Re: The joy of Civilization

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On 31 Oct 2024 00:06:33 GMT, rbowman wrote:
 

You might say civilization was alive and well in
contemporary Europe, but it was vanishing in the Americas about a
millennium ago.

 
Civilization originated in Mesopotamia. I have a book in my shelf on a
generalist introduction to the archaeology of the earliest civilizations,
and it has a specific set of features that a society has to have to be
classed as a “civilization”:
 
  * Urbanization
  * Division of labour
  * Metalworking
  * Writing
 

There are exceptions to all of these. For example, the Inca didn’t have
writing.

--
Pete