The Environment and Civilization: a very, very brief history.

Here's another in the series

When studying the migration of birds or the evolutionary path of amphibians, we are quick to point out the role of the environment on a species. But, we humans have also developed within environmental and geographic contexts that are inseparable from a clear understanding of history. Although never smooth or uniform, a process of identifiable patterns shared by societies is revealed. Beginning with a stable climate, the growth of wide-scale agriculture allowed for specialization and the accumulation of resources to manufacture tools and items of value for trade along routes guided by geography.

The move from hunter-gatherer bands to domestication and small farming communities to sprawling empires required a dependable and predictable climate, friendly to agriculture. The rise of civilization took place within a window of climatic history that archaeologist Brian Fagan calls The Long Summer. This period, formally called the Holocene, followed the last Ice Age and was characterized by temperate weather patterns and cyclical seasons. “By 5000 BC, the major climatic shifts that affected humanity were largely over… The Holocene is the longest period of stable, warmer climate to have descended on earth since 15,000 years ago.”¹ Although hardly uniform, (empires rose and fell with rich and poor harvests) a globally stable climate laid the basis for complex human societies to arise concurrently in different regions.

Once the groundwork was set with a stable climate, the next ingredient for civilization was agriculture. Domestication of plants and animals allowed for long-term planning and settled urban centers. “A city was a different entity from a village, not just larger in size by requiring both economic and specialization and much more centralized social organization than smaller-scale societies.”² Large scale agriculture typically developed around river systems with predictable patterns: Egypt and the Nile, Mesopotamia and the Tigris and Euphrates, and societies along the Indus Valley Rivers. “The advent of civilization depended on the ability of some agricultural settlements to consistently produce surplus food, which allowed some people to specialize in non-agricultural work, which in turn allowed for increased production, trade, population, and social stratification.”³ Evidence for this theory of development is found in DNA that suggests groups around the Fertile Crescent developed agriculture independently but concurrently.

As agriculture expanded, surplus food allowed members of groups to pursue other occupations. For example, tools for raising animals and harvesting crops could now be built by specialist craft workers. Creating such tools required access to raw materials such as timber and minerals. For the Indus People “resources of wood and minerals were obtained from the northern mountains of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.”⁴ Access to natural resources also allowed the crafting of religious icons such stone monuments or the figurines found at Ain Ghazal. Writing systems also developed with access to unique materials. For example, the Egyptians recorded on papyrus while other groups carved into stone or clay tablets. Agricultural surplus allowed for the development of industries of extraction and the creation of craft goods. Excess goods allowed for internal trade that, given the right environment, could be scaled to larger market exchange.

A conducive environment and geography allowed for communication, trade, the spread of religions and administration of large-scale empires. Rivers were particularly important for trade as they allowed for large shipments of goods to move relatively quickly. The Silk Road, the largest trade network of its time, depended on overland trade facilitated by horses. Access to wild pack animals allowed for faster, more widespread overland trade. Geography, such as mountain ranges, steered traders along certain routes integrating people into trade networks along the way. On the Silk Road, “mountains and other obstacles created forks at which it became necessary to take either a northerly or southerly route.”⁵ Such geographic features tied societies together into larger trade networks and inter-regional markets.

Settled urban societies were spawned from similar patterns of stable climate, agricultural surplus, material extraction and trade. The global environment engendered these groups with universal commonalities, while local and regional characteristics of geography and weather made each society unique.

Today, a global market ties the world inextricably together. The Holocene that allowed for civilization’s birth has given way to what some call The Anthropocene; and potentially civilization’s death. Since the advent of modern technologies, especially the harnessing of fossil fuels, humanity is now in control of Earth’s environmental patterns, particularly our climate; whether we like it or not. Through action taken decades ago, the hole in the ozone layer is healing. Whether we can stabilize the climate is the next great test of our, now global, civilization.

1Fagan, B. M. (2004). The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization. pg, 125, Granta Books.

2 Ibid.

3Khan Academy. (n.d.-a). Early civilizations (article). Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/birth-agriculture-neolithic-revolution/a/introduction-what-is-civilization

4Kenoyer, J. M. (2005, January 1). Uncovering the keys to the lost Indus Cities. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/uncovering-the-keys-to-the-lost-ind/

5 "The Silk Road Bridges East and West." Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer.