The First Civilizations

Mesopotamia: the area between the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers. Presently Iraq 

Beginning about 4000 B.C.E. Sumeria, the world's first civilization 

Sumerians divided irrigated land into large plots "owned" by a god and run by priests on his behalf. One or more temple communities equaled a city.

Due to a surplus of grain, artisans, craftsmen, were freed from feeding themselves and could develop the sophisticated skills in building, writing, and in the arts that signify a civilization. 

Later civilizations in the valley were Babylon (near Baghdad, Iraq) and much later Assyria (600-800 B.C.E.)

Sumerians: were not an indigenous population (not local semites) but became mixed with the local population in time

Sumeria, Babylon, and Assyria were buried in sand, lost until the nineteenth century.

 

Egypt, beginning c. 3100 B.C.E., (not quite a civilization with cities) unified by Menes, 

The first three dynasties (3100-2650 B.C.E.), influenced by Mesopotamia, made rapid progress in creating Egyptian civilization: The first pyramid, c. 2550 B.C.E.

Indus Valley (India), 2500-1500 B.C.E. 

Major cities: Mohenjo-daro and Harappa