When ancient civilizations settled down and became farmers a couple of things happened; people lived longer and

reproduced more frequently. Living in a settlement as opposed to being nomadic caused people to have a more secure source of food and water causing them to live longer. People living longer caused them to reproduce more which obviously lead to a population boom. This was both a good and a bad thing, it lead to rapid civilization growth as there were more people to work and they needed more buildings and therefore larger towns. There were several ways that ancient civilizations accommodated for this, some of which are more apparent than others. The main one is that housing became more sophisticated. Hunter-gatherer tribes used mostly very easy to set up and dismantle structures because of their frequent movement but once they settled down more permanent housing was set up. Ancient Mesopotamia crafted very simple rectangular structures that often shard walls. This allowed them to be built quickly and efficiently to accommodate the growing population and also promoted a sense of community within the civilization. These very large community housing structures were by nature simple to build, but they were definitely a step up from the huntergatherer villages. They were permanent and were meant to last a long time, which is essentially the opposite of what the little populated hunter-gather tribes were aiming for. Another example of how buildings were used was the ancient Egyptian pyramids. A strong likelyhood for why the original pyramids were build was to provide work for new people. The people who built the original pyramids made a good wage and had a nice place to live. It also offered work for off duty soldiers who obviously needed work to be a functioning part of society. Many of these original pyramids had little purpose, and in all likelihood they did not need this many people who specialized in constructing them. There were architects who planned them and builders who built them which provided good stable jobs but in reality these things were frivolous. Their major function in society was to provide work for the ever-growing population. As people settled down into civilizations and permanent housing an interesting shift in religion occurred. Gods became more benevolent and less angry and rash, something which reflected what they built their civilizations around. The Nile river was incredibly predictable, so much so they created a crude predictor of how their crop would be based on it. The Egyptians didn't have to tell incredible tales of how their gods wiped out the population with floods or how they murdered random people, they didn't created stories about the God's wrath because in their eyes they had none. This helped population growth stabilize in these cultures, with a more predictable source of water and food the ancient Egyptians could let their population thrive and increase endlessly. This was reflected in the way their religion is, and it's obvious throughout history that religion shapes people just as much as people shape religion. There were dozens of affects that population growth had on early civilizations and just as many ways they dealt with it. Population growth is a major factor in all civilizations new and old but in these times their whole lives were based around accommodating it. Civilizations were stationary as opposed to nomadic, houses were built, agriculture became the way of life and even religions change. There are many, many other ways civilizations changed in this time of growth, but these were some of the most prominent ones.