The growth of plants for food purposes, the domestication of animals, and the formation of villages were the first signs of civilization. These attributes were signs that human beings were willing to come together and champion courses that would not only benefit the society but also see them do away with the old way of living which hugely involved hunting and gathering. A study conducted by a British Archeologist named Ian Hodder in the Middle East shows the Neolithic evolution that took place there (Hodder, 2017). The findings of the study reveal that people originating from Catalhoyuk, central Turkey, were the first to keep domestic animals, form villages, and grow plants for food. Furthermore, Thaler (2006) proves that the residents of central Turkey began drifting away from hunting and gathering and embrace farming. Farming is what may have led to the formation of permanent settlements and, thus, development of villages that ultimately clustered to form many urban centers seen today.
Another aspect that proves civilization is the growth of religion or a set of beliefs within a particular area and this is seen with the people of Catalhoyuk. Religion is a key element in civilization because it shows that huge groups of people are willing to come together to communicate to each other, understand each other, and share a common set of beliefs that identifies them as a single entity. Pieces of art collected in Catalhoyuk and dated back to the Neolithic times have some symbolic meaning. The use of symbols and the need to store these symbols as art pieces was done by early people to conserve culture and religion. Moreover, other studies indicate that the Neolithic revolution in Catalhoyuk, through religion, me people change their spiritual practices by building formal Temples using bricks and appointing priests to act as the leaders of their religions. Some of the renowned religions that were established at that time included Islam and Christianity.
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Medicine is another indicator that historians use to locate the beginning of civilization since treatment methods before civilization were not formal and also had no cure for many diseases. Amin (2018) is a medical article that gives the story of the people of Mesopotamia and how they were the first to recognize that diseases originated from within the body and were not curses like other people thought. People from Mesopotamia, which lies in the Middle East, began documenting and treating sicknesses with the knowledge that they acquired on their own. Tablets in which medical records for stroke and the treatment methods for the illness have since been found (Amin and Karim 2018). These are not the only pieces of ancient writings found in the Middle East as phonetic writings engraved on tablets were also introduced in the region as suggested by Robinson (2015). The writings are dates to around 1000 BC, which is the time period for the Neolithic revolution.
References
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.
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
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
