inventions: The Middle East The production of food begat a societal revolution, as humans would never live the same lifestyles as their foraging ancestors Food production demanded that people stay in one place to care for fields These fields were not interchangeable, as some plots were more productive than others With the desire to control the more productive fields came the concept of property ownership As the concept of private property evolved, society changed at its core A prime example was that of the role of marriage Concerns about the devolution of property from generation to generation spurred most agricultural societies to begin to monopolize access to women to ensure paternity Many anthropologists believe the subjugation of women arose from this agricultural revolution Moreover, the ability to create surpluses meant that wealth, or surplus products, became common for certain members of society while remaining out of reach for others Economic classes emerged that were mirrored in political structures as the economic elite created societal laws to protect their position Another change was found in the collection, storage, and distribution of agricultural surpluses Protecting these surpluses required city walls, which were first built in Jericho in Israel about 8000 b.c.e Silos with lime plaster also appeared there for the first time It is assumed that public works demanded a centralized political system with enough power to coerce citizens into building and maintaining such works Complex political systems tend to arise in such circumstances, and the first empire to encompass a number of ethnic groups was founded at the Mesopotamian city of Akkad by Sargon (r 2334–2279 b.c.e.) in the 24th century b.c.e The need to keep track of property was clearly the motive in the development of cuneiform, the world’s earliest form of writing Fired clay tokens, as means of legal proof of ownership, first appeared in Syria in 8000 b.c.e Seals, which by imprinting established ownership, appeared by 4000 b.c.e The earliest clay envelopes came from Syria about 3500 b.c.e., An administrative text in cuneiform (the world’s earliest form of writing) recording food supplies, probably from southern Iraq (about 3000 b.c.e.) (© The Trustees of the British Museum) 597 followed by the earliest cuneiform writing, Sumerian, around 3300 b.c.e The oldest datable preserved contract is from 2700 b.c.e The first decipherable alphabet appeared at Ugarit in Syria approximately 1500 b.c.e The Phoenician alphabet, the precursor to European alphabets, was developed around 1100 b.c.e Mathematical innovations, too, were tied to the need to keep track of economic actions Geometry, for example, was developed for the figuring of taxes The concept of positional values for numerical expressions emerged in the Near East about 2000 b.c.e The wheel made its first appearance at Ur in Iraq about 3500 b.c.e., at the same time that the pottery wheel was known to exist in Mesopotamia The wheel is the prerequisite for most machines One use of the wheel was in the creation of an astrolabe-like device, around 1250 b.c.e., for plotting items due south of the viewer from Babylon The Near East was the innovation center for early metalwork and glasswork Copper was being cast by at least 6400 b.c.e in Anatolia Silver and gold were smelted in Sumer by 4000 b.c.e By 3000 b.c.e tin had appeared in Iran, and gold was being soldered at Ur An iron dagger from Anatolia is dated to 2200 b.c.e., and large-scale iron smelting was undertaken by 1500 b.c.e in Mitanni The Assyrian army of the 10th century b.c.e is the first army known to have used iron weapons Lead glazing was being applied to bricks by 1000 b.c.e Glass was manufactured by at least 2000 b.c.e (though later Akkadian texts claim it was a Sumerian invention) and was manipulated while hot by 1500 b.c.e Glassblowing was developed in Syria by 100 b.c.e Coinage, which revolutionized economic systems, appeared first at Lydia in Anatolia around 700 b.c.e The need to corral the floodwaters of the Tigris, which came at harvest time, and to dissipate and store the waters of the Euphrates led to the development of irrigation by 6000 b.c.e The Sumerians did large-scale work, with massive public works projects, including one preserved canal regulator at Girsu that required 750,000 bricks The shaduf, a rotating lever for moving water from one canal to another, was developed in Mesopotamia by 2000 b.c.e One can make a case for Mesopotamia being the birthplace of modern science The cosmos, according to local thought, was ordered by the gods When an oddity occurred in nature, it implied to these cultures an indirect message that the gods could not reveal directly to humans Thus, the practice of recording odd natural events (such as a malformed sheep liver) and associating the oddity in nature with an event in the human realm (such as the birth of a king) became a means of predicting the future by unraveling the clandestine communication of the gods Searching for cause and effect by recording empirical observations in a universe that is understood to function regularly is the basis for Western science All of these firsts were diff used to the rest of the world within centuries of their innovation in this region Virtually every society can be considered the offspring of the ancient Near East on some level