By the 4th millennium BC, it had established an advanced system writing, spectacular arts and architecture, astronomy and mathematics. The Akkadians would follow the Sumerians, borrowing from their culture, producing a new language of their own, and creating the world's first empire.

The origin of the Sumerians remains a mystery till this day.   They called themselves Saggiga (the "black-headed" or "bald-headed ones") and their country, Kengi ("civilized land").  Some believe they came from around Anatolia or modern day Turkey.  Others suggest they might have come from India and were Caucasian in origin.  They were established in southern Babylonia, in what is now Iraq, by at least 3500 BC.

Located in what the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia, meaning "the land between the rivers," Sumer was a collection of city-states or cites that were also independent nations, some of which endured for 3,000 years.