A 

cradle of civilization is any location where civilization is understood to have independently

emerged. According to current thinking, there was no single "cradle" of civilization; instead,
several cradles of civilization developed independently. Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient
India, and Ancient China are believed to be the earliest in the Old World.[1][2][3] The extent to which
there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Near East and the Indus
Valley with the Chinese civilization of East Asia (Far East) is disputed.
Scholars accept that the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica, which existed in modern-
day Mexico, and the civilization in Norte Chico, a region in the north-central coastal region
of Peru which rivals in age the civilizations of the Old World, emerged independent of the Old
World and of each other.[4]
Scholars have defined civilization by using various criteria such as the use of writing, cities, a
class-based society, agriculture, animal husbandry, public buildings, metallurgy, and monumental
architecture.[5][6] The term cradle of civilization has frequently been applied to a variety of cultures
and areas, in particular the Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic (Ubaid period) and Fertile
Crescent, Ancient India, and Ancient China. It has also been applied to ancient Anatolia,
the Levant and Iranian plateau, and used to refer to culture predecessors—such as Ancient
Greece as the predecessor of Western civilization.[7]

Contents

 1History of the idea

 2Rise of civilization
 3Single or multiple cradles
 4Cradles of civilization
o 4.1Fertile Crescent
 4.1.1Mesopotamia
 4.1.2Ancient Egypt
o 4.2Ancient India
o 4.3Ancient China
o 4.4Ancient Andes
o 4.5Mesoamerica
 5Cradle of Western civilization
 6Timeline
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References
o 9.1Citations
o 9.2Sources

History of the idea[edit]

The concept "cradle of civilization" is the subject of much debate. The figurative use of cradle to
mean "the place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage" is traced
by the Oxford English Dictionary to Spenser (1590). Charles Rollin's Ancient History (1734) has
"Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation".
The phrase "cradle of civilization" plays a certain role in national mysticism. It has been used in
Eastern as well as Western cultures, for instance, in Indian nationalism (In Search of the Cradle
of Civilization 1995) and Taiwanese nationalism (Taiwan;— The Cradle of Civilization[8] 2002).
The terms also appear in esoteric pseudohistory, such as the Urantia Book, claiming the title for
"the second Eden", or the pseudoarchaeology related to Megalithic Britain (Civilization
One 2004, Ancient Britain: The Cradle of Civilization 1921).
Rise of civilization[edit]
Further information: Neolithic Revolution, Urban revolution, and Chalcolithic
The earliest signs of a process leading to sedentary culture can be seen in the Levant to as early
as 12,000 BC, when the Natufian culture became sedentary; it evolved into an agricultural
society by 10,000 BC.[9] The importance of water to safeguard an abundant and stable food
supply, due to favourable conditions for hunting, fishing and gathering resources including
cereals, provided an initial wide spectrum economy that triggered the creation of permanent
villages.[10]
The earliest proto-urban settlements with several thousand inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic.
The first cities to house several tens of thousands were Memphis and Uruk, by the 31st
century BC (see Historical urban community sizes).
Historic times are marked apart from prehistoric times when "records of the past begin to be kept
for the benefit of future generations"[11]—in written or oral form. If the rise of civilization is taken to
coincide with the development of writing out of proto-writing, the Near Eastern Chalcolithic, the
transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age during the 4th millennium BC, and
the development of proto-writing in Harappa in the Indus Valley of South Asia around 3300 BC
are the earliest incidences, followed by Chinese proto-writing evolving into the oracle bone script,
and again by the emergence of Mesoamerican writing systems from about 900 BC.
In the absence of written documents, most aspects of the rise of early civilizations are contained
in archaeological assessments that document the development of formal institutions and the
material culture. A "civilized" way of life is ultimately linked to conditions coming almost
exclusively from intensive agriculture. Gordon Childe defined the development of civilization as
the result of two successive revolutions: the Neolithic Revolution, triggering the development of
settled communities, and the Urban Revolution, which enhanced tendencies towards dense
settlements, specialized occupational groups, social classes, exploitation of surpluses,
monumental public buildings and writing. Few of those conditions, however, are unchallenged by
the records: dense cities were not attested in Egypt's Old Kingdom and cities had a dispersed
population in the Maya area;[12] the Incas lacked writing although they could keep records
with Quipus which might also have had literary uses; and often monumental architecture
preceded any indication of village settlement. For instance, in present-day Louisiana,
researchers have determined that cultures that were primarily nomadic organized over
generations to build earthwork mounds at seasonal settlements as early as 3400 BC. Rather
than a succession of events and preconditions, the rise of civilization could equally be
hypothesized as an accelerated process that started with incipient agriculture and culminated in
the Oriental Bronze Age.[13]

Single or multiple cradles