Sumerian Timeline

5000 BCE – 200 BCE · 2 sites

Sumer is the usual starting point for “earliest cities”: Uruk, Ur, and neighbours on the southern Mesopotamian alluvium, with writing, temples, and irrigation appearing together in the fourth millennium BCE. Treat “first civilization” as a research shorthand, not a unique invention of complexity.

All sites in this period

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Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Iraq

Ur

3800 BCE – 500 BCE

Ur, a major Sumerian city-state in southern Mesopotamia, flourished from 3800 BCE to 500 BCE, renowned for its massive ziggurat, opulent royal tombs, and as the traditional birthplace of Abraham.

322

ChalcolithicBronze AgeIron Age

76

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Country Record

Oldest City in Iraq

Uruk

5000 BCE – 200 BCE

The world's first city — a 6-kilometre urban complex on the Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia that pioneered writing, monumental public architecture, cylinder seals, and civic organization around 3200 BCE, and whose legendary king Gilgamesh inspired the oldest surviving work of literature.

311

ChalcolithicBronze Age

75