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Dictionary definition: Sumer
- Article from:
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
- Author:
Copyright© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. (Hide copyright information)
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Sumer (
Sumerian
) [CP].
The earliest recognized civilization in the world, focused on southern Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq and Iran. The name is taken from inscriptions, and has been applied to the language represented on clay tablets. Sumer (Biblical Shinar) began in the early 4th millennium
bc
. The main stimulus to development was probably the need to organize farming groups previously living in the highlands of Iran to take advantage of the floods and droughts of the Tigris–Euphrates Valley. As a ...