Cradle of civilization

The Fertile Crescent has been often cited by European scholars as the cradle of civilization.

The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations identified as the sites of the emergence of civilization. In Western European and Middle Eastern cultures, it has frequently been applied to the Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic (Ubaid period, Naqada culture), especially in the Fertile Crescent (Levant and Mesopotamia), but also extended to sites in Armenia, and the Persian Plateau. Other civilizations arose in Asia, among cultures situated along large river valleys, notably the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent and the Yellow River in China. Civilizations also arose independently in Egypt, Norte Chico in present-day Peru, the Andes and in Mesoamerica. If writing is considered an indicator of civilization, the earliest "cradle" to have writing was Sumer (Jemdet Nasr).

Scholars have defined civilization as based on agriculture and urban settlements, and as such is a consequence of the Neolithic Revolution. Current thinking is that there was no single "cradle", but several civilizations that developed independently, of which the Near Eastern Neolithic was the first. The extent to which there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and those of East Asia is disputed. Scholars accept that the civilizations of Norte Chico in present-day Peru and that of Mesoamerica emerged independently from those in Eurasia.

History of the idea

The concept 'cradle of civilization' is the subject of much debate. The figurative use of cradle in the sense of "the place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage" is traced by the OED to Spenser (1590). Rollin's Ancient History (1734) has "Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation."

The phrase "cradle of civilization" plays a certain role in national mysticism. It has been used in Eastern as well as Western cultures, for instance, in Hindu nationalism (In Search of the Cradle of Civilization 1995), and Taiwanese nationalism (Taiwan — The Cradle of Civilization 2002). The terms also appears in esoteric pseudohistory, such as the Urantia Book claiming the title for "the second Eden," or the pseudoarchaeology related to Megalithic Britain (Civilization One 2004, Ancient Britain: The Cradle of Civilization 1921).

Rise of civilization

Further information: Neolithic Revolution, Urban Revolution, and Chalcolithic

The earliest signs of a process leading to sedentary culture can be seen in the Levant to as early as 12,000 BC, when the Natufian culture became sedentary; it evolved into an agricultural society by 10,000 BC. The importance of water to safeguard an abundant and stable food supply, due to favourable conditions for hunting, fishing and gathering resources including cereals, provided an initial wide spectrum economy that triggered the creation of permanent villages.

The earliest proto-urban settlements with several thousand inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic. The first cities to house several tens of thousands were Memphis and Uruk, by the 31st century BC (see Historical urban community sizes).

Historic times are marked apart from prehistoric times when "records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations"; that is, with the development of writing. If the rise of civilization is taken to coincide with the development of writing out of proto-writing, the Near Eastern Chalcolithic, the transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age during the 4th millennium BC, and the development of proto-writing in Harappa in the Indus Valley of South Asia around 3300 BCE are the earliest incidences, followed by Chinese proto-writing evolving into the oracle bone script, and again by the emergence of Mesoamerican writing systems from about 200 BC.

In the absence of written documents, most aspects of the rise of early civilizations are contained in archaeological assessments that document the development of formal institutions and the material culture. A "civilized" way of life is ultimately linked to conditions coming almost exclusively from intensive agriculture. Gordon Childe defined the development of civilization as the result of two successive revolutions: the Neolithic Revolution, triggering the development of settled communities, and the Urban Revolution, which enhanced tendencies towards dense settlements, specialized occupational groups, social classes, exploitation of surpluses, monumental public buildings and writing. Few of those conditions, however, are unchallenged by the records: dense settlements were not attested in Egypt's Old Kingdom and were absent in the Maya area; the Incas lacked writing altogether; and often monumental architecture preceded any indication of village settlement. For instance, in present-day Louisiana, researchers have determined that cultures that were primarily nomadic organized over generations to build earthwork mounds at seasonal settlements as early as 3400 BCE. Rather than a succession of events and preconditions, the rise of civilization could equally be hypothesized as an accelerated process that started with incipient agriculture and culminated in the Oriental Bronze Age.

Single or multiple cradles

A traditional theory of the spread of civilization is that it began in the Fertile Crescent and spread out from there by influence. Scholars more generally now believe that civilizations arose independently at several locations in both hemispheres. They have observed that sociocultural developments occurred along different timeframes. "Sedentary" and "nomadic" communities continued to interact considerably; they were not strictly divided among widely different cultural groups. The concept of a cradle of civilization has a focus where the inhabitants came to build cities, to create writing systems, to experiment in techniques for making pottery and using metals, to domesticate animals, and to develop complex social structures involving class systems.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, in its article titled "Civilization," says that the earliest civilizations developed in the following parts of the world: "Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, the central Andes, and Mesoamerica." Since the 1990s, scholarship has defined Norte Chico in the coastal area of present-day Peru as another independent site of civilization.

In the United States and Canada, the AP World History teaches that the six early civilizations as the foundation of human culture are: "Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, Shang (or Yellow River valley), Mesoamerica and Andean South America. These "civilizations" are also discussed in this article.

Old World

Mesopotamia

Main articles: History of Mesopotamia, Sumer, and Ubaid period

Historically, the ancient city states of Mesopotamia in the fertile crescent are most cited by Western and Middle Eastern scholars as the cradle of civilization, as this was the area they knew best. The convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation. The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are among the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies. Because Ubaid, Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylon civilizations all emerged around the Tigris-Euphrates, the theory that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization is widely accepted.

The Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer emerges in the Ubaid period (6500-3800 BC) and Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC), culminating in the mid-3rd millennium before giving rise to the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC. This is often identified as the first empire in history.

Eridu was the oldest Sumerian site, settled during the proto-civilized Ubaid period. Situated several miles southwest of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of early temple-cities, in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, with the earliest of these settlements dating to around 5000 BC. By the 4th millennium BC in Nippur we find — in connection with a sort of ziggurat and shrine — a conduit built of bricks in the form of an arch. Sumerian inscriptions written on clay also appear in Nippur. By 4000 BC an ancient Elamite city of Susa, in Mesopotamia, also seems to emerge from earlier villages. Whilst the Elamites originally had their own script, from an early age they adapted the Sumerian cuneiform script to their own language. The earliest recognizable cuneiform dates to no later than about 3500 BC. Other villages that began to spring up around this time in the Ancient Near East (Middle East) were greatly impacted and shifted rapidly from a proto-civilized to a fully civilized state (e.g. Ebla, Mari and Assur).

Egypt

Main articles: Ancient Egypt and History of ancient Egypt

The rise of dynastic Egypt in the Nile Valley occurred with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in approximately 3200 BC, and ended at around 343 BC, at the start of the Achaemenid dynasty's control of Egypt. It is one of the three oldest civilizations in the world. Anthropological and archaeological evidence both indicate that the Kubbaniya culture was a grain-grinding culture farming along the Nile before the 10th millennium BC using sickle blades. But another culture of hunters, fishers and gathering peoples using stone tools replaced them. Evidence also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. From around 7000 BC to 3000 BC the climate of the Sahara was much moister, offering good grazing land even in areas that are now very arid. Natural climate change after 3000 BC led to progressive arification of the region. It has been suggested that as a result of these changes, around 2500 BC early tribes from the Sahara were forced to concentrate along the Nile river where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. However it should be borne in mind that indigenous tribes would always have been present in the fertile Nile Valley and may have developed complex societies by themselves. Domesticated animals had already been imported from Asia between 7500 BC and 4000 BC (see Sahara: History, Cattle period), and there is evidence of pastoralism and cultivation of cereals in the East Sahara in the 7th millennium BC.

By 6000 BC predynastic Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle. Symbols on Gerzean pottery, c.4th millennium BC, resemble traditional hieroglyph writing. In ancient Egypt mortar was in use by 4000 BC, and ancient Egyptians were producing ceramic faience as early as 3500 BC. There is evidence that ancient Egyptian explorers may have originally cleared and protected some branches of the Silk Road. Medical institutions are known to have been established in Egypt since as early as circa 3000 BC. Ancient Egypt gains credit for the tallest ancient pyramids and early forms of surgery, mathematics, and barge transport.

It is now recognized that the pre-Dynastic Egyptian states were part of a string of inter-related cultures along the Nile Valley as far south as Sudan. Some of these (notably Ta-Seti in what became Nubia and the city of pre-Kerma) had monarchies and urban development by 3000b.c. and thus represent the earliest black African civilizations. Pre-Kerma became the basis of the first Kushite empire (Kerma, c.2500-1500 bc).

China

The history of China is told in traditional historical records that refer as far back as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors about 5,000 years ago, supplemented by archaeological records dating to the 16th century BC. China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations. Turtle shells with markings reminiscent of ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to around 1500 BC. The Yellow River was irrigated around 2205 BC, reputedly by an Emperor named Yu the Great, starting the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty. Archaeologists disagree whether or not there is archaeological evidence to support the existence of the Xia Dynasty, with some suggesting that the Bronze Age society, the Erlitou culture, was the site of this ancient, first recorded dynasty of China. The earliest archaeologically verifiable dynasty in recorded Chinese history, the Shang Dynasty, emerged around 1750 BC. The Shang Dynasty is attributed for bronze artifacts and oracle bones, which were turtle shells or cattle scapula on which are written the first recorded Chinese characters and found in the Huang He valley in Yin, a capital of the Shang Dynasty.

The oldest pre-civilized Neolithic cultures found in China to date are the Pengtoushan, the Jiahu, and the Peiligang, all dated to about 7000 BC. Pengtoushan has been difficult to date and has a date variance from 9000 BC to 5500 BC, but it was at this site that remains of domesticated rice dated at about 7000 BC were found. At Jiahu, some of the earliest evidence of rice cultivation was found. Another notable discovery at Jiahu was playable tonal flutes, dated around 7000 BC to 6600 BC. Peiligang was one of the earliest cultures in China to make pottery. Both Jiahu and Peiligang developed millet farming, animal husbandry, storage and redistribution of crops. Evidence also indicates specialized craftsmanship and administrators in these Neolithic cultures (see History of China: Prehistoric times).

China, Taiwan, and countries linked to Chinese cultural and political history

The early history of China is complicated by the lack of a written language during this period coupled with the existence of documents from later time periods attempting to describe events that occurred several centuries before. The problem in some sense stems from centuries of introspection on the part of the Chinese people which has blurred the distinction between fact and fiction in regards to this early history. By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6,000-5,000 BC have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing." These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. Later Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture around 2500 BC. Archaeological sites such as Sanxingdui and Erlitou show evidence of a Bronze Age civilization in China. The earliest bronze knife was found at Majiayao in Gansu and Qinhai province dated 3000 BC.

Chinese civilization originated with city-states in the Yellow River valley. 221 BC is the commonly accepted year when China became culturally and politically unified under a large centralized empire, the Qin Dynasty, founded by Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di. Successive dynasties in Chinese history developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the Emperor of China to control the large territory from the center.

Greece

The oldest man-made structure is found within a prehistoric cave in central Greece, according to the Greek culture ministry. The structure is a stone wall that blocked two-thirds of the entrance to the Theopetra cave, near Kalambaka, on the north edge of the Thessalian plain. It was constructed 23,000 years ago, probably as a barrier to cold winds.

In Crete recent findings show that the ancient people of Greece had "the most ancient sign of early navigation worldwide". Archaeological experts from Greece discovered along the southern coast of the Greek island of Crete rough axes and other tools, which indicate according to some that men of Crete navigated across open waters as far back as between 130,000 and 700,000 years ago

The Franchthi Cave in the Peloponnese, in the southeastern Argolid, was occupied from the Palaeolithic circa 20,000 BCE (and possibly earlier) through the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, being abandoned about 3000 BCE (Middle Neolithic). It is one of the very few settlements in the world that shows continuous human occupation for more than 20,000 years. It also contains some of the earliest evidence for agriculture in Greece. The first inhabitants were probably hunter gatherers, but from around 11,000 BCE almonds, pistachios, bitter vetch, and lentils all appear at the same time, while wild oats and wild barley appear from 10,500 BCE, while from 7,300 BCE peas and wild pears also appear.

The Neolithic Civilization (6800-3300 B.C.) Neolithic civilization is the long era, the main characteristics of which are farming, stock-breeding, permanent installation and the extensive use of stone. From the stage of the nomadic hunter-gatherer (Paleolithic Era) man entered the stage of farmer-husbandman and dominated his natural environment. This Neolithic "revolution" is affected in ancient Greece at the beginning of the 7th millennium BC . The Neolithic civilization lasted more than three thousand years. The Neolithic settlements extended all over Greece, with the greatest concentration in the plain of Thessaly, where the two most important settlements are located, Sesklo and Dimini. The arrangement of the dwellings of the settlement, with their streets and squares, constitute the first architectural and town-planning forms on European ground.

The first settlements, which predate the 6th millennium BC, are known as proto-Sesklo (main group) and pre-Sesklo (secondary groups with differentiated characteristics) and they show an advanced agriculture and a very early use of pottery that rivals in age those of the Near East, in an area geographically close to the Petralona cave and the Archanthropus living environment. the settlements of Sesklo 6850 BC Dimini 4800 BC and Dispilio 5600 BC is one of the most important sites for our knowledge of this period in Greece, Sesklo was at its peak during the Middle Neolithic (5800-5300 BC) when it occupied an area of approximately 100,000 square metres, the settlement's 500-800 dwellings were densely arranged, with narrow streets and squares running between them, surrounded by large retaining walls. .

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 2700 BC to the 1500 BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to it as "the first link in the European chain." The early inhabitants of Crete settled as early as 128,000 BC, during the Middle Paleolithic age. in 5000 BC the first signs of advanced agriculture appeared, marking the beginning of the civilization.

The Mycenaean Greeks invaded Crete in 1500 BC and adopted much of the Minoan culture they found on Crete. The Minoan civilization which preceded the Mycenaean civilization on Crete was revealed to the modern world by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, when he purchased and then began excavating a site at Knossus.

Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script called Linear A to write their early form of Greek. The Mycenaean era script is called Linear B.

Around 1100 BC the Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Numerous cities were sacked and the region entered what historians see as a dark age. During this period Greece experienced a decline in population and literacy. The Greeks themselves have traditionally blamed this decline on an invasion by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians, although there is scant archaeological evidence for this view. In 900-800 BC the Greek civilization was engulfed in a renaissance that spread the Greek world as far as the Black Sea and Spain. Writing was relearned from the Phoenicians, eventually spreading north into Italy and the Gauls. Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the Renaissance in Western Europe and again during various neo-Classical revivals in 18th and 19th century Europe and the Americas.

Indian subcontinent

Main articles: Indus Valley Civilization, Iron Age India, Ancient India, and Out of India theory

Mohenjo-daro

The earliest-known farming cultures in the South Asia emerged in Indian subcontinent (present day Pakistan) in the hills of Balochistan, on the border between modern-day Pakistan and Iran. These semi-nomadic peoples domesticated wheat, barley, sheep, goat and cattle. Pottery was in use by the 6th millennium BC. The oldest granary yet found in this region was the Mehrgarh in the Indus Valley.

Their settlement consisted of mud buildings that housed four internal subdivisions. Burials included elaborate goods such as baskets, stone and bone tools, beads, bangles, pendants and occasionally animal sacrifices. Figurines and ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli, sandstone and polished copper have been found. By the 4th millennium BC, Technologies included stone and copper drills, updraft kilns, large pit kilns and copper melting crucibles. Button seals included geometric designs.

By 4000 BC, a pre-Harappan culture emerged, with trade networks including lapis lazuli and other raw materials. Urban centers during this phase spanned what is now Pakistan and western India. The Harappan phase is known to have comprised several large cities, including Harappa (3300 BC), Dholavira (2900 BC), Mohenjo-Daro (2500 BC), Lothal (2400 BC), and Rakhigarhi, and more than 1,000 towns and villages, often of relatively small size. The cities were perhaps originally about a mile square in overall dimensions, and their outstanding magnitude suggests political centralization, either in two large states or in a single great empire with alternative capitals. Or it may be that Harappa succeeded Mohenjo-daro, which is known to have been devastated more than once by exceptional floods. The southern region of the civilization in Kathiawar and beyond appears to be of later origin than the major Indus sites. Villagers also grew numerous other crops, including peas, sesame seed, dates, and cotton. The Indus valley civilization is credited for a regular and consistent use of decimal fractions in a uniform system of ancient weights and measures. Furthermore, the streets were laid out in grid patterns along with the development of sewage and water systems. This civilization of planned cities came to an end around 1700 BC either through external invasion and perhaps due to drying of rivers flowing from the Himalayas to the Arabian sea and geological/climatic changes in the Indus valley civilization area which resulted in the formation of the Thar desert. As a result, the cities were abandoned and populations reduced and people moved to the more fertile Ganges–Yamuna river area. Much remains unknown as the Indus Valley script remains un-deciphered.

Americas

In the history of the Americas, civilizations were established long after the population of the continent. Several large, centralized civilizations developed in the Western Hemisphere : Norte Chico, Chavin, Nazca, Moche, Huari, Chimu, Tiahuanaco, Aymara and Inca in the Central Andes (Peru and Bolivia); Muisca in Colombia ; Olmecs, Toltecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Aztecs and the Mesoamerican Mayas in Central America.

Ancient Peru

Caral of the Norte Chico, the oldest known civilization in the Americas

The oldest known civilization in South America, as well as in the Western Hemisphere as a whole, the Norte Chico civilization - c.3200bc - 1800bc - comprised several interconnected settlements on the Peruvian coast, including the urban centers at Aspero and Caral. The presence of an early form of quipu (an Andean recording medium) at Caral indicates its potential influence on later Andean societies, as well as the antiquity of this unique recording system. The stone pyramids on the sites are thought to be contemporary to the great pyramids of Giza. Unusually among Andean cities, no evidence of fortifications, or of other signs of warfare, have yet been found in the Norte Chico.

Mesoamerica

The Olmec civilization was the first Mesoamerican civilization, beginning around 1600-1400 BC and ending around 400 BC. This civilization is considered the mother culture of the Mesoamerican civilizations. The Mesoamerican calendar, numeral system, writing, and much of the Mesoamerican pantheon seem to have begun with the Olmec.

Some elements of agriculture seem to have been practiced in Mesoamerica quite early. The domestication of maize is thought to have begun around 7,500 to 12,000 years ago. The earliest record of lowland maize cultivation dates to around 5100 BC. Agriculture continued to be mixed with a hunting-gathering-fishing lifestyle until quite late compared to other regions, but by 2700 BC, Mesoamericans were relying on maize, and living mostly in villages. Temple mounds and classes started to appear. By 1300/ 1200 BC, small centres coalesced into the Olmec civilization, which seems to have been a set of city-states, united in religious and commercial concerns. The Olmec cities had ceremonial complexes with earth/clay pyramids, palaces, stone monuments, acqueducts and walled plazas. The first of these centers was at San Lorenzo (until 900 bc). La Venta was the last great Olmec centre. Olmec artisans sculpted jade and clay figurines of Jaguars and humans. Their iconic giant heads - believed to be of Olmec rulers - stood in every major city.

The Olmec civilization ended in 400 BC, with the defacing and destruction of San Lorenzo and La Venta, two of the major cities. It nevertheless spawned many other states, most notably the Mayan civilization, whose first cities began appearing around 700/ 600 BC. Olmec influences continued to appear in many later Mesoamerican civilizations.

Timeline

See also

• Cradle of Humankind
• Human history
• Societal collapse

References

Notes

• Samuel Noah Kramer (1969). Cradle of Civilization. Little Brown & Co. ISBN 0-316-32617-8.
• Georg Feuerstein (2001). In Search of the Cradle of Civilization. Quest Books. ISBN 0-8356-0741-0.
• Ethel Hofflund (2001). The Cradle of Civilization (Lifepac History & Geography Grade 6). Alpha Omega Publications. ISBN 0-86717-552-4.