These were the Sumerians, and around 3000 BC they began to form large city-states in southern Mesopotamia that controlled areas of several hundred square miles.

• 这些人就是苏美尔人/闪族，大约在公元前3000年，他们开始在美索不达米亚地区形成他们大型的城邦并控制了周围数百平方英里的土地。