Ancient Civilizations

Description

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 and the great powers in the Near East, moving on to the first Aegean civilizations, the Mediterranean world in the first millennium, Imperial Rome, northeast Africa, the divine kings in southeast Asia, and empires in East Asia, as well as early states in the Americas and Andean civilization. Ancient Civilizations 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 fourth 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, Scarre and Fagan, both established authorities on world prehistory, provide a valuable introduction to pre-industrial civilizations in all their brilliant diversity. Cover Title Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Tables Preface 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 2 Theories of States Historical and Anthropological Perspectives Four Classic Theories for the Emergence of State Societies Coercive versus Voluntaristic Theories 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 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 The Early Dynastic Period (2900—2350 B.C.) The Akkadian Empire (2334—2230 B.C.) Imperial Ur (2112—2004 B.C.) Wider Horizons (2500—2000 B.C.) 4 Egyptian Civilization Kmt: "The Black Land" Origins (5000—2920 B.C.) The Archaic Period (2920—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 Decline of Egypt (after 1100 B.C.) 5 South Asia: Indus and Later Civilizations The Origins of Village Life and the Rise of the Indus Civilization (before 2500 B.C.) Mature Harappan Civilization (c. 2500—2050 B.C.) Rural Interlude (2000—600 B.C.) Early Historic Cities (600— 150 B.C.) 6 The First Chinese Civilizations Setting Millet and Rice (c. 7000—4500 B.C.) Symbolism in the Middle Neolithic (4500—2700 B.C.) Elite Traditions in the Longshan Phase (2700—2000 B.C.) Three Dynasties: Xia, Bhang, and Zhou (before 2000 B.C.—1046 B.C.) The Western Zhou Period (1046—771 B.C.) PART III Great Powers in the Near East 7 Near Eastern Kingdoms (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 The Near East 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 Nee-Babylonian Empire (612—539 B.C.) Phrygians and Lydians (eighth century—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 Introduction: The Erythraean Sea 12 Northeast Africa: Kush, Meroe, and Aksum Nubia and the Middle Nile Camels and Monsoons Meroe (c. 350 B.C.—A.D. 300) Aksum (A.D. 100—1100) 13 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) 14 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 15 Lowland Mesoamerica Mesoamerica Village Farmers (c. 7000—2000 B.C.) Preclassic: The Olmec (1500—500 B.C.) Preclassic Maya Civilization (before 1000 B.C.—A.D. 200) Classic Maya Civilization (A.D. 200—900) The Ninth-Century Collapse Postclassic Maya Civilization (A.D. 900—1517) 16 Highland Mesoamerica The Rise of Highland Civilization (2000—500 B.C.) Monte Albán (900 B.C.—A.D. 750) Teotihuacán (200 B.C.—A.D. 750) The Toltecs (c. A.D. 900—1200) The Rise of Aztec Civilization (A.D. 1200—1519) The Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1517—1521) 17 The Foundations of Andean Civilization The Andean World: Poles of Civilization The Precemmic Period (3000—1800/1200 B.C.) The "Maritime Foundations" Hypothesis The Initial Period (1800—800 B.C.) 18 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: Nazca (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) The Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1532—1534) 19 Epilogue Similar but Different Interconnectedness Volatility The Stream of Time Guide to Further Reading References Index