Details from the war scene of the Standard of Ur (Sumer, c. 2500 BC).Sumer was the southernmost regi

Details from the war scene of the Standard of Ur (Sumer, c. 2500 BC).Sumer was the southernmost region of Mesopotamia in ancient times. It was never a cohesive political entity: it was a region ofcity-states, each with its own king.The word “Sumer” comes from the Akkadian language, meaning “landof the civilized kings”.  The Sumerians called themselves “theblack-haired people”, and they called their land simply “theland” or “the land of the black-haired people”.Sumer was the first “civilization” in history, and many thingsthat we now take for granted originated there.  Sumer had the firstschools, the earliest version of the Great Flood story (and otherbiblical narratives), and the first aquarium.  The Sumerians were thefirst people to create a writing system, and so they had the oldestwritten heroic epic, love songs and funeral chants.  They alsoinvented the wheel.The idea of legal precedents in court cases comes from Sumer, and sodoes governmental bureaucracy and administration.  The Sumeriansdeveloped irrigation techniques and monumental architecture; Ur-Nammuwrote the first legal code, which would become the model for the morewell-known Code of Hammurabi.The Sumerians had a sexigesimal counting system (based on 60).  Thiseventually led to the practice of dividing the hour into 60 minutes,and the minute into 60 seconds.  During the Sumerian Renaissance, dayand night were divided into 12 hours each.  The kings of this timeestablished the “work day” with limits on starting and finishing,and the concept of “days off” for holidays. -- source link

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