The word Sumer is actually Akkadian—a Semitic language that was the most widely spoken in Mesopotamia. It means “land of the civilized kings.” The Sumerians referred to themselves as “the black-headed people.” Yet wherever they came from and however they arose, by 4500 B.C.E., the Sumerians had cemented their dominance over Mesopotamia by founding what is regarded as the first major city in the world, Uruk.
