What Makes Civilization?
The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 25 January 2018
- ISBN 9780199699421
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages240 pages
- Size 195x130x13 mm
- Weight 282 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 20 black and white plates; 6 maps 0
Categories
Short description:
A vivid new account of the 'birth of civilization' in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia where many of the foundations of modern life were laid
MoreLong description:
The targeted destruction of ancient sites and monuments in the Middle East provokes widespread outrage in the West. But what is our connection to the ancient Near East? In this updated edition of What Makes Civilization? archaeologist David Wengrow investigates the origins of farming, writing, and cities in ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Egypt, and explores the connections between these two civilizations. It is the story of how people first created kingdoms and monuments to the gods and, just as importantly, how they pioneered everyday practices that we might now take for granted, such as familiar ways of cooking food and keeping the house and body clean. Wengrow asks why these ancient cultures, where so many features of modern life originated, have come to symbolize the remote and the exotic.
Today, perhaps more than ever, he argues, the beleaguered cultural heritage of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia stands as a warning for the future. A warning of the sacrifices people will tolerate to preserve their chosen form of life; of the potential for unfettered expansion that exists within any cultural tradition; and of blood perhaps yet to be spilled, on the altar of a misguided notion of civilization.
For any student studying the question of what civilisation actually is this is valuable reading.
Table of Contents:
Chronological Chart
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: a clash of civilizations?
Part One: The Cauldron of Civilization
Camouflaged Borrowings
On the Trail of Blue-Haired Gods
Neolithic Worlds
The (First) Global Village
Origin of Cities
From the Ganges to the Danube: the Bronze Age
Cosmology and Commerce
The Labours of Kingship
Part Two: Forgetting the Old Regime
Enlightenment from a Dark Source
Ruined Regimes: Egypt at the Revolution
Conclusion: What Makes Civilization?
Further Reading
Index
Conversations with Julian Barnes
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17 199 HUF
