Defining Civilization 255and bas-reliefs, the houses
were structurally simi-
lar to one another, and
no known public archi-
tecture existed. People
grew some crops and
tended livestock but
also collected significant
amounts of food from
wild plants and animals,
never intensifying their
agricultural practices.
Evidence of a division of
labor or of a centralized
authority is minimal or
nonexistent. It was as if
several Neolithic villages
were crammed together in one place at Çatalhöyük.
Archaeological evidence from early urban centers, by con-
trast, demonstrates organized planning by a central authority,
technological intensification, and social stratification. For
example, flood control and protection were vital components
of the great ancient cities of the Indus River Valley, located in
today’s India and Pakistan. Mohenjo-Daro—an urban center
at its peak some 4,500 years ago with a population of at least
20,000—was built on an artificial mound, safe from floodwa-
ters. Further, the streets of this densely populated city were
laid out in a grid pattern and included individual homes with
sophisticated drainage systems.governed by a ruling elite working through centrally orga-
nized political systems called states. We shall elaborate on
all of these points in this chapter.
As Neolithic villages grew into towns, the world’s first
cities developed. This happened between 4,500 and 6,000
years ago—first in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), then
in Egypt’s Nile Valley and India and Pakistan’s Indus Val-
ley. In China, civilization was under way by 5,000 years
ago. Independent of these developments in Eurasia and
Africa, the first American Indian cities appeared in Peru
around 4,000 years ago and in Mesoamerica about 2,000
years ago (Figure 11.1).
What characterized these first cities? Why are they called
the birthplaces of civilization? The first feature of cities—and
of civilization—is their large size and population.
But cities are more than overgrown towns. Consider
the case of Çatalhöyük, a compact 9,500-year-old settle-
ment in south-central Turkey.^1 The tightly packed houses
for its more than 5,000 inhabitants left no room for streets.
People traversed the roofs of neighboring houses and
dropped through a hole in the roof to get into their own
home. While house walls were covered with paintings
(^1) Material on Çatalhöyük is drawn from Balter, M. (1998). Why settle
down? The mystery of communities. Science 282, 1442–1444; Balter, M.
(1999). A long season puts Çatalhöyük in context. Science 286, 890–891;
Balter, M. (2001). Did plaster hold Neolithic society together? Science 294,
2278–2281; Kunzig, R. (1999). A tale of two obsessed archaeologists, one
ancient city and nagging doubts about whether science can ever hope to
reveal the past. Discover 20 (5), 84–92.
Çatalhöyük
Black Sea
Mediterranean Sea
ROMANIA
MOLDOVA
UKRAINE
SYRIA
CYPRUS
RUSSIA
BULGARIA
TURKEY
Mesoamerica
Peru
Nile
Valley
Lower
Mesopotamia
Indus
Hsia
Great
Zimbabwe
Figure 11.1 The major early civilizations sprang from Neolithic villages in various parts of the
world. Those of the Americas developed wholly independently of those in Africa and Eurasia.
Chinese civilization seems to have developed independently of Southwest Asia civilization, including
the Nile and Indus civilizations.