Ancient Civilizations offers a comprehensive and straightforward account of the world’s first civilizations and how they were discovered, drawing on many avenues of inquiry including archaeological excavations, surveys, laboratory work, highly specialized scientific investigations, and both historical and ethnohistorical records.
This book covers the earliest civilizations in Eurasia and the Americas, from Egypt and the Sumerians to the Indus Valley, Shang China, and the Maya. It also addresses subsequent developments in Southwest Asia, moving on to the first Aegean civilizations, Greece and Rome, the first states of sub-Saharan Africa, divine kings and empires in East and Southeast Asia, and the Aztec and Inka empires of Mesoamerica and the Andes. It includes a number of features to support student learning: a wealth of images, including several new illustrations; feature boxes which expand on key sites, finds, and written sources; and an extensive guide to further reading. With new perceptions of the origin and collapse of states, including a review of the issue of sustainability, this fifth edition has been extensively updated in the light of spectacular new discoveries and the latest theoretical advances.
Examining the world’s pre-industrial civilizations from a multidisciplinary perspective and offering a comparative analysis of the field which explores the connections between all civilizations around the world, this volume provides a unique introduction to pre-industrial civilizations in all their brilliant diversity. It will prove invaluable to students of Archaeology.
PART I Background
1 The Study of Civilization
What is a "Civilization"?
Comparing Civilizations
Civilizations and Their Neighbors
"Primary" and "Secondary" Civilizations
The Rediscovery of Ancient Civilizations
The Threat to Ancient Civilizations
2 Theories of States
Historical and Anthropological Perspectives
Four Classic Theories for the Emergence of State Societies
Coercive Power versus Collective Action
Cultural Systems and Civilization
Ecological Theories
Social Theories
Cycling Chiefdoms: Processes and Agents
The Collapse of Civilizations
Civilization and Sustainability
Western and Indigenous Science
PART II The First Civilizations
Prelude to Civilization: First Villages in the Fertile Crescent
3 Mesopotamia: The First Cities (3500–2000 B.C.)
The Setting
Irrigation and Alluvium: Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf, and Ubaid (6500–4200 B.C.)
The Uruk Revolution (4200–3100 B.C.)
The Early Dynastic Period (2900–2350 B.C.)
The Akkadian Empire (2334–2190 B.C.)
Imperial Ur (2112–2004 B.C.)
Wider Horizons (2500–2000 B.C.)
4 Egyptian Civilization
Kmt: "The Black Land"
Origins (5000–3100 B.C.)
The Archaic Period (3100–2680 B.C.): Kingship, Writing, and Bureaucracy
The Old Kingdom (c. 2680–2134 B.C.): Territorial and Divine Kingship
The First Intermediate Period (2134–2040 B.C.)
The Middle Kingdom (2040–1640 B.C.): The Organized Oasis
The Second Intermediate Period (1640–1550 B.C.)
The New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.): Imperial Kings
The Transformation of Egypt (after 1100 B.C.)
5 South Asia: The Indus Civilization
The Origins of Village Life
Early Harappan (4000–2600 B.C.)
Mature Harappan: The Indus Civilization (2600–1900 B.C.)
Farming Villages of the Indus and Ganges (2000–600 B.C.)
Early Historic Cities (600–150 B.C.)
6 The First Chinese Civilizations
Setting
Millet and Rice (c. 7000–3500 B.C.)
Liangzhu (c. 3300–2300 B.C.)
Ritual and Pilgrimage: The Niuheliang Temple (c. 3500 B.C.)
Elite Traditions in the Longshan Phase (2800–1800 B.C.)
Shimao and the Northern Zone (c. 2300–1800 B.C.)
Three Dynasties: Xia, Shang, and Zhou (c. 1800–1046 B.C.)
Beyond the Shang: Bronze Age Traditions in Other Regions of China
The Western Zhou Period (1046–771 B.C.)
PART III Great Powers in Southwest Asia
7 Mesopotamia and the Levant (2000–1200 B.C.)
Bronze Age Cities in Anatolia (2000–1700 B.C.)
The Struggle for Mesopotamia (2000–1800 B.C.)
The World of the Mari Letters (1810–1750 B.C.)
The Emergence of Babylon and the Old Babylonian Period (2004–1595 B.C.)
The Rise of the Hittites (1650–1400 B.C.)
Egypt and Mitanni: War in the Levant (1550–1400 B.C.)
The Hittites in the Levant (1400–1200 B.C.)
The Hittites in Anatolia (1400–1200 B.C.)
Mesopotamia and Iran (1400–1200 B.C.)
8 Southwest Asia in the First Millennium B.C.
A Reordered World (1200–1000 B.C.)
The Mediterranean Coastlands (1000–700 B.C.)
The Archaeology of Empire
Assyria Resurgent (911–680 B.C.)
The Mountain Kingdom of Urartu (c. 830–600 B.C.)
The Assyrian Apogee (680–612 B.C.)
The Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 B.C.)
Phrygians and Lydians (750–500 B.C.)
The Rise of the Persians (614–490 B.C.)
PART IV The Mediterranean World
9 The First Aegean Civilizations
The Aegean Early Bronze Age (3200–2100 B.C.)
Mainland Greece and the Cycladic Islands
Minoan Civilization: The Palace Period (2100–1450 B.C.)
Crete and Its Neighbors
Mycenaean Greece (1600–1050 B.C.)
After the Palaces: Postpalatial Greece (1200–1050 B.C.)
10 The Mediterranean World in the First Millennium (1000–30 B.C.)
The Recovery of Greece (1000–750 B.C.)
Phoenicians and Carthaginians (1000–750 B.C.)
The Greek Colonies (800–600 B.C.)
Etruscan Italy (900–400 B.C.)
Archaic Greece (750–480 B.C.)
Three Greek Cities: Athens, Corinth, Sparta
Classical Greece (480–323 B.C.)
Sequel: The Hellenistic World
11 Imperial Rome
The Roman Republic (510–31 B.C.)
The Early Roman Empire (31 B.C.–A.D. 235)
The Culture of Empire
The Military Establishment
Arteries of Empire: Roads and Sea-Lanes
Cities
The End of the Ancient World
PART V Northeast Africa and Asia
The Erythraean Sea
12 Northeast Africa: Kush, Meroe, and Aksum
Nubia and the Middle Nile
Camels and Monsoons
Meroe (c. 300 B.C.–A.D. 300)
Aksum (A.D. 100–1100)
13 Sub-Saharan Africa
Jenné-jeno Third Century B.C. to Early First Millennium A.D.)
Sahel states: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay
The East African Coast: Monsoons and Stone Towns
The Far Interior: Interlacustrine Kingdoms
South Central Africa: Gold and Ivory
West African Forest Kingdoms
14 Divine Kings in Southeast Asia
The Rise of States in Southeast Asia (c. 2000 B.C.–A.D. 150)
The Angkor State (A.D. 802–1430)
Collapse
15 Kingdoms and Empires in East Asia (770 B.C.–A.D. 700)
Society Transformed: The Eastern Zhou Period (770–221 B.C.)
The First Chinese Empire (221–206 B.C.)
The Han Empire (206 B.C.–A.D. 220)
Secondary States: Korea and Japan
PART VI Early States in the Americas
16 Lowland Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Village Farmers (c. 7000–2000 B.C.)
The Formative Period: The Olmec (1500–500 B.C.)
Preclassic Maya Civilization (before 1100 B.C–A.D. 200)
Classic Maya Civilization (A.D. 200–900)
The Ninth-Century Collapse
Postclassic Lowland Maya Civilization (A.D. 900–1517): Chichen Itzá and Mayapan
17 Highland Mesoamerica
The Rise of Highland Civilization (2000–500 B.C.)
Monte Albán (500 B.C.–A.D. 750)
Teotihuacán (200 B.C.–A.D. 600)
The Toltecs (c. A.D. 800–1150)
The Rise of Aztec Civilization (A.D. 1200–1519)
Tenochtitlán (A.D. 1487–1519)
The Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1517–1521)
18 The Foundations of Andean Civilization
The Andean World: Poles of Civilization
The Preceramic Period (3000–1800/1200 B.C.)
The "Maritime Foundations" Hypothesis
The Initial Period (1800–800 B.C.)
19 Andean States (200 B.C.–A.D. 1534)
The Early Intermediate Period (200 B.C.–A.D. 600)
North Coast: Moche Civilization (A.D. 100–700)
Southern Pole: Nasca (A.D. 100–c. A.D. 700)
The Middle Horizon: The First Highland States (A.D. 600–1000)
The Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1000–1400)
The Late Horizon: The Inka Empire (A.D. 1476–1534)
20 Epilogue
Similar but Different
Interconnectedness
Volatility
The Stream of Time
Biography
Chris Scarre is an archaeologist specializing in the prehistory of Europe, with a particular interest in the archaeology of Atlantic facade. He has participated in fieldwork projects in Britain, France, Greece, and India, and has directed and co-directed excavations at Neolithic sites in France, Portugal, and the Channel Islands. He is Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, UK, and editor of the textbook on world prehistory The Human Past.
Brian M. Fagan is one of the world’s leading archaeological writers and an internationally recognized authority on world prehistory. He is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has written several best-selling textbooks: Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory; Archaeology: A Brief Introduction; Archaeology and You; In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology; A Brief History of Archaeology: Classical Times to the Twenty-First Century; People of the Earth; and World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction.
Charles Golden is a Mesoamerican archaeologist, whose research has focused on the borders between ancient Maya kingdoms in Mexico and Central America, and the economic, social, and ritual ties that bound rural villages into larger political communities. He is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and editor of Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology: Perspectives at the Millennium, as well as Maya Archaeology, Vols. 1–3.
