On the concepts of «civilization and proto-civilization»and signs on pottery in the cultures of the Danube region, the Caucasus and the near east in the V-III millennia

This article is an attempt to make more concrete the concept of civilizationwithin the system of the typology of the historical process on the basis of ethnologicaland archaeological data. The following terms are defined: civilization, proto-civilization,early state, state without monetary circulation and state with a monetary system forexchange and trade. In his definition of the threshold of civilization the author followsL.G. Morgan and I.M. Dyakonov, according to whom the key moment was the advanceof information transmission to the invention of a script consisting of words or syllablesThe stage of historical development prior to that is what the author regards as proto-civilization. Characteristic of that stage are sign systems marked on pottery or objectsof cultic significance. Cultures of the Danube Chalcolithic, the Uruk period in NorthernMesopotamia and the Early Bronze Age in the Caucasus can be classified as proto-civilizations. Among the features of proto-civilizations are well-developed metal-workingand the exploitation of sources of copper. Civilization is synonymous with the idea of thestate. The distinctive feature of the state is its level of economic development, which findsexpression in the appearance of exchange using generally accepted weight equivalentsfor values (noble metals). It was from that stage of development that statehood began inSumer and subsequently in the Near East.