Geography and Climate's Effect On The Four Cradles of Civilization

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rich alluvial soil, courtesy of mineral deposits from the Tigris and Euphrates. The rivers were also a ready source of water for the crops. Unlike its neighbors, Mesopotamian settlements were thus able to cultivate crops and tend cattle throughout the year, independent of rainfall.
These factors gave Mesopotamian settlements a great advantage over their neighbors. They could produce a surplus of food. Their settlements were more widespread, but remained interconnected. The more effective agricultural methods required less labor. In combination, these developments also laid the foundation for social differentiation and stratification.
The general mortality rate plummeted, as more people benefited from the availability of food. The population further increased as more people gave up their previous nomadic existence to establish permanent settlements in Mesopotamia. In one of the earliest examples of urbanization, people from neighboring areas were also lured to ...

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a system of social classes. Other classes include the skilled free men who sold their labor as farmers, fisherman or craftsmen. By 3000 BC, the growing prosperity in Sumerian cities like Uruk also necessitated slave labor, often from prisoners captured in battle.
The growing complexity of Mesopotamian society also necessitated new forms of social control. For example, the bustling trade of goods and labor gave rise to disputes. To address this problem, the Sumerians created a system of noting business transactions, resulting in the world's first system of representative writing. Called cuneiform, these wedge-shaped signs were carved into wet tablets. Unlike previous ...

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