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The first cities were the place where farmers could store and trade their surpluses. As the cities grew, cities began to provide more other advantages. Babylon was the one of the example. Babylon was located near the Euphrates River, which was a fertile region. As the result, farmers were able to grow more food, and make more surpluses. The food surpluses became the biggest foundation for advanced Babylon. The food surpluses allowed the large population. As the population grew, people built or set structures one by one when they felt the necessity. For example, residents built large temple called the Temple of Marduk for their praying. Also they made learning areas such as schools for learning. In this way, the city grew gradually. As the population grew, they also felt the necessity of law as well as ruler. Therefore, Babylon had its own leader even though they had a king. The leader took role of judge, priest, and ruler. Babylon became the most advanced city in Babylonia. Babylon would not have become an advanced city if city had not been located near the river. As the city was located near the river, farmers could make food surpluses. The food surpluses supported the large population. If the population had not grown, there might have been no difference between normal cities and Babylon. Babylon was the most advanced city in Babylonia. But, if there had been no specialized workers, the city would not have become an advanced city. Babylon had a large amount of specialized workers. Workers from Babylon did jobs that required what they have specialized on. But people couldnt choose job whatever they want, even though they were specialized. The social statuses determined what kind of job they would have. Isnt it strange? People who were in the middle class, or the lower class couldnt do better job even though they were smart, or accomplished. But, there were some reasons for this. Scribes, and private tutors (teacher) were the high-class jobs. Probably you can notice that these jobs require higher education. Scribes must know many letters as well as grammar to write. Also teacher requires extensive knowledge to teach. But the middle-class people or the low-class people couldnt study as much as the high-class people did. Why? The middle-class and the lowerclass people didnt really have enough money for the education. Therefore, they had the jobs requiring simple skills. The jobs were farmers, merchants (Artisan), musicians, and builders. But dont think that these jobs werent helpful for Babylon, only because these jobs required simple skills. These jobs were also important as the high-class jobs. For example, if builders had not been in Babylon, there would have been no structure, which means no advanced city. Babylon became the most advanced city in Babylonia. Babylon would not have become an advanced city if there had been no specialized workers. As the specialized workers were there, Babylon could become an advanced city. Specialized workers made an advanced city of Babylon. They provided music, art, education and more. Complex institution took the one of the most important parts of advanced Babylon. You could say that no institution means no specialized worker, and no advanced Babylon. Lets see how complex institution helped advanced Babylon. Religion was the one of the complex institutions in advanced Babylon. Religion gave hope for farmers and farmers prayed for good harvest season. Belief changed farmers to hard workers, which means they made more food surpluses. As I said before, food surpluses were the most important foundation for advanced Babylon. So you can say that religion was the basic of food surpluses. Also religion helped to control residents. When a priest told people to do something, everyone did. So religion made it easy to control the residents. Also, religion supported money for city. When people prayed in

Babylon, they paid money. The money was used for specialized workers and for operating city. Government was the one of the complex institutions, too. Mainly, government helped to maintain the order. Babylon government complied famous law books called a code of law. The codes goal was to bring justice. Therefore, many different crimes as well as punishments were stated in the code. Babylon government used this law books to maintain order. Government also took part in trade as well as the military action. When the enemy invaded the city, government gave orders to soldiers to defense. Also government helped trade with other cities by giving benefit. Complex institutions were the one of the important parts of advanced Babylon. Religion and government were the biggest complex institutions in Babylon. Religion helped to make more food surpluses for larger population, and control people to obey. Also, religion supported money for city. Government established laws to maintain order and helped trade as well as the military action. As the city grew, people felt necessity of keeping record. The biggest reason was trade. As trade system grew, merchants needed records of exchanges. Also they needed to label goods. Therefore, they marked using a symbol called pictograph on containers to represent what kind of product was inside the containers. A pictograph is a system that uses picture-used symbols to show actual objects. Over time, merchants stopped using picture-used symbols, and used wedge-shaped symbols. We call this wedge-shaped writing system as cuneiform. Cuneiform was a very hard writing system. It contained about 600 different symbols. But at least, people could write more complex sentences than pictograph. Specialized workers called scribes used this system and became professional record keepers. It took years to learn all symbols of Cuneiform system. So people in Babylon respected scribes highly. Scribes used a sharp reed called stylus to write. Shape of stylus was sharp and the stylus helped to write wedge-shaped symbols. At the first time, people used w for trade. They recorded goods, exchanges, and ledger. But later, they started to write about natural disaster, wars, and the king chronicle. These records became Babylons written history. As the city grew, people felt necessity of keeping record. They made cuneiform system to record about trade. As the time went, they recorded history. Without these records, we wouldnt know much about Babylon. Babylon gradually developed technology as the city grew. As I said before, Babylon had a large amount of different specialized workers. Mostly, Babylon's technology was developed by specialized workers. When the specialized workers felt hard on their job, they tried to make it easy. For example, workers who were specialized in farming invented and developed many good farming tools and skills like irrigation, plow, and wheel. The reason why they invented and developed was to make farming easy. Actually, inventions and skills were very helpful. Plow helped to break up hard soil, and wheel helped to carry crops as well as tools. Also, irrigation helped to control water for farming in arid climate. You can see that workers developed skills, and invented to do easier job. But, they didnt develop technology every time by realizing hard things. They also developed their skills by undergoing trials and errors. For example, architect learned what kind of pillar is best for building, and way to avoid collapse of structure by underwent trials, and errors. Babylon also developed math skills by traders. Traders developed mathematics skills to keep records of crops and goods. As the trade expanded, they needed numerical system. They used sexagesimal(based on 60) . Today, across the world, people use 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour. That means Babylons

mathematics was influential. Babylon gradually developed technology as the city grew by specialized workers. They developed, and invented farming skills and tools, and architecture. Also they developed mathematics skills that were very influential even we owed much for calendar system. Babylon was located near the Euphrates River, which was the flat and fertile land. But, the climate of Babylon was very arid, and the river often overflowed onto the land without pattern. What do you think how people in Babylon adapted there? Babylon was located next to the Euphrates River. In the past, it was much easier to go by boat than over the land. People used Euphrates River to carry heavy loads, and for travel. It was pleasure to live next to the river except for farmers. The river could help farmers to grow crops in the very arid climate. But, the river often overflowed onto the land. Which means, farmers had either too much or too little water. Farmers found out a way to control the water. The way of controlling water is called irrigation. They built canals, and earthen walls to carry water from the rivers to their fields. In this way, they had enough water to grow crops. Also structures in Babylon were influenced by environment. People from Babylon built structure using mud brick, and firestone, which were the common materials in Babylon. They used boats to carry brick, and tools. The Euphrates River made job faster and easier. So they could build more complex structures. Babylon was greatly affected by environment. Environment changed the ways of farming and structure. Environment helped to develop technology as well as the city.

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