ABSTRACT
This chapter defines a state-organized society and describes the world's earliest civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia, which appeared after 3100 BC Most archaeologists agree that urban life and preindustrial civilization came into existence gradually, during a period of major social and economic change. In recent years, archaeology has shifted away from systems-ecological approaches toward a greater concern with individuals and groups and their influence on the course of history. Archaeologically, one can look at power in three domains: economic power, social and ideological power, and political power. Sumerian literature is the earliest in the world, rich in poetry and prose and also containing more prosaic documents. Egyptologists conventionally divide ancient Egyptian civilization into four broad periods: Archaic Egypt and the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, and the Late Period. The first three were separated by two intermediate periods that were interludes of political change and instability.
