Growth of Early Civilizations

Despite the fact that archaeology has been a long-standing area of scientific study, one of the most seemingly basic questions in the field is still unanswered: how do civilizations arise? Although the great nations of the past have left scientists clues and indicators as to their existence, history is still laden with inconsistencies and discrepancies. These irregularities have created a plethora of theories that attempt to explain how civilizations were born and how they developed. Margaret Murray, a British anthropologist who studied witch culture in Western Europe, attempts to explain the variety: "Archaeology has in it all the qualities that call for the wide view of the human race, of its growth from the savage to the civilized, which is seen in all stages of social and religious development." This "wide view" is reflected by the abundance of theories in archaeology. Looking at the various nations of the past, however, trade is a ubiquitous quality. From Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica, evidence indicates that trade was a driving influence on the specialization of labor, the division of classes, and the centralization of power in ancient times.

The two prevailing authorities on trade theories are William Rathje and Colin Renfrew. William