This module investigates the world's first urban society: third-millennium Mesopotamia (Sumer). Students explore how archaeologists and historians reconstruct social, political, and religious life from fragmentary evidence—temples, tablets, tombs, and texts—and grapple with the methodological challenges of combining archaeological and written sources. Teaching combines lectures with collaborative literature discussions to foster active learning, while assessment includes an online quiz and a 24-hour take-home exam requiring critical source evaluation and the development of an original research proposal.