A n t h r o p o l o g y

Appreciating Human Diversity

Fifteenth Edition

Conrad Phillip Kottak University of Michigan

McGraw-Hill © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved. C H A P T E R

THE FIRST CITIES AND STATES

12-2 THE FIRST CITIES AND STATES

• The Origin of the State • The Urban Revolution • Attributes of States • State Formation in the Middle East • Other Early States • State Formation in Mesoamerica • Why States Collapse

12-3 THE FIRST CITIES AND STATES

• When, where, and why did early states originate, and what were their key attributes? • How do archaeologists distinguish between chiefdoms and states? • What similarities and differences marked the origin of early states in the Old World and the New World?

12-4 THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE

• Chiefdom: Political entity with hereditary leaders and permanent political structure • People ranked relative to one another • People have differential access to resources • Not divided into clearly defined social classes/lack sharp class divisions found in states • Individuals ranked in terms of their genealogical distance from the chief (closer to chief, greater social importance) • Precursors to states • Privileged and effective leaders (i.e. chief) • With emergence of food production, chiefdoms developed in many parts of the world • State: form of social and political organization that has a formal central government and a division of society into classes / social stratification • First states developed in Mesopotamia by 5500 B.P. • Evidence of an elite level by 7000 B.P. in Middle East and 3200 B.P. in Mesoamerica

12-5 THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE

• Spread of Neolithic economies fueled population growth and established larger group settlements • Food production – able to support larger and denser populations • Larger groups means new tasks, activities and functions emergerd • Complexity of division of social and economic labor tended to grow as food production spread and intensified • Systems of political authority and control developed to handle regulatory problems • Competition for territory and resources • State formation may take centuries, and people experiencing the process may not perceive significance of long-term changes • Multiple factors contributed to formation of states; these differ in importance according to each case; thus, the causes of state formation are generalized rather than universal • Primary States: • Arose on their own, not through contact with other state societies • Emerged from competition among chiefdoms (as one conquered another) • Competition for territory and resources

12-6 HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS

• Wittfogel: one cause of state formation is need to regulate hydraulic (water-based) agricultural economies • In arid areas, like Egypt or Mesopotamia, states emerged to manage systems of irrigation, drainage, and flood control • Water control increases production but demands labor and organization; increased agricultural production fuels population growth • Large hydraulic works sustain towns and cities and become essential to subsistence • Hydraulic systems are not a necessary condition for the rise of the state

12-7 LONG-DISTANCE TRADE ROUTES • States emerged at strategic locations in regional trade networks • Not a necessary condition for the rise of states

12-8 POPULATION, WAR, AND CIRCUMSCRIPTION

• Carneiro: wherever and whenever environmental circumscription (resource concentration), increasing population, and warfare exist, state formation will begin • Multivariate theory: involves multiple factors, courses, or variables: environmental circumscription, increasing population, and warfare • Physical circumscription – small islands, river plains, oases, and valleys • Social circumscription – neighboring societies block expansion, emigration, or access to resources • Theory explains many, but not all, cases of state formation

12-9 POPULATION, WAR, AND CIRCUMSCRIPTION

• Coastal Peru illustrates these factors’ interaction - earliest cultivation limited to valleys with springs - valleys were circumscribed by mountains, ocean, and desert - with food production there was population increase - bigger villages would split and people would found new ones - scarcity of land developed - rivalries and raiding began among villages in the same valley - because of the circumscription, losers had to submit to winners – there was nowhere else to go - those conquered were allowed to keep their land by paying tribute to conquerors - had to intensify production with new techniques to produce more food - brought new areas under cultivation by irrigation and terracing - people forced to pay tribute, accept political domination, and intensify production - trend accelerated, populations grew, warfare intensified - villages united into chiefdoms - first states develop when one chiefdom in a valley conquered the others THIS THEORY EXPLAINS MANY, BUT NOT ALL, CASES OF STATE FORMATION

12-10 Figure 12.1: Carneiro’s Multivariate Approach to the Origin of the State as Applied to Coastal Peru

12-11 THE URBAN REVOLUTION

• Childe: “Urban Revolution” • “rise of the state” • Emergence of institutions of government with powerful rulers • Social stratification • Increased economic activity • First cities were built • Reduction of freedoms for many (servitude, taxes, rules, regulations)

12-12 THE URBAN REVOLUTION

• Archaeological evidence gives ten attributes of early cities and states (versus villages): • Cities were larger, more extensive, and more densely populated than previous settlements • Fulltime specialists, craftsmen, transport workers, merchants, officials, and priests • Primary producers had to pay a tithe or tax to a deity • Monumental buildings • Ruling class • Writing used for record keeping • Predictive sciences developed • Sophisticated art styles developed • Long-distance and foreign trade • Society reorganized on the basis of territorial divisions rather than kinship groups

12-13 ATTRIBUTES OF STATES

• States control specific regional territory • Early states had productive farming economies, supporting dense populations • Populations often centered in cities • Usually involved some form of water control or irrigation • States used tribute and taxation to accumulate (at a central place) the resources needed to support hundreds, or even thousands, of specialists

12-14 ATTRIBUTES OF STATES

• Had rulers, a military, and control over human labor • States were stratified into social classes (elites, commoners, slaves) • Early states had imposing public buildings and architecture • Early states developed some form of record-keeping system

12-15 STATE FORMATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST • Food production arose around 10,000 B.P. in the Middle East • Population increased most rapidly in the alluvial plain in southern Mesopotamia by 6000 B.P. • Towns grew into cities by 5500 B.P. • Sumer, with its capital at Uruk • Elam, with its capital at Susa • Earliest known town was Jericho (now Israel)

12-16 URBAN LIFE

• Jericho: earliest known town • Located in what is now Israel at a well-watered oasis • First settled by Natufian foragers some 11,000 years ago • Round houses • Approx. 2000 people • Surrounded by wall with tower • Destroyed around 9000 B.P. • Rebuilt with square houses with plaster floors • Burial chambers beneath the floors • Pottery first appeared at Jericho around 8000 B.P.

12-17 URBAN LIFE

• Çatal Hüyük (central Turkey) arose because of trade • Long-distance trade (especially of obsidian) important in Middle East between 9500 and 7000 B.P.; prospered due to trade • Flourished between 8000 – 7000 B.P. • Located in central part of modern Turkey • Located on river that deposited rich soil for crops and lush environment for animals • Possibly largest settlement of Neolithic • Supported up to 10,000 people • Shielded by a defensive wall • Square mud buildings that had separate areas for secular and ritual activities • Very crowded – entered house from roof • Ritual spaces decorated by wall paintings, sculpted ox heads, bull horns, and relief models of bulls and rams • Goddess figurines • Ancestors buried beneath their houses • NO SIGNS OF STATE – LEVEL SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION • No control by priestly or political elite; no leaders who managed trade and production

12-18 Figure 12.2: Sites in Middle Eastern State Formation

12-19 THE ELITE LEVEL

• Evidence of social/status ranking – pottery • Pottery shape, finishing, decorations, and type of clay are used for dating • Geographic distribution of pottery style may indicate trade or alliance spanning large area • Halafian pottery (7500–6500 B.P.) • Delicate pottery associated with elites • Indicates one of first chiefdoms in northern part of the Middle East • Ubaid pottery (7000–6000 B.P.) • Associated with advanced chiefdoms and perhaps first states in southern Mesopotamia

12-20 SOCIAL RANKING AND CHIEFDOMS

• Easy for archaeologists to identify early states • Monumental architecture • Central storehouses • Irrigation systems • Written records • In Mesoamerica, easy to detect chiefdoms • Stone works (temple complexes, Olmec heads) • Buried chiefs and their families with durable ornaments and prestige goods (status ranking) • In Middle Eastern chiefdoms, it is not as easy to detect • Less ostentatious with material markers of prestige

12-21 SOCIAL RANKING AND CHIEFDOMS

• Three kinds of societies: egalitarian, ranked, and stratified • Egalitarian societies: • Typically foragers • Lack status distinctions except for those based on age, gender, and individual qualities, talents, knowledge, or achievements • cultures with basic status distinctions, not usually inherited; people achieve different statuses through the course of their lifetime • Ranked societies: • individuals ranked by genealogical distance from the chief • Has hereditary inequality but lacks social stratification: social divisions or strata with unequal wealth and power • Not all ranked societies are chiefdoms – only those in which there is a loss of village autonomy • Chiefdoms: • relations among villages and individuals are unequal • People ranked relative to one another • People have differential access to resources • Not divided into clearly defined social classes/lack sharp class divisions found in states • Individuals ranked in terms of their genealogical distance from the chief (closer to chief, greater social importance) • Precursors to states • Privileged and effective leaders (i.e. chief)

12-22 SOCIAL RANKING AND CHIEFDOMS

• Chiefdoms – Archaeological evidence • wealthy burials of children too young to have achieved prestige of their own • Common canal to irrigate several villages • Two tier hierarchy system, with small villages clustering around large village that has public buildings

• In Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, and Peru, chiefdoms were precursors to primary states: states that arose on their own, not through contact with other state societies • Evidence for chiefdoms in Middle East around 7300 B.P. • Evidence for chiefdoms in Mesoamerica dates back around 3000 B.P.

12-23 Advanced Chiefdoms

• Tell Hamoukar (Northeastern Syria) • Located on major trade route • Approx. 5500 B.P. • Prosperous town • 32 acres; enclosed by defensive wall • Evidence of large scale food storage and preparation; indicates that elites were hosting and entertaining in the manner of a chief (social ranking) • Seals used to mark storage containers; also used to stamp more elaborate goods with mark of administrative authority (social ranking) • Suggests chiefdoms arose in northern areas of Middle East independently of developments in Southern Mesopotamia

12-24 SOCIAL RANKING AND CHIEFDOMS

Archaeological record of period after 7300 B.P. reveals behavior typical of chiefdoms, including exotic goods used as markers of status, raiding, and political instability • Had cemeteries where high-status people were buried with distinctive items (vessels, statuettes, necklaces, and high-quality ceramics) • Buried children with prestige items

• The first Middle Eastern states developed between 6000 and 5500 B.P.

12-25 Archaeological Record of Social Ranking

• Settlement pattern • Two tier hierarchy system, with small villages clustering around large village that has public buildings • Burials • Buried chiefs and their families with durable ornaments and prestige goods • wealthy burials of children too young to have achieved prestige of their own • Pottery • Certain pottery associated with elites (ornate, delicate, decorated, high quality…) • Large pots • large scale food storage and preparation (feasts) • Seals • Seals used to mark storage containers • Exotic items

12-26 RECAP 12.1: Egalitarian, Ranked, and Stratified Societies

12-27 THE RISE OF THE STATE

• Uruk period (6000–5200 B.P.) • Characterized by appearance of first major cities • Irrigation allowed the Ubaid communities to spread along the Euphrates River • Travel and trade were expanding (waterways) • Social and economic networks linked communities on the rivers • Economies managed by central leadership • Social differences increased as non-food producers (like priests and political leaders) were supported by food producers • First writing appears, to keep accounts • Cuneiform: wedge-shaped writing, using styles on clay

12-28 THE RISE OF THE STATE

• Uruk period (continued) • Writing and temples played key roles • First writing appeared in Sumer • Cuniform (symbols on clay) • Priests managed herding, farming, manufacture, and trade • Priests used cuneiform writing to keep track of their temples’ economic activities

12-29 THE RISE OF THE STATE

• Uruk period (continued) • Metallurgy: extraction and processing of metals to make tools • Smelting: a high-temperature process by which pure metal is produced from an ore • After 5000 B.P., metallurgy evolved rapidly • Golden objects found in royal burials at Uruk by 4500 B.P.

12-30 THE RISE OF THE STATE

• The Mesopotamian economy spurred population growth and urbanism • Uruk – 4800 B.P.; largest early Mesopotamian city; population 50,000 • As irrigation and population expanded, communities fought over water; people sought protection in fortified cities when invaders threatened • Secular authority replaced temple rule by 4600 B.P. • Military coordinator developed into kingship (change shown in palaces and royal tombs) • Monarchs buried with soldiers, charioteers, and ladies in waiting – all killed at time of royal burial • Well-defined class structure, with complex stratification into nobles, commoners, and slaves

12-31 OTHER EARLY STATES

• Indus civilization • An Indus River Valley state flourished between 4600 and 3900 B.P. • The major cities Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, exhibited urban planning with carefully laid out wastewater systems and residential sectors • The area developed its own writing system which has yet to be deciphered • The culture collapsed around 3900 B.P. due to warfare

12-32 OTHER EARLY STATES

• China: Shang dynasty (3750 B.P.) • Arose in Huang He (Yellow) River area • Dietary staple - wheat • Urbanism • Palaces • Human sacrifice • Distinct social classes • Developed writing system • Well-known for bronze metallurgy • Many early civilizations relied on metallurgy

12-33 OTHER EARLY STATES

• Peru: Andes • Metalworking appeared around 4000 B.P. • System of suspension bridges • Known for their pottery manufacturing techniques • State formation curtailed by Spanish conquest • Aztecs (Mexico) conquered in 1519 C.E. • Inca (Peru) conquered in 1532 C.E.

12-34 AFRICAN STATES

• Egypt developed in northern Africa as one of the world’s first states • Egypt’s influence extended southward along the Nile into what is now Sudan • Metallurgy played a role in eventual rise of the African states • Metallurgy spread by Bantu speakers (largest linguistic group in Africa) about 2100 B.P. • Bantu speakers also spread language and farming (yams, bananas, plantains)

12-35 AFRICAN STATES

• Mwenemutapa empire (empire – mature state that is multiethnic, militaristic, and expansive) • Started in the region now called Zimbawbe • Later became the Zimbabwe state • Emerged through powerful networks of trade • Arose from Bantu migration • The region was rich in gold • Powerful kingdom based on trade • Protected by stone enclosure • Mwenemutapa traded with cities on the Indian Ocean starting around 1000 B.P. • Dominated Zambezi valley militarily and commercially

12-36 AFRICAN STATES

• Farming towns started appearing in the Sahel around 2600 B.P. (south of Sahara in West Africa) • Region rich in gold, precious metals, ivory, and other resources • After 1250 B.P., trade crossed the Sahara to North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East • Cities in the Sahel served as southern terminal points • Several kingdoms developed in area

12-37 STATE FORMATION IN MESOAMERICA • Mesoamerican chiefdoms constructed monumental buildings in many areas • Chiefdoms influenced one another as they traded materials and ideas

12-38 EARLY CHIEFDOMS AND ELITES

• Olmec built series of ritual centers on Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast 3,200 to 2,500 years ago • Chiefdom center - earthen mounds grouped into plaza complexes; arranged around central plaza • Mounds demonstrated chief’s ability to harness human labor for large construction projects • Master sculptors emerged • Carved large stone heads – possibly images of chiefs or ancestors • Trade routes linked Olmecs with other parts of Mesoamerica, including Oaxaca • Items traded for elite consumption between Oaxaca and Olmec: • Oaxaca had mirrors and jade made by Oaxacan artisans • Olmecs had mussel shelled ornaments from the coast • Olmec chiefdom farmed river levees, built mounds of earth, and carved colossal stone heads • Oaxaca chiefdoms had canal and well irrigation, exported magnetite mirrors, and were advanced in their use of adobe, stucco, stone masonry, and architecture

12-39 EARLY CHIEFDOMS AND ELITES

• Rapid social change/expansion between 3200 B.P. and 3000 B.P. • Mesoamerica’s chiefdoms linked by trade • Intensity of competitive interaction made change more rapid • Chiefly centers were concentrating labor power, intensifying agriculture, exchanging trade goods, and borrowing ideas and art styles • State formation involves one chiefdom incorporating several others into an emerging state that it controls, and making changes in its own infrastructure as it acquires new territories • 2 key elements in state formation: • Waging war • Attracting followers

12-40 WARFARE AND STATE FORMATION: THE ZAPOTEC CASE

• Warfare often plays key role in primary state formation • Zapotec state: first Mesoamerican state, in the Valley of Oaxaca, dating to 3260-3160 B.P. • Capital was Monte Alban for 1200 years (500 B.P. – 700 C.E.) • After 700 C.E., Monte Alban lost central role as capitol; Zapotec state fragmented into series of smaller centers (principalities) • Flannery, Marcus: presented changing warfare patterns were seen in Oaxaca between 330 and 20 B.P.: • From early raiding among sedentary villages to warfare aimed at conquest • Armed conflict began with raiding, killing, burning, and captive taking but no permanent acquisition of territory • Raiding gradually evolved into war aimed at territorial conquest, which led to populations relocating to defensible hills • Evidence for earliest conquest warfare appears with evidence for emerging state organization (supports causal link) • Earliest monument with writing found in Mesoamerica • Depicts name, sacrificed captive (possibly rival chief) • Expansion through conquest can play key role in the formation of a primary state by building the administrative hierarchy • Vital to formation of Zapotec state

12-41 STATES IN THE VALLEY OF MEXICO

• Teotihuacán – state that flourished between 1900 and 1300 B.P.; Valley of Mexico • Town of 10,000 people by 1 C.E. • Governed territory of a few thousand square kilometers with perhaps 50,000 people • Growth from agriculture; perpetual springs permitted irrigation of a large alluvial plain • Settlement hierarchy: ranked series of communities that differed in size, function, and building types • Top of hierarchy were political and religious centers • Bottom were rural villagers • Organization included large-scale irrigation, status differentiation, and complex architecture • Planned city built on a grid pattern, with the Pyramid of the Sun at its center • After 700 C.E. Teotihuacan started to decline in size and power.

12-42 STATES IN THE VALLEY OF MEXICO

• Teotihuacán (continued) • Population reached 130,000 by 500 C.E. • Population shrank to 30,000 by 900 C.E.

• Succeeded by lesser Toltec state (900–1200 C.E.)

• Then succeeded by Aztecs (1325 – 1520 C.E.) • Population growth (including immigration by ancestors of Aztecs) and urban growth returned to Valley of Mexico between 1200-1520 C.E. • As agriculture intensified, trade networks expanded, and immigration brought greater population growth, which became the basis for the Aztec state

12-43 STATES IN THE VALLEY OF MEXICO

• During Aztec period (1325–1520 C.E.), several cities appeared • Population growth was accompanied by an intensification of agriculture • In Tenochtitlán, production of luxury goods became more prestigious and highly organized; artisans occupied special positions • Manufacture of luxury goods for export became an important part of economy

12-44 Figure 12.4: Major Sites in the Emergence of Food Production and the State in Mesoamerica

12-45 WHY STATES COLLAPSE

• Various factors could threaten economies and political institutions: • Invasion • Disease • Famine • Prolonged drought • Environmental degradation • Deforestation promotes erosion and leads to a decline in water supply; overuse of land might deplete the soils of nutrients • Ancient Mesopotamia (between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers) • As water evaporated from irrigation canals, water-borne salts became concentrated in fields, eventually creating a poisonous environment for plants. It forced them to abandon their fields

12-46 THE MAYA DECLINE

• Flourished between 300 and 900 C.E. • Known for monuments, calendars, mathematics, and hieroglyphic writing • Archaeological clues to Maya decline found at Copan • Rulers inscribed monuments with accounts of coronation, lineage, battles, names of kings, and dates of reign • One monument, ruler’s throne platform, but only one side was finished; dated to 822 C.E.; no monuments after that date • Environmental factors: deforestation, erosion, and soil exhaustion due to overpopulation and overfarming • Food stress and malnutrition (80% of buried skeletons had signs of anemia) • Even nobility were malnourished • Evidence of warfare • Hieroglyphic texts document increased warfare • From period just before collapse, evidence of their increased concern with fortifications • Evidence of burning of structures, projectile points from spears, bodies of those killed

• Archaeologists once explained state origin and decline mainly in terms of environmental factors (i.e. climate change, habitat destruction, demographic pressure…) but now understand these more fully, in social and political terms. • Archaeologists now stress the role of warfare in Maya state decline. They now believe that the social, political, and military upheaval and competition has as much or more to do with the Maya decline as did natural environmental factors.

12-47