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" (September 28, 1897 – November 26, 1990) was one of the world's leading Assyriologists and a world-renowned expert in Sumerian history and Sumerian language."

I saw somebody talking about Sumerian mythology in one of the other threads so I thought I would make this my recommendation for this month. Kramer wrote several books on Sumer but I want to concentrate on 'Sumerian Mythology' specifically because it is such a good introduction to the whole subject.

It was originally published in 1944, revised in 1961, published on paperback in 1972 and then re-issued in 1997 as a revised issue. And that is the version that is still for sale from Pennsylvania press.
It's a very short book with only 130 pages, but it's quite useful because it has a lot of illustrations, photos and commentary notes. It also costs around 11 bucks, so there is really no excuse not to get it.

For such a short book it manages to cover most of the sumerian topics in a swift and precise way. I've read it before but decided to re-read it yesterday and the language is still understandable. It's not hard to read and not hard to understand. If you want a no-nonsense book about this topic. This is it.


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He also wrote 'The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character' which covers some mythology but also goes deeper into their daily life, culture and civilization. It's also been revised and reprinted. It's a bit expensive but it is also the largest book in the collection. 350+ pages on a fullsize paperback.

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Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer.
It is the complete Inanna myth on verse (!), So if you like reading poetry, this is a must.
It's also illustrated, and have additional scholarly comments from Diane Wolkstein, Kramer and Elizabeth Williams-Forte.
This is one of the last books Kramer worked on before he died and many consider it to be the pinnacle of his work. I still think 'Sumerian Mythology' is a better book because it covers more ground, but having the complete translation of a 5000 year old text is too tempting for any bibliophile.

I have read all of Kramer I could get my hands on, it is really good stuff. I second this

fraterai wrote:I have read all of Kramer I could get my hands on, it is really good stuff. I second this

Have you read his autobiography? I've been thinking about buying it.

Desecrated wrote:Have you read his autobiography? I've been thinking about buying it.

I went into the autobiography hoping to get some "extra credit" on the mythology and I have to say it was a little hard to read at times (being a very detailed story about Kramer's academic journey) but in the end I couldn't have found a better resource that summarizes exactly where all of this information comes from (sorting through lists of tablets on wikipedia with sumerian names and trying to organize them somehow is really a pain in the ass). There were certainly insights in there that helped to tell the entire story of sumer from the ancient to the modern rediscovery, that aren't solely linguistic or academic in a nature, too

Sounds like I have to get it then.