Ancient Sumer: The First Civilization
PREHISTORY Sumer was a civilization in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), often credited as the world’s first complex society. It is believed to have developed around 4500 BCE, with significant urbanization by around 3100 BCE. Sumerians were the first known people to form city-states, develop a system of writing, and advance in mathematics, agriculture, and governance. While urbanization itself existed prior, Sumerians were the first to record themselves and begin what we would eventually call history. Sumer was first settled between 4500 and 4000 BCE by a non-Semitic people that did not speak Sumerian. These people now are called "proto-Euphrateans" or "Ubaidians" for the village of Al -ĘżUbayd, the place they were discovered in Southeastern Iraq. The Ubaid period is dated from about 5200 to c. 3500 BC within this region that would become Sumer, however evidence in the north of their presence is not seen until c.4300. There is much speculation as to exact...