Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions

Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions

Lecture 31

The Nile was a wonderful river along which to trade. Trade winds heading south and river currents heading north made sailing up and down the river relatively easy. And we know that Egyptian rulers sent expeditions for ivory and gold, for example, to Nubia and Punt, in modern Ethiopia, and also to Lebanon for its famous cedars. We still have ne illustrations of a eet that was sent by Hatshepsut—one of the few female pharaohs, who ruled soon after 1500 B.C.E.

How typical was Sumer of Agrarian civilizations in general? Agrarian civilizations were constructed using the huge human and material resources generated in regions of ourishing agriculture, so each civilization was shaped to some degree by the cultural traditions and ecology of the regions in which it emerged. This lecture brie y surveys six different areas in which Agrarian civilizations appeared early. The main exception to the general rule that agriculture generated civilizations is in tropical areas such as Papua New Guinea (and perhaps the Amazon basin). Here, agriculture may have appeared early, but it was based on root crops that could not be stored for long periods. As William McNeill argues, the lack of storable wealth may explain why these regions never supported Agrarian civilizations.

Within the Afro-Eurasian world zone, Agrarian civilizations emerged along fertile river systems in four different regions. We have seen how Sumerian civilization arose in the Euphrates-Tigris basin, in the form of a cluster of competing city-states all dependent on irrigation. Nearby, in modern Sudan and Egypt, an Agrarian civilization appeared at about the same time, based on the remarkable natural irrigation system of the Nile River. The annual oods of the Nile, the world’s longest river, brought nutritious silts from the south. After about 5000 B.C.E., the Sahara desert became drier, and more people settled in the Nile Valley. As in Sumer, populations grew rapidly, but here most settled in a long ribbon of villages along the Nile. Wheat and barley, introduced from Mesopotamia around 5000 B.C.E., ourished.

So did watermelons and other crops from Sudan. By 4000 B.C.E., village communities stretched from the Nile Delta to Nubia, in modern Sudan.

Small kingdoms appeared and were rapidly united within a single large state. Around 3100 B.C.E., a southern ruler called Menes (or Narmer) uni ed the region north of Aswan into a single empire. The Narmer Palette, probably engraved by a contemporary, shows the pharaoh smiting his enemies. Cities were less important than in Mesopotamia, though Menes established a capital at Memphis, south of modern Cairo. Unlike the rulers of Sumer, who were either priests or kings, Egypt’s “pharaohs” were treated as gods. Their tombs, the pyramids, re ect their high status. The largest, the pyramid of Cheops, was built between 2500 and 2600 B.C.E., using 2.3 million limestone blocks.

Despite occasional periods of political breakdown, Egyptian dynasties ruled the Nile region for almost 2,600 years. The regularity of the Nile oods may explain why Egyptian civilization avoided the sort of ecological collapse experienced in many other early Agrarian civilizations. A hieroglyphic writing system developed early here, possibly under indirect Mesopotamian in uence. Trade winds heading south and river currents heading north encouraged trade along the Nile. Egyptian rulers sent expeditions for ivory and gold to Nubia and Punt and for timber to Lebanon. We still have ne illustrations of a eet sent by Hatshepsut.

Early in the 3rd millennium, cities and states appeared in the north of modern Pakistan and India. The Indus river brought rich Himalayan silts but ooded less predictably than the Nile. By 2500 B.C.E., there were many small towns and at least two huge cities, now known as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. Each had about 40,000 inhabitants. Houses and streets were built along a carefully planned grid system using prefabricated bricks. There were water and sewage systems, uniform systems of weights and measures, specialized crafts, markets, and extensive trade with Mesopotamia and Central Asia. Here, too, a writing system evolved. Unfortunately, it has not yet been deciphered, so our knowledge of this civilization depends entirely on archaeology. The

The annual oods of the Nile, the world’s longest river, brought nutritious silts from the south.

absence of obvious palaces or royal tombs limits our understanding of the political system. The Indus Valley civilization collapsed early in the 2nd millennium. Overpopulation may have caused ecological collapse through deforestation, erosion, ooding, and deserti cation.

The earliest Agrarian civilizations in China emerged along the Yellow River, whose fertile “loess” soils formed from dust blown in from Inner Asia. Agriculture was productive, but ooding was a perennial problem. Chinese traditions describe two ancient dynasties, the Xia and Shang. Cities and states appeared along the eastern Yellow River late in the 3rd millennium. The Xia dynasty was probably one of several regional kingdoms. Its capital, at Erlitou, has been recently excavated. The Shang dynasty ruled for much of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. Bronze metallurgy and horse-drawn chariots, as well as wheat and barley, may have arrived from the West. The Shang controlled many cities. They had large armies equipped with mass-produced weapons and armor, and they built massive royal tombs and palaces. There may have been other similar kingdoms in other regions of China. Shang writing, using symbols carved on tortoise shells or other bones, can still be read today. Here, writing was linked to divination, a skill highly valued in rulers. Rituals were important, but deities and priests played a smaller role than in Mesopotamia or Egypt.

Agrarian civilizations appeared later, but quite independently, in two regions in the Americas. We will survey these civilizations in more detail in Lecture Thirty-Seven. “Mesoamerica” includes southern Mexico and parts of Central America. The rst incipient civilizations appeared among the “Olmec” during the 2nd millennium B.C.E. In the 1st millennium, cities and states also appeared in the Oaxaca valley, in modern Mexico. By the 1st millennium C.E., there were cities and states throughout Mesoamerica. Here, great river valleys played a lesser role than in Afro-Eurasia, though techniques for increasing agricultural productivity included forest clearance and the creation of large arti cial swamplands. In the Andes, state systems emerged in the 1st millennium B.C.E. along the arid coasts of Peru (where they relied largely on shing) and in the Andean uplands around Lake Titicaca (which relied on maize, potato, and quinoa). Exchanges of crops and other goods between lowland and upland regions laid the foundations for the rst large empires.

The Inka Empire, which ourished in the 15th and early 16th centuries C.E., was the rst to link these centers into a single political system.

This brief tour of some of the earliest Agrarian civilizations hints at their variety. But there were also some remarkable similarities, which we return to in the next lecture.

Essential Reading

Supplementary Reading

Questions to Consider

Bentley and Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters, chaps. 3–6. Christian, Maps of Time, chap. 9. Fagan, People of the Earth, chaps. 15–18, 21, 22.

Brown, Big History, chap. 6. Fernandez-Armesto, The World, chap. 4. Mann, 1491.

1. What were the most important differences between the earliest regions of Agrarian civilization?

2. How important was religion in the appearance of Agrarian civilizations?