It will survive, in a remarkably consistent form, for about 1000 years. The Indus civilization, with its two large cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, expands over a larger region than Egypt and Mesopotamia combined. It is not known whether contact with Mesopotamia inspires the first civilization of India or whether it is a spontaneous local development, but by about 2500 BC the neolithic villages along the banks of the Indus are on the verge of combining into a unified and sophisticated culture. Rivers will play an equally important role in two other early civilizations - those of the Indus and of northern China. They provide water to irrigate the fields, and they offer the easiest method of transport for a society without paved roads. Rivers offer two main advantages to a developing civilization. Egypt develops in the long narrow strip of the Nile valley.
The Sumerians settle in what is now southern Iraq, between the mouths of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Great rivers are a crucial part of the story. In about 3200 BC the two earliest civilizations develop in the region where southwest Asia joins northeast Africa. These various interconnections mean that history, civilization and writing all begin at the same time. History, by contrast, is based on documents. Our knowledge of prehistory derives from surviving objects - the evidence of archaeology. But the development of writing greatly enhances civilization. This is not invariably the case because at least one civilization, that of the Incas in Peru, will thrive without writing. In the organization of a civil service, a system of writing is an almost indispensable aid. This requires food production to be efficient enough for a large minority of the community to be engaged in more specialized activities - such as the creation of imposing buildings or works of art, the practice of skilled warfare, and above all the administration of a centralized bureaucracy capable of running the machinery of state.Ĭivilization requires at least a rudimentary civil service. The first is the existence of settlements classifiable as towns or cities. Many different elements must come together before a human community develops to the level of sophistication commonly referred to as civilization.
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