scholarly journals (Un)Earthing Civilization: Holocene Climate Crisis, City-State Origins and the Birth of Writing

Humanities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Clark
Keyword(s):  
High Volume ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Experimental Media ◽  
City States ◽  
Gilgamesh Epic ◽  
City State ◽  
Border Controls ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
Climate Crisis

Today, concern about population displacement triggered by climate change is prompting some sovereign states to tighten security measures, as well as inciting ethically and politically motivated calls to relax border controls. This paper explores resonances between the current climate predicament and events in the mid-Holocene. Paleoclimatic and archaeological evidence is reviewed, suggesting that an abrupt turn to cooler, drier weather in the 4th millennium BCE triggered high volume migration to fertile river valleys—most fully documented in Mesopotamia but also visible in other regions around the world. This unprecedented agglomeration of bodies has been linked to the emergence of intensive irrigated agriculture and the rise of city-states. In conversation with the ancient Sumerian Gilgamesh epic, this paper draws upon archaeological research to conceptualize urban wall building and emergent practices of graphical notation as different forms of mediation. Both city walls and early writing, it is argued, deal with the interplay of mobilism and sedentarism, and both ‘media’ entail tactile, plastic use of local materials—namely riverbank clay. This paper addresses the paradox that the underpinning of ‘civilization’ by these once experimental media may now be fundamentally restricting socio-political, cultural, cognitive and embodied capacities to engage effectively with climate-driven upheaval. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Sleepwalking into a New World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Wickham
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Old Order ◽  
The People ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Italian City ◽  
New Form ◽  
City States ◽  
City State

Amid the disintegration of the Kingdom of Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a new form of collective government—the commune—arose in the cities of northern and central Italy. This book takes a bold new look at how these autonomous city-states came about, and fundamentally alters our understanding of one of the most important political and cultural innovations of the medieval world. The book provides richly textured portraits of three cities—Milan, Pisa, and Rome—and sets them against a vibrant backcloth of other towns. It argues that, in all but a few cases, the élite of these cities and towns developed one of the first nonmonarchical forms of government in medieval Europe, unaware that they were creating something altogether new. The book makes clear that the Italian city commune was by no means a democracy in the modern sense, but that it was so novel that outsiders did not know what to make of it. It describes how, as the old order unraveled, the communes emerged, governed by consular elites “chosen by the people,” and subject to neither emperor nor king. They regularly fought each other, yet they grew organized and confident enough to ally together to defeat Frederick Barbarossa, the German emperor, at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. This book reveals how the development of the autonomous city-state took place, which would in the end make possible the robust civic culture of the Renaissance.

Ancient Mediterranean City-State Empires

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-158
Author(s):  
Walter Scheidel
Keyword(s):  
Stable Form ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Ancient Athens ◽  
Privileged Position ◽  
Multilayered Systems ◽  
The Face ◽  
City States ◽  
City State ◽  
Imperial State ◽  
Mediterranean City

Only a few ancient Mediterranean city-states managed to absorb their peers into larger empires. This chapter explores the creation of imperial structures of domination and exploitation by ancient Athens, Carthage, and Rome. It identifies crucial similarities among these cases. Empires grew out of alliances formed within existing city-state cultures. Imperial state formation driven by these three city-states produced complex, multilayered systems that sought to preserve the privileged position of the original core and resisted homogenization of status. As a result, the Athenian and Carthaginian empires failed in the face of foreign pressure, whereas Roman power structures survived much longer by assuming a more conventional and stable form of organization, that of a monarchical tributary empire.

Topography of Athens

Classics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Hurwit ◽  
Ioannis Mitsios
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
History Of ◽  
City States ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

The ancient city-state (or polis) of Athens was contiguous with the region known as Attica, a large, triangular peninsula extending southeastward from the Greek mainland into the Aegean Sea. In the western angle of Attica, on a coastal plain surrounded by four mountains (Hymettos, Pentelikon, Parnes, and Aigaleos), lay the city itself. Although the modern city has thickly spread up the slopes of the mountains as well as to the sea, the study of Athenian topography concentrates on the monuments, buildings, and spaces of the ancient urban core, an area roughly 3 square kilometers surrounding the Acropolis and defended in the Classical period by a wall some 6.5 kilometers in length. Athens is the ancient Greek city that we know best, and it is unquestionably the Greek city whose art, architecture, literature, philosophy, and political history have had the greatest impact on the Western tradition and imagination. As a result, “Athenian” is sometimes considered synonymous with “Greek.” It is not. In many respects, Athens was exceptional among Greek city-states, not typical: it was a very different place from, say, Thebes or Sparta. Still, the study of Athens, its monuments, and its culture needs no defense, and the charge of “Athenocentrism” is a hollow indictment when one stands before the Parthenon or holds a copy of Sophocles’ Antigone. This article will refer to the following periods in the history of Athens and Greece (the dates are conventional): late Bronze, or Mycenaean, Age (1550–1100 bce); Dark Age (1100–760 bce); Archaic (760–480 bce); Classical (480–323 bce); Hellenistic (323 –31 bce); and Roman (31 BCE–c. 475 ce).

AZTEC-PERIOD POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE TEOTIHUACAN VALLEY

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Toby Evans
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
City States ◽  
State Organization ◽  
City State

The Aztec period city-state of Otumba in the upper Teotihuacan Valley was integrated into the Acolhua domain from the early 1430s to about 1515. It then became independent, demonstrating the fragility of city-state organization as a means of regional political integration. A close look at Otumba and other city-states in the Teotihuacan Valley reveals that Acolhua strategies of social engineering welded together the potentially-autonomous city-states into an elaborate political system with impressive structural strengthening and improved flow of services and materials through it.

Communes and Despots: The City State In Late-Medieval Italy

1965 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 71-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Political History ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
City States ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

It is a commonplace of political history that in the later Middle Ages the city states of north and central Italy were the scene of a conflict in the theory and practice of government between two contrasted systems: republican and despotic (or in contemporary terminology, government ‘a comune’, ‘in liberta’ etc., and government ‘a tiranno’, signoria or principato). The conflict began about the mid-thirteenth century, and in most places, sooner or later, was settled in favour of despotism.

scholarly journals “Olympism“ and Olympic Education in Greek Antiquity

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-84
Author(s):  
Jiří Kouřil
Keyword(s):  
Role Models ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Military Training ◽  
Sport Education ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
City States ◽  
City State ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
The Olympic Games

This paper deals with basic points which comprise Olympic and “sport“ education in the Greek antiquity. Until the emergence of professionalism in ancient athletics was the essence of "sport" education and Olympism the areas known as free “sport“, nudity, construction of “sports“ buildings, organizing of many games and relation of society to the Olympic winners as well as leading the citizens to cultural and philosophical ideals. The education itself to the Olympic Games and “sport“ had an important role in ancient Greece. Victory in the Panhellenic Games was very important not only for the victors as individuals, but also for their lineage and the city-state. Each victor entered the next level, which was close to the heroes and gods. They acquired semi-divine status and the homages for them by all society and mainly by the city-states were greatly important for cultural outputs and conception of all society. The influence of victors on youth was huge and this influence was one of the most important educational parts of all ancient Greek culture. The winners of great Panhellenic Games, especially the winners of the Olympic Games or περιοδονῑκοι (periodonikoi), were the best role models with big cultural power and the best examples for youth. Successes of ancient athletes supported sport education of young Greek boys, thus also the military training and this conception created better warriors and defenders of the city-states.

scholarly journals Changes in perceptions of border security influence desired levels of immigration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan C Briggs ◽  
Omer Solodoch
Keyword(s):  
Border Security ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Border Controls ◽  
And Control

Security concerns about immigration are on the rise. Many countries respond by fortifying their borders. Yet little is known about the influence of border security measures on perceived threat from immigration. Borders might facilitate group identities and spread fear of outsiders. In contrast, they might enhance citizens' sense of security and control over immigration. We test these claims using survey experiments run on a nationally representative sample of over 1,000 Americans. The findings show that allocating more government resources to border security increases desired levels of immigration. This effect is likely driven by a sense of control over immigration, induced by border security measures even when the number or characteristics of immigrants remain unchanged. Our findings suggest that border controls, which are widely considered as symbols of closure and isolation, can promote openness to immigration.

scholarly journals Fighting Corruption in the Italian City-State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Geltner
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Administrative Records ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Participatory Politics ◽  
Italian City ◽  
The Rich ◽  
City States ◽  
City State

While auditing practices for public officials existed in all the Italian peninsula during the communal era, they had nowhere as prominent a place, or better surviving records, as in the Italian city-states. In this chapter, the author shows that the regulation of sindacato, an end-of-term audit for urban officials, was of a kind with normative and literary discourses about accountability, good government and the common good, but argues that these cannot be seen in isolation from documentary evidence. Based on a detailed analysis of the rich judicial and administrative records from fourteenth-century Perugia, this chapter shows that the connection between accountability of office and political legitimacy implicit in the sindacato is less straightforward than commonly thought. Rather than a marker of transparent, participatory politics, the sindacato was a complex, inherently biased, often slow and ineffectual mechanism, which could conceal as much as it revealed about the administration of the city.

Assessing the City-State Advantage

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Stasavage
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Public Credit ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
The Difference ◽  
City States ◽  
City State ◽  
Territorial States

This chapter examines whether the difference in the activities of representative assemblies in city-states and territorial states had implications for the evolution of public credit. It first develops a basic game theoretic model that demonstrates how both political representation and public credit might emerge as an equilibrium outcome dependent on an underlying cost for representatives of monitoring public finances. It then uses the model to conduct empirical tests in order to identify what factors were correlated with the initial creation of a long-term public debt. Three hypotheses are tested: that access to credit depended on commercial and economic development; that access to credit depended on the presence of representative institutions; and that access to credit depended on the differing underlying conditions in city-states and territorial states. The results show that greater commercial and economic development favored access to public credit.

The Population “Crisis” Returns

2018 ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Jade S. Sasser
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Population Control ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Policy History ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Population Crisis ◽  
Crisis Narratives ◽  
Climate Crisis

Chapter 1 traces through current popular framings of population as a secret or hidden issue, even as the volume of writing on the subject increases dramatically. This alternate production of secrecy and high volume writing reflects an international development strategy to restore funding for international family planning. The chapter explores this policy history, charting the twists and turns of population control and its eventual transformation into an emphasis on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. It closes by raising questions about the dangers of using climate crisis narratives to bring population “back” to the environmental discussion.

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