Sumer

Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. The oldest tablets thus far discovered containing Sumerian pre-cuneiform script date to around 3500 BCE.

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The term "Sumerian" is an (a name given by another group of people), first applied by the Akkadians. The Sumerians described themselves as "the black-headed people" (sag-gi-ga) and called their land ki-en-gir, "place of the civilized lords". The Akkadian word Shumer possibly represents this name in dialect. The Sumerians, with a language, culture, and, perhaps, appearance different from their Semitic neighbors and successors were at one time believed to have been invaders, but the archaeological record shows cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (5200-4500 BC C-14) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The challenge for any population attempting to dwell in Iraq's arid southern floodplain was to master the Tigris and Euphrates river waters for year-round agriculture and drinking water. In fact, the Sumerian language is replete with terms for canals, dikes, and reservoirs, indicating that Sumerian speakers were farmers who moved down from the north after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via 'Choga Mami Transitional' ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (5700-4900 BC C-14) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris river and its tributaries. Sumerian speakers spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a social organization and a technology that enabled them, through their control of the water, to survive and prosper in a difficult environment where, other than a probable indigenous hunter-gatherer population in the marshlands at the head of the Arabo-Persian Gulf and seasonal pastoralists, they had no competition. Some suggest their prosperity enabled them to expand out from Sumer for at least two millenia before the pressure of other populations restricted them to their southern Mesopotamian home.

Shinar: "Shinar" (Hebrew שנער, Septuagint Senaar) is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring eight times in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Genesis 10:10, the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom is said to have been "Babel, and Uruk, and Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shi...

Mesopotamia: :For other uses see Mesopotamia (disambiguation)....

Babylonia: Babylonia, named for the city of Babylon, was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. Its capital was Babylon. The earliest mention of Babylon can be found in a tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad, dating back to the 23rd century BC....

Sumer related Images and Photos (experimental)

A Close View of a Gilded Bull from Pre-Babylonian Sumer in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad Iraq