The Common Characteristics Of Early Civilizations - 865 Words

In 1950, V Gordon Childe drew up a list of traits of to what he considered to be the common characteristics of early civilizations. According to Fagan Scarre, a recent archaeologist Charles Redman divided Childe’s list into primary and secondary characteristics. The primary characteristics included cities and states, together with full-time specialization of labor, concentration of surplus, and a class-structured society. For the secondary, the characteristics included symptoms or by-products of these major economic and organizational changes: monumental public works, long-distance trade, standardized monumental artworks, writing, and the sciences (arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy)(Scarre and Fagan 2003). One of the most common characteristics involve was a large, dense population living in a city. This essay well state and describe two early cities in Mesopotamia and explore the layouts and characteristics of these two cities. Also, whether each city is unique or share co mmon characteristics with each other. The two cities are Maskan-shapir and Ur. Ur was one of the most powerful cities in Sumer between 3000 and 2000 BCE. It was located roughly 300 kilometers (about 187 miles) southeast of Baghdad which was surrounded by the arid, salt-encrusted plain of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Today however, Ur is far from the Persian Gulf and is surrounded by a wall about 8 meters tall. The temples were a major economic entities because it help them bringShow MoreRelatedEarly Civilizations : Ancient Civilizations830 Words   |  4 Pages18, 2015 Early Civilization All civilizations, whether old or new, strive for advancement. 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