Civilization Modernizes

In Joannes Age of Empires Ch 7, it is easy to see how the effects the temple and organized religion in general had on the social structure of ancient Babylonia. At first religion was prominent but in places such as Uruk in the time of Hammurabi, the social structure was relatively simple and lacked any median between the upper and lower classes. As we have followed the ancient Mesopotamian society as it progressed through the ages, we have seen religion generate the development of a more complex social structure.
While in the time of Uruk there were mostly the people of the temple--such as the slaves and priests--and the farmers and 'free' people that lived beyond the city walls, but as Joannes described Babylonia, we can now see the development of a more complex social structure. This social structure now contains many different levels within it. We have seen these levels develop out of necessity because the temple would hold so much land that it would need to hire labor to harvest it, thus creating an 'un-skilled' labor force in the process.
This developmental progression was the early stages of the transformation of civilization. We first looked at Hammurabi moving the ancient Mesopotamian powers out of city-states and into territorial defined states. Now that the social structure was more stable with the creating of consistent borders, religion was able to lead the progression of the various classes that rose out of ancient Uruk.