Page 251 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

2028 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

alluvial plain—and mace heads are also already common at Asia (ca. 3000 BCE) and an assemblage of locational,
throughout the area (for instance, at Abu ’Ilba, Iraq). Dur- structural, and artifactual evidence at the Ostra site (aka.
ing the Uruk period, from ca. 4000 BCE the most impor- Salinas de Santa, ca. 3500 BCE).
tant cities in Mesopotamia are fortified, including many
in the periphery, at which time cylinder seals also begin Andean
to display a clear array of warfare scenes, including pris- The early nature of these first indications of Andean war-
oners of war being smitten by their captors. Warfare is fare at Asia and Ostra during this early stage of political
already fully developed well before the rise of the first development is reminiscent of the similarly isolated cases
Sumerian city-state system that followed soon after of Jericho or Çatal Hüyük in the Levantine system.
ca. 3000 BCE. By the time writing is invented in Meso- Unequivocal indicators of warfare begin occuring con-
potamia, it is ready to record the continuation of stately sistently about two thousand years later. Although writ-
warfare (Sumerian) and, not much later, the first imperial ten records never appeared in this region, by ca. 2000 to
warfare (Akkadian). 1500 BCE the iconography of armed warriors and cap-
tives at Cerro Sechín (Casma Valley) and elsewhere leaves
Chinese no doubt that warfare has emerged from its protobellic
In the Chinese protobellic area of the Yellow River, in the stage and is entering a more developed stage.Warfare is
northern part of the country known as the Central Plains, fully developed in this region with the appearance of
warfare is first evidenced soon after ca. 5000 BCE by loca- numerous hilltop fortifications during the Early Horizon
tional (higher elevations) and structural (moats, pal- Period, a pattern that continues and reaches maturity by
isades, baffled gates) indicators at Banpo (possibly) and the time of Chavín de Huantar’s supremacy, ca. 500 to
Jiangzhai (certainly). Clearly, these early chiefdoms must 250 BCE, by which time complex chiefdoms—perhaps
have been seeking security from some neighboring or states—had formed.Thus, the Inca imperial warfare that
outside aggressors, although their identity remains followed much later had been preceded by chiefly and
unknown (not unlike the first fortified chiefdom sites in stately warfare thousands of years earlier.
West Asia and the New World).This first stage in the rise
of warfare in China occurred during or soon after the first Olmec
successful settlements were established (in the Yangshao At the main Olmec political centers of San Lorenzo,
village chiefdoms), similar to the ’Ubaid settlements in founded on high defensible ground ca. 1400 BCE, and La
southern Mesopotamia. Later (Longshan chiefdoms in Venta near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, there is some
the Central Plains region), starting at ca. 3000 BCE, plausible locational and iconographic evidence of warfare
plenty of structural (massive walls) and artifactual (first (helmets, clubs, knuckle-dusters, and blade axes depicted
weapons) evidence exists with increasing frequency, fol- on stone), as well as generic weapons. However, Olmec
lowed by further increases in the period that saw the rise iconography is arguably ambiguous as evidence of war-
of the first states during the Bronze Age and the Three fare. For example, helmets could have simply been head-
Dynasties. In China, as elsewhere in the world, warfare dresses and the association of the ballgame depictions
is fully developed before the time the first states form and with warfare is not a direct one.The earliest large politi-
begin to interact. cal center that attained at least the chiefdom level of
development, San Lorenzo, contains locational evidence
New World Origins as well as structural and forensic remains that some
The first evidence of warfare in the Andean region occurs scholars interpret as valid indicators of warfare.
along the Peruvian coast during the Late Preceramic Figurines and statues of ballplayers may provide some
Period, through mutilated human remains and weapons evidence,because elsewhere in Mesoamerica the ball game