Sumerian City-States
The history of Sumer spans the late fifth to the third millennium BC in southern Mesopotamia, documenting the world's first transition from Neolithic village life to a complex urban civilization. This development was catalyzed by the "monumentalization of the sacred," a process where modest ritual shrines—most notably at Eridu—evolved into massive temple complexes that functioned as "sacred magnets." These centers exerted a centripetal force on the landscape, triggering an "urban implosion" that concentrated populations into the first true metropolises, such as Uruk.
Events on its territory
- c. 3200 BC Invention of writing in Sumer
- c. 2334 BC Sargon founds the Akkadian Empire