Ch1. Before the Cities: The Ubaid Foundations
Ch2. The Urban Revolution: Uruk and the Birth of Complexity
Ch3. Cuneiform and the Architecture of Record
Ch4. Kingship, Law, and the Structures of Power
Ch5. Gods, Temples, and the Cosmic Order
Ch6. Water, Grain, and the Economics of Silt
Ch7. War, Diplomacy, and the Contest of City-States
Ch8. Decline, Absorption, and the Long Echo