View source for The Creation of Order/Spring: Establishing Society’s Structural Proportions

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Shortly after 12,000 BC the Ice Age climate began to warm, peaking around 500 BC when temperatures stood about 2 degrees Celsius above those of today. Melting of the glaciers and polar ice caps increased sea levels by an estimated 130 meters (more than 400 feet). This submerged the land bridges that had connected Siberia to Alaska, the British Isles to continental Europe, and Indonesia and Australia to Southeast Asia.

Increasing rates of evaporation and rainfall spurred the forestation of what previously had been semiarid steppe throughout the Mediterranean and Near East. This set in motion a positive feedback mechanism: Evaporation through the leaves of trees increased atmospheric moisture, rainfall, and underground water tables. The Palestinian and Libyan shores of the Mediterranean became forested, as did most of Europe. This disrupted post–Ice Age hunting and gathering by blocking the annual migrations of reindeer, bison, and other food animals.

Some communities followed the herds north in the wake of the receding glaciers, while others remained in the temperate zones. Wheat, barley, and other crops were increasingly cultivated at the same time that the human-animal relationship intensified, domesticating both pets and livestock.

Cultivation called for forecasting the springtime floods when mountain snows melted into rivers. Water was used even in nonarid regions to irrigate croplands to feed the expanding population. The calendar became a schedule for the festivals associated with communal planting and labor.

Calendars had been important as early as the Ice Age to anticipate animal and fish migrations, mating periods, and other seasonal activities. They provided a foundation for society’s first administrative structures as populations settled down, planted seeds and cultivated the land, pastured animals, engaged in long-distance commerce, and established handicraft enterprise in the public temples and palaces. Public storehouses saved and redistributed seed grain and other reserves from year to year.

Forecasting was necessary especially in the Euphrates, Nile, and Indus river valleys. Ration-measures were developed to support a dependent labor force. Administrators were accountable in their positions of overseeing labor and undertaking forward planning. Out of these functions—and also those of astronomical time-keeping—emerged a writing and arithmetic ability, measures and weights, and prices and rules for economic exchange in general.

<div class="h2">Spring Table of Contents</div>{{Classics subpages|level=2}}