First cities

The first major urban settlements arose in the Middle East - more specifically, in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. These regions became the cradle of a great civilization.

Cities could emerge only once people learned how to settle down and actually live in one place (which was not at all obvious thousands of years ago). The process started some 10,000-12,000 years ago over a large area of the Middle East stretching from present-day Turkey to Iran. The region's population were previously hunters and gatherers, but gradually they began to engage in farming and accumulate in small communities, keeping livestock and cultivating corn.

However, these settlements were not cities in the modern sense. A city is not only a settlement larger than a village - what sets it apart is that most of its inhabitants are involved in non-farming activities: they are artisans, merchants, priests, soldiers and officials. Thus, to make it possible for the cities to exist at all, farmers must be able to produce surplus crops to feed the people who are not involved in agricultural production and whose specific skills are necessary for the development of what we call civilization.

Large settlements emerged surprisingly early in human history. A city known from the Bible under the name of Jericho was continuously inhabited long before 8000 BC and Çatal Hiiyiik, an ancient settlement discovered in Turkey, flourished between circa 6500 BC and 5500 BC. Unfortunately our knowledge of these cities is limited because of sparse written records.

Sumer

Unlike in lands farther to the north, in Sumer there was no land readily available for cultivation. Fertile soil could yield good crops only after draining wetlands and careful irrigation. The creation and maintenance of the irrigation system needed a well-organized effort of the entire population. In Sumer, this quickly evolved into an efficient economic system that has brought prosperity. It would soon split into independent wall-protected city-states, among which were Ur, Uruk, Kish, Lagash and Nippur, each being the "capital" of their satellite settlements and villages.

There were few natural resources in Sumer. Shortage of wood and stone, too heavy to import them from far away in large volumes had an impact on housing - most of the houses were made of mud bricks, dried in the sun or fired in kilns. Considering limited durability of the material, it is surprising how many of these brittle structures actually survived. They are ziggurats - tall pyramids with steps on the walls that once led to the temple or shrine of some deity. Each city had its own god and was built around the dominant sacred building. Sumerian priests probably enjoyed significant power. It is also there that the oldest known forms of monarchy developed. In the city of Ur, during the reign of King Ur-Nammu, the first code of law was written down.

Other Sumerian contributions to the development of civilization were the invention of the first vehicles on wheels, pottery wheel, and - above all - writing itself. Starting from simple lists and picture writing, the Sumerians eventually came up with cuneiform - the disctinctive signs engraved with a special chisel in wet clay which was then dried, providing a relatively permanent record of information. The cuneiform record preserved the oldest works of world literature based on the myths and legends of the Sumerians.

Indus

The Sumerian civilization developed hundreds of years before the more widely known ancient Egypt. Prior to 2000 BC, except the Sumerians, there was only one more major civilization - the mysterious culture of cities in the Indus Valley (modern-day Pakistan) that existed around 2500 BC. Except the ruins of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa city-states, little has been left of these amazing early civilizations. Since the few remaining fragments of picture writing created there have not been deciphered, we do not know who were the ancients of the Indus Valley and how they managed to build these great cities.

They were built on a grid plan, with straight streets intersecting at right angles. Such technically advanced solution indicates that the construction must have been finished before the actual settlement began. They highly organized Indus Valley civilization collapsed around 1700 BC and it remains a mistery how or why this happened.

Sumer disappeared too. The city-states fought each other and this may have encouraged intruders to invade. The Sumerians repeatedly repelled the invaders and during the reign of the third dynasty of Ur founded by King Ur-Nammu the civilization enjoyed perhaps its most brilliant period. Unfortunately nothing lasts forever and around 1900 BC, the Sumerian state was conquered by the Amorites.

Important dates

• ca. 10000-3500 BC
  Neolithic: the beginnings of agriculture, domestication of animals, pottery
• ca. 8000 BC
  Establishment of a permanent settlement of Jericho on the east bank of the Jordan River (modern-day Israel/Palestine)
• ca. 6500-5500 BC
  Urban-like settlement in Çatal Hüyük
• ca. 3500 BC
  Bronze age: first settlements in Sumer
• ca. 2500 BC
  The first Sumerian dynasty of Ur - items found in royal tombs indicate high development of culture and wealth; the beginnings of civilization in the Indus Valley
• ca. 2350 BC
  Semites led by king Sargon of Akkad conquer Sumer
• ca. 2130 BC
  Sumer destroyed by Gutians
• ca. 2100 BC
  Establishment of the third dynasty of Ur
• ca. 1900 BC
  The Amorites conquer Sumer; Sumerian civilization absorbed by Babylon