This section focuses on identifying the significant contributions of the early and classical civilizations. The material presented is designed to help you meet the following objective.
- Identify the significant contributions of the early and classical civilizations.
Early civilizations
By 4000 B.C.E., agriculture had made possible settled communities, some of which became great cities. This pattern occurred in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East, and reoccurred in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and in China and Japan. A settled way of life provided the conditions for divisions of labor, which in turn permitted the rise of artisan classes, such as potters or weavers. It also made the discovery of new technologies possible, among them an alloy process for making bronze. Bronze technology cropped up in most parts of the world between 3000 and 2000 B.C.E., displacing Neolithic stone tools with metal. Metal plows in particular allowed more land to be worked; this often meant surplus crops, which spurred population growth. A more settled way of life also spurred the development of trade and gave rise to political institutions.
Around 3500 B.C.E., a sort of urban revolution took off. During this time, permanent administrative centers came into being, as did hierarchies and class systems, early arts and sciences, external trade, and the development of written languages for record-keeping. Some of these early civilizations included Egypt along the Nile River, and Sumer, in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Both the Egyptians and Sumerians made strides in government and law, art and architecture, science and mathematics, and writing.
