Sumer
One of the world’s earliest civilizations, emerging in southern Mesopotamia around 4500–1900 BCE.
Known for city-states like Ur and Uruk, the invention of cuneiform writing, and major advances in law, math, and architecture.
Developed irrigation, trade networks, and religious temples (ziggurats) that shaped later Mesopotamian cultures.
Periods & Dynasties
Sumer was the earliest known civilization in Mesopotamia, located in southern Iraq. It developed the first cities, writing, schools, kingship, laws, and large-scale agriculture.
Sumerian history is divided into several major periods and dynasties.
Ubaid Period
The Pre-Sumerian Foundation
Early Dynastic Period
The Age of City-States and Kings
Ur III Period / Neo-Sumerian Empire
Sumer Reborn
This is a golden age of centralized Sumerian culture.
Uruk Period
Birth of Cities & Writing
Akkadian Empire Period
Sumer annexed by Akkadian kings
Isin-Larsa Period
Post-Sumerian Fragmentation.
After the fall of Ur III, Sumerian and Akkadian cities competed for power.
Jemdet Nasr Period
Early Administration & Expansion
Gutian Period
Foreign Rule & Decline
Old Babylonian Period
Final End of Sumerian Civilization