Cradles of civilization

The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. Current thinking is that there was no single "cradle", but several civilizations that developed independently; with the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia and Egypt, understood to be the earliest. Other civilizations arose in Asia among cultures situated along large river valleys, notably the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent and the Yellow River in China. The extent to which there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Near East and those of East Asia is disputed. Scholars accept that the civilizations of Norte Chico in present-day Peru and that of Mesoamerica emerged independently from those in Eurasia.

Scholars have defined civilization using various criteria such as the use of writing, cities, a class-based society, agriculture, animal husbandry, public buildings, metallurgy, and monumental architecture. 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 (the predecessor of East Asian Civilization). It has also been applied to ancient Anatolia, the Levant and Iran, and used to refer to culture predecessors—such as Ancient Greece as the predecessor of Western Civilization—even when such sites are not understood as an independent development of civilization, as well as within national rhetoric.

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