Sumer

The world's earliest urban civilization.

Capital: Uruk, Ur, Eridu · Middle East (West Asia)

Overview

Sumerian city-states in southern Mesopotamia invented writing (cuneiform), the wheel, monumental architecture, schools and codified law, laying foundations that later Semitic empires built upon.

Timeline

c. 4000 BCEUruk period: first cities
c. 3200 BCEEarliest cuneiform tablets
c. 2900 – 2334 BCEEarly Dynastic era
c. 2112 – 2004 BCEUr III renaissance

Rulers

Gilgamesh

c. 2700 BCE

Semi-legendary king of Uruk

Ur-Nammu

c. 2112 – 2094 BCE

Ur III founder, early law code

Wars & conflicts

City-state wars of Lagash, Umma, Uruk

Architecture

Mudbrick ziggurats (Ur), temple precincts, granaries.

Religion

An, Enlil, Enki, Inanna; each city bound to a patron deity.

Economy

Irrigated barley, dates, wool, temple redistribution.

Technology

Cuneiform, wheel, sailboat, plow, sexagesimal math.

Art

Standard of Ur, votive statues, cylinder seals.

Influence

Founded the Mesopotamian tradition that would run for three millennia.

Decline

Absorbed into Akkadian and later Amorite states; Sumerian survived as a liturgical language.

Key sites

Uruk
Ur
Eridu
Lagash
Nippur

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