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5000 BC - The Sumer form the first towns and cities. They use irrigation to farm large areas of land.
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4000 BC - The Sumer establish powerful city-states building large ziggurats at the center of their cities as temples to their gods.
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3300 BC - The Sumerians invent the first writing. They use pictures for words and inscribe them on clay tablets.
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3000 BC - The Sumerians start to implement mathematics using a number system with the base 60.
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2400 BC - The Sumerian language is replaced by the Akkadian language as the primary spoken language in Mesopotamia.
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2100 BC - After the Akkadian Empire crumbles, the Sumerians once again gain power. The city of Ur is rebuilt.
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2000 BC - The Elamites capture Ur.
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Capitals: near present-day Zhengzhou and Anyang
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such as the song of Miriam
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Capitals: Hao (near present-day Xi'an) and Luoyang
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Ruth, job, first isaiah
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Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Deuteronomy is expanded, Psalms
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Third Isaiah, Later Prophets, chronicles re-writes story of David to make it sound louder
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Capital: Chang'an, present-day Xi'an
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Confucianism officially established as basis for Chinese state by Han Wudi (r. 141-86 BCE)