Dawn of CivilizationCivilization:

Large population

High population density

High degree of specialization in division of labor

Dependent on outside resources

Long life

Dawn of Civilization

Examples from Old and New Worlds

Sumerian Civilization

Olmeca revisited

Maya

Teotihuacán

Dawn of CivilizationSumerian Civilization

Developed in Tigris-Euphrates area of the “Fertile Crescent.”

Early Phases:

Early Dynasty 3200 - 2800 BCE

Sumerian Proto-literate 3400 - 3200 BCE

Ubaid Phase 3800 - 3400 BCE

The Sumerian Civilization

Ubaid Phase 3800-3500 BC

Proto-literate Phase 3500-3200 BC

Early Dynasty 3200-2800 BC

(Large scale public works)

(Early writing: Cuneiform)

(Full Civilization: Ur, Baghdad)

Dawn of CivilizationDeveloped in Tigris-Euphrates area of the “Fertile Crescent.”

Tell Arpachiyah (near Mosul)

Cuneiform was composed of pictograms, primitive forms representing easily recognizable images, such as objects, animals and human beings. Gradually, the pictograms were simplified and became groups of abstract signs. Cuneiform writing was quickly adopted by Middle Eastern cultures. In Assyria, for example, king Hammourabi used it to compose one of the first law codes in history. Cuneiform remained in use until the 1st century A.D.

Cuneiform WritingHistory Begins at Sumer:Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History

Samuel Noah Kramer (1981)

The First SchoolsThe First Bicameral Congress The First "Moses" (Hammurabi)

The First Pharmacopoeia The First "Noah" The First Tale of Resurrection The First Moral Ideals The First Biblical Parallels First Heroic Age (Gilgamesh)

Dawn of Civilization

Olmec CivilizationDeveloped in Southern Gulf of Mexico in

modern States of Vera Cruz and Tabasco

Site of La Venta: (Located in floodplain of Tonala River)

Late Phase 400 - 200 BCE

Middle Phase 600 -400 BCE

Early Phase 800 -600 BC

Phase I – Site established along N/S axis; major mounds established.

Phase II – Flanker mounds added, entire site covered with pink clay; monumental basalt sculpture begins.

Phase III – Northern enclosure with small mounds; pavements; green serpentine jaguar masks; figurine cache….

The Maya

“Protocities” were important to the Maya during the Classic period from 300 to 900 AD.  The Mayas were never a "true" urban culture; the urban centers were almost entirely used as religious centers for the rural population surrounding them.

Mayans built incredibly sophisticated urban centers, an astronomical science and mathematics among the most sophisticated in the pre-modern world, and the most developed and complex system of writing in the Americas.

The Maya

The Temple of the Inscriptions is one of the most impressive buildings at the site. While excavating the room at the top of this structure in 1952, the Mexican Archeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered a hidden chamber and a concealed stairway filled with rubble. It took four field seasons to follow the stairs 80 vertical feet into the pyramid. They terminate in a chamber 30 feet long by 13 feet wide with a high vaulted arch of 23 feet which contains the crypt of Pacal--the most important ruler at the site. The sarcophagus is famous for its sculpture of the tree of life and the afterworld journey of Pacal. A jade burial mask was found in the crypt

Teotihuacán

Teotihuacán was the sixth largest city in the world with an estimated population of 150,000 during its period of greatest prosperity, circa 600 A.D., when it occupied about 8 square miles.

By the fourth century, unmistakable influences of Teotihuacán were felt throughout most parts of Mesoamerica and extended from the Great Lakes to the Inca area of South America.