Summary of Susan Wise Bauer's The History of the Ancient World (Unabridged‪)‬

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A few key insights from Chapter 1:

1. The Sumerian tribes lived in what became known as Mesopotamia. They were the first civilization known to history. They settled in the northern Persian Gulf area around 11,000 BC.

2. The Sumerian king list, an ancient text, features the names of the kings that ruled the area in and around the city of Eridu, which was south of modern-day Iraq. King Alulim was first on the list.

3. Originally, the northern shore of the Persian Gulf was near modern-day Qatar, but as the climate became warmer, more ice melted from the earth’s poles. This raised the sea level, pushing the shoreline all the way up to Kuwait, which explains the location of Eridu.

4. The shrinking area of dry land pushed the Sumerians to settle around the Euphrates River and focus on farming, forming the earliest civilization known in history.