Civilization · Early Bronze Age · Sumer

Sumer

c. 4500–1900 BCE

Sumer was the first urban civilization, in the marshy south of Mesopotamia. Its people invented writing, the wheel, and the city itself. Sumerian city states such as Uruk and Ur dominated the region until the Akkadians conquered them.

Facts

Founded: c. 4500 BCE, with the first cities; Uruk the greatest of them.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sumer
Ended: c. 1900 BCE, absorbed by the Amorite kingdoms and then Babylon.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sumer
Heartland: Southern Mesopotamia, in present day Iraq.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sumer
Major rulers: Gilgamesh of Uruk, the legendary king; Ur Nammu, founder of Ur's Third Dynasty.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sumer

Images

The Standard of Ur, a Sumerian mosaic from about 2600 BCE showing war and peace. (Wikimedia Commons)

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