Ancient Civilisations

What makes a Civilisation?

What does civilised mean? The development of human society to an advance intellectual,

cultural and material state.

It can be seen by progress in the arts and sciences, record keeping, including writing and the appearance of complex political and social institutions.

Civilized Civilisations

What sorts of things should a civilised society do in order to be classified as a civilisation?

Farming A Civilisation is able to develop their agriculture (farming) to a

point where there is more food produced than required

In order to develop agriculture to this point, farmers must be capable of using techniques such as crop rotation, use of animal power, and/or irrigation.

Specialization of Labour A significant part of the population is not involved in producing

food

Instead they can go into other occupations and trade for or buy the food they need. This is called "specialisation of labour.".

Settlement The gathering of people into permanent settlements, called 

cities. 

Non-civilised people lead a nomadic (wandering) or hunter-gathering life.

Government A civilisation would have some form of government, headed by

a chieftain or ruling family.

Defence A civilisation would have some form of organised army and/or

civil control (police) structure whereby it can protect its people and infastructure

Religion and Education A Civilised society has an established and organised religion

and education system

Writing and record keeping Development of a system of writing and record keeping

Trade and money An established and monitored economic system including

money.