Sumer - wikipedia Sumer `` Sumeria '' redirects here. For other uses, see Sumeria ( disambiguation ). For other uses, see Sumer ( disambiguation ). Not to be confused with summer. Geographical range Near East - Middle East Period Late Neolithic - Middle Bronze Age Dates c. 4500 -- c. 1900 BC Part of a series on the History of Iraq Ancient Mesopotamia Sumer Assyria Akkadian Empire Babylonia Neo-Assyrian Empire Neo-Babylonian Empire Median Kingdom Classical antiquity Achaemenid Assyria Seleucid Babylonia Parthian Babylonia Roman Mesopotamia Sasanian Asorestan Middle Ages Islamic conquest Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate Hamdanids Buyid amirate of Iraq Marwanids Uqaylids Al - Mazeedi Ayyubids Seljuk Empire Zengids Ilkhanate Jalairid Sultanate Kara Koyunlu Aq Qoyunlu Early modern period Safavids Ottoman Iraq Mamluk dynasty Modern Iraq Mandatory Iraq Kingdom of Iraq Republic ( 1958 -- 68 ) Ba'athist rule ( 1968 -- 2003 ) Occupation ( 2003 -- 11 ) Recent history Iraq portal Ancient history Preceded by Prehistory Ancient Near East Sumer Egypt Assyria Elam Akkad Babylonia Canaan Israel and Judah Hittite Empire Arzawa Mitanni Minoan Crete Mycenaean Greece Syro - Hittite states Hayasa - Azzi Georgia Anatolia Armenia Neo-Assyrian Empire Urartu Neo-Babylonian Empire Medes Classical antiquity Greece Persia ( Achaemenid ) Hellenism Rome Africa Late Antiquity East Asia China Korea Japan South Asia Indus Valley Vedic period Maha Janapadas Maurya Empire Tamilakam Satavahana Gupta Empire Pre-Columbian Americas Mesoamerica Olmec Maya civilization Teotihuacan Aztec Andean civilizations Chavín culture Moche Inca empire See also History of the world Ancient maritime history Protohistory Axial Age Iron Age Historiography Ancient literature Ancient warfare Cradle of civilization Followed by the Postclassical Era Sumer ( / ˈsuːmər / ) was the first urban civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, modern - day southern Iraq, during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages, and arguably the first civilization in the world with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place. Proto - writing in the prehistory dates back to c. 3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC ; early cuneiform script writing emerged in 3000 BC. Modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language ( pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence ), an agglutinative language isolate. These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called `` proto - Euphrateans '' or `` Ubaidians '', and are theorized to have evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia. The Ubaidians ( though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves ) are assumed by modern - day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for agriculture, developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery. Some scholars contest the idea of a Proto - Euphratean language or one substrate language. It has been suggested by them, and others, that the Sumerian language was originally that of the hunter and fisher peoples, who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region, and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Reliable historical records begin much later ; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before Enmebaragesi ( c. 26th century BC ). Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today 's Persian Gulf region, before it flooded at the end of the Ice Age. Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period ( 4th millennium BC ), continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a close cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians, who spoke a language isolate, and Akkadian - speakers, 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 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic - speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC ( short chronology ), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100 -- 2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use. The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been the world 's first city, where three separate cultures may have fused : that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud - brick huts and practicing irrigation ; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats ; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians. Contents 1 Origin of name 2 City - states in Mesopotamia 3 History 3.1 Ubaid period 3.2 Uruk period 3.3 Early Dynastic Period 3.3. 1 1st Dynasty of Lagash 3.4 Akkadian Empire 3.5 Gutian period 3.5. 1 2nd Dynasty of Lagash 3.6 Ur III period 3.7 Fall and Transmission 4 Population 5 Culture 5.1 Social and family life 5.2 Language and writing 5.3 Religion 5.3. 1 Deities 5.3. 2 Cosmology 5.3. 3 Temple and temple organisation 5.3. 4 Funerary practices 5.4 Agriculture and hunting 5.5 Architecture 5.6 Mathematics 5.7 Economy and trade 5.7. 1 Money and credit 5.8 Military 5.9 Technology 6 Legacy 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links Origin of name The term Sumerian is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic - speaking inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Sumer, by the East Semitic - speaking Akkadians. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg ga ( cuneiform : 𒌦 𒊕 𒈪 𒂵 ), phonetically / uŋ saŋ gi ga /, literally meaning `` the black - headed people '', and to their land as ki - en - gi ( - r ) ( cuneiform : 𒆠𒂗𒄀 ) ( ' place ' + ' lords ' + ' noble ' ), meaning `` place of the noble lords ''. The Akkadian word Shumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew Shinar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar ( a ), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Shumer. City - states in Mesopotamia Further information : Cities of the Ancient Near East and Geography of Mesopotamia In the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city - states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor ( ensi ) or by a king ( lugal ) who was intimately tied to the city 's religious rites. The five `` first '' cities, said to have exercised pre-dynastic kingship `` before the flood '' : Eridu ( Tell Abu Shahrain ) Bad - tibira ( probably Tell al - Madain ) Larsa ( Tell as - Senkereh ) Sippar ( Tell Abu Habbah ) Shuruppak ( Tell Fara ) Other principal cities : Uruk ( Warka ) Kish ( Tell Uheimir & Ingharra ) Ur ( Tell al - Muqayyar ) Nippur ( Afak ) Lagash ( Tell al - Hiba ) Girsu ( Tello or Telloh ) Umma ( Tell Jokha ) Hamazi Adab ( Tell Bismaya ) Mari ( Tell Hariri ) Akshak Akkad Isin ( Ishan al - Bahriyat ) ( location uncertain ) ( an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia ) Minor cities ( from south to north ) : Kuara ( Tell al - Lahm ) Zabala ( Tell Ibzeikh ) Kisurra ( Tell Abu Hatab ) Marad ( Tell Wannat es - Sadum ) Dilbat ( Tell ed - Duleim ) Borsippa ( Birs Nimrud ) Kutha ( Tell Ibrahim ) Der ( al - Badra ) Eshnunna ( Tell Asmar ) Nagar ( Tell Brak ) ( an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia ) Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 kilometres ( 205 miles ) north - west of Agade, but which is credited in the king list as having `` exercised kingship '' in the Early Dynastic II period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates - Tigris alluvial plain, south of Baghdad in what are now the Bābil, Diyala, Wāsit, Dhi Qar, Basra, Al - Muthannā and Al - Qādisiyyah governorates of Iraq. History Main article : History of Sumer A 24th - century BC statue of a praying Sumerian man ( modern day eastern Syria ) The Sumerian city - states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c. the 23rd century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there was a brief Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC, cut short in the 20th century BC by invasions by the Amorites. The Amorite `` dynasty of Isin '' persisted until c. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian ( Assyro - Babylonian ) population. Ubaid period : 6500 -- 4100 BC ( Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic ) Uruk period : 4100 -- 2900 BC ( Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age I ) Uruk XIV - V : 4100 -- 3300 BC Uruk IV period : 3300 -- 3100 BC Jemdet Nasr period ( Uruk III ) : 3100 -- 2900 BC Early Dynastic period ( Early Bronze Age II - IV ) Early Dynastic I period : 2900 -- 2800 BC Early Dynastic II period : 2800 -- 2600 BC ( Gilgamesh ) Early Dynastic IIIa period : 2600 -- 2500 BC Early Dynastic IIIb period : c. 2500 -- 2334 BC Akkadian Empire period : c. 2334 -- 2218 BC ( Sargon ) Gutian period : c. 2218 -- 2047 BC ( Early Bronze Age IV ) Ur III period : c. 2047 -- 1940 BC The Samarra bowl, at the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin. The swastika in the center of the design is a reconstruction. Ubaid period Main article : Ubaid period The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. During this time, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was established at Eridu ( Cuneiform : nun.ki 𒉣𒆠 ), c. 6500 BC, by farmers who brought with them the Hadji Muhammed culture, which first pioneered irrigation agriculture. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. The rise of the city of Uruk may be reflected in the story of the passing of the gifts of civilization ( me ) to Inanna, goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk. Uruk period Main article : Uruk period The archaeological transition from the Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery domestically produced on a slow wheel to a great variety of unpainted pottery mass - produced by specialists on fast wheels. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change. By the time of the Uruk period ( c. 4100 -- 2900 BC calibrated ), the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, stratified, temple - centered cities ( with populations of over 10,000 people ) where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use of slave labor captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in the earliest texts. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide area -- from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as central Iran. The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists ( like that found at Tell Brak ), had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The cities of Sumer could not maintain remote, long - distance colonies by military force. Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest - king ( ensi ), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became the most urbanized city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants. Notable Sumerians History of Sumer Mythology King list Pre-dynastic kings : Alulim Dumuzid, the Shepherd En - men - dur - ana 1st Dynasty of Kish : Etana En - me - barage - si Aga of Kish 1st Dynasty of Uruk : Enmerkar Lugalbanda Gilgamesh 1st Dynasty of Ur : Meskalamdug Mesh - Ane - pada Puabi Mesilim of Kish 2nd Dynasty of Uruk : En - shag - kush - ana 1st Dynasty of Lagash : Ur - Nanshe Eannatum Entemena Urukagina Dynasty of Adab : Lugal - Ane - mundu 3rd Dynasty of Kish : Kug - Bau 3rd Dynasty of Uruk : Lugal - zage - si Dynasty of Akkad : Sargon Tashlultum En - hedu - ana Man - ishtishu Naram - Sin of Akkad Shar - kali - sharri Dudu of Akkad Shu - Durul 2nd Dynasty of Lagash : Puzer - Mama Gudea 5th Dynasty of Uruk : Utu - hengal 3rd dynasty of Ur : Ur - Namma Shulgi Amar - Suena Shu - Suen Ibbi - Suen The ancient Sumerian king list includes the early dynasties of several prominent cities from this period. The first set of names on the list is of kings said to have reigned before a major flood occurred. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as Alulim and Dumizid. The end of the Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation, a dry period from c. 3200 -- 2900 BC that marked the end of a long wetter, warmer climate period from about 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, called the Holocene climatic optimum. Early Dynastic period Main article : Early Dynastic Period ( Mesopotamia ) The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly `` En '' ( a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god ) towards a more secular Lugal ( Lu = man, Gal = great ) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh -- who are supposed to have reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2700 BC, when the now deciphered syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own. The earliest dynastic king on the Sumerian king list whose name is known from any other legendary source is Etana, 13th king of the first dynasty of Kish. The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish ( c. 26th century BC ), whose name is also mentioned in the Gilgamesh epic -- leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period was associated with increased war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. ( Both Enmerkar and Gilgamesh are credited with having built the walls of Uruk ). 1st dynasty of Lagash Fragment of Eannatum 's Stele of the Vultures Main article : Lagash c. 2500 -- 2270 BC The dynasty of Lagash, though omitted from the king list, is well attested through several important monuments and many archaeological finds. Although short - lived, one of the first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa, and reduced to tribute the city - state of Umma, arch - rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf. He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy. Eannatum 's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at the severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly after his death. Later, Lugal - Zage - Si, the priest - king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad. Akkadian Empire Main article : Akkadian Empire c. 2270 -- 2083 BC ( short chronology ) The Eastern Semitic Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c. 2800 BC, preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. 2500 BC. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great ( c. 2270 -- 2215 BC ), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by the scribes. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of Old Akkadian : that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the `` Neo-Sumerian Renaissance '' that followed it. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there is little break in historical continuity between the pre - and post-Sargon periods, and that too much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a `` Semitic vs. Sumerian '' conflict. However, it is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by Sargon. Gutian period Main article : Gutian dynasty of Sumer c. 2083 -- 2050 BC ( short chronology ) 2nd dynasty of Lagash Gudea of Lagash Main article : Lagash c. 2093 -- 2046 BC ( short chronology ) Following the downfall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands of Gutians, another native Sumerian ruler, Gudea of Lagash, rose to local prominence and continued the practices of the Sargonid kings ' claims to divinity. The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts. Ur III period Great Ziggurat of Ur, near Nasiriyah, Iraq Main article : Third Dynasty of Ur c. 2047 -- 1940 BC ( short chronology ) Later, the 3rd dynasty of Ur under Ur - Nammu and Shulgi, whose power extended as far as southern Assyria, was the last great `` Sumerian renaissance '', but already the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the resurgence of the Akkadian speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the influx of waves of Semitic Martu ( Amorites ) who were to found several competing local powers in the south, including Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna and some time later Babylonia. The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate the south of Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire, just as the Old Assyrian Empire had already done so in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was utilized. Fall and transmission This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward the north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt - tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three fifths. This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian would remain only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe. Following an Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule of Ibbi - Sin ( c. 1940 BC ), Sumer came under Amorites rule ( taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age ). The independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as the `` Dynasty of Isin '' in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi c. 1700 BC. Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title `` King of Sumer and Akkad '', such as Tukulti - Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC. Population The first farmers from Samarra migrated to Sumer, and built shrines and settlements at Eridu. Uruk, one of Sumer 's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,000 - 80,000 at its height ; given the other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer 's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. The world population at this time has been estimated at about 27 million. The Sumerians spoke a language isolate, but a number of linguists have claimed to be able to detect a substrate language of unknown classification beneath Sumerian because names of some of Sumer 's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants. However, the archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period ( 5300 -- 4700 BC C - 14 ) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from the north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami transitional ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture ( c. 5700 -- 4900 BC C - 14 ) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. The connection is most clearly seen at Tell Awayli ( Oueilli, Oueili ) near Larsa, excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple - centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in a difficult environment. Others have suggested a continuity of Sumerians, from the indigenous hunter - fisherfolk traditions, associated with the bifacial assemblages found on the Arabian littoral. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at the end of the last Ice Age. Culture Social and family Life Upper part of a gypsum statue of a Sumerian woman with her hands folded in worship dating to c. 2400 BC, currently held in the British Museum in London Sumerian myths suggest a prohibition against premarital sex. Marriages were often arranged by the parents of the bride and groom ; engagements were usually completed through the approval of contracts recorded on clay tablets. These marriages became legal as soon as the groom delivered a bridal gift to his bride 's father. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that premarital sex was a common, but surreptitious, occurrence. A reconstruction in the British Museum of headgear and necklaces worn by the women in some Sumerian graves In the early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest that `` Pottery was very plentiful, and the forms of the vases, bowls and dishes were manifold ; there were special jars for honey, butter, oil and wine, which was probably made from dates. Some of the vases had pointed feet, and stood on stands with crossed legs ; others were flat - bottomed, and were set on square or rectangular frames of wood. The oil - jars, and probably others also, were sealed with clay, precisely as in early Egypt. Vases and dishes of stone were made in imitation of those of clay. '' `` A feathered head - dress was worn. Beds, stools and chairs were used, with carved legs resembling those of an ox. There were fire - places and fire - altars. '' `` Knives, drills, wedges and an instrument that looks like a saw were all known. While spears, bows, arrows, and daggers ( but not swords ) were employed in war. '' `` Tablets were used for writing purposes. Daggers with metal blades and wooden handles were worn, and copper was hammered into plates, while necklaces or collars were made of gold. '' `` Time was reckoned in lunar months. '' There is considerable evidence concerning Sumerian music. Lyres and flutes were played, among the best - known examples being the Lyres of Ur. Inscriptions describing the reforms of king Urukagina of Lagash ( c. 2300 BC ) say that he abolished the former custom of polyandry in his country, prescribing that a woman who took multiple husbands be stoned with rocks upon which her crime had been written. Sumerian culture was male - dominated and stratified. The Code of Ur - Nammu, the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur III, reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath the lu - gal ( `` great man '' or king ), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata : The `` lu '' or free person, and the slave ( male, arad ; female geme ). The son of a lu was called a dumu - nita until he married. A woman ( munus ) went from being a daughter ( dumu - mi ), to a wife ( dam ), then if she outlived her husband, a widow ( numasu ) and she could then remarry. Prostitution existed but it is not clear if sacred prostitution did. Language and writing Main articles : Sumerian language and Cuneiform Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer, 3100 -- 3000 BC The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of clay tablets written in cuneiform script. Sumerian writing, while proven to not be the oldest example of writing on earth, is considered to be a great milestone in the development of humanity 's ability to not only create historical records but also in creating pieces of literature, both in the form of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws. Although pictures -- that is, hieroglyphs -- were used first, cuneiform and then ideograms ( where symbols were made to represent ideas ) soon followed. Triangular or wedge - shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, such as personal and business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, and daily records. Full libraries of clay tablets have been found. Monumental inscriptions and texts on different objects, like statues or bricks, are also very common. Many texts survive in multiple copies because they were repeatedly transcribed by scribes in training. Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had become dominant. A prime example of cuneiform writing would be a lengthy poem that was discovered in the ruins of Uruk. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in the standard Sumerian cuneiform. It tells of a king from the early Dynastic II period named Gilgamesh or `` Bilgamesh '' in Sumerian. The story is based around the fictional adventures of Gilgamesh and his companion, Enkidu. It was laid out on several clay tablets and is claimed to be the earliest example of a fictional, written piece of literature discovered so far. The Sumerian language is generally regarded as a language isolate in linguistics because it belongs to no known language family ; Akkadian, by contrast, belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other language families. It is an agglutinative language ; in other words, morphemes ( `` units of meaning '' ) are added together to create words, unlike analytic languages where morphemes are purely added together to create sentences. Some authors have proposed that there may be evidence of a substratum or adstratum language for geographic features and various crafts and agricultural activities, called variously Proto - Euphratean or Proto Tigrean, but this is disputed by others. Understanding Sumerian texts today can be problematic even for experts. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases do not give the full grammatical structure of the language and seem to have been used as an `` aide - mémoire '' for knowledgeable scribes. During the 3rd millennium BC a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influences between Sumerian on Akkadian are evident in all areas including lexical borrowing on a massive scale -- and syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This mutual influence has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian of the 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC, but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Babylonia and Assyria until the 1st century AD. Religion Tell Asmar votive sculpture, 2750 -- 2600 BC Main article : Sumerian religion The Sumerians credited their divinities for all matters pertaining to them and exhibited humility in the face of cosmic forces, such as death and divine wrath. Sumerian religion seems to have been founded upon two separate cosmogenic myths. The first saw creation as the result of a series of hieroi gamoi or sacred marriages, involving the reconciliation of opposites, postulated as a coming together of male and female divine beings ; the gods. This continued to influence the whole Mesopotamian mythos. Thus, in the later Akkadian Enuma Elish, the creation was seen as the union of fresh and salt water ; as male Abzu, and female Tiamat. The products of that union, Lahm and Lahmu, `` the muddy ones '', were titles given to the gate keepers of the E-Abzu temple of Enki, in Eridu, the first Sumerian city. Describing the way that muddy islands emerge from the confluence of fresh and salty water at the mouth of the Euphrates, where the river deposited its load of silt, a second hieros gamos supposedly created Anshar and Kishar, the `` sky - pivot '' or axle, and the `` earth pivot '', parents in turn of Anu ( the sky ) and Ki ( the earth ). Another important Sumerian hieros gamos was that between Ki, here known as Ninhursag or `` Lady of the Mountains '', and Enki of Eridu, the god of fresh water which brought forth greenery and pasture. At an early stage, following the dawn of recorded history, Nippur, in central Mesopotamia, replaced Eridu in the south as the primary temple city, whose priests exercised political hegemony on the other city - states. Nippur retained this status throughout the Sumerian period. Deities Akkadian cylinder seal from sometime around 2300 BC or thereabouts depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud. Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form. There was no common set of gods ; each city - state had its own patrons, temples, and priest - kings. Nonetheless, these were not exclusive ; the gods of one city were often acknowledged elsewhere. Sumerian speakers were among the earliest people to record their beliefs in writing, and were a major inspiration in later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology. The Sumerians worshiped : An as the full - time god equivalent to heaven ; indeed, the word an in Sumerian means sky and his consort Ki, means earth. Enki in the south at the temple in Eridu. Enki was the god of beneficence and of wisdom, ruler of the freshwater depths beneath the earth, a healer and friend to humanity who in Sumerian myth was thought to have given humans the arts and sciences, the industries and manners of civilization ; the first law book was considered his creation, Enlil was the god of storm, wind, and rain. He was the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon and the patron god of Nippur. His consort was Ninlil, the goddess of the south wind. Inanna was the goddess of love, beauty, sexuality, prostitution, and war ; the deification of Venus, the morning ( eastern ) and evening ( western ) star, at the temple ( shared with An ) at Uruk. Deified kings may have re-enacted the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid with priestesses. The sun - god Utu at Larsa in the south and Sippar in the north, The moon god Sin at Ur. Sumero - early Akkadian pantheon These deities formed a core pantheon ; there were additionally hundreds of minor ones. Sumerian gods could thus have associations with different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with those cities ' political power. The gods were said to have created human beings from clay for the purpose of serving them. The temples organized the mass labour projects needed for irrigation agriculture. Citizens had a labor duty to the temple, though they could avoid it by a payment of silver. Cosmology Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk enclosed by a dome. The Sumerian afterlife involved a descent into a gloomy netherworld to spend eternity in a wretched existence as a Gidim ( ghost ). The universe was divided into four quarters : To the north were the hill - dwelling Subartu, who were periodically raided for slaves, timber, and other raw materials. To the west were the tent - dwelling Martu, ancient Semitic - speaking peoples living as pastoral nomads tending herds of sheep and goats. To the south was the land of Dilmun, a trading state associated with the land of the dead and the place of creation. To the east were the Elamites, a rival people with whom the Sumerians were frequently at war. Their known world extended from The Upper Sea or Mediterranean coastline, to The Lower Sea, the Persian Gulf and the land of Meluhha ( probably the Indus Valley ) and Magan ( Oman ), famed for its copper ores. Temple and temple organisation Ziggurats ( Sumerian temples ) each had an individual name and consisted of a forecourt, with a central pond for purification. The temple itself had a central nave with aisles along either side. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. At one end would stand the podium and a mudbrick table for animal and vegetable sacrifices. Granaries and storehouses were usually located near the temples. After a time the Sumerians began to place the temples on top of multi-layered square constructions built as a series of rising terraces, giving rise to the Ziggurat style. Funerary practices It was believed that when people died, they would be confined to a gloomy world of Ereshkigal, whose realm was guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people entering or leaving. The dead were buried outside the city walls in graveyards where a small mound covered the corpse, along with offerings to monsters and a small amount of food. Those who could afford it sought burial at Dilmun. Human sacrifice was found in the death pits at the Ur royal cemetery where Queen Puabi was accompanied in death by her servants. Agriculture and hunting The Sumerians adopted an agricultural lifestyle perhaps as early as c. 5000 BC -- 4500 BC. The region demonstrated a number of core agricultural techniques, including organized irrigation, large - scale intensive cultivation of land, mono - cropping involving the use of plough agriculture, and the use of an agricultural specialized labour force under bureaucratic control. The necessity to manage temple accounts with this organization led to the development of writing ( c. 3500 BC ). From the royal tombs of Ur, made of lapis lazuli and shell, shows peacetime In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. They used oxen as their primary beasts of burden and donkeys or equids as their primary transport animal and `` woollen clothing as well as rugs were made from the wool or hair of the animals... By the side of the house was an enclosed garden planted with trees and other plants ; wheat and probably other cereals were sown in the fields, and the shaduf was already employed for the purpose of irrigation. Plants were also grown in pots or vases. '' An account of barley rations issued monthly to adults and children written in cuneiform script on a clay tablet, written in year 4 of King Urukagina, c. 2350 BC The Sumerians were one of the first known beer drinking societies. Cereals were plentiful and were the key ingredient in their early brew. They brewed multiple kinds of beer consisting of wheat, barley, and mixed grain beers. Beer brewing was very important to the Sumerians. It was referenced in the Epic of Gilgamesh when Enkidu was introduced to the food and beer of Gilgamesh 's people : `` Drink the beer, as is the custom of the land... He drank the beer - seven jugs ! and became expansive and sang with joy ! '' The Sumerians practiced similar irrigation techniques as those used in Egypt. American anthropologist Robert McCormick Adams says that irrigation development was associated with urbanization, and that 89 % of the population lived in the cities. They grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, wheat, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard. Sumerians caught many fish and hunted fowl and gazelle. Sumerian agriculture depended heavily on irrigation. The irrigation was accomplished by the use of shaduf, canals, channels, dykes, weirs, and reservoirs. The frequent violent floods of the Tigris, and less so, of the Euphrates, meant that canals required frequent repair and continual removal of silt, and survey markers and boundary stones needed to be continually replaced. The government required individuals to work on the canals in a corvee, although the rich were able to exempt themselves. As is known from the `` Sumerian Farmer 's Almanac '', after the flood season and after the Spring Equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. Next they made oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. Unfortunately, the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. By the Ur III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt - tolerant barley as their principal crop. Sumerians harvested during the spring in three - person teams consisting of a reaper, a binder, and a sheaf handler. The farmers would use threshing wagons, driven by oxen, to separate the cereal heads from the stalks and then use threshing sleds to disengage the grain. They then winnowed the grain / chaff mixture. Architecture Dedication Nail, ca. 2100 BC. Main articles : Sumerian architecture, Ziggurat, and Mudhif The Tigris - Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures were made of plano - convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement. Mud - brick buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, which thus came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resultant hills, known as tells, are found throughout the ancient Near East. According to Archibald Sayce, the primitive pictograms of the early Sumerian ( i.e. Uruk ) era suggest that `` Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. Brick was the ordinary building material, and with it cities, forts, temples and houses were constructed. The city was provided with towers and stood on an artificial platform ; the house also had a tower - like appearance. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key ; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. The foundation stones -- or rather bricks -- of a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under them. '' The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms that supported temples. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. The Sumerians also developed the arch, which enabled them to develop a strong type of dome. They built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails. Mathematics Main article : Babylonian mathematics The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000 BC. This advanced metrology resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From c. 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems. The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period. The period c. 2700 -- 2300 BC saw the first appearance of the abacus, and a table of successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their sexagesimal number system. The Sumerians were the first to use a place value numeral system. There is also anecdotal evidence the Sumerians may have used a type of slide rule in astronomical calculations. They were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube. Economy and trade Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, c. 2600 BC Discoveries of obsidian from far - away locations in Anatolia and lapis lazuli from Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan, beads from Dilmun ( modern Bahrain ), and several seals inscribed with the Indus Valley script suggest a remarkably wide - ranging network of ancient trade centered on the Persian Gulf. For example, Imports to Ur came from many parts of the world. In particular, the metals of all types had to be imported. The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods such as wood that were scarce in Mesopotamia. In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized. The finding of resin in the tomb of Queen Puabi at Ur, indicates it was traded from as far away as Mozambique. The Sumerians used slaves, although they were not a major part of the economy. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters. Sumerian potters decorated pots with cedar oil paints. The potters used a bow drill to produce the fire needed for baking the pottery. Sumerian masons and jewelers knew and made use of alabaster ( calcite ), ivory, iron, gold, silver, carnelian, and lapis lazuli. Money and credit Large institutions kept their accounts in barley and silver, often with a fixed rate between them. The obligations, loans and prices in general were usually denominated in one of them. Many transactions involved debt, for example goods consigned to merchants by temple and beer advanced by `` ale women ''. Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans. The trade credit was usually extended by temples in order to finance trade expeditions and was nominated in silver. The interest rate was set at 1 / 60 a month ( one shekel per mina ) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years. Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an institution ( such as a temple ), in this case the arrears were considered to be lent to the debtor. They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1 / 3 to 1 / 2 of the loan principal. Periodically, rulers signed `` clean slate '' decrees that cancelled all the rural ( but not commercial ) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes. Customarily, rulers did it at the beginning of the first full year of their reign, but they could also be proclaimed at times of military conflict or crop failure. The first known ones were made by Enmetena and Urukagina of Lagash in 2400 - 2350 BC. According to Hudson, the purpose of these decrees was to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened the fighting force, which could happen if peasants lost the subsistence land or became bondservants due to the inability to repay the debt. Military Early chariots on the Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BC Battle formations on a fragment of the Stele of the Vultures The almost constant wars among the Sumerian city - states for 2000 years helped to develop the military technology and techniques of Sumer to a high level. The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2525 BC on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures. It shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly of infantry. The infantry carried spears, wore copper helmets, and carried rectangular shields. The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the phalanx formation, which requires training and discipline ; this implies that the Sumerians may have made use of professional soldiers. The Sumerian military used carts harnessed to onagers. These early chariots functioned less effectively in combat than did later designs, and some have suggested that these chariots served primarily as transports, though the crew carried battle - axes and lances. The Sumerian chariot comprised a four or two - wheeled device manned by a crew of two and harnessed to four onagers. The cart was composed of a woven basket and the wheels had a solid three - piece design. Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. The Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities, but the mudbrick walls were able to deter some foes. Technology Examples of Sumerian technology include : the wheel, cuneiform script, arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, Sumerian boats, lunisolar calendar, bronze, leather, saws, chisels, hammers, braces, bits, nails, pins, rings, hoes, axes, knives, lancepoints, arrowheads, swords, glue, daggers, waterskins, bags, harnesses, armor, quivers, war chariots, scabbards, boots, sandals, harpoons and beer. The Sumerians had three main types of boats : clinker - built sailboats stitched together with hair, featuring bitumen waterproofing skin boats constructed from animal skins and reeds wooden - oared ships, sometimes pulled upstream by people and animals walking along the nearby banks Legacy Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid 4th millennium BC, near - simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus ( Maykop culture ) and Central Europe. The wheel initially took the form of the potter 's wheel. The new concept quickly led to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. The Sumerians ' cuneiform script is the oldest ( or second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs ) which has been deciphered ( the status of even older inscriptions such as the Jiahu symbols and Tartaria tablets is controversial ). The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in the zodiac and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks. They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye. They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including a mixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions between infantry, cavalry, and archers. They developed the first known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails, and government records. The first true city - states arose in Sumer, roughly contemporaneously with similar entities in what are now Syria and Lebanon. Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded beyond debt / payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. Conjointly with the spread of writing, the first formal schools were established, usually under the auspices of a city - state 's primary temple. Finally, the Sumerians ushered in domestication with intensive agriculture and irrigation. Emmer wheat, barley, sheep ( starting as mouflon ), and cattle ( starting as aurochs ) were foremost among the species cultivated and raised for the first time on a grand scale. See also Marsh Arabs ( on the DNA distribution of Marsh Arabs ) History of Iraq History of writing numbers Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement Ancient Mesopotamian religion Notes Jump up ^ The name is from Akkadian Šumeru ; Sumerian 𒆠𒂗𒂠 ki - en - ĝir, approximately `` land of the civilized kings '' or `` native land ''. ĝir means `` native, local '', in ( ĝir NATIVE ( 7x : Old Babylonian ) from The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary ). Literally, `` land of the native ( local, noble ) lords ''. Stiebing ( 1994 ) has `` Land of the Lords of Brightness '' ( William Stiebing, Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture ). Postgate ( 1994 ) takes en as substituting eme `` language '', translating `` land of the Sumerian heart '' ( John Nicholas Postgate ( 1994 ). Early Mesopotamia : Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. Routledge ( UK )... Postgate believes it not that eme, ' tongue ', became en, ' lord ', through consonantal assimilation. ) References Jump up ^ King, Leonid W. ( 2015 ) A History of Sumer and Akkad ( ISBN 1522847308 ) Jump up ^ Cuneiform ancient.eu Jump up ^ `` Ancient Mesopotamia. Teaching materials ''. Oriental Institute in collaboration with Chicago Web Docent and eCUIP, The Digital Library. Retrieved 5 March 2015. Jump up ^ `` The Ubaid Period ( 5500 -- 4000 B.C. ) '' In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ( October 2003 ) Jump up ^ `` Ubaid Culture '', The British Museum Jump up ^ `` Beyond the Ubaid '', ( Carter, Rober A. and Graham, Philip, eds. ), University of Durham, April 2006 ^ Jump up to : `` Sumer ( ancient region, Iraq ) ''. Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Britannica.com. Retrieved 2012 - 03 - 29. Jump up ^ Kleniewski, Nancy ; Thomas, Alexander R ( 2010 - 03 - 26 ). `` Cities, Change, and Conflict : A Political Economy of Urban Life ''. ISBN 978 - 0 - 495 - 81222 - 7. Jump up ^ Maisels, Charles Keith ( 1993 ). `` The Near East : Archaeology in the `` Cradle of Civilization '' ``. ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 04742 - 5. Jump up ^ Maisels, Charles Keith ( 2001 ). `` Early Civilizations of the Old World : The Formative Histories of Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China ''. ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 10976 - 5. Jump up ^ Shaw, Ian ; Jameson, Robert ( 2002 ). `` A dictionary of archaeology ''. ISBN 978 - 0 - 631 - 23583 - 5. Jump up ^ Margarethe Uepermann ( 2007 ), `` Structuring the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia '' ( Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy Volume 3, Issue 2, pages 65 -- 109 ) Jump up ^ Hamblin, Dora Jane ( May 1987 ). `` Has the Garden of Eden been located at last ? '' ( PDF ). Smithsonian Magazine. 18 ( 2 ). Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014. ^ Jump up to : Deutscher, Guy ( 2007 ). Syntactic Change in Akkadian : The Evolution of Sentential Complementation. Oxford University Press US. pp. 20 -- 21. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 953222 - 3. ^ Jump up to : Leick, Gwendolyn ( 2003 ), `` Mesopotamia, the Invention of the City '' ( Penguin ) Jump up ^ W. Hallo ; W. Simpson ( 1971 ). The Ancient Near East. New York : Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. p. 28. ^ Jump up to : K. van der Toorn, P.W. van der Horst ( Jan 1990 ). `` Nimrod before and after the Bible ''. The Harvard Theological Review. 83 ( 1 ) : 1 -- 29. doi : 10.1017 / S0017816000005502. Jump up ^ Stanley A. Freed, Research Pitfalls as a Result of the Restoration of Museum Specimens, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 376, The Research Potential of Anthropological Museum Collections pages 229 -- 245, December 1981. ^ Jump up to : Wolkstein, Diane ; Kramer, Samuel Noah ( 1983 ). Inanna : Queen of Heaven and Earth : Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York : Harper & Row. ISBN 978 - 0060147136. Jump up ^ Elizabeth F. Henrickson ; Ingolf Thuesen ; I. Thuesen ( 1989 ). Upon this Foundation : The N̜baid Reconsidered : Proceedings from the U̜baid Symposium, Elsinore, May 30th - June 1st 1988. p. 353. ISBN 9788772890708. Jump up ^ Jean - Jacques Glassner ( 2003 ). The Invention of Cuneiform : Writing in Sumer. p. 31. ISBN 9780801873898. ^ Jump up to : Algaze, Guillermo ( 2005 ) `` The Uruk World System : The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization '', ( Second Edition, University of Chicago Press ) ^ Jump up to : Jacobsen, Thorkild ( Ed ) ( 1939 ), `` The Sumerian King List '' ( Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago ; Assyriological Studies, No. 11., 1939 ) Jump up ^ Lamb, Hubert H. ( 1995 ). Climate, History, and the Modern World. London : Routledge. ISBN 0 - 415 - 12735 - 1 Jump up ^ Jacobsen, Thorkild ( 1976 ), `` The Harps that Once... ; Sumerian Poetry in Translation '' and `` Treasures of Darkness : a history of Mesopotamian Religion '' Jump up ^ George, Andrew ( Translater ) ( 2003 ), `` The Epic of Gilgamesh '' ( Penguin Classics ) ^ Jump up to : Roux, Georges ( March 1, 1993 ). Ancient Iraq. Harmondsworth : Penguin. ISBN 978 - 0140125238. Jump up ^ Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture by T. Jacobsen Jump up ^ Thompson, William R. ( 2004 ). `` Complexity, Diminishing Marginal Returns and Serial Mesopotamian Fragmentation '' ( PDF ). Journal of World Systems Research. 10 ( 3 ) : 612 -- 652. doi : 10.5195 / jwsr. 2004.288. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012. CS1 maint : Unfit url ( link ) Jump up ^ Harmansah, Ömür, The Archaeology of Mesopotamia : Ceremonial centers, urbanization and state formation in Southern Mesopotamia, 2007, p. 699 Jump up ^ Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, 1978, Atlas of World Population History, Facts on File, New York, ISBN 0 - 7139 - 1031 - 3. Jump up ^ Karen Rhea Nemet - Nejat ( 30 September 1998 ). Daily life in ancient Mesopotamia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 13. ISBN 978 - 0 - 313 - 29497 - 6. Retrieved 29 November 2011. Jump up ^ http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/ Jump up ^ Celibacy in the Ancient World : Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece by Dale Launderville, page 28 ^ Jump up to : Kramer, Samuel Noah ( 1963 ). The Sumerians : Their History, Culture, and Character ( PDF ). The Univ. of Chicago Press. ISBN 0 - 226 - 45238 - 7. ^ Jump up to : Sayce, Rev. A.H. ( 1908 ). The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions ( 2nd revised ed. ). London, Brighton, New York : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. pp. 98 -- 100. Jump up ^ Goss, Clint ( 15 April 2017 ). `` Flutes of Gilgamesh and Ancient Mesopotamia ''. Flutopedia. Retrieved 14 June 2017. Jump up ^ Gender and the Journal : Diaries and Academic Discourse p. 62 by Cinthia Gannett, 1992 ^ Jump up to : Black, Jeremy ; Green, Anthony ( 1992 ), Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia : An Illustrated Dictionary, University of Texas Press, ISBN 0 - 292 - 70794 - 0 Jump up ^ Woods C. 2006 `` Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and the Death of Sumerian ''. In S.L. Sanders ( ed ) Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture : 91 - 120 Chicago Jump up ^ Campbell, Lyle ; Mauricio J. Mixco ( 2007 ). A glossary of historical linguistics. Edinburgh University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7486 - 2379 - 2. ^ Jump up to : Coleman, J.A. ; Davidson, George ( 2015 ), The Dictionary of Mythology : An A-Z of Themes, Legends, and Heroes, London, England : Arcturus Publishing Limited, ISBN 978 - 1 - 78404 - 478 - 7 Jump up ^ Kramer, Samuel Noah ( 1983 ), `` The Sumerian Deluge Myth : Reviewed and Revised '', Anatolian Studies, British Institute at Ankara, 33 : 115 -- 121, doi : 10.2307 / 3642699 Jump up ^ Hallo, William W. ( 1996 ), `` Review : Enki and the Theology of Eridu '', Journal of the American Oriental Society, 116 ( 2 ) Jump up ^ Black, Jeremy A. ; Cunningham, Graham ; Robson, Eleanor ( 2006 ), The Literature of Ancient Sumer, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 929633 - 0 Jump up ^ Black, Jeremy ; Green, Anthony ( 1992 ). Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia : An Illustrated Dictionary. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978 - 0292707948. Jump up ^ Leick, Gwendolyn ( 2003 ), Mesopotamia : The Invention of the City ' ( Penguin ) Jump up ^ Crawford, Harriet ( 1993 ), `` Sumer and the Sumerians '' ( Cambridge University Press, ( New York 1993 ) ), ISBN 0 - 521 - 38850 - 3. Jump up ^ Bibby Geoffrey and Carl Phillips ( 2013 ), `` Looking for Dilmun '' ( Alfred A. Knopf ) Jump up ^ Gately, Iain. Drink : A Cultural History of Alcohol. Gotham Books. p. 5. ISBN 978 - 1 - 592 - 40303 - 5. Jump up ^ Mackenzie, Donald Alexander ( 1927 ). Footprints of Early Man. Blackie & Son Limited. Jump up ^ Adams, R. McC. ( 1981 ). Heartland of Cities. University of Chicago Press. Jump up ^ Tannahill, Reay ( 1968 ). The fine art of food. Folio Society. Jump up ^ By the sweat of thy brow : Work in the Western world, Melvin Kranzberg, Joseph Gies, Putnam, 1975 Jump up ^ Duncan J. Melville ( 2003 ). Third Millennium Chronology, Third Millennium Mathematics. St. Lawrence University. Jump up ^ Ifrah 2001 : 11 Jump up ^ Anderson, Marlow ; Wilson, Robin J. ( October 14, 2004 ). Sherlock Holmes in Babylon : and other tales of mathematical history. Google Books. ISBN 9780883855461. Retrieved 2012 - 03 - 29. Jump up ^ Diplomacy by design : Luxury arts and an `` international style '' in the ancient Near East, 1400 - 1200 BC, Marian H. Feldman, University of Chicago Press, 2006, pp. 120 - 121 ^ Jump up to : Hudson, Michael ( 1998 ). Michael Hudson and Marc Van De Mieroop, ed. Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Maryland : CDL. pp. 23 -- 35. ISBN 1883053714. Jump up ^ Van De Mieroop, Marc ( 1998 ). Michael Hudson and Marc Van De Mieroop, ed. Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Maryland : CDL. p. 63. ISBN 1883053714. Jump up ^ Roux, Georges ( 1992 ), `` Ancient Iraq '' ( Penguin ) Jump up ^ Winter, Irene J. ( 1985 ). `` After the Battle is Over : The ' Stele of the Vultures ' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East ''. In Kessler, Herbert L. ; Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV 16. Washington DC : National Gallery of Art. pp. 11 -- 32. ISSN 0091 - 7338 Jump up ^ Gary Thompson. `` History of Constellation and Star Names ''. Members.optusnet.com.au. Archived from the original on 2012 - 08 - 21. Retrieved 2012 - 03 - 29. Jump up ^ `` Sumerian Questions and Answers ''. Sumerian.org. Retrieved 2012 - 03 - 29. Further reading Ascalone, Enrico. 2007. Mesopotamia : Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians ( Dictionaries of Civilizations ; 1 ). Berkeley : University of California Press. ISBN 0 - 520 - 25266 - 7 ( paperback ). Bottéro, Jean, André Finet, Bertrand Lafont, and George Roux. 2001. Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. Crawford, Harriet E.W. 2004. Sumer and the Sumerians. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Leick, Gwendolyn. 2002. Mesopotamia : Invention of the City. London and New York : Penguin. Lloyd, Seton. 1978. The Archaeology of Mesopotamia : From the Old Stone Age to the Persian Conquest. London : Thames and Hudson. Nemet - Nejat, Karen Rhea. 1998. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. London and Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press. Kramer, Samuel Noah ( 1972 ). Sumerian Mythology : A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. ( Originally published 1944 by American Philosophical Society. Revised 1961 by Harper & Row. Revised edition reprinted 1972 by U. Penn. ) format = requires url = ( help ) ( Rev. ed. ed. ). Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812210476. CS1 maint : Extra text ( link ) Roux, Georges. 1992. Ancient Iraq, 560 pages. London : Penguin ( earlier printings may have different pagination : 1966, 480 pages, Pelican ; 1964, 431 pages, London : Allen and Urwin ). Schomp, Virginia. Ancient Mesopotamia : The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians. Sumer : Cities of Eden ( Timelife Lost Civilizations ). Alexandria, VA : Time - Life Books, 1993 ( hardcover, ISBN 0 - 8094 - 9887 - 1 ). Woolley, C. Leonard. 1929. The Sumerians. Oxford : Clarendon Press. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to : Sumer ( category ) Ancient Sumer History -- - The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium Iraq 's Ancient Past -- Penn Museum The Sumerians Geography The History Files : Ancient Mesopotamia Language Sumerian Language Page, perhaps the oldest Sumerian website on the web ( it dates back to 1996 ), features compiled lexicon, detailed FAQ, extensive links, and so on. ETCSL : The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature has complete translations of more than 400 Sumerian literary texts. PSD : The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary, while still in its initial stages, can be searched on - line, from August 2004. CDLI : Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative a large corpus of Sumerian texts in transliteration, largely from the Early Dynastic and Ur III periods, accessible with images. Coordinates : 32 ° 00 ′ N 45 ° 30 ′ E ﻿ / ﻿ 32.0 ° N 45.5 ° E ﻿ / 32.0 ; 45.5 Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia Syria Northern Mesopotamia Southern Mesopotamia c. 3500 -- 2350 BCE Martu Subartu Sumerian city - states c. 2350 -- 2200 BCE Akkadian Empire c. 2200 -- 2100 BCE Gutians c. 2100 -- 2000 BCE Third Dynasty of Ur ( Sumerian Renaissance ) c. 2000 -- 1800 BCE Mari and other Amorite city - states Old Assyrian Empire ( Northern Akkadians ) Isin / Larsa and other Amorite city - states c. 1800 -- 1600 BCE Old Hittite Kingdom Old Babylonian Empire ( Southern Akkadians ) c. 1600 -- 1400 BCE Mitanni ( Hurrians ) Karduniaš ( Kassites ) c. 1400 -- 1200 BCE New Hittite Kingdom Middle Assyrian Empire c. 1200 -- 1150 BCE Bronze Age collapse ( `` Sea Peoples '' ) Arameans c. 1150 -- 911 BCE Phoenicia Syro - Hittite states Aram - Damascus Arameans Middle Babylonia ( Isin II ) Chal de - ans 911 -- 729 BCE Neo-Assyrian Empire 729 -- 609 BCE 626 -- 539 BCE Neo-Babylonian Empire ( Chaldeans ) 539 -- 331 BCE Achaemenid Empire ( Persians ) 336 -- 301 BCE Macedonian Empire ( Ancient Greeks ) 311 -- 129 BCE Seleucid Empire 129 -- 63 BCE Seleucid Empire Parthian Empire ( Iranians ) 63 BCE -- 243 CE Roman Empire / Byzantine Empire ( Syria ) 243 -- 636 CE Sasanian Empire ( Persians ) Ancient Mesopotamia Geography Modern Euphrates Upper Mesopotamia Mesopotamian Marshes Persian Gulf Syrian Desert Taurus Mountains Tigris Zagros Mountains Ancient Akkad Assyria Babylonia Chaldea Elam Hittites Media Mitanni Sumer Urartu Cities History Pre - / Protohistory Acheulean Mousterian Trialetian Zarzian Natufian Nemrikian Khiamian Pre-Pottery Neolithic A ( PPNA ) Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ( PPNB ) Hassuna / Samarra Halaf Ubaid Uruk Jemdet Nasr Kish civilization History Early Dynastic Akkadian Ur III Old Babylonian Kassite Neo-Assyrian Neo-Babylonian Achaemenid Seleucid Parthian Roman Sasanian Muslim conquest Timeline of the Assyrian Empire Languages Akkadian Amorite Aramaic Eblaite Elamite Gutian Hittite Hurrian Luwian Middle Persian Old Persian Parthian Proto - Armenian Sumerian Urartian Culture / Society Architecture Art Cuneiform script Akkadian literature Sumerian literature Music Religion Archaeology Looting Destruction by ISIL Tell Portal Iraq articles History Ancient Sumer Akkadian Empire Babylonia Assyria Neo-Assyrian Empire Neo-Babylonian Empire Achaemenid Assyria Seleucid Babylonia Parthian Babylonia Sassanid Asorestan 638 -- 1958 Muslim conquest of Persia Abbasid Caliphate Buyid dynasty Kara Koyunlu Ak Koyunlu Safavids Ottoman Iraq ( Mamluk dynasty ) Mandatory Iraq Kingdom of Iraq Arab Federation Republic 1958 -- 68 1968 -- 2003 2003 -- 11 2011 -- present Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party -- Iraq Region ( National Command ) Saddam Hussein Iran -- Iraq War Invasion of Kuwait Gulf War Sanctions Iraq War U.S. invasion Iraqi insurgency U.S. troop withdrawal Insurgency ( 2011 -- 2013 ) Civil War ( 2014 -- present ) Mosul liberation Geography Al - Faw Peninsula Al - Jazira Euphrates Hamrin Mountains Persian Gulf Islands Mesopotamia Mesopotamian Marshes Places Lakes Shatt al - Arab Syrian Desert Tigris Umm Qasr Zagros Mountains Politics Administrative divisions Constitution Council of Representatives ( legislative ) Elections Foreign aid Foreign relations Government Council of Ministers Presidency Council President Prime Minister Human rights in pre-Saddam Iraq in Saddam Hussein 's Iraq in post-invasion Iraq in ISIL - controlled territory LGBT Freedom of religion Women Law Military Police Political parties Judiciary Wars and conflicts Economy Central Bank Dinar ( currency ) Infrastructure Oil Industry Oil reserves Reconstruction Stock Exchange Telecommunications Transportation Society Cuisine Culture Education Health Media Music Sports Demographics Iraqis diaspora refugees Languages Arabic Aramaic Kurdish Persian Turkmen Minorities Armenians Assyrians Circassians Kurds Mandaeans Marsh Arabs Persians Solluba Turkmen Religion Islam Christianity Jews Mandaeism Yazidis Outline Index Portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sumer&oldid=803908962 '' Categories : States and territories established in the 4th millennium BC States and territories established in the 3rd millennium BC States and territories disestablished in the 20th century BC Sumer Civilizations Archaeology of Iraq Levant Populated places established in the 6th millennium BC 6th - millennium BC establishments Hidden categories : Articles containing Akkadian - language text Articles containing Sumerian - language text CS1 maint : Unfit url Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from March 2012 All articles lacking reliable references Articles lacking reliable references from March 2012 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015 Articles with unsourced statements from June 2011 Articles with unsourced statements from March 2012 Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from July 2017 Pages using citations with format and no URL CS1 maint : Extra text Coordinates on Wikidata Lists of coordinates Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikimedia Commons Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch አማርኛ Aragonés Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Чӑвашла Cebuano Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Emiliàn e rumagnòl Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Gaeilge Galego 贛 語 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Kurdî Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Limburgs Magyar Македонски മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Mirandés Монгол မြန်မာဘာသာ Nederlands नेपाल भाषा 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Occitan ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Patois Plattdüütsch Polski Português Română Русский Scots Shqip Sicilianu Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga کوردی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் ไทย Türkçe Türkmençe Українська اردو ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche Tiếng Việt Võro Winaray ייִדיש 粵語 Zazaki 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 5 October 2017, at 13 : 02. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: when did the sumer civilization begin and end
Answer: c. 4500 – c. 1900 BC