ANCIENT

Ancient Chinese Inventions and Discoveries that Shaped the World

October 12, 2012 41 Comments
Ancient Chinese Inventions and Discoveries that Shaped the World
Long recognized in the West for its natural and man-made monuments,
for its silks and its satins and for its delectable cuisine, China is also
credited with inventions and discoveries which continue to influence our
world today as they did at their inception.
For the better part of fifteen hundred years, the Chinese civilization has
given birth to inventions and developments in navigation, spiritual
balance, mathematics and natural prevention and diagnosis; since it was
this culture that was responsible for the invention and the discovery of
such things as porcelain, paper, fishing reels, church bells, rudders, solar
wind, the circulation of blood in the human body, the suspension bridge,
the technique for drilling for natural gas, the iron plough, the seed drill,
the mechanical clock, the seismograph, planting and hoeing techniques
and the compass.
If you’ve read a book or newspaper, flown a kite, regained your sense of
direction by using a compass, enjoyed a fireworks display, worn a soft
silk shirt or eaten spaghetti, you’ve encountered a just a few amazing
Chinese inventions.
When the Italian merchant Marco Polo visited China during the Song
Dynasty in 1271, he found a place far more technologically advanced than
anywhere in Western Europe.
Here are just a few and far-reaching contributions of the Chinese:
Abacus: The Chinese developed the abacus, a counting device, around 100 AD. By the 1300’s it
was perfected and given the form it still has
today.
The instrument consisted of a rectangular
wooden frame with parallel rods. Each rod
holds beads as counters. The rods are separated
into upper and lower parts by a crossbar. Each
bead above the crosspiece is worth five units,
and each below is worth one. The rungs or
rods from right to left indicate place value in
powers of ten — ones, tens, hundred, and so on.
Note: While the first documentation of a
Chinese Abacus has been dated around the
14th century, some form of the abacus or
counting rods have appeared in history as early as 2700 BC in ancient Sumaria. Mentioned in
ancient Roman texts, as well as among Egyptian hieroglyphics and Greek artifacts dated as early as
300 BC, the abacus has survived the centuries with its purpose intact. It is basically a tool for
counting and performing basic arithmetic. Most often constructed of a wood frame with beads
sliding on wire or wooden pegs, the abacus is still used today in many cultures.

Alcohol: Newly unearthed evidence suggests that we have the Chinese to thank for inventing
alcohol. Analysis of 9000-year-old pottery shards found in the Henan province revealed the
presence of alcohol, 1000 years before inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, previously believed to
be the first brewers. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania used a combination of
chemical, archaeo-botanical and archaeological techniques to study dried organic material found at
the base of the jars.
A large number of pottery wine vessels were
discovered in Shangdong at the runis of the
Dawenkou culture which dates back 5,000
years. Recorded history tells about wine- making
techniques of more than 4,000 years ago.Many
alcoholic beverages have been used in China
since the prehistoric times. Wine jars from Jiahu
which date to about 7000 BC are the earliest
evidence of alcohol in China. The fermented drink was produced by rice, honey and fruit. In China,
alcohol is known as Jiu and is considered to be a spiritual food which played an important role in
their religious life. As per a Chinese imperial edict at around 1116 BC it was believed that the use
of alcohol in moderation was prescribed by heaven.The earliest wines were made from food grains,
mainly various kinds of rice, broomcorn and millet. As a result of improvements in brewing skills,
the yellow wine made its appearance probably in the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.). From
an ancient tomb of the Warring States in Pingshan County of Hebei Province, large numbers of
wine-storing and drinking vessels were excavated in the 1970s. Two of them contain an alcoholic
drink made from wheat 2,280 years ago. It is probably the oldest liquor ever brought to light in the
world.

Canals and Locks: Imperial China’s construction of waterways to connect different parts of its vast
territory produced some of the world’s greatest water
engineering projects. One of the most impressive was
the building of the Grand Canal. Construction of the
first Grand Canal began in the early 600’s to connect
the Yellow River (Hwang He) in the north with the
Yangzi River (Chiang Jiang) in the south. The project
lasted for many centuries as it was constantly enlarged
and repaired. Once the Grand Canal was in use, people
could carry messages and ships could carry rice back
and forth. Canal locks were another innovation in the
10th century. These allowed boats to go uphill and
downhill, by raising or lowering the water level within the lock. Click here to see how a lock
works. This invention allowed boats to travel farther inland. Today locks are used in places like
Niagara Falls and the Panama Canal.

Clock: One of the greatest inventions of the medieval world was the mechanical clock. The
difficulty in inventing a mechanical clock was to figure out a way in which a wheel no bigger than
a room could turn at the same speed as the Earth, but still be turning more or less continuously.
If this could be accomplished, then the wheel became a mini Earth and could tell the time. Yi Xing,
a Buddhist monk, made the first model of a mechanical
clock in 725 AD. This clock operated by dripping water
that powered a wheel which made one full revolution in
24 hours. An iron and bronze system of wheels and gears
made the clock turn. This system caused the chiming of a
bell on the hour. Su Sung’s great ‘Cosmic Engine’ of
1092 was 35 feet high. At the top was a power driven
sphere for observing the positions of the stars. The power
for turning it was transmitted from the dripping water by
a chain drive. A celestial globe inside the tower turned in
synch with the sphere above. It was two more centuries
before the first mechanical clock was developed in
Europe.
 Compass: Recognized in Chinese as Si Nan, this early version of today’s compass came in the
form of a two-part instrument, the first one a metal spoon made of magnetic loadstone, the second
one a square bronze plate, which featured, in Chinese characters, the main directions of North,
South, East, West, etc., symbols from the I-Ching oracle books, and the finer markings of 24
compass points
with the 28 lunar
mansions along
the outer edge.

These two
components were
spiritual and
physical
opposites, the
spoon representing
Heaven and the
plate representing
Earth, which,
when brought into
contact, would
guide the
observers in the
right direction.
The original
lacquered earth
plate, dating to the
4th century BCE,
is currently on
display at the
Museum of
Chinese History.
Crossbow: The use of the bow and arrow for hunting and for war dates back to the Paleolithic period
in Africa, Asia, and Europe. It was widely used in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, the
Americas, and Europe until the introduction of
gunpowder.
However, over two thousand years ago in China, the
crossbow was invented as an innovation to the basic
bow and arrow that extended the use of mechanical
hand weapons throughout the world. Arrowheads were
first made of burnt wood, then stone or bone, and then
metals. Various woods and bones were used for the
bow itself. However, it was not a powerful weapon
until the invention of the compound, or composite,
bow around 1500 B.C. on the steppes of Central Asia.
A composite bow is made of various materials (wood,
horn, sinew) glued together so as to increase their
natural strength and elasticity. Bows and arrows were among the dominant weapons used by
Assyrian chariots, Parthian cavalry, Mongol horsemen, and English longbowmen.
Chinese literary records, such as Zhao Ye: The Romance of Wu and Yue, place the invention of the
crossbow in China during the Warring States period in the kingdom of Chu about 500 BCE. Many
contemporary writers, for example Yang Hong and Zhu Fenghan contend the that the often cited
inventor, Ch’in, improved upon a trigger mechanism, and that the crossbow may have existed from
the seventh century BCE or even much earlier. Some archeological evidence indicates support the
time of development of the crossbow in China to the eneolithic or chalcolithic period around 2000
BCE. One of the earliest representaions is found in the Smith College Virtual Museum of Ancient
Inventions.
In China, the crossbow revolutionized warfare. A crossbow is a bow set horizontally on a stock. It
fires arrows or bolts propelled by the mechanical energy of a taut bowstring. It could be more
powerful than the ordinary bow and could fire multiple arrows, darts, or stones. Some designs were
slower to fire than the longbow while others were small and useful for close combat.
Gunpowder and Fireworks; Gunpowder is the first explosive substance mankind learnt to use and
also one of the four great inventions of ancient China. The invention of gunpowder should in a way
be attributed to alchemists of ancient China, who drew inspiration from the fire-ignition of pill-
making process during which sulfur, niter and other substances were used. They subsequently
created the formula for gunpowder. When the formula was in the hands of strategists, the
gunpowder was turned into black powder used in
warfare.
The military applications of gunpowder began at the
end of the Tang Dynasty. According to record, there
were siege-breaking battles using “flying fire” at that
time. People used a stone-projector to send off lit
gunpowder packs to burn the enemy. In the Song
Dynasty, the government set up gunpowder
workshops, where flammable or explosive weapons
like “fire cannon”, “rocket” and “missile” etc were
produced in various periods. In 1,259 AD, something
called “erupter” was introduced. It was a device with bamboo pipes, in which gunpowder was
loaded. In the Yuan Dynasty, a weapon named bronze cannon came into being. In mid-16th
century, a new type of rocket called “the Fire Dragon Issuing from the Water” was introduced. The
rocket is regarded as the earliest ancestor of two-stage rockets. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a
military rocket called “flying crow with magic fire” with rather strong explosive power. These
primitive firearms propelled by gunpowder explosion demonstrated unprecedented power in
warfare. They are the originators of modern-day weapons.
Gunpowder was also used in acrobat and puppet shows to decorate the stage and create a
mysterious atmosphere. People of the Song Dynasty used gunpowder in stunning performances like
spraying fire, invisiblizing stage characters and conjuring up things etc. The audience couldn’t help
but marvel the magic.
In the 12th and 13th century, gunpowder was
introduced to Arab countries before its journey to
Greece and other European countries. Gunpowder put
an end to the “cold weapon era” and ushered in a new
chapter in war history, causing a far-reaching impact
on the development of human history. Gunpowder was
also used in other areas, such as the making of
fireworks and firecrackers, making people’s life more colorful.
In the year 1161, the Chinese used explosives for the first time in warfare with the invention of
cannons and guns. They also used gunpowder to make primitive flamethrowers and even explosive
mines and multiple-stage rockets. The use of gunpowder in weapons gave those with access to the
technology a greater ability to protect themselves from enemies or to conquer and control others. It
greatly affected the balance of power in many parts of the world. Chinese firearms, fireworks and
gunpowder were popular items of trade along the Silk Road to Europe.

Iron and Bronze: Coming much earlier than it did in other civilizations; the Bronze Age in Chinese
history was especially significant. It was during this period around 3000 BC that Chinese metal
workers discovered how to make bronze from copper and tin, producing an easier casting method
that allowed them to make sharper cutting tools. Bronze has been especially associated with the
Chinese culture, and it became the medium used by sculptors who crafted such masterpieces as the

elephant drinking vessel.

 Paper Money: The Chinese invented paper money
in the 9th century AD. Its original name was flying
money because it was so light it could blow out of
one’s hand. As exchange certificates used by
merchants, paper money was quickly adopted by the
government for forwarding tax payments. In 1024,
the Song government took over the printing of
paper money and used it as a medium of exchange
backed by deposited “cash,” a Chinese term for
metal coins. The first Muslim bankers used a
checking system by the 1200’s, followed by Italian
bankers in the 1400’s. Paper money is still the most
common form of currency around the world.

Porcelain: The invention of porcelain was China’s great contribution to the world civilization. The
word china when capitalized is recognized as the
name of the country. Around 16th century BC in
the middle of the Shang Dynasty (17th – 11th
century BC), the early-stage porcelain appeared in
China.
The firing techniques were rough in both the
bodies and the glazes and the firing temperature
was comparatively low, so porcelain of that time is
called primitive porcelain for its primitive and
transitional nature. Porcelain derived from pottery.
The ancient Chinese ancestors invented porcelain,
drawing on the experience of firing the white
pottery and the hard stamped pottery. The Chinese
probably made the first true porcelain during the
Tang dynasty. The techniques for combining the
proper ingredients and firing the mixture at
extremely high temperatures gradually developed out of the manufacture of stoneware. During the
Song dynasty, Chinese emperors started royal factories to produce porcelain for their palaces.
Since the 1300’s, most Chinese porcelain has been made in the city of Jingdezhen.
Collectors regard many porcelain bowls and vases produced during the Ming dynasty and Qing
dynasty as artistic treasures. Porcelain makers perfected a famous blue and white underglazed
procelain during the Ming period. Painting over the glaze with enamel colors also became a
common decorating technique at this time. During the Qing period, the Chinese developed a great
variety of patterns and colors and exported porcelain objects to Europe in increasing numbers. By
the 1100’s, the secret of making porcelain had spread to Korea and to Japan in the 1500’s. Workers
in these countries also created beautiful porcelain objects. A Japanese porcelain called Kakiemon
was first produced during the 1600’s.

Roads and Relay Hostels: Roads and relay hostels,

or inns, greatly improved communication and trade
throughout the vast land of China. By the late
700’s, inns offered horses and food to travelers,
and provided places for government officials to
stay for the night during long journeys. The system
of roads allowed government inspectors, tax
collectors, and postal messengers to move long
distances. Messengers delivered mail across
hundreds of miles. Merchants could carry trade
goods such as rice, tea, silk, and seafood without
fear of bandits.
Sciences: astronomy, physics, chemistry, meteorology, seismology, technology, engineering, and
mathematics can trace their early origins to China. Scholars routinely discovered scientific
principles and invented new ones. A number of notable astronomical discoveries were made prior
to the application of the telescope. For example, the obliquity of the ecliptic was estimated as early
as 1000 BC by Chinese astronomers. From 600 AD until 1500 AD, China was the world’s most
technologically advanced society. The history of science and technology in China is both long and
rich with many contributions to science and technology. In antiquity, ancient Chinese philosophers
made significant advances in science, technology, mathematics, and astronomy. The first recorded
observations of comets, solar eclipses, and supernovae were made in China.
TECHNOLOGY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
The beginnings—Stone Age technology (to c. 3000 bce)
The identification of the history of technology with the history of humanlike species does not

help in fixing a precise point for its origin, because the estimates of prehistorians and

anthropologists concerning the emergence of human species vary so widely. Animals

occasionally use natural tools such as sticks or stones, and the creatures that became

human doubtless did the same for hundreds of millennia before the first giant step of

fashioning their own tools. Even then it was an interminable time before they put such

toolmaking on a regular basis, and still more aeons passed as they arrived at the successive

stages of standardizing their simple stone choppers and pounders and of manufacturing

them—that is, providing sites and assigning specialists to the work. A degree of

specialization in toolmaking was achieved by the time of the Neanderthals (70,000 bce);

more-advanced tools, requiring assemblage of head and haft, were produced by Cro-

Magnons (perhaps as early as 35,000 bce); while the application of mechanical principles

was achieved by pottery-making Neolithic (New Stone Age; 6000bce) and Metal Age peoples

(about 3000 bce).

Earliest communities
For all except approximately the past 10,000 years, humans lived almost entirely in small

nomadic communities dependent for survival on their skills in gathering food, hunting and

fishing, and avoiding predators. It is reasonable to suppose that most of these communities

developed in tropical latitudes, especially in Africa, where climatic conditions are most

favourable to a creature with such poor bodily protection as humans have. It is also

reasonable to suppose that tribes moved out thence into the subtropical regions and
eventually into the landmass of Eurasia, although their colonization of this region must have

been severely limited by the successive periods of glaciation, which rendered large parts of it

inhospitable and even uninhabitable, even though humankind has shown remarkable

versatility in adapting to such unfavourable conditions.

The Neolithic Revolution

Toward the end of the last ice age, some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, a few of the

communities that were most favoured by geography and climate began to make the transition

from the long period of Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, savagery to a more settled way of life

depending on animal husbandry and agriculture. This period of transition, the Neolithic

Period, or New Stone Age, led eventually to a marked rise in population, to a growth in the

size of communities, and to the beginnings of town life. It is sometimes referred to as the

Neolithic Revolution because the speed of technological innovation increased so greatly and

human social and political organization underwent a corresponding increase in complexity.

To understand the beginnings of technology, it is thus necessary to survey developments

from the Old Stone Age through the New Stone Age down to the emergence of the first urban

civilizations about 3000 bce.

Stone
The material that gives its name and a technological unity to these periods of prehistory is

stone. Though it may be assumed that primitive humans used other materials such as wood,

bone, fur, leaves, and grasses before they mastered the use of stone, apart from bone

antlers, presumably used as picks in flint mines and elsewhere, and other fragments of bone

implements, none of these has survived. The stone tools of early humans, on the other hand,

have survived in surprising abundance, and over the many millennia of prehistory important
advances in technique were made in the use of stone. Stones became tools only when they

were shaped deliberately for specific purposes, and, for this to be done efficiently, suitable

hard and fine-grained stones had to be found and means devised for shaping them and

particularly for putting a cutting edge on them. Flint became a very popular stone for this

purpose, although fine sandstones and certain volcanic rocks were also widely used. There is

much Paleolithic evidence of skill in flaking and polishing stones to make scraping and cutting

tools. These early tools were held in the hand, but gradually ways of protecting the hand from

sharp edges on the stone, at first by wrapping one end in fur or grass or setting it in a

wooden handle, were devised. Much later the technique of fixing the stone head to a haft

converted these hand tools into more versatile tools and weapons.

With the widening mastery of the material world in the Neolithic Period, other substances

were brought into service, such as clay for pottery and brick, and increasing competence in

handling textile raw materials led to the creation of the first woven fabrics to take the place of

animal skins. About the same time, curiosity about the behaviour of metallic oxides in the

presence of fire promoted one of the most significant technological innovations of all time and

marked the succession from the Stone Age to the Metal Age.

Power
The use of fire was another basic technique mastered at some unknown time in the Old

Stone Age. The discovery that fire could be tamed and controlled and the further discovery

that a fire could be generated by persistent friction between two dry wooden surfaces were

momentous. Fire was the most important contribution of prehistory to power technology,

although little power was obtained directly from fire except as defense against wild animals.

For the most part, prehistoric communities remained completely dependent upon manpower,
but, in making the transition to a more settled pattern of life in the New Stone Age, they

began to derive some power from animals that had been domesticated. It also seems likely

that by the end of prehistoric times the sail had emerged as a means of harnessing the wind

for small boats, beginning a long sequence of developments in marine transport.

Tools and weapons

The basic tools of prehistoric peoples were determined by the materials at their disposal. But

once they had acquired the techniques of working stone, they were resourceful in devising

tools and weapons with points and barbs. Thus, the stone-headed spear, the harpoon, and

the arrow all came into widespread use. The spear was given increased impetus by the

spear-thrower, a notched pole that gave a sling effect. The bow and arrow were an even

more effective combination, the use of which is clearly demonstrated in the earliest

“documentary” evidence in the history of technology, the cave paintings of southern France

and northern Spain, which depict the bow being used in hunting. The ingenuity of these

primitive hunters is also shown in their slings, throwing-sticks (the boomerang of the

Australian Aborigines is a remarkable surviving example), blowguns, bird snares, fish and

animal traps, and nets. These tools did not evolve uniformly, as each primitive community

developed only those instruments that were most suitable for its own specialized purposes,

but all were in use by the end of the Stone Age. In addition, the Neolithic Revolution had

contributed some important new tools that were not primarily concerned with hunting. These

were the first mechanical applications of rotary action in the shape of the potter’s wheel, the

bow drill, the pole lathe, and the wheel itself. It is not possible to be sure when these

significant devices were invented, but their presence in the early urban civilizations suggests

some continuity with the late Neolithic Period. The potter’s wheel, driven by kicks from the
operator, and the wheels of early vehicles both gave continuous rotary movement in one

direction. The drill and the lathe, on the other hand, were derived from the bow and had the

effect of spinning the drill piece or the workpiece first in one direction and then in the other.

Developments in food production brought further refinements in tools. The processes of food

production in Paleolithic times were simple, consisting ofgathering, hunting, and fishing. If

these methods proved inadequate to sustain a community, it moved to better hunting

grounds or perished. With the onset of the Neolithic Revolution, new food-producing skills

were devised to serve the needs of agriculture and animal husbandry. Digging sticks and the

first crude plows, stone sickles, querns that ground grain by friction between two stones and,

most complicated of all, irrigation techniques for keeping the ground watered and fertile—all

these became well established in the great subtropical river valleys of Egypt and

Mesopotamia in the millennia before 3000 bce.

Building techniques
Prehistoric building techniques also underwent significant developments in the Neolithic

Revolution. Nothing is known of the building ability of Paleolithic peoples beyond what can be

inferred from a few fragments of stone shelters, but in the New Stone Age some impressive

structures were erected, primarily tombs and burial mounds and other religious edifices, but

also, toward the end of the period, domestic housing in which sun-dried brick was first used.

In northern Europe, where the Neolithic transformation began later than around the eastern

Mediterranean and lasted longer, huge stone monuments, of which Stonehenge in England is

the outstanding example, still bear eloquent testimony to the technical skill, not to mention

the imagination and mathematical competence, of the later Stone Age societies.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing industry had its origin in the New Stone Age, with the application of techniques

for grinding corn, baking clay, spinning and weaving textiles, and also, it seems likely, for

dyeing, fermenting, and distilling. Some evidence for all these processes can be derived from

archaeological findings, and some of them at least were developing into specialized crafts by

the time the first urban civilizations appeared. In the same way, the early metalworkers were

beginning to acquire the techniques of extracting and working the softer metals, gold, silver,

copper, and tin, that were to make their successors a select class of craftsmen. All these

incipient fields of specialization, moreover, implied developing trade between different

communities and regions, and again the archaeological evidence of the transfer of

manufactured products in the later Stone Age is impressive. Flint arrowheads of particular

types, for example, can be found widely dispersed over Europe, and the implication of a

common locus of manufacture for each is strong.

Such transmission suggests improving facilities for transport and communication. Paleolithic

people presumably depended entirely on their own feet, and this remained the normal mode

of transport throughout the Stone Age. Domestication of the ox, the donkey, and the camel

undoubtedly brought some help, although difficulties in harnessing the horse long delayed its

effective use. The dugout canoe and the birch-bark canoe demonstrated the potential of

water transport, and, again, there is some evidence that the sail had already appeared by the

end of the New Stone Age.

It is notable that the developments so far described in human prehistory took place over a

long period of time, compared with the 5,000 years of recorded history, and that they took

place first in very small areas of the Earth’s surface and involved populations minute by
modern criteria. The Neolithic Revolution occurred first in those parts of the world with an

unusual combination of qualities: a warm climate, encouraging rapid crop growth, and an

annual cycle of flooding that naturally regenerated the fertility of the land. On the Eurasian-

African landmass such conditions occur only in Egypt, Mesopotamia, northern India, and

some of the great river valleys of China. It was there, then, that men and women of the New

Stone Age were stimulated to develop and apply new techniques of agriculture, animal

husbandry, irrigation, and manufacture, and it was there that their enterprise was rewarded

by increasing productivity, which encouraged the growth of population and triggered a

succession of sociopolitical changes that converted the settled Neolithic communities into the

first civilizations. Elsewhere the stimulus to technological innovation was lacking or was

unrewarded, so that those areas had to await the transmission of technical expertise from the

more highly favoured areas. Herein is rooted the separation of the great world civilizations,

for while the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations spread their influence westward

through the Mediterranean and Europe, those of India and China were limited by

geographical barriers to their own hinterlands, which, although vast, were largely isolated

from the mainstream of Western technological progress.

The Ancient City

Definition

by Joshua J. Mark
published on 05 April 2014

In the study of the ancient world a City is generally defined as a large populated
urban center of commerce and administration with a system of laws and, usually,
regulated means of sanitation. This is only one definition, however, and the
designation `City' can be based on such factors as the:
● population of the settlement
● height of buildings
● density of buildings/population
● presence of some kind of sewer system
● level of administrative government
● presence of walls and/or fortifications
● geographical area of the settlement
● or whether a `settlement' was called a `city' in antiquity and fits at least one
of the above qualifications.
In the ancient world, very often a `city' describes an urban center of dense
population and a certain pattern of buildings spreading out from a central religious
complex such as a temple (though, frustratingly, this could sometimes apply
equally well to a `village' or `settlement'). The word `city’ derives from the Latin
civitas although urban development pre-dates Rome by many centuries. Professor
M. E. Smith of Arizona State University writes inThe Sage Encyclopedia of Urban
Studies, that, "The demographic definition, based on the concepts of Louis Wirth,
identifies cities as large, dense settlements with social heterogeneity" (26),
meaning that they are defined as large communities of people who have decided to
live together for a common purpose under laws observed by all. This definition,
however, could apply equally well to large villages as to cities.
 George Modelski, of the University of Washington, encourages a definition
Professor
based on the work of the historian Tertius Chandler (in his book Four Thousand
Years of Urban Growth) which defines a city, as distinct from a village, based upon
population. Modelski writes:
Two elements go into a population estimate: the archaeologists’ site assessment (be it the area of urban
settlement in general, or an estimate, or actual count, of houses), and a population density factor, be it
`macro’ for the entire urban site, or `micro’, per house ratio…The micro-estimate requires a reliable
house count, and that is not really available for most of the sites. On the other hand, a macro-factor is
liable to error, such as ignoring local conditions (3).
Despite the problems inherent in these estimates, Modelski claims, they are still the
best way in which to differentiate a large settlement from an actual city because
population density is considered the most reliable factor in making such a
determination. Adopting Chandler’s means of definition, then, settlements such as
Tell Brak in modern-day Syria (first founded in c. 6000 BCE) cannot be considered
cities. Professor Smith writes:
The concept of the `urban revolution’, first identified by V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957 CE), describes a
series of social changes that brought about the development of the earliest cities and states… These
changes (such as the origin of social classes and the production of an agricultural surplus) provided the
social context for the earliest cities. Once class-structured state societies took hold in a region, individual
cities rose and fell in response to a variety of forces (26).