Mesopotamian civilization had made contact with other cultures of the Fertile Crescent in the region. • An extensive trade network connecting Mesopotamia with the rest of Ancient Western Asia then developed.
• The Sumerians, who inhabited southern Mesopotamia from 3000-2000 B.C., are thought to have been the first culture to develop non-pictographic writing. • The greatest achievement of Sumerian civilization was their cuneiform ("wedgeshaped") system of writing. • Using a reed stylus, they made wedgeshaped impressions on wet clay tablets which were then baked in the sun.
• Around 3000 years before the greatest era of Greek history, civilizations flourished in Mesopotamia and in Egypt. • These civilizations were urban, productive, religious and law abiding and in all meanings of the word, civilized. • Between 4000-3000 B.C., the first cities appeared in the region. This was in response to the pressures of population growth, the organizational requirements of irrigation and the demands of more complex trade patterns.
