WORLD HISTORY THE CRADLE OF CIYII Mesopotamia was a land of many firsts—including superheroes

C Words to Know ne of the world's oldest love the people of Mesopotamia grew letters is signed, simply, crops such as wheat and barley. HTÏÏTTn (n): a worker who O "your loving wife who has They also learned to domesticate practices a trade; craftsperson had a child." But it's not written in animals, including sheep and goats. a language we use today, and the Their studies of the sun and stars [n]: a system of writing used "letters" look like jumbled triangles were among the earliest contribu- in ancient Middle Eastern stamped into a lump of clay. tions to the science of astronomy. civilizations that became This heartfelt message was com- But perhaps their most revolu- widespread long before modern posed more than 4,000 years ago in tionary innovation was the wheel. alphabets were developed cuneiform—the world's first sys- An ox or a donkey hitched to a tem of writing. It was the language wheeled cart could pull three times Jomesticata (v): to make fit of ancient Mesopotamia (see map). the load of an animal hauling things to humans; to tame A region in the Middle East that on its back. This allowed farming to • ffTTO (n): a member of a is now part of Iraq and three other become much more productive. people who move from place countries, Mesopotamia was a land Around 3500 B.C., Uruk, one of to place, usually seasonally of many firsts. Its people invented the world's first city-states, was farming, the wheel, cities, legal established in Sumer (SOO-mur), codes, and even the first known a region in southern Mesopotamia. Key Dates superheroes. It's often called "the cradle of civilization. " 15000 Village settlements are formed Inventing the Wheel in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is Greek for Uruk, one "between the rivers." The rivers rst city- are the Tigris and the states, is established. '^tTf^.r ^ Euphrates (yoo- The epic of f^-^ FRAY-teez), Gilgamesh is written muddy water- blets. ways flowing 1792 B.C through dry, Hammurabi, autho brown country- ofoneoftheearlie side. Around known codes of la\, 7000 B.c., they becomes King of provided enough Babylonia, a kingdorr water to allow people to experi- Mesopotamia ment with farming. Before that, becomes part of the most lived as nomads, following Persian Empire. wild-animal herds for their food. Using complex irrigation systems.

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A VANISHED WORLD Right: In this sculpture, Gilgamesh clutches a Lost History captured lion. Below far left: A clay tablet Iraq, much of which was the tallies sheep and goats in cuneiform. Below site of Mesopotamia, is left: Farmers lay mats over drying marshland. sometimes referred to as the With the development of civiliza- birthplace of history. Yet tion came the need for merchants, history—especially the recent artisans, scribes, and a host of spe- debts, and false accusations. past—is now a difficult topic. cialized trades. Mesopotamians also came up In 2003, a U.S.-led invasion Soon, Uruk and other city- with the first known superheroes. toppled Iraq's dictator, Saddam states were flourishing. People Gilgamesh (CIL-guh-mesh), one of Hussein. "Some of the Iraqi began to trade crops, textiles, and the most renowned, may have been people call it Operation other goods, with trade eventually modeled after a real king of Uruk. Freedom," an Iraqi official told spreading to nearby lands such as But the story passed down was a The New York Times. "Some call Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) fantastic tale in which its hero fear- it an occupation. So we don't and Iran. lessly conquered the natural world: address this subject." He is the furious ß)od-wave. Hussein's long, brutal reign Hammurabi's Code Who destroys even stone wails.... is also painful to recall. "If they To help them govern, Mesopo- He opened the mountain passes. add him to the history [books] tamian kings wrote the world's He dug the well on the in 35 years," an Iraqi high first legal codes. In the 1700s B.C., mountain's flank. school principal told the Times, Hammurabi, the King of Babylonia, Clearly, Gilgamesh had super- "that would be too soon. We handed down the most famous of human strength. But history does don't want to hear about him." these codes. It addressed many not tell us if he could stick to walls In an effort not to offend legal matters familiar to us today, and ceilings as Spider-Man would do differing Islamic factions, including what to do about taxes. millennia later. —Sean Stewart Price many textbooks have been condensed. One book, which covers the 13th century to the present day, is only 96 pages. Area of Sutner Much of the country's around 3000 B c ancient heritage has also disappeared. After the war began, Iraqis looted museums and pillaged archaeological sites. Countless priceless artifacts were smuggled out of the country to be sold. As a scholar told The Chicago Tribune, "We lost history."

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