![]() 3100 BCE) was developed into logographic writing around 2500 BCE (and a mixed form by about 2350 BCE). The development and system of administration led to the development of archaic tablets around 3500 BCE –3200 BCE and ideographic writing (c. Marad, E-igikalamma, Lugal-Marada (variant of Ninurta)īefore 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.Shuruppak, E-dimgalanna, Sud (variant of Ninlil, wife of Enlil).Umma, E-mah, Shara (son of Inana of Zabalam).From south to north, the principal temple-cities, their principal temple complex, and the gods they served, were 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. The centres of Eridu and Uruk, two of the earliest cities, had successively elaborated large temple complexes built of mud brick. The work required in maintaining irrigation canals called for, and the resulting surplus food enabled, relatively concentrated populations. Permanent year-round urban settlement may have been prompted by intensive agricultural practices. The first people at Eridu brought with them the Samarra culture from northern Mesopotamia and are identified with the Ubaid period, but it is not known whether or not these were Sumerians (associated later with the Uruk period). The Sumerians claimed that their civilization had been brought, fully formed, to the city of Eridu by their god Enki or by his advisor (or Abgallu from ab=water, gal=big, lu=man), Adapa U-an (the Oannes of Berossus). The oldest known settlement in southern Mesopotamia is Tell el-'Oueili. It was followed by a transitional period of Amorite states before the rise of Babylonia in the 18th century BCE. ![]() Sumer was the region's earliest known civilization and ended with the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BCE. The history of Sumer spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BCE in southern Mesopotamia, and is taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Alabaster, Early Dynastic III (2550–2500 BC) found in Telloh, ancient city of Girsu Votive relief of Ur-Nanshe, king of Lagash, representing the bird-god Anzu (or Im-dugud) as a lion-headed eagle. ![]()
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