By the arrival of the Ottoman period (1516–1918), the term had become well accepted throughout the majority of the empire, which extended into parts of southern Europe and exerted much cultural influence for over 400 years. Early in the 19th century, Protestant missionaries began to arrive in the region and found that the term provided a common ground for introducing their teachings to the local population.
Origin of the Term
The radius of 1,000 miles from the Garden of Eden as the limit of the Cradle of Humanity may have been "fixed" by early inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt from the second century well into the 9th century.
By the arrival of the Ottoman period (1516–1918), the term had become well accepted throughout the majority of the empire, which extended into parts of southern Europe and exerted much cultural influence for over 400 years. Early in the 19th century, Protestant missionaries began to arrive in the region and found that the term provided a common ground for introducing their teachings to the local population.
Use of the Term
It is important to note that the term "Cradle of Humanity" is not necessarily interchangeable with or identical in meaning to the expressions "Cradle of Civilization", "origin of man", or "birthplace of mankind" for those who use these phrases.
Among Creationists
There is no evidence that the term "cradle of humanity" has widespread use among Jewish or Christian creationists today, although early Mesopotamian Christian Arabs seem to have been the ones to develop the term for describing an area roughly within a 1,000 mile radius of the location they believed to be the site of the Garden of Eden, based on the a passage, attributed to Moses, found in the Bible:
8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates." (Genesis 2:8–14) |
While two of these names, Tigris and Euphrates, refer to rivers which border and define Mesapotamia, the rivers Gihon and Pishon cannot be identified. Cush refers to an ancient region to the south of Egypt, Nubia, in present-day Sudan. However, second century Christians, in spite of this ambiguity, identified the location of Eden at a point that, today, would be just west of the border between Iraq and Iran and just above the northern shore of the Persian Gulf.
Some denominations of Christendom still appear to use the term, today, as a nickname for "Eden" and when they do, the expression is usually capitalized as Cradle of Humanity. Despite this apparently "Christian" background, the term "Cradle of Humanity" seems to be more heavily used among Muslims, who tend to accept the 1,000 mile limit from "Eden" as the boundary for the area. This may stem from the use of the phrase during the period of the Ottoman Empire, a major force for expansion of Islam, when most of the territories in the general vicinity of the area converted from Christianity to Islam.
Among Evolutionists
In discussing the use of this term among evolutionists, please note that some prefer to use the expression cradle of "humankind" rather than "humanity", considering it to be more biologically correct. The following discussion makes no distinction between the two versions of the term.
Like most areas of science, modern understanding of the evolutionary process is still growing and does not yet provide us with a complete, nor necessarily accurate, picture of man’s early development. Hence, views on the actual location for the origin of humankind vary widely among biologists, paleontologists, paleoanthropologists and even geologists. As a result of these differences in opinion, ever since the humble beginnings of evolutionary research, various places have been nominated as the "cradle of humanity" with the current consensus still focusing on Eastern Africa – despite several recent challenges.
Ever since the nineteenth century, paleoanthropologists have considered the following areas as possible candidates for the "cradle of humanity" at different times:
As of 1856
It would be fair to say that the study of paleoanthropology probably began in August 1856, on the day when a fossil of what we now call Homo neanderthalensis was found in Neanderthal, Germany. The discovery was announced in 1857, two years before the publication of Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species.
For several years thereafter, many evolutionists suspected that the "cradle of humanity" was located somewhere in southwest Europe, even though Darwin personally always favored Africa as the most likely site.
As of 1905
In 1891, Eugène Dubois discovered a group of hominid fossils at the site of Trinil, on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in Java island|Java, Indonesia. The find was originally named Pithecanthropus erectus, and popularly known as Java Man, Dubois later renaming it Homo erectus in 1894. This is generally acknowledged as the first discovery of early hominid remains outside of Europe.
Due to apparent prejudices of the predominantly British paleontological hierarchy at the time, Homo erectus was not immediately accepted in 1894 as a valid hominid. Hence, it was only about a decade later, following the turn of the century, after fossilized remains attributable to Homo erectus had been found also in South Africa, Asia, England and China with subsequent, smaller, matching finds popping up just about everywhere in Africa, Asia, and Europe, that the consensus of evolutionary opinion shifted its focus to Southeast Asia as the possible "cradle of humanity".
As of 1920
It was in 1907, at the Mauer sand pits in Germany, that one of history's most controversial fossil discoveries was made by a quarry worker. This fossil, an almost complete mandible, was designated Homo heidelbergensis by Otto Schoetensack.
Because he failed to justify the fossil as a new species by describing its unique anatomical features, leading paleoanthropologists of the day refused to accept it as a valid hominid. By 1920, however, this find contributed to the formulation of new theories chronospecies and anagenesis more in keeping with Darwin's original assumptions that the "cradle of humanity" may well be in Africa, though several also viewed it as confirmation of the then prevailing view represented by powerful names like Othenio Abel and Arthur Keith that the ancestors of humans would be found in Europe.
As of 1939
The 1924 South African discovery of Australopithecus africanus at Taung was named by Raymond Dart, a pioneer of paleontology, who created quite a stir by suggesting that the material was a hominid. The hostile response from his peers caused Dart to abandon excavations at Taung. Nevertheless, his use of both Latin ("australo") and Greek ("pithecus") in naming the specimen resulted in a change from the use of the prefix "Homo" to describe every hominid discovery. Since then, the new genus-label created by Dart has become accepted as the designation to be used for the entire group of early hominids found in Africa (see also History of South Africa).
By 1939, in the light of other new discoveries in Africa, the Australopithecus africanus material was reevaluated and some evolutionary experts slowly began to consider South Africa as another possible option for the "cradle of humanity".
As of 1946
Although eminent scientist Dr. Robert Broom commonly receives the credit for discovering and naming Australopithecus robustus, the find had actually been made by a young schoolboy named Gert Terblanche at Kromdraai, South Africa in 1938. Broom later found several more cranium|cranial and mandible|mandibular fragments that came to be associated with A. robustus. Broom published the results of his extensive research on the australopithecines in 1946, which marked a crucial turning point for South Africa in the eyes of the global evolutionary community establishing it as the new "cradle of humanity".
As of 1960
The 1959 discovery by Mary Leakey of a specimen known as OH5 or "Zinj" in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania is considered by many the watershed in paleoanthropological history. First named Zinjanthropus boisei, later classified as Australopithecus boisei, and now as Paranthropus boisei, this find did not affect prevailing views regarding the location of the "cradle of humanity" the way Homo habilis did only a year later.
Estimated at the time of its discovery in 1960 to be approximately one million years older than Australopithecus robustus, the Homo habilis find created a bit of a problem: The name given to it literally means "handy man", and was chosen because of the collection of stone tools that were discovered near the specimens. Further, its height and brain size were smaller than those of the australopithecines, and it appeared to be less robust. In other words, this older specimen seemed more advanced than comparatively recent ones.
While the role of Homo habilis in human evolution is still not settled, its discovery by the distinguished team of Louis Leakey, John Napier, and Phillip Tobias did result in Tanzania being regarded as the "cradle of humanity" for at least two decades.
As of 1980
In 1974 Donald Johanson found the famous "Lucy", the most complete skeleton of an australopithecine. Together with Timothy White, anthropologist Timothy White, Johanson named the specimen Australopithecus afarensis, which resulted in heavy objections from their peers. By the end of 1980, the heated dispute seems to have been settled and Australopithecus afarensis was widely accepted as a new human ancestor.
Dated at almost four million years old, A. afarensis became the oldest hominid fossil on record, granting Ethiopia the position as the new "cradle of humanity".
As of 1999
The French magazine 'Science et Vie' made Lucy its cover story in its May 1999 edition. The magazine considered Lucy, regarded as the most important fossil specimen of the species Australopithecus afarensis, under the caption ‘Adieu Lucy’ (‘Farewell Lucy’) and wrote that the apes from the Australopithecus species did not represent the origin of man and should be removed from the family tree. - Isabelle Bourdial, "Adieu Lucy", Science et Vie, May 1999, no. 980, pp. 52-62
As of 2000
After Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa 1994 the fossils of South Africa became more accessible to the public, with a new Cradle of Humankind (World Heritage Site) named in 2000. Current fossil excavations include 2.5 million year old Australopithecus africanus specimens (originally discovered in 1924—see As of 1939 above) as well as the Australopithecus robustus material (discovered between 1938 and 1946—see As of 1946 above).
A study carried out by B.G. Richmond and D.S. Strait and published in Nature magazine in 2000 examined the Australopithecus arm. Comparative anatomical investigations revealed that this species had the same arm structure as modern apes that walk on four legs.
The Cradle of Humankind exhibit is intended to be the showplace also for any future evolutionary discoveries that may appear in South Africa.
As of 2002
A new fossil, temporarily called "Toumaï" or hope of life in the South Chad language, Goran), has created some new problems: The specimen is estimated at an age of seven million years, making it the oldest hominid found to date.
A team of researchers led by paleontologist Michel Brunet uncovered an almost complete cranium and lower facial bones of an ancestor that appears to have lived at the point of transition between apes and hominids and for which they have suggested the name Sahelanthropus tchadensis.
The discovery has not only confused the consensus on time and place for the divergence of the evolutionary lines of humans and chimpanzees, but, due to the location of the find in the Sahel region, a semiarid zone of mid-west Africa that separates the Sahara from the southern tropical forests, it has also led to the suggestion that the "cradle of humanity" may have been more in central or western Africa.
Meanwhile, other evolutionary scientists, particularly some prominent paleoanthropologists, have begun to consider the possibility that humans may have evolved simultaneously on several continents along parallel evolutionary lines, finally engaging in trans-continental migration and interbreeding at the stage of Homo erectus or even later. Proponents of these theories consider the discussion on a single evolutionary "cradle of humanity" non useful.
Considering this untidy history in the use of the term, many evolutionists now shy away from expressly designating any specific location as the "cradle of humanity". Nevertheless, those who use the phrase politically, frequently refer to evolutionary use of the expression at one time or another to support their application of it to a particular geo-political region.
Among those opposed to the term "Middle East"
The expression "Cradle of Humanity" is frequently used by persons opposed to the expression "Middle East" when that term would seem too ambiguous in their opinion. They consider the lands of the "Cradle of Humanity" to be clearly defined within an unmistakable geographic limit. However, depending on the context in which the user applies the term "Middle East", it may or may not include countries in northern Africa, southern Europe and various parts of Eurasia east of the Ural Mountains.
Some cultural historians in the self-described "Cradle of Humanity States" (see map above) also find the thinking behind the terms Near East, Middle East and Far East offensive, since they are vestiges of British colonialism; a period when such expressions were coined based on the distance between England and the region in question. They often argue that, unlike the West Indies, where the present dominant culture was indeed largely formed under the influence of the colonizing powers, most of the dominant culture in so-called Near, Middle and Far East lands, predated the colonials and has actually survived their sometimes destructive influence.
Some scholars subscribe to the view that, in spite of the term’s inaccuracy from the standpoint of evolutionary biology, the region’s influences on language, culture and religion may well justify its preferred use over the controversial term "Middle East", which, from a geographical point of view, seems somewhat out of place. In their quest for a "regional identity", residents of the region also seem to take comfort in the fact that the name "Cradle of Humanity" was given to the area by local people, rather than outsiders, and that its meaning has not changed from the original understanding of its formulators in over eighteen centuries.
The Old World
Mesopotamia
Main articles: Mesopotamia, history of Sumer
Historically, the ancient city states of Mesopotamia in the fertile crescent are most cited by Western and Middle Eastern scholars as the cradle of civilization. The convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation. The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are among the earliest known attempts humanity made at establishing non-nomadic agrarian societies. But it is because Ubaid, Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylon civilizations all emerged around the Tigris-Euphrates, the theory that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilizations might be the strongest.
The Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer emerges in the Ubaid and Uruk periods, culminating in the mid 3rd millennium before giving rise to the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC, often identified as the first empire in history.
Eridu was the oldest Sumerian site, settled during the proto-civilized Ubaid period. Situated several miles southwest of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of early temple-cities, in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, with the earliest of these settlements carbon dating to around 5000 BC. By the 4th millennium BC, in Nippur we find, in connection with a sort of ziggurat and shrine, a conduit built of bricks, in the form of an arch. Sumerian inscriptions written on clay also appear in Nippur. By 4000 BC an ancient Elamite city of Susa, in Mesopotamia, also seems to emerge from earlier villages. Whilst Elam originally adopted their own script from an early age they adapted the Sumerian cuneiform script to their own language. The earliest recognizable cuneiform dates to no later than about 3500 BC. Other villages that began to spring up around this time in the Ancient Near East (Middle East) were greatly impacted and shifted rapidly from a proto-civilized to a fully civilized state (eg. Ebla, Mari and Assur).
Egypt
Main article: Ancient Egypt
The rise of dynastic Egypt in the Nile Valley occurred with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in approximately 3200 BC, and ended at around 343 BC, at the start of the Achaemenid dynasty's control of Egypt. It is one of the three oldest civilizations in the world. Anthropological and archaeological evidence both indicate that the Kubbaniya culture was a grain-grinding culture farming along the Nile before the 10th millennium BC using sickle blades. But another culture of hunters, fishers and gathering peoples using stone tools replaced them. Evidence also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. From around 7000 BC to 3000 BC the climate of the Sahara was much moister, offering good grazing land even in areas that are now very arid. Natural climate change after 3000 BC led to progressive arification of the region. It has been suggested that as a result of these changes, around 2500 BC early tribes from the Sahara were forced to concentrate along the Nile river where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. However it should be borne in mind that indigenous tribes would always have been present in the fertile Nile Valley and may have developed complex societies by themselves. Domesticated animals had already been imported from Asia between 7500 BC and 4000 BC (see Sahara: History, Cattle period), and there is evidence of pastoralism and cultivation of cereals in the East Sahara in the 7th millennium BC.
By 6000 BC predynastic Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle. Symbols on Gerzean pottery, c.4th millennium BC, resemble traditional Egyptian hieroglyph writing. In ancient Egypt mortar was in use by 4000 BC, and ancient Egyptians were producing ceramic faience as early as 3500 BC. There is evidence that ancient Egyptian explorers may have originally cleared and protected some branches of the Silk Road. Medical institutions are known to have been established in Egypt since as early as circa 3000 BC. Ancient Egypt gains credit for the tallest ancient pyramids and early forms of surgery, mathematics, and barge transport.
South Asia
The earliest-known farming cultures in South Asia emerged in the hills of Balochistan, on the border between modern-day Pakistan and Iran. These semi-nomadic peoples domesticated wheat, barley, sheep, goat and cattle. Pottery was in use by the 6th millennium BC. The oldest granary yet found in this region was the Mehrgarh in the Indus Valley.
Their settlement consisted of mud buildings that housed four internal subdivisions. Burials included elaborate goods such as baskets, stone and bone tools, beads, bangles, pendants and occasionally animal sacrifices. Figurines and ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli, sandstone and polished copper have been found. By the 4th millennium BC, Technologies included stone and copper drills, updraft kilns, large pit kilns and copper melting crucibles. Button seals included geometric designs.
By 4000 BC, a pre-Harappan culture emerged, with trade networks including lapis lazuli and other raw materials. The Indus civilization is known to have comprised two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and more than 100 towns and villages, often of relatively small size. The two cities were perhaps originally about a mile square in overall dimensions, and their outstanding magnitude suggests political centralization, either in two large states or in a single great empire with alternative capitals. Or it may be that Harappa succeeded Mohenjo-daro, which is known to have been devastated more than once by exceptional floods . The southern region of the civilization in Kathiawar and beyond appears to be of later origin than the major Indus sites. Villagers also grew numerous other crops, including peas, sesame seed, dates, and cotton. The Indus valley civilization is credited for a regular and consistent use of decimal fractions in a uniform system of ancient weights and measures.
Major cities of the civilization included Harappa (3300 BC), Dholavira (2900 BC), Mohenjo-Daro (2500 BC), Lothal (2400 BC), , and Rakhigarhi. The Indus Valley Civilization was mainly centered in what is now Pakistan and western India. Streets were laid out in grid patterns along with the development of sewage and water systems. This civilization of planned cities came to an end around 1700 BC either through external invasion and perhaps due to drying of rivers flowing from the Himalayas to the Arabian sea and geological/climatic changes in the Indus valley civilization area which resulted in the formation of the Thar desert. The origins of the invaders are a matter of conjecture. As a result, the cities were abandoned and populations reduced and people moved to the more fertile Ganga-Yamuna river area. The Indus Valley script remains un-deciphered. This theory is called the Aryan Invasion Theory. An alternative theory proposed is the Out of India theory, according to which there was no Aryan invasion into India, there was a continuity between the Indus Valley Civilization and the subsequent Vedic Age and that the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization was related to geological events.
China
The history of China is told in traditional historical records that refer as far back as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors about 5,000 years ago, supplemented by archaeological records dating to the 16th century BC. China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations. Turtle shells with markings reminiscent of ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to around 1500 BC. The Yellow River was irrigated around 2205 BC, reputedly by an Emperor named Yu the Great, starting the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty. Archaeologists disagree whether or not there is archaeological evidence to support the existence of the Xia Dynasty, with some suggesting that the Bronze Age society, the Erlitou culture, was the site of this ancient, first recorded dynasty of China. The earliest archaeologically verifiable dynasty in recorded Chinese history, the Shang Dynasty, emerged around 1750 BC. The Shang Dynasty is attributed for bronze artifacts and oracle bones, which were turtle shells or cattle scapula on which are written the first recorded Chinese characters and found in the Huang He valley in Yinxu, a capital of the Shang Dynasty.
The oldest pre-civilized Neolithic cultures found in China to date are the Pengtoushan, the Jiahu, and the Peiligang, all dated to about 7000 BC. Pengtoushan has been difficult to date and has a date variance from 9000 BC to 5500 BC, but it was at this site that remains of domesticated rice dated at about 7000 BC were found. At Jiahu, some of the earliest evidence of rice cultivation was found. Another notable discovery at Jiahu was playable tonal flutes, dated around 7000 BC to 6600 BC. Peiligang was one of the earliest cultures in China to make pottery. Both Jiahu and Peiligang developed millet farming, animal husbandry, storage and redistribution of crops. Evidence also indicates specialized craftsmanship and administrators in these Neolithic cultures (see History of China: Prehistoric times).
The early history of China is complicated by the lack of a written language during this period coupled with the existence of documents from later time periods attempting to describe events that occurred several centuries before. The problem in some sense stems from centuries of introspection on the part of the Chinese people which has blurred the distinction between fact and fiction in regards to this early history. By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6,000-5,000 BCE have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing." These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. Later Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture around 2500 BC. Archaeological sites such as Sanxingdui and Erlitou show evidence of a Bronze Age civilization in China. The earliest bronze knife was found at Majiayao in Gansu and Qinhai province dated 3000 BC.
Chinese civilization originated with city-states in the Yellow River valley. 221 BC is the commonly accepted year when China became culturally and politically unified under a large centralized empire, the Qin Dynasty. Successive dynasties in Chinese history developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the Emperor of China to control the large territory from the center.
The Americas
In the history of the Americas, civilizations were established long after the population of the continent. Several large, centralized civilizations developed in the Western Hemisphere : Norte Chico, Chavin, Nazca, Moche, Huari, Chimu, Tiahuanaco, Aymara and Inca in the Central Andes (Peru and Bolivia); Muisca in Colombia ; Olmecs, Toltecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Aztecs and the Mesoamerican Mayas in Central America).
South America
The oldest known civilization in South America, as well as in the Western Hemisphere as a whole, the Norte Chico civilization comprised several interconnected settlements leading to the Peruvian coast, including the urban centers at Aspero and Caral. The presence of Quipu (an Andean recording medium) at Caral indicates its potential influence on later Andean societies, as well as the antiquity of this unique recording system. The stone pyramids on the sites are thought to be contemporary to the great pyramids of Giza. Unusually among Andean cities, no evidence of fortifications, or of other signs of warfare, have yet been found in the Norte Chico.
Mesoamerica
The Olmec civilization was the first Mesoamerican civilization, beginning around 1200 BC and ending around 400 BC. By 2700 BC, settlers in the Americas had begun to grow their first crop, maize, and a number of cities were built. Around 1200 BC, these small cities coalesced into this civilization. A prominent civilization thus emerged. The centers of these cities were ceremonial complexes with pyramids and walled plazas. The first of these centers was at San Lorenzo, with another one following it at La Venta. Olmec artisans sculpted jade and clay figurines of Jaguars and humans, and giant heads of the emperor stood in every major city.
The domestication of maize is thought to have begun around 7,500 to 12,000 years ago. The earliest record of lowland maize cultivation dates to around 5100 BC.
The Olmec civilization ended in 400 BC, with the defacing and destruction of San Lorenzo and La Venta, two of the major cities. This civilization is considered the mother culture of the Mesoamerican civilizations. It spawned the Mayan civilization whose first constructions began around 600 BC and continued to influence future civilizations.
Four great ancient civilizations
The Chinese scholar Liang Qichao put forward a theory in 1900 that there were four great ancient civilizations in his verse essay, The Pacific Ocean in the 20th Century (二十世纪太平洋歌). The four civilizations were ancient China, Babylon, India and ancient Egypt. Liang Qichao divided the history of the world into three ages: "river age", "sea age", and "ocean age". The four great civilizations were in the river age and all of them developed along rivers. The view of Liu Yizheng is that before "river age" there was a "mountain age". However, not all civilizations experienced "mountain age". It is influenced by geographical environment. The original Chinese civilization came from "mountain age" and then expanded to vast river valley. For civilizations on islands or near seashores, the conditions are different.
This was an early version of the "Four great ancient civilizations" theory (traditional Chinese: 四大文明古國; simplified Chinese: 四大文明古国; pinyin: Sì Dà Wénmíng Gǔ Guó) which is used in the study of history in China. This theory refers to four civilizations (China, Babylon, India and Egypt) as cradles of civilization.
Notes
- Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for 'eden' in the ESV". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2009. 24 Aug 2009.
- The Near East: Archaeology in the "Cradle of Civilization", Charles Keith Maisels, Routledge 1993, ISBN 0415047420
- The Indus Valley And The Genesis Of South Asian Civilization Edited By: R. A. Guisepi Retrieved on 8/24/2009
- "Ancient China: The Yellow River Culture". www.wsu.edu. Retrieved on 8/24/2009
- The agricultural precondition to civilization appears to have developed in a number of unconnected areas in the world rather than transfer out from a single center, Britannica 15th edition, 13:172, "The History of Agriculture"
- "AP World History". College Board. Retrieved on 8/24/2009
- The Natufian Culture in the Levant, Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture Retrieved on 8/24/2009
- La protohistoire de l'Europe, Jan Lichardus et al., Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. ISBN 84-335-9366-8, 1987, chapter II.2
- Carr, Edward H. (1961). What is History?, p.108, ISBN 0140206523
- Britannica 15th edition, 26:62-63
- The Rise Of Civilization In The Middle East And Africa Retrieved on 8/24/2009
- Pre-Historic Ubaid Culture (5500-4000 BC) Retrieved on 8/24/2009
- Kenoyer, Jonathan (1998). Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press.
- BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese writing '8,000 years old">'Chinese writing '8,000 years old'
- "Carvings may rewrite history of Chinese characters", Xinhua online (2007-05-18). Retrieved on 8/24/2009
- "SGI Quarterly January, 2008 - Feature". www.sgiquarterly.org. Retrieved on 2008-07-05.
- The History of the World, High School Textbook, Vol. 1
Bibliography
- The Christian Bible, Genesis 2:10-14
- Cradle of Civilization, Samuel Noah Kramer, Little Brown & Co (1969), ISBN 0316326178
- In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Georg Feuerstein, Quest Books (2001), ISBN 0835607410
- The Cradle of Civilization (Lifepac History & Geography Grade 6), Ethel Hofflund, Alpha Omega Publications (2001), ISBN 0867175524
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