History of Sumer

ImageSize = width:800 height:75 PlotArea = left:25 right:15 bottom:20 top:25 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:time value:rgb(0.7,0.7,1) # id:period value:rgb(1,0.7,0.5) # id:age value:rgb(0.95,0.85,0.5) # id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) # id:eon value:rgb(1,0.85,0.7) # id:filler value:gray(0.8) # background bar id:black value:black Period = from:-5300 till:-1940 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:200 start:-5300 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:50 start:-5300 PlotData = align:center textcolor:black fontsize:10 mark:(line,black) width:15 shift:(0,-5) bar:  color:era from:-5300 till:-4100 shift:(0,0) text:Ubaid period~(Chalcolithic) from:-4100 till:-2900 shift:(-20,0) text:Uruk period~(Late Chalcolithic) from:-4100 till:-3300 shift:(-20,10) text:Uruk XIV-V from:-3300 till:-3000 shift:(0,5) text:Uruk IV from:-3100 till:-2900 shift:(0,-7) text: Uruk III from:-2334 till:-2218 shift:(0,-7) text:Akkadian from:-2218 till:-2047 shift:(0,5) text:Gutian from:-2047 till:-1940 shift:(7,-7) text:Ur III bar:  color:eon from:-2900 till:-2334 shift:(0,17) text:"Early Dynastic period" from:-2900 till:-2800 shift:(0,7) text:I from:-2800 till:-2600 shift:(0,7) text:II from:-2600 till:-2500 shift:(0,7) text:IIIa from:-2500 till:-2334 shift:(0,7) text:IIIb :::Dates are approximate information, consult particular article for details ::: Uruk III = Jemdet Nasr period ==Earliest city-states==

Permanent year-round urban settlement may have been prompted by intensive agricultural practices. The work required in maintaining irrigation canals called for, and the resulting surplus food enabled, relatively concentrated populations. The centres of Eridu and Uruk, two of the earliest cities, had successively elaborated large temple complexes built of mud brick. Developing as small shrines with the earliest settlements, by the Early Dynastic I period, they had become the most imposing structures in their respective cities, each dedicated to its own respective god. From south to north, the principal temple-cities, their principal temple complex, and the gods they served, were Before 3000 BCE the political life of the city was headed by a priest-king (ensi) assisted by a council of elders and based on these temples, but it is unknown how the cities had secular rulers rise in prominence from the earliest times. The development and system of administration led to the development of archaic tablets around 3500 BCE–3200 BCE and ideographic writing (c. 3100 BCE) was developed into logographic writing around 2500 BCE (and a mixed form by about 2350 BCE). As Sumerologist Christopher Woods points out in Earliest Mesopotamian Writing: "A precise date for the earliest cuneiform texts has proved elusive, as virtually all the tablets were discovered in secondary archaeological contexts, specifically, in rubbish heaps that defy accurate stratigraphic analysis. The sun-hardened clay tablets, having obviously outlived their usefulness, were used along with other waste, such as potsherds, clay sealings, and broken mud bricks, as fill in leveling the foundations of new construction—consequently, it is impossible to establish when the tablets were written and used." Even so, it is proposed that the ideas of writing developed across the area, according to Theo J. H. Krispijn, along the following time-frame: Relative stratigraphy chronology ImageSize = width:555 height:75 PlotArea = left:25 right:15 bottom:20 top:25 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:time value:rgb(0.7,0.7,1) # id:period value:rgb(1,0.7,0.5) # id:age value:rgb(0.95,0.85,0.5) # id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) # id:eon value:rgb(1,0.85,0.7) # id:filler value:gray(0.8) # background bar id:black value:black Period = from:-5300 till:-1940 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:200 start:-5300 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:50 start:-5300 PlotData = align:center textcolor:black fontsize:10 mark:(line,black) mark:(line,black) textcolor:black fontsize:M bar:  mark:(line,black) align:center shift:(0,15) at:-3400 text:A width:20 at:-3300 text:B width:20 at:-3240 text:C width:20 at:-3000 text:D width:20 bar:  color:era mark:(line,black) width:10 from:-4100 till:-3300 shift:(0,0) text:Uruk XIV-V from:-3300 till:-3000 shift:(0,0) text:Uruk IV from:-3100 till:-2900 shift:(0,-10) text: Uruk III :::A : c. 3400 BCE : numerical tablet; B : c. 3300 BCE : numerical tablet with logograms;C : c. 3240 BCE : script (phonograms); D : c. 3000 BCE : lexical script ==Neolithic Period==

The transition to urbanism in Mesopotamia was the culmination of the Neolithic Revolution, a transformative process beginning around 10,000 BCE across the broader Fertile Crescent. While the northern "hilly flanks"—encompassing the Zagros and Taurus mountains—saw the earliest domestication of plants and animals, the subsequent colonization of the southern Mesopotamian alluvium by Neolithic farmers marked a critical shift in social complexity. The "Neolithic Revolution," a term popularized by V. Gordon Childe, describes the fundamental shift from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to sedentary agricultural communities. This process involved the selective breeding of "founder crops," such as emmer wheat and barley, alongside the domestication of livestock, which facilitated a reliable caloric surplus. This shift was accompanied by a demographic explosion and the development of ground-stone tools, pottery for storage, and permanent mud-brick architecture. Crucially, scholars note that this was not merely a technological change but a "Revolution of Symbols," where new religious and cognitive frameworks were required to manage larger, settled groups. In the Near East, this period established the "household" and "lineage" as the primary units of social organization, which would eventually expand into the bureaucratic structures of the first city-states. Pre-Ubaid Foundations Before the rise of the first cities, early Neolithic cultures such as the Hassuna, Samarra, and Halaf (c. 7000–5000 BCE) established the sedentary blueprints for Mesopotamian life. The Samarra culture is particularly noted for the first rudimentary experiments in irrigation and the construction of T-shaped communal buildings, which some scholars view as the architectural ancestors of the later Sumerian temples. The Ubaid Period (c. 6500–3800 BCE) The Ubaid period represents the definitive link between the Neolithic village and the Bronze Age city. Named after the site of Tell al-'Ubaid, this era saw the expansion of settlement into the marshy south, requiring a high degree of social coordination to manage the volatile river systems. While rooted in Neolithic traditions, the Ubaid period introduced significant technological refinements, most notably the slow wheel (or tournette), which standardized the production of its characteristic monochrome-painted pottery. This era also witnessed the transformative emergence of metallurgy, specifically the transition from cold-hammered native copper to true smelting and casting techniques. Furthermore, the Ubaid established the first systematic long-distance trade networks in the Near East. Despite the lack of local resources in the southern alluvium, Ubaid communities organized the import of obsidian from Anatolia, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and copper from the Oman peninsula, utilizing the Persian Gulf as a maritime highway. Unlike later military empires, this Ubaid "influence" spread through shared material culture, which some diffusionist scholars interpret as the first "Sumerian spark" synchronizing disparate Neolithic cultures into a unified trajectory. The traditional periodization of early Mesopotamian history—strictly dividing the Neolithic, Ubaid, and Uruk periods—is largely a legacy of older excavations and the stratigraphic "type-sites" identified in the early 20th century. Modern archaeological knowledge suggests a much higher degree of continuity and regional overlap, indicating that these "periods" were not sudden breaks but gradual transitions in social complexity. As such, while the Ubaid saw the first significant steps toward centralized ritual spaces, the full "monumentalization of the sacred"—the emergence of the temple as the urban anchor—will be treated in detail in the following section on the Village to City Transition. ==Village to city transition==

Until the mid-fifth millennium BC, Southern Mesopotamia was dotted with small Neolithic villages similar to those in the rest of the Fertile Crescent. Then, in the last centuries of the fifth millennium, one of these villages, known to us as Eridu, started to turn into what we now call a city. The transformation of Eridu is most visible in the stratigraphic sequence of its central shrine, the Temple of Enki. Over a period of nearly a thousand years, a modest, one-room cultic structure (Temple XVII) evolved through eighteen successive levels into a massive, multi-tiered monumental platform. This process of "monumentalization" served as the primary engine for urban growth; as the temple expanded, it required an increasingly specialized workforce, including architects, bricklayers, and artisans, who settled permanently around the sacred precinct. By the late Ubaid period, Eridu had transcended the village model, functioning as a "sacred magnet" that drew pilgrims and resources from across the marshlands, creating the first documented instance of a centralized administrative hierarchy rooted in ritual prestige. Uruk and Nippur A similar but more expansive trajectory occurred at Uruk (modern Warka) during the fourth millennium BC. While Eridu provided the spiritual prototype, Uruk represented the first true metropolization of the landscape. The transition here was marked by a sudden and dramatic increase in settlement size, fueled by what archaeologists describe as "urban implosion," where surrounding rural populations were drawn into the city's two main precincts: the Eanna District and the Anu District. The monumentalization at Uruk was even more radical than at Eridu, featuring the construction of the "Stone Cone Mosaic Temple" and the "White Temple." These structures were not merely places of worship but served as the focal points for a revolutionary administrative system. This period saw the introduction of mass-produced ceramics—specifically beveled-rim bowls—used to feed a labor force that was no longer engaged in direct food production, signaling the final break from the Neolithic village economy. Nippur, located further north, followed a distinct path toward urbanization that emphasized its role as a neutral, pan-Sumerian religious center. Unlike Uruk, which grew into a political and military powerhouse, Nippur’s transition from village to city was dictated by its cosmological status as the "mooring post" of heaven and earth (Dur-an-ki). Excavations in the Inanna Temple and the Ekur (the "Mountain House") of Enlil demonstrate that Nippur functioned as a sacred destination for multiple competing city-states. Its urbanization was characterized by a "heterarchical" structure, where the city grew not through imperial conquest, but as a clearing-house for inter-city diplomacy and ritual legitimation. This religious gravity ensured that Nippur remained a stable urban center even as political power shifted between other southern cities, proving that the ideological "superstructure" of the temple could sustain urban life independently of localized military or economic dominance. Other cities emerging in the fourth millennium BC The "Uruk expansion" of the late fourth millennium BC catalyzed the emergence of several other urban centers across Greater Mesopotamia, often following the "sacred magnet" or colonial trading post models. Cities such as Girsu (Tello) and Lagash began to develop as major religious and administrative hubs in the southeastern plains, mirroring the temple-centered growth of Eridu and Uruk. In the central region, Kish emerged as a significant early power, strategically located at the narrowest point between the Tigris and Euphrates, likely serving as a gateway for northern trade and a center for a distinct Semitic-speaking population that interacted closely with the Sumerian south. Furthermore, the influence of southern urbanization reached far into Upper Mesopotamia and Elam. Susa, in modern-day southwestern Iran, underwent a profound transformation during the Susa II period, adopting Uruk-style administrative tools, architecture, and ceramics, effectively becoming an urban twin to the southern Mesopotamian centers. To the north, sites like Habuba Kabira and Jebel Aruda were established as planned "colonies" or outposts on the Euphrates, featuring sophisticated urban layouts and defensive walls that suggest a deliberate attempt to replicate the southern urban experiment in foreign territories. These diverse centers demonstrate that by the end of the fourth millennium, the transition from village to city had become a regional phenomenon, sustained by a shared network of ritual ideology and long-distance exchange. Chronology In recent decades, the field has transitioned from the traditional pottery-based "Ubaid/Uruk" periodization to the Late Chalcolithic (LC) system. While the older system relied heavily on excavations at Warka to define "Early, Middle, and Late Uruk," it often failed to account for regional variations in the north and east. The new LC-1 to LC-5 system, formalized at a Santa Fe workshop in 2001, provides a more granular absolute chronology based on radiocarbon dating and synchronized stratigraphic sequences across Greater Mesopotamia. This framework allows scholars to track the "village-to-city" transition not as a single event, but as a staggered process beginning in the LC-1 (post-Ubaid) and reaching its peak "metropolitan" phase in LC-5. ==Early Dynastic period==

The Early Dynastic Period began after a cultural break with the preceding Jemdet Nasr period that has been radio-carbon dated to about 2900 BC at the beginning of the Early Dynastic I Period. No inscriptions have yet been found verifying any names of kings that can be associated with the Early Dynastic I period. The ED I period is distinguished from the ED II period by the narrow cylinder seals of the ED I period and the broader wider ED II seals engraved with banquet scenes or animal-contest scenes. The Early Dynastic II period is when Gilgamesh, the famous king of Uruk, is believed to have reigned. Texts from the ED II period are not yet understood. Later inscriptions have been found bearing some Early Dynastic II names from the Sumerian King List. The Early Dynastic IIIa period, also known as the Fara period, is when syllabic writing began. Accounting records and an undeciphered logographic script existed before the Fara Period, but the full flow of human speech was first recorded about 2600 BC at the beginning of the Fara Period. The Early Dynastic IIIb period is also known as the Pre-Sargonic period. Hegemony, which came to be conferred by the Nippur priesthood, alternated among a number of competing dynasties, hailing from Sumerian city-states traditionally including Kish, Uruk, Ur, Adab and Akshak, as well as some from outside of southern Mesopotamia, such as Awan, Hamazi, and Mari, until the Akkadians, under Sargon of Akkad, overtook the area. First Dynasty of Kish , a limestone tablet from Kish with pictographic, early cuneiform, writing (ca. 3350–3200 BC). Possibly the earliest known example of writing. Ashmolean Museum. The earliest Dynastic name on the list known from other legendary sources is Etana, whom it calls "the shepherd, who ascended to heaven and consolidated all the foreign countries". He was estimated by Roux to have lived approximately 3000 BC. Among the 11 kings who followed, a number of Semitic Akkadian names are recorded, suggesting that these people made up a sizable proportion of the population of this northern city. The earliest monarch on the list whose historical existence has been independently attested through archaeological inscription is En-me-barage-si of Kish (c. 2600 BC), said to have defeated Elam and built the temple of Enlil in Nippur. Enmebaragesi's successor, Aga, is said to have fought with Gilgamesh of Uruk, the fifth king of that city. From this time, for a period Uruk seems to have had some kind of hegemony in Sumer. This illustrates a weakness of the Sumerian king list, as contemporaries are often placed in successive dynasties, making reconstruction difficult. First Dynasty of Uruk , symbolized by two rams, framed by reed bundles as on the Uruk Vase. Late Uruk period, 3300–3000 BC. Pergamon Museum/ Vorderasiatisches Museum. Mesh-ki-ang-gasher is listed as the first King of Uruk. He was followed by Enmerkar. The epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta tells of his voyage by river to Aratta, a mountainous, mineral-rich country up-river from Sumer. He was followed by Lugalbanda, also known from fragmentary legends, and then by Dumuzid, the Fisherman. The most famous monarch of this dynasty was Dumuzid's successor Gilgamesh, hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh, where he is called Lugalbanda's son. Ancient, fragmentary copies of this text have been discovered in locations as far apart as Hattusas in Anatolia, Megiddo in Israel, and Tell el Amarna in Egypt. First Dynasty of Ur , ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur, 26th century BCE. This dynasty is dated to the 26th century BC. Meskalamdug is the first archaeologically recorded king (Lugal from lu=man, gal=big) of the city of Ur. He was succeeded by his son Akalamdug, and Akalamdug by his son Mesh-Ane-pada. Mesh-Ane-pada is the first king of Ur listed on the king list, and it says he defeated Lugalkildu of Uruk. He also seems to have subjected Kish, thereafter assuming the title "King of Kish" for himself. This title would be used by many kings of the preeminent dynasties for some time afterward. King Mesilim of Kish is known from inscriptions from Lagash and Adab stating that he built temples in those cities, where he seems to have held some influence. He is also mentioned in some of the earliest monuments from Lagash as arbitrating a border dispute between Lugal-sha-engur, ensi (high priest or governor) of Lagash, and the ensi of their main rival, the neighbouring town of Umma. Mesilim's placement before, during, or after the reign of Mesannepada in Ur is uncertain, owing to the lack of other synchronous names in the inscriptions, and his absence from the king list. Dynasty of Awan , king of Lagash circa 2500 BCE. This dynasty is dated to the 26th century BC, about the same time as Elam is also mentioned clearly. According to the Sumerian king list, Elam, Sumer's neighbor to the east, held the kingship in Sumer for a brief period, based in the city of Awan. Second Dynasty of Uruk Enshakushanna was a king of Uruk in the later 3rd millennium BC who is named on the Sumerian king list, which states his reign to have been 60 years. He was succeeded in Uruk by Lugal-kinishe-dudu, but the hegemony seems to have passed briefly to Eannatum of Lagash. Empire of Lugal-Ane-mundu of Adab Following this period, the region of Mesopotamia seems to have come under the sway of a Sumerian conqueror from Adab, Lugal-Ane-mundu, ruling over Uruk, Ur, and Lagash. According to inscriptions, he ruled from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and up to the Zagros Mountains, including Elam. However, his empire fell apart with his death; the king-list indicates that Mari in Upper Mesopotamia was the next city to hold the hegemony. Kug-Bau and the Third Dynasty of Kish The Third Dynasty of Kish, represented solely by Kug-Bau or Kubaba, is unique in the fact that she was the only woman named on the king-list to reign as "king". It adds that she had been a tavern keeper before overthrowing the hegemony of Mari and becoming monarch. In later centuries she was worshipped as a minor goddess, particularly at Carchemish, achieving some status in the Hurrian and Hittites periods. In the post-Hittite Phrygian period she was called Kubele (Latin Cybele), Great Mother of the Gods. Dynasty of Akshak Akshak too achieved independence with a line of rulers extending from Puzur-Nirah, Ishu-Il, and Shu-Suen, son of Ishu-Il, before being defeated by the rulers in the Fourth Dynasty of Kish. First Dynasty of Lagash : top, creating the foundation for a shrine; bottom, presiding over its dedication (Louvre) 's Stele of the Vultures (Louvre) This dynasty is dated to the 25th century BC. En-hegal is recorded as the first known ruler of Lagash, being tributary to Uruk. His successor Lugal-sha-engur was similarly tributary to Mesilim. Following the hegemony of Mesannepada of Ur, Ur-Nanshe succeeded Lugal-sha-engur as the new high priest of Lagash and achieved independence, making himself king. He defeated Ur and captured the king of Umma, Pabilgaltuk. In the ruins of a building attached by him to the temple of Ningirsu, terracotta bas reliefs of the king and his sons have been found, as well as onyx plates and lions' heads in onyx reminiscent of Egyptian work. One inscription states that ships of Dilmun (Bahrain) brought him wood as tribute from foreign lands. He was succeeded by his son Akurgal. Eannatum, grandson of Ur-Nanshe, made himself master of the whole of the district of Sumer, together with the cities of Uruk (ruled by Enshakushana), Ur, Nippur, Akshak, and Larsa. He also annexed the kingdom of Kish; however, it recovered its independence after his death. Umma was made tributary—a certain amount of grain being levied upon each person in it, that had to be paid into the treasury of the goddess Nina and the god Ningirsu. Eannatum's campaigns extended beyond the confines of Sumer, and he overran a part of Elam, took the city of Az on the Persian Gulf, and exacted tribute as far as Mari; however many of the realms he conquered were often in revolt. During his reign, temples and palaces were repaired or erected at Lagash and elsewhere; the town of Nina—that probably gave its name to the later Niniveh—was rebuilt, and canals and reservoirs were excavated. Eannatum was succeeded by his brother, En-anna-tum I. During his rule, Umma once more asserted independence under Ur-Lumma, who attacked Lagash unsuccessfully. Ur-Lumma was replaced by a priest-king, Illi, who also attacked Lagash. His son and successor Entemena restored the prestige of Lagash. Illi of Umma was subdued, with the help of his ally Lugal-kinishe-dudu or Lugal-ure of Uruk, successor to Enshakushana and also on the king-list. Lugal-kinishe-dudu seems to have been the prominent figure at the time, since he also claimed to rule Kish and Ur. A silver vase dedicated by Entemena to his god is now in the Louvre. A frieze of lions devouring ibexes and deer, incised with great artistic skill, runs round the neck, while the eagle crest of Lagash adorns the globular part. The vase is a proof of the high degree of excellence to which the goldsmith's art had already attained. A vase of calcite, also dedicated by Entemena, has been found at Nippur. After Entemena, a series of weak, corrupt priest-kings is attested for Lagash. The last of these, Urukagina, was known for his judicial, social, and economic reforms, and his may well be the first legal code known to have existed. Empire of Lugal-zage-si of Uruk Urukagina (c. 2359–2335 BC short chronology) was overthrown and his city Lagash captured by Lugal-zage-si, the high priest of Umma. Lugal-zage-si also took Uruk and Ur, and made Uruk his capital. In a long inscription that he made engraved on hundreds of stone vases dedicated to Enlil of Nippur, he boasts that his kingdom extended "from the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf), along the Tigris and Euphrates, to the Upper Sea" or Mediterranean. His empire was overthrown by Sargon of Akkad. ==Akkadian Empire==

at the Louvre, Paris.The Akkadian period lasted c. 2334–2147 BC (middle chronology). The following is a list of known kings of this period: ==Gutian period==

Following the fall of Sargon's Empire to the Gutians, a brief "Dark Ages" ensued. This period lasted c. 2141–2050 BC (short chronology). ==Second Dynasty of Lagash==

, prince of Lagash, circa 2110 BCE. Louvre Museum. This period lasted c. 2260–2110 BC. ==Fifth Dynasty of Uruk==

This dynasty lasted between c. 2055–2048 BC short chronology. The Gutians were ultimately driven out by the Sumerians under Utu-hegal, the only king of this dynasty, who in turn was defeated by Ur-Nammu of Ur. ==Third Dynasty of Ur==

, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, on a cylinder seal. The Third Dynasty of Ur is dated to c. 2047–1940 BC short chronology. Ur-Nammu of Ur defeated Utu-hegal of Uruk and founded the Third Dynasty of Ur. Although the Sumerian language ("Emegir") was again made official, Sumerian identity was already in decline, as the population became continually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) population. After the Ur III dynasty was destroyed by the Elamites in 2004 BC, a fierce rivalry developed between the city-states of Larsa, more under Elamite than Sumerian influence, and Isin, that was more Amorite (as the Western Semitic nomads were called). Archaeologically, the fall of the Ur III dynasty corresponds to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. The Semites ended up prevailing in Mesopotamia by the time of Hammurabi of Babylon, who founded the Babylonian Empire, and the language and name of Sumer gradually passed into the realm of antiquarian scholars. Nevertheless, Sumerian influence on Babylonia, and all subsequent cultures in the region, was undeniably great. During the third millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a sprachbund. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the third and the second millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the first century AD. ==See also==