| The development of agricultural productivity and complexity did not inevitably lead to the emergence of civilizations. In many areas, complex, hierarchically organized societies developed that did not create cities or develop formal writing systems. They are not formally identifiable as civilizations but are more developed than the simple Neolithic agricultural settlements. In Southeast Asia, in the Khorat Plateau region of modern Thailand, archeological evidence from Ban Chiang and Non Nok Tha shows that by c. 2000 B.C.E. villagers were producing sophisticated ceramics and cast bronze tools, as well as developing techniques of rice paddy cultivation, which may have influenced the later evolution of agriculture in Chinese civilization. | 1 |
