Did you know that the Sumerians invented the written word, probably farming and inevitably bureaucracy. All starting around about 6000 B.C. Red Tape started all the way back then. I'm sure you remember my post about farming being the root of all evil, you can blame them for that too.
Sumer geography for the most part sits between two rivers: Tigris and Euphrates, the area/region was known as Mesopotamia. Which is Iraq today. My data on Sumer comes from a paper written for a doctrate degree some years ago in Cambridge I only mention this because it was considered be quite a breakthrough in Sumer histories and the interpretations surrounding the area. The paper was called: Cultrual Changes in Sumer after the Flood.
The two rivers flood on a regularly basis which is why the land between the rivers is so fertile, however there many flood myths which are attribute a particlarly large flood (The Flood) in the Sumer Empire round about 2400 B.C. Supposely the flood wiped out everyone leaving some chaps in a boat that just happened to be out fishing at the time.
It was at this time directly after the "flood" that the Sumer empire went into decline. What actually caused the change besides a big flood?
As a people they were not warlike which is unusal.
There was a definite shift in the balance of power after the flood, possibly some divisions within the government maybe.
A semitic ruler called Sargon succeeded in conquering the entire country. Eventually sumerians fused together with the invaders and became known as Akkadians. The Akkadian dynasty only lasted 100 years.
The Sumerians also developed the first calendar which lined up with the phases of the moon.
Then there is Gilgamesh the world's first superhero.
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