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CWC PRIMER Introduction: The Approach to Classical World

Civilizations

The purpose of this course is to examine the emergence of ancient urban

civilizations on three continents, Africa, Europe, and Asia. The author
defines these civilizations as ancient world systems that underwent similar
patterns of growth and collapse. Tracing development regionally from
prehistoric times through the height of the ancient experience, we will
identify the Classical traits of each civilization – traits that gave each
regional culture its individual character and traits that are inherently
recognizable in modern cultures that evolved in the same regions. Our
treatment extends from prehistoric times until the end of antiquity, or by
our reckoning from 150,000 Before Present (BP) to the sixth century AD.
Chronologically we organize this material according to three recognized
eras of urban civilization: The Bronze Age 3000-1100 BC, The Classical
or Early Iron Age 1000-27 BC, and the Roman Era 27 BC-612 AD. It
should be apparent that dates for most of the material covered in this book
proceed backward, from BC (Before Christ) to AD (Anno Domini) or from
BCE (Before Common Era) to CE (Common Era). For dates ranging in
remote prehistory (tens of thousands of years ago) the acronym BP (Before
Present) is also used.

Our chief premise is that civilizations thriving in distant continents during

these eras increasingly came in contact with one another to form an
interconnected or global world system. At the height of the second
century AD, interconnectivity enabled societies such as the Roman
Mediterranean, East Africa, various principalities in India, and the Han
dynasty in China to attain their greatest levels of urban expansion, material
prosperity, and cultural achievement prior to modern times. Despite the
limitations posed by pre-industrial technologies, large urban societies were
thriving across a broad expanse of landmass, sea, and ocean at this time. In
many regions the size of these societies far exceeded those of societies
existing in the same regions more than a thousand years later. Nonetheless,
by 600 AD all these societies collapsed. In the case of Rome collapse was
dramatic; in India and China, on the other hand, traditional societies
recovered within a relatively brief period of time. Although it is harder to
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document, something very similar appears to have happened at earlier

points in the ancient experience, for example, at the end of the Early
Bronze Age, 2200-2100 BC, at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, ca.
1550 BC, and most particularly at the end of the Late Bronze Age, 1200
BC. At these moments highly integrated economies and hierarchies in
Egypt, the Aegean, Anatolia, Syria-Palestine, and Mesopotamia appear to
have experienced simultaneous setbacks such as population decline, loss of
advanced skills, and a reversion from urban to rural settlement patterns.
The benefits furnished by complex urban societies – literacy, monumental
architecture, advanced creature comforts – declined into phases invariably
referred to as “Dark Ages.” It would appear as well that parallel setbacks
were experienced in cultures existing along the margins of major urban
societies, from Denmark to Central Asia, from the Indus to China.
Sometimes these setbacks were significant in some regions but passed
quietly in others.

Hypothetically, one could argue that the growth of urban populations in

antiquity experienced undulating peaks and valleys since the Neolithic Era.
It is important to stress the lack of commonality to the patterns of growth
and decline. Each era of interconnectivity between civilizations exhibited
variable characteristics and was exponentially larger (in size, in expanse, in
cultural attributes) than the one that preceded. Yet, each of the four ancient
phases of global world-system (Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age,
Late Bronze Age, Roman Era) ultimately came unraveled and collapsed.
This suggests that there is something implicitly unsustainable about the
foundations of complex urban societies, not to mention the demands they
impose on their environment and human resources. This pattern furnishes a
potential warning to the contemporary pursuit of ever advancing levels of
urban growth across the globe. The undulating pattern of development,
interdependency, and growth, followed by economic disruptions, political
disturbances, and societal collapse appears to furnish an essential rhythm
to the history of human experience. The transition from scattered, highly
diverse rural populations to more centralized complex urban societies
(what archaeologists refer to as the transition from dispersed to nucleated
settlements and the reverse) forms a central theme and underlying premise
to this text.
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The assertions made in the previous paragraph are broad and far reaching,
easier to state in general terms than to prove with specifics. In particular,
several of the terms used above require working definitions. For example,
what precisely defines a civilization, not to mention a world system? To
understand how the human experience has undulated between dispersed
rural populations and interconnected world systems, we must delve
somewhat deeper into some of the basic principles of social theory and
come to terms with concepts such as culture, state formation, civilization,
world system, and globalism. This will require more detailed discussion
below.

Defining Civilization
Civilizations represent periods of heightened engagement in the processual
(step by step) development of human culture. Culture represents a crucial
building block of civilization. Human cultures evolve, expand, merge, and
progress to the point where a "critical mass" of civilization takes hold. So
what does culture entail? Anthropologists define culture as a uniquely
human system of habits and customs acquired by humans through
exosomatic processes, carried by their society and used as their primary
means of adapting to their environment. Inherent in this definition is the
insistence on learned, as opposed to genetic behavior. Birds migrate
seasonally as a result of millions of years of genetic hard-wiring; humans
harnessed fire through a process of discovery, observation, and retention of
acquired knowledge. In other words, humans in isolated cultural contexts,
such as those that existed in prehistory, acquired skills, experience, and
knowledge over time regarding ways to improve their well-being and to
adapt to a changing environment. They simultaneously handed these skills
down from one generation to the next through forms of education.
Recursive forms of education (that is, the transfer of knowledge that
repeats itself indefinitely) enable human cultures to sustain themselves
across distances of space and time. Unlike animals, prehistoric humans
learned to fashion tools for specific purposes, to remodel landscapes for
various needs, to express themselves through language and art, to
formulate hierarchies, to articulate a sense of awareness of their place in
the universe, to revere deities, and ultimately to devise appropriate ways to
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commemorate their dead. Handed down from one generation to the next,
these recursive processes have been likened to memory. Societies rely on
past and living memory of their acquired attributes to perpetuate their
existence. Awareness of the existence of unique sets of cultural attributes
holds the key to explaining past human experience. In brief, culture
reflects the single most distinctive trait that separates humankind from
other natural species.

Another essential component to urban civilization is something commonly

referred to as the process of state formation, or the identification of
definable stages in human social organization. Since all ancient
civilizations underwent some process of state formation, the mechanisms
by which this occurred in each instance become important bell weathers to
their development. Social theorists have traditionally argued that the
process of state formation entailed an evolutionary progression from
minimal forms of social organization such as hunting bands, tribes, and
chiefdoms to more advanced forms such as states, civilizations, and world
systems. Hunting bands and Tribes, for example, were loosely organized
formations based on lineage or kinship ties, or the perception of the group
as an extended family or clan. A Chiefdom is defined as an autonomous
political unit comprising a number of such entities under the permanent
control of a paramount chief. A State, on the other hand, is organized
according to permanent institutions that existed and perpetuated themselves
independent of lineage connections. A state typically displays a centralized
government that maintains a monopoly of the legitimate use of force within
a specified territory. Social structure within a state tended to be highly
stratified.

For the purposes of this book we define a Civilization as a social

organization that transcended states both in terms of the breadth of its
territorial extent and its population base. A civilization typically
incorporated numerous states within its reach. As such it might be referred
to as an extra-territorial state or an empire. For purposes of this book we
define a civilization as a uniform society that exhibits the following
characteristics.

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THE SEVEN CRITERIA FOR ANCIENT CIVILIZATION

1. URBAN CENTERS, Cities or large dense settlements
All civilizations arose from settled agricultural communities. These
communities produced food surpluses to sustain growing populations. As
clusters of small agricultural settlements expanded within the limits of a
given ecological niche, urban centers typically emerged.

2. PROFESSIONS or the separation of population into specialized

occupational groups
Due to the availability of surplus agricultural resources, all civilizations
developed labor elements that specialized in activities other than food
production. Craft, artisan, metallurgy, forestry, mercantile, finance, and
other non-agricultural professions emerged by exchanging the results of
their labor (metal wares, pottery, timber, stone) for food produced by
farming populations.

3. ELITES or a social hierarchy that was exempt from subsistence

labor
All civilizations generated stratified population elements at the top of
which stood elites. These usually included some combination of warrior
elites, priestly castes, noble aristocracies, and/or royal dynasties. Elite
elements dominated “inferior” social orders and drew upon their surpluses
to sustain themselves, thus freeing themselves from participation in every
day subsistence labor. These elites invariably justified their elevated status
by furnishing military protection, religious direction, political
representation, legal authority, infrastructure, and civic order to those
below.

4. PUBLIC WEALTH or the ability to extract and store surpluses in

the form of taxes and tribute
In addition to rents and dues obtained by elites to sustain themselves,
ruling hierarchies also imposed various forms of taxes in the interest of the
state. These resources would be used to finance activities to benefit the
common good, such as offerings to the gods or the construction of urban
defenses. Poll taxes, property taxes, income taxes, import and export
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duties, manumission and sales taxes were all devised by early civilizations.
The human lament of "death and taxes" has been a constant since the
beginning of recorded history. Tribute was slightly different in that tribute
was a tax imposed on subject states by an dominant state. This indicates
the existence of an empire or extraterritorial state, a political formation
recorded in Sumer already by 2700 BC. From the perspective of a
dominant imperial hierarchy, tribute enabled it to sustain itself, to obtain
prestige goods from distant populations, and to deploy its forces against
outside threats, thus furnishing security to subject states. From the vantage
point of the subject states, however, tribute amounted to a form of
extortion imposed on an already overburdened native population. Tribute
payments inevitably provoked impoverishment, resentment, and rebellion.
This problem will be discussed in greater detail below.

5. CANONICAL EXPRESSIONS OF AESTHETIC ACHIEVEMENT

(fine arts and monumental architecture)
Civilizations encouraged the development of formal schools of art and
design. These enabled the inhabitants to generate more finely articulated
expressions of aesthetic achievement than those possible in less complex
societies. In architectural development, sometimes the sheer size and scale
of monuments surpassed anything that could have been produced by a
smaller population. But there is more – training, skill, and the application
of sophisticated methods of science (mathematics, geometry, etc.),
technique, and design enable architects to construct structures that are
straighter, more angular, or rounder than anything that exists in nature.
Artists reproduced the human form in ways that were precise yet emotive.
The visual effect of these perfect forms (encompassing aspects of
symmetry, and congruence of lines) have been shown to stimulate the
human mind in significant ways, triggering cognitive responses -- a sense
of awe, inspiration, emotion, and well being. Well-designed emblems of
aesthetic achievement have the capacity to express the significance of
human existence unattainable otherwise, to represent it symbolically, and
to instill in the viewer a belief that life has meaning. Not by coincidence
most high art during antiquity was rooted in religion. While the fine arts of
any civilization inevitably emerge from more primitive forms of artistic
expression, recursive institutions were essential to the development and
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sustainability of high art. The transition from round huts in Prepottery

Neolithic A (9500-8500 BC) to rectangular houses with drafted corners
arrayed on a grid in Prepottery Neolithic B (8700 - 6000 BC) is generally
recognized as a significant cultural achievement and demonstrates the
importance of learning. To make straight walls and angled corners required
enhanced knowledge of and training in techniques of survey, mathematics,
geometry, and drafting. These were precisely the kinds of skills that could
disappear when recursive institutions ceased to exist. As schools emerged,
their graduates designed canonical forms of aesthetic expression that
became recognized and reproduced as the emblems of their society’s
collective cultural memory. As high art and architecture these expressions
were transmitted spatially and temporally. The vestiges of these
expressions in monumental architecture, sculpture, and the arts tend to
distinguish the cultural attributes of one civilization from another and are
very much a part of their historical record.

6. CREATURE COMFORTS or the development of permanent forms

of domestic shelter
One of the principal requirements of any urban civilization is to generate
habitats, or safe, secure means of shelter to its inhabitants. Most
civilizations developed primitive systems of urban infrastructure to
improve the general quality of life. These might include insulated houses
with terracotta roofs to withstand the elements. Houses might contain
indoor plumbing, means of heating and cooking, furnishings such as
tables, chairs and beds, and bathing and toilet facilities. Large scale, well
organized water systems were essential to direct and to distribute fresh,
clean water across urban landscapes. Sewerage systems were equally
necessary to draw away waste materials and to diminish the risk of
contagion or disease. Streets and roads were necessary to import bulk
quantities of agricultural goods from surrounding hinterlands, just as
massive storage facilities and market places were essential for the
distribution of surplus commodities throughout the population. All of these
result in artificial landscapes or built environments constructed through
human labor. One of the more recent ways to assess the achievements of
past civilizations is to calibrate the quality of creature comforts (quality of
life or well being) that it furnished to its residents. Such comforts need to
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be evaluated vertically as well as horizontally. To what extent did creature

comforts extend beyond the social elites to lower elements of society? To
what degree did similar levels of creature comfort and household
technology extend beyond the core urban centers to the periphery?

7. LITERACY or a System of Writing

All great civilizations developed a system of writing, preserving for us at
least some partial record of their historical experience. Writing enabled
them to record their accomplishments and cultural achievements, and
usually some manifestation of an articulated world-view, whether
philosophical or religious. Even when restricted to a limited elite, literacy
helped to sustain the recursive process of stored cultural memory. It not
only enabled societies to hand down knowledge from one generation to the
next, but it also facilitated the assimilation of that knowledge by newly
arrived outsiders, or the exportation of the same to neighboring societies
(something referred to as cultural diffusion), thus enabling outsiders to
adapt to their new situation and gradually to merge with the native
population.

To define a particular human culture as a civilization presupposes a

number of assumptions that might be interpreted as bias. While
recognizing these shortcomings, the author uses these criteria to focus on
those civilizations that seem to have exerted the greatest possible impact
on the development of ancient world systems. Due to their superior labor
power, surplus resources, stratified societies, military capacity, accessible
technologies, and in many instances the advantageous environments in
which they settled (something referred to as geographical determinism),
certain civilizations managed to exert authority over less developed
populations and natural resources within their horizons. These states
successfully tapped into new and different resources further abroad, while
retaining neighboring peoples in subordinate positions. Asymmetrical
relationships, in which more advanced civilizations, or core polities,
dominated the activities of subordinate or periphery polities form the basis
of social constructs known as world systems. Simply put, world system
emerged when a more advanced civilization assumed control over the
economic activities of less advanced neighboring populations, particularly
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by exploiting the neighboring peoples' available natural resources.

Invariably, the relationship emerged as one in which the core polity
exported costly, technologically more advanced finished goods (such as
metal wares, ceramic fine wares, household furnishings, textiles, works of
art, wine, and olive oil) to peripheral states in exchange for abundant,
unfinished natural resources such as timber, stone, metals, human
prisoners, and raw foodstuffs. The more advanced core polity used its
wealth and power to manipulate flows of material, energy, and people at a
macroregional (world-system) scale through the establishment of ties of
super ordinance and dependency.

One scenario posits that the wider the range of a civilization’s trading
capacity the larger its capacity for growth. This is where globalism enters
the picture. Implied in each of these assumptions is the tendency for urban
societies to expand and grow to some undeterminable size. Typically, a
society will expand to the limits of the carrying capacity of its immediate
ecological niche. The question at that point becomes one of sustainability.
Control of peoples and resources on the periphery typically enabled
localized economies to continue to expand; they could also lead to contact
with civilizations further removed. The extension of communications
further and further abroad formed the basis of an emerging macroregional
or global world system. This is what appears to have occurred during the
Early and Late Bronze Ages and again during the Roman Era. It needs to
be emphasized, however, that no past civilization was monolithic in
character; each civilization consisted of a patchwork of neighboring
cultural entities that tended more often than not to preserve their own
separate identities while assimilating some veneer of the mainstream
culture espoused by the hierarchy. In each instance, however, cultural
attributes of the dominant society tended to remodel those of neighboring
peoples. This propelled them through space and time along common
cultural trajectories.

Theories for World Systems Collapse

For complicated reasons ancient urban societies failed to sustain their
trajectories of growth. At certain pivotal moments, at the end of the Early
Bronze Age, the Middle Bronze Age, the Late Bronze Age, and the Roman
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Era, geographically distant civilizations appear to have experienced

synchronous patterns of political, social, and economic collapse. The
historical record suggests, in fact, that the human experience has
undergone an undulating pattern of rise and fall. In the final chapter of this
book we will discuss various arguments to explain the phenomenon of
societal collapse. For now it suffices to recognize that recurring patterns of
societal rise and fall form an unmistakable template to the course of human
history. It is precisely at the juncture between societal growth and collapse
that arguments derived from resilience theory become pivotal. Given the
fundamental importance of this theory to the construct of this book, we
must impose on the reader’s patience slightly further to explain its purpose.

According to resilience theory, the natural world exists generally in a

dynamic state of change, invariably cycling through four recognizable
phases: rapid growth, conservation, release, and reorganization. Those
who adhere to the argument of ecological economics recognize this
process of rise and fall, or growth and collapse, as inevitable phases of
systems dynamics. When applied to human activity, in other words,
resilience theory posits that human social-ecological systems cycle through
the same four recognizable phases (rapid growth, conservation, release,
and reorganization) as other natural systems. In the human historical
experience the fore loop of rapid growth and conservation may be
identified with eras of large urban civilizations; the back loop of release
and reorganization with societal collapse and a reversion back to
subsistence forms of production. If dynamic change is the one constant
variable in nature, then the tendency of human societies to sustain
themselves, or even to attempt to sustain themselves, at peak levels of
urban complexity becomes counterintuitive. Inevitably significant changes
will occur. Despite a number of issues that remain unanswered, it is
important to recognize for now that the undulating pattern of rise and fall
visible in the history of human experience appears to resemble the
recurring fore loops and back loops of the wider ecosystem.

In this chapter we have progressed through an array of definitions that

underpin the assumptions in this textbook. We have explored notions of
culture, state, and civilization, the formation of world systems, and global
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interconnectivity. We have posited the theory that patterns of societal rise

and fall in human history closely resemble those that exist in nature. These
concepts furnish an essential toolkit to be employed in the pages that
follow.

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