Battles & Wars › Ancient world
First recorded wars: Sumer's city-states and Elam
c. 2700–2300 BC· War· Middle East & Africa
Mostly agreedGood evidence; some details, dates or numbers uncertain.
The first wars known from writing, fought among the walled city-states of Sumer, in southern Iraq, and against Elam in Iran.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Sumer was divided among a dozen or so rival cities, such as Kish, Uruk, Ur, Lagash and Umma, each with its own king and patron god. The Sumerian King List says Enmebaragesi of Kish, around 2700 BC, carried off the weapons of Elam as spoil, the oldest war named in writing. Cities fought over fields, water and canals. The Standard of Ur shows helmeted spearmen and four-wheeled battle wagons. Sargon of Akkad ended the era by conquering them all.
Why it matters
Writing turned war into recorded history, with named kings, border treaties and victory propaganda. Many basics of later warfare, from formations to fortified cities, already appear here.
How we know
Royal inscriptions on clay and stone, the Sumerian King List, the Stele of the Vultures, the Standard of Ur, and weapons and armor from the Royal Cemetery of Ur.
Still debated
The King List mixes history with legend, so early kings' dates and deeds, including Enmebaragesi's war with Elam, are uncertain.
Inside this (3)
Connections (6)
▸Destruction of Hamoukar: early evidence of a city siege foreshadowed First recorded wars: Sumer's city-states and ElamMostly agreed
The connection
Hamoukar's destruction suggests organized attacks on cities in Mesopotamia some 800 years before Sumer's first recorded wars. The written wars of Sumer, between walled cities like Lagash and Umma, continued a pattern first visible in Hamoukar's ruins.
When and how
Hamoukar, northeastern Syria, about 3500 BC; Sumer's recorded wars in southern Iraq from about 2700 BC.
How sure are we?
The link is one of pattern and region: walled cities and organized attacks in both. No text describes Hamoukar's fall.
Debates and open questions
Whether the Uruk culture linked to Hamoukar's fall directly prefigured the Sumerian city-states' wars, or other conflicts filled the gap, is unknown.
▸Prehistoric warfare: the first massacres entered written history with First recorded wars: Sumer's city-states and ElamMostly agreed
The connection
Organized violence long predated writing. When Sumerian scribes began recording kings' deeds, war was among their first subjects: who fought, over what land, and with what treaty. The first recorded wars were an old practice newly written down.
When and how
Sumer, southern Iraq, from about 2500 BC in royal inscriptions such as Eannatum's of Lagash; the later King List places a war with Elam around 2700 BC.
How sure are we?
Archaeology shows violence and fortification before writing; early inscriptions then describe battles and treaties directly.
Debates and open questions
The oldest records mix legend with history, so which war counts as the first recorded depends on which sources one trusts.
▸Lagash–Umma border war is the best-documented conflict of First recorded wars: Sumer's city-states and ElamWell documented
The connection
Of the many wars between Sumer's cities, the long Lagash–Umma dispute is the one whose causes, battles, treaties and generations of rulers can be followed in detail, thanks to Lagash's inscriptions. It is the best window on how city-states fought.
When and how
Southern Iraq, about 2500–2350 BC, between Lagash and Umma, under rulers such as Eannatum, Enmetena and Lugalzagesi.
How we know
Many contemporary inscriptions from Lagash, including the Stele of the Vultures and Enmetena's cone, describe the conflict.
Debates and open questions
Because nearly all the texts come from Lagash, how Umma saw the dispute is mostly lost.
▸Sargon of Akkad and the first empire ended the city-state era of First recorded wars: Sumer's city-states and ElamMostly agreed
The connection
Sargon defeated Lugalzagesi, who had united much of Sumer, and placed its cities under rule from Akkad. Instead of independent cities fighting one another, wars were now fought by one empire against rebels and outside peoples.
When and how
Southern and central Mesopotamia, around 2334–2279 BC (traditional dates).
How sure are we?
Later copies of Sargon's own inscriptions, made by Babylonian scribes at Nippur, list his victories over Uruk, Ur, Lagash and Umma.
Debates and open questions
Sumer's cities rebelled often under Akkad and regained independence after it fell, so the city-state era ended only for a time.
▸First recorded wars: Sumer's city-states and Elam fielded heavy battle wagons, forerunners of the War chariotMostly agreed
The connection
Sumerian armies used heavy four-wheeled wagons with solid wheels, pulled by donkey-like animals, carrying a driver and a javelin thrower. Slow and hard to turn, they were not true chariots, but they show wheeled fighting platforms centuries before the light, spoked-wheel chariot appeared around 2000 BC.
When and how
Southern Mesopotamia, about 2600–2400 BC, shown on the Standard of Ur and the Stele of the Vultures.
How sure are we?
Art from Ur and Lagash and wagon remains in royal tombs. A 2022 DNA study identified kungas, the prized draft animals of the age, as hybrids of donkeys and Syrian wild asses.
Debates and open questions
Whether these wagons were true ancestors of the chariot or a dead end is debated; the spoked chariot probably arose on the steppe.
▸First recorded wars: Sumer's city-states and Elam were fought with the new Bronze weapons: the first metal armsMostly agreed
The connection
Sumer's armies carried spears, axes and daggers of copper and early bronze, made in palace workshops from imported metal. Metal blades and copper helmets gave cities with access to trade an edge, and made metal supply a matter of state.
When and how
Southern Iraq, about 2700–2300 BC; Ur's Royal Cemetery, excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s, is the richest source.
How sure are we?
Excavated weapons from Ur and other cities, chemical analysis of their alloys, and pictures on the Standard of Ur and the Stele of the Vultures.
Debates and open questions
How many ordinary soldiers, rather than elites, had metal weapons is uncertain; many early 'bronze' weapons are really arsenical copper.