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67-501: Established in 1952, the Pakistan Army Act regulates the legal code within the military , mainly for prosecuting military personnel and associated civilians . An amendment in 1966, during Ayub Khan 's tenure, extended its application to civilians, specifically those charged with inciting mutiny or accused of disseminating classified information and assaulting military infrastructure. Legal proceedings under this Act occur in

134-524: A "Sumerian renaissance" in the past. Already, the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the resurgence of the Akkadian-speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the influx of waves of Semitic Martu ( Amorites ), who founded several competing local powers in the south, including Isin , Larsa , Eshnunna and later, Babylonia. The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate

201-505: A 14-year sentence in 2021 for espionage allegations. Legal code A code of law , also called a law code or legal code , is a systematic collection of statutes . It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the code was enacted, by a process of codification . Though the process and motivations for codification are similar in different common law and civil law systems, their usage

268-635: A century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100–2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some time. The Sumerians were entirely unknown during the early period of modern archeology. Jules Oppert was the first scholar to publish the word Sumer in a lecture on 17 January 1869. The first major excavations of Sumerian cities were in 1877 at Girsu by the French archeologist Ernest de Sarzec , in 1889 at Nippur by John Punnett Peters from

335-467: A code of law is a standing body of statute law on a particular area, which is added to, subtracted from, or otherwise modified by individual legislative enactments. The legal code was a common feature of the legal systems of the ancient Middle East. Tablets discovered in the ancient city of Ebla (Tell Mardikh in modern-day Syria ) provide the earliest known evidence of a law code, dating back to 2400 BC. In addition, The UrukAgina Law Code (2380–2360 BC),

402-582: A difficult environment. Others have suggested a continuity of Sumerians, from the indigenous hunter-fisherfolk traditions, associated with the bifacial assemblages found on the Arabian littoral. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at the end of the last Ice Age. In the early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest that There

469-579: Is considerable evidence concerning Sumerian music . Lyres and flutes were played, among the best-known examples being the Lyres of Ur . Sumerian culture was male-dominated and stratified. The Code of Ur-Nammu , the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur III, reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath the lu-gal ("great man" or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata: The " lu " or free person, and

536-504: Is contained therein. The Justinian Code collected together existing legal material at the time. In ancient China , the first comprehensive criminal code was the Tang Code , created in 624 AD in the Tang dynasty . This, and subsequent imperial codes, formed the basis for the penal system of both China and other East Asian states under its cultural influence. The last and best preserved imperial code

603-588: Is different. In a civil law country, a code of law typically exhaustively covers the complete system of law, such as civil law or criminal law . By contrast, in a common law country with legislative practices in the English tradition , codes modify the existing common law only to the extent of its express or implicit provision, but otherwise leaves the common law intact. In the United States and other common law countries that have adopted similar legislative practices,

670-554: Is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c.  2800 BC , preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c.  2500 BC . Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great ( c.  2334 –2279 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by

737-407: Is little break in historical continuity between the pre- and post-Sargon periods, and that too much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a "Semitic vs. Sumerian" conflict. It is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by Sargon. c. 2193–2119 BC (middle chronology) c.  2200 –2110 BC (middle chronology) Following

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804-516: Is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf . The oldest evidence for occupation comes from Tell el-'Oueili , but, given that environmental conditions in southern Mesopotamia were favourable to human occupation well before the Ubaid period, it is likely that older sites exist but have not yet been found. It appears that this culture

871-404: Is most clearly seen at Tell el-'Oueili near Larsa , excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in

938-669: Is the Great Qing Legal Code , created in 1644 upon the founding of the Qing dynasty . This code was the exclusive and exhaustive statement of Chinese law between 1644 and 1912. Though it was in form a criminal code, large parts of the code dealt with civil law matters and the settlement of civil disputes. The code ceased its operation upon the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, but significant provisions remained in operation in Hong Kong until well into

1005-640: Is the earliest known civilization , located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq ), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. Like nearby Elam , it is one of the cradles of civilization , along with Egypt , the Indus Valley , the Erligang culture of the Yellow River valley, Caral-Supe , and Mesoamerica . Living along

1072-710: Is very different in form and content from all other civil codes. A civil code typically forms the core of civil law systems. The legal code typically covers exhaustively the entire system of private law. A criminal code or penal code is a common feature in many legal systems. Codification of the criminal law allows the criminal law to be more accessible and more democratically made and amended. van Gulik, R.H. Crime and Punishment in Ancient China: The Tang Yin Pi Shih . Orchid Press, 2007. ISBN   9745240915 , ISBN   978-974-524-091-9 . Sumer Sumer ( / ˈ s uː m ər / )

1139-783: The 1917 Code of Canon Law which was replaced by the 1983 Code of Canon Law and whose Eastern counterpart is the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches . Meanwhile, African civilizations developed their own legal traditions, sometimes codifying them through consistent oral tradition, as illustrated e.g. by the Kouroukan Fouga , a charter proclaimed by the Mali Empire in 1222–1236, enumerating regulations in both constitutional and civil matters, and transmitted to this day by griots under oath. The Continental civil law tradition spread around

1206-527: The Akkadian name for the "Sumerians", the ancient non- Semitic -speaking inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia . In their inscriptions, the Sumerians called their land "Kengir", the "Country of the noble lords" ( Sumerian : 𒆠 𒂗 𒄀 , romanized:  ki-en-gi(-r) , lit.   ''country" + "lords" + "noble''), and their language "Emegir" ( Sumerian : 𒅴𒂠 , romanized:  eme-g̃ir or 𒅴𒄀 eme-gi 15 ). The origin of

1273-565: The Middle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East. However, contrary evidence strongly suggests that the first farming originated in the Fertile Crescent . Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. 2016 have suggested a partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Middle East, particularly Natufians , after testing

1340-614: The Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100–2050 BC), the Code of Eshnunna (approximately 100 years before Lipit-Ishtar), the Code of Lipit-Ishtar (1934–1924 BC), and the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1760 BC), are among the earliest and best preserved legal codes, originating from Sumer , Mesopotamia (now Iraq ). In the Roman empire , a number of codifications were developed, such as

1407-624: The Twelve Tables of Roman law (first compiled in 450 BC) and the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, also known as the Justinian Code (429–534 AD). However, these law codes did not exhaustively describe the Roman legal system. The Twelve Tables were limited in scope, and most legal doctrines were developed by the pontifices , who interpreted the tables to deal with situations far beyond what

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1474-520: The University of Pennsylvania between 1889 and 1900, and in Shuruppak by German archeologist Robert Koldewey in 1902–1903. Major publications of these finds were " Decouvertes en Chaldée par Ernest de Sarzec " by Léon Heuzey in 1884, " Les Inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad " by François Thureau-Dangin in 1905, and " Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik " on Sumerian grammar by Arno Poebel in 1923. In

1541-549: The archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (5300–4700 BC C-14 ) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here, farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates . Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from

1608-415: The " Dynasty of Isin " in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi c. 1800 BC. Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and Akkad", such as Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC. Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,000–80,000 at its height. Given

1675-495: The 1970s due to a peculiar interaction between it and the British common law system. In Europe, Roman law , especially the Corpus Juris Civilis , became the basis of the legal systems of many countries. Roman law was either adopted by legislation (becoming positive law ), or through processing by jurists. The accepted Roman law is usually then codified and forms part of the central Code. The codification movement gathered pace after

1742-435: The Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley , but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three-fifths. This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian

1809-615: The Americas, the influence of Continental legal codes has manifest itself in two ways. In civil law jurisdictions, legal codes in the Continental tradition are common. In common law jurisdictions, however, there has been a strong trend towards codification. The result of such codification, however, is not always a legal code as found in civil law jurisdictions. For example, the California Civil Code largely codifies common law doctrine and

1876-538: The Field General Court Martial, under the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch's aegis. Both the court's president and the prosecuting counsel are serving military officers. Defendants possess the right to legal representation, with provisions for military officers to fill this role if necessary. Convicted individuals can appeal to an army court within forty days. If dissatisfaction persists after

1943-756: The German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch , and also influenced by the Japanese code. This new tradition has been largely maintained in the legal system of the People's Republic of China since 1949. Meanwhile, codifications also became more common in common law systems. For example, a criminal code is found in a number of common law jurisdictions in Australia and the Americas , and continues to be debated in England . In

2010-520: The Sumerian king list whose name is known from any other legendary source is Etana , 13th king of the first dynasty of Kish . The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish (Early Dynastic I), whose name is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh —leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period

2077-421: The Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black-Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People" ( Sumerian : 𒊕 𒈪 , romanized:  sag̃-gíg , lit.   ''head" + "black'', or 𒊕 𒈪 𒂵 , sag̃-gíg-ga , phonetically /saŋ ɡi ɡa/ , lit. "head" + "black" + relative marker). For example, the Sumerian king Shulgi described himself as "the king of

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2144-746: The Sumerians’ sphere of influence (ordered from south to north): Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 kilometres (205 miles) north-west of Agade, but which is credited in the king list as having exercised kingship in the Early Dynastic II period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates-Tigris alluvial plain, south of Baghdad in what are now the Bābil , Diyala , Wāsit , Dhi Qar , Basra , Al-Muthannā and Al-Qādisiyyah governorates of Iraq . The Sumerian city-states rose to power during

2211-469: The Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery domestically produced on a slow wheel to a great variety of unpainted pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change. By the time of the Uruk period, c. 4100–2900 BC calibrated, the volume of trade goods transported along

2278-500: The Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation , a dry period from c. 3200–2900 BC that marked the end of a long wetter, warmer climate period from about 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, called the Holocene climatic optimum . The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it

2345-422: The Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king ( ensi ), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became

2412-479: The army court of appeal's verdict, further appeals to high courts are permissible. Depending on the offence 's severity, penalties range from two years of imprisonment to life sentences , with capital punishment also a possible outcome. The act was amended in 2015 under the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2015. The bill was approved by National Assembly of Pakistan on 6 January 2015. This amendment allowed

2479-430: The canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, stratified , temple-centered cities, with populations of over 10,000 people, where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use of slave labour captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in

2546-699: The downfall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands of Gutians , another native Sumerian ruler, Gudea of Lagash, rose to local prominence and continued the practices of the Sargonic kings ' claims to divinity. The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts. Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi (c. 2112–2004 BC, middle chronology), whose power extended as far as southern Assyria , has been erroneously called

2613-734: The earliest texts. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide area—from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey , to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as western Iran . The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists, like that found at Tell Brak , had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The cities of Sumer could not maintain remote, long-distance colonies by military force. Sumerian cities during

2680-514: The establishment of special military courts to try the civilians suspected of terrorism. The courts established under this amendment had a moratorium of two years thus setting an end date of January 2017. Furthermore, Pakistan Army Act, 1952 (PAA) was added to the First Schedule of the Constitution through Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan making it exempt from voidance under

2747-466: The first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur , and Larsa , and reduced to tribute the city-state of Umma , arch-rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf . He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy. Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at

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2814-532: The first state that successfully united larger parts of Mesopotamia in the 23rd century BC. After the Gutian period , the Ur III kingdom similarly united parts of northern and southern Mesopotamia. It ended in the face of Amorite incursions at the beginning of the second millennium BC. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin " persisted until c.  1700 BC , when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Ubaid period

2881-722: The four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people". The Akkadians also called the Sumerians "black-headed people", or ṣalmat-qaqqadi , in the Semitic Akkadian language. The Akkadians, the East Semitic-speaking people who later conquered the Sumerian city-states , gave Sumer its main historical name, but the phonological development of the term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew שִׁנְעָר Šinʿar , Egyptian Sngr , and Hittite Šanhar(a) , all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Sumer . Most historians have suggested that Sumer

2948-566: The genomes of Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture-bearers. Craniometric analysis has also suggested an affinity between Natufians and ancient North Africans. Some scholars associate the Sumerians with the Hurrians and Urartians , and suggest the Caucasus as their homeland. This is not generally accepted. Based on mentions of Dilmun as the "home city of the land of Sumer" in Sumerian legends and literature, other scholars have suggested

3015-464: The idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia , today's Persian Gulf region, before it

3082-514: The late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states , which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor ( ensi ) or by a king ( lugal ) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites. An incomplete list of cities that may have been visited, interacted and traded with, invaded, conquered, destroyed, occupied, colonized by and/or otherwise within

3149-481: The marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians. Reliable historical records begin with Enmebaragesi ( Early Dynastic I ). The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC ( short chronology ), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language . Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about

3216-429: The most urbanized city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants. The ancient Sumerian king list includes the early dynasties of several prominent cities from this period. The first set of names on the list is of kings said to have reigned before a major flood occurred. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as Alulim and Dumizid . The end of

3283-462: The north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami transitional ware, to the pottery of the Samarra period culture ( c.  5700 –4900 BC C-14 ) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. The connection

3350-402: The north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. During

3417-547: The other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. The world population at this time has been estimated at 27 million. The Sumerians spoke a language isolate . A number of linguists have claimed to be able to detect a substrate language of unknown classification beneath Sumerian, because names of some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants. However,

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3484-514: The possibility that the Sumerians originated from Dilmun, which was theorized to be the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. In Sumerian mythology, Dilmun was also mentioned as the home of deities such as Enki . The status of Dilmun as the Sumerians’ ancestral homeland has not been established, but archaeologists have found evidence of civilization in Bahrain, namely the existence of Mesopotamian-style round disks. A prehistoric people who lived in

3551-461: The prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c.  23rd century BC , when the language of the written records becomes easier to decipher, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. The Akkadian Empire was

3618-653: The premise of being against fundamental rights. The establishment of military courts under this amendment was challenged in the Supreme Court of Pakistan but a full court bench of seventeen judges upheld the amendment by an 11 to 6 decision. On 10 April 2017, Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death by Field General Court Martial under section 59 of the act. Under Imran Khan 's Prime Ministership from August 2018 to April 2022, more than 20 civilian trials transpired under this Act according to available accounts. Notably, human rights activist Idris Khattak received

3685-524: The region before the Sumerians have been termed the " Proto-Euphrateans " or " Ubaidians ", and are theorized to have evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia. The Ubaidians, though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves, are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer. They drained the marshes for agriculture , developed trade, and established industries, including weaving , leatherwork , metalwork , masonry , and pottery . Some scholars contest

3752-682: The rise of nation-states after the Treaty of Westphalia . Prominent national civil codes include the French Napoleonic Code ( code civil ) of 1804, the Austrian civil code ( Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch ) of 1812, the German civil code ( Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch ) of 1900 and the Swiss codes . The European codifications of the 1800s influenced the codification of Catholic canon law resulting in

3819-433: The scribes. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the Ur III period that followed it. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there

3886-654: The severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly after his death. Later, Lugal-zage-si , the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad . The Akkadian Empire dates to c.  2234 –2154 BC ( middle chronology ), founded by Sargon of Akkad . The Eastern Semitic Akkadian language

3953-441: The south of Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire , just as the Old Assyrian Empire had already done in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was used. This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward

4020-499: The valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, a surplus which enabled them to form urban settlements. The world's earliest known texts come from the Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr , and date to between c.  3350  – c.  2500 BC , following a period of proto-writing c.  4000  – c.  2500 BC . The term "Sumer" ( Akkadian : 𒋗𒈨𒊒 , romanized:  šumeru ) comes from

4087-420: The world along with European cultural and military dominance in recent centuries. During the Meiji Restoration , Japan adopted a new Civil Code (1898), based primarily on the French civil code and influenced by the German code. After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 in China, the new Republic of China government abandoned the imperial code tradition and instead adopted a new civil code strongly influenced by

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4154-610: Was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god) towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Dumuzid , Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh —who reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2900 BC, when the now deciphered syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own. The earliest dynastic king on

4221-410: Was associated with increased war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. Both Enmerkar and Gilgamesh are credited with having built the walls of Uruk. The dynasty of Lagash (c. 2500–2270 BC), though omitted from the king list, is well attested through several important monuments and many archaeological finds. Although short-lived, one of

4288-424: Was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. The story of the passing of the gifts of civilization ( me ) to Inanna , goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki , god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk. The archaeological transition from

4355-418: Was first permanently settled between c.  5500 and c.  3300 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence), a non-Semitic and non- Indo-European agglutinative language isolate . Others have suggested that the Sumerians were a North African people who migrated from the Green Sahara into

4422-586: Was flooded at the end of the Ice Age . Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. The Sumerian city of Eridu , on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been one of the oldest cities , where three separate cultures may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in

4489-416: Was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian remained only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe. Following an Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule of Ibbi-Sin (c. 2028–2004 BC), Sumer came under Amorite rule (taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age ). The independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as

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