Urban revolution

The model of a sacred mound, a house for the gods acting as the heart of the community, was so powerful, so successful that it would be copied and elaborated upon all across southern Mesopotamia.

Eridu was the spark, the quiet but brilliant thought that would soon ignite a full-blown urban revolution.

Eridu had been the quiet spark, the sacred prototype.

But a few miles away, across the reed-filled floodplains, another settlement was about to take that blueprint and turn it into a roaring fire that would change the course of human history.

In the old Ubaid villages, and even in the town of Eridu, most people were still farmers.

But a city of fifty thousand cannot feed itself if everyone is also working the fields.

This necessity triggered what historians call the Urban Revolution, and at its heart was a simple but profound idea: the division of labor.

For the first time, a significant portion of the population became full-time specialists.