From prehistory to civilization

2/15/18

Today in class we went through the powerpoint more and took some notes. Some things I wrote down were:

- Sumer is between the Tigris and Euphrates river
- Sumer advanced through irrigation from the river on either sides of it
- Towns in the fertile crescent began to advance to have as many as 40,000 people.
- People began to have better food storage, which could maintain a bigger population.
- Population expanded greatly from how many people used to have the hunter, gatherer lifestyle.
- Because of the population expansion, there became a greater diversity in professions. There were priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, and farmers.
- Kings emerged along with the idea of "City-states".
- Dynasties also appeared.
- Cuneiform was invented and put to use.
- A collection of Sumerian Gods and Goddesses emerged.
- The worlds first epic was the Epic of Gilgamesh, which told of a great flood, similar to the Bible
- Sumerians divided time into 60 minutes, 60 seconds, and they organized a calendar based on moon cycles.
- The ziggurat was a temple built on top of a "mountain" on Earth.