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Early Civilizations and the Development of Knowledge

Hydraulic civilizations

Civilization evolved around rivers/bodies of water (Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Indus-Ganges) and this cities will enter economic activities
Because this rivers flooded often, there was a surplus of renewed land
Examples of these civilizations are Egypt, Mesopotamia (West asia along Tigris-Euphrates), China, India
This freed people from farm work, and lead to specialized labor (artisans, soldiers, priests, nobles, bureaucrats with focus to run an empire) and this lead to surplus and exchange
These groups of people who need governance - especially due to large scale agriculture systems
These agriculture developments also lead to intellectual development:

accounting skills, record keeping, surveying skills (land measurement, geometry, level, angle measuring devices were development), knowledge about nature

Agriculture & religion: both were dependant on timekeeping to organize worship and production activities and this lead to astronomical observation and calendars
This all formed the basis for natural philosophy
Agriculture eventually consisted of a complex network of irrigation systems

Fertile Crescent and “Agricultural Revolution” - Neolithic Period (10,000 BCE-3000BCE)

Coincides with the last Ice Age
Revolution from food-gathering to food-producing
The rise of pastoral nomadism (herding in grasslands) in habitats suitable for pasture and farming and settled villages (sedentarization - nomadic groups transition to living in one place)
Exchange of surplus (creation of villages = trade, and this leads to fortifications)
Activities adapted to the cycle of plant growth, and calendars were created
Pottery and textiles were used for transportation and storing of surplus (goods)
Ex. Catal Hoyuk (6000-500- BCE): more reproduction because of longer lives, and therefore more manpower for agriculture, there was a material culture, existing defense structure for crops, and social stratification dependent on wealth

Astronomy and Geometry in this Neolithic period (in Europe)

Large scale monuments that aligned with the stars, and served as calendars
The Stonehenge built at the end of the Neolithic era (3100-1500 BCE), but was built by a society with traces
Geometry came along because with agriculture and surplus/goods and inventories, they needed a counting system, measurement, and a way to write things down:
Development of writing (3500 BCE) - a tool for the elite (commerce, administration, calendars, astronomy…)

Development of writing marks the end of the Neolithic period and beginning of Antiquity

Ancient Mesopotamia (8000BCE-2000BCE)