Editing Sumer (section)

==Legacy==
{{Continental Asia in 3000 BCE|right|Sumer and contemporary polities and cultures {{c.|3000 BC}}|{{Annotation|48|87|[[File:Orange dot (semi-transparent).png|20px]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=7|color=#000000}}}}
Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid-4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus ([[Maykop culture]]) and Central Europe. The wheel initially took the form of the potter's wheel. The new concept led to wheeled [[vehicle]]s and mill wheels. The Sumerians' cuneiform script is the oldest (or second oldest after the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the [[Jiahu symbols]] and [[Tărtăria tablets|Tartaria tablets]] is controversial). The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in the [[zodiac]] and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite web |author=Thompson |first=Gary |title=History of Constellation and Star Names |url=http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gtosiris/page11-4.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821025411/http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gtosiris/page11-4.html |archive-date=2012-08-21 |access-date=2012-03-29 |publisher=Members.optusnet.com.au}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=March 2012}} They were also aware of the [[classical planet|five planets]] that are easily visible to the naked eye.<ref name="SumerFAQ2">{{cite web|url=http://www.sumerian.org/sumerfaq.htm#s39 |title=Sumerian Questions and Answers |publisher=Sumerian.org |access-date=2012-03-29}}</ref>

They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including a [[mixed radix]] system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. This [[sexagesimal]] system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions between [[infantry]], [[cavalry]], and [[archers]]. They developed the first known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails, and government records.

The first true city-states arose in Sumer, roughly contemporaneously with similar entities in what are now [[Syria]] and [[Lebanon]]. Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. Conjointly with the spread of writing, the first formal schools were established, usually under the auspices of a city-state's primary temple.