why do cities grow? why do they cluster in town

not just food but trade manufacture service

how do cities get made? (rivers coz animals for transport need food)

organised trade storage deliveries need writing, needs specialisation and supplies

division of labour is the mark of urban life

Uruk and Mari excavated since 1840s coz of mentions in old testament, to prove it (shimer is sumer), interest later became more scientific

Euphrates and Tigris

cuneiform

• used tablets couldn't be reused and thrown away
• waste materials are the source of history everywhere

4200BCE: sites occupied
3200BCE: first clay tablets, pictorial script
3000BCE: warka head
2600BCE: Sumerian lang, cuneiform script, not just records but codified laws too - till nearly 100BCE

2400-2000BCE ... Sumerian replaced by Akkadian, Armaic from 1400BCE (similar to hebrew still spoken)

2000BCE: Babylon
1100BCE: Assyria

Ziusudra same as Noah

• Not consonents or vowels but syllables
• intellectual achievement leading to hierarchies (kings would show off)
• Enmerkar epic, he invented trade and clay writing

Mesopotamia Geo

Steppe for animal herding, mountains, south is desert (probably initiated trade date palms wood not good, turkey iran had good minerals)
wheat barley peas lentils by Euphrates, sheep goats

Urbanisation

• Around temples, trade, kings
• Moon god, Inanna (love and war), temple design changes over time

• god theoretically owner of land, herds, processing done at temple; written records of employments, resource distribution, temple became main urban institution

• flood, river course changes naturally or due to irrigation, uncleaned silt: village relocations

• leading to frequent conflict, people enslaved, loot distributed, temples with expensive materials (enmerker) made for clout

• uruk big for security, temples depict armed heroes (not the case of sindhu civ)

• ration lists found given to war captives and locals turned workers

• noticeable: imported stones, potters wheel

City Life

• rich deads had riches, some buried underneath their houses, with pigs to eat in afterlife
• dung cakes used in cooking coz burnt fibres seeds hence kitchens can be identified

• dowry as inheritance, mother in law would fetch

• narrow streets indicate donkey to carry stuff, irregular houses show lack of town planning, drain pipes but no city draines

• water logging needed raising house levels, privacy: sunlight from doors of courtyards (superstitions around not opening doors outwards)

Mari

• sheep pasturing land coz upstream of Euphrates not high agri
• herders conflict with agri (watched for raiding plans) - became powerful later: Akkadians, Amorites (kings who also worshipped Dagan, gid of steppe), Assyrians, and Arameans
• welcomed different people hence survived longer?
• trade coz of euphrates position, between turkey minerals and south, 1/10th taxes to let boats pass, barley wine wood oil, copper from Alashia
• took pride in cities: Gilgamesh

Writing

• root of 2
• 12 months by moon, 24hrs, 60 minutes
• become intellectuals (lament of a father)