HIS 1122 Lecture 1: Mesopotamia
Document Summary
Once people developed food production to the point of being able to store surpluses, the human population began to rapidly increase. From 8000-3000 bce {before the common era}, it increased from 6 to 50 million. During this time, people began to live in cities of 10,000 to 50,000. Sumerian - arouse in the tigris and euphrates valleys in southern iraq. Indian - arose in the indians river valley. Chinese - arouse in the yellow river valley. History, it is often said, begins in sumer. Knowledge of the rst 35,000 years of human life is based entirely on the archeological record of humans who left behind many things, but no words. Around 3500 bc, in a southern region of mesopotamia known as sumer, the earliest form of writing were invented and a written record of humankind began. While writing alone was a remarkable achievement, the peoples who inhabited this region of the world between 3200 and 500 bc, contributed much more.
