The diagram represents the spread of the techniques of civilization to those areas outside of the Fertile Crescent around the year 2000 B.C.E., and the ways in which different “styles” of civilization emerged. Petheo places structural, hierarchical diagrams of two civilizations next to each other , in order to allow the eye to compare and contrast these two civilizations. At the bottom of both diagrams are undifferentiated village communities; as McNeill writes in the text, part of the process of civilization involves “villagers becoming peasants,” that is their forced participation in civilized society. In the case of both the Hittites and Minoan civilizations, this means providing labor and agricultural surplus. Note that the peasants labor under gridded fields, showing the advance of civilized techniques at the village level. They plow under clouds and rain; compare this image to the image of the peasant laboring in Hammurabi’s “Great Society,” where the sun bakes the soil. This suggests a more temperate climate in these two civilizations. Further, in both of these societies, there was no great river around which a civilization could grow. Thus, agriculture was dependent chiefly on rain water.

Above the peasant societies, however, Hittite and Minoan civilizations diverge. The peasants in Hittite civilization are lorded over by a militarized aristocracy. Note that these warlords ride on chariots, a weapon whose impact was spreading throughout the civilized world. These warlords ride under an imperial monarchy, modeled after the Mesopotamian case. Within the royal household, artisans and the priesthood serve under the king. There is no warrior aristocracy ruling over the peasantry in the Minoan side of the diagram. Their products nevertheless fill the palace storehouse; note that this icon is larger than the same symbol for the Hittites. The diagram suggests that these stores were larger because they were augmented by foreign trade. Minoan civilization is ruled not by an imperial monarch but by a priest king. The double-headed ax was a symbol in Minoan art for the Great Mother goddess, signifying that this society is ruled by priests. At right is a representation of a statue of the Great Mother goddess found at Knossos. Although difficult to see in this diagram, she holds two snakes, sacred images from this culture.