Settling Down

From Village to City

I.  Agricultural Village

A.  Why settle down?

1.  Not easier

2.  "fertile crescent"

B. Neolithic tools, & trade

II.  First Cities

A.  Innovative Primary Urbanization

1. China (Huang He or "Yellow River")

2. Mesopotamia (Tigris & Euphrates Rivers)

3. Egypt (Nile River)

4. India (Indus River)

5. West Africa (Niger River)

6. Mesoamerica (Valley of Mexico)

7. South America (Andes Mountains)

B.  Example: Sumer

1.  What do we know?

a) Sumerians

b) size

c) civic Identity

d) leadership

e) religion

-- myths (i.e. deluge story)

-- ziggurats

f) hierarchical class structure

-- from priests to slaves

g) arts & inventions

h) trade

i ) writing

2.  How do we know?

a) cuneiform script

-- pictograms --> ideograms --> phonetics

b) five kinds of written materials

-- king lists

-- royal correspondence

-- epics (i.e. The Epic of Gilgamesh)

-- lamentations

-- legal codes (i.e. The Code of Hammurabi)

III.  Early Urbanization

A.  Modern Critiques

1.  Lewis Mumford

2.  Gerda Lerner

B.  Benefits

C.  Problems