The Sumerians were responsible for the first system of writing, cuneiform the earliest known codes of law the development of the city-state the invention of the potter’s wheel, the sailboat, and the seed plow and the creation of literary, musical, and architectural forms that influenced all of Western civilization. Despite the series of political crises that marked their history, however, Sumer and Akkad developed rich cultures. The Sumerian city-states fought one another for the control of the region and rendered it vulnerable to invasion from Akkad and from its neighbour to the east, Elam. The history of Sumer and Akkad is one of constant warfare.

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