What race were the Sumerian? - tikalsoft.com This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, which thus came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. [44] It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. The foundation stonesor rather bricksof a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under them."[56]. The ancient name of this language was controversial until 1889 when a bilingual cuneiform text noted that the term, 2023 Call for Member-Organized Sessions and Workshops, ASOR-AFFILIATED RESEARCH CENTERS FELLOWSHIPS, The Sumerian King List or the History of Kingship in Early Mesopotamia, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. Since Sumerian writing emerged c. 3200 BC. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period was associated with increased war. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Although short-lived, one of the first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa, and reduced to tribute the city-state of Umma, arch-rival of Lagash. The secret to creating humanity was the manipulation of DNA by the gods.