Origin of Early Civilisations
● Civilization describes a complex way of life that came
about as people began to develop networks of urban
settlements
● The word “civilization” itself comes from the Latin
word civis, meaning "citizen”.
● To be "civilized" essentially meant being a townsman,
governed by the constitution and legal statutes of that
community
● A civilization is the process by which a society or place
reaches an advanced stage of social development and
organization.
● Civilization is defined as highly organized society
marked by advanced knowledge of trade, government,
arts, science and often time written language
● The earliest civilizations developed between 4000 and 3000 BCE, when the rise of agriculture and trade
allowed people to have surplus food and economic stability. Many people no longer had to practice farming,
allowing a diverse array of professions and interests to flourish in a relatively confined area.
● Civilizations first appeared in Mesopotamia (what is now Iraq) and later in Egypt
Characteristics of Civilization
All civilizations have certain characteristics.
1. Large population centers (Urban Centres)
a. Large population centers, or urban areas allow civilizations to develop,
although people who live outside these urban centers are still part of that
region’s civilization
2. Monumental architecture and unique art styles;
a. All civilizations work to preserve their legacy by building large
monuments and structures. This is as true today as it was thousands of
years ago.
3. Shared communication strategies
a. Shared communication is another element that all civilizations share.
b. Shared communication may include spoken language; alphabets; numeric
systems; signs, ideas, and symbols; and illustration and representation.
c. Written language in particular allows civilizations to record their own
history and everyday events—crucial for understanding ancient cultures.
d. The world's oldest known written language is Sumerian, which developed
in Mesopotamia around 3100 BCE.
4. Systems for Administering territories
a. All civilizations rely on government administration—bureaucracy.
b. Perhaps no civilization better exemplifies this than ancient Rome. Romans used a variety of methods to
administer their republic and, later, empire. Engineering, network of roads, legal codes, Language for instance,
were a key part of Roman administration.
c. Language also played a part in Roman infrastructure. Romans spread the Latin language throughout southern
Europe. The so-called "Romance languages" (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, and Italian)
d. Finally, Romans used local leaders, as well as Romans, to administer the law in their territories
5. A complex Division of labor;
a. Civilizations are marked by complex divisions of labor.
b. This means that different people perform specialized tasks. In a purely agricultural society, members of the
community are largely self-sufficient, and can provide food, shelter, and clothing for themselves
c. In a complex civilization, farmers may cultivate one type of crop and depend on other people for other foods,
clothing, shelter, and information
6. Division of people into Social and Economic classes.
a. This is a complex idea that can be broken down into two parts: income and type of work performed. Changing
classes has traditionally been difficult and happens over generations.
b. Classes can mean groups of people divided by their income. This division is sometimes characterized as
“economic class.”
c. Modern Western Civilization often divides economic classes into wealthy, middle-class, and poor
* Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study, Trigger, Bruce G., Cambridge University Press, 2007
Fertile Crescent- The Cradle of Civilization
● The figurative use of cradle to mean "the place or
region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its
earlier stage"
● 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.
●
● Jared Diamond postulates that the
reason the Fertile Crescent was the
earliest civilization was that
1. large-seeded,easily-domestic
able plants (wheat and
barley, among others)
2. large domesticable animals
(cattle, pigs, sheep, horses)
were native to the region.
● 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 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
● The rise of civilization could equally be hypothesized as an accelerated process that
started with incipient agriculture and culminated in the Oriental Bronze Age
● Gordon Childe defined the
development of civilization as
the result of two successive
revolutions: the Neolithic
Revolution, and the Urban
Revolution
● Neolithic Revolution- Triggered the development of settled communities,
● Urban Revolution enhanced tendencies towards dense settlements, specialized occupational groups, social
classes, exploitation of surpluses, monumental public buildings and writing.
Mesopotamia
● Around 10,200 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures appeared in the
Fertile Crescent and from there spread eastward and westward.
● One of the most notable settlements is Jericho in the Levant region, thought to be
the world's first town (settled around 9600 BC and fortified around 6800 BC).
● In Mesopotamia, 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.
STAGES OF PRE-DYNASTIC PERIOD
1. Ubaid period (6500 to 3800 BC)-
○ the movement toward urbanization began.
○ Agriculture and animal husbandry were widely practiced in sedentary
communities, particularly in Northern Mesopotamia,
○ Intensive irrigated hydraulic agriculture began to be practiced in the
south. the city of Ur also first dates to the end of this period
2. Uruk period (4000 to 3100 BC)-
○ Saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and, during its later
phase, the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script.
○ Pottery painting declined as copper started to become popular, along
○ Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king
(ensi), assisted by a council of elders.
○ Uruk trade networks started to expand to other parts of Mesopotamia
3. Jemdet Nasr period (3100 to 2900 BC)
● the formative stages in the development of the cuneiform script.
● It originally consisted of pictographs, but by the time of the Jemdet Nasr Period it was already adopting simpler
and more abstract designs.
● It is also during this period that the script acquired its iconic wedge-shaped appearance
4. Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900 BC)
● Strong signs of governmental organization and social stratification began to emerge.
● Shift in control of the city-states from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly
"En" towards a more secular Lugal and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda
and Gilgamesh who are supposed to have reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2700 B
● The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period,
Egyptian ● Geological evidence and computer climate
modeling studies suggest that natural climate
changes around 8000 BC began to desiccate the
extensive pastoral lands of northern Africa,
eventually forming the Sahara.
● Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors
of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more
permanently and to adopt a more sedentary
lifestyle
● The oldest fully developed neolithic culture in
Egypt is Fayum culture that began around 5500
B.C
STAGES OF PRE-DYNASTIC PERIOD
● By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a
series of inter-related cultures as far south as Sudan,
● It demonstrated firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry,
● They were identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs,
bracelets, and beads.
1. Badarian Culture (4400 and 4000 BCE)
a. The largest of these early cultures in upper (Southern) Egypt was the Badarian
culture, which probably originated in the Western Desert;
b. it was known for its high-quality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper
c. Social stratification has been inferred from the burying of more prosperous
members of the community in a different part of the cemetery.
d. The Badarian economy was based mostly on agriculture, fishing and animal
husbandry
e. The Badari culture is primarily known from cemeteries in the low desert
2. Naqada culture (c. 4000–3000 BC)
a. The Badari was followed by the Naqada culture: the Amratian (Naqada I), the
Gerzeh (Naqada II), and Semainean (Naqada III).
b. Over a period of about 1,000 years, the Naqada culture
developed from a few small farming communities into a
powerful civilization
c. Establishing a power center at Nekhen and later at Abydos,
Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt
northwards along the Nile.
d. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that
eventually were developed into a full system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient
Egyptian language
e. Farming produced the vast majority of food; with increased food supplies, the populace adopted a much more
sedentary lifestyle, and the larger settlements grew to cities of about 5,000 residents.
f. It was in this time that the city dwellers started using mud brick to build their cities, and the use of the arch and
recessed walls for decorative effect became popular.
g. Copper instead of stone was increasingly used to make tools and weaponry.
h. Symbols on Gerzean pottery also resemble nascent Egyptian hieroglyphs.
.Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150–2686 BC)
a. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper
Egypt to the south, and Lower Egypt to the north.
b. The Early Dynastic Period of Egypt immediately followed the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.
c. According to Manetho, the first monarch of the unified Upper and Lower Egypt was Menes, who is now
identified with Narmer.
d. King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under
his single rule.
e. The Dynastic kings solidified control over lower Egypt by establishing a
capital at Memphis, where the capital was moved from Thinis with a
unified Egypt ruled by a god-king
f. Now he could control the labour force and agriculture of the fertile delta
region, as well as the lucrative and critical trade routes to the Levant
g. The strong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohs served to
legitimize state control over the land, labour, and resources that were
essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization.
