About 7,000 years ago, farmers began to move into an area of land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. This fertile land was called Mesopotamia, in what is now called Iraq. In the south of Mesopotamia was the land known as Sumerians, as they became known, were a very inventive race. They developed the first form of writing and recording numbers. The Sumerians drew pictures on soft clay with a pointed reed. The pictures were drawn downwards in lines, from the right-hand side. Later, they started to write across the tablet from left to right. The reed tip became wedge shaped, as did the marks it made.
Fact file
Reed houses were built using reeds cut down from the marshes around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Sumerians also made canoes from these reeds.
resources: Tell me why (Chancellor Press)
image 1: http://www.look4ward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/sumerians.jpg
image 2: https://photos.travelblog.org/Photos/14803/66850/f/409864-reed-houses-0.jpg
