The Sumerian language has no living descendants, nor can it be related to any known language. It has been observed that the structure of Sumerian shares specific semantic and syntactical features (for example, the two distinct features known in linguistics as agglutination and as ergativity) with a number of non Indo-European languages such as Basque, Finnish, and several Turkic languages. There is not enough evidence, however, to determine what relationship, if any may have existed between the distant ancestors of these modern languages and ancient Sumerian.

Whatever the origins of the Sumerians and their language may have been, we do know that Sumer itself was well settled by the Fifth Millennium BCE. That period, known to archaeologists as the Ubaid, takes its name from the material remains of the culture associated with that period and discovered at the site known as Ubaid, not far from the city of Ur.

The Sumerian landscape was largely windswept and barren. It lacked both trees and stones to construct buildings, and had no indigenous sources of wealth such as minerals or precious metals. Its inhabitants were forced to construct their buildings and cities out of marsh reeds and mud bricks. But by the end of the Fourth Millennium BCE, during what is called the Late Uruk period, the Sumerians had developed complex systems of irrigation, sophisticated forms of writing and record keeping, complex religious and secular codes and elaborate bureaucratic structures. These innovations allowed them to transform the originally a relatively barren landscape into a series of rich temple-based economies, cities, and agricultural settlements.

Among the achievements of this period were the development of monumental architecture, elaborate systems laws and of taxation, innovations in pictorial representation and the development of scholarly institutions, called Edubba, for the training of scribes (Dubsar). During the Uruk period, the increasingly complex and powerful culture of the Sumerians also expanded geographically, reaching outward from its heartland and establishing outlying colonies as far away the cities of Habuba Kabira in modern Syria and Buto in the Nile Delta. By the early Third Millennium-a period known as the Early Dynastic, the original Ubaid and Uruk settlements had evolved and grown into a series of cities and with sprawling urban centers urban centers, such as: Uruk, Ur, Eridu, Adab, Girsu, Lagash, Nippur, Kish, and Umma.

The earliest Sumerian cities appear to have been temple-states, each of which was governed by a high priest, or ensi. It is unclear exactly how the system of governance developed, but by the middle of the Third Millennium many of the cities mentioned above appear to have also had a military rulers. This second type of ruler was known as a Lugal-literally, a "big man." It is generally thought that the Lugal was usually a young man who was called forth during times of conflict to lead the army of the temple state.

The strength of this institution appears to have grown over time such that by the Early Dynastic period one particular variation of the title, Lugal Kish, "King of Kish," appears to have signified rulership over the entirety of the Sumerian heartland-regardless of where the king was actually from. The power of the king of Kish was such that one such early Dynastic ruler named Mesalim is know to have adjudicated a bitter and prolonged land dispute between the neighboring city states of Umma and Lagash. Mythological sources from much later periods go so far as to describe a king of Kish known as Etana who brought stability to Sumer and to several of its neighbors by means of his military conquests. Although Etana may originally have been a real king, by the time that these texts were written he had been mythologized into a hero of epic proportions much so that he was described as ascending to heaven on the back of a giant supernatural bird.

Throughout much of the Early Dynastic period the rulers of the Sumerian city states, such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Umma, and Kish continually vied for political dominance and influence. By the end of the Third Millennium, however, they had suffered a series of crippling military defeats. The first of these occurred when Sumer was invaded by the Akkadians, a Semitic people, under the command of their king, Sargon of Akkad.

Interestingly, however, the result of Sargon's conquest was not a dismantling of the Sumerian state, so much as a sort of merger between the Sumerian and Akkadian cultures. It appears that the two cultures and their respective languages were able to coexist within the newer state for many hundreds of years. In later history, during the earlier portion of the second millennium BCE, Akkadian eventually became the lingua franca and Sumerian died out as a spoken tongue, although elements of it remained in use as a liturgical language.

Despite the fact that following Sargon's invasion the two cultures and languages were able to coexist for several centuries, things were not always peaceful under the new Akkadian rule. One major period of turmoil occurred during the reign of Naram-Sin, Sargon's grandson, when the Akkadians desecrated the Sumerian holy city, Nippur, plundering the Ekur, its most sacred temple. The chaos ensuing from this act of defilement was such that it later became the source of numerous literary compositions, or "lamentations." In these works, written in Sumerian, ancient historians interpreted the sacrileges just mentioned as an affront to the gods that caused them to withdraw their favor and protection, a situation which they believed ultimately resulted in Sumer being overrun by the Gutians, a series of tribes that swept down from the Zagros mountains in a series of brutal invasions.

These invaders were eventually expelled and the events and interpretations described above appear to have served as a strong impetus for the ensuing revival of Sumerian culture at the end of the Third Millennium-this revival is also known as the Neo-Sumerian period.

The most notable ruler of the Neo-Sumerian period appears to have been an ensi of Lagash named Gudea. His temple inscriptions, particularly those relating to his construction of the Eninnu, the temple of the Lagash state god Ningirsu, highlight his pious nature and his wisdom. The same inscriptions also bear testament to Lagash's extensive trade contacts throughout Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, Elam (modern Iran), Ethiopia, and Dilmun (modern Bahrain).

Shortly after Gudea's reign at Lagash, a new dynasty was founded at the neighboring city of Ur under a king named Ur-Nammu. The Third Dynasty of Ur quickly became the dominant force in the Sumerian heartland. The period known as the Ur III period, marked a continuation of the renaissance of Sumerian culture visible in Gudea's slightly earlier works. Ur-Nammu also conducted a series of impressive military campaigns, both within Mesopotamia and into the periphery of modern day Iran. He also undertook a series of important economic, political, and legal reforms which appear to have been designed to correct corrupt bureaucratic and other social practices.

The Ur III dynasty lasted approximately one century (from 2050 BCE to 1950 BCE). The spirit of Ur-Nammu's reign continued via his son, Sulgi, a greatly cultured individual who ruled in much the same style as his father, energetically constructing and rebuilding temples, encouraging the arts such as literature and music, and enhancing the reforms originally set forth by Ur-Nammu.

The period following Shulgi's reign, however, was a disastrous one for Sumer. Shulgi's two sons ruled for a period of less than two decades total. The Ur III dynasty finally came to an end during the 25th year of his grandson Ibi-Sin's reign, when the Elamites finally attacked and destroyed Ur, capturing its ruler.

Following the collapse of the Ur III dynasty a series of struggles ensued between the cities of the Sumerian heartland, in particular Isin Larsa and Babylon. The end result was the emergence of the city of Babylon as the predominant force, an event which occurred around 1750 BCE, under the leadership of its most famous king, the Semitic ruler famous for his legal code, Hammurabi. That particular event, for al intents and purposes, marked the end of traditional Sumerian culture. From that historical point onward the predominant powers in the region would remain a series of Semitic kings for well over a millennium.

Source: David Nelson Gimbel