The Sumerians were the first group of humans to give up a nomadic lifestyle , adopt an agricultural lifestyle and start a civilization. This was greatly aided by the innovation of irrigation of the Tigres and Euphrates rivers that flowed into the Persian Gulf. In the process they created an abundance of food which allowed Mesopotamians to focus on other things such as jewelry, art, the wheel and even a writing system.
Their system of writing, called cuneiform, was a writing system of pictures, or pictograms, that represented words. They wrote their pictograms on wet clay. Due to this many of the tablets, or writing pages, have been found by archaeologists.
Furthermore, the Sumerians created and used boats (made from reeds and goat skin!) to travel up and down the rivers to trade with other communities, towns and cities. All this trade, new inventions & innovation and prosperity (wealth) made Mesopotamia a center of trade, culture and ideas.
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