According to Childe, the Urban Revolution occurred independently in several parts of the world, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica, and was one of the most significant changes in human sociocultural evolution. He identified 10 criteria that characterized the urban revolution, which are:
- Increased settlement size and population density
- Concentration of wealth and social surplus
- Large-scale public works and monumental architecture
- Writing and record-keeping
- Representational art and symbolic expression
- Development of exact and predictive sciences
- Regular foreign trade and long-distance exchange
- Full-time specialists in non-subsistence activities
- Class-stratified society and social hierarchy
- State organization based on residence rather than kinship
Childe argued that these criteria represented the emergence of a new economic stage and a new form of social organization, which he called "civilization". He also suggested that the urban revolution was enabled by the prior "Neolithic Revolution", which involved the domestication of plants and animals and the development of agriculture.
Childe's concept of the urban revolution has been influential and widely used in anthropology and archaeology, but it has also been criticized and modified by later scholars. Some of the criticisms include:
- The criteria are too rigid and do not account for regional variations and diversity
- The concept implies a linear and deterministic model of social evolution
- The concept does not explain the causes and mechanisms of the urban revolution
- The concept does not address the environmental and social impacts of the urban revolution
Despite these limitations, Childe's concept of the urban revolution remains a useful framework for understanding the origins and characteristics of urban civilization in human history.
