by Tammy Winand

Created on: September 03, 2008

Archaeologists have established that the oldest civilized cultures in the world inhabited the area known as The Fertile Crescent and migrated to Mesopotamia (Ancient Greek for "land between the rivers", meaning the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), which is in modern-day Iraq. Sumeria is considered history's first major civilization. It was here that mankind first developed written language, sustainable agriculture, and made its first inventions, such as the wheel.

There is some dispute as to whether Eridu or Uruk, both in Sumeria, or southern Mesopotamia, was the first full-fledged city. The ruins of Eridu, near the modern day village of Tell abu Shahrain, (near Basra in southern Iraq), were first excavated in 1949. Some feel that Eridu, which dates back to at least 5000 B.C., was more a ceremonial center than an actual city, as it was the legendary home of the god Enki and believed by the Sumerians to be the site of "the mound of creation".

Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq), on the other hand, was discovered in 1849 by British geologist and explorer Willian Loftus and has been dated to around 4000 B.C. The sites of houses and workshops as well as religious and political centers have been identified there. The earliest written records (in cuneiform) make frequent reference to Uruk. At the height of its power, in roughly 2900 B.C., as many as 80,000 inhabitants called the city home.

At both of these locations, as throughout the region in ancient times, religion played a major role in daily life. The culture was a polytheistic one, worshipping a pantheon of deities who personified such aspects of the world as sky (An), earth (Ki), sun (Utu), moon (Nanna), and Venus (Inanna). Oftentimes certain deities became more closely associated with a particular city, thus rising or falling in popularity according to the political might of that city. Pyramid-like temples, called ziggurats, were the place of worship.

In addition to their development of writing and the wheel (originally a potter's wheel), the Sumerians were an agricultural society who grew a variety of grains and vegetables in canal-irrigated fields. They also tended herds of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. The primary beasts of burden were oxen and donkeys. Competition for land and political power in the area kept the people in an almost constant state of warfare.

Other developments of the Sumerians included an advanced mathematical system and a lunisolar calendar. The best known examples of literature from this culture is the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem concerning two men's legendary adventures, and the King List, a part historic, part mythologic list which details the rule of early regional kings.

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