66 i PERIOD 1 Technological and Environmental Transformations (to c. 600 B.C.E.)
inhabitants of Mesopotamia used bronze and copper. By this time they had already invented
the wheel and developed irrigation canals to farm the arid lands of their environment.
About 3500 b.c.e., a group of invaders called the Sumerians settled in the southernmost
portion of Mesopotamia. The Sumerians developed the fi rst example of writing. Called
cuneiform, it involved pictures pressed into clay using a wedge-shaped stylus. The picto-
graphs initially stood for objects, but later were refi ned to represent sounds. The Sumerians
also developed a number system based on 60 and studied the movement of heavenly bodies.
In architecture, the Sumerians expressed the glories of their civilization and of the many
gods of nature that they worshipped by building towers called ziggurats. They are credited
with relating the fi rst epic in world history, The Epic of Gilgamesh, which includes a story
of a great fl ood similar to that of the biblical account in Genesis.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were noted for their unpredictable and often violent
fl ooding. Irrigation systems to control fl ooding and channel water for agricultural use
required the cooperation of Mesopotamia’s settlements. This need promoted the begin-
nings of government. Early Mesopotamian government was in the form of city-states, with
a city government also controlling surrounding territory.
A social structure headed by rulers and elite classes controlled the land, which was
farmed by slaves. Slaves could sometimes purchase their freedom. Sumerian families were
patriarchal, with men dominating family and public life. Men had the authority to sell
their wives and children into slavery to pay their debts. By the sixteenth century b.c.e.,
Mesopotamian women had begun to wear the veil in public. In spite of these restrictions,
Mesopotamian women could sometimes gain infl uence in the courts, serve as priestesses,
or act as scribes for the government. Some worked in small businesses.
A lack of natural protective barriers made Mesopotamia vulnerable to invasion by out-
siders; most cities in the region constructed defensive walls. Frequent confl icts among local
Sumerian kings over water and property rights weakened the city-states. The Sumerian
culture later fell to conquest by the Akkadians and the Babylonians, both of whom spread
Sumerian culture. The Babylonian king Hammurabi devised a code of laws that regulated
daily life and also provided harsh “an eye for an eye” punishments for criminal offenses.
The Code of Hammurabi drew distinctions between social classes and genders, administer-
ing less severe punishments to elite classes over commoners and men over women for the
same offense. After 900 b.c.e., Assyrians and Persians dominated Mesopotamia.Egypt
About 3000 b.c.e., a second civilization grew up along another river valley, this time the
valley of the Nile River in present-day Egypt. In contrast to the unpredictable waters of
the Tigris–Euphrates, those of the Nile overfl owed once annually, discharging an amount
of water that usually varied little from one year to the next. As in Mesopotamia, irrigation
projects to channel fl oodwaters led to the organization of the community and ultimately
to the development of political structures. Although several major cities emerged along the
Nile, most Egyptian communities were agricultural villages engaged in local trade along
the Nile.
The king of Egypt, or pharaoh, wielded considerable power. About 2700 b.c.e., the
pharaohs began the construction of huge pyramids that served as tombs for themselves and
their families. These tombs were decorated with colorful paintings. Like the Sumerians,
the Egyptians were polytheists, or worshippers of many gods. Their belief in an afterlife
led to the practice of mummifi cation to preserve the bodies of pharaohs and, later, those
of members of lower classes.