these ancient villages, partly because the rising ocean covered
many of them with water and partly because the humid air
quickly rotted the wood and leaves that were probably used
for building homes.
Farther inland, in the rain forests, villages likely con-
sisted of little more than lean-tos, shelters of branches raised
on poles on one side and leaned against trees or large rocks.
Th ese villages would be found in forest clearings, perhaps be-
side rivers or streams. Living quarters such as lean-tos were
favored in the construction of villages on the islands of the
South Pacifi c, where warm weather made more sheltering
structures unnecessary for most of the year.
Estimates for when agriculture began in the region of
Asia and the Pacifi c vary widely among archaeologists, with
some citing about 7000 b.c.e. in what is today far northern
China, while others cite the more recent fi gure of about 4000
b.c.e. in both the Indus River valley and in far northern
China. Early agricultural villages seem to have evolved out of
villages constructed by hunter-gatherers who had assembled
together as family groups. Along the Yellow River people who
cultivated millet while still relying heavily on hunting and
gathering formed villages of fewer than 40 people, probably
constituting an extended family or clan. Th e land on both
sides of the Yellow River was well suited to incipient agricul-
ture, being easy to dig and rich in nutrients.
Who the villagers were in 4000 b.c.e. in the Indus River
valley is not known, but their culture may have given rise
to the Harappan civilization of 2600–1500 b.c.e. Th ese early
villagers almost certainly had contact with Sumerian cul-
tures in the Near East, and the designs of their villages may
have been infl uenced by those cultures. By 2600 b.c.e. these
people were building numerous towns and villages, almost
all along the several rivers that fl owed through the Indus
River valley at that time, as well as cities for up to 50,000
inhabitants. Towns and villages were usually well planned,
with grids of streets and buildings made of fi red brick. Gra-
naries, for storing grain, seem to have been found in most
towns and villages.
Although the Harappan civilization faded by 1500
b.c.e., the established methods of planning towns and vil-
lages did not. As Aryan invaders from central Asia spread
southward into the heart of India, they imposed many of
their customs on local peoples, but they were nomads with-
out much skill in building settlements, and they seem to
have adopted some of what they found among the Harap-
pans and cultures farther south.
By about 500 b.c.e. the forms of Indian villages were
generally set, with changes occurring only slowly during the
rest of the ancient era. Both towns and villages were expected
to be organized in the same manner as the capital cities in
India’s various nations. Towns and villages were oft en raided
by bandits or other groups still living in forests, making de-
fensive considerations important. Th us, settlements tended
to have earthen walls and main gates through which people
had to pass to enter. In the case of a town, the gates wouldusually have buildings attached where local offi cials worked;
these offi cials would collect taxes from people bringing goods
into town. In the case of a village, such work was more likely
performed by the village chief or his relatives. Towns would
feature bigger houses than would villages, with houses in
towns reaching two stories in height, whereas houses in vil-
lages consisted of one story only.
Indian villages were usually self-suffi cient, as help from
cities was generally slow to arrive because of the distances be-
tween locales and because the weather oft en made roads diffi -
cult to travel. Th us, villages were usually located near reliable
sources of water and would typically have agriculture as their
most important industry. Sometimes, a village consisted
almost entirely of members of one profession, such as with
metalworking or ceramics manufacture; children tended to
enter the professions practiced by their parents, which meant
that some small villages that had formed around extended
families or clans became focused on a single industry. Such
villages were dependent on the economies of cities for selling
their products. Occasionally, a village was placed under royal
protection, meaning that the villagers were not to be both-
ered by outside government offi cials.
In China living conditions in villages were poor dur-
ing most of the ancient era. Villagers in the Yellow River
region lived in circular homes, oft en wood and dried mud
surrounding a pit. Th e roofs were probably made of thatch,
with a peak in the center. Th e houses formed irregular pat-
terns in villages. Th e villages themselves tended to be built
wherever high ground could be found near a river. Although
the villagers were farmers, so much of what they produced
was taken from them in the forms of fees, taxes, and loan
payments that they needed to hunt and fi sh to supplement
their diet.
By the beginning of the Han Dynasty (202 b.c.e.–220
c.e.), towns featured houses that were signifi cantly diff erent
from those in villages, which were usually one-room hov-
els; advanced Chinese construction methods were applied
to town buildings, which were usually wooden with heavy
posts on which walls were hung. Crucial to a town was its
marketplace, where peasants brought their harvests and mer-
chants sold their goods. A marketplace was usually located
on a town’s main road, where visitors were sure to pass aft er
entering the town.
In Japan archaeologists have discovered numerous re-
mains of circular houses, with the walls encircling pits.
While the largest settlement yet discovered had about 1,500
homes, most settlements were much smaller. Th e larger
towns were probably founded on agriculture, which allowed
more people to live in one place than did hunting and gath-
ering, but even at the end of the ancient era many Japanese
were still hunter-gatherers living in villages in the vast for-
ests that covered most of the islands of Honshu and Kyushu.
Villages sometimes had protective ditches around them, and
some may have had wooden walls, as warfare was common
by 200 c.e.1090 towns and villages: Asia and the Pacific0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1090 1090 10/10/07 2:31:02 PM