Sumerian Empire

Sumer is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, emerging
during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium B.

The term "Sumer" (𒋗𒈨𒊒, Sumerian: eme.gi7, Akkadian: Šumeru) is the name given to the land of

the "Sumerians", the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia, by their
successors the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians.[6][7][8] The Sumerians themselves referred to their
land as Kengir, the 'Country of the noble lords' (𒆠𒂗𒄀, k-en-gi(-r), lit. 'country' + 'lords' + 'noble') as
seen in their inscriptions.[6][9][10]
The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black
Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People" [6][11][12][13] (𒊕 𒈪, saĝ-gíg, lit. 'head' + 'black', or 𒊕 𒈪 𒂵, saĝ-
gíg-ga phonetically /saŋ ɡi ɡa/, lit. 'head' + 'black' + 'carry').[2][3][4][5] For example, the Sumerian
king Shulgi described himself as "the king of the four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed
people".[14] The Akkadians also called the Sumerians 'black-headed people', or ṣalmat-qaqqadi, in the
Semitic Akkadian language.[3][4]
The Akkadian word Šumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but
the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain.
[15]
 Hebrew ‫ ִׁשנְעָ ר‬ Šinʿar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia,
could be western variants of Sumer.[15]