Sumerians
From Conservapedia
Sumerians were the people who dominated the southern mesopotamia through the end of the third millennium B.C. They were responsible for creating many aspects of Mesopotamian culture including irrigation technology. Sumerian civilization can be traced back to about 3300 B.C. and were conqured by the Akkad Kingdom in 2400 B.C. Ultimately the Sumerians were absorbed as part of Babylon.
The most famous early Sumerian king tracing to the time of the Akkad's was Sargon the Great.
The Sumerians had a written language consisting of cuneiform on clay tablets, and their most lasting architecture were the daunting ziggurats. The Tower of Babel is believed to have been of a ziggurat configuration.
They established agriculture based city-states Erech, Kish, Nippur, and Ur. It was the in the city of Ur that Abraham was eventually born.
Much of the religion of the Sumerians dealt with gods who were largely ambivalent to mankind at best or event cruel.
Sources
The Earth and Its Peoples A Global History, Bulliet et al, 2005. The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989
The Sumerians -- Their History, Culture and Character, by Samuel Noah Kramer, 1971
Iraq's Marsh Arabs, Modern Sumerians - The Oregonian, May 14, 2003
http://history-world.org/reforms_of_urukagina.htm
It was around 5300 BC- 4700 BC that a group of farmers called Sumerians moved into Mesopotamia,dominated Southern part of what would later become Iraq and Kuwait and perhaps even regions that are now submerged their later Empire cut through Syria to Lebanon. This seems to have been peaceful migration and economic boom for the region. Quality of Pottery, farming and trade improved quality of life in the region. No one is really sure were the Sumerians came from perhaps the regions of Iran, Caucasus, Anatolia perhaps even Russia or India thus suggestion that they were Proto Indo Iranian people. By 3800 BCE the Sumerians had supplanted and merged with the Ubaidians (name given to them by Archeologist) and Semites (from Syria and Arabia) in southern Mesopotamia.
They built better canals for irrigating crops and for transporting crops by boat to village centers. Their are credited with cunieform script and first literature including stories that share a common reference with Biblical stories of Noah, Flood and Cain and Abel. Hebrew Calander originated in Nippur a Sumerian City in 3760 BC. The North House of Hebrew Kingom called its capital Samaria Hebrew Šomron. Hebrew Abraham of Bible lived in Summer and departed Ur just as Sumerian Era was ending and being replaced by Semetic Akkadians.
Summerian City Lagash instigated history's first recorded Tax revolt. This came after Lagash's rulers had increased local taxes and restricted personal freedoms. The people of Lagash resented this enough that they overthrew their King. They brought to power a god-fearing ruler named Urukagina, who eliminated excessive taxation and rid the city of usurers, thieves and murderers -- the first known reforms.
