Early Civilizations of the Old World

The formative histories of Egypt, the
Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China

Charles Keith Maisels - Early Civilizations of the Old World, © 1999


To the genius of Titus Lucretius Carus (99/95 BC - 55 BC)
and his insight into the real nature of things.


1. HOW DOES THE PAST ILLUMINATE THE PRESENT?
The emergence of archaeology as a scientific discipline
The lands of the Bible ( = Near East)
Social archaeology
Childe’s checklist
The present illuminated: paths of the past, spirals to the future

2. SEMA-TAWY: THE LAND OF THE PAPYRUS AND LOTUS
The place
The time
Late Palaeolithic
Epipalaeolithic to Neolithic
State formation process
Childe’s checklist

3. THE LEVANT AND MESOPOTAMIA
The place
The time
Syria and the Levant
To the heartland of cities in Sumer, via Hassuna,
Samarra and Halaf village farming cultures
The social order
Conclusion
Childe’s checklist

4. THE INDUS/‘HARAPPAN’/SARASVATI CIVILIZATION
The place
The time
Social evolution: Neolithic to Chalcolithic at Mehrgarh
Later agricultural subsistence
Urban society
The misrepresentation of the Greater Indus oecumene
Class stratification
The fall
Palaeoethnology: kinship to caste
Conclusion
Childe’s checklist

5. THE CENTRAL KINGDOM, ZHONG-GUO
The place
The time
The Neolithic clusters
Final Neolithic to Chalcolithic
The Chalcolithic: Longshan
The Chalcolithic: Hongshan
Clanship and the territorial state
Bronze Age urbanism
States: The three dynasties
The late Shang capital at Anyang
The earlier Shang capital at Zhengzhou
Western Zhou
Childe’s checklist

6. CONCLUSION: THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY
How useful do Childe’s criteria turn out to be?
Childe’s other revolution
Political economies
Politics and the state
Social evolution