Ancient Civilizations offers a comprehensive and straightforward account of the world's first civilizations and how they were discovered, drawing on many avenues of inquiry including archaeological excavations, surveys, laboratory work, highly specialized scientific investigations, and both historical and ethnohistorical records.

This book covers the earliest civilizations in Eurasia and the Americas, from Egypt and the Sumerians to the Indus Valley, Shang China, and the Maya. It also addresses subsequent developments in Southwest Asia, moving on to the first Aegean civilizations, Greece and Rome, the first states of sub-Saharan Africa, divine kings and empires in East and Southeast Asia, and the Aztec and Inka empires of Mesoamerica and the Andes. It includes a number of features to support student learning: a wealth of images, including several new illustrations; feature boxes which expand on key sites, finds, and written sources; and an extensive guide to further reading. With new perceptions of the origin and collapse of states, including a review of the issue of sustainability, this fifth edition has been extensively updated in the light of spectacular new discoveries and the latest theoretical advances.

Examining the world's pre-industrial civilizations from a multidisciplinary perspective and offering a comparative analysis of the field which explores the connections between all civilizations around the world, this volume provides a unique introduction to pre-industrial civilizations in all their brilliant diversity. It will prove invaluable to students of Archaeology.

Chris Scarre is an archaeologist specializing in the prehistory of Europe, with a particular interest in the archaeology of Atlantic facade. He has participated in fieldwork projects in Britain, France, Greece, and India, and has directed and co-directed excavations at Neolithic sites in France, Portugal, and the Channel Islands. He is Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, UK, and editor of the textbook on world prehistory The Human Past.

Brian M. Fagan is one of the world's leading archaeological writers and an internationally recognized authority on world prehistory. He is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has written several best-selling textbooks: Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory; Archaeology: A Brief Introduction; Archaeology and You; In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology; A Brief History of Archaeology: Classical Times to the Twenty-First Century; People of the Earth; and World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction.

Charles Golden is a Mesoamerican archaeologist, whose research has focused on the borders between ancient Maya kingdoms in Mexico and Central America, and the economic, social, and ritual ties that bound rural villages into larger political communities. He is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and editor of Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology: Perspectives at the Millennium, as well as Maya Archaeology, Vols. 1-3.

Ancient Civilizations offers a comprehensive and straightforward account of the world's first civilizations and how they were discovered, drawing on many avenues of inquiry including archaeological excavations, surveys, laboratory work, highly specialized scientific investigations, and both historical and ethnohistorical records.

This book covers the earliest civilizations in Eurasia and the Americas, from Egypt and the Sumerians to the Indus Valley, Shang China, and the Maya. It also addresses subsequent developments in Southwest Asia, moving on to the first Aegean civilizations, Greece and Rome, the first states of sub-Saharan Africa, divine kings and empires in East and Southeast Asia, and the Aztec and Inka empires of Mesoamerica and the Andes. It includes a number of features to support student learning: a wealth of images, including several new illustrations; feature boxes which expand on key sites, finds, and written sources; and an extensive guide to further reading. With new perceptions of the origin and collapse of states, including a review of the issue of sustainability, this fifth edition has been extensively updated in the light of spectacular new discoveries and the latest theoretical advances.

Examining the world's pre-industrial civilizations from a multidisciplinary perspective and offering a comparative analysis of the field which explores the connections between all civilizations around the world, this volume provides a unique introduction to pre-industrial civilizations in all their brilliant diversity. It will prove invaluable to students of Archaeology.

PART I Background

1 The Study of Civilization

What is a "Civilization"?

Comparing Civilizations

Civilizations and Their Neighbors

"Primary" and "Secondary" Civilizations

The Rediscovery of Ancient Civilizations

The Threat to Ancient Civilizations

2 Theories of States

Historical and Anthropological Perspectives

Four Classic Theories for the Emergence of State Societies

Coercive Power versus Collective Action

Cultural Systems and Civilization

Ecological Theories

Social Theories

Cycling Chiefdoms: Processes and Agents

The Collapse of Civilizations

Civilization and Sustainability

Western and Indigenous Science

PART II The First Civilizations

Prelude to Civilization: First Villages in the Fertile Crescent

3 Mesopotamia: The First Cities (3500-2000 B.C.)

The Setting

Irrigation and Alluvium: Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf, and Ubaid (6500-4200 B.C.)

The Uruk Revolution (4200-3100 B.C.)

The Early Dynastic Period (2900-2350 B.C.)

The Akkadian Empire (2334-2190 B.C.)

Imperial Ur (2112-2004 B.C.)

Wider Horizons (2500-2000 B.C.)

4 Egyptian Civilization

Kmt: "The Black Land"

Origins (5000-3100 B.C.)

The Archaic Period (3100-2680 B.C.): Kingship, Writing, and Bureaucracy

The Old Kingdom (c. 2680-2134 B.C.): Territorial and Divine Kingship

The First Intermediate Period (2134-2040 B.C.)

The Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 B.C.): The Organized Oasis

The Second Intermediate Period (1640-1550 B.C.)

The New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.): Imperial Kings

The Transformation of Egypt (after 1100 B.C.)

5 South Asia: The Indus Civilization

The Origins of Village Life

Early Harappan (4000-2600 B.C.)

Mature Harappan: The Indus Civilization (2600-1900 B.C.)

Farming Villages of the Indus and Ganges (2000-600 B.C.)

Early Historic Cities (600-150 B.C.)

6 The First Chinese Civilizations

Setting

Millet and Rice (c. 7000-3500 B.C.)

Liangzhu (c. 3300-2300 B.C.)

Ritual and Pilgrimage: The Niuheliang Temple (c. 3500 B.C.)

Elite Traditions in the Longshan Phase (2800-1800 B.C.)

Shimao and the Northern Zone (c. 2300-1800 B.C.)

Three Dynasties: Xia, Shang, and Zhou (c. 1800-1046 B.C.)

Beyond the Shang: Bronze Age Traditions in Other Regions of China

The Western Zhou Period (1046-771 B.C.)

PART III Great Powers in Southwest Asia

7 Mesopotamia and the Levant (2000-1200 B.C.)

Bronze Age Cities in Anatolia (2000-1700 B.C.)

The Struggle for Mesopotamia (2000-1800 B.C.)

The World of the Mari Letters (1810-1750 B.C.)

The Emergence of Babylon and the Old Babylonian Period (2004-1595 B.C.)

The Rise of the Hittites (1650-1400 B.C.)

Egypt and Mitanni: War in the Levant (15…