The Emergence of Civilization
From Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture, Cities, and the State in the Near East
Description:... "The Emergence of Civilization" is a major contribution to our understanding of the development of urban culture and social stratification in the Near Eastern region. Charles Maisels argues that present assumptions about state formation, based on 19th-century speculations, are markedly inaccurate. His investigation illuminates the changes in scale, complexity and hierarchy which usually accompany the development of civilization. Maisels furthermore makes conclusions about the dynamics of social change and the processes of social evolution in general, applying those concepts to the rise of Greece and Rome, and to the collapse of the classical Mediterranean world.
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