Transcript The Indus Valley Civilization - McGraw Hill Higher Education

The Past
in Perspective
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An Explosion of Complexity:
The Flowering of Civilization
in the Old World
Kenneth L. Feder
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 2
The Flowering of Civilization in the
Old World
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Chronicle
The Evolution of the State
The Character of Civilization
Mesopotamia
Egypt of the Pharaohs
Other African Civilizations
The Indus Valley Civilization
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Slide 3
The Flowering of Civilization in the
Old World
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The Civilization of Ancient China
Minoan Crete
Issues and Debates
Case Study Close-up
Summary
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Slide 4
Chronicle
• Rank societies or chiefdoms provide
material evidence for the elevation of a
proportion of a population to higher social,
political, and often economic status.
– In a few areas the authority of a chief to
convince others to follow his lead became the
power of a pharaoh or kind to demand
obedience.
– With an exponentially greater degree of control
combined with improved technology and a
larger population, we see the development of a
new kind of social order: the state.
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Slide 5
The Evolution of the State
• The Evolution of the State
– Civilization is most often used to characterize
the recognizable material results of the
development of state societies.
• Since archaeologists deal most directly with such
material consequences, this discussion will use the
terms “state” and “civilization” interchangeably.
– The most obvious material symbols of state
societies are monumental works.
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Slide 6
The Character of Civilization
• Food Surplus
• Large, Dense Populations
• Social Stratification
– A division of society into levels, or strata, that
one does not achieve, but into which one is
born.
• A Formal Government
• Labor Specialization
– Certain individuals can devote all their time to
perfecting skills in sophisticated and timeconsuming specialties.
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Slide 7
The Character of Civilization
• Record Keeping
– Without some system of record keeping by
which the elite could keep track of food surplus
and labor, it is unlikely that the entire system
support a civilization could ever have
developed.
• Monumental Works
– Great monuments and art are enabled by the
social and political system of the state.
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Slide 8
Mesopotamia
• Accelerating Change: The Ubaid
– Not until after about 6300 B.P. did the area of
southern Mesopotamia show substantial
movement toward what we call civilization.
• The Role of Irrigation
– Archaeologist Charles Maisels (1990) proposes
that the deciding factors in the development of
Mesopotamia’s complex societies were:
• The need to concentrate population along the arable
lands near the rivers.
• The need to develop a complex social system that
would allow the construction of canals.
• The ability of irrigation to produce a food surplus.
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Slide 9
Mesopotamia
• Power Invested in the Temple
– One institution in society was set apart—the
temple—and extraordinary powers resided
there.
• In the view of archaeologists C. C. LambergKarlovsky and Jeremy Sabloff (1995):
– When population grew and expanded onto the floodplain
and when irrigation works became a necessity, a need
developed for the evolution of an institution that could
organize the labor necessary to build and maintain these
works.
– The religious elite quickly filled the power vacuum and
became the dominant political and social as well as
religious force in Mesopotamian society.
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Slide 10
Mesopotamia
• Mesopotamia’s First Cities: The Uruk Period
– Between 5500 and 5200 B.P. the settlement at
Uruk reached a population estimated to be more
than 10,000.
• Many of the smaller farming communities around
Uruk were abandoned.
– This movement of population may have resulted from
widespread warfare based on the defensive fortifications
built at Uruk at this time.
• The elite classes in state society are buried in a
splendor that symbolizes their superior economic,
social, and political positions in life.
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Slide 11
Mesopotamia
Archaeological sites in western Asia where evidence of the
evolution of chiefdom and early state-level societies has been
found.
Insert Figure 12.2 (old figure 13.2)
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Slide 12
Mesopotamia
• The Beginnings of the Written Record
– Clay tokens, beginning more than 9,000 years
ago, were used as counters for particular goods
and symbols of specific products and specific
quantities of these items.
• About 6,000 years ago the tokens jumped from 16
basic forms to about 300.
• About 5,500 years ago, the tokens were stored
together in clay containers called envelopes.
• No later than 5,200 years ago, record keepers used a
single set of tokens to directly press the information
onto a flattened piece of clay.
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Mesopotamia
• The Beginnings of the Written Record
– Clay tokens . . . (continued)
• By 5100 years ago, scribes began impressing
symbols directly onto soft clay tablets using a
pointed tool, a stylus or pen, in a process of freehand drawing.
– These markings, called cuneiform, allowed for an
elaboration of the symbols marked on clay and the creation
of a true system of writing.
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Slide 14
Egypt of the Pharaohs
• The Egyptian Neolithic
– Between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, a gradual
shift to a Neolithic economy occurred along the
Nile.
• Foundations of Complexity Along the Nile
– Some well-positioned towns seen to have
become what geographers call central places—
sites viewed by the local populace as locations
of great spiritual and social power.
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Slide 15
Egypt of the Pharaohs
• Hierakonpolis
– Hierakonpolics began nearly 6,000 years ago as
small Neolithic village on the west bank of the
Nile.
• Pottery manufacture became a booming business.
– Ceramics manufactured in the town’s kilns are found up
and down the Nile.
• A class of “pottery barons” developed
– The burials of these people were larger and far more
elaborate than were the interments of the rest of society.
• After 5500 B.P, irrigation canals were constructed
– The tombs of a developing elite became larger; some
include a square building called a mastaba built on top.
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Egypt of the Pharaohs
• Hierakonpolis
– As population along the Nile grew and as
competition for resources increased, previously
small arguments or perceived injustices grew
into full-scale battles for control of the precious
land base.
• The period after 5100 B.P. was marked by the
abandonment of small villages located around the
central places of Nagada and Hierakonpolis.
– Fortification around Nagada and Hierakonpolis were built
and expanded at this time.
– The burials of the growing elite became increasingly
elaborate.
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Slide 17
Egypt of the Pharaohs
• First Pharaoh
– Narmer’s ascension to the throne of Egypt
occurred around 5100 B.P.
• Narmer is another name for Menes (who is also
called the Scorpion).
– Positioned in the Royal Cannon of Turin as the first
pharaoh of a unified Egyptian state.
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Slide 18
Egypt of the Pharaohs
Archaeological sites in northern Africa where evidence of the
evolution of chiefdom and early state-level societies has been
found.
Insert Figure 12.6 (old figure 13.6)
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Slide 19
Other African Civilizations
• To the south, the ancient civilizations of
Nubia developed their own uniquely
African early civilizations (called Kush by
the Egyptians).
– Dating to more than 3,500 years ago, Kerma
represents the first indigenous complex
civilization in Africa south of the ancient
Egyptian nation (Connah 1987).
– After 2800 B.P., another Nubian kingdom,
called Napata, rose to take its place.
• Perhaps the best know of the ancient Nubian cultures
is that of Meroë.
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Slide 20
The Indus Valley Civilization
• The Indus Valley Civilization
– Located in the broad expanse of the Indus River
valley in the modern nation of Pakistan.
• It controlled an area equal in size to that of ancient
Mesopotamia or Egypt.
– The Indus culture did possess a written language, but its
writing as yet remains largely undeciphered.
• Neolithic Cultures
– Local inhabitants’ realization that the Indus river
system offered incredibly rich agricultural soil,
coupled with their development of flood control
and protection technology allowed for the
evolution of “an entirely new way of life.”
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Slide 21
The Indus Valley Civilization
• Flood Control and Civilization in the Indus
Valley
– The shift to the floodplain was made possible by
the development of technology for flood control
and protection.
• Cultural Convergence
– Previous Neolithic sites in Baluchistan all
exhibit their own artifact styles in pottery and
items of adornment.
• A few of these floodplain settlements began
undergoing an exponential increase in size sometime
after 4500 B.P
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Slide 22
The Indus Valley Civilization
• Cities of the Indus
– Specialists refer to this as the “Mature Harappan
period,” lasting from 4500 to 4000 B.P. (Possehl
1980:5)
• Mohenjo-daro and Harappa developed into complex
urban centers.
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Planned neighborhoods following a rectangular grid pattern
A sophisticated drainage system (with indoor bathrooms)
Communal granaries
Bathhouses
“Citadels” consisting of great structures
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Slide 23
The Indus Valley Civilization
• Cities of the Indus
– McIntosh (2002) enumerates clusters of
specialist workshops throughout Indus cities
• Potters and flint, metal, shell, precious stone, and
wood workers, brick makers, ivory carvers, textile
makers, and seal makers.
• Other areas of the cities appear to have been the
residences of scribes, priests, administrators, and
traders (Allchin and Allchin 1982:185).
• There is no evidence that organized warfare or
armies or the fear of attack played any role in the
development of civilization in the Indus valley
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Slide 24
The Indus Valley Civilization
Archaeological sites in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
where evidence of the evolution of chiefdom and early statelevel societies has been found.
Insert Figure 12.11 (old figure 13.10)
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Slide 25
The Civilization of Ancient China
• Yang-shao
– The roots of Chinese civilization can be traced
back to the Yang-shao culture.
• The Lung-shan Culture
– Sometime after 5000 B.P. the Lung-shan
replaced Yang-shao.
• At Ch’eng tzu-yai, the village was enclosed by a
monumental wall of stamped earth.
– The Chinese term for the stamped or pounded earth
technique used in construction is hang-t’u.
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Slide 26
The Civilization of Ancient China
• The Lung-shan Culture
– The cemetery reflects status differentiation.
– The period from 5,000 to 4,000 years ago in
China is marked by:
• Increasing use of metal.
• The jade ts’ung tubes and the practice of
scapulimancy—divining by interpreting the patterns
produced by heating animal shoulder blades in a fire.
• We can also perceive evidence of violence on a scale
not previously seen in Chinese prehistory.
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Slide 27
The Civilization of Ancient China
• Acceleration Toward Civilization
– Erh-li-t’ou, dated to about 3800 B.P.
• Bronze artifacts are common
• There are large, impressive burials
• Two palaces existed
• The Shang Civilization
– Yin
• A Shang capital city, Yin was ruled by a succession
of 12 kings beginning about 2,400 years ago.
– Great tombs of the rulers residing at Yin have bee found.
– A written language contained more than 5,000 characters,
but only a fraction of these have been translated.
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Slide 28
The Civilization of Ancient China
Archaeological sites in China where evidence of the evolution
of chiefdom and early state-level societies has been found.
Insert Figure 12.16 (old figure 13.14)
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Slide 29
Minoan Crete
• Minoan Crete
– The oldest occupation of the island Crete dates
only to around 8000 B.P.
• The Rediscovery of Minoan Crete
– Archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans first visited
Crete in 1894 and almost immediately
recognized the great archaeological potential of
a hillside at Knossos on the north-central part of
the island.
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Slide 30
Minoan Crete
• Who Were the Minoans?
– The settlers of Crete were likely from Greece
and Anatolia (Renfrew 1972; 1979).
• Crete was intentionally settled by people who
brought their Neolithic food base with them.
• An influx of wealth from ancient trade seems to have
spurred a period of increasing complexity.
• A burst of development, centered on the site of
Knossos, occurred at about 5,000 B.P.
• By about 3800 B.P., the first monumental edifice was
constructed.
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Slide 31
Minoan Crete
• The Temple at Knossos
– At its peak the temple contained about 1,000
separate rooms.
• The walls were covered with magnificent fresco
paintings of dolphins and bulls.
– Developments on Crete were halted by an earthquake in
3650 B.P and later was destroyed in a fire.
– This spurred subsequent development in what is called the
New Temple Period.
– The peak in Minoan civilization occurred during
the period 3650 to 3420 B.P.
• At its peak, the population of Knossos and its
surrounding “suburbs” may have been close to
100,000 people (Marinatos 1972:709).
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Slide 32
Minoan Crete
• The Eruption on Thera
– Sometime around 3420 B.P there was a volcanic
eruption on the island today called Santorini,
120 km (72 mi) north of Crete.
• The devastation weakened them sufficiently so that,
soon after, they were conquered by a developing
civilization on mainland Greece, the Mycenaeans.
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Slide 33
Minoan Crete
Archeological sites in Crete where evidence of the evolution
of chiefdom and early state-level societies has been found.
Insert Figure 12.18 (old figure 13.16)
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Slide 34
Issues and Debates
• Why Did State Societies Develop?
– Conflict Models
– Integration Models
– Many Paths to Civilization
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Slide 35
Case Study Close-up
• The Khmer Kingdom
– Funan
• During the first century A.D., merchants from India
established a mercantile community.
– The development of the Khmer is “secondary” in the sense
that evolved in response to outside influences.
– The Hindu religion brought in by the Indian traders
provided a common bond that formed the basis of Khmer
civilization.
– Funan evolved from a merchant outpost community to a
complex society by A.D. 500.
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Slide 36
Case Study Close-up
• The Khmer Kingdom
– The Khmer
• Jayavarman II ruled between A.D. 800 and 850 and
initiated a period of expansion and construction.
– He oversaw the construction of great canals and palaces.
– His successors built larger and increasingly spectacular
pyramids-temples.
– By A.D. 944, the capital of the kingdom was moved to
Angkor by King Yasovarman.
– Angkor Wat
– At the center of the city was an incredible, otherworldly
temple called the Bayon, covered with sculpted images of
Hindu gods, bas reliefs, columns, and colonnades.
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Slide 37
Summary
• The Neolithic set the stage for the
development of sedentary farming villages
in various places in the Old World.
• In a select few regions, an acceleration of
cultural complexity led to the development
of a stratified social system that controlled
the excess wealth made possible thought the
ability to produce an agricultural food
surplus.
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