Mesopotamian cities in the late third and second millennia bc

In this chapter our examination of Mesopotamian cities reaches into the late third and second millennia BC. This is a period of important political change, when the traditional Sumerian concept of the city-state is challenged by state builders, even empire builders, resulting in the larger, more comprehensive political units of the Akkadians and the Third Dynasty of Ur. With these political changes come new emphases in architecture and royal imagery, always important elements of the ideology of cities and their rulers. Most attention will be given to the Sumerian city of Ur, already introduced in Chapter 2, and to Mari, famous for its monumental palace, a city created by one of the non-Sumerian Semitic peoples of central and northern Mesopotamia who would dominate the region for many centuries to come.