Mesopotamia Writing Subtitle

The Cradle of Civilization The Written Revolution The Beginning of Empires Laws and Order

Mesopotamia - “The land between rivers”

The Rise of the City-State: Village – People assembled based on family and tribal loyalties – small, rural bands of amateur farmers living together City-State - People bound by political and economic relationships – centralized government and economy the world’s first cities Each had their own customs and social orders Would lead to the world’s first empires

The Beginnings of Writing Step 1: Farmers needed to keep records. - The Sumerians were very good farmers – mainly goats, cows and wheat and barley Early farmers Used tokens to symbolize their yearly production They created clay shapes and dried them to use as tokens Step 2: Tokens were used for trade - trade receipts, records and bookkeeping For example: A cone shape represented a bag of wheat. Tokens were placed inside clayball and enclosed sending five goats - five tokens in the clay ball.

With the development of cities came a more complex economy... Elaborate goods, different merchants more complex and diverse system of tokens The number of tokens began to be pressed on the outside This developed to different symbols carved to represent different things

Step 3: Writing develops -The earliest form of writing dates back to 3300 B.C. People drew "word-pictures" using a stylus → to represent trade goods These "word-pictures" then developed into wedge-shaped signs – cuneiform writing

Even in Ancient Sumer, how was education used to establish the haves from the have nots? Think about who had access to writing? Think about what was necessary to learn to write What important things did scribes keep track of? Economic? Religious Political Social?