The fist major civilization in Mesopotamia.
The region of Sumer, located between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in southern Mesopotamia (today's Iraq between Baghdad and the Persian Gulf), was the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations on earth.
Many people contributed to this development before the advent of the people now known as the Sumerians. When the Sumerians arrived from Anatolia in about 3300 BC they found a developed drainage system for the marshes of the region, developed trade routes and a people engaged in agriculture, weaving, metalwork, pottery and other industries. Sumerian soon became the language of the entire region.
The arrival of the Sumerians marked the beginning of cities. At least 12 separate city-states were established by about 3000 BC:
Each city was built around a temple, protected by a city wall and surrounded by villages and land. Originally the cities were controlled by their citizens, but attempts by cities to gain control over other cities led to the formation of a central power and each city evolved into a kingship. The Sumerian King List records that eight kings reigned before the Great Flood.
After the Great Flood the centre of power shifted repeatedly from one city to another. King Etana of Kish was the first to unite all city-states in about 2800 BC, but the unity did not hold long, and for hundreds of years central power changed repeatedly between Kish, Erech, Ur and Lagash.
The development of the Sumerian civilization has many parallels with Harappa, the first Indian civilization that flourished from about 2600 BC: division of labour based on a high level of agricultural productivity in a fertile river valley, staple food mainly barley (from which beer was made as well), brick as the basic building material, use of clay for seals and other documents. Both developed city-states; both used brick for walls of buildings and logs for ceilings, both invented the wheel and developed a script. The latter was, however, a late development in the Indian civilization, and the development of the cuneiform script in Sumer predates written Sanskrit in India by nearly 2,000 years. The Sumerian civilization is thus rightly seen as the cradle of writing.
The Sumerian period ended with the arrival of the Elamites in c. 2530 BC.