Ancient Middle East and

Egypt

Section 1: City-States of Ancient Sumer

Geography Influences Fertile Crescent

Civilization

The world’s first civilization developed in Sumer, in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, around 3300 B.C

Within a few hundred years, Sumerians had built city-states with complex governments and a societal class system.

They invented the first known writing system, called cuneiform.

Although Sumer was replaced by other civilizations, its stories, writing system, and ideas about astronomy and mathematics lived on.

Ancient Middle East and Egypt

Cuneiform Evolves Over Time

Sumer