The Archaeology of Ancient Civilizations

Early state societies (civilizations) developed in areas of the world where intensive agricultural systems could be developed to produce food on the scale necessary to support relatively large and dense populations. The centralized structure of these states contributed to the process of intensification and agricultural investment, though in most cases direct state involvement appears not to have been the crucial driving force. The high productivity and larger populations were achieved only at the cost of greater risk, and many state societies lived in an increasingly fragile relationship to their natural environment. The integrative functions of central authority—notably the ability to undertake substantial civil engineering projects and to redistribute foodstuffs and raw materials—enabled state societies to overcome periodic flood or famine. Many societies survived and flourished to become the predecessors of modern urban societies. In other cases, however, climatic events, environmental change, and soil erosion or salination rendered high population levels impossible to sustain and resulted in classic instances of economic collapse such as the Maya of Mesoamerica, or the Harappan cities of the Indus valley.