The rise of the Sumerian cities-states along the banks of the Euphrates provided the Sumerians with a unique opportunity. Now that the cities had a stable food supply, the Sumerians could afford to support people in a role other than that of food gathering. As a result new developments such as the use of the wheel for transportation (3200 BC) and a basic cuneiform writing (3100 BC) came into use.
Cuneiform writing involved a series of wedge shaped symbols written on clay tablets using a reed, mainly for the purposes of record keeping. The tablets were later baked to provide a long lasting record. The Sumerian language itself is unrelated to any other currently known, which gives us no indication as to their origins. They did, though, develop quite a sophisticated system of mathematics that still influences us today. Their mathematics used a base 60 system (we use a decimal system today which is of base 10), which is the reason why we have such things as 360 degrees in a circle (60 x 6) and 60 minutes in an hour (60 x 1).
Sargon of Akkad:
The legend of Sargon claims that he was a "foundling", that he did not know his parents, but was raised in the city of Kish and eventually became the cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, the king of Kish. It is unclear if Lagalzagesi, the king of Uruk, or Sargon himself overthrew Ur-Zababa, but the end result was that Sargon gained the throne of Kish in 2320 BC.
Sargon raised his army and captured Uruk, then turned toward the Persian Gulf and captured the cities of Ur, Lagash and Umma. He appointed Semitic governors to rule each of the Sumerian city-states, and the Semitic language Akkadian became prominent in the region at the expense of Sumerian.
Sargon set up the first centralised government in the area, built a new capital on the banks of the Euphrates which he named "Agade" and continued to push at the boundaries of his empire. He conquered all of the land that lay between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, then pushed into Lebanon and the Taurus Mountains.
Sargon continue to fight to hold his empire together against invaders and internal revolts right up to his death, after which his son, Rimush, took over. Rimush only ruled for nine years before his administrators, angered by his policies, apparently killed him with their clay tablets.
The Akkadian empire only lasted till around 2180 BC, where the centralised government fractured as individual cities broke from the empire. Eventually the Guti, and people from the north, invaded and put a final end to the Akkadians. The Guti, though, held power only breifly before the Sumerians led the city of Uruk in revolt around 2130 BC.
With the Guti defeated, the Sumerians regained control of the region, the city of Ur becoming the chief city of the new Sumerian empire. This period became a golden age for Sumerian culture with a number of great epics recorded in writing. This renewed empire, though, shortly found themselves under more frequent attacks by the Semitic Amorites from the north, as well as the Elamites from the north-east.
With their cities under siege and a famine in the land, the Sumerian empire collapsed around 2000 BC. Although the Sumerians were to disappear from Near Eastern life, their influence would to be felt for another 1,500 years as their culture was adopted by each successive empire that came to rule the region.
