Download or read book The Emergence of Civilization written by Charles Keith Maisels and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-16 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Emergence of Civilisation is a major contribution to our understanding of the development of urban culture and social stratification in the Near Eastern region. Charles Maisels argues that our present assumptions about state formation, based on nineteenth century speculations, are wrong. His investigation illuminates the changes in scale, complexity and hierarchy which accompany the development of civilisation. The book draws conclusions about the dynamics of social change and the processes of social evolution in general, applying those concepts to the rise of Greece and Rome, and to the collapse of the classical Mediterranean world.