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Reflections: The Emergence of Cities
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“The first agricultural villages that archaeologists have discovered date to about 10,000
B.C.E. They are located in the ‘fertile crescent,’ which curves from the Persian Gulf and
the Zagros Mountains in the east and south, on the border of today’s Iraq and Iran,
northwest into Anatolia, present-day Turkey, and then turns south and west through
present-day Syria, Lebanon, and Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. In this region, wild
grasses – the ancestors of modern wheat and barley – provided the basic grains, first for
gathering, and later for cultivation. By 8000 B.C.E. the Natufians, named for their valley
in northern Israel, and the peoples immediately to the south, in the Jordan River valley
near Jericho, were growing fully domesticated cereals. Peas and lentils and other pulses
and legumes followed. The peoples of the Fertile Crescent hunted gazelles and goats.
Later, they domesticated the goat and the sheep. In Turkey, they added pigs; around the
Mediterranean, there were cattle.
In other parts of the world, agriculture and animal domestication focused on other
varieties. In the western hemisphere, these included maize, especially in Mesoamerica, and
rootcrops such as manioc and sweet potatoes in South America. Amerindians domesticated
the llama, the guinea pig, and the turkey. Domesticated dogs probably accompanied their
migrant masters across the Bering Straits about 15,000 years ago. Perhaps the process of
domestication was then repeated with the dogs found in the Americas.
In Southeast Asia and in tropical Africa, wild roots and tubers, including yams, were the
staple crops. In the Vindhya Mountain areas of central India, rice was among the first
crops to be cultivated, about 5000 B.C.E. Anthropologists are uncertain when rice was first
cultivated, rather than just being harvested from the wild, in Southeast and East Asia, but
a date similar to India’s seems likely. From earliest times, as today, China’s agriculture
seems to have favored rice in the south and millet in the north. Some crops, including
cotton and gourds, were brought under cultivation in many locations around the globe.
The era in which villages took form is usually called Neolithic, or New Stone Age, named
for its tools rather than its crops. Farming called for a different toolkit from hunting and
gathering.” ~ The World’s History
1- Where were the first agricultural villages that archaeologists discovered located?
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2- What is the Fertile Crescent?
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3- Why were the Natufians and the people of Jericho significant in World History?
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4- Identify crops and animals domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.
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5- Identify crops and animals domesticated in the Western Hemisphere.
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6- Why is the era in which villages took form called Neolithic?
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Notes:
I. A Demographic Fact
A. Even as cities emerged, majority of people remained in rural
communities, linked through trade and contact with urban centers
II. Causes of Urbanization
A. Agriculture
B. Increased trading opportunities
C. Desire to be near religious shrines or other sacred sites
D. Safety and defense afforded by large numbers
III. West Asia
A. Jericho was an older, year-round settlement, dating back to as
early as 9000 B.C.E., when the site was established as a sanctuary
beside a spring for hunter-gatherers
1) But drew wealth primarily through trade from Red Sea
B. Çatal Hüyük in central Turkey, is an example of a complex urban
society that came to be based on agriculture but also relied on
game hunting and the gathering of undomesticated plants
1. By 5800 B.C.E., city had a population of 5000 people settled in
about a thousand houses surrounded by a well-watered plain
2. Çatal Hüyük’s economy centered on large herds of domestic
cattle, though also grain farming dependent on irrigation
C. But following 3500 B.C.E., Sumer in Mesopotamia developed
IV. Changes Wrought by Urbanization
A. Priests first appeared at some time prior to 3000 B.C.E., when they
are depicted on seals and stone carvings
1. They were perhaps the first social group to be released from direct
subsistence labor, since their role in religious ritual and as
spokesmen for gods was related to the exercise of power by kings
B. Likely that the complexity of business transactions and administrative
and legal needs presented by organizing larger urban communities
stimulated the writing system developed by the Sumerians
V. Changes
A. Intensification of inequality and rigid divisions along lines of class,
status, and gender
B. Resulted not only in the benefits enjoyed by complex societies and
cultures; homelessness, exploitation, and injustice have also been
characteristic of the urban experience throughout world history
1- While permanent settlements and urbanization are often presented as consequences
of the development of agriculture, agriculture was not the only force that led to
these processes. Discuss the other forces that led to these processes?
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2- Identify the origin of Jericho:
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3- What was vital for Jericho?
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4- Describe Çatal Hüyük.
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5- Identify key changes wrought by agriculture:
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6- Why were priests perhaps the first class released from direct subsistence labor?
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7- Why did writing eventually develop?
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8- Identify negative aspects of urbanization.
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1. Which people are generally credited
5. Cities first emerged from agricultural
with founding Mesopotamian
villages and towns in
civilizations in the Tigris-Euphrates
A. the valleys of the Tigris and
river valley?
Euphrates Rivers.
(A) Akkadians
B. Egypt.
(B) Hittites
C. China.
(C) Sumerians
D. India.
(D) Greeks
E. South America.
(E) Phoenicians
6. All of the following social changes
2. Wheat and barley were the grains
were brought about by agriculture
associated with the development of
EXCEPT
sedentary agriculture in
A. population growth.
(A) The Near East.
B. the emergence of villages and towns.
(B) Africa.
C. the invention of writing.
(C) China.
D. the specialization of labor.
(D) Mesoamerica.
E. the emergence of social classes.
3. Another term for the Neolithic Age is
the
(A) Old Stone Age.
(B) Bronze Age.
(C) New Iron Age.
(D) New Stone Age.
4. The social and economic status of
women was highest in
(A) Sedentary agricultural communities.
(B) Urbanized societies.
(C) Pastoral societies.
(D) Hunting and gathering communities.
7. The most significant defining
characteristic of the Paleolithic era was
that
A. human beings used stone and bone
tools in their cultivation of crops.
B. peoples relied on hunting and
gathering for subsistence.
C. men and women engaged in the same
economic activities.
D. people domesticated animals.
E. none of the above.
Reading:
“Considerable power rested with the priests of the many deities of Sumer, because
residents believed that their survival in the harsh environment of ancient Mesopotamia
depended partly on the will of the gods. In contrast to modern patterns, in which the
countryside is often considered more religious than the secular city, the authority of the
ancient temple community gave the religious establishment enormous prestige and power
in the city, and urban ritual practice was more fully elaborated than was its rural
counterpart.
To consolidate their temporal and supernatural influences, the city priests built great
temples, called ziggurats. Found throughout the region, ziggurats were a form of stepped
temple built on a square or rectangular platform of small, locally produced, sun-baked
bricks. The baked bricks were covered by glazed bricks, which may have had religious
significance. A small sanctuary rested atop the structure, which could reach as many as
ten stories high…As their power increased, priests built the ziggurats taller and more
massive. From within these vast temple complexes, they controlled huge retinues,
including artisans and administrators, and retained gangs of field workers to farm the
temple’s estates. Temples employed and fed multitudes. The chief temple in the city of
Lagash in Mesopotamia, for example, provided daily food and drink (ale) to some 1200
people by about 3000 B.C.E. The leading temples became virtual cities within cities.
…Trade was central to urban life. Sumerian traders carried merchandise by land, river,
and sea, in the world’s first wheeled carts and sailboats, as well as by donkey caravan.
Rich in agricultural commodities and artisan production but poor in raw materials,
Sumerians traded with the inhabitants of the hilly areas to the north for wood, stone, and
metal. They sailed into the Persian Gulf to find copper and tin and then continued along
the Arabian Sea coast as far east as the Indus valley for ivory and ceramics. They traveled
east overland through the passes of the Zagros Mountains to bring back carnelian beads
from Elam. Shells from the Mediterranean coast that have been found in Sumer indicate
trade westward, probably overland, as well.” ~ The World’s History
1- Why did considerable power rest with the priests of Sumer?
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2- Identify one significant change regarding religious patterns from the ancient world
to the modern world.
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3- Identify one significant continuity regarding religious patterns from the ancient
world to the modern world [Thinking Question – Not in Reading].
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4- Define ziggurat.
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5- How did the Sumerian priests provide more than religious guidance?
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6- What was central to urban life?
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7- Why did Sumerians engage in trade?
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