The first known civilization; established in Southern Babylonia in Iraq by 3500 B.C.

People who lived in an ancient region in southern Mesopotamia which contained a number of independent cities and city-states which were established as early as 5000 B.C.

An Ancient Near Eastern people living in Mesopotamia during the third and second millenniums BC, speaking an agglutinative, ergative language unrelated to any other known language. The writing system they developed (cuneiform) was later borrowed by the Babylonians and Assyrians.