Harald Haarmann

Advancement in Ancient Civilizations

Life, Culture, Science and Thought

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Traditional scholarship on how ancient civilizations emerged is outmoded and new insights call for revision. According to the well-established paradigm, Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization. Following the cliche of ex oriente lux ("light from the East") all major achievements of humankind spread from the Middle East. Modern archaeology, cultural science and historical linguistics indicate civilizations did not originate from a single prototype. Several models produced divergent patterns of advanced culture, developing both hierarchical and egalitarian societies. This study outlines a panorama of ancient civilizations, including the still little-known Danube civilization, now identified as the oldest advanced culture in Europe. In a comparative view, a new paradigm of research and a new cultural chronology of civilizations in the Old and New Worlds emerges, with climate change shown to be a continual influence on human lifeways.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: McFarland
• Seitenzahl: 246
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. September 2020
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 254mm x 178mm x 14mm
• Gewicht: 471g
• ISBN-13: 9781476679891
• ISBN-10: 1476679894
• Artikelnr.: 65454692

Autorenporträt

German linguist and cultural scientist Harald Haarmann is vice-president of the Institute of Archaeomythology and director of its European branch. He has written more than 50 books in various languages, including numerous studies on cultures and languages. He lives in Finland.

Inhaltsangabe

Table of Contents List of Maps List of Figures Introduction: The Organic Whole of Human Existence and the Quality of Life 1.
The Life Cycle of Cultures: Trajectories of Interaction Between Human Beings and Their Environment Arbitrators of socio-cultural change: The challenge of changing environmental conditions for adaptive skills
5 Climate-induced changes in human ecology: The origins of the Black Seä10 Environmental ecology and how human beings adapt to local conditions of existence
16 The role of older cultural patterns in the formation process of advanced cultures
18 2.
Timeline: The Ancient Civilizations in Light of a Differential Model of Cultural Advancement The Mesopotamian bias and the Greek myth of the German romantics in the early 19th century
23 The significance of the incubation stage for the emergence of advanced cultures
26 3.
Early Achievements: Elementary Innovations as the Driving Force of Progress in Technological Domains Prototypes of the plough
39 Pyrotechnology for the production of ceramic ware and prototypes of the potter's wheel
40 Furnaces and metal-working
41 The ancient traditions of shipbuilding and seafaring
44 4.
The Wheel, the Wagon and the Chariot: Dynamics of Technological Transfer in Antiquity The significance of the wheel
49 The impact of steppe people on transport technology and the origins of Indo-European terminology
49 The input of ancient European technology in the context of collaboration with Indo-European pastoralists
51 The advent of wheel and wagon in Mesopotamiä52 The chariot: Technological breakthrough in the Eurasian steppes
52 The absence of the wheel as a practical device in pre-Columbian civilization: A mysterious case of a "missing link"
55
5.
The Economic Foundations: Trade Routes, Centers and Networks Trade routes, centers and networks in the commonwealth of Old Europe
61 The movement of trade goods, technological know-how and ideas between Old Europe and Mesopotamiä66 The early network of Middle Eastern trade routes: Sumerian cities interconnected with Dilmun and the Indus Civilization
67 Gift exchange to build trust among trading partners and enhance harmony in social relations
68 Early trading networks in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica: The proliferation of Olmec goods and ideas
70
6.
Settlement Planning: From Villages to Urban Agglomerations The model of urbanization evolving from egalitarian villages
72 The model of urbanization in a milieu of stratified society
77
7.
Architecture: Houses, Workshops and Temples Houses and forms of accommodation in agrarian communities
83 Sacral architecture
86 Famous temple monuments of antiquity vis-à-vis cultural memory: Between oblivion and iconicity
90
8.
Social Networking: Models of Community Life, the Fabric of the Common Good The cumene model of ancient civilization-The archaeological record
101 The rise of the state model of civilization, associated with social hierarchy and stratified society
105 Socioeconomic models of ancient civilizations in a comparative view
107
9.
Religion and Worldview: Anthropomorphic and Zoomorphic Images of the Divine, Sanctuaries and Holy Precincts Archaic forms of spirituality
110 From spirit to female divinity
114 Divinities relating to plant cultivation
119 The personification of individual divine agents and the origins of monumental statuary
123 The emergence of divinities in the context of pre-Columbian civilization
124 Figurines as a lingua franca of ritual life
124 10.
Human Activity Between Life and Afterlife: The Intergenerational Chain in Light of Cultural Memory The world of public entertainment: Did the ancient Greeks invent theater?
126 Fashion and dress-codes: Between social constraints and individual choice
130 The place of the dead in cultural memory
136 Connecting with the ancestors in the world of shamanism
138 11.
Specialized Systems for Communication: Writing Numbers The beginnings of numerical and calendrical notation
144 Writing numbers in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and South Americä146 Writing numbers in pre-Columbian South Americä147 The interrelation of numerical notation and writing: The special case of the Sumerians
149 12.
Specialized Systems for Communication: The Visual Recording of Ideas and Writing Language Writing technology and its significance for the construction of civilization
153 Writing systems in the ancient civilizations
158 Writing systems of the Old World
159 Writing systems of the New World (pre-Columbian): The Olmec script (ca. 1500-600 bce)
173 Writing technology as a vehicle of progress
176 13.
Intellectual Domains: What Was the Driving Force for Science and How Did Philosophy Originate? Pre-Socratic philosophers as the first to reflect on cosmology and the natural world
178 Picking up the threads: The rope model of repetitive continuity of ideas
184 Philosophy as a tool for rationalizing mythic truths and for organizing community life
185 14.
Art and Aesthetics: Artistic Genres in Their Cultural Context The cultural meaning of sculptures in the Old European, Native American and Mesopotamian context
190 Classical Greek philosophy and art: Plato's concept of aesthetics
192 Ancient civilizations as inspirational sources of modern art
198 Epilogue: Cultural Memory Bibliography Index