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The word civilization originates from Latin terms meaning "citizen" and "city." It describes a society that has developed a writing system, a formal government, surplus food production, a division of labor, and urbanization. However, defining civilization is difficult because not every group labeled as such possesses every single one of these traits. Consequently, historians often use the term to describe a culture that has reached a high level of social and technological development.
Building cities has always been considered a primary requirement for a culture to be regarded as a civilization. Even so, Mesopotamia is still viewed as the birthplace of civilization. The people of Göbekli Tepe were likely semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers. The Indus Valley Civilization did not begin constructing its great cities until the Mature Harappan Period. In contrast, the city of Eridu in Mesopotamia was founded around 5400 BCE, and the oldest cities in Egypt date to 4000 BCE. City building is central to civilization because a sedentary community is the first step in developing other aspects.
Civilizations evolved from hunter-gatherers who first established semi-permanent and then permanent communities. This shift began when people settled into an agrarian lifestyle and started producing surplus food. An abundance of food meant that not everyone had to work on the land to eat. This allowed for a division of labor where people worked different jobs. For example, potters would sell their ceramics and purchase food. This division of labor led to the production of surplus artifacts. These items, along with food, could be traded with other communities. Long-distance trade likely led to the development of writing systems to maintain business agreements. The simple government that worked for small communities became more centralized. This new government usually included a religious component, leading to the construction of temples and written literature about the gods.
The idea that civilization represents a state of cultural development superior to others was first developed by the ancient Greeks. The historian Herodotus distinguished between civilized Greeks and barbarous non-Greeks.
The word 'civilization' was first used in eighteenth-century France, but the western idea of a civilized society dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. During the classical period, Greeks began to see themselves as not just different from, but better than, other peoples. When Herodotus, writing in the mid-fifth century BCE, referred to 'the barbarians', this was really a shorthand term for non-Greeks; but by the time of Aristotle, a hundred years later, barbarians and barbarous nations could be defined by certain types of behavior – their treatment of slaves, a barter rather than money economy – that were frowned on by the civilized Greeks. Barbarians had, through their cultural habits, become lesser people than the Greeks, who were seen by themselves, and later Europeans, as the epitome of civilization.
This is why, when this concept is applied to the people of the Göbekli Tepe civilization, they are not considered one of the earliest "civilizations" because they were semi-nomadic. At a certain point circa 12000-11000 years ago, a pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer society in the region of modern-day Turkey began forming permanent settlements and then worked together to build the structure known today as Göbekli Tepe (a modern-day designation meaning "Potbelly Hill" – the original name of the site is unknown). The purpose of Göbekli Tepe is undetermined – though most scholars believe it was a temple – as is the reason why it was buried and abandoned in antiquity.
This view became the standard in the West. However, modern scholars no longer use civilization as a term suggesting one culture is better than another. Instead, it defines what a mature culture is. For a culture to be regarded as a civilization today, it should have developed a writing system, government, surplus food, division of labor, and urbanization. Among these, urbanization is often emphasized because a civilization cannot be nomadic.
Mesopotamia and its Fertile Crescent are known as the cradle of civilization. This region was the first to develop the traits we recognize today. This began in Sumer. The term fertile crescent was coined by Egyptologist James Henry Breasted in 1916. He described it as a semi-circle stretching from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.
These cultural advances were furthered during the Chalcolithic Period (Copper Age, 5900-3200 BCE) and the Ubaid Period (circa 6500-4000 BCE), which gave rise to the first cities, and the urbanization process was then fully embraced during the Uruk Period (circa 4000-3100 BCE). The earliest city cited by the Sumerians themselves is Eridu (circa 5400 BCE), although Uruk (circa 5000-4500) and Ur (circa 4000-3800) may have actually been inhabited earlier in some form based on archaeological evidence. By the time of the Early Bronze Age (3000-2119 BCE), Mesopotamia was "the most densely urbanized region in the ancient world" (Bertman, 201) and recognizable as a civilization. Scholar Paul Kriwaczek comments:
The Sumerians invented or developed all five criteria for civilization. They also created the concept of time, long-distance trade, domesticated animals, mathematics, astronomy, agricultural techniques, religious rituals, medical practices, astrology, and scientific thought. The Neolithic Age in the region saw the development of agriculture, which led to permanent settlements. These advances continued during the Chalcolithic and Ubaid Periods, giving rise to the first cities. The urbanization process was fully embraced during the Uruk Period.
With the city came the centralized state, the hierarchy of social classes, the division of labour, organized religion, monumental building, civil engineering, writing, literature, sculpture, art, music, education, mathematics and law, not to mention a vast array of new inventions and discoveries, from items as basic as wheeled vehicles and sailing boats to the potter's kiln, metallurgy and the creation of synthetic materials. And on top of all that was the huge collection of notions and ideas so fundamental to our way of looking at the world, like the concept of numbers, or weight, quite independent of actual items counted or weighed – the number ten, or one kilo – that we have long forgotten that they had to be discovered or invented.
As Kriwaczek notes, urbanization encouraged the rapid development of many aspects of civilization but had its downside as cities grew larger and natural resources diminished. Farmlands, necessary not only for produce used in trade but to feed the population, were steadily developed for housing and industry. The prosperity of the cities also drew the attention of others, who then moved against them in military campaigns of conquest.
The Sumerians also created many firsts, including the first schools, the first case of juvenile delinquency, the first legal precedent, the first library catalogue, and the first love song. Other inventions include the wheel, mass-produced bricks, the map, the sail, beer, and cylinder seals.
Whether Mesopotamia influenced Egyptian civilization or vice versa – or they first developed independently – continues to be debated. It is possible both were influenced by another, often overlooked, in the Levant. The Palestinian city of Jericho is recognized as the oldest in the world, dating back to 9000 BCE, and featuring the first protective walls, an aspect of urbanization that would not be seen in Mesopotamia until circa 4100 BCE and in Egypt much later.
Urbanization spread from Mesopotamia to Egypt, but the Egyptians were cautious about overextending their cities. Ancient Egypt valued ma'at, which means balance and harmony. The Egyptians believed their region was a gift from the gods. They took greater care to control the size of their cities, often preferring smaller urban centers. Until the late 20th century, some scholars concluded Egypt had no cities.
The development of these cultures might also have been influenced by the Indus Valley Civilization, which traded with both Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, their writing system remains undeciphered. The Indus Valley Civilization exemplifies the development of permanent settlements near rivers, a pattern seen in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. This paradigm holds for the Olmec, Maya, and Inca civilizations as well. Water is a basic necessity, and prehistoric people gravitated toward water sources.
Civilization is a term that remains loosely defined. The Inca present a challenge as they never developed a writing system but were clearly a civilization. This is also true of the Moundbuilders of North America, who had no writing system. Their cities did not conform to the standard definition but were large towns with walls. There is no evidence that the Native Americans of Watson Brake, Poverty Point, Moundville, or Cahokia had any writing system. Yet, Cahokia was the largest pre-Columbian city in North America, with trade, a central government, surplus food, and division of labor. Like the Inca, these indigenous peoples are recognized as a civilization.
Many civilizations went unrecognized up through the 20th century, such as the African Kingdom of Zimbabwe, whose capital, Great Zimbabwe (circa 1100 to circa 1550), is understood today as an architectural masterpiece. The West African kingdoms, including the Yoruba with their capital at Ife (founded circa 500), were also ignored as they did not conform to the definition of "civilization" as it was understood at the time.
The modern Western understanding of civilization is remarkably recent. Until the mid-19th century, few knew Sumer existed. Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform were not deciphered until the 1820s and 1850s. The Indus Valley city of Harappa was discovered in 1829 but left undefined until 1924. Before these advances, Western scholars considered Greece the cradle of civilization. In reality, Greece and Rome were latecomers.