Sumerian:
Uruk
Greek:
Orchoë
Modern:
Tall al-Warkāʾ
Key People:
Enmerkar
Related Topics:
archaeology
ziggurat
Related Places:
Iraq
Sumer
Mesopotamia

Erech, ancient Mesopotamian city located northwest of Ur (Tall Al-Muqayyar) in southeastern Iraq. The site has been excavated from 1928 onward by the German Oriental Society and the German Archeological Institute. Erech was one of the greatest cities of Sumer and was enclosed by brickwork walls about 6 miles (10 km) in circumference, which according to legend were built by the mythical hero Gilgamesh. Within the walls, excavations traced successive cities that date from the prehistoric Ubaid period, perhaps before 5000 bce, down to Parthian times (126 bce–224 ce). Urban life in what is known as the Erech–Jamdat Nasr period (c. 3500–c. 2900 bce) is more fully illustrated at Erech than at any other Mesopotamian city.

The two principal Sumerian divinities worshiped in ancient Erech appear to have been Anu (An), a sky god, and the goddess Inanna (“Queen of the Sky”). One of the chief landmarks of the city is the Anu ziggurat crowned by the “White Temple” of the Jamdat Nasr period, which was one of great prosperity—gold, silver, and copper were skillfully worked, and seals and amulets reflected a brilliant miniature craftsmanship.

The temenos (sacred enclosure) of Eanna, another ziggurat, bore witness to the attention of many powerful kings, including Ur-Nammu (reigned 2112–2095 bce), first king of the 3rd dynasty of Ur. Ur-Nammu also did much for the layout of the city, which then benefited from a Neo-Sumerian revival. Various architectural developments were associated with the Isin-Larsa period (c. 2017–1763) and with the Kassite period (c. 1595–c. 1157). Later rulers, including Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, also built in the district of Eanna.

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The city continued to prosper in Parthian times, when the last of an ancient school of learned scribes was still editing documents (c. 70 bce) in the cuneiform script.

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Key People:
Ernest de Sarzec
Related Topics:
“Eridu Genesis”
Related Places:
Iraq
Babylonia
Ur
Eridu
Lagash

Sumer, site of the earliest known civilization, located in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the area that later became Babylonia and is now southern Iraq, from around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.

A brief treatment of Sumerian civilization follows. For full treatment, see Mesopotamia, history of: Sumerian civilization.

Sumer was first settled between 4500 and 4000 bce by a non-Semitic people who did not speak the Sumerian language. These people now are called proto-Euphrateans or Ubaidians, for the village Al-ʿUbayd, where their remains were first discovered. The Ubaidians were the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for agriculture, developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery. After the Ubaidian immigration to Mesopotamia, various Semitic peoples infiltrated their territory, adding their cultures to the Ubaidian culture and creating a high pre-Sumerian civilization.

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The people called Sumerians, whose language became the prevailing language of the territory, probably came from around Anatolia, arriving in Sumer about 3300 bce. By the 3rd millennium bce the country was the site of at least 12 separate city-states: Kish, Erech (Uruk), Ur, Sippar, Akshak, Larak, Nippur, Adab, Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira, and Larsa. Each of these states comprised a walled city and its surrounding villages and land, and each worshipped its own deity, whose temple was the central structure of the city. Political power originally belonged to the citizens, but, as rivalry between the various city-states increased, each adopted the institution of kingship. An extant document, The Sumerian King List, records that eight kings reigned before the great Flood.

After the Flood, various city-states and their dynasties of kings temporarily gained power over the others. The first king to unite the separate city-states was Etana, ruler of Kish (c. 2800 bce). Thereafter, Kish, Erech, Ur, and Lagash vied for ascendancy for hundreds of years, rendering Sumer vulnerable to external conquerors, first the Elamites (c. 2530–2450 bce) and later the Akkadians, led by their king Sargon (reigned 2334–2279 bce). Although Sargon’s dynasty lasted only about 100 years, it united the city-states and created a model of government that influenced all of Middle Eastern civilization.

After Sargon’s dynasty ended and Sumer recovered from a devastating invasion by the semi-barbaric Gutians, the city-states once again became independent. The high point of this final era of Sumerian civilization was the reign of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, whose first king, Ur-Nammu, published the earliest law code yet discovered in Mesopotamia.

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After 1900 bce, when the Amorites conquered all of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians lost their separate identity, but they bequeathed their culture to their Semitic successors, and they left the world a number of technological and cultural contributions, including the first wheeled vehicles and potter’s wheels; the first system of writing, cuneiform; the first codes of law; and the first city-states.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
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