Chapter 13 - Origins of Cities and States
Describe the Erlitou Period/Xia Dynasty (1900-1530 BC)
- 'The City' size: 300 ha (hectres) - Had public buildings that sit around the central cluster of buildings aka "Palace city" - Separate from everything else (Residences for the elite)
When and where was first writing in the New World found?
- (650 BC) - From Tres Zapotez (Stela C) - Through calendars
Describe the Nile Valley in Egypt
- 1000 km long - Sudan to Mediterranean - Late glacial - early Holocene: watered - Present - no rain
What happened to population in Teotihuacan?
- AD 1: Started as twin towns - AD 150-600: 120,000 - Well planned, grid system
What are 3 key 'sub' ministries the state?
- Agriculture, Commerce & Taxation - Citizenship, Immigration and Foreign Affairs - Justice & Defense
Describe a cuneiform tablet
- Antediluvian King List (list of kings and cities before the flood) - Babylonia, 2000-1800 BC
Describe San Lorenzo
- Basalt heads (40 tonnes) - Moved 80+ km
Describe craft specialization the Erlitou Period/Xia Dynasty
- Bronze-casting - Turquoise - Jade - Elite sponsored
Describe the city plan of Uruk
- Capitals large - Fortified (walls) - Population: 100,000 - 'White Temple'
Describe Old Kingdom
- Dynasty 1 - Rapid unification - Pharaoh: Narmer (Menes) first pharaoh - Stick and whip emblems of power
Describe an ideographic tablet
- Early Dynastic I - Admintrative clay tablet (3000 BC)
Describe Sumerian religion
- Everything is in chaos - God created humans (Gods are landowners, humans are the servants) - Fear punishment
Describe the City of Monte Alban
- Evidence of political unification about 500 BC in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mexico at Monte Alban - Teotihuacan dominated the valley but Monte Alban did not - intensive use of landscape - had terracing - art included enemies - Priestly elite: gods of rain, lighting, jaguar, maize
What are the common characteristics of Early States in Mesopotamia & Egypt?
- Fertile flood plains - Surplus storable, exportable - Similar principles in terms of: Chaos and order, Power and head of household And ruler to Gods
Describe the City and State of Teotihuacan
- Had 2 important pyramids: Pyramid of the Moon & Pyramid of the Sun - Had an intensive agriculture - Markets, source of obsidian, controls Gulf Coast - was bigger than Rome at height of power - 25% of population specialized in something - burnt down in AD 750
What are the characteristics of civilization?
- Have simple technology - Complex organization/management of labour - Coercion of labour (make sure everyone stays in line) - Stratification of classes (Ruler>Noble class, hard to move up) - Public state religion
What happened to the Wanka?
- Inca conquered the Wanka - BUT Inca women had to work harder and fared worse nutrition than men - Elite women actually did MORE work than the commoners
Describe the pictographic tablet
- Late Uruk - Jemdet Nasr Phase (3200-3000 BC) - Adminstrative tablet with pictographs representing wheat, jars and transport, and cylinder seal
Describe the Pharaoh
- Linear descendent of Gods (Osiris) - Great continuity and conservatism - Sole intermediary between God and humans: a living God, immortal - Supreme "shaman" - Unifier of Egypt based on mythical character
Describe: Irrigation as the Origin of the State
- Made the lands habitable or productive - Labour management and upkeep led to formation of political elite became governors of society
Describe the Early State in China
- Mixed farming: rice, millet, hemp, pigs - No irrigation - Low population density - Trade by specific tsu (patrilineal descent groups) - Fishing, hunting, foraging
Who is part of the 'Highland' of Mesoamerica?
- Monte Alban - Teotihuacan
Describe Stela C
- Numerals and paired calendars - Religious: 13 months of 20 days = 260 days - Astronomical: 18 months of 20 days + 5 = 365 days
Who is part of the 'Lowland' of Mesoamerica?
- Olmec - Maya
What is the difference between a Territorial State and a City state?
- Population density lower - Farming less intensive - Economy two-tiered: rural vs. urban - More rural than urban: rural (>90%), local products and markets, urban (<10%), elite crafts, exotic items under control of ruler (no markets)
What are the archaeological inferences about civilization?
- Population density/pressure - Decline of egalitarian ethic - Ownership: collective-institutional-private - Power based on agriculture surplus (who controls the food chain controls everything else) - Privileges elite extracts surpluses from commoners
Describe Predynastic Egypt
- Rapid cultural development - Competition leads to Naqada chiefdoms - These later become administrative units (nomes)
What are the negative examples of imperialism on women?
- Rule by force (freedom to choose the craft but not able to regulate it) - Access dependant upon class > create poverty
What did Henry Wright and Gregory Johnson say?
- Settlement sizes differing in size is an indication of how many levels of administration there were in an area (at least 3)
What are the positive effects of imperialism on women?
- Stable food supply - Relieve population from just food production to specialize
Describe the Formative Area in Mesoamerica
- Teotihuacan (1000-300 BC) characterized by small farming villages on the slopes of the Teotihuacan Valley - After 500 BC they shifted to the valley floor > probably for irrigation - Small centers emerged from 300-200 BC
Describe the differences between the City of Monte Alban and Teotihuacan
- Teotihuacan dominated the valley but Monte Alban did not - did not specialize in different crafts - Only grew up to 30'000 people - Was not an important market centre - Not laid out in a grid pattern - Did not have the resources like Teotihuacan - Far from good soil or water for irrigation
What is the difference between Territorial State conquest and City State conquest?
- Territorial state: results in a replacement of rulers - City state: results in subordinate rulers (keep ruler but you're controlled AF)
What are the differences of Early States in Mesopotamia & Egypt?
- Territorial versus city states - Less warfare in Old Kingdom - Different perception of ruler - Egypt: no separation of secular and religious power
Why was unification rapid in the Old Kingdom?
- The Nile: critical linking feature, desert insulates 'you' (protects you), difficult to attack from outside - Ethnic Unity: decreased cultural variation, spoke dialects of the same language - Transportation: linear nature of Niles fosters connections, mesopotamia had networks of city states to bypass
Describe early dynastic leadership
- War leaders become kings - Standing armies not even for defense but to mobilize their forces - Expand kingdoms
What are the consequences of state formation?
- With increased efficiency of agricultural production and distribution, states allow people in the society to be relieved of food production - They are free to become craftsmen, merchants and shit - organized religion appear
Describe Sumerian Civilization
- as economic specialization developed, social stratification became more elaborate lots of social classes (nobles, priests, merchants, slaves, etc) - unified in a single government by 3000 BC - had first evidence of writing 3000 BC
Describe early Neolithic societies
- egalitarian - then high status was assigned at birth rather than achieved
What are the reasons for the decline and collapse of states?
- environmental degradation (decline of soil productivity, drought) - disease (ex. Yellow fever in Mayan cities) - overextension aka area too large to control (ex. Roman Empire)
Describe Cities and States in Southern Iraq
- farming communitires older than the first states have been found in Sumer (also where the earliest cities and states emerged) - Sumer may now have been settles by agricultural people until people learned how to drain and irrigcate
Describe the Erligang State/Shang Dynasty (1600-1300 BC)
- in northern China = earliest state society in East Asia - Separate Inner and Outer city
Describe the Axum state in Africa
- the first official Christian state in the world - evolved in the 1st millenium and was a ceter of trade and commerce between Africa and the Arabian peninsula
What are 4 periods of cultural development in Mesopotamia?
1) Babylonian 2) Pre-Sargonic Period 3) Protolierate Period 4) Halaf/UBaid Period
What are the 3 'Periods' of Early China?
1) Longshan Period (3000-1900 BC) - Late Neolithic 2) Erlitou Period (1900-1530 BC) - Xia Dynasty 3) Erligang Period (1600-1300 BC) - Shang Dynasty
What are 2 periods in Egyptian Culture we discussed in class?
1. Predynastic (4500-3100 BC) 2. Old Kingdom (3100-2181 BC)
How many times does the Nile flood in one year?
2x therefore able to get multiples crops
When were characteristics of civilization start to appear?
3500 BC
When and Where did the first states evolve?
3500 BC in Great Mesopotamia
When was the Formative Era?
5000-3500 BC
What are chiefdoms?
A political unit, with a chief at its head integrating more than one community but not necessarily the whole society or language group
What are the 3 types of societies?
Band, Tribes and Chiefdoms
What happened before and after 6000 BC in the Near East?
Before: Few differences in wealth and status and no governmental authority beyond the village After: See differences in status among households
Who called it the Formative Era?
Elman Service
What is hyper-urbanism?
Hyper-urbanism = majority of people who lived in that city state were farmers
Describe the Ubuk Phase (4000-3000 BC)
Interacted in a competitive way, but shared similar symbols, alliances and intermarriage (therefore shared culture)
What are the 3 major centrist of the Olmec?
La Venta, Tres Zapotes, San Lorenzo
What is corvee?
Labour tax (not taxed with 'stuff')
What was the state religion of the city Teotihuacan?
Quetzacoatl, Tlaloc
What is the KEY ministry of the 'State'?
State Religion
When and where was the first evidence of writing?
Sumer - 3000 BC - hieroglyphics also appeared
Define: State
a political unit with centralized decision-making affecting a large population
What do the symbols mean in a ideographic tablet?
abstract ideas
Describe cities and states in Mesoamerica
cities and states emerged later than the near east > because agriculture developed later there
When did the first city states emerge?
in the Uruk period
What is the Monk's Mound?
largest pre-Columbian structure > Cahokia
Where is Mesoamerica?
mexico and central america
What are the negative impacts of sates?
people will become governed by force, class stratification, malnutrition and starvation if food production systems fail
What did Cathy Costing do?
studied the effects of Inca imperialism
What did Robert Carneiro say?
suggest that states emerged because of population growth in an area that is physically or socially limited
What do the symbols mean on a cuneiform tablet?
symbols represent sounds of speech (phonetic)
Who controls Leadership in the Nile Valley?
the Pharaoh
What is the Formative Era?
the development of small-scale irrigation, lowland river areas began to attract settlers
What did Marvin Harris say?
the first states with their authority could emerge only in areas that supported intensive grain agriculture and were surrounded by areas that could not support intensive grain agriculture
What did Wright and Johnson say?
the organizational requirements of producting items for export, redistributing the items imported and defending trading parties would foster state formation (AKA trade was a factor in emergence of states)
What did Guillermo Algae say?
thinks that the Uruk expansion was motivated by a lack of resources, also encountered minimal resistance
How did states emerge in a physically or socially limited place?
when competition and warfare in circumscribed areas lead to the subordination of defeated groups who are obliged to submit to the control of the most powerful group
What do the symbols mean on a pictographic tablet?
when symbols represent objects
