1. Advanced Cities ◦ Large group living together ◦ Trading center

2. Specialized Workers ◦ Develop skills in a specific kind of work (trader or priest) ◦ Why? Abundant food

3. Complex Institutions ◦ Long-lasting pattern of organization in a community ◦ Examples:  Religion  Government  Economy

4. Record Keeping ◦ System of writing ◦ Taxes, laws, religious rituals ◦ Scribes – professional keepers

5. Advanced Technology ◦ Anything that makes life easier

Sumer Specialized Workers: soldiers, merchants, teachers, priests, etc. Complex Institutions: formal governments (laws and officials), priests w/ religious power Advanced cities: Uruk – 50,000 Lagash – 10, ,000 Record Keeping: Cuneiform writing system Advanced Technology: 3000 BCE wheel, plow, sailboat; bronze weapons and armor

 Tigris & Euphrates Rivers  Annual flooding ◦ Silt – rich layer of soil deposited by a river (good for growing crops) ◦ Alluvial Plain – flat landform created by deposit of silt from rivers coming from highlands

 Unpredictable flooding & little rain irrigation ditches  No natural barriers for protection built city walls  Limited natural resources traded grain & cloth for stone & wood

 City-state: city & surrounding area functioning as a country does today  Priests head government 3,000 BCE  Kings head government 2,500 BCE ◦ Create Dynasties - series of rulers under one family Ziggurat – walled temple

 Akkadian – Sargon of Akkad ( BCE) defeated city-states of Sumer  1 st empire: brings together several independent peoples, nations, or states  Babylonian – Babylon ( BCE)

 Hammurabi’s Code ◦ Hammurabi (Babylonian King) ◦ BCE ◦ Unified code of laws ◦ Oldest known legal system ◦ Stressed justice & punishment based on social class

 Polytheism: belief in two or more gods (kings representatives of gods)  Human-like, but immortal & powerful  Humans were servants  Built ziggurats & offered sacrifices to please gods

Kings, Priests, Landholders Merchants Farmers Slaves Sumerian Social Hierarchy

 Arithmetic, Geometry ◦ Helped in building projects  Architecture ◦ Arches, columns, ramps, pyramid shape  Cuneiform ◦ Writing system ◦ Pictograph – symbols stand for words