Editing Civilization (section)

===Urban Revolution===
{{Main|Neolithic|Bronze Age|Cradle of civilization}}

The [[Natufian culture]] in the [[Levantine corridor]] provides the earliest case of a Neolithic Revolution, with the planting of cereal crops attested from {{circa}} 11,000 BCE.<ref>Moore, Andrew M. T.; Hillman, Gordon C.; Legge, Anthony J. (2000). ''Village on the Euphrates: From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra''.(Oxford University Press).</ref><ref>Hillman, Gordon; Hedges, Robert; Moore, Andrew; Colledge, Susan; Pettitt, Paul (27 July 2016). "New evidence of Lateglacial cereal cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates". ''Holocene''. 11 (4): 383–393.</ref> The earliest neolithic technology and lifestyle were established first in Western Asia (for example at [[Göbekli Tepe]], from about 9,130 BCE), later in the [[Yellow River]] and [[Yangtze]] basins in China (for example the [[Peiligang culture|Peiligang]] and [[Pengtoushan]] cultures), and from these cores spread across Eurasia. [[Mesopotamia]] is the site of the earliest civilizations developing from 7,400 years ago. This area has been evaluated by Beverley Milton-Edwards as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of the wheel, the building of the earliest cities and the development of written cursive script".<ref name="historyandpolicy">Compare: {{cite web|url= http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html|title=Iraq, past, present and future: a thoroughly-modern mandate?|last= Milton-Edwards|first= Beverley|date= May 2003|work= History & Policy|access-date= 9 December 2010|location= United Kingdom | quote = The fertile land between the Tigris and the Euphrates has inspired some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of the wheel, the planting of the first cereal crops and the development of cursive script. |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101208112958/http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html|archive-date=8 December 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar pre-civilized "neolithic revolutions" also began independently from 7,000 BCE in northwestern [[South America]] (the [[Caral-Supe civilization]])<ref>{{Cite journal |last1= Haas |first1= Jonathan |last2= Creamer |first2= Winifred |last3= Ruiz |first3= Alvaro |date= December 2004 |title= Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru |journal= Nature |language=En |volume=432 |issue=7020 |pages=1020–1023 |doi=10.1038/nature03146 |issn=0028-0836 |pmid= 15616561|bibcode= 2004Natur.432.1020H |s2cid= 4426545 }}</ref> and in [[Mesoamerica]].<ref>Kennett, Douglas J.; Winterhalder, Bruce (2006). ''Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture''. University of California Press. pp. 121–. {{ISBN| 978-0-520-24647-8}}. Retrieved 27 December 2010.</ref> The [[Black Sea]] area served as a cradle of European civilization. The site of [[Solnitsata]] – a prehistoric fortified ([[Defensive wall|walled]]) stone settlement (prehistoric [[proto-city]]) (5500–4200 BCE) – is believed by some archaeologists to be the oldest known town in present-day Europe.<ref name=Maugh>{{cite news |title= Bulgarians find oldest European town, a salt production center |first= Thomas H. |last= Maugh II |url= https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2012-nov-01-la-sci-sn-oldest-european-town-20121101-story.html |newspaper= [[Los Angeles Times]] |date= 1 November 2012 |access-date= 1 November 2012 |archive-date= 4 May 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190504234136/https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2012-nov-01-la-sci-sn-oldest-european-town-20121101-story.html |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{citation |editor-last1=Norman |editor-first1=Jeremy M. |title=The Earliest Prehistoric Town in Europe Circa 4700 to 4200 BCE |url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/ |work=Jeremy Norman's History of Information: Exploring the History of Information and Media through Timelines |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=2 July 2012 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120702232530/http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?category=Survival+of+Information#entry_3305 |url-status=dead }}. . Previously at: ''Jeremy Norman's 'From Cave Paintings to the Internet': Chronological and Thematic Studies on the History of Information and Media''. . (Archived record from 2 July 2012)</ref><ref name=Squires>{{cite news |title= Archaeologists find Europe's most prehistoric town |first= Nick |last= Squires |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bulgaria/9646541/Bulgaria-archaeologists-find-Europes-most-prehistoric-town-Provadia-Solnitsata.html |newspaper= [[The Daily Telegraph]] |date= 31 October 2012 |access-date= 1 November 2012 |quote= Archaeologists in Bulgaria believe they have discovered Europe's oldest prehistoric town, a settlement that was founded nearly 5,000 years before the birth of Christ [...] The "town", known as Provadia-Solnitsata, was small by modern standards and would have had around 350 inhabitants. |archive-date= 1 November 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121101020609/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bulgaria/9646541/Bulgaria-archaeologists-find-Europes-most-prehistoric-town-Provadia-Solnitsata.html |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://naim.bg/contentFiles/ARH_2012_1_res1.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130123192648/http://naim.bg/contentFiles/ARH_2012_1_res1.pdf |archive-date= 2013-01-23 |url-status= live |title= Salt, early complex society, urbanization: Provadia-Solnitsata (5500–4200 BC) (Abstract) |first= Vassil |last= Nikolov |publisher= [[Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]] |access-date= 1 November 2012 | quote = According to the criteria, accepted for the period, the prehistoric settlement of Provadia-Solnitsata could be defined as a prehistoric city that existed in the middle and the second half of the 5th millennium BC.}}</ref><!--
The first gold artifacts in the world appear from the 4th millennium BC, such as those found in a burial site from 4569 to 4340 BCE and one of the most important archaeological sites in world prehistory – the [[Varna Necropolis]] near Lake Varna in [[Bulgaria]], thought to be the earliest "well-dated" find of gold artifacts.<ref name="La Niece">{{cite book |last=La Niece |first=Susan (senior metallurgist in the British Museum Department of Conservation and Scientific Research) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAfITjcHiZ0C |title=Gold |page=10 |publisher=Harvard University Press |access-date=10 April 2012 |isbn=978-0-674-03590-4 |date= 2009}}</ref>
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The [[8.2 kiloyear event|8.2 Kiloyear Arid Event]] and the [[5.9 kiloyear event|5.9 Kiloyear]] Inter-pluvial saw the drying out of semiarid regions and a major spread of [[desert]]s.<ref>De Meo, James (2nd Edition), "Saharasia"</ref> This [[climate change]] shifted the cost-benefit ratio of endemic violence between communities, which saw the abandonment of unwalled village communities and the appearance of walled cities, seen by some as a characteristic of early civilizations.<ref>{{cite book
 |last1        = Frye
 |first1       = David
 |date         = 27 August 2019
 |orig-date    = 2018
 |chapter      = Midwife to Civilization: Wall Builders at the Dawn of History: The Ancient Near East, 2500–500 BC
 |title        = Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
 |url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=FiemDwAAQBAJ
 |edition      = reprint
 |location     = New York
 |publisher    = Simon and Schuster
 |isbn         = 978-1-5011-7271-7
 |access-date  = 15 April 2023
 |archive-date = 6 May 2023
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20230506015946/https://books.google.com/books?id=FiemDwAAQBAJ
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref>

[[File:Lascar Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun in the background (4566574277).jpg|thumb|The ruins of [[Mesoamerica]]n city [[Teotihuacan]]]]

This "[[urban revolution]]"—a term introduced by Childe in the 1930s—from the 4th millennium BCE,<ref>{{cite book
 |last1        = Portugali
 |first1       = Juval
 |date         = 6 December 2012
 |orig-date    = 2000
 |chapter      = Self-Organization and Urban Revolutions: From the Urban Revolution to La Revolution Urbaine
 |title        = Self-Organization and the City
 |url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=8ln9CAAAQBAJ
 |edition      = reprint
 |location     = Berlin
 |publisher    = Springer Science & Business Media
 |page         = 306
 |isbn         = 978-3-662-04099-7
 |access-date  = 15 April 2023
 |quote        = The urban revolution of 5500 years ago is at the very same time ''the rise of civilization''. [...] there is general consensus among scientists about the overall picture of Childe's revolution as portrayed above [...].
 |archive-date = 15 April 2023
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20230415045244/https://books.google.com/books?id=8ln9CAAAQBAJ
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> marked the beginning of the accumulation of transferable [[economic surplus]]es, which helped economies and cities develop. Urban revolutions were associated with the state [[monopoly of violence]], the appearance of a [[warrior]], or soldier, class and [[endemic warfare]] (a state of continual or frequent warfare), the rapid development of [[social hierarchy|hierarchies]], and the use of [[human sacrifice]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Childe |first1=V. Gordon |title=The Urban Revolution |journal=The Town Planning Review |year=1950 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=3–17 |doi=10.3828/tpr.21.1.k853061t614q42qh |s2cid=39517784 |issn=0041-0020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
 |first1=Joseph
 |last1=Watts
 |first2=Oliver
 |last2=Sheehan
 |first3=Quentin D.
 |last3=Atkinson
 |first4=Joseph
 |last4=Bulbulia
 |first5=Russell D.
 |last5=Gray
 |title=Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies
 |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Natur.532..228W/abstract
 |journal=Nature
 |volume=532
 |issue=7598
 |pages=228–231
 |date=4 April 2016
 |access-date=15 April 2023
 |doi=10.1038/nature17159
 |pmid=27042932
 |bibcode=2016Natur.532..228W
 |s2cid=4450246
 |quote=We find strong support for models in which human sacrifice stabilizes social stratification once stratification has arisen, and promotes a shift to strictly inherited class systems.
 |archive-date=15 April 2023
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415143549/https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Natur.532..228W/abstract
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

The civilized urban revolution in turn was dependent upon the development of [[sedentism]], the [[domestication]] of grains, plants and animals, the permanence of [[human settlement|settlement]]s and development of [[Lifestyle (sociology)|lifestyle]]s that facilitated [[economies of scale]] and accumulation of surplus production by particular social sectors. The transition from ''complex cultures'' to ''civilizations'', while still disputed, seems to be associated with the development of state structures, in which power was further monopolized by an elite [[ruling class]]<ref>Carniero, R.L. (ed.) (1967). ''The Evolution of Society: Selections from Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology'', (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), pp. 32–47, 63–96, 153–165.</ref> who practiced human sacrifice.<ref name="nature.com">{{cite journal |first1=Joseph |last1=Watts |first2=Oliver |last2=Sheehan |first3=Quentin D. |last3=Atkinson |first4=Joseph |last4=Bulbulia |first5=Russell D. |last5=Gray |title=Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies |journal=Nature |volume=532 |issue=7598 |pages=228–231 |date=4 April 2016 |doi=10.1038/nature17159 |pmid=27042932 |bibcode=2016Natur.532..228W |s2cid=4450246}}</ref>

Towards the end of the Neolithic period, various elitist [[Chalcolithic]] civilizations began to rise in various [[Cradle of civilization|"cradles"]] from around 3600 BCE beginning with [[Mesopotamia]], expanding into large-scale [[Realm|kingdom]]s and [[empire]]s in the course of the Bronze Age ([[Akkadian Empire]], [[Indus Valley Civilization]], [[Old Kingdom of Egypt]], [[Neo-Sumerian Empire]], [[Middle Assyrian Empire]], [[Babylonian Empire]], [[Hittite Empire]], and to some degree the territorial expansions of the [[Elamites]], [[Hurrians]], [[Amorites]] and [[Ebla]]).

Outside the Old World, development took place independently in the [[Pre-Columbian Americas]]. Urbanization in the [[Caral-Supe civilization]] in what is now coastal Peru began about 3500 BCE.<ref>Mann, Charles C. (2006) [2005]. ''1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus''. Vintage Books. pp. 199–212. {{ISBN|1-4000-3205-9}}.</ref> In North America, the [[Olmec]] civilization emerged about 1200 BCE; the oldest known [[Mayan civilization|Mayan]] city, located in what is now Guatemala, dates to about 750 BCE.<ref>Olmedo Vera, Bertina (1997). A. Arellano Hernández; et al. (eds.). ''The Mayas of the Classic Period''. Mexico City, Mexico: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA). p. 26 {{ISBN|978-970-18-3005-5}}.</ref> and [[Teotihuacan]] (near the modern [[Mexico City]]) was one of the largest cities in the world in 350 CE, with a population of about 125,000.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1= Sanders |first1= William T.|last2= Webster|first2= David|year= 1988|title= The Mesoamerican Urban Tradition|journal= American Anthropologist|volume=90|issue=3|pages=521–546|issn=0002-7294|jstor=678222|doi=10.1525/aa.1988.90.3.02a00010}}
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