I would like to be sure, first, that we have a correct interpretation of the evidence (archaeology shows more than one instance of spectacular re-readings of accepted data), and, second, that this is not a freak. The sequence agriculture>urbanization>writing is not isolated in the Middle East; it seems to be present, in wholly independent sequences, in China and in the New World. (I leave out the Indus valley because connections with Mesopotamia are old in date, and Egypt because it is untypical - it did happily without any real cities until well into the virst millennium BC.)