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

501 Pages·2001·8.97 MB·English

by  Charles Keith Maisels

EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD
WORLD
To the genius of Titus Lucretius Carus (99/95 BC-55 BC)
and his insight into the real nature of things.
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF
THE OLD WORLD
The formative histories of Egypt, the
Levant, Mesopotamia, India and
China
Charles Keith Maisels
London and New York
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
First published in paperback 2001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 1999 Charles Keith Maisels
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0-203-44950-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-45672-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-10975-2 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-10976-0 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of figures v iii
List of tables xi
Preface and acknowledgements xii
Glossary xiii
1 HOW DOES THE PAST ILLUMINATE THE PRESENT? 1
The emergence of archaeology as a scientific discipline 4
The lands of the Bible ( = Near East) 15
Social archaeology 24
Childe’s checklist 24
The present illuminated: paths of the past, spirals to the future 26
2 SEMA-TAWY: THE LAND OF THE PAPYRUS AND LOTUS 31
The place 31
The time 38
Late Palaeolithic 39
Epipalaeolithic to Neolithic 41
State formation process 60
Childe’s checklist 70
3 THE LEVANT AND MESOPOTAMIA 79
The place 79
The time 38
Syria and the Levant 91
To the heartland of cities in Sumer, via Hassuna, Samarra and Halaf 1 22
village farming cultures
i
The social order 1 52
Conclusion 1 70
Childe’s checklist 172
4 THE INDUS/‘HARAPPAN’/SARASVATI CIVILIZATION 1 80
The place 181
The time 186
Social evolution: Neolithic to Chalcolithic at Mehrgarh 1 86
Later agricultural subsistence 1 93
Urban society 2 08
The misrepresentation of the Greater Indus oecumene 2 13
Class stratification 2 24
The fall 2 30
Palaeoethnology: kinship to caste 2 41
Conclusion 1 70
Childe’s checklist 24
5 THE CENTRAL KINGDOM, ZHONG-GUO 2 50
The place 250
The time 256
The Neolithic clusters 2 62
Final Neolithic to Chalcolithic 2 80
The Chalcolithic: Longshan 2 85
The Chalcolithic: Hongshan 2 90
Clanship and the territorial state 2 94
Bronze Age urbanism 2 97
States: The three dynasties 3 00
The late Shang capital at Anyang 3 05
The earlier Shang capital at Zhengzhou 3 07
Western Zhou 3 09
Childe’s checklist 315
vii
6 CONCLUSION: THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL 3 27
COMPLEXITY
How useful do Childe’s criteria turn out to be? 3 27
Childe’s other revolution 3 30
Political economies 3 33
Politics and the state 3 36
Social evolution 3 39
APPENDICES 3 44
Appendix A: The genealogical principle 3 44
Appendix B: Occupation, kinship and caste 3 48
Appendix C: The Sumerian King List as a historical source 3 50
Notes 3 53
Bibliography 3 79
Index 4 47
FIGURES
Front endpapers Evolutionary landmarks
Frontispiece Detail of statue from the Abu Temple, Khafaje
(Tell Asmar), c. 2600 BC
2.1 Map of the Nile Valley with some key sites 33
2.2 Selected nome standards 35
2.3 The developed Nilotic irrigation system 35
2.4 Amratian dancing figurine 46
2.5 Naqada I grave goods of superior quality 48
2.6 Sites of the Buto/Maadi culture 50
2.7 Scorpion King with hoe on macehead 61
2.8 Naqada II pot showing boat with oars 65
2.9 Example of Hieratic script 73
3.1 Map of the Levant, Mesopotamia and Western Iran 80
3.2 Ancient levees from Landsat imagery 85
3.3 Flow chart of social evolution 92
3.4 Provisioning and settlement processes 94
3.5 Radiocarbon dates from PPNA sites 101
3.6 Plan of Netiv Hagdud 102
3.7 LPPNB two-storey house at ‘Ain Ghazal 108
3.8 PPNC temple at ’Ain Ghazal 108
3.9 Figure and ‘dumpy’ from the 1983 cache 113
3.10 Lifted deposit of statues at ’Ain Ghazal 113
3.11 Various Ghassulian house-forms 119
3.12 Hassuna standard painted-and-incised ware 131
3.13 Hassuna standard incised and painted-and-incised ware 131
3.14 Interdigitation and succession of prehistoric and protohistoric 131
cultures in Mesopotamia
3.15 Habur Headwaters map 131
3.16 Halaf polychrome plate from Arpachiya 135
3.17 Halaf painted pottery from Arpachiya 136
3.18 Tholoi in plan at Girikihaciyan 137
3.19 Geometric designs on painted pottery of the Halaf Period at 139
Arpachiya
3.20 Site map of Tell es-Sawwan 145
3.21 Tell es-Sawwan, Levels I with III 145
ix
3.22 Naturalistic and geometric designs from the classic trio: Halaf, 148
Samarra and Ubaid
3.23 Tell Abada site plan showing large houses tightly nucleated 150
3.24 The house at Kheit Qasim III 151
3.25 The internal structure of the Lamusa household 153
3.26 The Iš-dup-dEN.ZU oikos led by Ebiirilum 154
3.27 Tell Qalinj Agha site plan 154
3.28 Oikioi at Tell Abu Salabikh 154
3.29a and b Irrigation regimes in northern and southern Mesopotamia 160
3.30 The Ibgal of Enannatum 160
3.31 The EN in action: four glyptic images 167
3.32 Impressions of city-seals from Jemdet Nasr 171
3.33 Fine seals from Nippur in the Akkadian Period 173
4.1 Map of the Greater Indus drainage 181
4.2 Plan of Mehrgarh 3, Area MR3-MR3-4 188
4.3 Mehrgarh in comparative context 190
4.4 Diagram of Potter’s structures at Mehrgarh, Period VII 194
4.5 Neck pieces, painted sherd and plain beakers from Kot Diji 194
4.6 Vases and globular vessels from Kot Diji 194
4.7 Mehrgarh Period VII pottery 194
4.8a Early Indus ware 194
4.8b Period II pottery at Nausharo 194
4.9 Painted potsherd at Kot Diji 194
4.10 Painted incised and plain pottery at Kot Diji 201
4.11 Decorated jars at Kot Diji 201
4.12 Diagram of the river regime: land-use zones of the Punjab in 201
cross-section
4.13 Methods of flood/flow irrigation 201
4.14 Rehman Dheri situation map 210
4.15 Plan of Kuntasi 212
4.16 Layout and entrances at Kalibangan on the Ghaggar 218
4.17 Plan of ‘citadel’, Mohenjo-daro 220
4.18a Horned deity, detail 220
4.18b and c Horned deity on jar 220
4.19 Horned creature on jars from Kot Diji 220
4.20 House-forms at Mohenjo-daro 225
4.21a and b The rivers in the domain of the Hakra 233
4.22a and b The Sarasvati nexus 238
4.23 Terracotta animals, Harappan period at Kot Diji 242
4.24 Female and male terracotta figurines from Mehrgarh 249
5.1 Outline map of China locating some key sites 252
5.2 Map of the administrative divisions of China 252
5.3 Vegetation zones of East Asia 253
5.4 Gansu Yangshao painted pottery amphora 264