Editing History of Sumer (section)

==Earliest city-states==

[[File:Cities of Sumer (en).svg|thumb|260px|Map of [[Sumer]]]]

Permanent year-round urban settlement may have been prompted by intensive agricultural practices. The work required in maintaining [[irrigation]] canals called for, and the resulting surplus food enabled, relatively concentrated populations. The centres of [[Eridu]] and [[Uruk]], two of the earliest cities, had successively elaborated large temple complexes built of mud brick. 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. From south to north, the principal temple-cities, their principal temple complex, and the gods they served,<ref>George, Andrew (1993), ''House Most High. The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia'', Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.</ref> were

{| class="wikitable"
 |-
 ! City !! Temple Complex !! God(s)
 |-
 | [[Eridu]] || [[E-Abzu]] || [[Enki]]
 |-
 | [[Ur]] || [[E-kishnugal]] || [[Sin (mythology)|Nanna]] (moon)
 |-
 | [[Larsa]] || [[E-babbar]] || [[Utu]] (sun)
 |-
 | [[Uruk]] || [[E-anna]] || [[Inana]] and [[An (goddess)|An]]
 |-
 | [[Bad-tibira]] || [[E-mush]] || [[Tammuz (deity)|Dumuzi]] and [[Inana]]
 |-
 | [[Girsu]] || [[E-ninnu]] || [[Ningirsu]]
 |-
 | [[Umma]] || [[E-mah]] || [[Shara (god)|Shara]] (son of Inana of [[Zabalam]])
 |-
 | [[Nippur]] || [[E-kur]] || [[Enlil]]
 |-
 | [[Shuruppak]] || [[E-dimgalanna]] || Sud (variant of [[Ninlil]], wife of Enlil)
 |-
 | [[Marad]] || [[E-igikalamma]] || [[Lugal-Marada]] (variant of [[Ninurta]])
 |-
 | [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]] || ? || [[Ninhursag]]
 |-
 | [[Sippar]] || [[E-babbar]] || [[Utu]] (sun)
 |-
 | [[Kutha]] || [[E-meslam]] || [[Nergal]]
 |}

Before 3000 BCE the political life of the city was headed by a priest-king (''[[Ensi (Sumerian)|ensi]]'') assisted by a council of elders<ref>Jacobsen, Thorkild (Ed) (1939),"The Sumerian King List" (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Assyriological Studies, No. 11.)</ref> and based on these temples, but it is unknown how the cities had secular rulers rise in prominence from the earliest times.<ref>[[Harriet Crawford]]. ''Sumer and the Sumerians''. 2004. Page 28</ref> The development and system of administration led to the development of archaic tablets<ref>Cuneiform. By C. B. F. Walker.</ref> around 3500 BCE<ref>Records of the Past, Volume 5, Issue 11. Edited by Henry Mason Baum, Frederick Bennett Wright, George Frederick Wright. [[Records of the Past Exploration Society]]., 1906. Pg 352.</ref>–3200 BCE<ref>[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~piotrm/WRISYRRE.htm The Adaptation of Cuneiform to Akkadian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823172941/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~piotrm/WRISYRRE.htm |date=2013-08-23 }}  Piotr Michalowski University of Michigan, Ann Arbor</ref> and [[ideograph]]ic writing (c. 3100 BCE) [[history of writing|was developed]] into [[logograph]]ic writing around 2500 BCE (and a mixed form by about 2350 BCE).<ref>''Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries''. Cengage Learning, Jan 1, 2008. pages 12–13.</ref> As Sumerologist Christopher Woods<ref>Christopher Woods. Associate Professor of Sumerian. http://nelc.uchicago.edu/faculty/woods {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410071358/http://nelc.uchicago.edu/faculty/woods |date=2013-04-10 }}</ref> points out in ''Earliest Mesopotamian Writing'': "A precise date for the earliest cuneiform texts has proved elusive, as virtually all the tablets were discovered in secondary archaeological contexts, specifically, in rubbish heaps that defy accurate stratigraphic analysis. The sun-hardened clay tablets, having obviously outlived their usefulness, were used along with other waste, such as potsherds, clay sealings, and broken mud bricks, as fill in leveling the foundations of new construction—consequently, it is impossible to establish when the tablets were written and used."<ref>{{citation |last1=Woods |first1=Christopher |editor1-first=Christopher |editor1-last=Woods |title=Visible Language. Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond |chapter-url=http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oimp32.pdf |series=Oriental Institute Museum Publications |volume=32 |year=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago |location=Chicago |isbn=978-1-885923-76-9 |chapter=The Earliest Mesopotamian Writing |pages=33–50 |access-date=2013-07-19 |archive-date=2021-08-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826005847/https://oi.uchicago.edu//sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/oimp32.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Even so, it is proposed that the ideas of writing developed across the area, according to Theo J. H. Krispijn,<ref>The Idea of Writing: Writing Across Borders. Edited by [[Alex de Voogt]], [[Joachim Friedrich Quack]]. BRILL, Dec 9, 2011. Page [https://books.google.com/books?id=KTA6MsEjkPIC&pg=PA181 181] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129102521/https://books.google.com/books?id=KTA6MsEjkPIC&pg=PA181#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=2023-11-29 }}.</ref><ref>Drs. T.J.H. (Theo) Krispijn - Assyriology - Faculty of Humanities http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lias/organisation/assyriology/krispijntjh.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130519015253/http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lias/organisation/assyriology/krispijntjh.html |date=2013-05-19 }}</ref> along the following time-frame:<ref>via [[:de:Dietrich Sürenhagen|Dietrich Sürenhagen]] (1999)</ref>

''Relative [[stratigraphy]] chronology''<br />
<timeline>
ImageSize = width:555 height:75
PlotArea  = left:25 right:15 bottom:20 top:25
AlignBars = justify

Colors =
    id:time value:rgb(0.7,0.7,1) #
    id:period value:rgb(1,0.7,0.5) #
    id:age value:rgb(0.95,0.85,0.5) #
    id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) #
    id:eon value:rgb(1,0.85,0.7) #
    id:filler value:gray(0.8) # background bar
    id:black value:black

Period     = from:-5300 till:-1940
TimeAxis   = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:200 start:-5300
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:50 start:-5300

PlotData =
  align:center textcolor:black fontsize:10 mark:(line,black)

 mark:(line,black)  textcolor:black  fontsize:M
 bar:&nbsp;  mark:(line,black)  align:center  shift:(0,15)

 at:-3400 text:A width:20
 at:-3300 text:B width:20
 at:-3240 text:C width:20
 at:-3000 text:D width:20

  bar:&nbsp; color:era  mark:(line,black) width:10
  from:-4100 till:-3300 shift:(0,0) text:[[Uruk|Uruk XIV-V]]
  from:-3300 till:-3000 shift:(0,0) text:[[Uruk|Uruk IV]]
  from:-3100 till:-2900 shift:(0,-10) text: [[Uruk|Uruk III]]
</timeline>
<br />
:::<small>'''A''' : c. 3400 BCE : numerical [[Clay tablet|tablet]]; '''B''' : c. 3300 BCE : numerical tablet with [[logogram]]s;<br />'''C''' : c. 3240 BCE : script ([[Phonogram (linguistics)|phonogram]]s); '''D''' : c. 3000 BCE : lexical script</small>