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Akshak / Akcak This city first appeared in written records around 2600 BC and, during the period of its ascendancy in the twenty-fifth century BC, it was at war with Lagash.

Mari This city is the modern archaeological site of Tell Hariri on the west bank of the Euphrates, the most northerly of all the Sumerian city states, and a place of some importance.

Adab The city of Adab (the modern site of Bismaya or Bismya, or UD.NUN in cuneiform) was located between Girsu and Zabalam (to the south) and Nippur (to the north), with its principal deity being the goddess Ninhursag, and avoiding confusion with the archaeological site of Tell Bismaya.

Churches of Cornwall The bell-less Church of St Anne, Hessenford, was built in 1832 as a chapel-of-ease in St Germans parish, and was consecrated in 1833 with a shotgun being fired in lieu of a bell at weddings.

Hamazi The city of Hamazi had generally been thought to have been located in the western Zagros mountains, probably between Elam and the later Assyrian heartland, although more recent research has placed it in more hospitable circumstances.

Lagash / Sirpula The priest-rulers of Lagash are suspiciously absent from the Sumerian king list even though the first dynasty leader, Eannatum, built a short-lived empire out of Sumerian city states, instead being known from inscriptions on several important monuments from around the twenty-fifth century BC onwards.

Uruk III / Jemdet Nasr The Uruk III period which succeeded Uruk IV saw Uruk itself being thoroughly reconstructed, with Uruk-form tablets disappearing outside of southern Mesopotamia.

Awan / Avan One of Elam's oldest city state kingdoms, Awan (or Avan) arose around 2600 BC, but little is known of its origins and, culturally, Elamite states achieved less than their more advanced neighbours.

Ur / Urim By the Early Dynastic III period from 2600 BC small farming villages had consolidated into a thriving centre of industry, with Ur being considered sacred to the god Nanna or Nannar (or 'Sîn' in Akkadian).

Uruk This was already a major city by 3300 BC, and it was here that Sumerian civilisation seems to have reached its creative and social peak with many familiar urban human themes and groupings seeming to have emerged during this period.