Page 86 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

tfw-26 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

A carving of Kaban-Puuc,
the ancient Mayan god of
maize (corn) and rain.

parallel with the large, sedentary communities we know
as “cities.”

The Earliest Cities and
States: 3000 BCE–500 BCE
For those people who define history as “the study of the
past through written records,” the period from 3000 BCE
to 500 BCE was when history truly began because this
was when the first written documents appeared in the
two largest world zones: Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.
From the perspective of world history this period marked
a new stage in the complexity and size of human com- greatly increased the need for specialist leaders. Rapid
munities. In Afro-Eurasia, the largest and most populous growth also multiplied the resources available to leaders.
of all world zones, the first cities and states appeared Thus, by and large the earliest cities appeared at about the
about 3000 BCE. In the Americas they appeared more same time as the earliest states. Cities can be defined as
than two thousand years later, in Mesoamerica and Peru. “large communities with a complex internal division of
In the Australasian zone neither cities nor states appeared labor.” (In contrast, villages, and even some early towns,
during the agrarian era; but in the Pacific zone embryonic such as the town of Catalhuyuk in Turkey, which dates
states emerged on islands such as Tonga or Hawaii from 6000 BCE, normally consisted of roughly similar
within the last thousand years. households, mostly engaged in agriculture, with limited
If a single process accounts for the emergence of the hierarchies of wealth and little specialization of labor.)
first cities and states, it is increasing population density. States can be defined as “power structures that rest on sys-
The earliest cities and states appeared where people were tematic and institutionalized coercion as well as on pop-
most closely packed together, often because of the rapid ular consent.”
expansion of irrigation agriculture. Sudden increases in Cities and states appeared as part of a larger cluster of
population density intensified all the problems of coor- social innovations, all of which were linked to the increas-
dination and control posed by large communities and ing scale and complexity of human societies in regions of
highly productive agriculture.These innovations included
For more on these topics, please see the following articles:
the organization of specialized groups of officials and sol-
Andean States p. 86 (v1)
diers, writing, coercive forms of taxation, and monu-
Babylon p. 229 (v1)
mental architecture.
China p. 332 (v1)
Egypt, Ancient p. 629 (v2)
Afro-Eurasia and the Americas
Harappan State and Indus Civilization p. 889 (v3)
Because such an intimate connection existed between
Mesoamerica p. 1230 (v3)
agricultural intensification and the appearance of cities
Mesopotamia p. 1235 (v3)
and states, we should not be surprised that the earliest
Pacific, Settlement of p. 1406 (v4)
evidence for cities and states comes from regions with
Sumerian Society p. 1796 (v4)
ancient agricultural traditions.The earliest clear evidence
Trading Patterns, Ancient American p. 1848 (v5)
for communities large enough to be called “cities” and
Trading Patterns, Ancient European p. 1852 (v5)
powerful enough to be called “states” comes from the
Trading Patterns, Mesoamerican p. 1874 (v5)
ancient corridor from Sudan to Mesopotamia that links
Writing Systems and Materials p. 2095 (v5)
Africa and Eurasia. Some of the earliest states appeared