← Civilizations
3500 BCE – 539 BCE
Mesopotamia
The land between the rivers — Sumer, Akkad, and Babylon, and the first cities.
Timeline
c. 3500 BCE
First cities of Sumer
Uruk and other cities rise among the first urban societies.
c. 3200 BCE
Invention of cuneiform
Sumerians develop one of the earliest writing systems.
c. 1754 BCE
Code of Hammurabi
Babylon issues one of history’s earliest written legal codes.