Where did this knowledge come from and how did it develop?

-much of it came from Mesopotamia (Iraq) and the Levant (Lebanon and Israel)
-the how at least partly involved the agricultural revolution

-farming led to radical changes in human existence
-it created leisure time, but also a need for planning

-settled in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley between 5000 and 4000 B.C.
-one of the earliest groups to develop writing
-development of irrigation focused attention on land and water rights
-concern for water rights, in fact, may have led to the drafting of the first maps
-by 2250 B.C., the Sumerians produced a "world" map depicting military activities in Mesopotamia

-a neighboring group who also lived in Mesopotamia
-the only Old World culture that developed the mathematical concept of zero
-their mathematics were well developed by 1800 B.C.

-algebra and geometry were well advanced
-developed the sexagesimal system

-their astronomy was also advanced

-could predict solar and lunar eclipses
-had developed the sundial (gnomon)

-a Mesopotamian group, but migrated to the coast of the eastern Mediterranean
-they were great navigators, chart makers, and travellers
-they knew of winds, tides, ocean currents, meteorology, harbors and coastlines, etc.
-they founded colonies throughout the Mediterranean and beyond
-they were also very adept traders with a virtual monopoly in the Mediterranean
-they traded and transported information as well as material goods

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