Liviu Giosan

Morphodynamic Foundations of Coastal Sumer

Liviu Giosan

The world’s first cities and states, in their modern definition, developed from 6000 to 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia near the coast of the Persian Gulf, on the combined delta of Tigris and Euphrates. Despite more than 200 years of research their emergence remains enigmatic. Here I discuss the environmental context for coastal Sumer based on recent drilling-based work in Iraq and propose a new morphodynamic theory for urbanization.