Liders emerged in order to maintain order among people and to stablish laws.

Merchants
Teachers
Soldiers
Metal workers
Priests
Government officials
Potters
Farmers
Scribes
weavers

Formal governments with officials and laws
Priests with religious and political power
A rigorous edication system for tainig of scribes.

Uruk—population of about 50,000, which doubled in two centuries • Lagash—population of about 10,000 to 50,000 • Umma—population of about 10,000 to 50,000

By around 3000 B.C.
The Wheel, the plow, and the sailboat probably in daily use. Bronze weapons and body armor that gave Sumerians military advantage over their enemies.

Cuneiform tablets— records of business transactions, historical events, customs, and traditions.

Cities were the birthplaces of the first civilizations. At that time, cities were more than a large group of people living together. The size of the population alone did not distinguish a village from a city. One of the key differences was that a city was a center of trade for a larger area.

The larger populations of a city demanded that more food had to be produced. In general, society needed food surpluses before civilization could develop. Having food surpluses allowed some people to do other types of work besides farming. With food surpluses, workers could specialize in jobs that required special skills. For instance, Sumerian workers built houses, sewed clothes, created pottery, and cooperated on building public projects such as ziggurats and irrigation canals.

In time, religion and government became institutions. An institution was a group of people who shared a specific purpose. For instance, schools were institutions that existed to educate a population. Religion was an institution that helped a society meet its spiritual needs. An army was an institution that helped people meet their security needs.

As people learned better ways to do things, societies advanced. The people of early Sumer learned to use canals to irrigate crops. They also created new tools and used new materials to make those tools. For instance, the Sumerians began to make tools out of bronze. Bronze tools replaced tools made of copper, a softer metal.

Societies kept track of many things. For example, rulers wanted to measure the number of surpluses stored in the city. Keeping records usually involved writing, but not always. In Mesopotamia, people started by using wooden counting sticks. Later, they invented the world's first system of writing, cuneiform.

The Romans and Egyptians fought each other in the Battle of Actium. Rome won, and Egypt became part of the Roman Empire.

Ancient Egypt is a canonical example of an early culture considered a civilization.

• From the time people began living in cities, they have faced the problem of plumbing. In most ancient cities, people retrieved water from a river or a central well.

They dumped wastes into open drainage ditches or carted them out of town. Only the rich had separate bathrooms in their homes.

His flood control and irrigation projects helped tame the Huang He and its tributaries so that settlements could grow.

• The legend of Yu reflects the level of technology of a society making the transition to civilization