The cradle of civilization is any of the possible locations for
the emergence of civilization. It is usually applied to the
Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic (Ubaid period, Naqada
culture), especially in the Fertile Crescent (viz. Lower Egypt,
the Levant and Mesopotamia), but also extended to sites in
Anatolia and the Persian Plateau, besides other Asian cultures
situated along large river valleys, notably the Indus River in
India and the Yellow River in China. Civilization is usually
taken to presuppose the presence of agriculture and urban
settlements, and as such is a consequence of the Neolithic
Revolution. This entails that there isn't a single "cradle", but
several independent developments of civilization, of which the
Near Eastern Neolithic was the first. The extent to which there
was significant influence between the early civilizations in the
Fertile Crescent and East Asia is disputed, while the
civilizations of Mesoamerica are accepted as having emerged
independently from those in Eurasia. If writin