Sumer – between Tigris and Euphrates
Cities became as big as 40,000 people
Better food storage means not everyone had to hunt for food
so people could have different jobs
Sumerians invented cuneiform: earliest form of writing
Mesopotamia
Pantheon – most powerful Gods and goddesses
Organized calendar based on moon cycles
Divided hour – 60 minutes; minute – 60 seconds
Epic of Gilgamesh – first epic written down; told of great
flood
wandering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals into
many animals
King
Hammurabi of Babylon created a series of laws – Hammurabi’s Code; “eye
for an eye”, “tooth for a tooth”
Expansion of Mesopotamia Civilization
People moved around and set up new communities that
eventually got bigger
