What Are The Major Continuities Of Early Civilizations

Many ancient civilizations have changed the way we live today. Sumerians invented the first language, Hammurabi invented the first set of laws, Egyptians created pyramids, and so many other ways that ancient people made the building blocks of the way our society lives today. It amazes me how God gave us brains to figure out ways to make life so much easier!

In 1950, V Gordon Childe drew up a list of traits of to what he considered to be the common characteristics of early civilizations. According to Fagan & Scarre, a recent archaeologist Charles Redman divided Childe’s list into primary and secondary characteristics. The primary characteristics included cities and states, together with full-time specialization of labor, concentration of surplus, and a class-structured society. For the secondary, the characteristics included symptoms or by-products of these major economic and organizational changes: monumental public works, long-distance trade, standardized monumental artworks, writing, and the sciences (arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy)(Scarre and Fagan 2003). One of the most common characteristics involve was a large, dense population living in a city. This essay well state and describe two early cities in Mesopotamia and explore the layouts and characteristics of these two cities. Also, whether each city is unique or share common characteristics with each other. The two cities are Maskan-shapir and Ur.

The civilizations of the Nile River valley, the Mesopotamia valley, and Indus Valley marked human progress toward fixed settlements and the development of a rich culture. These civilizations shared many characteristics that contributed to their success. What made these civilizations unique were the contributions that each one gave to the world. They contributed their own ideas and accomplishments in the areas of religion, science, and mathematics. These contributions defined each civilization and how they would be remembered, as well as, their importance to the world.

The Neolithic Revolution was the major change in human life caused by the beginnings of farming. This revolution changed people’s lives in several ways. It changed the way people lived because before the Neolithic Revolution they relied on hunting and gathering food. It also changed the way they settled, because of this revolution they were able to live in villages for a long time, unlike before; they had to relocate often because their food source would become scarce.  The way civilizations lived changed because of the Neolithic Revolution. A civilization is a form of culture that consists of cities, advanced technology, specialized workers, complex institutions, and record keeping. The early river valley civilizations; which developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, and China, had more similarities than differences. The river valley civilizations were similar when it came to their writing systems, inventions, and geography. However, they were also different when it came to writing systems and inventions.

About 5,000 years ago the farmers and gatherers who had dominated the previous 5,000 years began to gather and form into small urban communities. Starting in river valleys with water for farming, cities began to rise, marking the beginning of civilization. These cities became opportunities for industry and huge buildings. With the accumulation of people emerged more developed religions and social ranks. Because of the marketing and records needed these civilizations developed different writing. Various traditions and trades emerged, giving these societies distinct and recognizable cultures. The long distance trade and developments in the technological and industrial societies, as well as social and cultural change are what mark the rise of

civilization in the region at the time. They had developed political, religious, and social systems

4. Agriculture was also a big part of this, business and cities grow in largey such in a small amount of time, during this time period. By having their lands being expanded. Since many people were able to stay in this land, they were able to make prohibit through this.

Technology has changed everything greatly since the Paleolithic age which include transportation, medicine, and communication. The changing of climate, becoming warmer has brought the ice age to an end. The world started to form going through many changes, the temperature changing, ocean levels rising which was starting to form islands. Living has improved greatly, people having boats for fishing and hunting, bow and arrow which was easier to kill for food. The change of environment has made a big impact on the way people live. People became farmers, living in villages and making enough food to survive for themselves. The farmers learned how to cultivate their plants and handle their animals much better. There forms of living was much different to they could accommodate up to 45-50 people which provided large amounts of storage for food. Walls were made of mud or clay and ceilings were made with plant such as straw or reed. The beds and seating was made from stone. Their houses were located near rivers, plateaus, or in swamps. Their art has improved instead of cave paintings and cave work now they use clay, ceramics and pottery.

The River Valley in Southwest Asia became the home of some great early civilizations. Some of these civilizations include Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Many great contributions in architecture, government, writing, and many other subjects came from each of the previous civilizations listed. Without the civilizations, many agricultural advances that occurred over the years may have taken much longer, and possibly never happened. All of the contributions took a lot of effort mentally to create such as new writing systems or designing the pyramids. The many contributions from each civilization certainly helped the whole world in many ways.

The more people there were the more discovery man made during this time. The invention of agriculture led to the settled life. Since man no longer needed to roam, all they had to do was put a seed in the ground and watch it grow. Tool and weaponry became more advanced, and pottery and the potters wheel was invented.

In the period 6,000 B.C.E-1000B.C.E, economically agriculture by the Nile was different from agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates, and culturally the Nile impacted religion differently than in Mesopotamia which religion was impacted by the Tigris and Euphrates, while interactions between humans and the environment where the same. Economically agriculture by the Nile was different from agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates because agriculture by the Nile depended on helpful floods while agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates depended on luck with the vicious rivers. Culturally the Nile impacted religion differently than in Mesopotamia while their religion was impacted by the Tigris and Euphrates.

The Neolithic Revolution can also be referred to as the agricultural revolution. This was the time period when cro-magnons shifted from gathering food to farming, this was a major breakthrough in history. As time moved on Cro Magnons had to start finding new food resources so they started the domesticating of animals. Since farming and domestication only required a small group of people others ventured out and got more skilled in other jobs. This lead to them have a specialized jobs and creating roles to run a society, soon they had a civilization. This helped start the four most known ancient river valley civilizations. Throughout history these four river valley civilizations shared similarities in geography being that they were located around each other, but they also had differences in writing systems and cities.

This was where humanity became more knowledgable. Egyptians and the people of Mesopotamia-to name a few, elected leaders, harvested the land, and even created their own beliefs. The Alphabet was invented by a merchant civilization, while other civilizations started to form. The Greeks were just beginning to form. The gathering of civilizations named the Ionians, Dorians, and Aeolians fought the Cretans for the land that would become that of the Greeks. The Romans began to become more powerful. The concept of emperors and conquering land started to arise. People began to become poetic and wrote stories about adventure, philosophy and law. Peoples of the north came crashing into Europe known as the Germanic tribes. They stirred up many conflicts, as did the Huns who were people of the east who also wanted land. The east was growing quite prosperous, China had built their Great Wall, and the ideas of Confucius and Buddha enlightened people. While China was prospering, back in the west things were getting out of

Early civilization shared similar common features, because all of these societies were under the same pressures. Their whole purpose was survival as it is to this day. Each societies main focus was to become established, stay in one place provide food, shelter and protection for their families. Early civilizations materialize along rivers, because rivers supplied a continuous and dependable supply of water for farming and human consumption. Agriculture today has had an enormous benefit on today’s society, there are now more farmers growing organic fruits and vegetables because the realize the great health benefits organic foods have on human consumption, providing less risk of pesticides and or chemicals on their food.