ANT101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Erlitou Culture, Teotihuacan, Harappa
Document Summary
Evidence for the transition to civilizations: burial customs, size of dwellings, written documents, correspondence. What defines a civilization: cities: urban centers, social stratification, states: centralized authority, government complex political organization. Theories of civilizations emergence: environmental, hydraulic theory (karl wittfogel) Early states: mesopotamia, egypt, china, mesoamerica & peru. Southwest asia (greater mesopotamia: 6,500 ya ubaid villagers, 6,000-4,000 ya initial cultural complexity, evidence, pottery styles, small scale trade, regional religious cults, non-residential building, 5,500 ya, rural villagers migrated to growing towns, expanding irrigation systems. Monumental non-residential buildings: why, reinforce social & political hierarchies, prevent high & unstable rates of population growth, distribution of wealth. Egyptian civilization: predynastic period, 1st egyptian state, decorated pottery, religion, irrigation agriculture, old kingdom (4,575-4,150 ya, first unification period, pharoah, hieroglyphic writing system, pictographs, monumental architecture, pyramids of gyza. Indus river trading center: cities were well planned, great bath and granary (great hall)
