Western Civilization I / Unit 1 WC1 0017 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Placing Mesopotamia on a Timeline, 3500 to 1595 BCE
The idea
The exam hands you events out of order and asks which came first. For Mesopotamia the anchor's chain is short, and the method is to anchor three fixed points and place everything else between them. The fixed points are Uruk as a city by thirty-five hundred, Sargon's empire about twenty-three forty, and the Hittite sack of Babylon in fifteen ninety-five. Everything else falls into the gaps.
In practice
Take five events and place them. Kings rise above priests: about three thousand, so after Uruk and before Sargon. Writing for tax records: also about three thousand, the same gap. Ur-Nammu's Third Dynasty: about twenty-one hundred, so after Sargon's collapse about twenty-two hundred and before Babylon. Hammurabi's code: about seventeen eighty, inside his reign that began in seventeen ninety-two, so after Ur III and before fifteen ninety-five. Sargon's collapse: about twenty-two hundred, between his rise and Ur III. The order reads Uruk, kings and writing, Sargon, his collapse, Ur III, Hammurabi, the Hittites.
Where people slip
Every date before Hammurabi carries the word about, and the witness gives Sargon twenty-three thirty-four where the anchor gives twenty-three forty. The exam will not ask you to split that difference. It asks for order, and the order does not change.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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