Posted on 07/25/2011 8:52:27 PM PDT by decimon
Warfare, triggered by political conflict between the fifth century B.C. and the first century A.D., likely shaped the development of the first settlement that would classify as a civilization in the Titicaca basin of southern Peru, a new UCLA study suggests.
Charles Stanish, director of UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, and Abigail Levine, a UCLA graduate student in anthropology, used archaeological evidence from the basin, home to a number of thriving and complex early societies during the first millennium B.C., to trace the evolution of two larger, dominant states in the region: Taraco, along the Ramis River, and Pukara, in the grassland pampas.
"This study is part of a larger, worldwide comparative research effort to define the factors that gave rise to the first societies that developed public buildings, widespread religions and regional political systems — or basically characteristics associated with ancient states or what is colloquially known as 'civilization,'" said Stanish, who is also a professor of anthropology at UCLA. "War, regional trade and specialized labor are the three factors that keep coming up as predecessors to civilization."
The findings appear online in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Conducted between 2004 and 2006, the authors' excavations in Taraco unearthed signs of a massive fire that raged sometime during the first century A.D., reducing much of the state to ash and architectural rubble. The authors compared artifacts dating from before and after the fire and concluded that agriculture, pottery and the obsidian industry, all of which had flourished in the state, greatly declined after the fire.
Based on the range and extent of the destruction and the lack of evidence supporting reconstruction efforts, the authors suggest that the fire was a result of war, not of an accident or a ritual.
Iconographic evidence of conflict in regional stone-work, textiles and pottery suggests that the destruction of Taraco had been preceded by several centuries of raids. This includes depictions of trophy heads and people dressed in feline pelts cutting off heads, among other evidence.
Because the downfall of Taraco, which was home to roughly 5,000 people, coincided with the rise of neighboring Pukara as a dominant political force in the region, the authors suggest that warfare between the states may have led to the raids, shaping the early political landscape of the northern Titicaca basin.
Inhabited between 500 B.C. and 200 A.D., Pukara was the first regional population center in the Andes highlands. During its peak, it covered more than 2 square kilometer and housed approximately 10,000 residents, including bureaucrats, priests, artisans, farmers, herders and possibly warriors.
The civilization's ruins include impressive monolithic sculptures with a variety of geometric, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images, plus intricate, multi-colored pottery in a variety of ritual and domestic forms.
War appears to have played a similar civilizing role in Mesoamerica, as well as Mesopotamia, Stanish said. To further test his theories on the origins of civilization, Stanish will begin a new project next year at a Neolithic site in Armenia.
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Good God y’all ping.
“What is war good for?”
Well, it made Edwin Starr a one-hit wonder...
I like Dennis Prager’s view on studies.
Studies either confirm what common sense tells us, or they are lies.
I reserved the right to be wrong with this quote, but I think that is the gist.
Say it again!
If we take the Old World ancient civilizations (which I can comment on -- I don't have enough knowledge on MesoAmerica to comment), take Sumeria, the Indus Valley or the Nile Region for example
In the fertile crescent, the first stirrings of civilisation would be led by language, then agriculture c. 10,000 to 8,000 BC(you need to have spoken language for agriculture, hunting wouldn't necessarily need that, imho -- look at hunting animals)
Then to make agriculture actually be a permanent source of food rather than be the alternative to hunting only, you need irrigation -- and THAT is what elevated Sumeria, the Indus Valley and the Nile regions to civilization.
By having irrigation, food became assured, there was time to rest and think.
Permanent houses could be built along with communal buildings.
In the Indus valley and Sumeria public baths were built
War starts a few millenia later when folks see a purpose to attacking others -- if they are not competing for food, which is basically the same, what's the point of fighting?
But war was necessary for moving up a step, new inventions, from copper then bronze then iron swords, new technologies like the wheel, chariots, etc -- war has its role to play.
Not a new theory.
Harry Lime: Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.
In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.
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Thanks decimon. "Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance." :') Thanks also to neverdem, who posted this one: Somehow I managed to miss pinging this and adding it to the keyword at the time. |
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