Collapse of the Uruk cities left a vacuum in Mesopotamia. But that was soon filled by the first “civilizations” or city-states and empires of the world. In Mesopotamia these appeared in the Early Bronze Age (about 3,200–2,100 BCE). The main features of this period include the development of elaborate writing systems under the rule of multiple Sumerian city-states in southern Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic Period. These city states, however, were soon unified by Sargon into the Akkadian Empire, the most extensive polity seen so far. The fall of Akkad, caused by a major and long-term drought, opened the door for the migration of Amorites to Mesopotamia as well as the establishment of the Third Dynasty of Ur or the Neo-Sumerian Empire, whose “royal cemetery” demonstrates the apex of social complexity and social stratification in the Near East. At the same time, the genesis of a new empire, the Elamites, was planted in southwestern Iran.
Arslantepe (Turkey)
Eridu (Iraq)
Hacinebi (Turkey)
Tall-I Malyan (Iran)
Tell Leilan (Syria)
Ur (Iraq)
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