(modern DJOKHA)
Sumerian city in south Mesopotamia, excavated in 1930 by a French team under Henri de Genouillac. It was situated along a network of canals that linked the major rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Umma was a city-state of some importance in the Early Dynastic period. Its history is known primarily from tablets found at Lagash and Girsuthat document a long conflict over border territories. Some kings of Umma have left inscribed votive objects but are otherwise unknown. A certain Enakale attacked Eannatum of Lagash in the 25th century B.C. and thereafter concluded a treaty and erected a dike to delineate the border. This seems to have been respected for some time until the war flared up again under his successors, and it only came to an end with Lugalzagesi (reigned c. 2341–c. 2316), who attacked and destroyed Girsu, before conquering other Sumerian cities.
When Lugalzagesi was in turn defeated by Sargon of Akkad, Umma became part of the Akkad state. The city continued to prosper until the end of the third millennium B.C. The main deity of Umma was the god Shara.
Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia. EdwART. 2012.