Society of Sumerian in Mesopotamian: Death of Kings

In Sumerian society monarchs and their family lived in splendid palaces where the king rules along with a council of elders.

When a king of the Sumerian city state of Ur died he did not go alone to his tomb. His entire household of some 70 people was buried with him, having taken poison in order to follow their sovereign into the next life – where they would continue to serve him loyally as before.

The Sumerian believed that kings could take things with them on their journey to the afterlife.

They filled royal tombs with everything they thought people would need on this journey, including clothes, jewelry, riches, weapons and even people.

The preparation for this mass burial was meticulous. First along, sloping shaft was dug down to a pit that would serve as the tomb chamber. This was filled with rich offerings, and the king’s corpse was placed in it. 

The chamber was then sealed, and a great procession of attendants moves down into the shaft. These included court ladies in resplendent golden headdresses, guard with sheathed daggers, musicians strumming bulls’ head lyres, servant, harem, grooms with ox-drawn chariots, and soldiers wearing coppers spears. 

When archeologists uncover the tombs of some these exalted kings, they found the bodies a buried with gold and silver artifacts.

Excavators of one of the 5000 years year old graves in city of Ur found not only the skeleton of king, but also a chariot, the remains of a donkey to pull the chariot, various weapons, tools, valuables and 65 members of the royal court.

All carried small cup from which they drank a lethal drug before lying down by the tomb chamber to prepare for the eternity. The musicians continued to play their lyres until the end, when they took poison and succumbed.

The shaft was then filled in with several layers of earth and clay, amid further ritual offerings and libations. The lack of resistance on the part of the attendants indicated a fatalistic obedience both of their sovereign and to their gods. Certainly all the evidences suggest that religion was very importance to the Sumerians. 

They believe that gods ruled the earth and that men were created to be their servants. Each city was regarded as belonging to a particular god and goddess, whose earthly home was the city’s temple, the scene of elaborate rituals conducted by a hierarchy priests. This customs appears to have ended before 2000 BC.
Society of Sumerian in Mesopotamian: Death of Kings