LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Mesopotamia: Southern Mesopotamia
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Mesopotamia was first home to villages in the Neolithic period of around 8,000 BC. Permanent mudbrick residential structures were being constructed before the Ubaid period at southern sites such as Tell el-Oueili, as well as Ur, Eridu, Telloh, and Ubaid. At Tell Brak in northern Mesopotamia, architecture began appearing at least as early as 4400 BC. Temples were ... in evidence by the sixth millennium, in particular at Eridu.
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Mesopotamia was a cradle of civilization geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq. Sumer in southern Mesopotamia is commonly regarded as the world's earliest civilization. Cities in Mesopotamia later served as capitals of the Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Mitanni, Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Parthian, Sassanid and Abbasid empires. At other times, the region was ruled by foreign powers, notably the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Rashidun, Umayyad and Ottoman empires and kings.
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Despite their military prowess, Akkadian hegemony over southern Mesopotamia lasted only 200 years. Sargon's great- grandson was then overthrown by the Guti, a mountain people from the east. The fall of the Akkadians and the subsequent reemergence of Sumer under the king of Ur, who defeated the Guti, ushered in the third phase of Sumerian history. In this final phase, which was characterized by a synthesis of Sumerian and Akkadian cultures, the king of Ur established hegemony over much of Mesopotamia. Sumerian supremacy... was on the wane. By 2000 B.C. the combined attacks of the Amorites, a Semitic people from the west, and the Elamites, a Caucasian people from the east, had destroyed the Third Dynasty of Ur.
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In Assyria (the southern half of Mesopotamia aka Babylonia), men and women both wore extensive amounts of jewelry, including amulets, ankle bracelets, cylinder seals, and multi-strand necklaces. The jewelry of this period was manufactured from thin gold metal leaf set with brightly-colored stones such as agate, lapis, carnelian, and jasper, as shown in the examples below from Ur.
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Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, was the fertile river plain where civilization was born and where writing first appeared. Southern Mesopotamia was under the control of a series of kings from 3000 B.C. to the 6th century B.C. In its early history, Mesopotamia was a collection of agricultural city-states. These later gave way to centrally controlled empires which spread through conquest.
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The precariousness of existence in southern Mesopotamia ... led to a highly developed sense of religion. Cult centers such as Eridu, dating back to 5000 B.C., served as important centers of pilgrimage and devotion even before the rise of Sumer. Many of the most important Mesopotamian cities emerged in areas surrounding the pre-Sumerian cult centers, thus reinforcing the close relationship between religion and government.
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Southern Mesopotamia