Window on Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Third Edition

1. Window on HumanityConrad Phillip KottakThird Edition Chapter 8 The First Cities and States © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

2. Overview • Origin of the state • Attributes of states • State formation in the Middle East and Mesoamerica • Other early Old World states • Collapse of states © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

3. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • The origin of the state • State – a form of social and political organization that has a formal, central government and a division of society into classes • Multiple factors contribute to state formation • Hydraulic systems (Wittfogel) • In certain arid areas, states have emerged to manage systems of irrigation, drainage, and flood control • Hydraulic agriculture is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for state formation • Water control  increased agricultural production  population growth  political systems to regulate production as well as interpersonal and intergroup relations © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

4. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • The origin of the state • Long-distance trade routes • Some states may have emerged at strategic locations in regional trade networks • Long-distance trade (like hydraulic agriculture) is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for state formation © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

5. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • The origin of the state • Population, war, and circumscription (Carneiro) • Multivariate theory of state formation • Environmental circumscription + increasing population  warfare  state formation • Environmental circumscription may be physical or social • Physically circumscribed environments – e.g., small islands, river plains, oases, valleys • Social circumscription – neighboring societies block expansion, emigration, or access to resources • Explains many, but not all, cases of state formation • Highland Papua New Guinea – environmental circumscription, warfare, and dense populations have not led to state formation © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

6. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • The origin of the state • Food production did not inevitably lead to the formation of chiefdoms and states • Not all chiefdoms developed into states © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

7. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • Attributes of states • Control of specific territories • Much larger than territories controlled by kin groups and villages in prestate societies • Early states were expansionist – arose when one chiefdom conquered others, extending its rule over a larger territory • Productive farming economies, supporting dense populations • Populations nucleated in cities • Agricultural economies usually involved water control or irrigation • Tribute and taxation to support specialists © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

8. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • Attributes of states • Social stratification – social classes (e.g., elites, commoners, slaves) • Imposing public buildings and monumental architecture (e.g., temples, palaces, storehouses) • Record-keeping systems – usually a written script © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

9. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in the Middle East • Urban life • Jericho (Israel) • Earliest known town, settled by the Natufians around 11,000 B.P. • Walled town with some 2,000 inhabitants • Destroyed (ca. 9000 B.P.) then rebuilt • First pottery around 8000 B.P. • Çatal Hüyük (Anatolia, Turkey) • Probably the largest Neolithic settlement • Settled 8000-7000 B.P. • Up to 10,000 inhabitants © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

10. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in the Middle East • The elite level • Halafian pottery (7500-6500 B.P.) • Widespread, delicate pottery style, first found in northern Syria • Elite level and the first chiefdoms emerged during the Halafian period • Ubaid pottery (7000-6000 B.P.) • First discovered at Tell el-Ubaid, southern Iraq • Associated with advanced chiefdoms and maybe the earliest states in southern Mesopotamia © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

11. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in the Middle East • Egalitarian society • Most typical among foragers • Lack status distinctions except for those based on age, gender, and individual qualities, talents, and achievements • Status distinctions are usually achieved by individuals during their lives, rather than being inherited (ascribed) • Ranked society • Hereditary inequality, but not social stratification • Continuum of status – individuals ranked in terms of their genealogical distance from the chief • Only those ranked societies in which there is a loss of village autonomy are called chiefdoms © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

12. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in the Middle East • Chiefdoms • Ranked society in which relations among villages as well as among individuals are unequal • Competition among chiefdoms led to primary state formation • One chiefdom conquered its neighbors, integrating them into a larger political unit • First appeared in the Middle East around 7300 B.P. and in Mesoamerica around 3000 B.P. • Advanced Chiefdoms • Excavations at Tell Hamoukar (northeastern Syria) © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

13. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in the Middle East • Uruk Period (6000-5200 B.P.) • First cities in southern Mesopotamia • Economies managed by centralized leadership • Settlements spread north (Syria) • Writing • First developed in Sumer (southern Mesopotamia) • Developed to handle record keeping associated with a centralized economy • Mesopotamian writing = cuneiform • Used to write both the Sumerian (southern Mesopotamian) and the Akkadian (northern Mesopotamian) languages © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

14. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in the Middle East • Temples and writing • Economic activities recorded in cuneiform • Temples managed herding, farming, manufacture, storage, trade • Metallurgy – the knowledge of the properties of metals, including their extraction and processing and the manufacture of metal tools • Discovery of smelting (using high temperatures to extract pure metal from an ore) – vital to the invention of metallurgy • Rapid evolution of metallurgy after 5000 B.P. • Bronze Age – bronze (an alloy of copper and arsenic or tin) became common, greatly extended the use of metals • Iron Age (starting around 3200 B.P.) – high-temperature iron smelting was mastered © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

15. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in the Middle East • Mesopotamian states • Economy based on craft production, trade, and intensive agriculture • Population growth, increased urbanism • Large, densely concentrated populations in walled cities • By 4600 B.P.: • Temple rule replaced by secular authority – office of military coordinator developed into kingship • Social stratification – nobles, commoners, and slaves © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

16. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • Other early Old World states • Indus River Valley (Harappan) civilization – northwestern India and Pakistan • State flourished between 4600 and 3900 B.P. • Urban planning • Social stratification • Early writing system • Major cities (Harappa and Mohenjo-daro) with carefully planned residential areas and wastewater systems • State collapse resulted from warfare © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

17. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • Other early Old World states • China • Shang dynasty – first state • Arose in the Huang He (Yellow) River area of northern China around 3750 B.P. • Urbanism • Palaces • Human sacrifice • Sharp division between social classes • Bronze metallurgy • Elaborate writing system © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

18. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in Mesoamerica • Early Chiefdoms and elites • Three centers of early chiefdom development in Mesoamerica: Olmec area (Gulf Coast), Valley of Oaxaca, Valley of Mexico • Olmec chiefdoms flourished between 3200 and 2500 B.P. • Chiefly centers with large earthen mounds, plazas • Massive carved stone heads (images of chiefs or ancestors?) • Long-distance exchange networks linked regions of early chiefdom development • Chiefdoms evolved rapidly as a result of intense competitive interaction © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

19. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in Mesoamerica • Early states • State formation – one chiefdom incorporates several others • Zapotec state – Valley of Oaxaca • Capital city of Monte Albán founded around 2500 B.P. • Teotihuacan • Capital of a state that developed in the Valley of Mexico • Flourished between 1900 and 1300 B.P. (A.D. 100-700) © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

20. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • State formation in Mesoamerica • States in the Valley of Mexico • By A.D. 1 – complex settlement hierarchy (archaeological evidence of state organization) with Teotihuacan as the dominant site • Teotihuacan state was characterized by urban planning, large-scale irrigation, status differentiation, complex architecture • After A.D. 700, rapid decline in Teotihuacan’s size and power • Toltec period (A.D. 900-1200) • Renewed agricultural intensification, population increase, and urban growth in Valley of Mexico, leading to Aztec state (A.D. 1325-1520) – capital at Tenochtitlan © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

21. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • Why states collapse • Various factors can threaten the economy and political institutions of a state – e.g., invasion, disease, famine, prolonged drought, environmental degradation • Classic Maya civilization (A.D. 300-900) • Longstanding debate concerning Classic Maya decline around A.D. 900 • Explanations now emphasize social, political, and military upheaval and competition, rather than solely natural environmental factors © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

22. CHAPTER 8The First Cities and States • Why states collapse • Earlier explanations of state formation and collapse focused on natural environmental factors (e.g., climate change, habitat destruction, demographic pressure) • Social and political factors are more prominent in current explanations of the origin and decline of states © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.