Dictionary
Su•mer
Pronunciation: (sOO'mur), [key]—
n.
an ancient region in southern Mesopotamia that contained a number of independent cities and city-states of which the first were established possibly as early as 5000 b.c.: conquered by the Elamites and, about 2000b.c., by the Babylonians; a number of its cities, as Ur, Uruk, Kish, and Lagash, are major archaeological sites in southern Iraq.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.