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believe that it is the place where human settlements first evolved
into a society with complex social and political organization and
advanced cultural achievements.
Nomadic
hunter-gatherers may
have settled in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as
early as 9000
BCE
. They used the river water for agriculture and
began to domesticate animals such as sheep and dogs. As these
hunters tied themselves to the land and depended on farming for
their food, they began to build villages. Over thousands of years,
these would evolve into city-states and, eventually, kingdoms and
empires.
Sumer, considered the world’s first civilization, was the most
famous of the early Mesopotamian empires. By the 24th century
B
.
C
., the Sumerian cities had been unified into an empire. The
Sumerians are credited with many inventions. One of these was
cuneiform writing, in which long reeds were used to make wedge-
shaped characters on tablets of soft clay; these tablets were later
baked to make them hard, preserving the writing. Hundreds of
thousands of cuneiform tablets have been found and translated,
I
RAQ
32
coup—the sudden, and often violent, overthrow of a government by a small group.
mandate—an order given by the League of Nations to one of its members for that member to help
establish a responsible government in a former colony.
nomadic—having no fixed home but moving from place to place.
regent—someone who governs a kingdom when the king is under age or is away.
secular—not religious; concerned with the present world.
shah—a Persian king or ruler.
sheikh—a term of respect and authority given to an Arab tribal leader, or to the ruler of a small
kingdom called a sheikhdom.
Words to Understand in This Chapter