fbpx
Wikipedia

Cradle of civilization

May 04, 2023

A cradle of civilization is a location and a culture where civilization was created independent of other civilizations in other locations. The formation of urban settlements (cities) is the primary characteristic of a society that can be characterized as "civilized". Other characteristics of civilization include a sedentary non-nomadic population, monumental architecture, the existence of social classes and inequality, and the creation of a writing system for communication. The transition from simpler societies to the complex society of a civilization is gradual.

Among the various cradles of civilization is Ancient Egypt. Pictured are the Giza Pyramids.

Scholars generally acknowledge six cradles of civilization. Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, and Ancient China are believed to be the earliest in the Old World.[1][2] Cradles of civilization in the New World are the Caral-Supe civilization of coastal Peru and the Olmec civilization of Mexico. All of the cradles of civilization depended upon agriculture for sustenance (except possibly Caral-Supe which may have depended initially on marine resources). All depended upon farmers producing an agricultural surplus to support the centralized government, political leaders, priests, and public works of the urban centers of the civilization.

Less formally, the term "cradle of civilization" is often used to refer to other historic ancient civilizations, such as Greece or Rome, which have both been called the "cradle of Western civilization"[citation needed].

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.[3] 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.[4]

The earliest proto-urban settlements with several thousand inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic which began in Western Asia in 10,000 BC. The first cities to house several tens of thousands were Uruk, Ur, Kish and Eridu in Mesopotamia, followed by Susa in Elam and Memphis in Egypt, all 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"[5]—in written or oral form. If the rise of civilization is taken to coincide with the development of writing out of proto-writing, then 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 3,300 BC are the earliest instances, followed by Chinese proto-writing evolving into the oracle bone script, and again by the emergence of Mesoamerican writing systems from about 900 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 of Western Asia, triggering the development of settled communities, and the Urban revolution which also first emerged in Western Asia, 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 cities were not attested in Egypt's Old Kingdom (unlike Mesopotamia) and cities had a dispersed population in the Maya area;[6] the Incas lacked writing although they could keep records with Quipus which might also have had literary uses; 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 BC. 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.[7]

Single or multiple cradles

Scholars once thought that civilization began in the Fertile Crescent and spread out from there by influence.[8] Scholars 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.[9]

Scholarship generally identifies six areas where civilization emerged independently:[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

A question that intrigues scholars is why pristine civilizations rose when and where they did. The economies of all of the pristine civilizations depended upon agriculture, with the possible exception of the Andean coast civilization which may have initially relied as much or more on marine resources. Jared Diamond postulates that the reason the Fertile Crescent was the earliest civilization was that large-seeded, easily-domesticable plants (wheat and barley, among others) and large domesticable animals (cattle, pigs, sheep, horses) were native to the region. By contrast, it took thousands of years of selective breeding in Mesoamerica for maize to become productive enough to be a staple crop. Mesoamerica also lacked large domesticable animals. Llamas were the only large, domesticable animal in the Andes of South America. Llamas are large enough to be pack animals but not large enough to be ridden or used as draft animals. Australia lacked both easily domesticable plants and large animals.[18][19]

Cradles of civilization

Fertile Crescent

See also: Fertile Crescent and Egypt–Mesopotamia relations
 
The Fertile Crescent in 7500 BC. The red squares designate farming villages.

The Fertile Crescent of 7500 BC was an arc of hilly land in Northwest Asia that stretches from parts of modern Palestine and Israel through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq to the Zagros Mountains in Iran. It was one of the oldest areas in the world in which agriculture was practiced and probably the oldest area of the world in which sedentary farming villages existed.[20] Around 10,200 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phases Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (7600 to 6000 BC) appeared in the Fertile Crescent and from there spread eastward towards South Asia and westward towards Europe and North Africa.[21] One of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho, Palestine, thought to be the world's first town (settled around 9600 BC and fortified around 6800 BC).[22][23]

Current theories and findings identify the Fertile Crescent as the first and oldest cradle of civilization. Examples of sites in this area are the early Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe (9500–8000 BC) and Çatalhöyük (7500–5700 BC).

Mesopotamia

Main articles: History of Mesopotamia, History of Sumer, and Mesopotamia
 
Major Sumerian cities during the Ubaid period

In Mesopotamia (a region encompassing modern Iraq and bordering regions of Southeast Turkey, Northeast Syria and Northwest Iran), the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation. Neolithic cultures emerged in the region from 8000 BC onwards. The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies. It is because of this that the Fertile Crescent region, and Mesopotamia in particular, are often referred to as the cradle of civilization.[24] The period known as the Ubaid period (c. 6500 to 3800 BC) is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain, although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium.[25][26] It was during the Ubaid period that the movement toward urbanization began. Agriculture and animal husbandry were widely practiced in sedentary communities, particularly in Northern Mesopotamia (later Assyria), and intensive irrigated hydraulic agriculture began to be practiced in the south.[27]

Around 6000 BC, Neolithic settlements began to appear all over Egypt.[28] Studies based on morphological,[29] genetic,[30][31][32][33][34] and archaeological data[35][36][37][38] have attributed these settlements to migrants from the Fertile Crescent in the Near East arriving in Egypt and North Africa during the Egyptian and North African Neolithic Revolution and bringing agriculture to the region. Tell el-'Oueili is the oldest Sumerian site settled during this period, around 5400 BC, and the city of Ur also first dates to the end of this period.[39] In the south, the Ubaid period lasted from around 6500 to 3800 BC.[40]

Sumerian civilization coalesced in the subsequent Uruk period (4000 to 3100 BC).[41] Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and, during its later phase, the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script. Proto-writing in the region dates to around 3800 BC, with the earliest texts dating to 3300 BC; early cuneiform writing emerged in 3000 BC.[42] It was also during this period that pottery painting declined as copper started to become popular, along with cylinder seals.[43] 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, including both men and women.[44] It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure.

The Jemdet Nasr period, which is generally dated from 3100 to 2900 BC and succeeds the Uruk period, is known as one of the formative stages in the development of the cuneiform script. The oldest clay tablets come from Uruk and date to the late fourth millennium BC, slightly earlier than the Jemdet Nasr Period. By the time of the Jemdet Nasr Period, the script had already undergone a number of significant changes. 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.[45][46]

Uruk trade networks started to expand to other parts of Mesopotamia and as far as North Caucasus, and strong signs of governmental organization and social stratification began to emerge, leading to the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900 BC).[47][48][49] After the Early Dynastic period began, there was a shift in control of the city-states from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god)[50] towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great). The Lugals included such legendary patriarchal figures as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, who supposedly reigned shortly before the historic record opens around 2700 BC, when syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas. Neighboring Semitic groups, including the Akkadian speaking Semites (Assyrians, Babylonians) who lived alongside the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own. The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period, although architectural precursors in the form of raised platforms date back to the Ubaid period.[51] The Sumerian King List dates to the early second millennium BC. It consists of a succession of royal dynasties from different Sumerian cities, ranging back into the Early Dynastic Period. Each dynasty rises to prominence and dominates the region, only to be replaced by the next. The document was used by later Mesopotamian kings to legitimize their rule. While some of the information in the list can be checked against other texts such as economic documents, much of it is probably purely fictional, and its use as a historical document is limited.[49]

Eannatum, the Sumerian king of Lagash, established the first verifiable empire in history in 2500 BC.[52] The neighboring Elam, in modern Iran, was also part of the early urbanization during the Chalcolithic period.[53] Elamite states were among the leading political forces of the Ancient Near East.[54] The emergence of Elamite written records from around 3000 BC also parallels Sumerian history, where slightly earlier records have been found.[55][56] During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians.[57] Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC.[58] The Semitic-speaking Akkadian empire emerged around 2350 BC under Sargon the Great.[47] The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC. Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam and Gutium. After the fall of the Akkadian Empire and the overthrow of the Gutians, there was a brief reassertion of Sumerian dominance in Mesopotamia under the Third Dynasty of Ur.[59] After the final collapse of Sumerian hegemony in Mesopotamia around 2004 BC, the Semitic Akkadian people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian-speaking nations: Assyria in the north (whose earliest kings date to the 25th century BC), and, a few centuries later, Babylonia in the south, both of which (Assyria in particular) would go on to form powerful empires between the 20th and 6th centuries BC. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Semitic Assyrian-Babylonian population.[60][61]

Ancient Egypt

Main articles: History of ancient Egypt and Ancient Egypt
 
Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC)

The developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phases Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10,200 BC) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (7600 to 6000 BC) appeared in the fertile crescent and from there spread eastwards and westwards.[21] Contemporaneously, a grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had replaced the culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering people using stone tools along the Nile. Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies also 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.[62] The oldest fully developed neolithic culture in Egypt is Fayum A culture that began around 5500 B.C.

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, demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry, and identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early cultures in upper Southern Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert; it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools, and use of copper.[63] The oldest known domesticated bovine in Africa are from Fayum dating to around 4400 BC.[64] The Badari cultures was followed by the Naqada culture, which brought a number of technological improvements.[65] As early as the first Naqada Period, Amratia, Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes.[66] 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.[67]

Egyptian civilization begins during the second phase of the Naqada culture, known as the Gerzeh period, around 3500 BC and coalesces with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3150 BC.[68] 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. 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.[69] Copper instead of stone was increasingly used to make tools[69] and weaponry.[70] Symbols on Gerzean pottery also resemble nascent Egyptian hieroglyphs.[71] Early evidence also exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan and the Byblos coast, during this time.[72] Concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt, also underwent a unification process. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under his single rule.[73]

The Early Dynastic Period of Egypt immediately followed the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the Naqada III archaeological period until about the beginning of the Old Kingdom, c. 2686 BC.[74] With the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Thinis to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by a god-king. The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art, architecture and many aspects of religion, took shape during the Early Dynastic period. The strong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohs served to legitimize state control over the land, labor, and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization.[75]

Major advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the subsequent Old Kingdom, fueled by the increased agricultural productivity and resulting population, made possible by a well-developed central administration.[76] Some of ancient Egypt's crowning achievements, the Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx, were constructed during the Old Kingdom. Under the direction of the vizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield, drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain peace and order. Along with the rising importance of a central administration there arose a new class of educated scribes and officials who were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment for their services. Pharaohs also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples, to ensure that these institutions had the resources to worship the pharaoh after his death. Scholars believe that five centuries of these practices slowly eroded the economic power of the pharaoh, and that the economy could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration.[74] As the power of the pharaoh diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the pharaoh. This, coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC,[77] is assumed to have caused the country to enter the 140-year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period.[78]

Ancient India

Main articles: History of India, Meluhha, Indus Valley Civilisation, and List of Indus Valley Civilisation sites
 
The Indus Valley Civilization at its greatest extent

One of the earliest Neolithic sites in the Indian subcontinent is Bhirrana along the ancient Ghaggar-Hakra riverine system in the present day state of Haryana in India, dating to around 7600 BC.[79] Other early sites include Lahuradewa in the Middle Ganges region and Jhusi near the confluence of Ganges and Yamuna rivers, both dating to around 7000 BC.[80][81]

The aceramic Neolithic at Mehrgarh in present day Pakistan lasts from 7000 to 5500 BC, with the ceramic Neolithic at Mehrgarh lasting up to 3300 BC; blending into the Early Bronze Age. Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in the Indian subcontinent.[82][83] It is likely that the culture centered around Mehrgarh migrated into the Indus Valley in present day Pakistan and became the Indus Valley Civilisation.[84] The earliest fortified town in the region is found at Rehman Dheri, dated 4000 BC in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa close to River Zhob Valley in present day Pakistan . Other fortified towns found to date are at Amri (3600–3300 BC), Kot Diji in Sindh, and at Kalibangan (3000 BC) at the Hakra River.[85][86][87][88]

The Indus Valley Civilization starts around 3300 BC with what is referred to as the Early Harappan Phase (3300 to 2600 BC). The earliest examples of the Indus script date to this period,[89][90] as well as the emergence of citadels representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life.[91] Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. By this time, villagers had domesticated numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as animals, including the water buffalo.[92][93]

2600 BC marks the Mature Harappan Phase during which Early Harappan communities turned into large urban centers including Harappa, Dholavira, Mohenjo-Daro, Lothal, Rupar, and Rakhigarhi, and more than 1,000 towns and villages, often of relatively small size.[94] Mature Harappans evolved new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin and displayed advanced levels of engineering.[95] As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems: see hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley civilization. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. The house-building in some villages in the region still resembles in some respects the house-building of the Harappans.[96] The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts.[97]

The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal in Gujarat, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age. Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as revealed by their hexahedron weights.[98] These chert weights were in a ratio of 5:2:1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams, similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0.871. However, as in other cultures, actual weights were not uniform throughout the area. The weights and measures later used in Kautilya's Arthashastra (4th century BC) are the same as those used in Lothal.[99]

Around 1800 BC, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BC most of the cities had been abandoned. Suggested contributory causes for the localisation of the IVC include changes in the course of the river,[100] and climate change that is also signalled for the neighbouring areas of the Middle East.[101][102] As of 2016 many scholars believe that drought led to a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia contributing to the collapse of the Indus Civilization.[103] The Ghaggar-Hakra system was rain-fed,[104][105][note 1][106][note 2] and water-supply depended on the monsoons. The Indus Valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BC, linked to a general weakening of the monsoon at that time.[104] The Indian monsoon declined and aridity increased, with the Ghaggar-Hakra retracting its reach towards the foothills of the Himalaya,[104][107][108] leading to erratic and less extensive floods that made inundation agriculture less sustainable. Aridification reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilization's demise, and to scatter its population eastward.[109][110][111][note 3] As the monsoons kept shifting south, the floods grew too erratic for sustainable agricultural activities. The residents then migrated away into smaller communities. However trade with the old cities did not flourish. The small surplus produced in these small communities did not allow development of trade, and the cities died out.[112] The Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into the Indus River Valley during this period and began the Vedic age of India.[113] The Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly and many elements of the civilization continued in later Indian subcontinent and Vedic cultures.[114]

Ancient China

Main articles: History of China, Xia dynasty, and Erlitou culture
 
Traditional Xia sites (black) and Erlitou sites (red) near the Yellow River (Huang He)

Drawing on archaeology, geology and anthropology, modern scholars do not see the origins of the Chinese civilization or history as a linear story but rather the history of the interactions of different and distinct cultures and ethnic groups that influenced each other's development.[115] The specific cultural regions that developed Chinese civilization were the Yellow River civilization, the Yangtze civilization, and Liao civilization. Early evidence for Chinese millet agriculture is dated to around 7000 BC,[116] with the earliest evidence of cultivated rice found at Chengtoushan near the Yangtze River, dated to 6500 BC. Chengtoushan may also be the site of the first walled city in China.[117] By the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a center of the Peiligang culture, which flourished from 7000 to 5000 BC, with evidence of agriculture, constructed buildings, pottery, and burial of the dead.[118] With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and administrators.[119] Its most prominent site is Jiahu.[119] Some scholars have suggested that the Jiahu symbols (6600 BC) are the earliest form of proto-writing in China.[120] However, it is likely that they should not be understood as writing itself, but as features of a lengthy period of sign-use, which led eventually to a fully-fledged system of writing.[121] Archaeologists believe that the Peiligang culture was egalitarian, with little political organization.

It eventually evolved into the Yangshao culture (5000 to 3000 BC), and their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. They may also have practiced an early form of silkworm cultivation.[122] The main food of the Yangshao people was millet, with some sites using foxtail millet and others broom-corn millet, though some evidence of rice has been found. The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture, small-scale slash-and-burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields, is currently a matter of debate. Once the soil was exhausted, residents picked up their belongings, moved to new lands, and constructed new villages.[123] However, Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised-floor buildings that may have been used for the storage of surplus grains. Grinding stones for making flour were also found.[124]

Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 to 1900 BC, its most prominent site being Taosi.[125] The population expanded dramatically during the 3rd millennium BC, with many settlements having rammed earth walls. It decreased in most areas around 2000 BC until the central area evolved into the Bronze Age Erlitou culture. The earliest bronze artifacts have been found in the Majiayao culture site (3100 to 2700 BC).[126][127]

Chinese civilization begins during the second phase of the Erlitou period (1900 to 1500 BC), with Erlitou considered the first state level society of East Asia.[128] There is considerable debate whether Erlitou sites correlate to the semi-legendary Xia dynasty. The Xia dynasty (2070 to 1600 BC) is the first dynasty to be described in ancient Chinese historical records such as the Bamboo Annals, first published more than a millennium later during the Western Zhou period. Although Xia is an important element in Chinese historiography, there is to date no contemporary written evidence to corroborate the dynasty. Erlitou saw an increase in bronze metallurgy and urbanization and was a rapidly growing regional center with palatial complexes that provide evidence for social stratification.[129] The Erlitou civilization is divided into four phases, each of roughly 50 years. During Phase I, covering 100 hectares (250 acres), Erlitou was a rapidly growing regional center with estimated population of several thousand[130] but not yet an urban civilization or capital.[131] Urbanization began in Phase II, expanding to 300 ha (740 acres) with a population around 11,000.[130] A palace area of 12 ha (30 acres) was demarcated by four roads. It contained the 150x50 m Palace 3, composed of three courtyards along a 150-meter axis, and Palace 5.[132] A bronze foundry was established to the south of the palatial complex that was controlled by the elite who lived in palaces.[133] The city reached its peak in Phase III, and may have had a population of around 24,000.[131] The palatial complex was surrounded by a two-meter-thick rammed-earth wall, and Palaces 1, 7, 8, 9 were built. The earthwork volume of rammed earth for the base of largest Palace 1 is 20,000 m³ at least.[134] Palaces 3 and 5 were abandoned and replaced by 4,200-square-meter (45,000 sq ft) Palace 2 and Palace 4.[135] In Phase IV, the population decreased to around 20,000, but building continued. Palace 6 was built as an extension of Palace 2, and Palaces 10 and 11 were built. Phase IV overlaps with the Lower phase of the Erligang culture (1600–1450  BC). Around 1600 to 1560 BC, about 6 km northeast of Erlitou, a culturally Erligang walled city was built at Yanshi,[135] which coincides with an increase in production of arrowheads at Erlitou.[130] This situation might indicate that the Yanshi city was competing for power and dominance with Erlitou.[130] Production of bronzes and other elite goods ceased at the end of Phase IV, at the same time as the Erligang city of Zhengzhou was established 85 km (53 mi) to the east. There is no evidence of destruction by fire or war, but, during the Upper Erligang phase (1450–1300  BC), all the palaces were abandoned, and Erlitou was reduced to a village of 30 ha (74 acres).[135]

The earliest traditional Chinese dynasty for which there is both archeological and written evidence is the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BC). Shang sites have yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, the oracle bone script, mostly divinations inscribed on bones. These inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, and religious practices to the art and medicine of this early stage of Chinese civilization.[136] Some historians argue that Erlitou should be considered an early phase of the Shang dynasty. The U.S. National Gallery of Art defines the Chinese Bronze Age as the period between about 2000 and 771 BC; a period that begins with the Erlitou culture and ends abruptly with the disintegration of Western Zhou rule.[137] The Sanxingdui culture is another Chinese Bronze Age society, contemporaneous to the Shang dynasty, however they developed a different method of bronze-making from the Shang.[138]

Ancient Andes

Main article: Caral-Supe civilization
 
Map of Caral-Supe sites

The earliest evidence of agriculture in the Andean region dates to around 9000 BC in Ecuador at sites of the Las Vegas culture. The bottle gourd may have been the first plant cultivated.[139] The oldest evidence of canal irrigation in South America dates to 4700 to 2500 BC in the Zaña Valley of northern Peru.[140] The earliest urban settlements of the Andes, as well as North and South America, are dated to 3500 BC at Huaricanga, in the Fortaleza area,[9] and Sechin Bajo near the Sechin River. Both sites are in Peru.[141][142]

The Caral-Supe or Norte Chico civilization is understood to have emerged around 3200 BC, as it is at that point that large-scale human settlement and communal construction across multiple sites becomes clearly apparent.[143] In the early 21st century, Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady established Caral-Supe as the oldest known civilization in the Americas. The civilization flourished near the Pacific coast in the valleys of three small rivers, the Fortaleza, the Pativilca, and the Supe. These river valleys each have large clusters of sites. Further south, there are several associated sites along the Huaura River.[144] Notable settlements include the cities of Caral, the largest and most complex Preceramic site, and Aspero.[145] Norte Chico is distinguished by its density of large sites with immense architecture.[146] Haas argues that the density of sites in such a small area is globally unique for a nascent civilization. During the third millennium BC, Norte Chico may have been the most densely populated area of the world (excepting, possibly, northern China).[147] The Supe, Pativilca, Fortaleza, and Huaura River valleys each have several related sites.

Norte Chico is unusual in that it completely lacked ceramics and apparently had almost no visual art. Nevertheless, the civilization exhibited impressive architectural feats, including large earthwork platform mounds and sunken circular plazas, and an advanced textile industry.[9][148] The platform mounds, as well as large stone warehouses, provide evidence for a stratified society and a centralized authority necessary to distribute resources such as cotton.[9] However, there is no evidence of warfare or defensive structures during this period.[147] Originally, it was theorized that, unlike other early civilizations, Norte Chico developed by relying on maritime food sources in place of a staple cereal. This hypothesis, the Maritime Foundation of Andean Civilization, is still hotly debated; however, most researches now agree that agriculture played a central role in the civilization's development while still acknowledging a strong supplemental reliance on maritime proteins.[19][149][150]

The Norte Chico chiefdoms were "...almost certainly theocratic, though not brutally so," according to Mann. Construction areas show possible evidence of feasting, which would have included music and likely alcohol, suggesting an elite able to both mobilize and reward the population.[9] The degree of centralized authority is difficult to ascertain, but architectural construction patterns are indicative of an elite that, at least in certain places at certain times, wielded considerable power: while some of the monumental architecture was constructed incrementally, other buildings, such as the two main platform mounds at Caral, appear to have been constructed in one or two intense construction phases.[147] As further evidence of centralized control, Haas points to remains of large stone warehouses found at Upaca, on the Pativilca, as emblematic of authorities able to control vital resources such as cotton.[9] Economic authority would have rested on the control of cotton and edible plants and associated trade relationships, with power centered on the inland sites. Haas tentatively suggests that the scope of this economic power base may have extended widely: there are only two confirmed shore sites in the Norte Chico (Aspero and Bandurria) and possibly two more, but cotton fishing nets and domesticated plants have been found up and down the Peruvian coast. It is possible that the major inland centers of Norte Chico were at the center of a broad regional trade network centered on these resources.[147]

Discover magazine, citing Shady, suggests a rich and varied trade life: "[Caral] exported its own products and those of Aspero to distant communities in exchange for exotic imports: Spondylus shells from the coast of Ecuador, rich dyes from the Andean highlands, hallucinogenic snuff from the Amazon."[151] (Given the still limited extent of Norte Chico research, such claims should be treated circumspectly.) Other reports on Shady's work indicate Caral traded with communities in the Andes and in the jungles of the Amazon basin on the opposite side of the Andes.[152]

Leaders' ideological power was based on apparent access to deities and the supernatural.[147] Evidence regarding Norte Chico religion is limited: an image of the Staff God, a leering figure with a hood and fangs, has been found on a gourd dated to 2250 BC. The Staff God is a major deity of later Andean cultures, and Winifred Creamer suggests the find points to worship of common symbols of gods.[153][154] As with much other research at Norte Chico, the nature and significance of the find has been disputed by other researchers.[note 4] The act of architectural construction and maintenance may also have been a spiritual or religious experience: a process of communal exaltation and ceremony.[145] Shady has called Caral "the sacred city" (la ciudad sagrada): socio-economic and political focus was on the temples, which were periodically remodeled, with major burnt offerings associated with the remodeling.[155]

Bundles of strings uncovered at Norte Chico sites have been identified as quipu, a type of pre-writing recording device.[156] Quipu are thought to encode numeric information, but some have conjectured that quipu have been used to encode other forms of data, possibly including literary or musical applications.[157] However, the exact use of quipu by the Norte Chico and later Andean cultures has been widely debated.[9] The presence of quipu and the commonality of religious symbols suggests a cultural link between Norte Chico and later Andean cultures.[153][154]

Circa 1800 BC, the Norte Chico civilization began to decline, with more powerful centers appearing to the south and north along the coast and to the east inside the belt of the Andes.[158] Pottery eventually developed in the Amazon Basin and spread to the Andean culture region around 2000 BC. The next major civilization to arise in the Andes would be the Chavín culture at Chavín de Huantar, located in the Andean highlands of the present-day Ancash Region. It is believed to have been built around 900 BC and was the religious and political center of the Chavín people.[159]

Mesoamerica

Main articles: Mesoamerican chronology and Olmecs
 
The Olmec heartland, where the Olmec reigned

Maize is believed to have been first domesticated in southern Mexico about 7000 BC.[160][161] The Coxcatlan Caves in the Valley of Tehuacán provide evidence for agriculture in components dated between 5000 and 3400 BC.[162] Similarly, sites such as Sipacate in Guatemala provide maize pollen samples dating to 3500 BC.[163] Around 1900 BC, the Mokaya domesticated one of the dozen species of cacao.[164][165] A Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating to this time.[166] The Mokaya are also thought to have been among the first cultures in Mesoamerica to develop a hierarchical society. What would become the Olmec civilization had its roots in early farming cultures of Tabasco, which began around 5100 to 4600 BC.[167]

The emergence of the Olmec civilization has traditionally been dated to around 1600 to 1500 BC. Olmec features first emerged in the city of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, fully coalescing around 1400 BC. The rise of civilization was assisted by the local ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as by the transportation network provided by the Coatzacoalcos River basin.[167] This environment encouraged a densely concentrated population, which in turn triggered the rise of an elite class and an associated demand for the production of the symbolic and sophisticated luxury artifacts that define Olmec culture.[168] Many of these luxury artifacts were made from materials such as jade, obsidian, and magnetite, which came from distant locations and suggest that early Olmec elites had access to an extensive trading network in Mesoamerica. The aspect of Olmec culture perhaps most familiar today is their artwork, particularly the Olmec colossal heads.[169] San Lorenzo was situated in the midst of a large agricultural area.[170] San Lorenzo seems to have been largely a ceremonial site, a town without city walls, centered in the midst of a widespread medium-to-large agricultural population. The ceremonial center and attendant buildings could have housed 5,500 while the entire area, including hinterlands, could have reached 13,000.[171] It is thought that while San Lorenzo controlled much or all of the Coatzacoalcos basin, areas to the east (such as the area where La Venta would rise to prominence) and north-northwest (such as the Tuxtla Mountains) were home to independent polities.[172] San Lorenzo was all but abandoned around 900 BC at about the same time that La Venta rose to prominence. A wholesale destruction of many San Lorenzo monuments also occurred circa 950 BC, which may indicate an internal uprising or, less likely, an invasion.[173] The latest thinking, however, is that environmental changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers, with certain important rivers changing course.[174]

La Venta became the cultural capital of the Olmec concentration in the region until its abandonment around 400 BC; constructing monumental architectural achievements such as the Great Pyramid of La Venta.[167][169] It contained a "concentration of power", as reflected by the sheer enormity of the architecture and the extreme value of the artifacts uncovered.[175] La Venta is perhaps the largest Olmec city and it was controlled and expanded by an extremely complex hierarchical system with a king, as the ruler and the elites below him. Priests had power and influence over life and death and likely great political sway as well. Unfortunately, not much is known about the political or social structure of the Olmec, though new dating techniques might, at some point, reveal more information about this elusive culture. It is possible that the signs of status exist in the artifacts recovered at the site such as depictions of feathered headdresses or of individuals wearing a mirror on their chest or forehead.[176] "High-status objects were a significant source of power in the La Venta polity political power, economic power, and ideological power. They were tools used by the elite to enhance and maintain rights to rulership".[177] It has been estimated that La Venta would need to be supported by a population of at least 18,000 people during its principal occupation.[178] To add to the mystique of La Venta, the alluvial soil did not preserve skeletal remains, so it is difficult to observe differences in burials. However, colossal heads provide proof that the elite had some control over the lower classes, as their construction would have been extremely labor-intensive. "Other features similarly indicate that many laborers were involved".[179] In addition, excavations over the years have discovered that different parts of the site were likely reserved for elites and other parts for non-elites. This segregation of the city indicates that there must have been social classes and therefore social inequality.[176]

The exact cause of the decline of the Olmec culture is uncertain. Between 400 and 350 BC, the population in the eastern half of the Olmec heartland dropped precipitously.[180] This depopulation was probably the result of serious environmental changes that rendered the region unsuited for large groups of farmers, in particular changes to the riverine environment that the Olmec depended upon for agriculture, hunting and gathering, and transportation. These changes may have been triggered by tectonic upheavals or subsidence, or the silting up of rivers due to agricultural practices.[167][169] Within a few hundred years of the abandonment of the last Olmec cities, successor cultures became firmly established. The Tres Zapotes site, on the western edge of the Olmec heartland, continued to be occupied well past 400 BC, but without the hallmarks of the Olmec culture. This post-Olmec culture, often labeled Epi-Olmec, has features similar to those found at Izapa, some 550 km (330 miles) to the southeast.[181]

The Olmecs are sometimes referred to as the mother culture of Mesoamerica, as they were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed.[182] However, the causes and degree of Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures has been a subject of debate over many decades.[183] Practices introduced by the Olmec include ritual bloodletting and the Mesoamerican ballgame; hallmarks of subsequent Mesoamerican societies such as the Maya and Aztec.[182] Although the Mesoamerican writing system would fully develop later, early Olmec ceramics show representations that may be interpreted as codices.[167]

Cradle of Western civilization

Main articles: Minoan civilization, Mycenaean Greece, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Classical antiquity, and Christendom
 
 
The Colosseum and the Acropolis, symbols of the Greco-Roman world. Via the Roman Empire, Greek culture spread throughout Europe.

The Black Sea area is a cradle of the European civilization. The site of Solnitsata (5500 BC - 4200 BC) is believed to be the oldest town in Europe - prehistoric fortified (walled) stone settlement (prehistoric city).[184][185][186][187] The first gold artifacts in the world appear from the 4th millennium BC, such as those found in a burial site from 4569–4340 BC and one of the most important archaeological sites in world prehistory – the Varna Necropolis near Lake Varna in Bulgaria, thought to be the earliest "well-dated" find of gold artifacts.[188]

There is academic consensus that Classical Greece was the seminal culture that provided the foundation of modern Western culture, democracy, art, theatre, philosophy, and science. For this reason it is known as the cradle of Western Civilization.[a] Along with Greece, Rome has sometimes been described as a birthplace or as the cradle of Western Civilization because of the role the city had in politics, republicanism, law, architecture, warfare and Western Christianity.[b]

Other uses

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 Indian nationalism (In Search of the Cradle of Civilization 1995) and Taiwanese nationalism (Taiwan;— The Cradle of Civilization[205] 2002). The terms also appear 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).

Timeline

The following timeline shows a timeline of cultures, with the approximate dates of the emergence of civilization (as discussed in the article) in the featured areas, the primary cultures associated with these early civilizations. It is important to note that the timeline is not indicative of the beginning of human habitation, the start of a specific ethnic group, or the development of Neolithic cultures in the area – any of which often occurred significantly earlier than the emergence of civilization proper. In the case of the Indus Valley Civilization, this was followed by a period of de-urbanization and regionalisation, and the co-existence of indigenous local agricultural cultures and the pastoral Indo-Aryans, who came from Central Asia.

The dates given are only approximate as the development of civilization was incremental and the exact date when "civilization" began for a given culture is subject to interpretation.

Maya civilizationOlmecsCultural periods of PeruChavín cultureCultural periods of PeruNorte Chico civilizationJin dynasty (266–420)Han dynastyQin dynastyZhou dynastyShang dynastyErlitou cultureMiddle kingdoms of IndiaVedic periodIndus Valley civilisationGreco-Roman EgyptLate Period of ancient EgyptNew KingdomMiddle Kingdom of EgyptFirst Intermediate Period of EgyptEarly Dynastic Period (Egypt)History of IranAssyriaBabylonAkkadian EmpireSumer


See also

Notes

  1. ^ See[189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196][197][198][199]
  2. ^ [200][201][202][203][204]
  1. ^ Geological research by a group led by Peter Clift investigated how the courses of rivers have changed in this region since 8000 years ago, to test whether climate or river reorganisations caused the decline of the Harappan. Using U-Pb dating of zircon sand grains they found that sediments typical of the Beas, Sutlej and Yamuna rivers (Himalayan tributaries of the Indus) are actually present in former Ghaggar-Hakra channels. However, sediment contributions from these glacial-fed rivers stopped at least by 10,000 years ago, well before the development of the Indus civilization.[105]
  2. ^ Tripathi et al. (2004) found that the isotopes of sediments carried by the Ghaggar-Hakra system over the last 20 thousand years do not come from the glaciated Higher Himalaya but have a sub-Himalayan source, and concluded that the river system was rain-fed. They also concluded that this contradicted the idea of a Harappan-time mighty "Sarasvati" river.[106]
  3. ^ Broke:[111] "The story in Harappan India was somewhat different (see Figure 111.3). The Bronze Age village and urban societies of the Indus Valley are some-thing of an anomaly, in that archaeologists have found little indication of local defense and regional warfare. It would seem that the bountiful monsoon rainfall of the Early to Mid-Holocene had forged a condition of plenty for all, and that competitive energies were channeled into commerce rather than conflict. Scholars have long argued that these rains shaped the origins of the urban Harappan societies, which emerged from Neolithic villages around 2600 BC. It now appears that this rainfall began to slowly taper off in the third millennium, at just the point that the Harappan cities began to develop. Thus it seems that this "first urbanisation" in South Asia was the initial response of the Indus Valley peoples to the beginning of Late Holocene aridification. These cities were maintained for 300 to 400 years and then gradually abandoned as the Harappan peoples resettled in scattered villages in the eastern range of their territories, into the Punjab and the Ganges Valley....'
    17 (footnote):
    a)Liviu Giosan et al., "Fluvial Landscapes of the Harappan Civilization," PNAS, 102 (2012), E1688—E1694;
    (b) Camilo Ponton, "Holocene Aridification of India," GRL 39 (2012), L03704;
    (c) Harunur Rashid et al., "Late Glacial to Holocene Indian Summer Monsoon Variability Based upon Sediment Records Taken from the Bay of Bengal," Terrestrial, Atmospheric, and Oceanic Sciences 22 (2011), 215–28;
    (d) Marco Madella and Dorian Q. Fuller, "Paleoecology and the Harappan Civilization of South Asia: A Reconsideration," Quaternary Science Reviews 25 (2006), 1283–301. Compare with the very different interpretations in Possehl, Gregory L. (2002), The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective, Rowman Altamira, pp. 237–245, ISBN 978-0-7591-0172-2, and Michael Staubwasser et al., "Climate Change at the 4.2 ka BP Termination of the Indus Valley Civilization and Holocene South Asian Monsoon Variability," GRL 30 (2003), 1425. Bar-Matthews and Avner Ayalon, "Mid-Holocene Climate Variations."
  4. ^ Krysztof Makowski, as reported by Mann (1491), suggests there is little evidence that Andean civilizations worshipped an overarching deity. The figure may have been carved by a later civilization onto an ancient gourd, as it was found in strata dating between 900 and 1300 AD.

References

Citations

  1. ^ Charles Keith Maisels (1993). The Near East: Archaeology in the "Cradle of Civilization. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-04742-5. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  2. ^ Cradles of Civilization-China: Ancient Culture, Modern Land, Robert E. Murowchick, gen. ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994
  3. ^ Ofer Bar-Yosef. "The Natufian Culture in the Levant, Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture" (PDF). www.columbia.edu. (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  4. ^ La protohistoire de l'Europe, Jan Lichardus et al., Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. ISBN 84-335-9366-8, 1987, chapter II.2.
  5. ^ Carr, Edward H. (1961). What is History?. p. 108. ISBN 0-14-020652-3.
  6. ^ Sharer, Robert J.; Traxler, Loa P. (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th (fully revised) ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 0-8047-4817-9. OCLC 57577446.
  7. ^ Britannica 15th edition, 26:62–63.
  8. ^ . History-world.org. Archived from the original on 7 March 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Mann, Charles C. (2005). 1491. New York: Knopf. ISBN 9781400040063.
  10. ^ Wright, Henry T. (1990). "Rise of Civilizations: Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica". Archaeology. 42 (1): 46–48, 96–100.
  11. ^ . College Board. Archived from the original on 22 April 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  12. ^ (PDF). College Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  13. ^ "Civilization". The Columbia Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  14. ^ Edwin, Eric (27 February 2015). "city". Britannica.com. from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  15. ^ "Africanafrican.com" (PDF). Africanafrican.com. (PDF) from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  16. ^ The Ancient Hawaiian State: Origins of a Political Society, Hommon, Robert J., Oxford University Press, 2013
  17. ^ Kennett, Douglas J.; Winterhalder, Bruce (2006). Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture. University of California Press. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-0-520-24647-8. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  18. ^ Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel (Paperback ed.). New York: W. H. Norton. pp. 125–161, 308–311. ISBN 0393317552.
  19. ^ a b Sandweiss, Daniel H.; Michael E. Moseley (2001). "Amplifying Importance of New Research in Peru". Science. 294 (5547): 1651–1653. doi:10.1126/science.294.5547.1651d. PMID 11724063. S2CID 9301114.
  20. ^ Riehl, Simone. "Agriculture in the Ancient Near East". Research Gate. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  21. ^ a b Bellwood, Peter. First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies. 2004. Wiley-Blackwell
  22. ^ Akhilesh Pillalamarri (18 April 2015). "Exploring the Indus Valley's Secrets". The diplomat. from the original on 20 April 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  23. ^ "Jericho – Facts & History". from the original on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  24. ^ "Ubaid Civilization". Ancientneareast.tripod.com. from the original on 2 April 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2009.
  25. ^ Adams, Robert MCC. and Wright, Henry T. 1989. 'Concluding Remarks' in Henrickson, Elizabeth and Thuesen, Ingolf (eds.) Upon This Foundation – The 'Ubaid Reconsidered. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 451–456.
  26. ^ Carter, Robert A. and Philip, Graham Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, Number 63) The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (2010) ISBN 978-1-885923-66-0 p.2, at http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/saoc/saoc63.html 15 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine; "Radiometric data suggest that the whole Southern Mesopotamian Ubaid period, including Ubaid 0 and 5, is of immense duration, spanning nearly three millennia from about 6500 to 3800 B.C".
  27. ^ Pollock, Susan (1999). Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden that Never Was. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57334-4.
  28. ^ Redford, Donald B (1992). Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton: University Press. p. 6. ISBN 9780691036069.
  29. ^ Brace, C. Loring; Seguchi, Noriko; Quintyn, Conrad B.; Fox, Sherry C.; Nelson, A. Russell; Manolis, Sotiris K.; Qifeng, Pan (2006). "The questionable contribution of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age to European craniofacial form". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 103 (1): 242–247. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103..242B. doi:10.1073/pnas.0509801102. PMC 1325007. PMID 16371462.
  30. ^ Chicki, L; Nichols, RA; Barbujani, G; Beaumont, MA (2002). "Y genetic data support the Neolithic demic diffusion model". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 99 (17): 11008–11013. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9911008C. doi:10.1073/pnas.162158799. PMC 123201. PMID 12167671.
  31. ^ . Mbe.oxfordjournals.org. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  32. ^ Semino, O; Magri, C; Benuzzi, G; et al. (May 2004). "Origin, Diffusion, and Differentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J: Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and Later Migratory Events in the Mediterranean Area, 2004". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 74 (5): 1023–34. doi:10.1086/386295. PMC 1181965. PMID 15069642.
  33. ^ Cavalli-Sforza (1997). "Paleolithic and Neolithic lineages in the European mitochondrial gene pool". Am J Hum Genet. 61 (1): 247–54. doi:10.1016/S0002-9297(07)64303-1. PMC 1715849. PMID 9246011. (PDF) from the original on 17 May 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  34. ^ Chikhi (21 July 1998). "Clines of nuclear DNA markers suggest a largely Neolithic ancestry of the European gene". PNAS. 95 (15): 9053–9058. Bibcode:1998PNAS...95.9053C. doi:10.1073/pnas.95.15.9053. PMC 21201. PMID 9671803.
  35. ^ Zvelebil, M. (1986). Hunters in Transition: Mesolithic Societies and the Transition to Farming. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 5–15, 167–188.
  36. ^ Bellwood, P. (2005). First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  37. ^ Dokládal, M.; Brožek, J. (1961). "Physical Anthropology in Czechoslovakia: Recent Developments". Current Anthropology. 2 (5): 455–477. doi:10.1086/200228. S2CID 161324951.
  38. ^ Zvelebil, M. (1989). "On the transition to farming in Europe, or what was spreading with the Neolithic: a reply to Ammerman (1989)". Antiquity. 63 (239): 379–383. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00076110. S2CID 162882505.
  39. ^ Leick, Gwendolyn (2002), "Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City" (Penguin)
  40. ^ Carter, Robert A. and Philip, Graham. 2010. 'Deconstructing the Ubaid' in Carter, Robert A. and Philip, Graham (eds.) Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. p. 2.
  41. ^ Crawford, Harriet E. W. Sumer and the Sumerians. Cambridge University Press. 2nd ed. 2004
  42. ^ Cuneiform 20 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine ancient.eu
  43. ^ An Encyclopedia of World History. Langer, William L. ed. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, MA. 1972
  44. ^ Jacobsen, Thorkild (Ed) (1939),"The Sumerian King List" (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Assyriological Studies, No. 11., 1939)
  45. ^ Woods 2010, pp. 36–37
  46. ^ Martin (1988), pp. 20–23.
  47. ^ a b Pruß, Alexander (2004), "Remarks on the Chronological Periods", in Lebeau, Marc; Sauvage, Martin (eds.), Atlas of Preclassical Upper Mesopotamia, Subartu, vol. 13, pp. 7–21, ISBN 978-2503991207
  48. ^ Postgate, J.N. (1992), Early Mesopotamia. Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, London: Routledge, ISBN 9780415110327
  49. ^ a b van de Mieroop, M. (2007), A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000–323 BC, Malden: Blackwell, ISBN 978-0631225522
  50. ^ Jacobsen, Thorkild (1976), "The Harps that Once...; Sumerian Poetry in Translation" and "Treasures of Darkness: a history of Mesopotamian Religion"
  51. ^ Crawford, page 73–74
  52. ^ Kleiner, Fred S.; Mamiya, Christin J. (2006). Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective — Volume 1 (12th ed.). Belmont, California, USA: Thomson Wadsworth. pp. 22–23. ISBN 978-0-495-00479-0.
  53. ^ The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State – by D. T. Potts, Cambridge University Press, 29 July 1999 – page 46 – ISBN 0521563585 hardback
  54. ^ Elam: surveys of political history and archaeology, Elizabeth Carter and Matthew W. Stolper, University of California Press, 1984, p. 3
  55. ^ Hock, Hans Heinrich (2009). Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics (2nd ed.). Mouton de Gruyter. p. 69. ISBN 978-3110214291. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  56. ^ Gnanadesikan, Amalia (2008). The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet. Blackwell. p. 25. ISBN 978-1444304688.
  57. ^ Deutscher, Guy (2007). Syntactic Change in Akkadian: The Evolution of Sentential Complementation. Oxford University Press US. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-0-19-953222-3. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  58. ^ Woods, C. (2006). (PDF). S.L. Sanders (ed) Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture: 91–120. Chicago. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  59. ^ Samuel Noah Kramer (17 September 2010). The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-45238-8. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  60. ^ J. M. Munn-Rankin (1975). "Assyrian Military Power, 1300–1200 B.C.". In I. E. S. Edwards (ed.). Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 2, Part 2, History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region, c. 1380–1000 BCE. Cambridge University Press. pp. 287–288, 298.
  61. ^ Christopher Morgan (2006). Mark William Chavalas (ed.). The ancient Near East: historical sources in translation. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 145–152.
  62. ^ Barich et al. (1984) Ecological and Cultural Relevance of the Recent New Radiocabon dates from Libyan Sahara. In: L. Krzyzaniak and M. Kobusiewicz [eds.], Origin and Early Development of Food-Producing Cultures in Northeastern Africa, Poznan, Poznan Archaeological Museum, pp. 411–17.
  63. ^ Hayes, W. C. (October 1964). "Most Ancient Egypt: Chapter III. The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Communities of Northern Egypt". JNES (No. 4 ed.) 23 (4): 217–272
  64. ^ Barich, B. E. (1998) People, Water and Grain: The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Roma: L' Erma di Bretschneider (Studia archaeologica 98).
  65. ^ Childe, V. Gordon (1953), New Light on the Most Ancient Near East, (Praeger Publications)
  66. ^ Barbara G. Aston, James A. Harrell, Ian Shaw (2000). Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw editors. "Stone," in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 5–77, pp. 46–47. Also note: Barbara G. Aston (1994). "Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels," Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte Altägyptens 5, Heidelberg, pp. 23–26. (See on-line posts: [1] 1 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine and [2] 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine.)
  67. ^ Adkins, L. and Adkins, R. (2001) The Little Book of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, p155. London: Hodder and Stoughton
  68. ^ Shaw, Ian, ed. (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. p. 479. ISBN 0-19-815034-2.
  69. ^ a b Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992)
  70. ^ Gardiner, Alan H. Egypt of the Pharaohs: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. 1964
  71. ^ Adkins, L.; Adkins, R (2001). The Little Book of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  72. ^ Patai, Raphael (1998), Children of Noah: Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times (Princeton Uni Press)
  73. ^ Roebuck, Carl (1966). The World of Ancient Times. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons Publishing.
  74. ^ a b Shaw, Ian (2003). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press
  75. ^ "Early Dynastic Egypt". Digital Egypt for Universities, University College London. from the original on 4 March 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
  76. ^ James (2005) p. 40
  77. ^ Fekri Hassan. "The Fall of the Old Kingdom". British Broadcasting Corporation. from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 10 March 2008.
  78. ^ Clayton, Peter A. (1994). Chronicle of the Pharaohs. London, England: Thames and Hudson.
  79. ^ "Haryana's Bhirrana oldest Harappan site, Rakhigarhi Asia's largest: ASI". The Times of India. 15 April 2015. from the original on 1 January 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  80. ^ Fuller, Dorian (2006). "Agricultural Origins and Frontiers in South Asia: A Working Synthesis" (PDF). Journal of World Prehistory. 20: 42. doi:10.1007/s10963-006-9006-8. S2CID 189952275. (PDF) from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  81. ^ Tewari, Rakesh et al. 2006. "Second Preliminary Report of the excavations at Lahuradewa, District Sant Kabir Nagar, UP 2002-2003-2004 & 2005–06" in Pragdhara No. 16 "Electronic Version p.28" 28 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  82. ^ UNESCO World Heritage. 2004. " 3 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Archaeological Site of Mehrgarh
  83. ^ Hirst, K. Kris. 2005. "Mehrgarh" 18 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Guide to Archaeology
  84. ^ Parpol, Asko. 2015. The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilisation. Oxford University Press
  85. ^ Charles Keith Maisels, Early Civilizations of the Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt, The Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China. 1 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Routledge, 2003 ISBN 1134837305
  86. ^ Higham, Charles (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. Infobase Publishing. pp. 9–. ISBN 978-1-4381-0996-1.
  87. ^ Sigfried J. de Laet, Ahmad Hasan Dani, eds. History of Humanity: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C. UNESCO, 1996 ISBN 9231028111 p.674
  88. ^ Garge, Tejas (2010). "Sothi-Siswal Ceramic Assemblage: A Reappraisal". Ancient Asia. 2: 15. doi:10.5334/aa.10203. from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  89. ^ Peter T. Daniels. The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University. p. 372.
  90. ^ Parpola, Asko (1994). Deciphering the Indus Script. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43079-1.
  91. ^ Thapar, B. K. (1975). "Kalibangan: A Harappan Metropolis Beyond the Indus Valley". Expedition. 17 (2): 19–32.
  92. ^ Valentine, Benjamin; Kamenov, George D.; Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark; Shinde, Vasant; Mushrif-Tripathy, Veena; Otarola-Castillo, Erik; Krigbaum, John (2015). "Evidence for Patterns of Selective Urban Migration in the Greater Indus Valley (2600–1900 BC): A Lead and Strontium Isotope Mortuary Analysis". PLOS ONE. 10 (4): e0123103. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1023103V. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0123103. PMC 4414352. PMID 25923705.
  93. ^ "Indus Valley people migrated from villages to cities: New study". The Times of India. from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  94. ^ "Indus re-enters India after two centuries, feeds Little Rann, Nal Sarovar". India Today. 7 November 2011. from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  95. ^ Pruthi, Raj (2004). Prehistory and Harappan Civilization. APH Publishing. p. 260. ISBN 9788176485814. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  96. ^ It has been noted that the courtyard pattern and techniques of flooring of Harappan houses has similarities to the way house-building is still done in some villages of the region. Lal 2002, pp. 93–95
  97. ^ Morris, A.E.J. (1994). History of Urban Form: Before the Industrial Revolutions (Third ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-582-30154-2. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  98. ^ Feuerstein, Georg; Kak, Subhash; Frawley, David (2001). In Search of the Cradle of Civilization:New Light on Ancient India. Quest Books. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-8356-0741-4.
  99. ^ Sergent, Bernard (1997). Genèse de l'Inde (in French). Paris: Payot. p. 113. ISBN 978-2-228-89116-5.
  100. ^ David Knipe (1991), Hinduism. San Francisco: Harper
  101. ^ "Decline of Bronze Age 'megacities' linked to climate change". from the original on 22 June 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  102. ^ Emma Maris (2014), Two-hundred-year drought doomed Indus Valley Civilization 10 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, nature
  103. ^ "Indus Collapse: The End or the Beginning of an Asian Culture?". Science Magazine. 320: 1282–3. 6 June 2008.
  104. ^ a b c Giosan, L.; et al. (2012). "Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan Civilization". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 109 (26): E1688–94. Bibcode:2012PNAS..109E1688G. doi:10.1073/pnas.1112743109. PMC 3387054. PMID 22645375.
  105. ^ a b Clift et al., 2011, U-Pb zircon dating evidence for a Pleistocene Sarasvati River and capture of the Yamuna River, Geology, 40, 211–214 (2011). [3] 2 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  106. ^ a b Tripathi, Jayant K.; Tripathi, K.; Bock, Barbara; Rajamani, V.; Eisenhauer, A. (25 October 2004). (PDF). Current Science. 87 (8). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 December 2004.
  107. ^ Rachel Nuwer (28 May 2012). "An Ancient Civilization, Upended by Climate Change". LiveScience. from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  108. ^ Charles Choi (29 May 2012). "Huge Ancient Civilization's Collapse Explained". The New York Times. from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  109. ^ Madella, Marco; Fuller, Dorian (2006). "Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia: a reconsideration". Quaternary Science Reviews. 25 (11–12): 1283–1301. Bibcode:2006QSRv...25.1283M. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.10.012.
  110. ^ MacDonald, Glen (2011). "Potential influence of the Pacific Ocean on the Indian summer monsoon and Harappan decline". Quaternary International. 229 (1–2): 140–148. Bibcode:2011QuInt.229..140M. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2009.11.012.
  111. ^ a b Brooke, John L. (2014), Climate Change and the Course of Global History: A Rough Journey, Cambridge University Press, p. 296, ISBN 978-0-521-87164-8, from the original on 18 April 2023, retrieved 4 February 2018
  112. ^ Thomas H. Maugh II (28 May 2012). "Migration of monsoons created, then killed Harappan civilization". Los Angeles Times. from the original on 19 November 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  113. ^ Edwin Bryant (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. pp. 159–60
  114. ^ White, David Gordon (2003). Kiss of the Yogini. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-226-89483-6.
  115. ^ Ebrey, Patricia (2006). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press. pp. 12–18. ISBN 978-0-521-43519-2.
  116. ^ . Legacy of Human Civilizations. Mesa Community College. Archived from the original on 27 August 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
  117. ^ http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/17124/AP-v38n2-119-153.pdf?sequence=1 14 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine[bare URL PDF]
  118. ^ . Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. 2003. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
  119. ^ a b Pringle, Heather (1998). . Science. 282 (5393): 1446. doi:10.1126/science.282.5393.1446. S2CID 128522781. Archived from the original on 1 January 2011.
  120. ^ Rincon, Paul (17 April 2003). "'Earliest writing' found in China". BBC News. from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  121. ^ Li, X; Harbottle, Garman; Zhang Juzhong; Wang Changsui (2003). "The earliest writing? Sign use in the seventh millennium BCE at Jiahu, Henan Province, China". Antiquity. 77 (295): 31–44. doi:10.1017/s0003598x00061329. S2CID 162602307.
  122. ^ Chang (1986), p. 113.
  123. ^ Pollard, Elizabeth (2015). Worlds Together Worlds Apart. W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 69–70. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.
  124. ^ Chang (1986), p. 112.
  125. ^ Wertz, Richard R. (2007). "Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures". Exploring Chinese History. ibiblio. Archived from the original on 20 December 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
  126. ^ Martini, I. Peter (2010). Landscapes and Societies: Selected Cases. Springer. p. 310. ISBN 978-90-481-9412-4.
  127. ^ Higham, Charles (2004). Encyclopedia of ancient Asian civilizations. Infobase Publishing. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-8160-4640-9.
  128. ^ . www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015.
  129. ^ Liu, L. & Xiu, H., "Rethinking Erlitou: legend, history and Chinese archaeology", Antiquity, 81:314 (2007)
  130. ^ a b c d Liu 2006, p. 184.
  131. ^ a b Liu 2004, p. 229.
  132. ^ Li 2003.
  133. ^ Liu 2004, pp. 230–231.
  134. ^ "二里头：华夏王朝文明的开端". 寻根. 3.
  135. ^ a b c Liu & Xu 2007.
  136. ^ Howells, William (1983). "Origins of the Chinese People: Interpretations of recent evidence". In Keightley, David N. (ed.). The Origins of Chinese Civilization. University of California Press. pp. 297–319. ISBN 978-0-520-04229-2.
  137. ^ . Nga.gov. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  138. ^ Sanxingdui Museum (2006)
  139. ^ Zarrillo, S.; Pearsall, D. M.; Raymond, J. S.; Tisdale, M. A.; Quon, D. J. (2008). "Directly dated starch residues document early formative maize (Zea mays L.) in tropical Ecuador". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105 (13): 5006–5011. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.5006Z. doi:10.1073/pnas.0800894105. PMC 2278185. PMID 18362336.
  140. ^ Dillehay, Tom D.; Eling Jr., Herbert H.; Rossen, Jack (2005). "Preceramic Irrigation Canals in the Peruvian Andes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 102 (47): 17241–44. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10217241D. doi:10.1073/pnas.0508583102. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1288011. PMID 16284247.
  141. ^ "Oldest Urban Site in the Americas Found, Experts Claim", National Geographic News, 26 February 2008, [4] 6 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 20 January 2016
  142. ^ "Ancient ceremonial plaza found in Peru" ANDREW WHALEN, Associated Press Writer, [5] 13 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  143. ^ Haas, Jonathan; Winifred Creamer; Alvaro Ruiz (23 December 2004). "Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru". Nature. 432 (7020): 1020–1023. Bibcode:2004Natur.432.1020H. doi:10.1038/nature03146. PMID 15616561. S2CID 4426545.
  144. ^ See a map of Norte Chico sites at https://diggingperu.wordpress.com/context/the-norte-chico 7 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine.
  145. ^ a b Mann, Charles C. (7 January 2005). "Oldest Civilization in the Americas Revealed". Science. 307 (5706): 34–35. doi:10.1126/science.307.5706.34. PMID 15637250. S2CID 161589785. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  146. ^ Braswell, Geoffrey (16 April 2014). The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors: Settlement Patterns, Architecture, Hieroglyphic Texts and Ceramics. Routledge. p. 408. ISBN 9781317756088. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  147. ^ a b c d e Haas, Jonathan; Winifred Creamer; Alvaro Ruiz (2005). "Power and the Emergence of Complex Polities in the Peruvian Preceramic". Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association. 14 (1): 37–52. doi:10.1525/ap3a.2004.14.037.
  148. ^ "Oldest city in the Americas". BBC News. 26 April 2001. from the original on 22 May 2006. Retrieved 16 February 2007.
  149. ^ Moseley, Michael. . The Hall of Ma'at. Archived from the original on 18 August 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
  150. ^ Moseley, Michael (1975). The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization. Menlo Park: Cummings. ISBN 978-0-8465-4800-3.
  151. ^ Miller, Kenneth (September 2005). "Showdown at the O.K. Caral". Discover. 26 (9). from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  152. ^ Belsie, Laurent (January 2002). "Civilization lost?". The Christian Science Monitor. from the original on 19 June 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2007.
  153. ^ a b Hoag, Hanna (15 April 2003). "Oldest evidence of Andean religion found". Nature News (online). doi:10.1038/news030414-4.
  154. ^ a b Hecht, Jeff (14 April 2003). "America's oldest religious icon revealed". New Scientist (online). from the original on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2007.
  155. ^ From summary three 15 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Shady (1997)
  156. ^ Mann, Charles C. (12 August 2005). "Unraveling Khipu's Secrets". Science. 309 (5737): 1008–1009. doi:10.1126/science.309.5737.1008. PMID 16099962. S2CID 161448364.
  157. ^ Beynon-Davies, P (2009). "Significant threads: the nature of data". International Journal of Information Management. 29 (3): 170–188. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2008.12.003.
  158. ^ (Press release). Northern Illinois University. 22 December 2004. Archived from the original on 9 February 2007. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
  159. ^ Burger (1992), Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilization
  160. ^ Matsuoka, Y.; Vigouroux, Y.; Goodman, M. M.; et al. (2002). "A single domestication for maize shown by multilocus microsatellite genotyping". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (9): 6080–4. Bibcode:2002PNAS...99.6080M. doi:10.1073/pnas.052125199. PMC 122905. PMID 11983901.
  161. ^ Matsuoka, Yoshihiro (22 January 2003). (PDF). Science. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  162. ^ Nichols, Deborah L., and Christopher A. Pool. The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.
  163. ^ Roush, Wade (9 May 1997). "Archaeobiology: Squash Seeds Yield New View of Early American Farming". Science. 276 (5314): 894–895. doi:10.1126/science.276.5314.894. S2CID 158673509.
  164. ^ Watson, Traci (22 January 2013). "Earliest Evidence of Chocolate in North America". Science. from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  165. ^ Borevitz, Justin O.; Motamayor, Juan C.; Lachenaud, Philippe; da Silva e Mota, Jay Wallace; Loor, Rey; Kuhn, David N.; Brown, J. Steven; Schnell, Raymond J. (2008). "Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazonian Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao L)". PLOS ONE. 3 (10): e3311. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.3311M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003311. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 2551746. PMID 18827930.
  166. ^ Powis, Terry G.; Hurst, W. Jeffrey; del Carmen Rodríguez, María; Ortíz C., Ponciano; Blake, Michael; Cheetham, David; Coe, Michael D.; Hodgson, John G. (2007). "Oldest chocolate in the New World". Antiquity. 81 (314). from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  167. ^ a b c d e Diehl, Richard A. (2004). The Olmecs : America's First Civilization. London: Thames and Hudson
  168. ^ Beck, Roger B.; Linda Black; Larry S. Krieger; Phillip C. Naylor; Dahia Ibo Shabaka (1999). World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell. ISBN 978-0-395-87274-1.
  169. ^ a b c Pool, Christopher A. (2007). Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
  170. ^ Coe, p. 44.
  171. ^ Lawler, p. 23
  172. ^ Pool, p. 193.
  173. ^ Coe (1967), p. 72. Alternatively, the mutilation of these monuments may be unrelated to the decline and abandonment of San Lorenzo. Some researchers believe that the mutilation had ritualistic aspects, particularly since most mutilated monuments were reburied in a row.
  174. ^ Pool, p. 135. Diehl, pp. 58–59, 82.
  175. ^ Gonzalez Lauck 1996, p. 80
  176. ^ a b Colman 2010
  177. ^ Pohl 2005, p. 10
  178. ^ Heizer 1968
  179. ^ Drucker 1961, p. 1
  180. ^ Nagy, Christopher (1997). "The Geoarchaeology of Settlement in the Grijalva Delta". In Barbara L. Stark; Philip J. Arnold III. Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 253–277
  181. ^ Coe, Michael D. (1968). America's First Civilization: Discovering the Olmec. New York: The Smithsonian Library.
  182. ^ a b Coe, Michael D.; Rex Koontz (2002). Mexico: from the Olmecs to the Aztecs (5th edition, revised and enlarged ed.). London and New York: Thames & Hudson.
  183. ^ Wilford, John Noble; "Mother Culture, or Only a Sister?”, The New York Times, 15 March 2005.
  184. ^ Maugh II, Thomas H. (1 November 2012). "Bulgarians find oldest European town, a salt production center". The Los Angeles Times. from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  185. ^ Survival of Information: the earliest prehistoric town in Europe
  186. ^ Squires, Nick (31 October 2012). "Archaeologists find Europe's most prehistoric town". The Daily Telegraph. from the original on 1 November 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  187. ^ Nikolov, Vassil. "Salt, early complex society, urbanization: Provadia-Solnitsata (5500-4200 BC) (Abstract)" (PDF). Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  188. ^ La Niece, Susan (senior metallurgist in the British Museum Department of Conservation and Scientific Research) (15 December 2009). Gold. Harvard University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-674-03590-4. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  189. ^ Maura Ellyn; Maura McGinnis (2004). Greece: A Primary Source Cultural Guide. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-8239-3999-2. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  190. ^ John E. Findling; Kimberly D. Pelle (2004). Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-313-32278-5. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  191. ^ Wayne C. Thompson; Mark H. Mullin (1983). Western Europe, 1983. Stryker-Post Publications. p. 337. ISBN 9780943448114. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. for ancient Greece was the cradle of Western culture ...
  192. ^ Frederick Copleston (1 June 2003). History of Philosophy Volume 1: Greece and Rome. A&C Black. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-8264-6895-6. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. PART I PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER II THE CRADLE OF WESTERN THOUGHT:
  193. ^ Mario Iozzo (2001). Art and History of Greece: And Mount Athos. Casa Editrice Bonechi. p. 7. ISBN 978-88-8029-435-1. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. The capital of Greece, one of the world's most glorious cities and the cradle of Western culture,
  194. ^ Marxiano Melotti (25 May 2011). The Plastic Venuses: Archaeological Tourism in Post-Modern Society. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-4438-3028-7. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. In short, Greece, despite having been the cradle of Western culture, was then an "other" space separate from the West.
  195. ^ Library Journal. Vol. 97. Bowker. April 1972. p. 1588. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. Ancient Greece: Cradle of Western Culture (Series), disc. 6 strips with 3 discs, range: 44–60 fr., 17–18 min
  196. ^ Stanley Mayer Burstein (2002). Current Issues and the Study of Ancient History. Regina Books. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-930053-10-6. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. and making Egypt play the same role in African education and culture that Athens and Greece do in Western culture.
  197. ^ Murray Milner Jr. (8 January 2015). Elites: A General Model. John Wiley & Sons. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7456-8950-0. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. Greece has long been considered the seedbed or cradle of Western civilization.
  198. ^ Slavica viterbiensia 003: Periodico di letterature e culture slave della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne dell'Università della Tuscia. Gangemi Editore spa. 10 November 2011. p. 148. ISBN 978-88-492-6909-3. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. The Special Case of Greece The ancient Greece was a cradle of the Western culture,
  199. ^ Kim Covert (1 July 2011). Ancient Greece: Birthplace of Democracy. Capstone. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4296-6831-6. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015. Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization. ... Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece.
  200. ^ Henry Turner Inman. Rome: the cradle of western civilisation as illustrated by existing monuments. ISBN 9781177738538.
  201. ^ Michael Ed. Grant (1964). The Birth Of Western Civilisation, Greece & Rome. Amazon.co.uk. Thames & Hudson. from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  202. ^ HUXLEY, George; et al. "9780500040034: The Birth of Western Civilization: Greece and Rome". AbeBooks.com. from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  203. ^ "Athens. Rome. Jerusalem and Vicinity. Peninsula of Mt. Sinai.: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps". Geographicus.com. from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  204. ^ (PDF). File104.filthbooks.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  205. ^ Lin (林), Shengyi (勝義); He (何), Xianrong (顯榮) (2001). 臺灣–人類文明原鄉 [Taiwan — The Cradle of Civilization]. Taiwan gu wen ming yan jiu cong shu (臺灣古文明研究叢書) (in Chinese). Taipei: Taiwan fei die xue yan jiu hui (台灣飛碟學硏究會). ISBN 978-957-30188-0-3. OCLC 52945170.

Sources

  • Chang, Kwang-chih (1986). The Archaeology of Ancient China (4th ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-03782-1.
  • Georg Feuerstein (2001). In Search of the Cradle of Civilization. Quest Books. ISBN 978-0-8356-0741-4.
  • Ethel Hofflund (2001). The Cradle of Civilization (Lifepac History & Geography Grade 6). Alpha Omega Publications. ISBN 978-0-86717-552-3.
  • Samuel Noah Kramer (1959). Anchor Paperback. Doubleday Anchor Books.
  • Samuel Noah Kramer (1969). Cradle of Civilization. Little Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0-316-32617-9.
  • Lal, B.B. (2002). The Sarasvati flows on.
  • Li, Jinhui (10 November 2003). . China Through a Lens. Archived from the original on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
  • Liu, Li (2004). The Chinese Neolithic: trajectories to early states. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81184-2.
  • ——— (2006). "Urbanization in China: Erlitou and its hinterland". In Storey, Glenn (ed.). Urbanism in the Preindustrial World. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 161–189. ISBN 978-0-8173-5246-2.
  • Liu, Li; Xu, Hong (2007). "Rethinking Erlitou: legend, history and Chinese archaeology". Antiquity. 81 (314): 886–901. doi:10.1017/s0003598x00095983. hdl:1959.9/58390. S2CID 162644060. from the original on 16 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  • Woods, Christopher (2010), (PDF), in Woods, Christopher (ed.), Visible language. Inventions of writing in the ancient Middle East and beyond, Oriental Institute Museum Publications, vol. 32, Chicago: University of Chicago, pp. 33–50, ISBN 978-1-885923-76-9, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 August 2021, retrieved 13 December 2022

External links

  •   Media related to Cradle of civilization at Wikimedia Commons

May 04, 2023
cradle, civilization, cradle, civilization, location, culture, where, civilization, created, independent, other, civilizations, other, locations, formation, urban, settlements, cities, primary, characteristic, society, that, characterized, civilized, other, ch. A cradle of civilization is a location and a culture where civilization was created independent of other civilizations in other locations The formation of urban settlements cities is the primary characteristic of a society that can be characterized as civilized Other characteristics of civilization include a sedentary non nomadic population monumental architecture the existence of social classes and inequality and the creation of a writing system for communication The transition from simpler societies to the complex society of a civilization is gradual Among the various cradles of civilization is Ancient Egypt Pictured are the Giza Pyramids Scholars generally acknowledge six cradles of civilization Mesopotamia Ancient Egypt Ancient India and Ancient China are believed to be the earliest in the Old World 1 2 Cradles of civilization in the New World are the Caral Supe civilization of coastal Peru and the Olmec civilization of Mexico All of the cradles of civilization depended upon agriculture for sustenance except possibly Caral Supe which may have depended initially on marine resources All depended upon farmers producing an agricultural surplus to support the centralized government political leaders priests and public works of the urban centers of the civilization Less formally the term cradle of civilization is often used to refer to other historic ancient civilizations such as Greece or Rome which have both been called the cradle of Western civilization citation needed Contents 1 Rise of civilization 2 Single or multiple cradles 3 Cradles of civilization 3 1 Fertile Crescent 3 1 1 Mesopotamia 3 1 2 Ancient Egypt 3 2 Ancient India 3 3 Ancient China 3 4 Ancient Andes 3 5 Mesoamerica 4 Cradle of Western civilization 5 Other uses 6 Timeline 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 9 1 Citations 9 2 Sources 10 External linksRise of civilization EditFurther 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 3 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 4 The earliest proto urban settlements with several thousand inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic which began in Western Asia in 10 000 BC The first cities to house several tens of thousands were Uruk Ur Kish and Eridu in Mesopotamia followed by Susa in Elam and Memphis in Egypt all 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 5 in written or oral form If the rise of civilization is taken to coincide with the development of writing out of proto writing then 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 3 300 BC are the earliest instances followed by Chinese proto writing evolving into the oracle bone script and again by the emergence of Mesoamerican writing systems from about 900 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 of Western Asia triggering the development of settled communities and the Urban revolution which also first emerged in Western Asia 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 cities were not attested in Egypt s Old Kingdom unlike Mesopotamia and cities had a dispersed population in the Maya area 6 the Incas lacked writing although they could keep records with Quipus which might also have had literary uses 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 BC 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 7 Single or multiple cradles EditScholars once thought that civilization began in the Fertile Crescent and spread out from there by influence 8 Scholars 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 9 Scholarship generally identifies six areas where civilization emerged independently 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Fertile Crescent incl Mesopotamia Tigris Euphrates Valley and the Levant Nile Valley Indo Gangetic Plain North China Plain Andean Coast Mesoamerican Gulf CoastA question that intrigues scholars is why pristine civilizations rose when and where they did The economies of all of the pristine civilizations depended upon agriculture with the possible exception of the Andean coast civilization which may have initially relied as much or more on marine resources Jared Diamond postulates that the reason the Fertile Crescent was the earliest civilization was that large seeded easily domesticable plants wheat and barley among others and large domesticable animals cattle pigs sheep horses were native to the region By contrast it took thousands of years of selective breeding in Mesoamerica for maize to become productive enough to be a staple crop Mesoamerica also lacked large domesticable animals Llamas were the only large domesticable animal in the Andes of South America Llamas are large enough to be pack animals but not large enough to be ridden or used as draft animals Australia lacked both easily domesticable plants and large animals 18 19 Cradles of civilization EditFertile Crescent Edit See also Fertile Crescent and Egypt Mesopotamia relations The Fertile Crescent in 7500 BC The red squares designate farming villages The Fertile Crescent of 7500 BC was an arc of hilly land in Northwest Asia that stretches from parts of modern Palestine and Israel through Lebanon Syria Jordan Turkey and Iraq to the Zagros Mountains in Iran It was one of the oldest areas in the world in which agriculture was practiced and probably the oldest area of the world in which sedentary farming villages existed 20 Around 10 200 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phases Pre Pottery Neolithic A PPNA and Pre Pottery Neolithic B 7600 to 6000 BC appeared in the Fertile Crescent and from there spread eastward towards South Asia and westward towards Europe and North Africa 21 One of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho Palestine thought to be the world s first town settled around 9600 BC and fortified around 6800 BC 22 23 Current theories and findings identify the Fertile Crescent as the first and oldest cradle of civilization Examples of sites in this area are the early Neolithic site of Gobekli Tepe 9500 8000 BC and Catalhoyuk 7500 5700 BC Mesopotamia Edit Main articles History of Mesopotamia History of Sumer and Mesopotamia Major Sumerian cities during the Ubaid period In Mesopotamia a region encompassing modern Iraq and bordering regions of Southeast Turkey Northeast Syria and Northwest Iran the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation Neolithic cultures emerged in the region from 8000 BC onwards The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are the earliest known non nomadic agrarian societies It is because of this that the Fertile Crescent region and Mesopotamia in particular are often referred to as the cradle of civilization 24 The period known as the Ubaid period c 6500 to 3800 BC is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium 25 26 It was during the Ubaid period that the movement toward urbanization began Agriculture and animal husbandry were widely practiced in sedentary communities particularly in Northern Mesopotamia later Assyria and intensive irrigated hydraulic agriculture began to be practiced in the south 27 Around 6000 BC Neolithic settlements began to appear all over Egypt 28 Studies based on morphological 29 genetic 30 31 32 33 34 and archaeological data 35 36 37 38 have attributed these settlements to migrants from the Fertile Crescent in the Near East arriving in Egypt and North Africa during the Egyptian and North African Neolithic Revolution and bringing agriculture to the region Tell el Oueili is the oldest Sumerian site settled during this period around 5400 BC and the city of Ur also first dates to the end of this period 39 In the south the Ubaid period lasted from around 6500 to 3800 BC 40 Sumerian civilization coalesced in the subsequent Uruk period 4000 to 3100 BC 41 Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and during its later phase the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script Proto writing in the region dates to around 3800 BC with the earliest texts dating to 3300 BC early cuneiform writing emerged in 3000 BC 42 It was also during this period that pottery painting declined as copper started to become popular along with cylinder seals 43 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 including both men and women 44 It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure The Jemdet Nasr period which is generally dated from 3100 to 2900 BC and succeeds the Uruk period is known as one of the formative stages in the development of the cuneiform script The oldest clay tablets come from Uruk and date to the late fourth millennium BC slightly earlier than the Jemdet Nasr Period By the time of the Jemdet Nasr Period the script had already undergone a number of significant changes 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 45 46 Uruk trade networks started to expand to other parts of Mesopotamia and as far as North Caucasus and strong signs of governmental organization and social stratification began to emerge leading to the Early Dynastic Period c 2900 BC 47 48 49 After the Early Dynastic period began there was a shift in control of the city states from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly En a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess or a female figure when headed by a male god 50 towards a more secular Lugal Lu man Gal great The Lugals included such legendary patriarchal figures as Enmerkar Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh who supposedly reigned shortly before the historic record opens around 2700 BC when syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas Neighboring Semitic groups including the Akkadian speaking Semites Assyrians Babylonians who lived alongside the Sumerians in Mesopotamia adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period although architectural precursors in the form of raised platforms date back to the Ubaid period 51 The Sumerian King List dates to the early second millennium BC It consists of a succession of royal dynasties from different Sumerian cities ranging back into the Early Dynastic Period Each dynasty rises to prominence and dominates the region only to be replaced by the next The document was used by later Mesopotamian kings to legitimize their rule While some of the information in the list can be checked against other texts such as economic documents much of it is probably purely fictional and its use as a historical document is limited 49 Eannatum the Sumerian king of Lagash established the first verifiable empire in history in 2500 BC 52 The neighboring Elam in modern Iran was also part of the early urbanization during the Chalcolithic period 53 Elamite states were among the leading political forces of the Ancient Near East 54 The emergence of Elamite written records from around 3000 BC also parallels Sumerian history where slightly earlier records have been found 55 56 During the 3rd millennium BC there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians 57 Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC 58 The Semitic speaking Akkadian empire emerged around 2350 BC under Sargon the Great 47 The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC Under Sargon and his successors the Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam and Gutium After the fall of the Akkadian Empire and the overthrow of the Gutians there was a brief reassertion of Sumerian dominance in Mesopotamia under the Third Dynasty of Ur 59 After the final collapse of Sumerian hegemony in Mesopotamia around 2004 BC the Semitic Akkadian people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian speaking nations Assyria in the north whose earliest kings date to the 25th century BC and a few centuries later Babylonia in the south both of which Assyria in particular would go on to form powerful empires between the 20th and 6th centuries BC The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Semitic Assyrian Babylonian population 60 61 Ancient Egypt Edit Main articles History of ancient Egypt and Ancient Egypt Map of ancient Egypt showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period c 3150 BC to 30 BC The developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phases Pre Pottery Neolithic A 10 200 BC and Pre Pottery Neolithic B 7600 to 6000 BC appeared in the fertile crescent and from there spread eastwards and westwards 21 Contemporaneously a grain grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had replaced the culture of hunters fishers and gathering people using stone tools along the Nile Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies also 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 62 The oldest fully developed neolithic culture in Egypt is Fayum A culture that began around 5500 B C 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 demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry and identifiable by their pottery and personal items such as combs bracelets and beads The largest of these early cultures in upper Southern Egypt was the Badari which probably originated in the Western Desert it was known for its high quality ceramics stone tools and use of copper 63 The oldest known domesticated bovine in Africa are from Fayum dating to around 4400 BC 64 The Badari cultures was followed by the Naqada culture which brought a number of technological improvements 65 As early as the first Naqada Period Amratia Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia used to shape blades and other objects from flakes 66 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 67 Egyptian civilization begins during the second phase of the Naqada culture known as the Gerzeh period around 3500 BC and coalesces with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3150 BC 68 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 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 69 Copper instead of stone was increasingly used to make tools 69 and weaponry 70 Symbols on Gerzean pottery also resemble nascent Egyptian hieroglyphs 71 Early evidence also exists of contact with the Near East particularly Canaan and the Byblos coast during this time 72 Concurrent with these cultural advances a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River or Upper Egypt occurred At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta or Lower Egypt also underwent a unification process During his reign in Upper Egypt King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under his single rule 73 The Early Dynastic Period of Egypt immediately followed the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties lasting from the Naqada III archaeological period until about the beginning of the Old Kingdom c 2686 BC 74 With the First Dynasty the capital moved from Thinis to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by a god king The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization such as art architecture and many aspects of religion took shape during the Early Dynastic period The strong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohs served to legitimize state control over the land labor and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization 75 Major advances in architecture art and technology were made during the subsequent Old Kingdom fueled by the increased agricultural productivity and resulting population made possible by a well developed central administration 76 Some of ancient Egypt s crowning achievements the Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx were constructed during the Old Kingdom Under the direction of the vizier state officials collected taxes coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield drafted peasants to work on construction projects and established a justice system to maintain peace and order Along with the rising importance of a central administration there arose a new class of educated scribes and officials who were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment for their services Pharaohs also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples to ensure that these institutions had the resources to worship the pharaoh after his death Scholars believe that five centuries of these practices slowly eroded the economic power of the pharaoh and that the economy could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration 74 As the power of the pharaoh diminished regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the pharaoh This coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC 77 is assumed to have caused the country to enter the 140 year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period 78 Ancient India Edit Main articles History of India Meluhha Indus Valley Civilisation and List of Indus Valley Civilisation sites The Indus Valley Civilization at its greatest extent One of the earliest Neolithic sites in the Indian subcontinent is Bhirrana along the ancient Ghaggar Hakra riverine system in the present day state of Haryana in India dating to around 7600 BC 79 Other early sites include Lahuradewa in the Middle Ganges region and Jhusi near the confluence of Ganges and Yamuna rivers both dating to around 7000 BC 80 81 The aceramic Neolithic at Mehrgarh in present day Pakistan lasts from 7000 to 5500 BC with the ceramic Neolithic at Mehrgarh lasting up to 3300 BC blending into the Early Bronze Age Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in the Indian subcontinent 82 83 It is likely that the culture centered around Mehrgarh migrated into the Indus Valley in present day Pakistan and became the Indus Valley Civilisation 84 The earliest fortified town in the region is found at Rehman Dheri dated 4000 BC in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa close to River Zhob Valley in present day Pakistan Other fortified towns found to date are at Amri 3600 3300 BC Kot Diji in Sindh and at Kalibangan 3000 BC at the Hakra River 85 86 87 88 The Indus Valley Civilization starts around 3300 BC with what is referred to as the Early Harappan Phase 3300 to 2600 BC The earliest examples of the Indus script date to this period 89 90 as well as the emergence of citadels representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life 91 Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead making By this time villagers had domesticated numerous crops including peas sesame seeds dates and cotton as well as animals including the water buffalo 92 93 2600 BC marks the Mature Harappan Phase during which Early Harappan communities turned into large urban centers including Harappa Dholavira Mohenjo Daro Lothal Rupar and Rakhigarhi and more than 1 000 towns and villages often of relatively small size 94 Mature Harappans evolved new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper bronze lead and tin and displayed advanced levels of engineering 95 As seen in Harappa Mohenjo daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi this urban plan included the world s first known urban sanitation systems see hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley civilization Within the city individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing waste water was directed to covered drains which lined the major streets Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes The house building in some villages in the region still resembles in some respects the house building of the Harappans 96 The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards granaries warehouses brick platforms and protective walls The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts 97 The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length mass and time They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories Their smallest division which is marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal in Gujarat was approximately 1 704 mm the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes including the measurement of mass as revealed by their hexahedron weights 98 These chert weights were in a ratio of 5 2 1 with weights of 0 05 0 1 0 2 0 5 1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 and 500 units with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0 871 However as in other cultures actual weights were not uniform throughout the area The weights and measures later used in Kautilya s Arthashastra 4th century BC are the same as those used in Lothal 99 Around 1800 BC signs of a gradual decline began to emerge and by around 1700 BC most of the cities had been abandoned Suggested contributory causes for the localisation of the IVC include changes in the course of the river 100 and climate change that is also signalled for the neighbouring areas of the Middle East 101 102 As of 2016 update many scholars believe that drought led to a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia contributing to the collapse of the Indus Civilization 103 The Ghaggar Hakra system was rain fed 104 105 note 1 106 note 2 and water supply depended on the monsoons The Indus Valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BC linked to a general weakening of the monsoon at that time 104 The Indian monsoon declined and aridity increased with the Ghaggar Hakra retracting its reach towards the foothills of the Himalaya 104 107 108 leading to erratic and less extensive floods that made inundation agriculture less sustainable Aridification reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilization s demise and to scatter its population eastward 109 110 111 note 3 As the monsoons kept shifting south the floods grew too erratic for sustainable agricultural activities The residents then migrated away into smaller communities However trade with the old cities did not flourish The small surplus produced in these small communities did not allow development of trade and the cities died out 112 The Indo Aryan peoples migrated into the Indus River Valley during this period and began the Vedic age of India 113 The Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly and many elements of the civilization continued in later Indian subcontinent and Vedic cultures 114 Ancient China Edit Main articles History of China Xia dynasty and Erlitou culture Traditional Xia sites black and Erlitou sites red near the Yellow River Huang He Drawing on archaeology geology and anthropology modern scholars do not see the origins of the Chinese civilization or history as a linear story but rather the history of the interactions of different and distinct cultures and ethnic groups that influenced each other s development 115 The specific cultural regions that developed Chinese civilization were the Yellow River civilization the Yangtze civilization and Liao civilization Early evidence for Chinese millet agriculture is dated to around 7000 BC 116 with the earliest evidence of cultivated rice found at Chengtoushan near the Yangtze River dated to 6500 BC Chengtoushan may also be the site of the first walled city in China 117 By the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a center of the Peiligang culture which flourished from 7000 to 5000 BC with evidence of agriculture constructed buildings pottery and burial of the dead 118 With agriculture came increased population the ability to store and redistribute crops and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and administrators 119 Its most prominent site is Jiahu 119 Some scholars have suggested that the Jiahu symbols 6600 BC are the earliest form of proto writing in China 120 However it is likely that they should not be understood as writing itself but as features of a lengthy period of sign use which led eventually to a fully fledged system of writing 121 Archaeologists believe that the Peiligang culture was egalitarian with little political organization It eventually evolved into the Yangshao culture 5000 to 3000 BC and their stone tools were polished and highly specialized They may also have practiced an early form of silkworm cultivation 122 The main food of the Yangshao people was millet with some sites using foxtail millet and others broom corn millet though some evidence of rice has been found The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture small scale slash and burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields is currently a matter of debate Once the soil was exhausted residents picked up their belongings moved to new lands and constructed new villages 123 However Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised floor buildings that may have been used for the storage of surplus grains Grinding stones for making flour were also found 124 Later Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 to 1900 BC its most prominent site being Taosi 125 The population expanded dramatically during the 3rd millennium BC with many settlements having rammed earth walls It decreased in most areas around 2000 BC until the central area evolved into the Bronze Age Erlitou culture The earliest bronze artifacts have been found in the Majiayao culture site 3100 to 2700 BC 126 127 Chinese civilization begins during the second phase of the Erlitou period 1900 to 1500 BC with Erlitou considered the first state level society of East Asia 128 There is considerable debate whether Erlitou sites correlate to the semi legendary Xia dynasty The Xia dynasty 2070 to 1600 BC is the first dynasty to be described in ancient Chinese historical records such as the Bamboo Annals first published more than a millennium later during the Western Zhou period Although Xia is an important element in Chinese historiography there is to date no contemporary written evidence to corroborate the dynasty Erlitou saw an increase in bronze metallurgy and urbanization and was a rapidly growing regional center with palatial complexes that provide evidence for social stratification 129 The Erlitou civilization is divided into four phases each of roughly 50 years During Phase I covering 100 hectares 250 acres Erlitou was a rapidly growing regional center with estimated population of several thousand 130 but not yet an urban civilization or capital 131 Urbanization began in Phase II expanding to 300 ha 740 acres with a population around 11 000 130 A palace area of 12 ha 30 acres was demarcated by four roads It contained the 150x50 m Palace 3 composed of three courtyards along a 150 meter axis and Palace 5 132 A bronze foundry was established to the south of the palatial complex that was controlled by the elite who lived in palaces 133 The city reached its peak in Phase III and may have had a population of around 24 000 131 The palatial complex was surrounded by a two meter thick rammed earth wall and Palaces 1 7 8 9 were built The earthwork volume of rammed earth for the base of largest Palace 1 is 20 000 m at least 134 Palaces 3 and 5 were abandoned and replaced by 4 200 square meter 45 000 sq ft Palace 2 and Palace 4 135 In Phase IV the population decreased to around 20 000 but building continued Palace 6 was built as an extension of Palace 2 and Palaces 10 and 11 were built Phase IV overlaps with the Lower phase of the Erligang culture 1600 1450 BC Around 1600 to 1560 BC about 6 km northeast of Erlitou a culturally Erligang walled city was built at Yanshi 135 which coincides with an increase in production of arrowheads at Erlitou 130 This situation might indicate that the Yanshi city was competing for power and dominance with Erlitou 130 Production of bronzes and other elite goods ceased at the end of Phase IV at the same time as the Erligang city of Zhengzhou was established 85 km 53 mi to the east There is no evidence of destruction by fire or war but during the Upper Erligang phase 1450 1300 BC all the palaces were abandoned and Erlitou was reduced to a village of 30 ha 74 acres 135 The earliest traditional Chinese dynasty for which there is both archeological and written evidence is the Shang dynasty 1600 to 1046 BC Shang sites have yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing the oracle bone script mostly divinations inscribed on bones These inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics economy and religious practices to the art and medicine of this early stage of Chinese civilization 136 Some historians argue that Erlitou should be considered an early phase of the Shang dynasty The U S National Gallery of Art defines the Chinese Bronze Age as the period between about 2000 and 771 BC a period that begins with the Erlitou culture and ends abruptly with the disintegration of Western Zhou rule 137 The Sanxingdui culture is another Chinese Bronze Age society contemporaneous to the Shang dynasty however they developed a different method of bronze making from the Shang 138 Ancient Andes Edit Main article Caral Supe civilization Map of Caral Supe sites The earliest evidence of agriculture in the Andean region dates to around 9000 BC in Ecuador at sites of the Las Vegas culture The bottle gourd may have been the first plant cultivated 139 The oldest evidence of canal irrigation in South America dates to 4700 to 2500 BC in the Zana Valley of northern Peru 140 The earliest urban settlements of the Andes as well as North and South America are dated to 3500 BC at Huaricanga in the Fortaleza area 9 and Sechin Bajo near the Sechin River Both sites are in Peru 141 142 The Caral Supe or Norte Chico civilization is understood to have emerged around 3200 BC as it is at that point that large scale human settlement and communal construction across multiple sites becomes clearly apparent 143 In the early 21st century Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady established Caral Supe as the oldest known civilization in the Americas The civilization flourished near the Pacific coast in the valleys of three small rivers the Fortaleza the Pativilca and the Supe These river valleys each have large clusters of sites Further south there are several associated sites along the Huaura River 144 Notable settlements include the cities of Caral the largest and most complex Preceramic site and Aspero 145 Norte Chico is distinguished by its density of large sites with immense architecture 146 Haas argues that the density of sites in such a small area is globally unique for a nascent civilization During the third millennium BC Norte Chico may have been the most densely populated area of the world excepting possibly northern China 147 The Supe Pativilca Fortaleza and Huaura River valleys each have several related sites Norte Chico is unusual in that it completely lacked ceramics and apparently had almost no visual art Nevertheless the civilization exhibited impressive architectural feats including large earthwork platform mounds and sunken circular plazas and an advanced textile industry 9 148 The platform mounds as well as large stone warehouses provide evidence for a stratified society and a centralized authority necessary to distribute resources such as cotton 9 However there is no evidence of warfare or defensive structures during this period 147 Originally it was theorized that unlike other early civilizations Norte Chico developed by relying on maritime food sources in place of a staple cereal This hypothesis the Maritime Foundation of Andean Civilization is still hotly debated however most researches now agree that agriculture played a central role in the civilization s development while still acknowledging a strong supplemental reliance on maritime proteins 19 149 150 The Norte Chico chiefdoms were almost certainly theocratic though not brutally so according to Mann Construction areas show possible evidence of feasting which would have included music and likely alcohol suggesting an elite able to both mobilize and reward the population 9 The degree of centralized authority is difficult to ascertain but architectural construction patterns are indicative of an elite that at least in certain places at certain times wielded considerable power while some of the monumental architecture was constructed incrementally other buildings such as the two main platform mounds at Caral appear to have been constructed in one or two intense construction phases 147 As further evidence of centralized control Haas points to remains of large stone warehouses found at Upaca on the Pativilca as emblematic of authorities able to control vital resources such as cotton 9 Economic authority would have rested on the control of cotton and edible plants and associated trade relationships with power centered on the inland sites Haas tentatively suggests that the scope of this economic power base may have extended widely there are only two confirmed shore sites in the Norte Chico Aspero and Bandurria and possibly two more but cotton fishing nets and domesticated plants have been found up and down the Peruvian coast It is possible that the major inland centers of Norte Chico were at the center of a broad regional trade network centered on these resources 147 Discover magazine citing Shady suggests a rich and varied trade life Caral exported its own products and those of Aspero to distant communities in exchange for exotic imports Spondylus shells from the coast of Ecuador rich dyes from the Andean highlands hallucinogenic snuff from the Amazon 151 Given the still limited extent of Norte Chico research such claims should be treated circumspectly Other reports on Shady s work indicate Caral traded with communities in the Andes and in the jungles of the Amazon basin on the opposite side of the Andes 152 Leaders ideological power was based on apparent access to deities and the supernatural 147 Evidence regarding Norte Chico religion is limited an image of the Staff God a leering figure with a hood and fangs has been found on a gourd dated to 2250 BC The Staff God is a major deity of later Andean cultures and Winifred Creamer suggests the find points to worship of common symbols of gods 153 154 As with much other research at Norte Chico the nature and significance of the find has been disputed by other researchers note 4 The act of architectural construction and maintenance may also have been a spiritual or religious experience a process of communal exaltation and ceremony 145 Shady has called Caral the sacred city la ciudad sagrada socio economic and political focus was on the temples which were periodically remodeled with major burnt offerings associated with the remodeling 155 Bundles of strings uncovered at Norte Chico sites have been identified as quipu a type of pre writing recording device 156 Quipu are thought to encode numeric information but some have conjectured that quipu have been used to encode other forms of data possibly including literary or musical applications 157 However the exact use of quipu by the Norte Chico and later Andean cultures has been widely debated 9 The presence of quipu and the commonality of religious symbols suggests a cultural link between Norte Chico and later Andean cultures 153 154 Circa 1800 BC the Norte Chico civilization began to decline with more powerful centers appearing to the south and north along the coast and to the east inside the belt of the Andes 158 Pottery eventually developed in the Amazon Basin and spread to the Andean culture region around 2000 BC The next major civilization to arise in the Andes would be the Chavin culture at Chavin de Huantar located in the Andean highlands of the present day Ancash Region It is believed to have been built around 900 BC and was the religious and political center of the Chavin people 159 Mesoamerica Edit Main articles Mesoamerican chronology and Olmecs The Olmec heartland where the Olmec reigned Maize is believed to have been first domesticated in southern Mexico about 7000 BC 160 161 The Coxcatlan Caves in the Valley of Tehuacan provide evidence for agriculture in components dated between 5000 and 3400 BC 162 Similarly sites such as Sipacate in Guatemala provide maize pollen samples dating to 3500 BC 163 Around 1900 BC the Mokaya domesticated one of the dozen species of cacao 164 165 A Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating to this time 166 The Mokaya are also thought to have been among the first cultures in Mesoamerica to develop a hierarchical society What would become the Olmec civilization had its roots in early farming cultures of Tabasco which began around 5100 to 4600 BC 167 The emergence of the Olmec civilization has traditionally been dated to around 1600 to 1500 BC Olmec features first emerged in the city of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan fully coalescing around 1400 BC The rise of civilization was assisted by the local ecology of well watered alluvial soil as well as by the transportation network provided by the Coatzacoalcos River basin 167 This environment encouraged a densely concentrated population which in turn triggered the rise of an elite class and an associated demand for the production of the symbolic and sophisticated luxury artifacts that define Olmec culture 168 Many of these luxury artifacts were made from materials such as jade obsidian and magnetite which came from distant locations and suggest that early Olmec elites had access to an extensive trading network in Mesoamerica The aspect of Olmec culture perhaps most familiar today is their artwork particularly the Olmec colossal heads 169 San Lorenzo was situated in the midst of a large agricultural area 170 San Lorenzo seems to have been largely a ceremonial site a town without city walls centered in the midst of a widespread medium to large agricultural population The ceremonial center and attendant buildings could have housed 5 500 while the entire area including hinterlands could have reached 13 000 171 It is thought that while San Lorenzo controlled much or all of the Coatzacoalcos basin areas to the east such as the area where La Venta would rise to prominence and north northwest such as the Tuxtla Mountains were home to independent polities 172 San Lorenzo was all but abandoned around 900 BC at about the same time that La Venta rose to prominence A wholesale destruction of many San Lorenzo monuments also occurred circa 950 BC which may indicate an internal uprising or less likely an invasion 173 The latest thinking however is that environmental changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers with certain important rivers changing course 174 La Venta became the cultural capital of the Olmec concentration in the region until its abandonment around 400 BC constructing monumental architectural achievements such as the Great Pyramid of La Venta 167 169 It contained a concentration of power as reflected by the sheer enormity of the architecture and the extreme value of the artifacts uncovered 175 La Venta is perhaps the largest Olmec city and it was controlled and expanded by an extremely complex hierarchical system with a king as the ruler and the elites below him Priests had power and influence over life and death and likely great political sway as well Unfortunately not much is known about the political or social structure of the Olmec though new dating techniques might at some point reveal more information about this elusive culture It is possible that the signs of status exist in the artifacts recovered at the site such as depictions of feathered headdresses or of individuals wearing a mirror on their chest or forehead 176 High status objects were a significant source of power in the La Venta polity political power economic power and ideological power They were tools used by the elite to enhance and maintain rights to rulership 177 It has been estimated that La Venta would need to be supported by a population of at least 18 000 people during its principal occupation 178 To add to the mystique of La Venta the alluvial soil did not preserve skeletal remains so it is difficult to observe differences in burials However colossal heads provide proof that the elite had some control over the lower classes as their construction would have been extremely labor intensive Other features similarly indicate that many laborers were involved 179 In addition excavations over the years have discovered that different parts of the site were likely reserved for elites and other parts for non elites This segregation of the city indicates that there must have been social classes and therefore social inequality 176 The exact cause of the decline of the Olmec culture is uncertain Between 400 and 350 BC the population in the eastern half of the Olmec heartland dropped precipitously 180 This depopulation was probably the result of serious environmental changes that rendered the region unsuited for large groups of farmers in particular changes to the riverine environment that the Olmec depended upon for agriculture hunting and gathering and transportation These changes may have been triggered by tectonic upheavals or subsidence or the silting up of rivers due to agricultural practices 167 169 Within a few hundred years of the abandonment of the last Olmec cities successor cultures became firmly established The Tres Zapotes site on the western edge of the Olmec heartland continued to be occupied well past 400 BC but without the hallmarks of the Olmec culture This post Olmec culture often labeled Epi Olmec has features similar to those found at Izapa some 550 km 330 miles to the southeast 181 The Olmecs are sometimes referred to as the mother culture of Mesoamerica as they were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed 182 However the causes and degree of Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures has been a subject of debate over many decades 183 Practices introduced by the Olmec include ritual bloodletting and the Mesoamerican ballgame hallmarks of subsequent Mesoamerican societies such as the Maya and Aztec 182 Although the Mesoamerican writing system would fully develop later early Olmec ceramics show representations that may be interpreted as codices 167 Cradle of Western civilization EditMain articles Minoan civilization Mycenaean Greece Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Classical antiquity and Christendom The Colosseum and the Acropolis symbols of the Greco Roman world Via the Roman Empire Greek culture spread throughout Europe The Black Sea area is a cradle of the European civilization The site of Solnitsata 5500 BC 4200 BC is believed to be the oldest town in Europe prehistoric fortified walled stone settlement prehistoric city 184 185 186 187 The first gold artifacts in the world appear from the 4th millennium BC such as those found in a burial site from 4569 4340 BC and one of the most important archaeological sites in world prehistory the Varna Necropolis near Lake Varna in Bulgaria thought to be the earliest well dated find of gold artifacts 188 There is academic consensus that Classical Greece was the seminal culture that provided the foundation of modern Western culture democracy art theatre philosophy and science For this reason it is known as the cradle of Western Civilization a Along with Greece Rome has sometimes been described as a birthplace or as the cradle of Western Civilization because of the role the city had in politics republicanism law architecture warfare and Western Christianity b Other uses EditThe 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 Indian nationalism In Search of the Cradle of Civilization 1995 and Taiwanese nationalism Taiwan The Cradle of Civilization 205 2002 The terms also appear 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 Timeline EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed December 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message The following timeline shows a timeline of cultures with the approximate dates of the emergence of civilization as discussed in the article in the featured areas the primary cultures associated with these early civilizations It is important to note that the timeline is not indicative of the beginning of human habitation the start of a specific ethnic group or the development of Neolithic cultures in the area any of which often occurred significantly earlier than the emergence of civilization proper In the case of the Indus Valley Civilization this was followed by a period of de urbanization and regionalisation and the co existence of indigenous local agricultural cultures and the pastoral Indo Aryans who came from Central Asia The dates given are only approximate as the development of civilization was incremental and the exact date when civilization began for a given culture is subject to interpretation See also Edit Civilizations portalChronology of the ancient Near East Cradle of Humankind River valley civilization Human history Civilization state Skara Brae and Barnhouse Settlement 3180 BC Notes Edit See 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 Geological research by a group led by Peter Clift investigated how the courses of rivers have changed in this region since 8000 years ago to test whether climate or river reorganisations caused the decline of the Harappan Using U Pb dating of zircon sand grains they found that sediments typical of the Beas Sutlej and Yamuna rivers Himalayan tributaries of the Indus are actually present in former Ghaggar Hakra channels However sediment contributions from these glacial fed rivers stopped at least by 10 000 years ago well before the development of the Indus civilization 105 Tripathi et al 2004 found that the isotopes of sediments carried by the Ghaggar Hakra system over the last 20 thousand years do not come from the glaciated Higher Himalaya but have a sub Himalayan source and concluded that the river system was rain fed They also concluded that this contradicted the idea of a Harappan time mighty Sarasvati river 106 Broke 111 The story in Harappan India was somewhat different see Figure 111 3 The Bronze Age village and urban societies of the Indus Valley are some thing of an anomaly in that archaeologists have found little indication of local defense and regional warfare It would seem that the bountiful monsoon rainfall of the Early to Mid Holocene had forged a condition of plenty for all and that competitive energies were channeled into commerce rather than conflict Scholars have long argued that these rains shaped the origins of the urban Harappan societies which emerged from Neolithic villages around 2600 BC It now appears that this rainfall began to slowly taper off in the third millennium at just the point that the Harappan cities began to develop Thus it seems that this first urbanisation in South Asia was the initial response of the Indus Valley peoples to the beginning of Late Holocene aridification These cities were maintained for 300 to 400 years and then gradually abandoned as the Harappan peoples resettled in scattered villages in the eastern range of their territories into the Punjab and the Ganges Valley 17 footnote a Liviu Giosan et al Fluvial Landscapes of the Harappan Civilization PNAS 102 2012 E1688 E1694 b Camilo Ponton Holocene Aridification of India GRL 39 2012 L03704 c Harunur Rashid et al Late Glacial to Holocene Indian Summer Monsoon Variability Based upon Sediment Records Taken from the Bay of Bengal Terrestrial Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 22 2011 215 28 d Marco Madella and Dorian Q Fuller Paleoecology and the Harappan Civilization of South Asia A Reconsideration Quaternary Science Reviews 25 2006 1283 301 Compare with the very different interpretations in Possehl Gregory L 2002 The Indus Civilization A Contemporary Perspective Rowman Altamira pp 237 245 ISBN 978 0 7591 0172 2 and Michael Staubwasser et al Climate Change at the 4 2 ka BP Termination of the Indus Valley Civilization and Holocene South Asian Monsoon Variability GRL 30 2003 1425 Bar Matthews and Avner Ayalon Mid Holocene Climate Variations Krysztof Makowski as reported by Mann 1491 suggests there is little evidence that Andean civilizations worshipped an overarching deity The figure may have been carved by a later civilization onto an ancient gourd as it was found in strata dating between 900 and 1300 AD References EditCitations Edit Charles Keith Maisels 1993 The Near East Archaeology in the Cradle of Civilization Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 04742 5 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 10 November 2020 Cradles of Civilization China Ancient Culture Modern Land Robert E Murowchick gen ed Norman University of Oklahoma Press 1994 Ofer Bar Yosef The Natufian Culture in the Levant Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture PDF www columbia edu Archived PDF from the original on 16 July 2021 Retrieved 4 January 2016 La protohistoire de l Europe Jan Lichardus et al Presses Universitaires de France Paris ISBN 84 335 9366 8 1987 chapter II 2 Carr Edward H 1961 What is History p 108 ISBN 0 14 020652 3 Sharer Robert J Traxler Loa P 2006 The Ancient Maya 6th fully revised ed Stanford CA Stanford University Press p 71 ISBN 0 8047 4817 9 OCLC 57577446 Britannica 15th edition 26 62 63 The Rise of Civilization in the Middle East And Africa History world org Archived from the original on 7 March 2009 Retrieved 18 April 2009 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint unfit URL link a b c d e f g Mann Charles C 2005 1491 New York Knopf ISBN 9781400040063 Wright Henry T 1990 Rise of Civilizations Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica Archaeology 42 1 46 48 96 100 AP World History College Board Archived from the original on 22 April 2008 Retrieved 28 July 2008 World History Course Description PDF College Board Archived from the original PDF on 3 October 2008 Retrieved 28 July 2008 Civilization The Columbia Encyclopedia Archived from the original on 8 July 2012 Retrieved 28 July 2008 Edwin Eric 27 February 2015 city Britannica com Archived from the original on 7 January 2016 Retrieved 4 January 2016 Africanafrican com PDF Africanafrican com Archived PDF from the original on 15 June 2020 Retrieved 4 January 2016 The Ancient Hawaiian State Origins of a Political Society Hommon Robert J Oxford University Press 2013 Kennett Douglas J Winterhalder Bruce 2006 Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture University of California Press pp 121 ISBN 978 0 520 24647 8 Retrieved 27 December 2010 Diamond Jared 1999 Guns Germs and Steel Paperback ed New York W H Norton pp 125 161 308 311 ISBN 0393317552 a b Sandweiss Daniel H Michael E Moseley 2001 Amplifying Importance of New Research in Peru Science 294 5547 1651 1653 doi 10 1126 science 294 5547 1651d PMID 11724063 S2CID 9301114 Riehl Simone Agriculture in the Ancient Near East Research Gate Retrieved 20 June 2022 a b Bellwood Peter First Farmers The Origins of Agricultural Societies 2004 Wiley Blackwell Akhilesh Pillalamarri 18 April 2015 Exploring the Indus Valley s Secrets The diplomat Archived from the original on 20 April 2015 Retrieved 18 April 2015 Jericho Facts amp History Archived from the original on 26 July 2008 Retrieved 2 June 2022 Ubaid Civilization Ancientneareast tripod com Archived from the original on 2 April 2017 Retrieved 18 April 2009 Adams Robert MCC and Wright Henry T 1989 Concluding Remarks in Henrickson Elizabeth and Thuesen Ingolf eds Upon This Foundation The Ubaid Reconsidered Copenhagen Museum Tusculanum Press pp 451 456 Carter Robert A and Philip Graham Beyond the Ubaid Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization Number 63 The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 2010 ISBN 978 1 885923 66 0 p 2 at http oi uchicago edu research pubs catalog saoc saoc63 html Archived 15 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine Radiometric data suggest that the whole Southern Mesopotamian Ubaid period including Ubaid 0 and 5 is of immense duration spanning nearly three millennia from about 6500 to 3800 B C Pollock Susan 1999 Ancient Mesopotamia The Eden that Never Was New York Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 57334 4 Redford Donald B 1992 Egypt Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times Princeton University Press p 6 ISBN 9780691036069 Brace C Loring Seguchi Noriko Quintyn Conrad B Fox Sherry C Nelson A Russell Manolis Sotiris K Qifeng Pan 2006 The questionable contribution of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age to European craniofacial form Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103 1 242 247 Bibcode 2006PNAS 103 242B doi 10 1073 pnas 0509801102 PMC 1325007 PMID 16371462 Chicki L Nichols RA Barbujani G Beaumont MA 2002 Y genetic data support the Neolithic demic diffusion model Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99 17 11008 11013 Bibcode 2002PNAS 9911008C doi 10 1073 pnas 162158799 PMC 123201 PMID 12167671 Estimating the Impact of Prehistoric Admixture on the Genome of Europeans Dupanloup et al 2004 Mbe oxfordjournals org Archived from the original on 11 March 2007 Retrieved 1 May 2012 Semino O Magri C Benuzzi G et al May 2004 Origin Diffusion and Differentiation of Y Chromosome Haplogroups E and J Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and Later Migratory Events in the Mediterranean Area 2004 Am J Hum Genet 74 5 1023 34 doi 10 1086 386295 PMC 1181965 PMID 15069642 Cavalli Sforza 1997 Paleolithic and Neolithic lineages in the European mitochondrial gene pool Am J Hum Genet 61 1 247 54 doi 10 1016 S0002 9297 07 64303 1 PMC 1715849 PMID 9246011 Archived PDF from the original on 17 May 2020 Retrieved 1 May 2012 Chikhi 21 July 1998 Clines of nuclear DNA markers suggest a largely Neolithic ancestry of the European gene PNAS 95 15 9053 9058 Bibcode 1998PNAS 95 9053C doi 10 1073 pnas 95 15 9053 PMC 21201 PMID 9671803 Zvelebil M 1986 Hunters in Transition Mesolithic Societies and the Transition to Farming Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press pp 5 15 167 188 Bellwood P 2005 First Farmers The Origins of Agricultural Societies Malden MA Blackwell Dokladal M Brozek J 1961 Physical Anthropology in Czechoslovakia Recent Developments Current Anthropology 2 5 455 477 doi 10 1086 200228 S2CID 161324951 Zvelebil M 1989 On the transition to farming in Europe or what was spreading with the Neolithic a reply to Ammerman 1989 Antiquity 63 239 379 383 doi 10 1017 S0003598X00076110 S2CID 162882505 Leick Gwendolyn 2002 Mesopotamia The Invention of the City Penguin Carter Robert A and Philip Graham 2010 Deconstructing the Ubaid in Carter Robert A and Philip Graham eds Beyond the Ubaid Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East Chicago The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago p 2 Crawford Harriet E W Sumer and the Sumerians Cambridge University Press 2nd ed 2004 Cuneiform Archived 20 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine ancient eu An Encyclopedia of World History Langer William L ed Houghton Mifflin Company Boston MA 1972 Jacobsen Thorkild Ed 1939 The Sumerian King List Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Assyriological Studies No 11 1939 Woods 2010 pp 36 37 Martin 1988 pp 20 23 a b Pruss Alexander 2004 Remarks on the Chronological Periods in Lebeau Marc Sauvage Martin eds Atlas of Preclassical Upper Mesopotamia Subartu vol 13 pp 7 21 ISBN 978 2503991207 Postgate J N 1992 Early Mesopotamia Society and Economy at the Dawn of History London Routledge ISBN 9780415110327 a b van de Mieroop M 2007 A History of the Ancient Near East ca 3000 323 BC Malden Blackwell ISBN 978 0631225522 Jacobsen Thorkild 1976 The Harps that Once Sumerian Poetry in Translation and Treasures of Darkness a history of Mesopotamian Religion Crawford page 73 74 Kleiner Fred S Mamiya Christin J 2006 Gardner s Art Through the Ages The Western Perspective Volume 1 12th ed Belmont California USA Thomson Wadsworth pp 22 23 ISBN 978 0 495 00479 0 The Archaeology of Elam Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State by D T Potts Cambridge University Press 29 July 1999 page 46 ISBN 0521563585 hardback Elam surveys of political history and archaeology Elizabeth Carter and Matthew W Stolper University of California Press 1984 p 3 Hock Hans Heinrich 2009 Language History Language Change and Language Relationship An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics 2nd ed Mouton de Gruyter p 69 ISBN 978 3110214291 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 10 November 2020 Gnanadesikan Amalia 2008 The Writing Revolution Cuneiform to the Internet Blackwell p 25 ISBN 978 1444304688 Deutscher Guy 2007 Syntactic Change in Akkadian The Evolution of Sentential Complementation Oxford University Press US pp 20 21 ISBN 978 0 19 953222 3 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 27 August 2020 Woods C 2006 Bilingualism Scribal Learning and the Death of Sumerian PDF S L Sanders ed Margins of Writing Origins of Culture 91 120 Chicago Archived from the original PDF on 29 April 2013 Retrieved 12 July 2016 Samuel Noah Kramer 17 September 2010 The Sumerians Their History Culture and Character University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0 226 45238 8 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 10 November 2020 J M Munn Rankin 1975 Assyrian Military Power 1300 1200 B C In I E S Edwards ed Cambridge Ancient History Volume 2 Part 2 History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region c 1380 1000 BCE Cambridge University Press pp 287 288 298 Christopher Morgan 2006 Mark William Chavalas ed The ancient Near East historical sources in translation Blackwell Publishing pp 145 152 Barich et al 1984 Ecological and Cultural Relevance of the Recent New Radiocabon dates from Libyan Sahara In L Krzyzaniak and M Kobusiewicz eds Origin and Early Development of Food Producing Cultures in Northeastern Africa Poznan Poznan Archaeological Museum pp 411 17 Hayes W C October 1964 Most Ancient Egypt Chapter III The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Communities of Northern Egypt JNES No 4 ed 23 4 217 272 Barich B E 1998 People Water and Grain The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley Roma L Erma di Bretschneider Studia archaeologica 98 Childe V Gordon 1953 New Light on the Most Ancient Near East Praeger Publications Barbara G Aston James A Harrell Ian Shaw 2000 Paul T Nicholson and Ian Shaw editors Stone in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology Cambridge 5 77 pp 46 47 Also note Barbara G Aston 1994 Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels Studien zur Archaologie und Geschichte Altagyptens 5 Heidelberg pp 23 26 See on line posts 1 Archived 1 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine and 2 Archived 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Adkins L and Adkins R 2001 The Little Book of Egyptian Hieroglyphics p155 London Hodder and Stoughton Shaw Ian ed 2000 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt Oxford University Press p 479 ISBN 0 19 815034 2 a b Redford Donald B Egypt Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times Princeton University Press 1992 Gardiner Alan H Egypt of the Pharaohs An Introduction Oxford University Press 1964 Adkins L Adkins R 2001 The Little Book of Egyptian Hieroglyphics London Hodder and Stoughton Patai Raphael 1998 Children of Noah Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times Princeton Uni Press Roebuck Carl 1966 The World of Ancient Times New York NY Charles Scribner s Sons Publishing a b Shaw Ian 2003 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt Oxford England Oxford University Press Early Dynastic Egypt Digital Egypt for Universities University College London Archived from the original on 4 March 2008 Retrieved 9 March 2008 James 2005 p 40 Fekri Hassan The Fall of the Old Kingdom British Broadcasting Corporation Archived from the original on 13 October 2007 Retrieved 10 March 2008 Clayton Peter A 1994 Chronicle of the Pharaohs London England Thames and Hudson Haryana s Bhirrana oldest Harappan site Rakhigarhi Asia s largest ASI The Times of India 15 April 2015 Archived from the original on 1 January 2016 Retrieved 16 April 2015 Fuller Dorian 2006 Agricultural Origins and Frontiers in South Asia A Working Synthesis PDF Journal of World Prehistory 20 42 doi 10 1007 s10963 006 9006 8 S2CID 189952275 Archived PDF from the original on 17 May 2011 Retrieved 11 July 2016 Tewari Rakesh et al 2006 Second Preliminary Report of the excavations at Lahuradewa District Sant Kabir Nagar UP 2002 2003 2004 amp 2005 06 in Pragdhara No 16 Electronic Version p 28 Archived 28 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine UNESCO World Heritage 2004 Archived 3 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine Archaeological Site of Mehrgarh Hirst K Kris 2005 Mehrgarh Archived 18 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine Guide to Archaeology Parpol Asko 2015 The Roots of Hinduism The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilisation Oxford University Press Charles Keith Maisels Early Civilizations of the Old World The Formative Histories of Egypt The Levant Mesopotamia India and China Archived 1 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Routledge 2003 ISBN 1134837305 Higham Charles 1 January 2009 Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations Infobase Publishing pp 9 ISBN 978 1 4381 0996 1 Sigfried J de Laet Ahmad Hasan Dani eds History of Humanity From the third millennium to the seventh century B C UNESCO 1996 ISBN 9231028111 p 674 Garge Tejas 2010 Sothi Siswal Ceramic Assemblage A Reappraisal Ancient Asia 2 15 doi 10 5334 aa 10203 Archived from the original on 8 March 2021 Retrieved 4 September 2019 Peter T Daniels The World s Writing Systems Oxford University p 372 Parpola Asko 1994 Deciphering the Indus Script Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 43079 1 Thapar B K 1975 Kalibangan A Harappan Metropolis Beyond the Indus Valley Expedition 17 2 19 32 Valentine Benjamin Kamenov George D Kenoyer Jonathan Mark Shinde Vasant Mushrif Tripathy Veena Otarola Castillo Erik Krigbaum John 2015 Evidence for Patterns of Selective Urban Migration in the Greater Indus Valley 2600 1900 BC A Lead and Strontium Isotope Mortuary Analysis PLOS ONE 10 4 e0123103 Bibcode 2015PLoSO 1023103V doi 10 1371 journal pone 0123103 PMC 4414352 PMID 25923705 Indus Valley people migrated from villages to cities New study The Times of India Archived from the original on 25 July 2019 Retrieved 11 July 2016 Indus re enters India after two centuries feeds Little Rann Nal Sarovar India Today 7 November 2011 Archived from the original on 9 January 2018 Retrieved 7 November 2011 Pruthi Raj 2004 Prehistory and Harappan Civilization APH Publishing p 260 ISBN 9788176485814 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 10 November 2020 It has been noted that the courtyard pattern and techniques of flooring of Harappan houses has similarities to the way house building is still done in some villages of the region Lal 2002 pp 93 95 Morris A E J 1994 History of Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolutions Third ed New York NY Routledge p 31 ISBN 978 0 582 30154 2 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 20 May 2015 Feuerstein Georg Kak Subhash Frawley David 2001 In Search of the Cradle of Civilization New Light on Ancient India Quest Books p 73 ISBN 978 0 8356 0741 4 Sergent Bernard 1997 Genese de l Inde in French Paris Payot p 113 ISBN 978 2 228 89116 5 David Knipe 1991 Hinduism San Francisco Harper Decline of Bronze Age megacities linked to climate change Archived from the original on 22 June 2018 Retrieved 4 February 2018 Emma Maris 2014 Two hundred year drought doomed Indus Valley Civilization Archived 10 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine nature Indus Collapse The End or the Beginning of an Asian Culture Science Magazine 320 1282 3 6 June 2008 a b c Giosan L et al 2012 Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan Civilization Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109 26 E1688 94 Bibcode 2012PNAS 109E1688G doi 10 1073 pnas 1112743109 PMC 3387054 PMID 22645375 a b Clift et al 2011 U Pb zircon dating evidence for a Pleistocene Sarasvati River and capture of the Yamuna River Geology 40 211 214 2011 3 Archived 2 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine a b Tripathi Jayant K Tripathi K Bock Barbara Rajamani V Eisenhauer A 25 October 2004 Is River Ghaggar Saraswati Geochemical Constraints PDF Current Science 87 8 Archived from the original PDF on 25 December 2004 Rachel Nuwer 28 May 2012 An Ancient Civilization Upended by Climate Change LiveScience Archived from the original on 7 October 2019 Retrieved 29 May 2012 Charles Choi 29 May 2012 Huge Ancient Civilization s Collapse Explained The New York Times Archived from the original on 1 May 2020 Retrieved 18 May 2016 Madella Marco Fuller Dorian 2006 Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia a reconsideration Quaternary Science Reviews 25 11 12 1283 1301 Bibcode 2006QSRv 25 1283M doi 10 1016 j quascirev 2005 10 012 MacDonald Glen 2011 Potential influence of the Pacific Ocean on the Indian summer monsoon and Harappan decline Quaternary International 229 1 2 140 148 Bibcode 2011QuInt 229 140M doi 10 1016 j quaint 2009 11 012 a b Brooke John L 2014 Climate Change and the Course of Global History A Rough Journey Cambridge University Press p 296 ISBN 978 0 521 87164 8 archived from the original on 18 April 2023 retrieved 4 February 2018 Thomas H Maugh II 28 May 2012 Migration of monsoons created then killed Harappan civilization Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 19 November 2012 Retrieved 29 May 2012 Edwin Bryant 2001 The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture pp 159 60 White David Gordon 2003 Kiss of the Yogini Chicago University of Chicago Press p 28 ISBN 978 0 226 89483 6 Ebrey Patricia 2006 The Cambridge Illustrated History of China Cambridge University Press pp 12 18 ISBN 978 0 521 43519 2 Rice and Early Agriculture in China Legacy of Human Civilizations Mesa Community College Archived from the original on 27 August 2009 Retrieved 10 February 2008 http scholarspace manoa hawaii edu bitstream handle 10125 17124 AP v38n2 119 153 pdf sequence 1 Archived 14 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine bare URL PDF Peiligang Site Ministry of Culture of the People s Republic of China 2003 Archived from the original on 7 August 2007 Retrieved 10 February 2008 a b Pringle Heather 1998 The Slow Birth of Agriculture Science 282 5393 1446 doi 10 1126 science 282 5393 1446 S2CID 128522781 Archived from the original on 1 January 2011 Rincon Paul 17 April 2003 Earliest writing found in China BBC News Archived from the original on 20 March 2012 Retrieved 12 July 2016 Li X Harbottle Garman Zhang Juzhong Wang Changsui 2003 The earliest writing Sign use in the seventh millennium BCE at Jiahu Henan Province China Antiquity 77 295 31 44 doi 10 1017 s0003598x00061329 S2CID 162602307 Chang 1986 p 113 Pollard Elizabeth 2015 Worlds Together Worlds Apart W W Norton amp Company pp 69 70 ISBN 978 0 393 91847 2 Chang 1986 p 112 Wertz Richard R 2007 Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures Exploring Chinese History ibiblio Archived from the original on 20 December 2012 Retrieved 10 February 2008 Martini I Peter 2010 Landscapes and Societies Selected Cases Springer p 310 ISBN 978 90 481 9412 4 Higham Charles 2004 Encyclopedia of ancient Asian civilizations Infobase Publishing p 200 ISBN 978 0 8160 4640 9 Erlitou culture Chinese history Britannica www britannica com Archived from the original on 21 June 2015 Liu L amp Xiu H Rethinking Erlitou legend history and Chinese archaeology Antiquity 81 314 2007 a b c d Liu 2006 p 184 a b Liu 2004 p 229 Li 2003 Liu 2004 pp 230 231 二里头 华夏王朝文明的开端 寻根 3 a b c Liu amp Xu 2007 Howells William 1983 Origins of the Chinese People Interpretations of recent evidence In Keightley David N ed The Origins of Chinese Civilization University of California Press pp 297 319 ISBN 978 0 520 04229 2 Teaching Chinese Archaeology Part Two NGA Nga gov Archived from the original on 5 February 2013 Retrieved 17 January 2010 Sanxingdui Museum 2006 Zarrillo S Pearsall D M Raymond J S Tisdale M A Quon D J 2008 Directly dated starch residues document early formative maize Zea mays L in tropical Ecuador Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105 13 5006 5011 Bibcode 2008PNAS 105 5006Z doi 10 1073 pnas 0800894105 PMC 2278185 PMID 18362336 Dillehay Tom D Eling Jr Herbert H Rossen Jack 2005 Preceramic Irrigation Canals in the Peruvian Andes Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102 47 17241 44 Bibcode 2005PNAS 10217241D doi 10 1073 pnas 0508583102 ISSN 0027 8424 PMC 1288011 PMID 16284247 Oldest Urban Site in the Americas Found Experts Claim National Geographic News 26 February 2008 4 Archived 6 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine accessed 20 January 2016 Ancient ceremonial plaza found in Peru ANDREW WHALEN Associated Press Writer 5 Archived 13 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine Haas Jonathan Winifred Creamer Alvaro Ruiz 23 December 2004 Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru Nature 432 7020 1020 1023 Bibcode 2004Natur 432 1020H doi 10 1038 nature03146 PMID 15616561 S2CID 4426545 See a map of Norte Chico sites at https diggingperu wordpress com context the norte chico Archived 7 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine a b Mann Charles C 7 January 2005 Oldest Civilization in the Americas Revealed Science 307 5706 34 35 doi 10 1126 science 307 5706 34 PMID 15637250 S2CID 161589785 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 1 December 2019 Braswell Geoffrey 16 April 2014 The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors Settlement Patterns Architecture Hieroglyphic Texts and Ceramics Routledge p 408 ISBN 9781317756088 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 10 November 2020 a b c d e Haas Jonathan Winifred Creamer Alvaro Ruiz 2005 Power and the Emergence of Complex Polities in the Peruvian Preceramic Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 14 1 37 52 doi 10 1525 ap3a 2004 14 037 Oldest city in the Americas BBC News 26 April 2001 Archived from the original on 22 May 2006 Retrieved 16 February 2007 Moseley Michael The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization An Evolving Hypothesis The Hall of Ma at Archived from the original on 18 August 2015 Retrieved 13 June 2008 Moseley Michael 1975 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization Menlo Park Cummings ISBN 978 0 8465 4800 3 Miller Kenneth September 2005 Showdown at the O K Caral Discover 26 9 Archived from the original on 8 January 2010 Retrieved 22 October 2009 Belsie Laurent January 2002 Civilization lost The Christian Science Monitor Archived from the original on 19 June 2015 Retrieved 8 March 2007 a b Hoag Hanna 15 April 2003 Oldest evidence of Andean religion found Nature News online doi 10 1038 news030414 4 a b Hecht Jeff 14 April 2003 America s oldest religious icon revealed New Scientist online Archived from the original on 23 February 2012 Retrieved 13 February 2007 From summary three Archived 15 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine Shady 1997 Mann Charles C 12 August 2005 Unraveling Khipu s Secrets Science 309 5737 1008 1009 doi 10 1126 science 309 5737 1008 PMID 16099962 S2CID 161448364 Beynon Davies P 2009 Significant threads the nature of data International Journal of Information Management 29 3 170 188 doi 10 1016 j ijinfomgt 2008 12 003 Archaeologists shed new light on Americas earliest known civilization Press release Northern Illinois University 22 December 2004 Archived from the original on 9 February 2007 Retrieved 1 February 2007 Burger 1992 Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilization Matsuoka Y Vigouroux Y Goodman M M et al 2002 A single domestication for maize shown by multilocus microsatellite genotyping Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99 9 6080 4 Bibcode 2002PNAS 99 6080M doi 10 1073 pnas 052125199 PMC 122905 PMID 11983901 Matsuoka Yoshihiro 22 January 2003 Earliest Directional Evolution for Microsatellite Size in Maize PDF Science Archived from the original PDF on 2 January 2017 Retrieved 3 March 2014 Nichols Deborah L and Christopher A Pool The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology Oxford Oxford UP 2012 Print Roush Wade 9 May 1997 Archaeobiology Squash Seeds Yield New View of Early American Farming Science 276 5314 894 895 doi 10 1126 science 276 5314 894 S2CID 158673509 Watson Traci 22 January 2013 Earliest Evidence of Chocolate in North America Science Archived from the original on 6 March 2014 Retrieved 3 March 2014 Borevitz Justin O Motamayor Juan C Lachenaud Philippe da Silva e Mota Jay Wallace Loor Rey Kuhn David N Brown J Steven Schnell Raymond J 2008 Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazonian Chocolate Tree Theobroma cacao L PLOS ONE 3 10 e3311 Bibcode 2008PLoSO 3 3311M doi 10 1371 journal pone 0003311 ISSN 1932 6203 PMC 2551746 PMID 18827930 Powis Terry G Hurst W Jeffrey del Carmen Rodriguez Maria Ortiz C Ponciano Blake Michael Cheetham David Coe Michael D Hodgson John G 2007 Oldest chocolate in the New World Antiquity 81 314 Archived from the original on 28 June 2011 Retrieved 10 February 2018 a b c d e Diehl Richard A 2004 The Olmecs America s First Civilization London Thames and Hudson Beck Roger B Linda Black Larry S Krieger Phillip C Naylor Dahia Ibo Shabaka 1999 World History Patterns of Interaction Evanston IL McDougal Littell ISBN 978 0 395 87274 1 a b c Pool Christopher A 2007 Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica Cambridge World Archaeology Cambridge and New York Cambridge University Press Coe p 44 Lawler p 23 Pool p 193 Coe 1967 p 72 Alternatively the mutilation of these monuments may be unrelated to the decline and abandonment of San Lorenzo Some researchers believe that the mutilation had ritualistic aspects particularly since most mutilated monuments were reburied in a row Pool p 135 Diehl pp 58 59 82 Gonzalez Lauck 1996 p 80 a b Colman 2010 Pohl 2005 p 10 Heizer 1968 Drucker 1961 p 1 Nagy Christopher 1997 The Geoarchaeology of Settlement in the Grijalva Delta In Barbara L Stark Philip J Arnold III Olmec to Aztec Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands Tucson University of Arizona Press pp 253 277 Coe Michael D 1968 America s First Civilization Discovering the Olmec New York The Smithsonian Library a b Coe Michael D Rex Koontz 2002 Mexico from the Olmecs to the Aztecs 5th edition revised and enlarged ed London and New York Thames amp Hudson Wilford John Noble Mother Culture or Only a Sister The New York Times 15 March 2005 Maugh II Thomas H 1 November 2012 Bulgarians find oldest European town a salt production center The Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 4 May 2019 Retrieved 1 November 2012 Survival of Information the earliest prehistoric town in Europe Squires Nick 31 October 2012 Archaeologists find Europe s most prehistoric town The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 1 November 2012 Retrieved 1 November 2012 Nikolov Vassil Salt early complex society urbanization Provadia Solnitsata 5500 4200 BC Abstract PDF Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Archived from the original on 25 December 2018 Retrieved 1 November 2012 La Niece Susan senior metallurgist in the British Museum Department of Conservation and Scientific Research 15 December 2009 Gold Harvard University Press p 10 ISBN 978 0 674 03590 4 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 10 April 2012 Maura Ellyn Maura McGinnis 2004 Greece A Primary Source Cultural Guide The Rosen Publishing Group p 8 ISBN 978 0 8239 3999 2 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 John E Findling Kimberly D Pelle 2004 Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement Greenwood Publishing Group p 23 ISBN 978 0 313 32278 5 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 Wayne C Thompson Mark H Mullin 1983 Western Europe 1983 Stryker Post Publications p 337 ISBN 9780943448114 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 for ancient Greece was the cradle of Western culture Frederick Copleston 1 June 2003 History of Philosophy Volume 1 Greece and Rome A amp C Black p 13 ISBN 978 0 8264 6895 6 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 PART I PRE SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER II THE CRADLE OF WESTERN THOUGHT Mario Iozzo 2001 Art and History of Greece And Mount Athos Casa Editrice Bonechi p 7 ISBN 978 88 8029 435 1 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 The capital of Greece one of the world s most glorious cities and the cradle of Western culture Marxiano Melotti 25 May 2011 The Plastic Venuses Archaeological Tourism in Post Modern Society Cambridge Scholars Publishing p 188 ISBN 978 1 4438 3028 7 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 In short Greece despite having been the cradle of Western culture was then an other space separate from the West Library Journal Vol 97 Bowker April 1972 p 1588 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 Ancient Greece Cradle of Western Culture Series disc 6 strips with 3 discs range 44 60 fr 17 18 min Stanley Mayer Burstein 2002 Current Issues and the Study of Ancient History Regina Books p 15 ISBN 978 1 930053 10 6 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 and making Egypt play the same role in African education and culture that Athens and Greece do in Western culture Murray Milner Jr 8 January 2015 Elites A General Model John Wiley amp Sons p 62 ISBN 978 0 7456 8950 0 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 Greece has long been considered the seedbed or cradle of Western civilization Slavica viterbiensia 003 Periodico di letterature e culture slave della Facolta di Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne dell Universita della Tuscia Gangemi Editore spa 10 November 2011 p 148 ISBN 978 88 492 6909 3 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 The Special Case of Greece The ancient Greece was a cradle of the Western culture Kim Covert 1 July 2011 Ancient Greece Birthplace of Democracy Capstone p 5 ISBN 978 1 4296 6831 6 Archived from the original on 18 April 2023 Retrieved 14 November 2015 Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece Henry Turner Inman Rome the cradle of western civilisation as illustrated by existing monuments ISBN 9781177738538 Michael Ed Grant 1964 The Birth Of Western Civilisation Greece amp Rome Amazon co uk Thames amp Hudson Archived from the original on 7 January 2016 Retrieved 4 January 2016 HUXLEY George et al 9780500040034 The Birth of Western Civilization Greece and Rome AbeBooks com Archived from the original on 7 January 2016 Retrieved 4 January 2016 Athens Rome Jerusalem and Vicinity Peninsula of Mt Sinai Geographicus Rare Antique Maps Geographicus com Archived from the original on 7 January 2016 Retrieved 4 January 2016 Download This PDF eBooks Free PDF File104 filthbooks org Archived from the original PDF on 7 January 2016 Retrieved 4 January 2016 Lin 林 Shengyi 勝義 He 何 Xianrong 顯榮 2001 臺灣 人類文明原鄉 Taiwan The Cradle of Civilization Taiwan gu wen ming yan jiu cong shu 臺灣古文明研究叢書 in Chinese Taipei Taiwan fei die xue yan jiu hui 台灣飛碟學硏究會 ISBN 978 957 30188 0 3 OCLC 52945170 Sources Edit Chang Kwang chih 1986 The Archaeology of Ancient China 4th ed Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 03782 1 Georg Feuerstein 2001 In Search of the Cradle of Civilization Quest Books ISBN 978 0 8356 0741 4 Ethel Hofflund 2001 The Cradle of Civilization Lifepac History amp Geography Grade 6 Alpha Omega Publications ISBN 978 0 86717 552 3 Samuel Noah Kramer 1959 Anchor Paperback Doubleday Anchor Books Samuel Noah Kramer 1969 Cradle of Civilization Little Brown amp Co ISBN 978 0 316 32617 9 Lal B B 2002 The Sarasvati flows on Li Jinhui 10 November 2003 Stunning Capital of Xia Dynasty Unearthed China Through a Lens Archived from the original on 21 March 2015 Retrieved 3 February 2009 Liu Li 2004 The Chinese Neolithic trajectories to early states Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 81184 2 2006 Urbanization in China Erlitou and its hinterland In Storey Glenn ed Urbanism in the Preindustrial World Tuscaloosa University of Alabama Press pp 161 189 ISBN 978 0 8173 5246 2 Liu Li Xu Hong 2007 Rethinking Erlitou legend history and Chinese archaeology Antiquity 81 314 886 901 doi 10 1017 s0003598x00095983 hdl 1959 9 58390 S2CID 162644060 Archived from the original on 16 April 2023 Retrieved 14 April 2023 Woods Christopher 2010 The earliest Mesopotamian writing PDF in Woods Christopher ed Visible language Inventions of writing in the ancient Middle East and beyond Oriental Institute Museum Publications vol 32 Chicago University of Chicago pp 33 50 ISBN 978 1 885923 76 9 archived from the original PDF on 26 August 2021 retrieved 13 December 2022External links Edit Media related to Cradle of civilization at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cradle of civilization amp oldid 1152668252, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.