Great temples, roads, canals, and reservoirs, together with tombs and writing, are the hardware of civilization. The software lies in a social system that can be discerned through the translation of writing and the inferences drawn from the archaeological record. The central operating system of a state lies in the ruling elite. This usually takes the form of a hereditary dynasty in which the ruler, who, in Japan and Korea, was frequently a woman, often assumed godlike qualities linked with an ability to communicate with the ancestors and spirit world. Administration involved an upper class of relatives of the ruling dynasty, a bureaucracy of centrally appointed officials, or both. Power was concentrated in the capital, often located in an urban center that incorporated a palace, state temples, and quarters for specialists. Tight control over the military helped ensure the rulers’ continuance in power, but in many early states, there was a perennial problem of scale, manifested in centrifugal tendencies.
The farther from the center, the greater the temptation to seek independence. One of the recurrent issues confronting the rulers of early states in Asia was the success of the harvest. Whether rice, millet, wheat, or barley, the surplus generated by the field workers was vital to the well-being of all. There is much evidence of central concern for predictable harvests, manifested in state irrigation works, deployment of increasingly efficient agricultural tools, and infrastructure for transportation. Essentially, agricultural and other surpluses were taxed and used to sustain the administrative system. In many instances this taxation encouraged a system of currency that took various forms: cowry shells and cast imitations thereof, measures of gold and silver, and coins that in India owed much to Greek prototypes.
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