History Begins at Sumer - Twenty-Seven `Firsts' in Man's Recorded History

The very beginning of man's history are recorded in the strange wedge-shaped marks inscribed upon the tablets of Sumer. Unearthed about a century ago from the mounds in Mesopotamia where they had lain for more than 3000 years, and deciphered only after decades of painstaking work, the tablets tell the story of a civilization long forgotten, where culture as we know it was born. Here, America's foremost Sumerologist describes 27 `firsts' in human history and in this way constructs an intimate and vivid picture of everyday public and private life 5000 years ago...