Download Terms of Use

The purpose of this symposium was to explore the circumstances under which in the Near East man for the first time in human history attained those higher levels of cultural life that we associate with the word "civilized." In Mesopotamia, at least, the great upward surge of the cultural process that continued the momentum gained in the technological revolution of the Neolithic period coincided with the appearance of man's first great urban centers. What ecological and other factors led to the growth of cities? How does the life of the concentrated urban society affect culture? When the city-state gives way to empire is the culture pattern changed? These were the questions the planning committee intended to answer.

• Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960
• Pp. xiv + 448; frontispiece, 105 illustrations, 2 maps, 1 chart
• Out of Print