. A diplomatic marriage between Ramesses and a Hittite princess sealed the treaty and strengthened ties between the former rivals.

It is harder and holds a sharper edge than copper alone, which makes bronze useful for both practical tools such as knives, axes, plows, and sickles

such as an account of an ancient flood that only a few people survived; they also reflect a growing interest in the differences between the wild, natural world and the civilized world of city-dwellers

The language spoken in early Mesopotamian cities like Uruk, Nippur, and Ur was Sumerian. Scholars have used multilingual inscriptions such as the Behistun Rock to decipher the language.

Annual floods brought both moisture and rich silt soil to a narrow band along the river's banks

different cultures in different regions responded differently and developed their own solutions to the problems and opportunities created by a shift to agriculture and population growth

skeletons show signs of damage to vertebrae, osteoarthritis, and deformed leg-bones leading them to conclude that the people (mostly women) working in early wheat farms had suffered injuries and physical damage from years of bending over and kneeling in fields. Skeletons of early farmers were also smaller and less robust than those of hunter-gatherers, and showed nutritional deficiencies. Pastoralists (herders) who had more access to meat and milk, did not share this decline in size or health

This week we're going to talk about River Valley Civilizations that produced the world's first cities that we know of.

although it's possible that herding (like hunting) became a bit more "men's work" and farming (like gathering), women's. After widespread adoption of ox-drawn plows, some farm work may have become more male-dominated.

Although gray wolves joined human communities in Central Asia and became dogs about 33,000 years ago

learning to freeze-dry potatoes and detoxify cassava, and identifying wheat and rice as valuable plants, was probably done by women. Other farm work, such as yoking water buffalo or oxen to plows and building irrigation dikes and canals, was probably men's work.

Men hunted big game, defended the band from predatory animals, and fought; women gathered, fished, trapped small animals, and grew the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash in garden plots they shifted when soil fertility began to wane. Because they controlled the more dependable food sources, women had social power; they typically were responsible for distributing all the food and often chose the men who led councils and war parties.

Every once in a while they might come together with other bands, possibly in seasonal festivals at which they would share news and knowledge as well as giving young people the opportunity to find a mate outside their tiny community.

In Genesis, the farmer and the shepherd are the first sons of Adam and Eve, and Cain's murder of Abel is the world's first crime.

In order to organize the building and maintenance of the irrigation system, and to keep records of the extensive grain business, the people running the Temples developed cuneiform writing on clay tablets by about 5,200 years ago.