ABSTRACT
From written and archaeological sources, we can build up a reasonably comprehensive picture of Sumerian history, in what is known as the Early Dynastic period (c. 2900-2334). Politically, the Sumerian world was divided among fourteen city-states: Sippar, Kish, Akshak, Larak, Nippur, Adab, Shuruppak, Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira, Uruk, Larsa, Ur and Eridu. Most of these had three main sectors: (a) a walled inner city containing temples, palaces, ocial administrative quarters, and some domestic dwellings; within the city-centre lay the temple-enclosure, generally surrounded by an oval wall; (b) the kar, a business district located on the canal-banks to facilitate trading operations between cities linked by southern Mesopotamia’s waterways; (c) a suburban area (uru-bar-ra), which included outlying rural districts.
