İzzet Çıvgın

Metinde yanıtı aranan soru, Bereketli Hilal’in üç parçasından biri olan Batı İran ya da Kuzey-Orta Zağros’ta avcı-toplayıcılıktan çiftçi-otlatıcı kültüre geçişin hangi koşullarda gerçekleştiğidir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda, a) Mezolitik dönemde (MÖ. 15000-9500) işgal edilen mağaralar ve kaya sığınaklarında hangi hayvanların ve bitkilerin tüketildiğine odaklanılmış, b) Genç Dryas boyunca (MÖ. 10800-9500) ve Holosen Çağı başında iklim + bitki örtüsündeki değişimlerin avcı-toplayıcılara sunduğu yeni olanaklar değerlendirilmiş, c) Mevsimlik kamplar kalıcı yerleşimlere dönüşürken, nüfus yoğunluğunun ve Bereketli Hilal’in diğer parçalarıyla (Güneydoğu Anadolu; Levant ya da Doğu Akdeniz kıyıları) gerçekleştirilen kültürel temasın Zağros neolitiğinin gelişimi üzerindeki etkileri araştırılmıştır. Metnin temel argümanı, Batı İran’daki yiyecek üretiminin pek çok faktörün katılımıyla şekillendiğidir. Bu faktörler, 1- iklim değişiklikleri, 2- buğdaygiller habitatının genişlemesi, 3- avcı-toplayıcı grupların neolitik-öncesinde kazandıkları deneyimlerin bitki/hayvan evcilleştirme sürecine eklemlenmesi, 4- Zağros’un İran’ın diğer bölgelerine nazaran yoğun bir nüfus barındırması ve 5- Toros-Zağros Kavisi’nde meydana gelen kültürel alış-verişler ya da karşılaşmalardır.

The Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia is most probably the earliest centre of food production (plant domestication) in the world. The world’s earliest known villages have been established in this region including the Levant, Northern Syria, Southeastern Anatolia and Western Iran. This is where agriculture first emerged as people began altering communities of flora and fauna for their own benefit. From as early as 11000 BCE, humans began a gradual transition away from hunting-gathering toward “cultivation before domestication” or “plant management” in which they intervened with the growth of genetically wild crops through such actions as field preparation, sowing, tilling, weeding, harvesting. Crop domestication (human-induced selection process for the adaptation of crops to humans’ environment) however, can take hundreds of years because of frequent importation of new wild plants when cultivated crops failed. By 8000 BCE, the “Neolithic founder crops” or “primary domesticates” (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea and bitter vetch) were being introduced in areas where they had not previously grown wild. It seems that a great number of cultivated plants were being imported from different regions of Fertile Crescent both as fully domesticated and wild forms. Archaeological data suggests interaction, seed exchange and knowledge transfer between early farmers of Fertile Crescent. Thus, ancient cross-cultural encounters (exchange, emulation, colonization) played a decisive role in the shaping of the process of crop domestication.

The Fertile Crescent region is the earliest centre of food production in the world. The world’s earliest known settlements have been established in this region including the Levant, Northern Syria, Southeastern Anatolia and Western Iran. This is where animal breeding first emerged. From as early as 10000 BCE, humans began a gradual transition away from hunting toward “animal management” in which they intervened with morphologically wild ungulates prior to a domestic status (more precisely in Southeastern Anatolia). Domestication, i.e. human-induced selection process for the adaptation of ungulates to humans’ environment, however, can take hundreds of years. By 8000 BCE, the domesticated goats and sheep were introduced in areas where they had not previously existed. By 7000, pig and cattle husbandry was integrated into the existing economy of mixed farming and herding. Archaeological evidence and genetic data suggest interaction, exchange and knowledge transfer between early farmers of Fertile Crescent. Thus, ancient cross-cultural encounters (exchange, colonization, and emulation), most probably caused by rapid population growth, i.e. neolithic demographic transition, played a decisive role in the shaping of the process of ungulate domestication.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of geographic, climatic and cultural factors on the emergence of food production in the Central Zagros region of Western Iran. The article argues that the Zagros region of Iran, i.e., the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent (rich in flora and fauna) played a major role in the process of domestication in spite of unfavorable geographical, demographic and climatic factors; but that the region was a “subsidiary center of domestication” in comparison with the northern (Anatolia – Syria) and western (Levant) parts of Fertile Crescent. 1- The earliest Neolithic sites in Iran were located among the intermontane valleys of the Zagros where rain-fed agriculture was possible. Early settlements (seasonal campsites rather than permanent year-round villages) were few and often widely separated: The first settlers were transhumant herders and early farmers, though hunting and gathering continued to be component economic resource. 2- We know that summer temperatures were up to 2 °Chigher than today during the first Holocene millennia (9500-8500 BCE.) and that climatic changes brought seasonal conditions that favored annual plants like cereals. But this climate change took a thousand years to reach Western Iran. 3- The populations of Zagros Aceramic Neolithic villages are smaller and scattered than in Northern Mezopotamia and Levant because of rugged topography and limited arable land. The rapid population growth was often one of the structural determinants of social change (change to the Neolithic way of life), because neighboring communities in cross-cultural interaction change their modes of subsistence. The present article seeks to examine the impact of cross-cultural encounters as a part of the Neolithic expansion across the Fertile Crescent.

This is the first article in a series dedicated to colonization as a cause of cultural change. The present study focuses on the different meanings of the concept of “colony” and discusses the effects of colonization on prehistoric communities. In this paper, author will cite four examples of prehistoric colonization: 1- Upper Paleolithic colonization of Europe, 2- Expansion of the PPNB culture from the Northern Syria to the Southern Levant during the Middle PPNB (8200-7500 BC), probably brought by new peoples mingling with indigenous populations. 3- Neolithic colonization of Cyprus (8200 BC).  4- Colonization of temperate Europe by the Linear Pottery culture (5500 BC) and maritime pioneer colonization at the origins of farming in west Mediterranean Europe (Cardium pottery: 6400-5600): Interaction between hunter-gatherers and farmers during the Neolithic transition in Europe.

MÖ. 7. binyıl'da "Çanak Çömleksiz Neolitik B" kültürünün çöküşü olarak tanımlanan olgu, aslında bir çöküş ve duraklamadan ziyade kuraklaşmaya "mukavemet"le verilen bir yanıttır. MÖ. 6650-5850 arasını kapsayan soğuma ve kuraklaşma bazı Yakın Doğu toplumlarını göçe, diğer bazılarını da ayakta kalmak için geçim stratejilerini yenilemeye zorlamıştır. Besiciliğin mera ihtiyacı dolayısıyla daha hareketli hale gelmesi bu tip yeniliklerin en önemli olanıdır. Ayrıca besicilik, hayvanların et dışında sütleri ve yünleri/kılları için de yürütülen bir sektöre dönüşmüştür. Kısacası, 7. binyılı şekillendiren büyük iklim değişikliği toplumların doğa koşullarına hem direnç göstererek hem de uyum sağlayarak daha karmaşık geçim ekonomileri üretmelerine yol açmıştır.

The 7th millennium BCE can be regarded as a major
turning point in history of Near East. At around
7000-6900 BCE, the first pottery appears (almost
simultaneously) in Northern Mesopotamia and
Northern Levant. The clay wares’ primary function
is for cooking, but they also be used for the
preservation and transportation of food. The end of
the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (or Early Neolithic:
10000-7000 BCE.) saw a decline in site sizes. This
is not a collapse, but rather a shift from sedentary
crop-livestock farming to mobile pastoralism.
During the Pottery Neolithic 1-2 (or Late Neolithic
1-2: 7000-6300 BCE.), there is a continuous
decline in the role of hunting for subsistence.
Adapting to and coping with the threat of climate
change (especially household resilience to drought)
is the most important factor of social change. Social
change can evolve from number of different
sources including culture contact. Cross-cultural
encounters (contacts and interactions of various
types: trade, acculturation/emulation, migration or
colonization, displacement of pastoralists) make
the Late Neolithic 1-2 community an oecumene
concerning the subsistence economy and the
material culture -from Northern Iraq to Syria’s
Mediterranean coast-.

The last major cultural step that paved the way for the emergence of world civilizations is the "Food Producing Revolution", which we also call the "Neolithic Revolution", that is, the emergence of farming-based settled life and the gradual replacement of this form of livelihood with hunting-gathering all over the world. The earliest center of the Neolithic Revolution was Northern Mesopotamia, especially Southeastern Anatolia. This is also the region where farming is exported to neighboring lands. Food production has spread to many parts of the earth through “migration/colonization” and “acculturation”. Those who introduced domestic animals (goat, sheep, cattle, pig) and plants (barley, wheat, peas, chickpeas, lentils, flax, bitter vetch) to Europe were most likely farmers who migrated from Anatolia to the Aegean islands and the Balkans. But it is also possible that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers-fishers in the Balkans learned about agriculture, stockbreeding and Neolithic material culture thanks to the trade networks carried out in the Aegean Sea, adopted the Neolithic traits and were incorporated into farming communities. In this paper, I will support the integrationist model described by Zvelebil, which involves both pioneer colonization and acculturation. Anatolian immigrants and/or local sailors introduced to the Balkans not only food production, but also settled life and its material culture. As in Anatolia, mud, stones, tree branches and logs were used as building materials in the first Balkan houses. It is clear that the architecture and material culture in the first Balkan villages were shaped by the Anatolian influence. In the paper, the material culture of Southern Balkan villages, which was established by the migrations from Anatolia to the Aegean islands and the coasts of Greece, and/or where European native hunter-gatherers emulated the Anatolian culture, will be examined; As the Neolithic livelihood spread in the northern regions (Thessaly, Macedonia, Serbia, Thrace and Bulgaria), it will be tried to determine what kind of transformations the material cultural elements, especially the house architecture, went through.

A critical phase of the Ancient Near Eastern history, Late Neolithic covers the period 7000-5500/5100 BCE. Approximately a half century ago, the scholars proposed
that Northern Mesopotamia was inhabited by distinct cultural entities known by their pottery styles as first attested at certain key sites, many of which have given their name on chronological episodes, such as Hassuna, Samarra and Halaf. But the most recent Late/Pottery Neolithic chronology for Upper Mesopotamia proposed by Reinhard Bernbeck and Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse state that the Hassuna and Samarra “influences” form part of a continuous development, the transitional stage between pre-Halaf (6200 BCE) and the Early Halaf (5900 BCE). According to new chronology, Mid-Late Neolithic represented some turning points in human history. The 8.2 kiloyear event took place during the Late Neolithic
3 period (6300-6000 BCE): An abrupt decrease in temperature occurred with prolonged drought, decreased settlement sizes, population dispersal, spread of mobile pastoralism, secondary product revolution (milk and wool) and exploitation of wildlife resources. Finally, painted pottery revolution (rapid increase of the proportion of painted vessels in the
ceramic assemblage) took place during the Late Neolithic 4, also known as Proto-Halaf or “Transition” (to the Halaf ceramic tradition). Halaf pottery (fine wares) emerged gradually from a transitional stage in which Hassuna and Samarra decorative modes and stylistic traits dominated. It’s a new kind of technically advanced pottery, usually showing alternating oxidizing-reducing-reoxidizing firing conditions with a complex style of decoration. Crosscultural encounters (contacts and interactions of various types: trade, emulation, migration
or colonization, displacement of pastoralists) make the Late Neolithic 3-4 community of Northern Levant and Northern Mesopotamia an oecumene concerning the subsistence economy and the material culture.

The Halaf culture occurs in the Late Neolithic period which lasted between 6100-5300/5100 B.C. and is found in Upper Mesopotamia and the Northern Levant. Indeed, the fine painted pottery of the Halaf culture emerged gradually from a transitional stage in which Hassuna and Samarra decorative modes and stylistic traits dominated. Halaf culture is known for its (1) painted and thin-walled pottery, (2) round buildings, (3) adobe or mud-brick building techniques, (4) clay female figurines (5) stamp seals, (6) chipped stone tools made of obsidian from Central or Eastern Anatolian sources, and, (7) clay sling bullets. In addition to permanent village agriculture, mobile pastoralism and hunting-gathering were the basis of all Halafian communities settled in the short-term, in small and dispersed hamlets or villages. The stamp-seals may mark onset of personal property. Halaf societies were most probably based on an egalitarian but potentially ranked-hierarchical system. The author employs Aristotle's theory of actuality to explain the Late Neolithic transition from egalitarianism to ranked societies.

The Fertile Crescent is the earliest centre of food production in the world. Zagros region played a major role in the process of domestication. Early settlements were few and often widely separated. The earliest food producers who lived in the valleys and foothills of the Zagros mountain range were agro-pastoralists. But the warm and humid Early Holocene was interrupted at 6300-6200 cal. BCE. by a drastic reduction in precipitation. Some archaeologists put forward the idea that deterioration in the local environment stimulated the increased reliance on ovicaprid herding, the intensification in using their secondary products and the development of mobile pastoralism at the end of the 7th millennium. The existence of pastoral mobility as early as 6200 BCE has been suggested by the remains at Tepe Tûlâî, a seasonal campsite on the Susiana Plain. The goat herders of Tepe Tûlâî were probably not yet really nomadic. It seems that they have temporarily left the village environment (in the Susiana and/or Deh Luran plains) and led their flocks through vast open areas to graze. It is suggested that Tûlâî was frequented by mobile groups from a (or two different) lowland region(s). Tuwah Khoshkeh (1500 years younger than Tûlâî) is another mobile pastoralist campsite in the Islamabad Plain. These two examples show that the shift from sedentary crop-livestock farming to mobile pastoralism was an adaptive response to environmental pressure.

In this paper, by considering the archaeological records of prehistoric populations, I would argue that organized violence was not an inevitable outcome of the human condition, that violence took regular group-on-group character until the emergence of hierarchical societies (especially states) and that cultural contacts were generally managed in peaceful process. The violence and thus warfare were not common in Neolithic-Chalcolithic Near East. However, we must take into account archaeological data suggesting violence or conflict related to the distribution of natural resources (especially control of obsidian sources and obsidian exchange networks linking Chalcolithic settlements): major conflagrations (large scale destruction of settlements through fire), some with unburied bodies, some with a subsequent hiatus or replacement by another group, fortifications with walls and towers, large number of sling missiles… For most Early and Middle Chalcolithic settlements, it is difficult to prove the existence of intergroup conflict. But during the Late Chalcolithic (early 4th millennium BCE) burial evidence indicates organized and violent conflict at Tell Brak and Khirbet al-Fakhar in Syria. Khirbet al-Fakhar (southern extension of Hamoukar), an extensive settlement of 300 ha (intensive obsidian manufacture center with direct relationship to at least one major source supplying the raw material at distances often exceeding 300 km.) was attacked by outsiders.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the phenomenon frequently called the “Ubaid expansion” or “Ubaid interaction sphere” in which the material culture of Southern Mesopotamia appears in Upper Mesopotamia and the bordering mountains during the 6th-5th millennium. The paper will also attempt to explain how did the “Ubaid expansion” contribute to the formation of hierarchical societies in Greater Mesopotamia. Indeed, the biggest weakness of the model of expansion (drawn from the subsequent “Uruk expansion”) is that it ignores multiregional character of the Ubaid interaction sphere and describes the culture contact between south and north Mesopotamia as a core-periphery dichotomy. Uruk expansion was probably an actual colonial phenomenon, but it is difficult to use the same argument to explain the “Ubaid expansion”. Several arguments (exchange, colonization, emulation and technology transfer) have been proposed for the widespread dissemination of Ubaid material culture in Upper Mesopotamia. The present paper proposes to outline and discuss these competing arguments in the hope of contributing to the early complex societies literature and to answer how and why the Ubaid expansion emerged.

This study discusses the effects of cultural contact between lower and upper Mesopotamia during the so-called ‘Uruk expansion’ in the 4th millennium B.C. 1- The paper argues that the world’s first cities were developed in Southern Mesopotamia of the 4th millennium. The reason is that these settlements participated in large networks of trade and cultural exchanges. 2- Uruk seems to have been at the heart of an interactive network of cities competing for import of raw materials necessary to produce “status goods” used by political elites as means of consolidating political power. 3- It is possible to classify the earliest cities as microstates. 4- The long-distance trade was one of the stimuli of early state formation. 5- The early city-states, which were characterized by their lack of economic self-sufficiency, had a natural inclination to seek for colonial expansion. 6- The Uruk expansion was an actual colonial phenomenon, involving the emergence of Mesopotamian trading enclaves among preexisting local polities.

The present study discusses the effects of cross-cultural contact between lower and upper Mesopotamia, during so-called “Uruk expansion” (widespread distribution of southern Uruk-style material culture at sites at the North) in the 4th millennium BCE. 1- This paper claims that Uruk expansion was an actual colonial phenomenon, involving the emergence of Mesopotamian trading enclaves among preexisting local polities. 2- There was a symmetrical exchange between southern city-states and northern non urban societies. This long-distance trade, however, was particularly beneficial for more complex societies of the southern alluvial lowlands, because of the positive effect of trade on the emergence of more centralized states. 3- There was not a kind of world-system in which the core dominates an underdevelopped periphery politically and exploits it economically, rather a peaceful colonization/acculturation was.

The purpose of this article is to examine the complex relationship between Ancient Egypt and Nubia, involving cultural transmissions, trade expeditions and military raids from the Neolithic times to the Egypt’s Old Kingdom (5000-2700 BC). Currently, scholars debate whether Lower Nubian society was organized as a complex chiefdom or as a proto-kingdom at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC (during the “Early Dynastic period of Egypt”, 3100-2700 BC). Elite demand for exotic/status/prestige/luxury goods can be an initial stimulus to formation of political hierarchy. This statement is likely to be true in the case of early state formation in Egypt. In the same way, Lower Nubia’s (region between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile) prosperity was underpinned by its intermediary position in the long-distance trade networks. The early Nubian policies (Sayala, Qustul) became powerful by controlling the trade routes and shared with their northern neighbors (Egyptian proto-kingdoms) in the moves towards social complexity. But during the maturation of the Egyptian state, early pharaohs conquered the Lower Nubia and could directly control the exchange with the south. While the Lower Nubia experienced cultural decline and poverty, by 2500 BC, a powerful kingdom began to be established around the Third Cataract of the Nile (Upper Nubia): Kerma. A highly stratified (complex) society had emerged in the northern part of Nubia (in direct contact with early Egyptian state), but the first centralized kingdom had emerged in the southern part, in Upper Nubia called “Kush” by the Egyptians.

This study is the fifth of an article series dedicated to colonization as a cause of cultural change. It discusses the effects of culture contact between lower (northern) and upper (southern) Egypt and the southern Levant during so-called Naqada expansion (widespread distribution of southern material culture at sites at the northern Egypt), and Egyptian colonization of the southern Levant assumed to be founded in the last quarter of the 4th millennium B.C. The ultimate objective of this study is to examine the relationship between long-distance trade, colonization and the state formation (state ideology, emergence of early elites, specialized craft production and political economy).

This study is the 7th of an article series dedicated to cross-cultural encounters (trade, emulation, colonization) as a primary cause of social change and State formation. Its purpose is to examine the complex relationship between Ancient Egypt and Nubia, involving cultural transmissions, trade expeditions and military raids during the Egypt’s Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BC). The author of the present study see long-distance trade as a direct stimulus of the formation, institutionalization and consolidation of the early states in order to control sources of trade items and protect trade routes. Elite demand for raw materials used in the construction of monumental public buildings and exotic/status goods (“conspicuous consumption”) can be an initial stimulus to formation of political hierarchy. This statement is likely to be true in the case of early state formation in Egypt. In the same way, Lower Nubia’s (region between the first and second cataracts of the Nile) prosperity was underpinned by its intermediary position in the long-distance trade networks. During the maturation of the Egyptian state, however, the early Nubian policies (A-Group culture) experienced cultural decline and poverty, while a powerful kingdom began to be established around the third cataract of the Nile (Upper Nubia): Kerma.

This study is the 8th of an article series dedicated to cross-cultural encounters (trade, emulation, colonization, conquest) as a primary cause of social and political change. Its purpose is to examine the complex relationship between Ancient Egypt and Nubia during the First Intermediate Period and Early Middle Kingdom (2200-1950 BC). The author of the present study see troubled times of the First Intermediate Period (political unrest, civil war, lack of central authority, emergence of local warlords, years of warfare and strife) as a stimulus of the colonization and the later conquest of Nubia. The Middle Kingdom, which emerged from the “chaos” of the First Intermediate Period, is marked by an increase in foreign trade and wealth. It’s a return to classical order: The Egyptian state was reconsolidated. However, unlike the Old Kingdom, the new political elite pursued an agressive foreign policy, colonized Lower Nubia and undertook building projects including military fortresses and mining quarries. During the Middle Kingdom, numerous forts and fortified settlements (military and trading posts), and seasonal quarry and mining camps co-existed alongside the indigenous Nubian population.

This study is part of a series on the “cross-cultural encounters (trade, emulation, colonization, conquest or annexation) as a primary cause of social and political change”. Its purpose is to examine the relationship between Ancient Egypt and Nubia during the 12th Dynasty (1991-1782 BC.) of the Middle Kingdom, which emerged from the “chaos” of the First Intermediate Period and marked by an increase in foreign trade and wealth. The political ideology of the new order advocated a rebirth (a return to the glorious past). Unlike their predecessors in the Old Kingdom, however, the monarchs of the Middle Kingdom pursued an agressive foreign policy, sent military expeditions into Upper Nubia (The land of Kush), colonized Lower Nubia and undertook building projects including military fortresses and mining quarries. During the Middle Kingdom, numerous forts and fortified settlements (military-trading posts), and seasonal quarry and mining camps co-existed alongside the indigenous Nubian population. Thus began subjugation of neighboring peoples and Egyptian imperialism.

The expedition of Zhang Qian (Chinese official and diplomat who served as an imperial envoy) in 138 BCE is considered to be the foundation of the first 'Silk Road'. On returning from his 12-year journey, Zhang Qian told Chinese emperor that there was a special breed of horses in the Fergana Valley. Fergana horses were one of China's earliest major imports. But the principal consequence of the expedition came with the beginning of the silk trade. The functioning of this trade road, however, goes back to earlier times: Archeological studies indicate that West Asian wheat, barley, sheep, goats and cattle spread to East Asia (across the Eurasian steppes) during the mid-third and second millennium BCE. Eurasian mobile pastoralists emerged as central participants within a network of interaction. In the third millennium BCE, the Jade Road came into existence from Khotan and Yarkand to China. In the second millennium BCE, on one hand jade became familiar to the farmers of Central Asia and to the pastoral tribes in the Steppe, on the other hand a wide variety of glass objects were transported from West to East by the ancient steppe road connected Western Asia and Central Asia with Inner China. During the first millennium BCE, raw glass was shipped from the Levant to Italy for secondary production, finished glass products were traded in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions and were carried by nomadic groups while traveling across the Eurasian Steppe. The Eurasian Steppe stretches eight thousand kilometers from Eastern Europe to the Great Wall of China. The connection routes between the western and eastern Eurasia that preceded the historical Silk Road can be suggested as the Proto - Silk Road. Horses were first domesticated in the northern Eurasian steppe zone around 3500 BCE and the first wheeled chariots were innovated in the southern Urals around 2200 BCE. By the late second millennium BCE, domesticated horses and the wheeled chariots had spread to China. The Bactrian camels were first domesticated in Central Asia in 2450 BCE which were then migrated back to East Asia around 400 BC with the increasing economic exchange and cooperation between the West and East.

The four cosmogonies (Heliopolis/Iunu, Memphis/Ineb-hec, Hermopolis/Khemenu, Thebes/Waset) that shaped Ancient Egyptian civilization assigned the Ancient Egyptian state the role of “preserving the life-order-routine that began with creation”. The article focuses on the question of how early cosmogonies grounded the Egyptian understanding of politics, while also examining political-religious records that include the term Maat-order-justice, and aims to understand how these two groups of texts link life-subsistence-order-routine with the state. The first conclusion of the study is that the pantheistic Heliopolitan cosmogony assigns the state, which it regards as a supra-historical phenomenon, the task of protecting the work of the creator (preserving the order against
the chaos). In the Memphite cosmogony, the creator initiates life on earth with a creative order. Although this narrative, which has a stronger metaphysical-mystical aspect, bases creation on the will of the creator instead of natural forces, it preserves the function of the state and the Maat-order-justice concept. The Hermopolitan cosmogony, which is pantheistic like the first one, emphasizes the sun's rising-setting-rising (the cycle of life and death), blesses the eternal routine - endless repetition, and assigns the task of
maintaining the routine to the state. The Theban cosmogony, which is very different from the other three narratives, abandons the pantheistic discourse and presents a transcendent-personal-universal creator. The Creator, who desires his will to be known and his commands to be obeyed, demands not “wise” but “pious” human beings. In this cosmogony, the phenomenon of justice, which is the most prominent among the contents of the term Maat, loses its value, while Maat's meaning of truth (divine will) takes the first place.