The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. Current thinking is that there was no single "cradle", but several civilizations that developed independently; with the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia and Egypt, understood to be the earliest.

1. Cradle of civilization
By Adesh Katariya
plast.adesh@gmail.com

2. • The cradle of civilization is a term referring to
locations where, according to current
archaeological data, civilization is understood to
have emerged.
• Current thinking is that there was no single
"cradle", but several civilizations that developed
independently; with the Fertile
Crescent, Mesopotamia and Egypt, understood to
be the earliest.

3. • Other civilizations arose in Asia among cultures
situated along large river valleys, notably
the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent and
the Yellow River in China.
• The extent to which there was significant
influence between the early civilizations of
the Near East and those of East Asia is disputed.
• Scholars accept that the civilizations of Norte
Chico in present-day Peru and that
of Mesoamerica emerged independently from
those in Eurasia.

4. History of the idea
The concept 'cradle of civilization' is the subject of
much debate. The figurative use of cradle to
mean "the place or region in which anything is
nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage" is
traced by the OED to Spenser (1590).
Charles Rollin's Ancient History (1734) has "Egypt
that served at first as the cradle of the holy
nation."

5. History of the idea
• The phrase "cradle of civilization" plays a certain role
in national mysticism. It has been used in Eastern as
well as Western cultures, for instance, in Hindu
nationalism (In Search of the Cradle of
Civilization 1995), and Taiwanese
nationalism (Taiwan — The Cradle of Civilization 2002).
• The terms also appear in esoteric pseudohistory, such
as the Urantia Book claiming the title for "the second
Eden," or the pseudoarchaeology related
to Megalithic Britain (Civilization One 2004, Ancient
Britain: The Cradle of Civilization 1921).

6. Rise of civilization
• The earliest signs of a process leading to sedentary culture
can be seen in the Levant to as early as 12,000 BCE, when
the Natufian culture became sedentary; it evolved into an
agricultural society by 10,000 BCE. The importance of water
to safeguard an abundant and stable food supply, due to
favourable conditions for hunting, fishing and gathering
resources including cereals, provided an initial wide
spectrum economy that triggered the creation of
permanent villages.
• The earliest proto-urban settlements with several thousand
inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic. The first cities to
house several tens of thousands were Memphis and Uruk,
by the 31st century BCE (see Historical urban community
sizes).

7. Historic times are marked apart
from prehistoric times when "records of the
past begin to be kept for the benefit of future
generations"; which may be in
written writing or oral form .

8. If the rise of civilization is taken to coincide
with the development of writing out
of proto-writing, the Near
Eastern Chalcolithic, the transitional period
between the Neolithic and the Bronze
Age during the 4th millennium BCE, and the
development of proto-writing in Harappa in
the Indus Valley of South Asia around 3300
BCE are the earliest incidences, followed by
Chinese proto-writing evolving into
the oracle bone script, and again by the
emergence of Mesoamerican writing
systems from about 2000 BCE.

9. Single or multiple cradles
• A traditional theory of the spread of civilization is that it began in
the Fertile Crescent and spread out from there by
influence. Scholars more generally now believe that civilizations
arose independently at several locations in both hemispheres. They
have observed that sociocultural developments occurred along
different timeframes. "Sedentary" and "nomadic" communities
continued to interact considerably; they were not strictly divided
among widely different cultural groups. The concept of a cradle of
civilization has a focus where the inhabitants came to build cities, to
create writing systems, to experiment in techniques for
making pottery and using metals, to domesticate animals, and to
develop complex social structures involving class systems.
• Current scholarship generally identifies six sites where civilization
emerged independently: Mesopotamia, the Nile River, the Indus
River, the Yellow River, the Central Andes, and Mesoamerica

10. Old World

11. Mesopotamia
Around 10,200 BCE the first fully
developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the
phases Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-
Pottery Neolithic B (7600 to 6000 BCE) appeared in
the fertile crescent and from there spread eastwards
and westwards.
One of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho in
the Levant region, thought to be the world's first
town (settled around 8500 BCE and fortified around
6800 BCE).

12. Mesopotamia
In Mesopotamia, the convergence of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of
water for irrigation.
The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are
among the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian
societies. It is because of this that the fertile crescent
region, and Mesopotamia in particular, are often
referred to as the cradle of civilization.
The period known as the Ubaid period (ca. 6500 to 3800
BCE) is the earliest known period on the alluvial
plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured
under the alluvium.

13. Mesopotamia
• It was during the Ubaid period that the movement
towards urbanization began.
• Agriculture and animal husbandry were widely
practiced in sedentary communities, particularly in
Northern Mesopotamia, and intensive irrigated
hydraulic agriculture began to be practiced in the
south.
• Eridu is the oldest Sumerian site settled during this
period, around 5300 BCE, and the city of Ur also first
dates to the end of this period.
• In the south, the Ubaid period had a very long
duration from around 6500 to 3800 BCE, when it is
replaced by the Uruk period.

14. Map showing the extent of
Mesopotamia

15. Sumerian civilization coalesces in the
subsequent Uruk period (4000 to 3100
BCE). Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this
period saw the emergence of urban life in
Mesopotamia and, during its later phase, the
gradual emergence of the cuneiform
script. Proto-writing in the region dates to around
3500 BCE, with the earliest texts dating to 3300
BCE; early cuneiform writing emerged in 3000
BCE.
It was also during this period that pottery painting
declined as copper started to become popular,
along with cylinder seals.

16. Uruk trade networks started to expand to other
parts of Mesopotamia and as far as North
Caucasus, and strong signs of governmental
organization and social stratification began to
emerge leading to the Early Dynastic Period (ca.
2900 BCE).
The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the
Early Dynastic Period, although architectural
precursors in the form of raised platforms date
back to the Ubaid period,and the second phase of
the Early Dynastic Period (ca. 2700 BCE) is also
when the legendary king Gilgamesh is believed to
have reigned.

17. Eannatum, the Sumerian king of Lagash, established
one of the first verifiable empires in history in 2500
BCE.
The neighboring Elam, in modern Iran, was also part of
the early urbanization during the Chalcolithic period.
Elamite states were among the leading political forces
of the Ancient Near East.
The emergence of Elamite written records from
around 3000 BCE also parallels Sumerian history,
where slightly earlier records have been found.

18. During the 3rd millennium BCE, there developed a
very intimate cultural symbiosis between
the Sumerians and the Akkadians.
Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken
language somewhere between the 3rd and the
2nd millennia BCE.
The Semitic-speaking Akkadian empire emerged
around 2350 BCE under Sargon the Great.

19. The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak
between the 24th and 22nd centuries BCE.
Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian
language was briefly imposed on neighboring
conquered states such as Elam and Gutium.
After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the Akkadian
people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced
into two major Akkadian-speaking
nations: Assyria in the north, and, a few
centuries later, Babylonia in the south

20. Egypt
• he developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phases Pre-
Pottery Neolithic A (10,200 BCE) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic
B (7600 to 6000 BCE) appeared in the fertile crescent and
from there spread eastwards and westwards.
• Contemporaneously, a grain-grinding culture using the
earliest type of sickle blades had replaced the culture of
hunters, fishers, and gathering people using stone tools
along the Nile. Geological evidence and computer climate
modeling studies also suggest that natural climate changes
around 8000 BCE began to desiccate the extensive pastoral
lands of northern Africa, eventually forming the Sahara.
• Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the
Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and to
adopt a more sedentary lifestyle.

21. Egypt
• By about 5500 BCE, small tribes living in the Nile
valley had developed into a series of inter-related
cultures as far south as Sudan demonstrating firm
control of agriculture and animal husbandry, and
identifiable by their pottery and personal items,
such as combs, bracelets, and beads.
• The largest of these early cultures in upper
(Southern) Egypt was the Badari, which probably
originated in the Western Desert; it was known
for its high quality ceramics, stone tools, and its
use of copper.

22. Egypt
• The oldest known domesticated bovine in Africa
are from Fayum dating to around 4400 BCE.The
Badari cultures was followed by the Naqada
culture, which brought a number of technological
improvements.
• As early as the first Naqada Period, Amratia,
Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used
to shape blades and other objects from flakes.
• By 3300 BCE, just before the first Egyptian
dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms,
known as Upper Egypt to the south, and Lower
Egypt to the north..

23. The maximum territorial extent of
ancient Egypt

24. • Egyptian civilization begins during the second phase
of the Naqda culture, known as the Gerzeh period,
around 3500 BCE and coalesces with the unification
of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3150 BCE.
• The Gerzean culture coincided with a significant
drop in rainfall, and farming produced the vast
majority of food. With increased food supplies, the
populace adopted a much more sedentary lifestyle,
and the larger settlements grew to cities of about
5,000 residents.
• It was in this time that the city dwellers started using
mud brick to build their cities, and the use of the
arch and recessed walls for decorative effect became
popular. Copper instead of stone was increasingly
used to make tools and weaponry.

25. Silver, gold, lapis, and faience were used
ornamentally, and the grinding palettes used for
eye-paint since the Badarian period began to be
adorned with relief carvings.
Symbols on Gerzean pottery also resemble
traditional Egyptian hieroglyphs, making the
proto form of the Egyptian writing system
contemporaneous with the proto-cuneiform
Sumerian script.

26. • Early evidence also exists of contact with
the Near East, particularly Canaan and
the Byblos coast, during this time. Concurrent
with these cultural advances, a process of
unification of the societies and towns of the
upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred.
• At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta,
or Lower Egypt, also underwent a unification
process.
• Warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt
occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt,
King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta
and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and
Lower Egypt under his single rule

27. Indus Valley
• One of the earliest Neolithic sites in South
Asia is Bhirrana along the
ancient Saraswati riverine system in the present
day state of Haryana in India, dating to around
7600 BCE.
• Other early sites include Lahuradewa in the
Middle Ganges region and Jhusi near the
confluence of Ganges and Yamuna rivers, both
dating to around the 7000 BCE.

28. Indus Valley
• The aceramic Neolithic at Mehrgarh lasts from
7000 to 5500 BCE, with the ceramic Neolithic
at Mehrgarh lasting up to 3300 BCE; blending
into the Early Bronze Age.
• Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with
evidence of farming and herding in South Asia.
• It is likely that the culture centered around
Mehrgarh migrated into the Indus Valley and
became the Indus Valley Civilisation.

29. • The Indus Valley Civilisation starts around 3300 BCE
with what is referred to as the Early Harappan Phase
(3300 to 2600 BCE).
• The earliest examples of the Indus Script date to this
period, as well as the emergence of citadels
representing centralised authority and an
increasingly urban quality of life.
• Trade networks linked this culture with related
regional cultures and distant sources of raw
materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials
for bead-making.
• By this time, villagers had domesticated numerous
crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and
cotton, as well as animals, including the water
buffalo

30. 2600 BCE marks the Mature Harappan Phase during which Early
Harappan communities turned into large urban centres
including Harappa, Dholavira, Mohenjo-Daro, Lothal,
and Rakhigarhi, and more than 1,000 towns and villages, often of
relatively small size.
Mature Harappans evolved new techniques in metallurgy and
produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin and displayed advanced
levels of engineering.
The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were
developed and used in cities throughout the Indus region were far
more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the
Middle East and even more efficient than those in many areas of
Pakistan and India today.
The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their
impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and
protective walls.
The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans
from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts

31. 2600 BCE marks the Mature Harappan Phase
during which Early Harappan communities
turned into large urban centres
including Harappa, Dholavira, Mohenjo-
Daro, Lothal, and Rakhigarhi, and more than
1,000 towns and villages, often of relatively
small size.
Mature Harappans evolved new techniques
in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze,
lead, and tin and displayed advanced levels of
engineering.

32. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and
drainage that were developed and used in
cities throughout the Indus region were far
more advanced than any found in
contemporary urban sites in the Middle East
and even more efficient than those in many
areas of Pakistan and India today.

33. The advanced architecture of the Harappans is
shown by their impressive
dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick
platforms, and protective walls.
The massive walls of Indus cities most likely
protected the Harappans from floods and may
have dissuaded military conflicts

34. Around 1800 BCE signs of a gradual decline began
to emerge, and by around 1700 BCE most of the
cities had been abandoned. Many scholars
believe that drought and a decline in trade with
Egypt and Mesopotamia caused the collapse of
the Indus Civilisation.
The migration of Aryan peoples into the region at
this time is also notable; however, the idea of
a violent invasion is no longer widely accepted.
The Indus Valley Civilisation did not disappear
suddenly and many elements of the civilisation
continue in later South Asian and Vedic cultures.

35. China
• Early evidence for Chinese millet agriculture is
dated to around 7000 BCE, with the earliest
evidence of cultivated rice found
at Chengtoushan near the Yangtze River, dated to
6500 BCE.
• Chengtoushan may also be the site of the first
walled city in China.This Neolithic Revolution gave
rise to the Jiahu culture (7000 to 5800 BCE).Some
scholars have suggested that the Jiahu
symbols (6600 BCE) are the earliest form of
proto-writing in China.

36. China
• However, it is likely that they should not be understood as
writing itself, but as features of a lengthy period of sign-use
which led eventually to a fully-fledged system of
writing.Excavation of a Peiligang culture site
in Xinzheng county, Henan, found a community that flourished
in 5500 to 4900 BCE, with evidence of agriculture, constructed
buildings, pottery, and burial of the dead. With agriculture
came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute
crops, and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and
administrators.In late Neolithic times, the Yellow River valley
began to establish itself as a center of Yangshao culture (5000
to 3000 BCE), and the first villages were founded.
• Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan
culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from
about 3000 to 2000 BCE.
• The earliest bronze artifacts have been found in the Majiayao
culture site (3100 to 2700 BCE).

37. • Chinese civilization begins during the second phase
of the Erlitou period (1900 to 1500 BCE), with Erlitou
considered the first state level society of East Asia.
• There is considerable debate whether Erlitou sites
correlate to the semi-legendary Xia dynasty.
• The Xia dynasty (2070 to 1600 BCE) is the first
dynasty to be described in ancient Chinese historical
records such as the Bamboo Annals, first published
more than a millennium later during the Western
Zhou period.
• Although Xia is an important element in Chinese
historiography, there is to date no archeological
evidence to corroborate the dynasty.
•

38. • Erlitou saw an increase in
bronze metallurgy and urbanization and was a
rapidly growing regional center with palatial
complexes that provide evidence for social
stratification.
• The earliest traditional Chinese dynasty for which
there is both archeological and written evidence
is the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BCE). Shang
sites have yielded the earliest known body
of Chinese writing, the oracle bone script,
mostly divinations inscribed on bones.

39. • These inscriptions provide critical insight into many
topics from the politics, economy, and religious
practices to the art and medicine of this early stage
of Chinese civilization. Some historians argue that
Erlitou should be considered an early phase of the
Shang dynasty.
• The U.S. National Gallery of Art defines the Chinese
Bronze Age as the period between about 2000 and
771 BCE; a period that begins with the Erlitou culture
and ends abruptly with the disintegration of Western
Zhou rule.
• The Sanxingdui culture is another Chinese Bronze
Age society, contemporaneous to the Shang dynasty,
however they developed a different method of
bronze-making from the Shang

40. New World

41. Central Andes
• The earliest evidence of agriculture in
the Andean region dates to around 4700 BCE
at Huaca Prieta and Paredones.
• The oldest evidence of canal irrigation in South
America dates to 4700 to 2500 BCE in the Zaña
Valley of northern Peru.
• The earliest urban settlements of the Andes, as
well as North and South America, are dated to
3500 BCE at Huaricanga, in the Fortaleza
area,and Sechin Bajo near the Sechin River.

42. Caral of the Norte Chico, the oldest
known civilization in the Americas

43. • The Norte Chico civilization proper is understood
to have emerged around 3200 BCE, as it is at that
point that large-scale human settlement and
communal construction across multiple sites
becomes clearly apparent.
• Since the early 21st century, it has been
established as the oldest known civilization in
the Americas.
• The civilization flourished at the confluence of
three rivers, the Fortaleza, the Pativilca, and the
Supe.

44. • These river valleys each have large clusters of
sites. Further south, there are several associated
sites along the Huaura River.
• Notable settlements include the cities of Caral,
the largest and most complex Preceramic site,
and Aspero.

45. • Circa 1800 BCE, the Norte Chico civilization began
to decline, with more powerful centers appearing
to the south and north along the coast, and to the
east inside the belt of the Andes.
• Pottery eventually developed in the Amazon
Basin and spread to the Andean culture region
around 2000 BCE.
• The next major civilization to arise in the Andes
would be the Chavín culture at Chavín de Huantar,
located in the Andean highlands of the present-
day Ancash Region.
• It is believed to have been built around 900 BCE
and was the religious and political center of
the Chavín people.

46. Mesoamerica
• The Coxcatlan caves in the Valley
of Tehuacán provide evidence for agriculture in
components dated between 5000 and 3400 BCE.
• Similarly, sites such as Sipacate in Guatemala
provide maize pollen samples dating to 3500 BCE.It
is estimated that fully domesticated maize
developed in Mesoamerica around 2700 BCE.
• Mesoamericans during this period likely divided
their time between small hunting encampments
and large temporary villages.
• What would become the Olmec civilization had its
roots in early farming cultures of Tabasco, which
began around 5100 to 4600 BCE.

47. • The emergence of the Olmec civilization has
traditionally been dated to around 1600 to
1500 BCE.
• Olmec features first emerged in the city of San
Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, fully coalescing around
1400 BCE.
• This rise of civilization was assisted by the local
ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as
by the transportation network provided by
the Coatzacoalcos River basin.

48. • This environment encouraged a densely
concentrated population, which in turn triggered
the rise of an elite class and an associated demand
for the production of the symbolic and
sophisticated luxury artifacts that define Olmec
culture.
• Many of these luxury artifacts were made from
materials such as jade, obsidian, and magnetite,
which came from distant locations and suggest
that early Olmec elites had access to an extensive
trading network in Mesoamerica.
• The aspect of Olmec culture perhaps most familiar
today is their artwork, particularly the Olmec
colossal heads.

49. • San Lorenzo was all but abandoned around 900
BCE at about the same time that La Venta rose to
prominence. A wholesale destruction of many San
Lorenzo monuments occurred around 950 BCE.
• La Venta continued as the center of Olmec
culture until its abandonment around 400 BCE;
constructing monumental architectural
achievements such as the Great Pyramid of La
Venta.
• The exact cause of the decline of the Olmec
culture is uncertain. Between 400 and 350 BCE,
the population in the eastern half of the Olmec
heartland dropped precipitously.

50. • This depopulation was probably the result of serious
environmental changes that rendered the region unsuited
for large groups of farmers, in particular changes to
the riverine environment that the Olmec depended upon
for agriculture, hunting and gathering, and transportation.
• These changes may have been triggered
by tectonic upheavals or subsidence, or the silting up of
rivers due to agricultural practices.Within a few hundred
years of the abandonment of the last Olmec cities,
successor cultures became firmly established.
• The Tres Zapotes site, on the western edge of the Olmec
heartland, continued to be occupied well past 400 BCE, but
without the hallmarks of the Olmec culture.
• This post-Olmec culture, often labeled Epi-Olmec, has
features similar to those found at Izapa, some 550 km
(330 miles) to the southeast.

51. • The Olmecs are sometimes referred to as the
mother culture of Mesoamerica, as they were the
first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of
the foundations for the civilizations that
followed.
• Although, the causes and degree of Olmec
influences on Mesoamerican cultures has been a
subject of debate over many decades.
• Practices introduced by the Olmec include ritual
bloodletting and the Mesoamerican ballgame,
hallmarks of subsequent Mesoamerican societies
such as the Maya and Aztec.
• Although the Mesoamerican writing
system would fully develop later, early Olmec
ceramics show representations that may be
interpreted as codices.

52. The Olmec heartland, where the
Olmec reigned

53. Timeline

54. Cradle of Western civilization
• There is academic consensus that Classical
Greece is the seminal culture which provided the
foundation of modern Western culture,
democracy, art, theatre, philosophy and science.
For this reason it is known as the cradle of
Western Civilization. Along with
Greece, Rome has sometimes been described as
a birthplace or as the cradle of Western
Civilization because of the role the city had in
politics, republicanism, law, architecture, warfare
and Western Christianity.

55. The Colosseum an
d the Acropolis,
symbols of
the Graeco-
Roman world.

56. Thanks