Today’s Class

• Levels of Social Organization

• Origin of the State

• Origin of Writing

• Cities / Urbanism

Levels of Social Organization

• Tribe

• Band

• Chiefdom

• State

Band – low density; hunting/gathering/fishing; <100 people; seasonal shifts; egalitarian

Tribe – increased (~100-1000), some domestication of plants/animals; more sedentary (villages); more territorial; some ranked

Food Production: Review

Consequences of Food Production

• Consequences on Health

-Joint Wear

-Infectious Disease

Nutritional Diseases

-Cribra orbitalia

-Harris lines

Consequences of Food Production

• Inequality

Consequences of Food Production

• Population Size / Density

Chiefdom

• Larger than bands & tribes

– Thousands of People

• Rank Society

– Inequality among individuals

– Between villages

• Decision Making Apparatus

• Intensified Food Production

• Kin-Based

Chiefdoms

• Levels:

– Chief

• Not absolute power

• Symbolism / Ritual

• Religion as legitimacy

– Between God and People

– Chiefly Elite (Closely related to chief)

– Commoners

Chiefdoms

• Spatial Organization

– Two Level Settlement Hierarchy

• Chiefly Center

• Surrounding Villages

– Produce Surplus for Center

• Reliant on Intensified Food Production

– Exceptions

State Level Societies

• Large Scale (>10,000 people)

• Specialized Bureaucracy

– Support specialists

• Absolute Leader & Enforcement

– King as Hereditary Leader

• Stratified Classes

• Urbanization (with Settlement Hierarchy)

• Writing

• Intensified Food Production – Often Irrigation

• Primary vs. Secondary States

Stratification

• Inherited status distinctions

• Sharp divisions between classes

– Enforced by economic control, religion, force

• Easily recognizable archaeologically

-Grave goods (Ram Caught in Thicket, Royal Cemetery of Ur)

-Artificial Cranial Deformation

Monumental Architecture

-Ur Ziggurat, Iraq

Early Primary States

• Mesopotamia (5700 years BP)

• Egypt (5100 years BP)

• Harappan / Indus Valley (2600 years BP)

• China (3750 years BP)

• Mesoamerica –Maya (2500 years BP)

Evidence for Ancient States

• Settlement Pattern

– Cities; Settlement hierarchies; Variation

• Monumental Public Architecture

• Urbanism

• Iconography

– Styles & Symbols; Later Writing

• Evidence for Complex Bureaucracy

– Writing

Urbanism/Cities

-What features define cities?

-How are these recognized archaeologically?