What Makes Civilization?

John Bulwer, Euroclassica For any student studying the question of what civilisation actually is this is valuable reading.


Nature Convincingly concludes that the parallel development of Mesopotamia and Egypt demonstrates the deep attachment of human societies to the concepts they live by, and the inequalities they are prepared to endure in order to preserve those guiding principles.


Dominic Green, Minerva What Makes Civilization? [...] is expertly grounded, thoughtfully written and discreetly radical in its findings.


Current Anthropology What Makes Civilization? is well written for a student or educated lay-person audience...when the past is being employed to understand the present or predict the future of human societies, archaeologists must be part of the discussion.


Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institue This book promises a lot and delivers even more...It guides readers into the heart of the sources of civilization.


Steven Snape, History Today Provocative....stimulating...


Geoff Ward, Western Daily Press Lively and insightful work.

Dr. David Wengrow is Reader in Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He trained in archaeology and anthropology at the University of Oxford, and has conducted fieldwork in both Africa and the Middle East. His research explores early cultural transformations across the boundaries of Asia, Africa, and Europe, including the emergence of the first farming societies, states, and systems of writing. He has also written on the history of archaeological thought and the role of the remote past in shaping modern political identities. His past appointments include Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford, and Frankfort Fellow in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at the Warburg Institute, London.

Chronological Chart ; Preface and Acknowledgements ; Introduction: a clash of civilizations? ; PART ONE: THE CAULDRON OF CIVILIZATION ; 1. Camouflaged Borrowings ; 2. On the Trail of Blue-Haired Gods ; 3. Neolithic Worlds ; 4. The (First) Global Village ; 5. Origin of Cities ; 6. From the Ganges to the Danube: the Bronze Age ; 7. Cosmology and Commerce ; 8. The Labours of Kingship ; PART TWO: FORGETTING THE OLD REGIME ; 9. Enlightenment from a Dark Source ; 10. Ruined Regimes: Egypt at the Revolution ; Conclusion: What Makes Civilization? ; Further Reading ; Index