Archaeology of Iraq - Sumer, Ziggurat, Akkadian Empire, Sumerian Farmer's Almanac, Ubaid Period, Sumerian Religion, Standard of Ur (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 26. Chapters: Sumer, Ziggurat, Akkadian Empire, Sumerian Farmer's Almanac, Ubaid period, Sumerian religion, Standard of Ur, Stele of the Vultures, Archaeological looting in Iraq, British Institute for the Study of Iraq, Lyres of Ur, Uruk period, Zarzian culture, Ubaid house. Excerpt: Sumer (from Akkadian; Sumerian, approximately "land of the civilized lords" or "native land") was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. Sumer was first settled between 4500 and 4000 BC by a non-Semitic people who did not speak the Sumerian language. These people are now called proto-Euphrateans or Ubaidians, and had evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia. 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. However, some, such as Piotr Michalowski and Gerd Steiner, contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the Jemdat Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. It was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC (short chronology). Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the third dynasty of Ur (Sumerian Renaissance) of the 21st to 20th centuries BC. The cities of Sumer were the first civilization to practice intensive, year-round agriculture, by perhaps c. 5000 BC showing the use of core agricultural techniques, including large-scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labour force. The surplus of storable food created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place, inst...