“WAR OF NERVES”

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 January 1947, Page 6

“WAR OF NERVES”

EPIC POEM FOUND POLITICS 5000 YEARS AGO Istanbul. The existence of a clay tablet upon which is inscribed the longest Sumerian epic poem known —and probably the oldest such piece of literature ever discovered —has been disclosed. The square tablet, while smaller in size than a piece of ordinary typewriting paper, Is still one of the largest Sumerian tablets in existence. Bv dividing the piece of clay into six columns on each side and using a minute script the ancient author squeezed 639 lines of his poem on the tablet. Dr. Samuel N. Kramer, associate curator of the Babylonian section of the University Museum at Philadelphia, copied and interpreted the poem, which he has entitled “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.” Kramer also is annual professor of the American I School of Oriental Research at Bagdad. Working patiently in a barren, often chilly room at the Istanbul Museum of the Ancient Orient, Kramer brought to light the poem, which far surpasses in age the classical Greek epics of the Odyssey and the Illiad. While Kramer predicts a long discussion between scholars over exact translations, he has by minute study and copying of the ancient cuneiform or wedgeshaped characters satisfied himself as to the tale they relate. He says it tells the story of a political victory more than 5000 years ago in which King Enmerkar of Erech, one of the most important of the Sumerian cities, used a system of “war of nerves” much like that used to-day.

The King sent his ambassador over seven mountain ranges to the city of Aratta, located either in Persia or western India. Bent on subjecting the city, probably so that he could take from it the raw materials of metal and stone which were lacking in Sumer, Enmerker first made sure that he had the support of the Goddess In anna—Sumerian counterpart of the Greek Goddess Aphrodite—and then loosened his “war of nerves” on the Lord of Aratta and the residents of the city. Back and forth between Erech and Aratta travelled the emissary, applying political pressure both by threat and subtle persuasion until, finally, the morale of the people was broken and the city fell as vassal of Ernmerkar.

Sumerian is the oldest written literature of any significant amount known to man. Settled in an area between the Tigris and Euphrate rivers, and extending from the Persian. Gulf to a point about 100 miles north of what now is Bagdad, the Sumerians developed an extremely high civilisation which reached its peak between 3000 and 2500 B.C. It was about, this same period when Egyptian culture ripened, but scholars to-day have a much better picture of Sumerian literature than that developed along the Nile, at least from this earlier period. The reason, Kramer says, is that the prolfc: Sumerian cut their characters into clay and left, them in the I sun to harden, while the Egyptians i wrote on parchment, that stood little chance of preservation in the thousands of years to follow. WEALTH OF TABLETS. A great, wealth of Sumerian literary tablets was uncovered in the excavation 50 years ago of the ancient city of Nippur, not far from what now is Bagdad. About 3000 were taken from the ruins and now are almost, equally divided between lhe Ancient Orient Museum and the University Museum in Philadelphia. For one reason or another, a great majority of these tablets have remained uncopied and unpublished, and it was during an examination of still untouched clayb that Kramer came across this masterpiece. He camo to Istanbul first in 1937 and copied 167 tablets in a period of 18 I months. His work was carried on with close co-operation with th* Turkish Ministry of Education ami the Department of Antiquities, which

is helping him once again in his second study of the culture. Kramer will leave this month for Bagdad to study a number of new Sumerian tablets found only recently and in February intends to return to Philadelphia to begin preparation ol a scientific edition of the epic poem. If it proves practicable, Kramer said, •scholars from the Universities of Chicago and Yale would probably join in the translation and interpretation. Kramer’s project was supported jointly by the American School or Oriental Research and the University Museum.