The Origins of Civilization

1. illustration of Jose Emilio Toro

For 100,000 years, the globe was hit by the last great glacial period, in which a drastic general drop in temperature caused the glaciers to expand to many of the present temperate areas of the northern hemisphere. This phase is characterized by the disappearance of most of the megafauna, as well as by the extinction of all the human species with the exception of the Homo sapiens (the Homo neanderthalensis disappeared about 30.000 years ago). Around 20,000 years ago, glacial expansion reached its peak (Last Glacial Maximum).

2. venus of Brassempouy (France) dated to 25.000 years ago, is the most ancient realistic representation of human face found until now

The man of the latter period lived in communities not only nomadic but also sedentary seeds, whose dwellings varied from simple natural shelters to huts built with skins and bones of animals.

Great importance was given to the rock arts. Hunting, fishing and gathering supported the communities.

Fortunately the glacial period began to decline, the average temperatures rose and the increase of wet currents favored the cyclical formation of rains. Living conditions gradually improved and about 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), there were numerous fertile territories, woods and forests reached a large extent, and the existence of man was affected by a strong demographic increase, that changed his claims of survival, of nutrition, of social development (this process took place in different periods according to the various areas of the world).

Between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago, along the coasts of the Middle East facing the Mediterranean Sea, the construction of stable settlements spread, even before the introduction of agriculture: it is the Natufian culture, considered the mother of neolithic cultures. Its villages were built of dry stone and light wooden beams, accommodating no more than 150 people: these communities theorized have experienced the first cultivation of wild cereals, which were a fundamental part of their diet and whose growth is thought to have been jeopardized by a period of drought that affected the area. Natufian culture was also one of the first to domesticate the dog, use the bow and trade obsidian. They also practiced burials with funeral gifts.

3. Gobekli Tepe

In the 90' in Turkey, near the border with Syria was found the oldest example of stone temple, whose construction began around 9,500 BC.

Gobekli Tepe consists of an artificial hill bordered by a wall, inside which there is a monumental megalithic sanctuary, characterized by engravings of different animals, which have allowed to hypothesize a shamanic cult;according to the director of the excavation the monoliths raised and placed in a circle symbolize assemblies of men. This discovery disrupts previous theories, showing that at a time when agriculture was at an early stage of experimentation and communities were not yet organizing in urban centers, however, they were able to unite for the construction of monuments and shared religious traditions, thus calling into question the thesis that the city was first born and only after the places of worship. And probably it was this social organization with a religious character that gave the basis for a planned exploitation of food resources through the birth of agriculture and livestock.

4. handwork of ceramics

The next step was urbanization.The settlements of ancient Jericho, in Palestine, reveal the remains of one of the oldest cities in the world: built around 8,000 BC, it could accommodate a population of 2,000 or 3,000 individuals, who lived in larger housing compared to the Natufian ones, and built of raw mud bricks; the city was even equipped with a city wall and a massive stone tower.

In the same period, the floors of the houses began to be covered with polished clay plaster, which probably led to the first ceramics.The oldest pottery remains in the world, however, are far more remote than those of the Fertile Crescent and the Sahara: they are found in the cave of Yuchanyan (China) and in the sites of Simomouchi and Odai (Japan), dated between 17,000 and 14,500 B.C.

5. the Sumerian God Enki, Lord of all gods

Various cultures blossomed in Mesopotamia in the following centuries: the most influential between the sixth and fifth millennium B.C. was that of Halaf, which absorbed various strains formed independently in the past, and established itself as the first Mesopotamian civilization to reach remarkable dimensions, quadrupling its original extent and laying the foundations for the future homogenization of the Middle East. The characteristic polychrome ceramics developed by the Halaf culture represented the peak of the technology reached by Neolithic man in that area.

Between 5,200 and 4,000 B.C. there was a fundamental transition to the great organized civilizations, thanks to the development of the culture of Ubaid, which embraced that of Halaf and developed along the Euphrates reaching the north of Anatolia. The first works of canalizing floodwaters, the commercial development of ceramics and, above all, the affirmation of a collective religiosity, dictated by the construction of times of unprecedented dimensions, date back to this period..One of the most important cities of the period was Eridu, in lower Mesopotamia: it grew exponentially thanks to the agricultural influence from the north (Samarra), which valorized the irrigation of the fields and the construction of buildings with mud bricks, from fishing communities-hunters coming from the Arab coast and nomadic shepherds living in semi-desert areas. Some people living in the Zagros Mountains, in the Iranian plateau, went down to the lower Mesopotamia to occupy the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates: they would later be identified as Sumerians, and Eridu seems to have been the first Sumerian urban agglomeration.

6. Sumerian ziqqurat of the city of Ur

The Uruk period, between 3,800 and 3,000 B.C. follows the lines traced by the Ubaid culture, and sees the explosion of urbanization, with the development around the central core of the city temple of an industrial system based on mass production in the field of ceramics, metallurgy, weaving.

The late Uruk period is characterized by the appearance of cuneiform writing, which translates the Sumerian language into written form.

In parallel with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley Civilization (India), the first urban civilization of history was born: organized in independent city-states supported by an absolute monarchy, whose religious, economic and organizational life was centered in the area of the temple.

The Sumerian Civilization begins. History begins.