Written language was an important milestone in human history. It enabled the recording of history, dreams and tragedy. It allowed for commercial and historical record keeping. It allowed human beings to imprint thoughts on paper, for sharing, later review or just for fun. What about societies that never developed a written language? Could such a society rival one with that has? When advances of Sumerian city-states are compared to that of Teotihuacan there are a few instances where the Mesoamerican city appears to be more advanced. However, if ranked these appearances do not place Teotihuacan ahead of any one of Sumer’s Mesopotamian city-states. The formations of Sumerian city-states were the first signs of urbanization in Mesopotamia. Canal construction required stronger leadership than the typical Neolithic villages could execute. To do this, aristocratic councils of elders were formed to work with religious leaders. It was here that the political power of religious leaders and the organization of what might have been an early, and strictly relative group of “intellectuals” centralized. Situated between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Sumerian cities such as Uruk grew from small villages to populations of nearly 50,000. In 2600 B.C.E., around the time of Gilgamesh, Sumer had a population of 500,00 people with almost 4/5 of them in urban areas. (45, 54.) As farming procedures improved and therefore allowed for surplus, the Sumerian civilization began to grow not only in numbers, but also in the complexity of how it functioned on every level; its religious leaders became more powerful, its degree of specialization more complex and inventions and discoveries came faster and had greater impact on humanity.“Urban ritual practice was more fully elaborate than was the rural counterpart.” (49.) Priests in Sumerian cities built enormous temples called ziggurats. Within these huge stepped “cities wi...
