Welcome to the History of the World Podcast. My name is Chris Hasler.

And you're listening to volume 2, The Ancient World. This is episode... The Acadianian Empire. Oh, Last time we established that cities started appearing in Mesopotamia

beginning with the emergence of Eridu, established during the 6th millennium B.C.E.

This was during the Ubayid period of prehistoric Mesopotamia

and saw the emergence of irrigation and canal building which led to

the population of large stratified city states through the success of their agriculture.

The Ubayid period made way for the Uruk period around 4,000 B.C.C.

which saw the expansion of city states and the broadening of trade networks.

High populations of working class individuals kept the day-to-day running of the city

states in a somewhat collectivist fashion, ensuring that other city states may not exploit its weaknesses.

The Uruk period saw the emergence of the earliest forms of writing and in turn made way for the Jemdet Naza period

in around 3,100 B.C. where we can establish the success of the stratified way of life and the success of the earliest

forms of bureaucracy linked to larger amounts of cuneiform documents discovered from these dates.

This was followed by the early dynastic period in around 2,900 B.C.

which saw the recognition of city-state monarchs and city-state deities

and the

subsequent growth of the temple complexes built within the cities.

Pretty much all of this period is considered as Sumerian

and references the Sumer culture of southern Mesopotamia.

The Sumerians of the early dynastic period spoke their own Sumerian language and were tied together politically

by the priest king of the city of Uma, namely Lugel Zagasy.

As we found out last week,

...