Everything about Cradle Of Civilization totally explained
In the
history of the world entry, the term
cradle of civilization refers to large river valleys that are possible locations for the emergence of civilization. These include the
Tigris-
Euphrates in modern day
Syria and
Iraq, the Nile valley in
Africa, the
Indus in the
Indian subcontinent, and the
Huang-He-
Yangtze in
China.
In most areas the rise of civilization coincided with the development of writing and the start of history. In the absence of written documents, most aspects of the rise of early civilizations are contained in archeological assesments involving the development of formal institutions and the material culture. A civilized way of life is ultimately linked to conditions coming forth 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 that 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 absent in the
Maya area, the Incas lacked writing altogether and often monumental architecture precede any indication of village settlement at all. 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.
It has been suggested the agricultural precondition to civilization arose simultaneously in many areas in the world and didn't spread from a single center. It is likely that there was more than one independent origin of civilization rather than a single "]] on each other is disputed.
Overview
The emergence of civilization was preluded by the first settlements. The earliest signs of a sedentarization process can be traced back to a nuclear zone in the Near East, where the
Natufian culture evolved into an evolutionary centre of civilization. The absence of any indication of agriculture or animal husbandry in the earliest stages of settlement was important to reconstruct the process as being essentially unrelated to food production. The importance of water to safeguard an abundant and stable food supply, due to favourable conditions to hunting, fishing and gathering resources including cereals, provided an initial
wide spectre economy that triggered the creation of permanent villages. In general, a sedentary life-style is possible for hunter-gatherers, where food supplies are abundant, reliable and can be stored, up to the point that permanent villages and high population densities can be achieved.
Conditions to settlement were met at different places, along lakes, rivers and shores. Further development to foodproduction didn't follow a single course. The transition to agricultural societies occurred in scattered areas all over the world by acculturation and migration as well as by independent indigenous developments. Cultivation of toxtail millet in America, domestication of elk in Scandinavia and of gazelle in the Middle East were abandoned, while the cultivation of rice, wheat, barley, potatoes and maize met with great success.
Sumer
» Further information: The legacy of ancient Sumer
The
Mesopotamian civilization of
Sumer is believed to have begun around 5300-3500 BC, and although some claim it ended in 2334 BC with the rise of
Akkad, the following
Ur III period saw a Sumerian renaissance. This period came to an end with
Amorite and
Elamite invasions, after which Sumerian retained its importance only as a written language (similar to
Latin in the
Middle Ages). It is generally recognized that Sumer, in what is now
Iraq, was the world's first civilization.
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 carbon 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 Elam originally adopted 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 (eg.
Ebla,
Mari and
Assur).
Egypt
» Further information: Ancient Egypt: Ancient Achievements
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's 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.
Indus Valley and Indian subcontinent
The earliest-known
farming cultures in
South Asia emerged in the hills of
Balochistan, in modern Pakistan. 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. The Indus civilization is known to have comprised two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and more than 100 towns and villages, often of relatively small size. The two 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
(External Link
). 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.
Major
cities of the civilization included
Harappa (3300 BC),
Dholavira (2900 BC),
Mohenjo-Daro (2500 BC),
Lothal (2400 BC),, and
Rakhigarhi. 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. The origins of the invaders are a matter of conjecture. As a result, the cities were abandoned and populations reduced and people moved to the more fertile Ganga-Yamuna river area. The
Indus Valley script remains un-deciphered. This theory is called the
Aryan Invasion Theory. An alternative theory proposed is the
Out of India theory, according to which there was no Aryan invasion into India, there was a continuity between the Indus Valley Civilization and the subsequent
Vedic Age and that the decline of the
Indus Valley Civilization was related to geological events.
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's 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
Yinxu, 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).
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 BCE 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 unified under a large kingdom or empire. Successive dynasties in Chinese history developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the Emperor of China to control the large territory.
The 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).
The ancestors of today's
Native Americans were
hunter-gatherers who migrated into North America. The most popular theory asserts that migrants came to the Americas via the
Bering Land Bridge,
Beringia, the land mass covered by the cold ocean waters in the
Bering Strait. Small
Paleo-Indian groups probably followed the
mammoth and other prey animals. It is possible that groups of people may also have traveled into North America on shelf or sheet ice along the northern Pacific coast.
Cultural traits brought by the first immigrants later evolved and spawned such cultures as
Iroquois on North America and
Pirahã of South America. These cultures later developed into
civilizations. In known cases, these cultures expanded at a later date than their Old World counterparts. Cultures that may be considered advanced or civilized include:
Cahokia,
Zapotec,
Toltecs,
Olmec,
Aztecs, and the
Inca.
Norte Chico 3000-1600 BC
The oldest known civilization in
South America, as well as in the
Western Hemisphere as a whole, the
Norte Chico civilization comprised several interconnected settlements leading to the
Peruvian coast, including the urban centers at
Aspero and
Caral. The presence 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.
Olmec (New World) 1200–450 BC
The Olmec civilization was the first
Mesoamerican civilization, beginning around 1200 BC and ending around 400 BC. By 2700 BC, settlers in the Americas had begun to grow their first crop, maize, and a number of cities were built. Around 1200 BC, these small cities coalesced into this civilization. A prominent civilization thus emerged. The centers of these cities were ceremonial complexes with pyramids and walled plazas. The first of these centers was at San Lorenzo, with another one following it at La Venta. Olmec artisans sculpted jade and clay figurines of Jaguars and humans, and giant heads of the emperor stood in every major city. The domestication of maize is thought to have begun around 7,500 to 12,000 years ago (corrected for solar variations).
(External Link). The earliest record of lowland maize cultivation dates to around 5,100 calendar years BC
(External Link). The ruling families, however, eventually lost their grip on the surrounding regions, and the civilization ended in
400 BC, with the defacing and destruction of San Lorenzo and La Venta, two of the major cities. This civilization is considered the mother culture of the Mesoamerican civilizations. It spawned the
Mayan civilization whose first constructions began around 600 BC and continued to influence future civilizations.
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