Making Civilizations Before 600
* Book: Hans-Joachim Gehrke, ed. Making Civilizations: The World Before 600. Cambridge MA: Belden Press of Harvard University, 2020.
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Review
Reviewed by Robert Bedeski:
"Studying ancient civilizations is not a precise enterprise, and many statements are approximations, subject to validation or dispute. Several key concepts describe the flow and progress of collective human development. Individuals, families, clans, and tribes precede formation of civilization, which provides the foundation for states. Governments are managerial organizations of more complex societies, providing concentrated focus on defense, currency and infrastructure. Civilizations improve life security as urbanization, innovation, and division of labor increase, requiring more complex and powerful governing institutions.
Making Civilizations, in more than a thousand pages of text and charts, provides a readable and scholarly tour of latest research and interpretations of man’s quest for life security and meaning. Civilization1 is a form of social and political association with characteristics of adaptation to the physical environment, a common or dominant religion, culture and language, a government, a degree of urbanization and occupied territory. A later layer of organization is the state, in the form of autonomous cities (the polis), kingdoms and empire. The distinction between civilization and state is crucial, and a more complete title of the book might be Making Civilizations and States since state-making often appears as the sub-text. The volume begins with Hermann Parzinger’s survey of the pre-written record. Advances in archaeology and forensic technology have contributed to a rapidly expanding understanding of ancient humans and their works. Old hypotheses on the spread of humankind are replaced by newer discoveries, such as migration of peoples, not across the Straits of Gibraltar, but from Africa through the Middle East. Ancient Egypt, mother of later civilizations, adapted to its riverine environment, flourished and created a complex culture that glorified the cult of the dead with pyramids and elaborate tombs. A combination of agriculture, war and religion established a political order lasting several millennia and twenty-six dynasties. Karen Radner traces the evolution of material, social and political progress in Egypt and Mesopotamia, whose records in hieroglyphics and cuneiform provide rich sources of information. Metallurgy was a key development in improving tools and weapons, as well as requiring an increasingly complex division of labor and expanding trade for acquisition of needed ores and metals. Hans-Joachim Gehrke examines Greco-Roman civilization, with Crete as cultural intermediary through contacts with Egypt and various Mesopotamian entities.
The inter-polis wars of Greece led to its downfall and ushered a launching platform for Alexander to spread Hellenic culture into Asia. In its glory days, the Greek polis created the roots of the modern democratic state with government accountability. Festivals were an important part of building Greek civilization, including not only worship and sacrifices, but sport competition, dramas, and mutual learning. Participants and organizers came into contact and war was suspended during the ancient Olympics. The Roman Republic adapted parts of that culture and raised law into the essence of the state, ostensibly to provide justice in disputes, but actually becoming a major tool in enforcing compliance within an autocratic empire. Ancient China is the third major civilization surveyed. Mark Edward Lewis traces growth of the empire from the earliest Shang and Zhou states, through the period of Warring Kingdoms, into the unification under Qin and subsequent Han dynasty, followed by fragmentation then reunification by the short Sui dynasty, which ushered in the Tang dynasty. The empire was centered on the person of the emperor, with the bulk of the military at the frontiers. A canon of texts, in a non-alphabetic orthography, became a source of continuity and stability for society and state. Indian civilization is considered last, with more cultural than political continuity. The Harappa culture appeared early, evolved into a state and then disappeared. Axel Michaels traces religious and cultural creativity, though state forms tended to be less continuous than in other regions. Nonetheless nationalist scholars search for evidence of a past unity. Vedic civilization’s division of labor evolved into a caste system. Ancient Indian rulers and priests venerated sacred texts like the Upanishads. Hinduism, Jainism and other religions characterized the non-secular culture, with priests exercising considerable political power.
In sum, the book is a tour de force addressing the main features of four major ancient civilizations and their antecedents.
(https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2249&context=ccr)