Mesopotamia

By jerd1
  • Pre-Pottery Neolithic - 10,000 to 6,000 BCE or 11950 - 8950 BP
    1 CE

    Pre-Pottery Neolithic - 10,000 to 6,000 BCE or 11950 - 8950 BP

    Hunter Gather Peoples in Mesopotamia become more sedentary and begin to congregate in areas that would later become city states.
  • First Form of Writing - 9000 ya
    1 CE

    First Form of Writing - 9000 ya

    Proto-Writing developed in Mesopotamia in the form of clay shapes that held meaning like a written shape.
  • Pottery Neolithic - 6400 to 4000 BCE or 8450 to 5950 BP
    2

    Pottery Neolithic - 6400 to 4000 BCE or 8450 to 5950 BP

    Agriculturist appear resulting in villages with more stratified and higher populations. Early domestication of animals present. Pottery is developed and stylized.
  • Ubaid Period - 6300 to 4500 BCE or 8250 to 6450 BP
    3

    Ubaid Period - 6300 to 4500 BCE or 8250 to 6450 BP

    Trade between lower and upper Mesopotamia increase. Societal complexity and stratification increases with the introduction of temples. Religious class represents a method of dividing labor for irrigation and other works and controlling surplus.
  • Uruk Period - 4000 to 3100 BCE or 5950 to 5050 BP
    4

    Uruk Period - 4000 to 3100 BCE or 5950 to 5050 BP

    The first cities fully form in southern Mesopotamia. Earliest forms of writing invented. The first god-kings rule, with ownership of land and surplus.
  • Uruk Becomes a City - 3500 to 3200 BCE or 5450 to 5150 BP
    5

    Uruk Becomes a City - 3500 to 3200 BCE or 5450 to 5150 BP

    Urak becomes a city with a population around 10,000 when two smaller Ubaid settlements merge. God kings rule cities.
  • Proto-cuneiform Invented - 3200 BCE or
    6

    Proto-cuneiform Invented - 3200 BCE or

    Proto-cuneiform is a combination of pictographs and ideographs, ideographs being an indication of the direction writing will go as it becomes less literal and more complex.
  • Early Dynastic - 2900 to 2350 or 4850 to 4300 BP
    7

    Early Dynastic - 2900 to 2350 or 4850 to 4300 BP

    Cities would have a god-king, priest and warrior class and walls to defend the surplus as well as a Ziggurat for ritual purpose(justify ruling class). There are dozens of city-states in lower Mesopotamia. Society is highly organized and labor is specialized. Cuneiform invented
  • First Semi-nation State Formed - 2334 BCE or 3294 BP
    8

    First Semi-nation State Formed - 2334 BCE or 3294 BP

    Akkad state is formed from most of the southern city states of Mesopotamia, when it is united by king Sargon
  • Sumerian King's List - 1800 BCE or 3750 BP
    10

    Sumerian King's List - 1800 BCE or 3750 BP

    List created to justify and strengthen the ruling class of god kings and priests by drawing a detailed lineage back hundreds of years as great works often do.