The Middle East was a terminology initially used by the British military during the Second World War (Jankowski, 2017). The terminology describes the North-Eastern and South-Western Asia regions, also known as the Near East. In spite of this being a new terminology, the area has been home to the oldest world civilizations (Jankowski, 2017). There has been a widespread of Middle East’s institution and ideas throughout the world, which earned the place’s name ‘Cradle of Civilization.’
The middle east has hosted a countless number of people, institutions, and ideas in spite of its advanced degree of uniformity. 3000 BC saw the oldest states of Summer, and Egypt raises the first governments (Hodder, 2007). Although they had significant defenses, they would be invaded and dethroned, and new institutions introduced marking the current characteristics of the region. According to Gerges (2019), over the years, many rules have dominated the Middle East leading to chaos as the Middle East has developed diverse cultures and religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, which continue to dominate the Middle East culture, and religion.
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The Controversy of the Old Neolithic Theory
The more significant area of Near Asia in the early Millennia was occupied by nomads, before the flowering of Catalhoyuk, an Old Neolithic settlement aged 9500 years. These Nomads were hunters and gatherers. Researchers have tried to discover why they started communities, settled together in stone-built structures, and invented farming about 14000 years ago. Approximately 8000 people, a few millennia after the settlement, gathered in the place and lived there for over a thousand years, while they kept rebuilding structures tightly packed together. It required their residents to enter the houses through the roof. Researchers believe that the major turning point of the first development of humanity began from the formation of communities. The Neolithic Revolution has been debated for a long time. The significant factors that necessitated the establishment of villages and farming activities are climate changes and human development. However, some archeologists believe that growing human knowledge and psychology enabled the shift into economic activities.
The archeologist has uncovered the Catalhoyuk site. They believe that religion was a key element to the people who lived there. According to their conclusions, the people worshiped an idol in the form of female figurines representing a mother goddess. They believe that the residents saw value in spirituality and representing their expression in art, locating their village in a suitable place to follow them. Despite the critics of this conclusion, the Neolithic Revolution continuously caused the change in humanity. Civilization began with the planting of barley and wheat crops. This how the current civilization and culture traced from showing that there is no going back.
Agriculture was one significant factor that was advantageous and led people to settle along the river banks. As a result, people established simple settlements and infrastructure, such as roads, to assist them in doing their agricultural practices. Agriculture benefited a great deal in human development and the revolution of farming tools used in farming. The archeologist, V. Gordon, in his theory on the Neolithic Revolution, argued that when the last ice age ended, the earth warmed and started drying. Consequently, this negatively influenced climate, forcing people to live along rivers, near oases, and other sources of water. The clustering led to the formation of communities. This idea was disapproved when botanists and geologists found out that the ice age was wetter after the ice age and not wetter.
Lewis Binford proposed a varying theory from the Neolithic Revolution, stating that competition of resources and population growth significantly contributed to human development as people shifted to the domestication of animals. Competition of resources increased when the population increased, forcing some people to move to the margins and had to domesticate animals and plants for their survival. The theory fell out of favor when archeologists discovered that domestication started in the Near East where there were hunters and gathers, and not in the margins.
Thesis Statement
Theories are explaining the Neolithic Revolution, which marks the beginning of civilization fall short due to their excessive focus on the domestication of plants and animals instead of how permanent communities and social life began. Arguably, it is essential to ask ourselves, did civilization start in the Near East? What are the factors supporting the proponent of climate and human development?
Literature Review
Researchers around the world have conducted studies on early civilizations. Most of the studies have shown some similarities about civilization and where it originated. Historians, archaeologists, and researchers have joined hands so that they can be able to trace the roots of civilization (Robinson, 2015). After conducting several investigations, they were able to locate the beginning of civilization back to the Middle East. They claim that the Middle East is the beginning of civilization before it spread all over the world (Robinson, 2015). However, other scholars have argued that the Middle East is not the only place where civilization took place in the beginning; instead, other sites show some similarities of civilization as the Middle East (Jankowski, 2017). This review aims to look at some researches done and determine whether the Middle East is where civilization began.
Ian Hodder, a British archaeologist and a supporter of human development theory, conducted a study to investigate hypotheses about the Neolithic evolution that took place in Minor Asia and the Middle East. The results of this study were taken from a place called Catalhoyuk in central Turkey. The study showed how the people of Catalhoyuk first formed villages and started involving in do and growing plants (Hodder, 2007). Hodder discovered domestic keeping and growing of plants became the daily practice of the people, and the pre-historic cultures and practices were gradually put aside. The archaeologist identified that the Neolithic revolution was the most significant turning point of civilization in Turkey, the Middle East (Hodder, 2017). The study examined how people transformed from gathering food to growing and domesticating plants and animals. An article by Thaler (2006) claims that the residents of the Ancient Middle East stopped gathering food and hunting animals and started growing and taming plants and animals, respectively. This article examined the result of the Neolithic revolution claiming that permanent settlement evolved with the taming of animals and plants. This led to the development of villages clustering up to form urban cities.
Arguably, Hodder’s investigation shows that religion was another factor for the people of Catalhoyuk to advance in a settlement. This is evident with the arts created by the people that had some symbolic meaning. Some studies suggest that the Neolithic revolution made a change in the spiritual practices of the people in the Middle East through the building of Temples using bricks and appointing spiritual leaders whom they called Priests. The priests ruled over the cities and urban centers that were developing as a result of the Neolithic revolution. Several pieces of research indicate that the most popular religion that was firmly established is Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, of which they dominate up to date.
In a medical article, Amin (2018) narrates how the people of Mesopotamia, located in the Middle East, knew that some diseases were not a curse but rather originated from the body. According to Amin (2018), Mesopotamia people were the first to observe, document, and provide treatment of some illness with the development of their knowledge. The author goes ahead and describes how the people documented and wrote the medical treatment for stroke in a tablet. The study found a tablet that consisted of twenty-six lines representing medical treatment for stroke (Amin and Karim 2018). Robinson (2015) also suggests that phonetic writing was introduced in this region around 1000 BC, whereby signs and symbols were used to represent sounds. The ancient writings in the Middle East are evident through a new exhibition present at the Oriental Institute Museum located at the University of Chicago. The exhibits show the recent theories about the origins of the phonetic writings which the exhibitors at Oriental believe in having been invented in Phoenicia. They claim that the oldest phonetic writings are the ones found in Sinai. These exhibitions suggest that writing was invented in Phoenicia. The archaeologists at the Oriental Institute Museum claim that the writings show how pre-historic cultures were transformed into civilizations. Supporting this is an exhibit curator, Christopher Woods, an associate professor at Oriental Institute, claiming that writing represents a defining quality of civilization. Agreeing to this are two researchers, Ikeda and Yamada (2017), who also claim that the oldest writings to be discovered were found in Mesopotamia in the Middle East.
Proponents of Civilization in the Middle East
The literature review has analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of globalization and civilization in the Middle East. Some studies show that civilization helped people to expertise their skills, innovations, writings, and arts. Civilization established political and economic stability giving the cities the ability to protect its people against internal and external attacks. On the other hand, scholars have also examined the disadvantages of civilization and found out that it increased social status, racism, and ethnic groups’ distinctions leading to oppressions to various people. Others have found out that dangerous congestion started to develop, degradation of the environment, and a reduction in hygiene led to the contraction of diseases (Algaze, 2018). The growth of the cities and high population led to the weakening of the land soil by overusing it.
Conclusion
Based on the discussion, it is evident that civilization did begin in the Middle East through conducting researches on the activities that started in the region. The above analyses indicate the process of civilization in the Middle East. Most of the researchers suggest that civilization began in the Middle East with their studies proving the same hence calling it the cradle of civilization. Arguably, the development and inventions that are in the world today were made possible through the start of civilization in the Middle East. Therefore, the Middle East becomes part of our origin and the origin of humanity as well.
References
Algaze G. (2018). Entropic Cities: The Paradox of Urbanism in Ancient Mesopotamia. Current Anthropology, 59 (1), 23-54. doi: 10.1086/695983
Balter, M. (2005, May 1). The Seeds of Civilization . Retrieved December 13, 2019, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-seeds-of-civilization-78015429/#.
Gerges, F. A. (2019). Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the clash that shaped the Middle East . Princeton University Press.
Hodder, I. (2007). Çatalhöyük in the Context of the Middle Eastern Neolithic. Annual Review of Anthropology , 36 (1), 105-120. doi: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.36.081406.094308.
Ikeda J., Yamada S. (2017). The World’s oldest writing in Mesopotamia and the Japanese writing system (pp.157-163). Springer.
Jankowski, J. (2017). The Middle East in the World: An Introduction.
Karim S. K., & Amin O. (2018). Stroke in Ancient Mesopotamia. Medical archives (Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina) , 72 (6), 449–452. doi:10.5455/medarh.2018.72.449-452
Pichon F. (2017). Exploitation of the cereals during the Pre-pottery Neolithic of Dja'de-el-Mughara: Preliminary results of the functional study of the glossy blades. Quaternary International, 427 (12), 138-151. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2016.01.064
Robinson, A. (2015). Ancient civilization: Cracking the Indus script. Nature 526, 499–501 doi: 10.1038/526499a
Thaler, D. S. (2016). Toward a microbial Neolithic revolution in buildings . Microbiome, 4 (14). doi: 10.1186/s40168-016-0157-2
