:: Sumer ::

::  Sumer     ::
 

 

Sumer, is the site of the earliest known civilization, located in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, in the area that later became Babylonia and is now southern Iraq from  around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf

  

Sumer was first settled between 4500 and 4000 bc by a non-Semitic people who did not speak the Sumerian language

 

These people now are called proto-Euphrateans or Ubaidians, for the village "Al-Ubaid", where their remains were first discovered

 

 The Ubaidians were the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for agriculture, developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery

 

 After the Ubaidian immigration to Mesopotamia, various Semitic peoples infiltrated their territory, adding their cultures to the Ubaidian culture, and creating a high pre-Sumerian civilization

 

The people called Sumerians, whose language became the prevailing language of the territory, probably came from around Anatolia, arriving in Sumer about 3300 bc

 

By the 3rd millennium bc the country was the site of at least 12 separate city-states: Kish, Erech, Ur, Sippar, Akshak, Larak, Nippur, Adab, Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira, and Larsa. Each of these states comprised a walled city and its surrounding villages and land, and each worshiped its own deity, whose temple was the central structure of the city

 

 Political power originally belonged to the citizens, but, as rivalry between the various city-states increased, each adopted the institution of kingship. An extant document, The Sumerian King List, records that eight kings reigned before the great Flood

 

After the Flood, various city-states and their dynasties of kings temporarily gained power over the others. The first king to unite the separate city-states was Etana, ruler of Kish (c. 2800 bc)

 

 Thereafter, Kish, Erech, Ur, and Lagash vied for ascendancy for hundreds of years, rendering Sumer vulnerable to external conquerors, first the Elamites (c. 2530–2450 bc) and later the Akkadians, led by their king Sargon (reigned 2334–2279 bc)

 

 Although Sargon’s dynasty lasted only about 100 years, it united the city-states and created a model of government that influenced all of Middle Eastern civilization.

 

  

 

 

 

This topic was a brief topic on the webpage :

 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/573176/Sumer

For full treatment, see the webpage :

 Mesopotamia, history of: Sumerian civilization