Sumerians

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