NATS 1775 Lecture : SC-NATS_1775_Lecture_2a_-_Technology_in_Ancient_Civilizations-2.doc

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1775
• Professor: Vera Pavri

Document Summary

Lecture 2: technology in ancient civilizations: early civilizations. At least six different centers around the world: mesopotamia (after. 3500 bc); egypt (after 3400 bc); indus river valley (after 2500 bc); Yellow river in china (after 1800 bc); mesoamerica (500 bc); south. Characteristics: high populations, centralized political and economic authority, regional states, stratified societies, complex architecture, higher learning. Large scale water management networks ( public works") built and maintained by the corvee which were conscripted labor gangs. Fact that all these early civilizations required large-scale hydraulic engineering projects (because of either too much or too little water for practicing intensified agriculture) has led some scholars to explain this phenomena as hydraulic hypothesis (wittfogel and steward) Hydraulic hypothesis: there is a link between the rise of early civilizations and the technology of large scale hydraulic systems. Large scale irrigation necessitates centralized co-ordination and this leads to greater political integration in society.