Sumerian Origins - Trade and Commerce

By 3000 BC the Sumerians were engaged in commerce with distant neighbors as far away as India and Ethiopia.  They exported their abundant agricultural produce and imported those things not available in Sumer such as gold and precious metals, jewels, stone and wood.  

Many scholars think that the Sumerian economy was not free and was dominated and controlled by the temple (1016).  But Kramer disagrees with this view and points out that the ordinary citizen was free to engage in trade, and feels that there was an active commerce with surrounding cities and nations.  

Kramer writes: "By the third millenium B.C., there is good reason to believe that Sumerian culture and civilization had penetrated, at least to some extent, as far east as India and as far west as the Mediterranean, as far south as ancient Ethiopia and as far north as the Caspian (93).  Sumerian influence, particularly at the religious and spiritual level, reached out for thousands of miles and in all directions (3611)."

"The Sumerians had accumulated no little information concerning foreign lands and alien peoples. Sumerian merchants roving far and wide by land and sea brought back with them reports of the strange places they visited and of the folk that inhabited them. So, too, no doubt, did the soldiers returning from successful military expeditions. Within the Sumerian cities themselves, there were considerable numbers of foreigners: soldiers captured in battle and brought back as slaves as well as freemen who had come to settle in the city for one reason or another. All in all, therefore, the Sumerian courtiers, administrators, priests, and teachers had considerable knowledge of foreign countries: their geographic location and physical features, their economic resources and political organization, their religious beliefs and practices, their social customs and moral tenets (3612)."

"Traveling merchants carried on a thriving trade from city to city and with surrounding states by land and sea ... The more industrious of the artisans and craftsmen sold their handmade products in the free town market, receiving payment either in kind or in 'money' (1012)." 

Sumerian bards and poets sang of the metals and stones of "Aratta, a far off city state probably situated ... near the Caspian Sea (342). The imports from [a land called] Dilmun consisted of gold, copper and copper utensils, lapis lazuli, tables inlaid with ivory, "fisheyes" (perhaps pearls), ivory and ivory objects (combs, breastplates, and boxes as well as human and animal shaped figurines and end pieces for furniture), beads of semiprecious stones, dates, and onions (3601)."  

"The animal commonly used for [transporting this commerce] was the donkey; the horse was apparently known in late Sumerian days but was never used extensively (1428)."

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Sumerian Origins - Law

Formalized law was an important part of Sumerian culture.  A number of examples of detailed legal codes have been found among the cuneiform tablets. Perhaps because of their contentious personalities they tended to emphasize the importance of legal limits and boundaries. The Sumerian records include examples of deeds of sale, sale of slaves, suits over debts, etc. 

From Kramer we learn: "The promulgation of laws and legal regulations by the rulers of the Sumerian states was a common phenomenon by 2400 B.C. and probably even considerably earlier (1128).    Written law played a large role in the Sumerian city. Beginning about 2700 B.C., we find actual deeds of sales, including sales of fields, houses, and slaves (1070)."

"The extraordinary importance which the Sumerians attached to law and legal controls is due, at least in part, to the contentious and aggressive behavioral pattern which characterized their culture (3399)."  

"In a lawsuit, Sumerian court procedure was as follows: A suit was initiated by one of the parties or if the state's interests were involved by the state administration. The testimony brought before the court might consist of statements made by witnesses, usually under oath, or by one of the parties under oath; or it might be in the form of written documents or statements made by 'experts' or important officials. The verdict was conditional and became operative only after an oath had been administered in the temple to the party of whom the court demanded it as proof of their claim (1178)."  The witnesses usually took the oath rather than the litigants.  The verdict was written as a terse decision granted to one of the parties.  

Sumerian law was not always fair.  For example: "Citizens were

Hammurabi Law Code
Wikipedia Commons

 thrown in jail on the slightest pretext: for debt, non payment of taxes, or trumped up charges of theft and murder (1087)."  

Kramer includes a summary of Sumerian court decisions in his appendix at location 4281.  He also reproduces a detailed copy of the Lipit-Ishtar Law Code at location 4295.  

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Sumerian Origins - Money

In many historical accounts we read that the concept and use of money was a late development – that the ancients didn't have any form of money and used bartering and trade as their means of exchange. However, the historical accounts of Sumer would seem to contradict this assumption.

In Sumer the concept of money to be used for purchases or payment seems to have been well developed and is described in their histories, laws and epics. From what I can learn, the Sumerian “coins” consisted of a ring or disk of silver of a standard weight. The lowest denomination was a “shekel”, then a “mina” and finally a “talent.” One mina equaled 60 shekels. One Talent was equal to 60 mina. These coins were used to pay for property, buy goods and services, pay fines, pay taxes, etc.

This coinage was arranged according to the sexagesimal numbering system which had been developed earlier by the Sumerians (ie 1, 60 [1x60], and 3600 [60x60]) where one talent is equivalent to 3600 shekels or 60 minas, and 60 shekels is equivalent to one mina. The mina weighted about 500 gms., and the talent about 30 kgs.

Some examples of the use of the shekel from one of the later law codes inscribed on the cuneiform tablets:

“The price of one gur of barley is one shekel of silver’.

“The price of 3 qas of pure oil is one shekel of silver”.

“The price one sut and 5 qas of sesame oil is one shekel of silver”.

“The price of 6 suts of wool is one shekel of silver”.

“The price of 2 gurs of salt is one shekel of silver”.

“The price of one hal seed is one shekel of silver”.

“The wage of a labourer is one shekel of silver and his food one ban of barley and he has to serve for this wage for one month”.

Kramer notes: “The more industrious of the artisans and craftsmen sold their handmade products in the free town market, receiving payment either in kind or in "money," which was normally a disk or ring of silver of standard weight (1012).”

The next quote gives us some information on the relative value of the coins and the wealth that each represented. The scribe is lauding the benevolent king for his protection of the poor. “He saw to it that ... the man of one shekel did not fall a prey to the man of one mina (sixty shekels) (1143).” 

The following is a comment from an essay by Bernard Lietaer.  "The oldest coin currency that we know is a Sumerian bronze piece dating from before 3000 BC. On one side of the coin is a representation of a sheaf of wheat, and on the other, Ishtar, the goddess of fertility. The Sumerians called it the 'Shekel' where 'She' meant wheat, 'Kel' was a measurement similar to a bushel, hence this coin was a symbol of a value of one bushel of wheat. (The word 'shekel' survives in modern Hebrew as Israel's monetary unit.) ... The temple, as well as being a ritual center, was the storage place for the reserves of wheat that supported the priesthood, and also the community in lean times. So farmers fulfilled their religious and social obligations by bringing their contributions of wheat to the temple, and receiving in exchange a shekel coin." http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/10.1/origins/origins.html  accessed 24 Apr. 2012.

In relation to the Jaredites, no specific monetary system is mentioned in their history, but they used “money” (Ether 9:11) and bought, sold and “traffic[ed] one with another” to get gain (Ether 10:23). It is therefore very likely they had some sort of monetary system.  It is my opinion that the monetary system used later by the  Nephites was actually copied from an earlier Jaredite one.  The Nephites used a coinage denominated in senine, seon, shum, limnah, amnor, ezrom and onti (Alma 11:4-20). These coins were composed of gold or silver and were used in trade, measurements, etc. This system was not patterned after the parent Jewish monetary system.  The Nephites may have borrowed it from Jaredite remnants as some of the coins bear Jaredite names 1.  Or, more likely, they may have adopted the system from the Mulekites who could have learned it during their time among the Jaredites. 

1.  Hugh Nibley.  The Prophetic Book of Mormon. 1989.  p. 112.

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