Early Civilizations of the Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt, The Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China

by Maisels,Charles Keith

• ISBN13: 9780415109765
• ISBN10: 0415109760
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-05-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Introductory text book aimed at first year students and interested gen public. Looks at Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus valley, which are core to most first year courses, as well as China which is growing in popularity. Examines each of these cultures from the Neolithic to the development of the State and makes comparisons between them, e.g. considers Gordon Childe's ideas on emergence of the State

Table of Contents

List of figures	viii
List of tables	xi
Preface and acknowledgements	xii
Glossary	xiii
How Does the Past Illuminate the Present?	1	(30)
The emergence of archaelogy as a scientific discipline	4	(11)
The lands of the Bible (= Near East)	15	(10)
Social archaeology	25	(1)
Childe's checklist	25	(2)
The present illuminated: paths of the past, spirals to the future	27	(4)
Sema-Tawy: The Land of the Papyrus and Lotus	31	(49)
The place	31	(7)
The time	38	(1)
Late Palaeolithic	39	(2)
Epipalaeolithic to Neolithic	41	(19)
State formation process	60	(11)
Childe's checklist	71	(9)
The Levant and Mesopotamia	80	(106)
The place	80	(7)
The time	87	(5)
Syria and the Levant	92	(32)
To the heartland of cities in Summer, via Hassuna, Samarra and Halaf village farming cultures	124	(32)
The social order	156	(19)
Conclusion	175	(4)
Childe's checklist	179	(7)
The Indus/`Harappan'/Sarasvati Civilization	186	(74)
The place	186	(6)
The time	192	(1)
Social evolution: Neolithic to Chalcolithic at Mehrgarh	192	(14)
Later agricultural subsisence	206	(9)
Urban society	215	(5)
The misrepresentation of the Greater Indus oecumene	220	(14)
Class stratification	234	(4)
The fall	238	(12)
Palaeoethnology: kinship to caste	250	(2)
Conclusion	252	(3)
Childe's checklist	255	(5)
The Central Kingdom, Zhong-Guo	260	(82)
The place	260	(7)
The time	267	(6)
The Neolithic clusters	273	(18)
Final Neolithic to Chalcolithic	291	(10)
The Chalcolithic: Longshan	301	(2)
The Chalcolithic: Hongshan	303	(4)
Clanship and the territorial state	307	(4)
Bronze Age urbanism	311	(2)
States: The three dynasties	313	(5)
The late Shang capital at Anyang	318	(3)
The earlier Shang capital at Zhengzhou	321	(2)
Western Zhou	323	(6)
Childe's checklist	329	(13)
Conclusion: The Emergence of Social Complexity	342	(18)
How useful do Childe's criteria turn out to be?	342	(3)
Childe's other revolution	345	(3)
Political economies	348	(3)
Politics and the state	351	(3)
Social evolution	354	(6)
APPENDICES	360	(9)
Appendix A: The genealogical principle	360	(4)
Appendix B: Occupation, kinship and caste	364	(2)
Appendix C: The Sumerian King List as a historical source	366	(3)
Notes	369	(20)
Bibliography	389	(58)
Index	447