Author Description

Archaeological excavations have revealed that this stage in the history of mankind was reached shortly before 3000 B.C. in southern Mesopotamia. Urban centers replaced the pastoral village cultures, and specialized societies with priests, scribes, craftsmen, and farmers came into existence. The people responsible for this urban revolution, as it has been called, were the Sumerians. They entered Mesopotamia sometime during the fifth millennium and developed the first known script, a system of pictographs that later evolved into wedge-shaped cuneiform signs. Through the millennia, southern Mesopotamia remained an important center, strategically located on land and water routes to Egypt and the Mediterranean world in the west, and to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. The capital cities of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Kassites, Seleucids, Parthians, and Sasanians all lay in this fertile agricultural region. Because southern Mesopotamia is poor in natural resources -primarily metal, stone, and wood-the inhabitants of Sumer established contacts at an early period with neighboring societies with priests, scribes, craftsmen, and farmers came into existence. The people responsible for this urban revolution, as it has been called, were the Sumerians. They entered Mesopotamia sometime during the fifth millennium and developed the first known script, a system of pictographs that later evolved into wedge-shaped cuneiform signs. Through the millennia, southern Mesopotamia remained an important center, strategically located on land and water routes to Egypt and the Mediterranean world in the west, and to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. The capital cities of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Kassites, Seleucids, Parthians, and Sasanians all lay in this fertile agricultural region. Because southern Mesopotamia is poor in natural resources -primarily metal, stone, and wood-the inhabitants of Sumer established contacts at an early period with