- 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.
- Eridu (Wikipedia)
Eridu (Cuneiform: NUN.KI ๐ฃ๐ ; Sumerian: eridugki; Akkadian: irรฎtu) was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain (Arabic: ุชู ุฃุจู ุดูุฑูู), also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in southern Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq near the modern city of Basra. Eridu is traditionally believed to be the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia based on the Sumerian King List.
- Ur (Wikipedia)
Ur (/สษr/; Sumerian: ๐ถ๐ , ๐๐๐ , or ๐๐๐ Urim; Akkadian: ๐๐๐ Uru; Arabic: ุฃูููุฑ, romanized: สพลซr; Hebrew: ืืึผืจโ) was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar (Arabic: ุชู ูฑููู
ููููููุฑ) in south Iraq’s Dhi Qar Governorate. Although Ur was once a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, the coastline has shifted and the city is now well inland, on the south bank of the Euphrates, 16 km (10 mi) from Nasiriyah in modern-day Iraq. The city dates from the Ubaid period circa 3800 BC, and is recorded in written history as a city-state from the 26th century BC, its first recorded king being Mesannepada.
- Sumer (/หsuหmษr/) is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. Like nearby Elam, it is one of the cradles of civilization, along with Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, Caral-Supe, and Mesoamerica. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, a surplus which enabled them to form urban settlements. The world’s earliest known texts come from the Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, and date to between c.โ3350 โ c.โ2500 BC, following a period of proto-writing c.โ4000 โ c.โ2500 BC.