Excavations on unpromising mounds in the Iraqi desert revealed Sumer’s earliest city. Surviving relics and a rebuilt temple have given experts more clues about the ancient metropolis of Eridu.

The state archives of the ancient Sumerian site of Girsu, now Tello in the south of Iraq, contain plans of buildings, maps of canals, lists of commodities and the names and professions of citizens.

Bloomsbury Auctions/BNPSThis 5,000-year-old tablet depicting beer-making and a signed sales transaction was sold for $230,000. A wealthy American collector purchased an ancient Sumerian tablet for ...