Sumer, Sumeria

The southernmost part of Mesopotamia, where the first civilization developed in the 5th to 3rd millennia BC. Ubaidian settlers from central Mesopotamia established irrigation systems for intensive farming from about 6000 BC, and introduced brick masonry, pottery and weaving. State formation and urbanization in the 4th millennium BC led to the emergence of at least 12 city-states by about 2900 BC, with their own political and religious institutions and distinct cultural traditions. These states competed for regional dominance, the most powerful being Kish, Lagash, Uruk and Ur. Cultural developments in Sumeria during the Uruk period (4300-3100 BC) and Early Dynastic (c.2900- 2334 BC) include writing (Sumerian pictographs), urbanism, state institutions and sophisticated architecture and sculpture. Sumer was united with its northern neighbor, Akkad, in the 24th century BC, first by Lugalzagesi of Lagash and then by Sargon of Agade, before regaining political pre-eminence under the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112-2004 BC). Sumer merged with Akkad in the 2nd millennium BC to form Babylonia, which continued to influence Middle Eastern civilization until the Persian conquest in the 6th century BC.