he First Towns: Seedbeds Of Civilization
The Origins Of Civilizations
By about 7000 B.C., techniques of agricultural production in the Middle
East had reached a level at which it was possible to support thousands of
people, many of whom were not engaged in agriculture, in densely populated
settlements. Two of the earliest of these settlements were at Jericho in what
is today the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and at Catal Huyuk in present-day
southern Turkey. With populations of about 2000 and from 4000 to 6000 people
respectively, Jericho and Catal Huyuk would be seen today as little more than
large villages or small towns. But in the perspective of human cultural
development they represented the first stirrings of urban life. In these and
other Middle Eastern Neolithic settlements, occupational specialization and
the formation of religious and political-military elite groups advanced
significantly. Trade became essential for the community's survival and was
carried on, perhaps by specialized merchants, with peoples at considerable
distances. Crafts such as pottery, metalworking, and jewelry making were
highly developed. At Catal Huyuk in particular, both sculpture and wall
painting were carried to a high level of sophistication.
In these earliest town centers, the key ingredients of civilization came
together. Agricultural surpluses were sufficient to support specialized
non farming producers and non farming political and religious leaders. The
interaction of these groups resulted in a burst of creativity and innovation
in a wide variety of fields. But these earliest centers were quite isolated.
They were merely tiny islands of sedentary cultivators and small numbers of
townspeople, surrounded by vast plains and woodlands. The earliest town
centers appear to have traded rather extensively but to have maintained only
intermittent and limited contacts with neighboring hunting-and-gathering
peoples. Though small in size and not highly specialized in comparison with
the cities of Sumer and other early civilizations, the first towns, settled
during this period, nonetheless played critical roles in continuing the
Neolithic transformation. The ruling elites and craft specialists of these
towns contributed in several major ways to the introduction in the 4th
millennium B.C. of critical inventions - inventions such as the wheel, the
plow, writing, and the use of bronze - that secured the future of civilized
life as the central pattern of human history.
Jericho
Proximity to the Jordan River and the deep and clear waters of an oasis
spring account for repeated human settlement at the place where the town of
Jericho was built. By 7000 B.C., over ten acres at the site were occupied by
round houses of mud and brick resting on stone foundations. Most early houses
had only a single room with mud plaster floors and a domed ceiling, but some
houses had as many as three rooms. Entry to these windowless dwellings was
provided by a single wood-framed doorway and steps down to the floor of the
main room underground. Although there is no evidence that the town was
fortified in the early stages of its growth, its expanding wealth made the
building of walls for protection from external enemies increasingly
imperative. The town was enclosed by a ditch cut into the rocky soil and a
wall reaching almost 12 feet in height. The extensive excavation required for
this construction is quite impressive because the peoples who undertook it
possessed neither picks nor shovels. The stones for the wall were dragged from
a riverbed nearly a mile away. These feats of transport and construction
suggest not only a sizable labor force but one that was well organized and
disciplined.
When Jericho was rebuilt in later centuries, the wall reached a height of
nearly 15 feet, and the fortifications included a stone tower at least 25 feet
high. The area covered by the town increased. Round houses gave way to
rectangular ones, entered through larger and more elaborately decorated wooden
doorways. Houses were built of improved bricks, were provided with plaster
hearths and stone mills for grinding grain, and were furnished with storage
baskets and straw mats. In addition, small buildings that were used as
religious shrines were found in the later stages of the city's history.
Though the economy of Jericho was based primarily upon the farming of
wheat and barley, there is considerable evidence of reliance on both hunting
and trade. Domesticated goats provided meat and milk, while gazelles and
various marsh birds were hunted for their flesh, hides, and feathers. The town
was close to large supplies of salt, sulfur, and pitch. These materials, which
were in great demand in this era, were traded for obsidian - dark, glasslike
volcanic rock - semiprecious stones from Anatolia, turquoise from the Sinai,
and cowrie shells from the Red Sea.
The ruins excavated at Jericho indicate that the city was governed by a
distinct and quite powerful ruling group, which was probably allied to the
keepers of the shrine centers. There probably were specialized artisans and a
small merchant class. In addition to the fertility figurines and animal
carvings found at many other sites, the inhabitants of Jericho sculpted
life-sized, highly naturalistic human figures and heads. These sculptures,
which may have been used in ancestor cults, give us vivid impressions of the
physical features of the people who enjoyed the wealth and security of
Jericho.
http://www.localhistories.org/catalhuyuk.html
http://www.localhistories.org/farmers.html
THE ANCIENT CITY OF CATAL HUYUK
Catal Huyuk was one of the world's first towns. It was built in what is now Turkey about 6,500 BC not long after farming began. Catal Huyuk probably had a population of about 6,000. In Catal Huyuk the houses were made of mud brick. Houses were built touching against each other. They did not have doors and houses were entered through hatches in roofs. Presumably having entrances in the roofs was safer then having them in the walls. (Catal Huyuk was unusual among early towns as it was not surrounded by walls). Since houses were built touching each other the roofs must have acted as streets! People must have walked across them. In Catal Huyuk there were no panes of glass in windows and houses did not have chimneys. Instead there were only holes in the roofs to let out smoke. Inside houses were plastered and often had painted murals of people and animals on the walls. People slept on platforms.
In Catal Huyuk the dead were buried inside houses. (Although they may have been exposed outside to be eaten by vultures first). Although Catal Huyuk was a true town (defined as a community not self-sufficient in food) as least some of its people lived by farming. They grew wheat and barley and they raised flocks of sheep and herds of goats. They also kept dogs. As well as farming the inhabitants of Catal Huyuk also hunted animals like aurochs (wild cattle), wolves, foxes and leopards.
The Farming Revolution
After 9,000 BC a great change came over the world. Previously humans lived by hunting animals and gathering plants. Then about 8,000 BC people began to grow wheat, barley, peas and lentils instead of gathering them wild. By 7,000 BC they domesticated sheep, pigs and goats. By 6,000 BC they also domesticated cattle.
Farming first began in the Fertile Crescent, which stretches from Israel north to southeast Turkey then curves southeast to the Persian Gulf. However agriculture was also invented independently in other parts of the world as well.
The invention of agriculture took place over thousands of years but it fundamentally changed human life. People began to live in settled communities instead of being nomadic or semi-nomadic. When the food supply improved the population increased. Most of all people developed new skills, first making pottery then using metals. Finally they invented writing.
Pottery was first made in the Middle East and North Africa about 7,000 BC. Pottery was, of course, no use to people living a nomadic or semi-nomadic life but it was very useful to people living in settled villages.
The First Towns
About 7,500 BC the world's first town was built at Jericho. It was protected by a 6 meter high wall. Before 6,000 BC a town was built at Catal Huyuk in southern Turkey. It consisted of houses made of mud brick. The houses had no front doors. Instead they had openings on the roofs with ladders. Inside walls were decorated with murals.
The Spread of The Farming Revolution
Meanwhile by 5,000 BC Chinese farmers began growing millet and rice. By 5,000 BC farming had also begun in the Indus Valley. Then, about 3,500 BC people in Mexico began growing maize and beans.
Meanwhile farming spread from the Middle East to Europe. By about 4,000 BC people in central Europe were using oxen to pull plows and wagons. About the same time people in the Middle East began using donkeys as beasts of burden. Also about 4,000 BC horses were domesticated on the steppes of Eurasia.
Furthermore about 4,500 BC people began using copper. By about 3,500 they used bronze tools.
Meanwhile by 5,000 BC people had learned to dig canals to bring water from rivers to their crops. As a result they began to farm the arid lands between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was here that the world's first civilization arose.
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