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The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. Scholars have defined civilization using various criteria such as the use of writing, cities, a class-based society, agriculture, animal husbandry, public buildings, metallurgy, and monumental architecture.〔''Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study'', Trigger, Bruce G., Cambridge University Press, 2007〕 Current thinking is that there was no single "cradle", but several civilizations that developed independently, of which the Near Eastern Neolithic (Mesopotamia and Egypt) was the first.〔() ''The Near East: Archaeology in the "Cradle of Civilization"'', Charles Keith Maisels, Routledge 1993, ISBN 0-415-04742-0〕 Other civilizations arose in Asia among cultures situated along large river valleys, notably the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent〔http://history-world.org/indus_valley.htm〕 and the Yellow River in China.〔C''radles of Civilization-China: Ancient Culture, Modern Land'', Robert E. Murowchick, gen. ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994〕 The extent to which there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and those of East Asia is disputed. Scholars accept that the civilizations of Norte Chico in present-day Peru and that of Mesoamerica emerged independently from those in Eurasia. The term ''cradle of civilization'' has frequently been applied to a variety of cultures and areas, in particular the Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic (Ubaid period) and Fertile Crescent. It has also been applied to ancient Anatolia, the Levant and Iran, and used to refer to culture predecessors, such as Greece and Western Civilization,〔 even when such sites are not understood as an independent development of civilization as well as within national rhetoric.〔 ==History of the idea== The concept 'cradle of civilization' is the subject of much debate. The figurative use of ''cradle'' to mean "the place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage" is traced by the OED to Spenser (1590). Charles Rollin's ''Ancient History'' (1734) has "Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation." The phrase "cradle of civilization" plays a certain role in national mysticism. It has been used in Eastern as well as Western cultures, for instance, in Hindu nationalism (''In Search of the Cradle of Civilization'' 1995), and Taiwanese nationalism (''Taiwan — The Cradle of Civilization'' 2002). The terms also appear in esoteric pseudohistory, such as the Urantia Book claiming the title for "the second Eden," or the pseudoarchaeology related to Megalithic Britain (''Civilization One'' 2004, ''Ancient Britain: The Cradle of Civilization'' 1921). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「cradle of civilization」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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