Chapter 6 Chapter 4 The Origin of Ancient Civilizations
The first light of civilization appeared in a wasteland basked in the scorching sun and nurtured by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.At one time it was thought that the cradle of civilization was the Nile valley, but now there is consensus that the earliest center of civilization was Sumer, also known as the "Land of Shinar" in the Old Testament.Sumer was located in the southern part of what used to be called "Mesopotamia"—roughly equivalent to what is now the Republic of Iraq—and was bounded to the south by the Persian Gulf, consisting of several small, barren, windswept plains.Around 3500 BC, some agricultural communes that had improved production techniques and were cultivating this arid wasteland successfully completed the transition from Neolithic tribal culture to civilization.
3500 BC is only an approximate date, and such a date is set for convenience only.In fact, it does not matter whether the timing of the transition is specified as one year, ten years or 100 years.We know that the shift from food gathering to food production didn't happen suddenly because someone happened to think about farming.Likewise, the transition from tribal culture to civilization did not happen because someone at the time imagined urban centers and urban civilizations.In short, what happened at that time was not an event, but a process.It is the purpose of this chapter to examine the nature and origin of this process.
What exactly does the word civilization mean?Anthropologists have identified some characteristics of civilizations that distinguish them from Neolithic cultures.These features include: urban centers, political power of the state established by institutions, tribute or taxes, writing, social division into classes or castes, huge buildings, various specialized arts and sciences, and so on.Not all civilizations have all these characteristics.For example: the civilizations of the Andes in South America developed without writing, while the civilizations of Egypt and the Mayans did not have what are commonly referred to as cities.However, this set of characteristics can be used as a general guide in determining the nature of civilizations throughout the world at various times.
In the end, what is formed is not the same civilization, but civilizations with extremely diverse "types".As mentioned in the previous chapter, the cultures of the earlier Neolithic were adapted to specific environments; therefore, as the status of farming and animal husbandry in each environment differed, so did each environment. Neolithic cultures also differed markedly from each other in the types of plants they cultivated and animals they domesticated.The same is true now of civilizations, which differ in proportion to the degree of isolation with which they have developed.The civilizations of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas in the Americas developed independently and, therefore, can be clearly distinguished from those earlier civilizations in Eurasia.Civilizations in Eurasia were also diverse, and their uniqueness depended on how far apart they were located from the centers of the earliest civilizations in the Middle East.China is separated from the Middle East by a vast, deserted region, screened by mountains, and thus Chinese civilization has remained distinct from other civilizations in Eurasia from earliest times in antiquity to the present day.
The question now is why go to civilization in the first place, especially given the many aspects of egalitarian Neolithic societies that are fascinating.The experience of the Tanara people of modern-day Madagascar answers this question.The Tanara had only recently transitioned to civilization, so anthropologist Ralph Linton was able to document their experiences in full.Before the Tanara people transitioned to civilization, they used the "slash-and-burn" method to grow early rice.They can get a good harvest in the first year, but the production gradually decreases from the second year onwards.Therefore, whenever the fertility of the fields is exhausted, they have to move and rebuild the village.Frequent migration made it impossible for them to implement private ownership of land, and the ownership of the land was controlled by the village community.The elders of the village distribute the land as fairly as possible to each co-resident family.Each communal household is made up of several households that work together and distribute the product as needed.This is a typical tribal society that implements egalitarianism, no matter in terms of economy, politics, or social status.Neither has any major difference.
That all changed when some families followed the example of their neighbors to the east by planting rice.The area of natural paddy fields is very limited, and the labor force of the whole family does not need to be invested, so this new type of agriculture is operated by some families alone.They work in the rice fields all year round, and no longer return the fields to the villages for redistribution.With few fields suitable for growing rice, the once classless Tanara society is now divided: a few become a class of landowners, while the vast majority have no hope of this more productive land.
This class division was even more pronounced when upland rice farmers were forced to move periodically to new locations, while rice farmers remained on their old small plots.War is also affected by this new type of economy, and those long-term settled villagers are now spending their time trying to build complex castles to block the intrusion of traditional robber groups; and devote themselves to capturing refugees and turning them into slaves , for the slave was assuming a new importance.Slaves were useless when farming was done in the "slash-and-burn" method, but now, slaves can be sent to the fields to work year-round.The earlier democracy was also replaced by a newly developed society; at the top of this new society was the despotic king, below the king were the nobles, who owned the land allotted to them by the king, and then the common people, who made up the majority of the population, and the last of the society The bottom layer was slaves, made up of prisoners of war and their descendants.Finally, with property becoming the only means of self-improvement, a new set of social norms gradually took shape.Anthropologist Ralph Linton concludes, "There is a long distance between the village of Tanara and the Kingdom of Tanara. In the constantly migrating, self-sufficient village of Tanara, there are no classes but firm However, in the centralized Tanara kingdom where the subjects settled down, the society was divided into classes due to economic differences, and the family status was regarded as extremely important... When going back step by step, the entire life of the Tanara people When we look at the ins and outs of the transformation, we can find that every step of the transformation is caused by growing rice."
The transformation process of the Tanara people is only a small microcosm of the transformation process that disintegrated the Neolithic societies of the Middle East in the fourth millennium BC, eventually leading to urban revolution and civilization.
The upper mountains of the Tigris and Euphrates overlap.There, people learned to domesticate plants and animals, thus completing the agricultural revolution.There, people are now embarking on their second great adventure, migrating from the mountains to the river valleys, gradually developing new and more productive irrigated agriculture and new social institutions.The interaction of new agricultural production techniques and new social institutions set off a chain reaction that eventually led to the emergence of civilization.
Migrating from the highlands to the lowlands presented Neolithic farmers with a new set of problems: insufficient rainfall, scorching sun, and regular flooding of rivers.No building stones, etc.But the advantages of the lowlands outweigh its disadvantages: the date palms that grow there provide not only an abundance of food, but also a great deal of wood, though of poor quality; Small animals, as well as fish, provided valuable dietary protein and fat; and especially valuable, the soil was extremely fertile alluvial soil.There is great potential in this new environment, and that potential is a challenge.The earliest farmers responded to this challenge with a remarkable ability to adapt to their environment.During the fourth millennium BC they made one of the greatest technological advances in human history.
When crops are grown in the highlands where the mountains overlap, there is barely enough rainfall, but in the low-lying watershed areas, the rainfall is very insufficient.To cultivate this fertile alluvial area, agricultural irrigation was necessary, so the earliest farmers dug ditches to channel water from the great river to their fields.As a result, crop yields were astonishingly higher than what they had earlier achieved on the rocky slopes.Documents from 2500 BC record that the average yield of a barley field is 86 times the amount sown!Food is much more plentiful and more diverse than in the past, and, because of agricultural irrigation, the source of food is more secure than in the past.More food meant more people, and more people made possible more irrigation ditches, more new farmland, more food.
While irrigation technology continued to develop, emerging metallurgy was gradually mastered.Metallurgy was especially useful to settlers in watershed regions where flint was rare.Initially, they viewed natural metals as extremely tough, malleable stones, cold-worked by repeated hammering and grinding.It wasn't until they learned to extract metals from ores by smelting that true metallurgy began.The earliest metal extracted was probably copper.It was later discovered that copper can become liquid after heat treatment and can take the shape of various containers or models; and after cooling, copper hardens again.And its edge is as sharp as a stone.By 3000 BC, residents of the Middle East and India had generally known that adding small amounts of other metals to copper could produce more durable alloys.In the end, they found that the incorporation of some tin in the copper smelting worked best, and the resulting bronze clearly outperformed the stone.Bronze was especially popular for weapons, as stone was brittle and unreliable in battle.However, the two metals, copper and tin, were rare, so bronze was very expensive at that time, and it was not widely used, such as being used to make tools.
The invention of the plow was equally important at the time.The original plow was simple in structure and made from a small tree.There is only one branch left on the tree, which protrudes outward at two-thirds of the village trunk; all the branches on the branch are cut off, and the head is very pointed.The upper end of the village trunk is tied to two oxen, and the lower end is supported by a plowman; when the oxen pull the tree trunk, the protruding branches will dig into the ground and turn over the soil.This primitive invention was quite efficient when used to plow the semi-arid sandy soils of the Middle East.By 3000 BC, it had been widely used throughout Mesopotamia and Egypt, and was introduced into India; by 1400 BC, it was also introduced into distant China.The significance of the ox pulling the plow is that for the first time, human beings can use power other than their own physical strength as power.In this sense, the plow was the forerunner of the steam engine, the internal combustion engine, the electric generator, and the nuclear fission reactor.
In 3000 BC, wind was also harnessed as a force that humans could borrow for certain situations, such as pumping water.At that time, crude horizontal sails were already made, and the first places to use them were probably the Persian Gulf and the Nile River.The use of wind.The appearance of horizontal sails shows that human beings successfully used artificial power as power for the first time.Early sailboats were rough, but they were a far more economical and effective tool for heavy transportation than pack donkeys and ox carts.Therefore, most of the trade in the ancient civilization took water.
The great invention of the wheel was also made during this creative millennium.The earliest wheels in Mesopotamia were simply round plates nailed firmly to an axle.By 3000 BC, the axles had been attached to the carts, and the wheels were not directly attached to the body.Shortly thereafter, wheels with spokes appeared.This primitive barrow, clumsy as it is, was much better than the human shoulders and pack animals (usually donkeys) that had been used before.Wheels were also used very early in the manufacture of chariots.This kind of chariot was first used to rush into the enemy's formation and force the enemy to disperse; later it was used as a battle platform, and the chariot soldiers could stand on the chariot and throw javelins at the enemy to kill the enemy.The invention of the wheel also served in times of peace, and the potter's wheel was made of it.The simplest pottery wheel only needs a pair of disc-shaped wheels, and a shaft is installed between the discs, and the shaft is placed upright; while the potter rotates the lower disc with his feet, he puts soft clay on the upper disc with his hands. On a plate, mold and shape.This device enables potters to mass-produce the earliest handicraft of mankind - pottery.
Early agriculture and primitive plows in Egypt from the 12th century AD.
These far-reaching technological advances have been accompanied by corresponding far-reaching institutional changes.Population growth allowed certain villages to develop into cities ruled by new religious notables and later military and administrative chiefs.The emergence of cities was made possible by the increase in agricultural productivity.Increases in agricultural productivity created a surplus of food that could support the newly created priestly class, soldiers, and bureaucrats.This development was not sudden or unilateral.Recently, many people have debated: Does technological change determine institutional change, or does institutional change determine technological change?This is reminiscent of a debate about an early stage of human evolution: Did the human brain come first, and then human culture, including language and toolmaking?It is now agreed that the former interacts with the latter, that language and tool-making are both a cause and an effect of brain development.It seems that the same is true of technological change and social change, first interacting and finally bringing about urban revolution and civilization.The transition from tribe members to farmers by Neolithic cultivators who provided surpluses to ruling dignitaries was not a matter of their consent to do so at some point, or of being compelled to do so; on the contrary, it was a gradual The process of development in which cause and effect interact and are closely related.
Later class divisions are characteristic of civilization.The origin of class differentiation can be found in the simple village shrine; the sacred word was the center of social and religious life at that time, but there were no full-time priests at that time.As villages developed into cities, shrines also developed into monasteries.The monastery had its priests and servants who were the first people not to be directly involved in the production of the means of subsistence.If the priests are regarded as the successors of the former tribal wizards, it is not difficult to understand that they should be the earliest dignitaries.Since agricultural rituals (such as rain ceremonies) were of paramount importance to Neolithic farmers, shamans were the most powerful figures.Now the newly emerging priests not only have to be responsible for various traditional supernatural phenomena, but also take on the increasing responsibilities of managing society.These responsibilities are essential to an increasingly complex community.
The continuous improvement of technology and the continuous increase of surplus food made it possible for the emergence of new priest groups; and the newly emerged priest groups played a role in promoting technological progress and economic development.Writing is a great invention made by the priests out of the needs of keeping records.From the earliest known written records, many examples can be cited to prove that priests were not only in charge of various religious activities, but also a large number of economic activities.They recorded what happened to the annual floods, which are needed to calculate the time of the annual floods.They also take on the vital role of managing irrigation, such as distributing water, building and maintaining dams and ditches, etc.; these management tasks are necessary for the full functioning of the growing irrigation system.At the same time, they also greatly promoted the development of various skills, because the output of handicraft products did not depend on the needs of the secular market, but on the needs of the monastery.
At this time, the growing diversity of society--which the religious dignitaries had greatly contributed to--began to undermine the position of the religious dignitaries.The larger and more complex the city grew, the less binding were the purely religious edicts.At this time, the scale of wars became larger and more frequent; although monasteries possessed a lot of wealth and were plundered repeatedly, which objectively played a certain role in promoting social chaos, the main reason may be that population growth outstripped agriculture. resource.As a result of large-scale and frequent wars, the power of the priests was transferred to the secular upstarts.
Earlier, when a commune was occasionally threatened by foreign attack, the grown men of the commune held a general assembly to elect a man to be the leader of the war for that extraordinary period.But as the intervals between peace became shorter and shorter, these war leaders served longer and longer terms until they became permanent military chiefs and finally kings.Thus, the court began to compete with the monastery until the two gradually formed a partnership.As a rule, the priests retained the large lands they occupied and continued to perform their religious duties, while the court officials were busy building walls around the city and raising large armies to fight against neighboring cities; Build an empire.
The rise of secular states and empires greatly increased the production of non-agricultural goods.The mass production of pottery, the general use of such things as cylindrical seals and metal utensils, and the abundance and variety of objects found in some of the stronger dwellings--all point to the appearance of a very Important, middle-class new market.The ever-increasing number of members of the court demanded a great deal of luxury; the growing militarization required weapons of all kinds, on an unprecedented scale, not only in large quantities of metal weapons and armor, but also in more complete military equipment such as the chariot. equipment.All this shows that the production at that time was greatly different from the production on a relatively limited scale in the past, because the various handicraft industries in the past only needed to meet the needs of the monastery.It should be noted here, however, that this change is almost exclusively in the volume of production, not in technology.If you want to say that this is a new change, it is only in terms of mass production; there is no new progress in terms of production methods and technological innovation.
Mass production has a major bearing on foreign affairs.Minerals and high-quality wood are hardly produced in the low-lying watershed areas, and most of the raw materials for handicraft industries have to be transported from outside.For example: copper from Oman in the south of the Persian Gulf, silver and lead from the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor, wood from Iran and the Gros Mountains and Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast.In order to repay these imported raw materials, various handicraft industries must expand production and provide various export products in exchange.Another way is to conquer the origin of these raw materials.This approach did not go unnoticed, as can be seen from the experience of the Akkadian king Sargon in the middle of the third millennium BC.The epic "The Warlike King" describes how Sargon led his army across the unnamed pass and invaded the center of Asia Minor in order to aid the Akkadian merchants who were abused by the local rulers when they were doing business in Asia Minor.Finally, Sargon's empire expanded "from the lower regions to the upper regions", that is, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, thereby controlling the production areas of various metals, stones and woods.Not long after the epic "The Warring King," another source recounts that Sargon "did not sleep much" in his efforts to promote commerce; The people live and work in peace and prosperity... Ships, large and small, transport all kinds of goods to Sumer unimpeded."
The expenditure on building the army and building palaces was an extremely heavy burden for the early city-states, so that the status of the traditional parliament was destroyed.In order to cope with the ever-increasing expenditure of manpower and material resources, the exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes became more and more onerous. To this, the traditional parliament only dared to timidly express its opposition. As a result, it was increasingly crowded out by the permanent and hereditary kingship, and finally replaced.
Class divisions have intensified with the concentration of political power.This is clearly seen in the growing variety of burial objects.The difference in the early tomb objects was very slight, but the later the time moved, the difference became more obvious.The vast majority of graves contained only a few pottery items, or none at all, reflecting the poverty of commoners; those of the wealthy contained bronze vessels and beads of precious metals, showing "amazing profligacy" and kings' The mausoleum is even more different than the previous one. There are not only a large number of luxury goods, such as various exquisite weapons and valuable decorations, but also a large number of martyrs, including soldiers, who accompanied the king and proved his power and wealth. , the king's wives, musicians, coachmen and general servants.
First self-governing agricultural villages, then small states controlled by priestly groups, and finally empires ruled by dynasties with all the characteristics of civilization—this is the thousands of years of social development described above.
Civilization took root first in Mesopotamia, then in several other areas of Eurasia and America, and then spread in all directions.Just as the Agricultural Revolution replaced hunter-gatherer societies with tribal societies, so tribal societies are now replaced by civilizations.While tribal cultures reached the fringes of Eurasia, the tribal cultures in the Eurasian center were being replaced by civilizations.This process of displacement continued irresistibly as civilization spread outward from its origins in the great river basins and across adjacent barbaric regions; by AD it had spread virtually without interruption from the English Channel to the China Sea ( See Figure 6 "Ancient Civilizations in Eurasia, 3500-1500 BC").
If it is agreed that the date of civilization in Mesopotamia is about 3500 BC, then the approximate dates of civilization in other regions should be: Egyptian civilization began about 3000 BC, and the Indus Valley Civilization started around 2500 BC, that of the Yellow River Valley in China around 1500 BC, and that of Central America and Peru around 500 BC.
It is generally believed that American civilization, like American agriculture, developed independently without any influence from Eurasia.Was Chinese civilization indigenous in its early stages, or did it develop under the indirect influence of Middle Eastern civilizations?This question cannot yet be answered.The civilizations of the Nile Valley and the Indus Valley developed under the impetus of the Mesopotamian civilization that spread outward.This development is not so much due to the adoption of certain specific technologies and systems, but rather, due to the acceptance of certain basic ideas or principles.Although the concept of writing is taken from Sumer, their own unique writing systems were gradually formed in Egypt and India.The same goes for the development of state organizations, monumental buildings, etc.
The end result of such development has been the formation of major civilizations that share a common general pattern, but each still displays distinctive characteristics or types.These different types were gradually formed and finalized during thousands of years of independent development, so to a considerable extent, they have continued to this day.
Early agriculture and primitive plows in Egypt from the 12th century AD.
These far-reaching technological advances have been accompanied by corresponding far-reaching institutional changes.Population growth allowed certain villages to develop into cities ruled by new religious notables and later military and administrative chiefs.The emergence of cities was made possible by the increase in agricultural productivity.Increases in agricultural productivity created a surplus of food that could support the newly created priestly class, soldiers, and bureaucrats.This development was not sudden or unilateral.Recently, many people have debated: Does technological change determine institutional change, or does institutional change determine technological change?This is reminiscent of a debate about an early stage of human evolution: Did the human brain come first, and then human culture, including language and toolmaking?It is now agreed that the former interacts with the latter, that language and tool-making are both a cause and an effect of brain development.It seems that the same is true of technological change and social change, first interacting and finally bringing about urban revolution and civilization.The transition from tribe members to farmers by Neolithic cultivators who provided surpluses to ruling dignitaries was not a matter of their consent to do so at some point, or of being compelled to do so; on the contrary, it was a gradual The process of development in which cause and effect interact and are closely related.
Later class divisions are characteristic of civilization.The origin of class differentiation can be found in the simple village shrine; the sacred word was the center of social and religious life at that time, but there were no full-time priests at that time.As villages developed into cities, shrines also developed into monasteries.The monastery had its priests and servants who were the first people not to be directly involved in the production of the means of subsistence.If the priests are regarded as the successors of the former tribal wizards, it is not difficult to understand that they should be the earliest dignitaries.Since agricultural rituals (such as rain ceremonies) were of paramount importance to Neolithic farmers, shamans were the most powerful figures.Now the newly emerging priests not only have to be responsible for various traditional supernatural phenomena, but also take on the increasing responsibilities of managing society.These responsibilities are essential to an increasingly complex community.
The continuous improvement of technology and the continuous increase of surplus food made it possible for the emergence of new priest groups; and the newly emerged priest groups played a role in promoting technological progress and economic development.Writing is a great invention made by the priests out of the needs of keeping records.From the earliest known written records, many examples can be cited to prove that priests were not only in charge of various religious activities, but also a large number of economic activities.They recorded what happened to the annual floods, which are needed to calculate the time of the annual floods.They also take on the vital role of managing irrigation, such as distributing water, building and maintaining dams and ditches, etc.; these management tasks are necessary for the full functioning of the growing irrigation system.At the same time, they also greatly promoted the development of various skills, because the output of handicraft products did not depend on the needs of the secular market, but on the needs of the monastery.
At this time, the growing diversity of society--which the religious dignitaries had greatly contributed to--began to undermine the position of the religious dignitaries.The larger and more complex the city grew, the less binding were the purely religious edicts.At this time, the scale of wars became larger and more frequent; although monasteries possessed a lot of wealth and were plundered repeatedly, which objectively played a certain role in promoting social chaos, the main reason may be that population growth outstripped agriculture. resource.As a result of large-scale and frequent wars, the power of the priests was transferred to the secular upstarts.
Earlier, when a commune was occasionally threatened by foreign attack, the grown men of the commune held a general assembly to elect a man to be the leader of the war for that extraordinary period.But as the intervals between peace became shorter and shorter, these war leaders served longer and longer terms until they became permanent military chiefs and finally kings.Thus, the court began to compete with the monastery until the two gradually formed a partnership.As a rule, the priests retained the large lands they occupied and continued to perform their religious duties, while the court officials were busy building walls around the city and raising large armies to fight against neighboring cities; Build an empire.
The rise of secular states and empires greatly increased the production of non-agricultural goods.The mass production of pottery, the general use of such things as cylindrical seals and metal utensils, and the abundance and variety of objects found in some of the stronger dwellings--all point to the appearance of a very Important, middle-class new market.The ever-increasing number of members of the court demanded a great deal of luxury; the growing militarization required weapons of all kinds, on an unprecedented scale, not only in large quantities of metal weapons and armor, but also in more complete military equipment such as the chariot. equipment.All this shows that the production at that time was greatly different from the production on a relatively limited scale in the past, because the various handicraft industries in the past only needed to meet the needs of the monastery.It should be noted here, however, that this change is almost exclusively in the volume of production, not in technology.If you want to say that this is a new change, it is only in terms of mass production; there is no new progress in terms of production methods and technological innovation.
Mass production has a major bearing on foreign affairs.Minerals and high-quality wood are hardly produced in the low-lying watershed areas, and most of the raw materials for handicraft industries have to be transported from outside.For example: copper from Oman in the south of the Persian Gulf, silver and lead from the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor, wood from Iran and the Gros Mountains and Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast.In order to repay these imported raw materials, various handicraft industries must expand production and provide various export products in exchange.Another way is to conquer the origin of these raw materials.This approach did not go unnoticed, as can be seen from the experience of the Akkadian king Sargon in the middle of the third millennium BC.The epic "The Warlike King" describes how Sargon led his army across the unnamed pass and invaded the center of Asia Minor in order to aid the Akkadian merchants who were abused by the local rulers when they were doing business in Asia Minor.Finally, Sargon's empire expanded "from the lower regions to the upper regions", that is, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, thereby controlling the production areas of various metals, stones and woods.Not long after the epic "The Warring King," another source recounts that Sargon "did not sleep much" in his efforts to promote commerce; The people live and work in peace and prosperity... Ships, large and small, transport all kinds of goods to Sumer unimpeded."
The expenditure on building the army and building palaces was an extremely heavy burden for the early city-states, so that the status of the traditional parliament was destroyed.In order to cope with the ever-increasing expenditure of manpower and material resources, the exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes became more and more onerous. To this, the traditional parliament only dared to timidly express its opposition. As a result, it was increasingly crowded out by the permanent and hereditary kingship, and finally replaced.
Class divisions have intensified with the concentration of political power.This is clearly seen in the growing variety of burial objects.The difference in the early tomb objects was very slight, but the later the time moved, the difference became more obvious.The vast majority of graves contained only a few pottery items, or none at all, reflecting the poverty of commoners; those of the wealthy contained bronze vessels and beads of precious metals, showing "amazing profligacy" and kings' The mausoleum is even more different than the previous one. There are not only a large number of luxury goods, such as various exquisite weapons and valuable decorations, but also a large number of martyrs, including soldiers, who accompanied the king and proved his power and wealth. , the king's wives, musicians, coachmen and general servants.
First self-governing agricultural villages, then small states controlled by priestly groups, and finally empires ruled by dynasties with all the characteristics of civilization—this is the thousands of years of social development described above.
Civilization took root first in Mesopotamia, then in several other areas of Eurasia and America, and then spread in all directions.Just as the Agricultural Revolution replaced hunter-gatherer societies with tribal societies, so tribal societies are now replaced by civilizations.While tribal cultures reached the fringes of Eurasia, the tribal cultures in the Eurasian center were being replaced by civilizations.This process of displacement continued irresistibly as civilization spread outward from its origins in the great river basins and across adjacent barbaric regions; by AD it had spread virtually without interruption from the English Channel to the China Sea ( See Figure 6 "Ancient Civilizations in Eurasia, 3500-1500 BC").
If it is agreed that the date of civilization in Mesopotamia is about 3500 BC, then the approximate dates of civilization in other regions should be: Egyptian civilization began about 3000 BC, and the Indus Valley Civilization started around 2500 BC, that of the Yellow River Valley in China around 1500 BC, and that of Central America and Peru around 500 BC.
It is generally believed that American civilization, like American agriculture, developed independently without any influence from Eurasia.Was Chinese civilization indigenous in its early stages, or did it develop under the indirect influence of Middle Eastern civilizations?This question cannot yet be answered.The civilizations of the Nile Valley and the Indus Valley developed under the impetus of the Mesopotamian civilization that spread outward.This development is not so much due to the adoption of certain specific technologies and systems, but rather, due to the acceptance of certain basic ideas or principles.Although the concept of writing is taken from Sumer, their own unique writing systems were gradually formed in Egypt and India.The same goes for the development of state organizations, monumental buildings, etc.
The end result of such development has been the formation of major civilizations that share a common general pattern, but each still displays distinctive characteristics or types.These different types were gradually formed and finalized during thousands of years of independent development, so to a considerable extent, they have continued to this day.