1. Origins, to ca. 3000 B.C.
   Early humans established the important elements of civilization, including agriculture, towns, and writing.
   1. The First Human Beings
      Evolving from other hominids, modern humans, or Homo sapiens sapiens, first appeared about 90,000 years ago and entered Europe about 40,000 years ago.
   2. The Revolution in Human Culture, ca. 70,000-10,000 B.C.
      Using technology and organization, early humans began to master their physical and intellectual environments.
   3. The Coming of Agriculture, ca. 10,000-5000 B.C.
      Domesticating animals and plants (beginning in western Asia) caused the emergence of larger and more complex societies, producing labor specialization and warfare.
   4. Neolithic and Copper Age Europe, 7000-2500 B.C.
      Relatively isolated from the East, Europeans developed their own distinct cultures as agriculture slowly spread.
   5. The Emergence of Civilization
      The first civilizations emerged in the river valleys of Mesopotamia and Egypt between 3500 and 3000 B.C.
2. Mesopotamia, to ca. 1600 B.C.
   Sophisticated developments in law, science, and society marked the culture of urbanized and competitive Bronze Age Mesopotamia.
   1. The City-States of Sumer
      Often in conflict despite a common culture, the Mesopotamian city-states produced important political, judicial, and social advances.
   2. Conquest and Assimilation, ca. 2350-1900 B.C.
      Sargon founded an empire wherein his fellow Akkadians were themselves conquered by the wealth and traditions of Sumerian urban culture.
   3. Hammurabi's Code
      Emphasizing that the law belonged to everyone, this legal and literary work gives a remarkable portrait of the hierarchical and patriarchal society of Mesopotamia.
   4. Divine Masters
      A pessimistic, nature-based religion with a pantheon of anthropomorphic deities anchored the culture, civic architecture, and world-view of ancient Mesopotamia.
   5. Arts and Sciences
      Efforts in literature, medicine, mathematics, and sculpture attest to the depth and vigor of Mesopotamian culture.
3. Egypt, to ca. 1100 B.C.
   A distinct and influential Egyptian culture centered in the Nile Valley flourished from the fourth millennium B.C.
   1. Geography as Destiny
      With the Nile River as a geographic and cultural foundation, Egypt's prosperous, optimistic civilization drew on both western Asian and African sources.
   2. Divine Kingship
      Pharaonic Egypt's sacred monarchy combined religious and political authority, symbolized by the funeral monuments of the pyramids.
   3. Life and Afterlife
      With an abundance of deities and an innovative concept of an afterlife, Egyptian religious life was rich and varied.
   4. Expansion, Reform, and Power Shifts, 1786-1075 B.C.
      New Kingdom Egypt became an imperial power, but the result was a struggle between kings and priests and a radical attempt at religious reform.
   5. Arts and Sciences in the New Kingdom
      New Kingdom Egypt excelled at architecture, mathematics, medicine, and the arts, especially sculpture and literature.
4. Widening Horizons: The Levant and Anatolia, 2500-1150 B.C.
   New city-states emerged along the eastern shores and in the islands of the Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C.
   1. The City-States of Syria-Palestine, ca. 2500-1200 B.C.
      Commercial centers like Ebla and Ugarit played an important role in the development of diplomacy and the alphabet.
   2. The Hittites, 1650-1180 B.C.
      The Indo-European Hittites were militaristic empire-builders, yet women played important roles in state affairs and Hittite political thought was sophisticated.
   3. The First International System and Its Collapse, ca. 1500-1150 B.C.
      Wars, treaties, and letters document the complex international relations ongoing in the region until foreign and domestic problems undermined the great regimes.