01/10/2025
The Sumerian civilization, emerging around 4500 BCE in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), is considered one of the world's first urban societies, known for creating the first cities like Uruk, Ur, and Eridu.
They developed one of the earliest writing systems, cuneiform, which allowed them to document laws, trade, literature, and religious practices.
The Sumerians were pioneers in science, mathematics, and architecture, building ziggurats (massive stepped temples) and devising a 60-based numerical system still used in measuring time.
Their political structure revolved around city-states governed by kings, often in cooperation with priests, reflecting their deeply intertwined religion and governance.
Though the civilization declined around 2000 BCE, after invasions by the Akkadians, Amorites, and others, its innovations profoundly influenced later cultures in the region, laying the foundation for subsequent empires like Babylon and Assyria.