Cradle of civilization

A cradle of civilization is a location and a culture where civilization was developed independent of other civilizations in other locations. A civilization is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond signed or spoken languages—namely writing systems and graphic arts.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Scholars generally acknowledge eight^{[citation needed]} cradles of civilization: Southeastern Europe, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and Iran are believed to be the earliest in Afro-Eurasia (previously called the Old World);^[6][7][8][9] while in the Americas (previously called the New World), the Caral–Supe civilization of ancient Peru is believed to be the earliest in South America and the Olmec civilization of ancient Mexico is believed to be the earliest in North America. All of the cradles of civilization depended upon agriculture for sustenance (except for, possibly, the Caral–Supe civilization, which may have depended initially on marine resources). All depended upon farmers producing an agricultural surplus to support the centralized government, political leaders, religious leaders, and public works of the urban centres of the early civilizations.

Less formally, a derived form of the term "cradle of civilization" is often used to refer to specific ancient civilizations when they are seen as the backbone for a modern society's history. A prominent example of such usage is with regard to Greece or Rome, both of which have been called the "cradle of Western civilization" for their social, political, and cultural influence, which culminated in the establishment of the Roman Empire.