@b870d4c8 Have you read James C Scott's *Against the Grain*?

If not, I cannot recommend it more highly for an exceptionally well informed 'anarchist squint' on this period of history.

TL;DR it isn't 'civilisation' but the forced domestication of human labour. 

 @87fb11e5 thank you, does it cover all six? 

 @b870d4c8 Focuses on Mesopotamia but does some comparison 

 @87fb11e5 thank you