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是原文吗?
World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction - Page 170
Brian M. Fagan - 1996
ABout 3250 B.C., the first state-organized societies appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia, ushering in a new chapter in human history. The emergence of the world’s first states was a complex process that took many centuries.
Irrigation and Intensive Land Use
While many factors contributed to the development of state-organized societies, three elements appear to have been of great importance. The first was the creation of large food surpluses, used to support new economic classes of nonfarmers. Such surpluses require long-term age far above the capacity of individual households. Thus, not only greater agricultural efficiency, but social and cultural changes such as centralized storage systems were needed to manage the new food supplies.
Second, major agricultural production focused on the most productive crops. But it was still diversified, both to protect people against famine, and also to stimulate the development of trade and exchange of foodstuffs. This deliberate diversification and exchange encouraged the emergence of centralized political authority.
Third, intensive land use increased agricultural output, through the use of simple irrigation works, specialized swamp agriculture, or other means. The earliest irrigation works involved just the construction and maintenance of small-scale canals that watered fields close to rivers, a logical extension of natural flood conditions.
Archaeologist Robert Adams has studied large-scale irrigation works in Mesopotamia and shown that the Sumerians took maximum advantage of the natural hydrology of local rivers. Each small community organized its own canals, as they did in early Egypt. It was only after the establishment of despotic rule that the central government organized irrigation works on large scale. Such systems extended over entire river valleys and landscapes, requiring constant administration and maintenance.
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