Description given on Youtube:
The Origins of Civilization. History of Technology and Culture (Documentary)
In the world of hunter-gatherers, tribes roved the land, but the coming of farming allowed the growth of settled populations to take place. Yet it did not make the coming of civilization inevitable. Something else had to happen before this could occur.
It has long been realized that river valleys have played a key part in the rise of many, if not most, “original” civilizations — i.e. those which did not derive their technological or cultural capabilities from older civilizations. River valleys offer areas of well-watered, fertile soil, which, because of their very high agricultural productivity result in very dense human populations.
But why didn’t this result simply in a proliferation of small farming villages closely scattered across the plains? What follows in this article is of course speculation, as no records have survived from these millennia – writing comes at a late stage in the emergence of civilization. However, civilization did emerge, and it does need explaining.
Attribution:
Video creator: MrDocumentaryhistory w
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klZCBLXgk48
Commercial use rights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode