Factors in the Rise of Primary, Archaic Civilizations
in Mesopotamia and Egypt

    The appearance of primary civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the fourth millennium B.C. constituted an unprecedented development in human history. Both civilizations were based on farming, permanent communities, writing, urban centers, complex political, bureaucratic, and religious structures, specialized occupations, trade and commerce, and monumental architecture. 

    The two civilizations utilized and depended upon certain technological achievements from the prehistoric past, primarily the domestication of plants and animals which accompanied the Neolithic Revolution, which were the necessary prerequisites for the emergence of these primary civilizations. But this prehistory is not in itself a sufficient explanation for the emergence of their civilizations. The rise of Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization constituted a leap, a breakthrough, in the development of human society.

    Some historians have suggested that race, environment, religion, or a combination of physical, social, and psychological forces explain the leap. Others stress material factors, like a surplus of population and wealth, the growth of villages, and specialization of labor. Still others maintain that it is not possible to know the causes for the rise of primary civilizations in the Near East. While we may be able to identify the elements that meet its necessary preconditions, civilization is not a cake mix that can be whipped up by adding all the ingredients. History’s task is to describe and analyze the events that shaped its development in the ancient Near East and trace how these civilizations influenced the history of the West.

The Neolithic Revolution Part 1

The Neolithic Revolution Part 2