Western Civilization - History Of European Society

6Chapter 1

and administrative structures based upon high popula-
tion densities and the production of substantial wealth.
In most cases, civilization also meant the develop-
ment of mathematics and written languages. Both were
needed for surveying, administration, and the distribu-
tion of goods and services in a complex society. As chiefs
became kings, the record of taxes and tributes paid, of
lands annexed, and of the provisions consumed by their
ever-larger armies acquired great significance. The desire
to record the ruler’s glorious deeds for posterity came
slightly later but was nevertheless important. Writing
gives names to individuals and permits the dead to speak
in their own words. Without it there is no history.
The emergence of societies at this level of com-
plexity affected even those areas that they did not di-
rectly control. Great civilizations are magnets that draw
other cultures into their orbits. As peoples on the pe-

riphery become involved with the larger market

through trade or tribute, cultural borrowing accelerates.

Then, as civilizations expand, they come into conflict

with one another, a process that brings neighboring

peoples into their systems of war and diplomacy as

well. By 3000 B.C., at least two such civilizations had

begun to emerge, one in the valley of Tigris and

Euphrates rivers, the other in the valley of the Nile.

Mesopotamia: The Social and Economic

Structures of Mesopotamian Life

Mesopotamia,in Greek, means the land between the

rivers, in this case the Tigris and the Euphrates (see map

1.1). It is a hot, fertile flood plain, most of which falls

Çatal Hüyük

Arabian Desert

Taur

usMts

.

Zag

ros

Mo

un

tai

ns

Syrian Desert

Sahara

Caucasus

Mts.

F

ER TI LE

CR

E S C E N T

R.

Ti

gr

is

Euphr

ate

s

R.

Ni

le

R

.

Medit

erranean

Sea

Black Sea

Caspian

Sea

Red Sea

Persian

Gulf

Jordan R.

Dead

Sea

Jerusalem

Tyre

Ebla

Byblos

Hattusha

Nineveh

Babylon

Lagash

Ur

Uruk

Assur

Eridu

Umma

Jericho

SUMER

HITTITE

EMPIRE

ASSYRIA

AKKAD

IRAN

PALESTINE

Cyprus

PHOENICIA

LOWER

EGYPT SINAI

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

MAP 1.

The Ancient Near East