The Earliest Cities: Mesopotamia

Yesterday in class, Mr. Schick instructed that we take notes on the slide presentation. The whole class took notes in their notebooks (including me). Sumer (between Tigris and Euphrates River). Population increased dramatically due to new irrigation techniques. Cities and towns were founded some with as many as 40,000 inhabitants. Better food storage allowed for diversity in professions: priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, farmers, kings emerged as did family dynasties and the concept of "city-state". Sumerians invented the earliest form of writing, known as "cuneiform". I also took more notes on Mesopotamia. A pantheon of Sumerian gods and goddesses emerged, with many of the deities representing the natural elements of the world. The world's first (surviving) epic was the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh+, which told of a great flood. That is mostly all we did yesterday in class, was taking notes. During the next couple classes, I am predicting that we will take more notes on the slide presentation, guessing how long it is.