Essay on "History of Economic of 4 Periods in the Ancient Civilization"

Essay 6 pages (1730 words) Sources: 16

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Mesopotamia -- as the first settled, agrarian-based society, Mesopotamia was the birthplace of modern civilization. The likely scenario, according to archaeologists, is that groups of hunter gatherers noticed that the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was conducive to the growth of grain, and over generations began to develop agriculture and animal husbandry. This transition from a nomadic mountain- and forest-based hunter-gatherer existence to stable plains-based and urban arrangements with surrounding farms was of inestimable importance for the development and viability of new kinds of culture, social techniques, technologies, and the need for permanent structures. In turn, this stability must have encouraged changes in thinking and innovation. Many of the other important aspects of modern civilisation had their origins during the Sumerian period in the Middle East. These included mathematics, writing systems, legal systems, and medicine (Pollock). This coalescing of cultures occurred around 3000-3500 BC, starting with smaller towns and growing into large city-states that controlled much of the region, swallowing up smaller units until Sumeria became one of the dominant empires in the area (Postgate).

One of the principal characteristics of the early Sumerian culture was a well-developed bureaucracy. Over the course of decades, the idea of stable agriculture brought the need for a burgeoning middle management class; consisting largely of priests and scribes, and who had the responsibility of surveying and distributing land and crops. Increased urbanization also changed the way the culture stratified -- food distribution was no longer based on agricultural work, but now required a bureaucrat to collect taxes, establish rules and regulations, and keep records (Kreis; Museum). In fact, the first forms of writing, the cuneiform, were records about the distribution of goods. This new writing was a combination of pictographs and symbols, and was also a way to disseminate information between generations. All this administration of agriculture required that each farmer produce far more that would actually be consumed by his family, which in turn required careful planning and the increase of technological inventions (the plough, wheel, irrigation). Record keeping and harvest issues also required some sort of time-line, so the calendar and mathematics were invented, and with it, primitive astronomy. As building size grew, too, more complex architectural and planning occurred resulting in greater mathematical sophistication and a need to move from the finite to the abstract, paving the way for more advanced ideas (Dlott).

Ancient Egypt -- the Egyptian civilization is considered one of the world's oldest, operating contemporaneously with Sumer and taking technology and culture much further. Like the Mesopotamian culture, Egypt evolved around the banks of the Nile river -- starting with small villages, moving into regional centers, then into towns, cities, and finally a political unification of the major Nile Valley civilizations around 3150 BC. In many of the same ways the culture of the Nile and building pushed Egypt to form a hierarchy of classes in which different parts of society wore different clothing to denote rank, and stratified their society along religion as well, with priests forming the bureaucratic class. This also engendered development in mathematics, astronomy, and engineering based on real-world issues (David).

One additional technological innovation perfected by the Ancient Egyptians was the art of mummification. This did not just focus on preserving bodies of the wealthy, but was integrally tied to religion, culture, law, medicine, and their belief system about society and the hierarchy of beings. The mummification process was a complex chemical and biological technique designed to maximize the preservation of a human body. The idea of the afterlife also contributed to the building of magnificent monuments, structures known as pyramids, which stretched the architectural and technological know-how almost to the extreme at the time. The idea of building a tomb to last for eternity, of preserving the body of the emperor or noble, thus had a direct effect on continued technological know-how (Assman; James; Mummies and Mummification).

Most of the building technology was done with mud brick, and then the larger, more detailed palaces and public buildings molded with copper, stone or bronze tools. They used rollers, wooden gliders, levels, and ropes, as well as large lifting devices to place heavy blocks of granite or limestone in place. Various techniques were used to enhance the strength of the brick, and what little wood was available for building was used in crowns, beams, and column bodies within temples. The reason the Egyptians were able to build such massive structures was because of a rather advanced form of economic trade for the time. The Nile was also a river of transport, and numerous goods came from East-Central Africa to be distributed to various settlements around the Mediterranean and east into the Fertile Crescent area. In turn, trade goods from the east flowed into Egypt, which, in combination with farming surpluses because of irrigation and storage, mining of precious stones, and the manufacturing of cloth, textiles, and pottery, allowed the Egyptian economy to support a large upper class and bureaucracy as well as wealth for construction (Siliotto, Walton).

Ancient Greece - the ancient Greeks were a seafaring people who incorporated much of the knowledge and technology of older cultures, especially that of Egypt, but also of Phoenicia and Babylon (Freeman). Greek society spread farther through trade routes that the Romans would later take over (Hansen). The complex relationship among the different subcultures gave rise to the political organisation of democracy, which was one of the Greeks' enduring legacies to human society (Rhodes). Equally, the huge size of the empire made it subject to political upheaval and the Hellenistic Greeks could not retain their power (Elton).The entire edifice of Western philosophy rests on the foundation of Greek thought. Therein almost every philosophical subject matter was defined, from natural philosophy to epistemology and ethics. In addition, Greek literature and art were formative for later European conceptions of art. Greek drama still influences contemporary theatre (Gutzwiller). Greece synthesised all of the most sophisticated aspects of Eastern and Near Eastern civilisations and in turn passed these on to later societies.

While Ancient Greece was the germination point of democracy and much of the type of philosophy we hold true in the contemporary world, theirs was also a stratified life. The majority of the population were agrarian, and because the landscape was difficult to farm, took far more acreage than many other areas of the Middle East. Olive oil was an important crop in the Ancient World -- cooking, lighting, cosmetics, and above all for trade. This, plus the seafaring nature of the Greeks allowed Greek culture and philosophy (language, politics, etc.) to spread throughout the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern areas, and for the Greeks to take technological and social inventions back with them to improve, change, and then pass on to the Romans (Apel).

The upper classes, property owners, government officials, teachers, tradesmen, etc. were typically active in politics, philosophical discussions, attended the theatre for entertainment which was also a way of disseminating popular culture and history. There was a clean gender line, though; women were not allowed in the theatre, and were closely tied to domestic work, and not involved in public life or politics. Social classes came from men, women took all their legal status from their husband (Ancient Greece). Greek society was divided as well between free persons and slaves; often prisoners of war or purchased from slave traders. This was a clear fact in the Ancient World, and was completely acceptable even under the principles of democracy (Freeman; Rhodes).

Ancient Rome - the Romans borrowed heavily from all past cultures and used this knowledge and know-how to build a geographically expansive empire through well-honed organisational skills. They replaced the Greeks as lords of the Mediterranean. The size of the Roman Empire required a well-disciplined army that not only conquered people across Europe but then established and maintained Roman law and culture in each new colony (Goldsworthy).

Rome took Greek and Egyptian technologies to new levels. For example, Roman houses had indoor plumbing, including flush toilets, and a sophisticated system of aqueducts that brought water to the cities for baths and to irrigate crops. Roman cities were clean and well organised (Bird). However, much of Roman learning and technology was lost after the fall of the empire and not recovered until the Renaissance. Nevertheless, even in the Dark Ages there were glimmers of Roman cultural achievement. For example, their language, Latin, forms the basis of many modern European languages (Thinkquest.org).

Like Greece, the Roman Empire was stratified between wealthy landowners, politicians, and noble families; a burgeoning middle class of tradesmen, shop keepers, etc. And slaves. Of course, the Romans also had a large standing army, and there were a number of ancillary services required to keep such a large army intact; thus increasing the need for technological inventions (roads, waterways, military technology, ship building, architecture, and even political and social systems for out of the way lands and posts) (Duiker). The Roman system of education was based and acquired from the Greeks. The main… READ MORE

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