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The Sumerians were an ancient people who established one of the world's earliest civilizations. They lived in southern Mesopotamia, a region that is now part of Iraq, from about 4000 to 1750 BCE. Their society was not a single nation but a collection of powerful and often rival city-states, each governed by its own king. A neighboring people, the Akkadians, named the region Sumer, meaning 'land of the civilized kings.' The Sumerians themselves simply called it 'the land of the black-headed people.'
This society was responsible for a remarkable number of foundational innovations. Their contributions were so fundamental to how humans organize their world that the Sumerians can be accurately called the inventors of civilization. Among their most influential creations was the concept of dividing time. They developed the system of 60-second minutes and 60-minute hours, as well as the 12-hour day and night. Beyond measuring time, they built the world's first true cities and developed the first system of writing, known as cuneiform. They also created the earliest schools, epic poems, legal precedents, and complex irrigation techniques. They even produced the earliest known versions of stories like the Great Flood, which would later appear in the texts of other cultures.
No one knows where the Sumerians came from, but by circa 2900 BCE, they were firmly established in southern Mesopotamia. The history of this region is divided by modern scholars into six eras:
This early period saw the rise of kings and organized government. The Sumerian city-states were sometimes united under a single powerful ruler. One such leader was Enembaragesi of Kish, who led a war against the neighboring land of Elam around 2700 BCE. This is the first war recorded in history. Sumer was permanently united through conquest by Sargon of Akkad around 2334 BCE, who made it the center of his vast empire. He maintained control by appointing loyal officials, including his own daughter, Enheduanna, as a high priestess. Enheduanna is the world's first author known by name.
Sumerian cities, before and after the conquests, grew rich from trade. The relative stability of the cities encouraged cultural growth, innovation, and invention. Scholar Samuel Noah Kramer, in his iconic work History Begins at Sumer, explores 39 "firsts" in the world which originated with the Sumerians:
Later, after invasions by the Gutian people, Sumerian culture experienced a revival under King Ur-Nammu and his son Shulgi. This era is known as the Sumerian Renaissance. During periods of stability, the cities grew wealthy from trade, which encouraged a surge of cultural and technological innovation. Historian Samuel Noah Kramer famously listed 39 'firsts' that originated in Sumer. His list includes the first schools, the first tax reduction, the first libraries, the first love songs, and the first fables. The very concept of the city was a Sumerian invention. Some of their most important early cities were Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Nippur, and Kish.
At the heart of each Sumerian city was a great stepped temple called a ziggurat. This temple was believed to be the home of the city's protective deity. For the Sumerians, the first city of all was Eridu, which they believed was raised from the marshes by Enki, the god of wisdom and water. In Sumerian myth, Eridu was a sacred place where kingship and order were first established. Scholar Gwendolyn Leick explains that the Mesopotamian idea of a perfect beginning was not a garden, but a city. She writes: "The Mesopotamian Eden is not a garden but a city, formed from a piece of dry land surrounded by the waters. The first building is a temple…Eridu provides the mythical paradigm."
According to myth, Eridu's prominence was later diminished by the goddess Inanna. In a famous story, Inanna visits her father Enki in Eridu and gets him drunk. She then cleverly steals the divine rules of civilization, known as the meh, and takes them to her own city of Uruk. Scholars believe this story reflects a real historical shift from an older, agriculture-focused culture, symbolized by Eridu, to a new era of powerful urban centers like Uruk.
The Sumerian city-state was governed by a king, the lugal (literally "big man"), who oversaw the cultivation of the land, among many other responsibilities, and was bound to the gods to ensure their will was done on earth. The lugal was initially head of a "household" – a closely-knit community that pooled their resources – and the household concept would continue as the underlying power structure of the cities.
Religion was central to Sumerian government and daily life. People believed the gods had created order from chaos, and it was humanity's duty to work with the gods to maintain that order. This belief required widespread cooperation. While Sumerians prized individuality and their city-states often fought, they also had to work together for large-scale projects like irrigation. As Samuel Noah Kramer noted, this need for organized water management helped drive the creation of strong government and the Sumerian state.
The earliest known flood story comes from Sumer. The Eridu Genesis, written around 2300 BCE, tells how the gods sent a great flood to destroy noisy humanity. The god Enki warned a man named Ziusudra to build a boat to save himself and animals. After the flood, the gods decided to limit human life and ambition by introducing death and disease. This story clearly influenced later flood legends, including the one in the Bible.
Sumerian became the lingua franca of Mesopotamia and established the writing system known as cuneiform, which would later be used to record other languages. The Sumerian King List traces the line of kings back to the beginning of time. The earliest kings are given impossibly long reigns, but the list eventually includes historical figures. The ruler of a city-state was called the lugal, or 'big man.' He was responsible for managing land, law, and ensuring the gods' will was done. Scholar Paul Kriwaczek points out how revolutionary the Sumerian mindset was: "They were the very first to adopt the principle... that it is humanity's right, its mission and its destiny, to transform and improve on nature and become her master."
As Sumerian cities expanded, their need for record-keeping led to one of their greatest inventions: writing. Around 3500 BCE, they began using simple pictures on clay tablets to track trade goods like sheep and goats. This system evolved over centuries into cuneiform script, a flexible writing system used to record not just accounts, but also great literature like The Epic of Gilgamesh. Sumerian became the common written language of Mesopotamia, even as other spoken languages existed. Their literature, laws, and concepts of the gods deeply influenced later cultures, including the Egyptians and the authors of biblical texts.
Despite their strengths, Sumerian civilization began to decline. Overuse of farmland, climate shifts, and constant conflicts weakened the city-states. The final blow came with the rise of new powers. The Amorites gained influence in Babylon, and their king, Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE), promoted a new supreme male god, Marduk, over the traditional Sumerian deities. This shift in religion was accompanied by a decline in the social status of women, who had held relatively high rights in Sumerian society. The precise connection between these changes is unclear, but they marked a major cultural transformation. When the Elamites invaded the region around 1750 BCE, Sumerian culture had already faded. The invasion simply ended it.
After its collapse, Sumer was forgotten for centuries. References in ancient texts, like the 'land of Shinar' in the Bible, were not understood. This changed in the mid-19th century when archaeologists began excavating in Mesopotamia. They were initially looking for evidence to support biblical stories. Instead, they uncovered the lost civilization of Sumer. They found its cities, its tablets, and its art, revealing a culture whose many 'firsts' laid the groundwork for much of the ancient world and, ultimately, for modern society.