Ancient Civilizations of the
World
Lecture 1
Definitions and Theories
Civilization
• Word is derived from Latin civilis, related to civis,
meaning citizen.
• Civitas: community or city state.
Webster’s Dictionary: “A relatively high level of
cultural and technological development specif.:
The stage of cultural development at which
writing and the keeping of written records is
attained.”
Vere Gordon Childe’s Man Makes
Himself (1936)
Childe was an Australian
archaeologist
influenced by Charles Darwin
and Karl Marx.
Man Makes Himself was an examination
of social evolution largely restricted to
Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Childe’s study tended to equate civilization with the
appearance of cities, and technological and
intellectual developments such as metallurgy,
canal irrigation, animal and tree husbandry,
ships, writing, mathematics, medicine.
In Childe’s view, the appearance of cities
reflected the reorganization of the
economy and social order into state-level
political systems, not visa versa. Cities
were therefore the product of states.
Today we acknowledge that quite a number
of states appeared which were non-urban,
and which lacked metal and writing
systems. Canal irrigation is also not
axiomatically associated with state control.
Cities
• A dense agglomeration of people, with
populations in the thousands up to a million.
• There has been a debate in the past as to
whether some sites may have been ceremonial
centers rather than cities. The latter would be
ritual centers lacking a resident population apart
from elites and ritual specialists.
Richard Fox’s Typology
• Richard Fox proposed a typology of cities
in 1977:
• Regal-ritual cities.
• Administrative cities.
• Mercantile cities.
Ritual-Regal City,
Caracol, Belize
Administrative City
Medieval Kyoto,
Japan
Mercantile City, Masallia,
(Marseilles, France)
States: physical
• A state is a political system that is
recognized by its scale, the existence of a
settlement hierarchy of at least four tiers:
hamlet, village, town and city.
• A state may be recognized by the spread
of uniform religious iconography, a
reflection of an ecclesiastical religion.
• States also often mass produce
stylistically uniform goods,
like pottery, textiles, or weaponry.
Thin orange pottery, Teotihuacan
• Finally, states often erect morphologically
similar buildings within the territories under
their control.
Basilica of Constantine,
Trier, constr. 310 AD
Social Institutions of States
• Kingship
The king is leader of a primitive
or archaic state who is also the
head of the royal family, the topmost
caste within the social structure of the state.
Castes are ranked endogamous social groups.
Kings are also the head of the state’s
religion, or of a religious cult surrounding
kingship.
Queen Elizabeth
presiding over a
synod of the
Church of England
They are head of the military and are also
the head judicial authority.
They have the authority to deprive subjects
of their property, and their lives.
Physical Attributes of Kingship
• Royal insignia and regalia.
• Physically isolated royal
palaces.
• Royal tombs.
• Stelae.
• Religious centers and
monuments built under their patronage.
• Coinage.
• Ritual Homicide (Eli Sagan At the Birth of
Tyranny): evidence of human sacrifice in
connection with state rituals.
Hawaiian
human
sacrifice
Attached Craft Specialists
Patronage of the production of a special ,
restricted class of goods, or prestige
goods. Often these goods are made of
exotic materials obtained through long
distance trade or conquest.
Other Social Institutions of States
• Taxation – taxes are often paid in staples,
as money is absent or dedicated to special
purposes, most commonly financing of
military.
• Professional warriors and war leaders.
• A system of laws and courts.
Curia Regis
(Royal Council)
Court of the King’s
Bench, 1460
Primary and Secondary States
• Primary or “pristine” states are those that
arose in the absence of stimulus from
other states.
• Secondary states are those that appeared
after prolonged contact with other states.
• Scholars in the past have shown greater
interest in the former over the latter.