the sumerians

Cradled by the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in what is today Iraq, the Sumerians of Mesopatamia established the earliest known society in which people could read and write. Although the Sumerian's gift of writing made possible the recording of history, Sumer itself was lost until a century ago, when the translation of cunieform tablets revealed a civilization and a language quite unlike the Semitic tongues of the Babylonians and Assyrians. The Sumerians came from the …

…lowlands of the lower Tigris River, local traditions place the Garden of Eden in the marshes. Some archaeologists suggest that prehistoric people would have indeed found a paradise in the waters teeming with fish and waterfowl. As farmers learned to plow the land and tame the waters, a fabled granary flourished in the plain of Mesopotamia. It was then that the Sumerians stood as literary and urban pioneers, ready to change the face of history.