Sumer

Sumer is the earliest known civilization in southern Mesopotamia (in modern-day southern Iraq). They may have been one of the first civilizations in the world, as were Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley.^[1]

Sumer started around 3500 BC. The Sumerian civilization grew along the Tigris and Euphrates. This land was good for growing food. Sumerian culture is famous for its written cuneiform script - where letters were formed by pressing a triangle shaped reed into wet-clay tiles. They are also credited with creating the wheel, and dividing a day into 24 hours, and each hour into 60 minutes.

The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC. Early cuneiform script writing emerged in 3000 BC.^[2]

Sumerian communities were organized into city-states, each ruled by a priest or king, until Akkad conquered them in the third millennium BC. One of the most famous Sumerian cities was Ur (not the same city as Uruk, but near it).

1. ↑ King, Leonid W. 2015. A history of Sumer and Akkad,also Iraq. ISBN 1522847308
2. ↑ Mark, Joshua J. Cuneiform. 2018. in Ancient History Encyclopedia