Sumerian Wisdom

I’ve always had an interest in ancient history, particularly the civilizations whose surviving stories and traditions speak of gods, beings, and visitors associated with the heavens—the kinds of accounts that still leave plenty of room for curiosity thousands of years later.

Among the cultures I find most fascinating are the Sumerians. Flourishing in ancient Mesopotamia, they were part of one of humanity’s earliest urban civilizations and played a central role in the development of cuneiform writing. Thousands of surviving tablets have preserved everything from business records and mathematics to literature, mythology, humor, observations about everyday life, and proverbs that can sound remarkably familiar even today.

Sumerian Wisdom is a small exploration of that extraordinary written legacy.

Some designs in this collection feature translated Sumerian proverbs preserved in ancient texts—thoughts about truth, wealth, work, human nature, and the ordinary frustrations of life that have survived for thousands of years. Others are clearly identified modern interpretations inspired by Sumerian words, concepts, and cuneiform rather than presented as ancient quotations.

The wedges may be ancient.
The people behind them may feel surprisingly familiar.

Shirts that inspire conversation.

Wear. Wolf.