around 8000 b.c., the world's earliest farmers had settled in mesopotamia, a region of the middle east that includes iraq and iran. in their hands, desert became rich farmland, as iigation agriculture was born. the people bartered for goods and paid taxes. record-keeping was begun, with goods represented by abstract tokens. these led to writing, according to denise schmandt-besserat, professor of mid-eastern studies. schmandt-besserat: each of these shapes was meaningful. the cone probably stood for a unit of grain, a small unit of grain. the disc probably for an even larger unit of grain. one animal -- and one animal meaning in the middle east one goat or one sheep. so how do the tokens lead to writing ? well, it took a long time. keach: it took nearly 4,000 years. but around 3500 b.c., in a culture known as sumer, the world's first cities emerged. now, a more complex economy required more complex record-keeping. accountants took a ball of clay which they poked inside with the fingers to make a cavity. you know, it's just like a tennis ball of clay or even smaller. and once they had a

i recognize as the us government from government the utmost are from al qaeda mesopotamia sensitive eleven cause financing was sending them to arms for sending them time to be able to comment. reduce heat. the human will or even see it snowing again today it is normal for one country to defend and pursues its allies and that leon is going to be in disagreement with the canadian position but that's what iran is going up in france. the saudis have been friends out. jane's character. yet the ash can lead an honor not being oppressed by anyone. sun understand why iran would be sponsoring has a lot of events to try to control the country and to help their shia sectarian war against them. the majority of the country and the sponsoring an illegal militia. as for syria there are many shia in syria. and if you want some of the human rights violations that are being perpetrated in syria that began not long ago at the very beginning of this war and they've been much worse inside of the government and we see these reports now of eleven thousand soldiers of prisoners of war it's these meetings start to