Hi, Kids!
I just got back from the library. I got to bring home three books. I love reading stories. Did you know that stories weren’t always written down? For thousands of years, people told stories to entertain, to teach, to pass on history. One of the oldest written stories is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s about a king and his adventures with this friend, Enkidu. You can find out more about it in the “Connections” section.
The people of Mesopotamia developed writing in about 3100 B.C.E. It wasn’t used for stories though — at least not at first. They used it to record information about their crops. “Cultural Connections” goes into detail about it.
The Mesopotamians did more than develop the first type of writing. They also domesticated several kinds of animals. They used domesticated oxen and horses to help them work on their farms. Learn more about that in the “Wildville” section.
Truman
