<P> The Olmecs are sometimes referred to as the mother culture of Mesoamerica, as they were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed . However, the causes and degree of Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures has been a subject of debate over many decades . Practices introduced by the Olmec include ritual bloodletting and the Mesoamerican ballgame; hallmarks of subsequent Mesoamerican societies such as the Maya and Aztec . Although the Mesoamerican writing system would fully develop later, early Olmec ceramics show representations that may be interpreted as codices . </P> <P> The following timeline shows the approximate dates of the emergence of civilization in the featured areas and the primary Neolithic cultures preceding them . It is important to note that the timeline is not indicative of the beginning of human habitation, or the start of a specific ethnic group; which often occurred significantly earlier than the emergence of civilization proper . </P> <P> There is academic consensus that Classical Greece is the seminal culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture, democracy, art, theatre, philosophy and science . For this reason it is known as the cradle of Western Civilization . Along with Greece, Rome has sometimes been described as a birthplace or as the cradle of Western Civilization because of the role the city had in politics, republicanism, law, architecture, warfare and Western Christianity . </P>

Where did the earliest civilizations develop and why