What is a civilization A brief look at

What is a civilization? A brief look at the world’s early civilizations

The early civilization period: 3500 B. C. E – 1000 B. C. E. • Civilization first emerged in the Middle East approx. 5, 000 years after agriculture emerged • Remember: Agriculture did not inevitably lead to civilization. Farming societies don’t necessarily form the apparatus that we associate with “civilization”

Approximately 3500 B. C. E. , Mesopotamia (the Tigris-Euphrates valley) • Agriculture matures • Bronze tools and weapons developed • The invention of the wheel • Sumeria is the first civilization (on record) to emerge around 3500 B. C. E. • The attractions of civilization drew migrants and invaders • 1, 000 yrs of a succession of states, including Babylonia and the states of the Hittites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and others.

Sumeria, the prototype of early civilization, offered many features that agricultural societies without civilization lacked • Significant surpluses of food production • Cities >>> cultural exchange, trade, technological dev. , merchant class emerge • Formal political apparatus, with leadership and bureaucracy (i. e. a government, or state) • Writing is essential b/c it enables recordkeeping

Approx. 3100 B. C. E. civilization emerged along the Nile in Egypt

3000 - 2500 B. C. E. Harappan civilization emerges along the Indus River

Approx. 2000 BCE civilization develops in Asia along the Yellow (Huang He) River

The implications of early civilizations in river valleys • Provided the best opportunities for farming, surpluses • The need for irrigation systems and high degrees of coordination • Encouraged a system in which formal rules and control, therefore governments, would be necessary

Civilization involves a mixture of positives and negatives • By writing rules and laws, inequality between men and women was formalized • An extensive social structure between upper and lower classes emerged • A capacity for warfare increased

Civilization is, first, a form of human organization, but a second definition involves identification of certain local characteristics. Mesopotamia and Egyptian civilizations developed in close proximity. They traded with each other, had military contact, and periods of cultural exchange, but the two societies were quite different. For example, the Egyptian emphasis on monument building implies more organization of labor and different beliefs about death and the afterlife. This comparison attests to the extent to which civilizations in the second definition could develop separate lines of activity, cultural meanings, values, and political institutions.

Comparing civilizations highlights similarities and differences Ancient Harappa developed elaborate cities Ancient China developed a strong government

The early civilization period ends around 1200 – 800 B. C. E • Little is known about Harappan demise • Egyptian civilization did not disappear, but clearly faltered around 1000 B. C. E. • Large empires in the Mid East gave way to important local societies (ex. Israel), numerous invasions from Central Asia • China civilization is the exception, carries on without major disruption

The legacies of the early civilizations • Societal mechanisms like writing and government would never have to be invented again • Geographic dispersion of civilization >>> the Aegean world, the Phoenicians