Quotes from Samuel Noah Kramer

also wish to express my thanks to the Department of Antiquities of the Republic of Turkey and to the Director of the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul for generously making it possible for me to utilize the Sumerian literary tablets in the Istanbul Museum of the Ancient Orient. To the two curators of the tablet collection of this museum, Muazzez cik and Hatice Kizilyay, I am particularly

proposed undertaking. The latter advises him first to acquaint the sun-god, Utu, with his plan, for it is Utu who has charge of the "Land of the Living." Acting on this advice,

Archaeological discoveries made in Egypt and in the Near East in the past hundred years have opened our eyes to a spiritual and cultural heritage undreamed of by earlier generations.

identical with modern Iraq from north of Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. It has an area of approximately 10,000 square miles, somewhat larger than the state of Massachusetts.

all this was five thousand years ago and may seem of little relevance to the study of modern man and culture. But the fact is that the land of Sumer witnessed the origin of more than one significant feature of present-day civilization. Be he philosopher or teacher, historian or poet, lawyer or reformer, statesman or politician, architect or sculptor, it is likely that modern

path a bit in order to follow the step-by-step developments

of some ritual act by Eannatum, corresponding, for example, to the sending of doves in some of the

Iraq under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania.

example, "Love Finds a Way," pp.

Society and State in Ancient Mesopotamia (Moscow, 1959; in Russian with English resume).