Civilization

This article is about human society. For other uses, see culminating in the relatively rapid process of state forCivilization (disambiguation).
mation, a political development associated with the apA civilization (US) or civilisation (UK) is any pearance of a governing elite. This neolithic technology and lifestyle was established rst in the Middle East
(for example at Gbekli Tepe, from about 9,130 BCE),
and Yangtze and later in the Yellow river basin in China
(for example the Pengtoushan culture from 7,500 BCE),
and later spread. But similar revolutions also began independently from 9,000 years ago in such places as the
Norte Chico civilization in Peru[11] and Mesoamerica at
the Balsas River. These were among the six civilizations
worldwide that arose independently.[12] The neolithic revolution in turn was dependent upon the development of
sedentarism, the domestication of grains and animals and
the development lifestyles which allowed economies of
scale and the accumulation of surplus production by certain social sectors. The transition from complex chieftains to civilisations, while still disputed, seems to be
Ancient Egypt is a canonical example of an early culture consid- associated with the development of state structures, in
ered a civilization.
which power was further monopolised by an elite[13]
Towards the end of the Neolithic period, various
Chalcolithic civilizations began to rise in various
cradles from around 3300 BCE. Chalcolithic Civilizations, as dened above, also developed in Pre-Columbian
Americas and, despite an early start in Egypt, Axum
and Kush, much later in Iron Age sub-Saharan Africa.
The Bronze Age collapse was followed by the Iron Age
around 1200 BCE, during which a number of new civilizations emerged, culminating in the Axial Age transition
to Classical civilization. A major technological and cultural transition to modernity began approximately 1500
CE in western Europe, and from this beginning new approaches to science and law spread rapidly around the
world.[14]

complex society characterized by urban development, social stratication, symbolic communication

forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived
separation from and domination over the natural environment.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Civilizations are intimately
associated with and often further dened by other
socio-politico-economic characteristics,
including
centralization, the domestication of both humans and
other organisms, specialization of labor, culturally
ingrained ideologies of progress and supremacism,
monumental architecture, taxation, societal dependence
upon agriculture, and expansionism.[2][5][3][8][7] Historically, a civilization was an advanced culture in contrast
to more supposedly barbarian, savage, or primitive cultures.[1][3][5][9] In this broad sense, a civilization contrasts
with non-centralized feudal or tribal societies, including
the cultures of nomadic pastoralists or hunter-gatherers.
As an uncountable noun, civilization also refers to the
process of a society developing into a centralized,
urbanized, stratied structure.

1 History of the concept

The word civilization comes from the 16th-century
French civilis (civilized), from Latin civilis (civil), related to civis (citizen) and civitas (city).[15] The fundamental treatise is Norbert Elias's The Civilizing Process
(1939), which traces social mores from medieval courtly
society to the Early Modern period.[16] In The Philosophy of Civilization (1923), Albert Schweitzer outlines two
opinions: one purely material and the other material and
ethical. He said that the world crisis was from humanity
losing the ethical idea of civilization, the sum total of all
progress made by man in every sphere of action and from

Civilizations are organized in densely populated settlements divided into hierarchical social classes with a ruling
elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which,
by the engagement in intensive agriculture, mining, smallscale manufacture and trade. Civilization concentrates
power, extending human control over the rest of nature,
including over other human beings.[10]
The earliest emergence of civilizations is generally associated with the nal stages of the Neolithic Revolution,
1

CHARACTERISTICS

every point of view in so far as the progress helps towards

the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the progress of
all progress.
Adjectives like civility developed in the mid-16th century. The abstract noun civilisation, meaning civilized
condition, came in the 1760s, again from French. The
rst known use in French is in 1757, by Victor Riqueti,
marquis de Mirabeau, and the rst use in English is attributed to Adam Ferguson, who in his 1767 Essay on
the History of Civil Society wrote, Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood, but the species
itself from rudeness to civilisation.[17] " The word was
therefore opposed to barbarism or rudeness, in the active
pursuit of progress characteristic of the Age of Enlightenment.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, during the French revolution, civilization was said singular, never plural, and
meant the progress of humanity as a whole. This is still
the case in French.[18] The use of civilizations as a count- 26th century BCE Sumerian cuneiform script in Sumerian lanable noun was in occasional use in the 19th century,[19] guage, listing gifts to the high priestess of Adab on the occasion
but has become much more common in the later 20th of her election. One of the earliest examples of human writing.
century, sometimes just meaning culture (itself in origin an uncountable noun, made countable in the context
of ethnography).[20] Only in this generalized sense does
it become possible to speak of a medieval civilization,
which in Eliass sense would have been an oxymoron.
Already in the 18th century, civilization was not always
seen as an improvement. One historically important distinction between culture and civilization is from the writings of Rousseau, particularly his work about education,
Emile. Here, civilization, being more rational and socially
driven, is not fully in accord with human nature, and human wholeness is achievable only through the recovery
of or approximation to an original prediscursive or prerational natural unity (see noble savage). From this, a new
approach was developed, especially in Germany, rst by
Johann Gottfried Herder, and later by philosophers such
as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. This sees cultures as natural organisms, not dened by conscious, rational, deliberative acts but a kind of pre-rational folk spirit.
Civilization, in contrast, though more rational and more
successful in material progress, is unnatural and leads
to vices of social life such as guile, hypocrisy, envy,
and avarice.[18] In World War II, Leo Strauss, having ed
Germany, argued in New York that this opinion of civi- Neolithic clay amulet (retouched), part of the Trtria tablets set,
lization was behind Nazism and German militarism and dated to 5500-5300 BCE and associated with the Turda-Vina
nihilism.[21]
culture. Symbols of the "Danube script" on it predate the protoSumerian pictographic script.

Characteristics

Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named

a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from
other kinds of society.[22] Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of livelihood,
settlement patterns, forms of government, social strati-

cation, economic systems, literacy, and other cultural

traits.
All civilizations have depended on agriculture for subsistence. Grain farms can result in accumulated storage
and a surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as articial fertilisation,
irrigation and crop rotation. It is possible but more di-

3
cult to accumulate horticultural production, and so civilisations based on horticultural gardening have been very
rare.[23] Grain surpluses have been especially important
because they can be stored for a long time. A surplus of
food permits some people to do things besides produce
food for a living: early civilizations included soldiers,
artisans, priests and priestesses, and other people with
specialized careers. A surplus of food results in a division of labor and a more diverse range of human activity,
a dening trait of civilizations. However, in some places
hunter-gatherers have had access to food surpluses, such
as among some of the indigenous peoples of the Pacic
Northwest and perhaps during the Mesolithic Natuan
culture. It is possible that food surpluses and relatively
large scale social organization and division of labor predates plant and animal domestication.[24]

conict theorist, and Elman Service, an integration theorist, have classied human cultures based on political systems and social inequality. This system of classication
contains four categories[29]
Hunter-gatherer
egalitarian.[30]

bands,

which

are

generally

Horticultural/pastoral societies in which there are

generally two inherited social classes; chief and
commoner.
Highly stratied structures, or chiefdoms, with several inherited social classes: king, noble, freemen,
serf and slave.

Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and orCivilizations have distinctly dierent settlement patterns
ganized, institutional governments.[31]
from other societies. The word civilization is sometimes
simply dened as "'living in cities".[25] Non-farmers tend
Economically, civilizations display more complex patto gather in cities to work and to trade.
terns of ownership and exchange than less organized societies. Living in one place allows people to accumulate
more personal possessions than nomadic people. Some
people also acquire landed property, or private ownership
of the land. Because a percentage of people in civilizations do not grow their own food, they must trade their
goods and services for food in a market system, or receive
food through the levy of tribute, redistributive taxation,
taris or tithes from the food producing segment of the
population. Early human cultures functioned through a
gift economy supplemented by limited barter systems. By
the early Iron Age contemporary civilizations developed
money as a medium of exchange for increasingly complex transactions. To oversimplify, in a village the potter
makes a pot for the brewer and the brewer compensates
the potter by giving him a certain amount of beer. In
a city, the potter may need a new roof, the roofer may
need new shoes, the cobbler may need new horseshoes,
the blacksmith may need a new coat, and the tanner may
need a new pot. These people may not be personally acquainted with one another and their needs may not occur all at the same time. A monetary system is a way of
organizing these obligations to ensure that they are fullled. From the days of the earliest monetarised civilisations, monopolistic controls of monetary systems have
beneted the social and political elites.
No one in the history of civilization has shaped our understanding of science and natural philosophy more than the great Greek
philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384322 BCE), who exerted
a profound and pervasive inuence for more than two thousand
years Gary B. Ferngren[26]

Compared with other societies, civilizations have a more

complex political structure, namely the state.[27] State societies are more stratied[28] than other societies; there is
a greater dierence among the social classes. The ruling
class, normally concentrated in the cities, has control over
much of the surplus and exercises its will through the actions of a government or bureaucracy. Morton Fried, a

Writing, developed rst by people in Sumer, is considered

a hallmark of civilization and appears to accompany the
rise of complex administrative bureaucracies or the conquest state.[32] Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing
to keep accurate records. Like money, writing was necessitated by the size of the population of a city and the
complexity of its commerce among people who are not all
personally acquainted with each other. However, writing
is not always necessary for civilization. The Inca civilization of the Andes did not use writing at all but it uses a
complex recording system consisting of cords and nodes
instead: the Quipus, and it still functioned as a society.

Aided by their division of labor and central government

planning, civilizations have developed many other diverse
cultural traits. These include organized religion, development in the arts, and countless new advances in science
and technology.
Through history, successful civilizations have spread, taking over more and more territory, and assimilating more
and more previously-uncivilized people. Nevertheless,
some tribes or people remain uncivilized even to this day.
These cultures are called by some "primitive, a term that
is regarded by others as pejorative. Primitive implies in
some way that a culture is rst (Latin = primus), that it
has not changed since the dawn of humanity, though this
has been demonstrated not to be true. Specically, as all
of todays cultures are contemporaries, todays so-called
primitive cultures are in no way antecedent to those we
consider civilized. Anthropologists today use the term
"non-literate" to describe these peoples.

COMPLEX SYSTEMS

plex customs of education, coercion and control associated with maintaining the elite.
The intricate culture associated with civilization has a
tendency to spread to and inuence other cultures, sometimes assimilating them into the civilization (a classic
example being Chinese civilization and its inuence on
nearby civilizations such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam).
Many civilizations are actually large cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in
which someone lives is that persons broadest cultural
identity.
Many historians have focused on these broad cultural
spheres and have treated civilizations as discrete units.
Early twentieth-century philosopher Oswald Spengler,[33]
uses the German word Kultur, culture, for what many
call a civilization. Spengler believes a civilizations coherence is based on a single primary cultural symbol.
Cultures experience cycles of birth, life, decline, and
death, often supplanted by a potent new culture, formed
around a compelling new cultural symbol. Spengler states
civilization is the beginning of the decline of a culture as,
"...the most external and articial states of which a species
of developed humanity is capable.[33]

Civilization has been spread by colonization, invasion,

religious conversion, the extension of bureaucratic control and trade, and by introducing agriculture and writing
to non-literate peoples. Some non-civilized people may
willingly adapt to civilized behaviour. But civilization is
also spread by the technical, material and social domiThis unied culture concept of civilization also inunance that civilization engenders.
enced the theories of historian Arnold J. Toynbee in
Assessments of what level of civilization a polity has the mid-twentieth century. Toynbee explored civilizareached are based on comparisons of the relative impor- tion processes in his multi-volume A Study of History,
tance of agricultural as opposed to trade or manufactur- which traced the rise and, in most cases, the decline
ing capacities, the territorial extensions of its power, the of 21 civilizations and ve arrested civilizations. Civcomplexity of its division of labor, and the carrying ca- ilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynpacity of its urban centres. Secondary elements include bee, because of the failure of a creative minority,
a developed transportation system, writing, standardized through moral or religious decline, to meet some impormeasurement, currency, contractual and tort-based legal tant challenge, rather than mere economic or environsystems, art, architecture, mathematics, scientic under- mental causes.
standing, metallurgy, political structures, and organized Samuel P. Huntington denes civilization as the highreligion.
est cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of
Traditionally, polities that managed to achieve notable cultural identity people have short of that which distinmilitary, ideological and economic power dened them- guishes humans from other species. Huntingtons theoselves as civilized as opposed to other societies or hu- ries about civilizations are discussed below.[34]
man grouping which lay outside their sphere of inuence,
calling the latter barbarians, savages, and primitives,
while in a modern-day context, civilized people have 4 Complex systems
been contrasted with indigenous people or tribal societies.

Cultural identity

Further information: Cultural region

Another group of theorists, making use of systems theory, looks at a civilization as a complex system, i.e., a
framework by which a group of objects can be analyzed
that work in concert to produce some result. Civilizations can be seen as networks of cities that emerge from
pre-urban cultures, and are dened by the economic, political, military, diplomatic, social, and cultural interactions among them. Any organization is a complex social
system, and a civilization is a large organization. Systems theory helps guard against supercial but misleading
analogies in the study and description of civilizations.

Civilization can also refer to the culture of a complex

society, not just the society itself. Every society, civilization or not, has a specic set of ideas and customs, and a
certain set of manufactures and arts that make it unique.
Civilizations tend to develop intricate cultures, including
a state-based decision making apparatus, a literature, pro- Systems theorists look at many types of relations between
fessional art, architecture, organized religion, and com- cities, including economic relations, cultural exchanges,

5.2

Early civilizations

and political/diplomatic/military relations. These spheres

often occur on dierent scales. For example, trade networks were, until the nineteenth century, much larger
than either cultural spheres or political spheres. Extensive trade routes, including the Silk Road through Central
Asia and Indian Ocean sea routes linking the Roman Empire, Persian Empire, India, and China, were well established 2000 years ago, when these civilizations scarcely
shared any political, diplomatic, military, or cultural relations. The rst evidence of such long distance trade is
in the ancient world. During the Uruk period Guillermo
Algaze has argued that trade relations connected Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Iran and Afghanistan.[35] Resin found later
in the Royal Tombs of Ur it is suggested was traded northwards from Mozambique.
Many theorists argue that the entire world has already become integrated into a single "world system", a process
known as globalization. Dierent civilizations and societies all over the globe are economically, politically, and
even culturally interdependent in many ways. There is
debate over when this integration began, and what sort
of integration cultural, technological, economic, political, or military-diplomatic is the key indicator in determining the extent of a civilization. David Wilkinson
has proposed that economic and military-diplomatic integration of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations
resulted in the creation of what he calls the Central Civilization around 1500 BCE.[36] Central Civilization later
expanded to include the entire Middle East and Europe,
and then expanded to a global scale with European colonization, integrating the Americas, Australia, China and
Japan by the nineteenth century. According to Wilkinson, civilizations can be culturally heterogeneous, like the
Central Civilization, or homogeneous, like the Japanese
civilization. What Huntington calls the clash of civilizations might be characterized by Wilkinson as a clash of
cultural spheres within a single global civilization. Others
point to the Crusades as the rst step in globalization. The
more conventional viewpoint is that networks of societies
have expanded and shrunk since ancient times, and that
the current globalized economy and culture is a product
of recent European colonialism.

5
5.1

History
Origins of civilization

Historically civilizations were assumed by writers such

as Aristotle to be the natural state of humanity, so no
origin for the Greek polis was considered to be needed.
The Sumerian King List for instance, sees the origin of
their civilization as descending from heaven. However
the great age of maritime discovery exposed the states
of Western Europe to hunter-gatherer and simple horticultural cultures that were not civilized. To explain the
dierences observed, early theorists turned to racist the-

5
ories of cultural superiority, theories of geographic determinism, or accidents of culture. After the second world
war these theories were rejected on various grounds, and
other explanations sought. Four schools have developed
in the modern period.
1. Theories of voluntary development
2. Theories of coercive militarism
3. Carnieros
theory
circumscription[37]

of

environmental

4. Claessons Complex Interaction Model (CIM)[38]

5.2 Early civilizations

Further information: Prehistory and Cradle of Civilization

Map of the world showing approximate centers of origin of

agriculture and its spread in prehistory: the Fertile Crescent
(11,000 BP), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9000 BP)
and the New Guinea Highlands (90006000 BP), Central Mexico (50004000 BP), Northern South America (50004000 BP),
sub-Saharan Africa (50004000 BP, exact location unknown),
eastern USA (40003000 BP).[39]

5.2.1 The Neolithic Era

Main article: Neolithic
The process of sedentarization is rst thought to have occurred around 12,000 BCE in the Levant region of southwest Asia though other regions around the world soon
followed. The emergence of civilization is generally associated with the Neolithic, or Agricultural Revolution,
which occurred in various locations between 8,000 and
5,000 BCE, specically in southwestern/southern Asia,
northern/central Africa and Central America.[40] At rst
the Neolithic was associated with shifting subsistence cultivation, where continuous farming led to the depletion of
soil fertility resulting in the requirement to cultivate elds
further and further removed from the settlement, eventually compelling the settlement itself to move. In major
semi-arid river valleys, annual ooding renewed soil fertility to be renewed yearly, with the result that population densities could rise signicantly. This encouraged a

"secondary products revolution" where domesticated animals became useful for more than meat production; being
used also for milk, wool, and animal traction of ploughs
and carts. The 8.2 Kiloyear Arid Event and the 5.9 Kiloyear Interpluvial saw the drying out of semiarid regions
and a major spread of deserts.[41] This climate change
shifted the cost-benet ratio of endemic violence between
communities, which saw the abandonment of unwalled
village communities and the appearance of walled cities,
associated with the rst civilisations. This "urban revolution" marked the beginning of stable agriculture and animal domestication which enabled economies and cities to
develop. It was associated with the state monopoly and
violence, the appearance of a soldier class and endemic
warfare, rapid development of hierarchies and a fall in the
status of women.
Shulaveri-Shomu culture
5.2.2

The Bronze Age

Main article: Bronze Age

Africa
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Ethiopia (D'mt)
Ancient Somalia (Punt)
Americas
Pre-Columbian Americas
Norte Chico / Caral
Olmec
Zapotec civilization
Asia

HISTORY

5.2.3 The Iron Age

Main article: Iron Age
The Iron Age is the period generally occurring after the
Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The
early period of the age is characterized by the widespread
use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including diering
agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.
The Iron Age as an archaeological term indicates the condition as to civilization and culture of a people using iron
as the material for their cutting tools and weapons.[42]
The Iron Age is the third principal period of the threeage system created by Christian Thomsen (17881865)
for classifying ancient societies and prehistoric stages of
progress.[43]
Karl Jaspers, the German historical philosopher, proposed that the ancient civilizations were aected greatly
by an Axial Age in the period between 800 BCE200
BCE during which a series of male sages, prophets,
religious reformers and philosophers, from China, India, Iran, Israel and Greece, changed the direction of
civilizations.[44] William Hardy McNeill proposed that
this period of history was one in which culture contact between previously separate civilizations saw the closure of
the oecumene", and led to accelerated social change from
China to the Mediterranean, associated with the spread of
coinage, larger empires and new religions. This view has
recently been championed by Christopher Chase-Dunn
and other world systems theorists.
Africa
Kush
Axum
Nok
Igbo-Ukwu
East Asia civilizations

Ancient Near East

Hayasa-Azzi
Mesopotamia
Levant / Canaan
Bronze Age Anatolia / Aegean

Bronze Age China

Bronze Age South Asia
Indus Valley Civilization

Ancient China, Shang Dynasty, Zhou Dynasty, (Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty)
Eurasian civilizations
Ancient Nomads, Scythia, (Xiongnu, Huns,
Kok Turk Empire)
Celts
Dacians
Nairi
Urartu

Europe
Aegean Civilizations
Minoan Civilization
Mycenaean Greece

Mediterranean civilizations of the Classical Period

Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome

5.3

Medieval to Early Modern

Etruscans
Hellenistic civilization

Middle Eastern civilizations

Ancient Israel
Persia since the Achaemenids
South Asian civilizations
Vedic India

5.3

Medieval to Early Modern

Further information: Middle Ages and Early Modern

period
Further information: Hinduism, Spread of Buddhism,
Spread of Islam and Age of Discovery

Christendom
Western Christianity
Eastern Christianity
Islamic World
Islamic Golden Age
Caliphate
Somalia
Adal Sultanate
Ajuran Empire
Warsangali Empire
Mongol-Turkish (Ilkhanate, Timurid Empire)
Mughal India
Ottoman Empire
Asia
Stavhana Empire, Andhra Pradesh, India
Andhra Ikshvaku Empire, Andhra Pradesh,
India
Ananda Gotrika, Andhra Pradesh, India
Salankayanas, Andhra Pradesh, India
Vishnukundinas, Andhra Pradesh, India
Chola Empire, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Kerala, India
Pandya Empire, Tamil Nadu, India
Chera Kingdom, Tamil Nadu, India
Pallava Kingdom, Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, India
Sui China
Tang China
Song China

Goryeo Korea
Mongol Empire (Yuan)
Ming China
Feudal Japan
Confucian Vietnam

Southeast Asia
Funan, Chenla, Champa, Anghor Cambodia
Dvaravati,
Hariphunchai,
Sukhothai,
Ayutthaya Kingdom, pre Modern Thailand
Pagan Burma
Philippine Classical Period
Sri Vijaya, Sailendra, Mataram and Majapahit
Moundbuilder and Puebla civilizations

Ancient Pueblo peoples

Caddoan Mississippian culture
Coles Creek culture
Fort Ancient
Hohokam
Mogollon culture
Oneota
Patayan
Plaquemine culture

Mesomerican civilizations

Tlaxcala (Nahua state)

Toltec
Aztec civilization
Maya civilization
Zapotec civilization
Tarascan state
Tlapanec people
K'iche' Kingdom of Q'umarkaj

Andean civilizations

Chimor
Kingdom of Cusco/Inca Empire
Aymara
Muisca

African civilizations

Wagadou
Mali Empire
Songhai Empire
Ashanti Empire
Abyssinia
Benin Empire
Oyo Empire
Dahomey

6 FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS

5.4

Modernity

Further information: Modernity

Further information: cultural bloc, Major world religions, world language and The Clash of Civilizations
Western world
Western Europe
North America
South America
Australia and New Zealand
Intermediate Region
Eastern Europe
Arab world
Iranian world
Israel
Turkic world
Eastern world
East Asia
China
Japan
Korea
South Asia
India
Southeast Asia
Malay world
Philippines
Sub-Saharan Africa

Fall of civilizations

Main article: Societal collapse

There have been many explanations put forward for the
collapse of civilization. Some focus on historical examples, and others on general theory.
Ibn Khaldns Muqaddimah inuenced theories
of the analysis, growth and decline of the Islamic civilization.[45] He suggested repeated invasions from nomadic peoples limited development
and led to social collapse.
Edward Gibbons work The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire was a well-known and detailed analysis of the fall of Roman civilization. Gibbon suggested the nal act of the collapse of Rome was the
fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453
CE. For Gibbon:

The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable eect of immoderate
greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction
multiplied with the extent of conquest;
and, as soon as time or accident had removed the articial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its
own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring
why the Roman Empire was destroyed,
we should rather be surprised that it has
subsisted for so long.[Gibbon, Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed.,
vol. 4, ed. by J. B. Bury (London, 1909),
pp. 173174.-Chapter XXXVIII: Reign
Of Clovis.--Part VI. General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire
In The West.]
Theodor Mommsen in his "History of Rome
(Mommsen)", suggested Rome collapsed with the
collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE
and he also tended towards a biological analogy of
genesis, growth, senescence, collapse and
decay.
Oswald Spengler, in his "Decline of the West" rejected Petrarch's chronological division, and suggested that there had been only eight mature civilizations. Growing cultures, he argued, tend to develop into imperialistic civilizations which expand
and ultimately collapse, with democratic forms of
government ushering in plutocracy and ultimately
imperialism.
Arnold J. Toynbee in his "A Study of History" suggested that there had been a much larger number
of civilizations, including a small number of arrested civilizations, and that all civilizations tended
to go through the cycle identied by Mommsen. The
cause of the fall of a civilization occurred when a
cultural elite became a parasitic elite, leading to the
rise of internal and external proletariats.
Joseph Tainter in "The Collapse of Complex Societies" suggested that there were diminishing returns to complexity, due to which, as states achieved
a maximum permissible complexity, they would
decline when further increases actually produced
a negative return. Tainter suggested that Rome
achieved this gure in the 2nd century CE.
Jared Diamond in his 2005 book "Collapse: How
Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" suggests ve major reasons for the collapse of 41 studied cultures:
environmental damage, such as deforestation and
soil erosion; climate change; dependence upon longdistance trade for needed resources; increasing levels of internal and external violence, such as war or

9
invasion; and societal responses to internal and environmental problems.
Peter Turchin in his Historical Dynamics and
Andrey Korotayev et al. in their Introduction to
Social Macrodynamics, Secular Cycles, and Millennial Trends suggest a number of mathematical models describing collapse of agrarian civilizations. For example, the basic logic of Turchins
scal-demographic model can be outlined as follows: during the initial phase of a sociodemographic cycle we observe relatively high levels of
per capita production and consumption, which leads
not only to relatively high population growth rates,
but also to relatively high rates of surplus production. As a result, during this phase the population can aord to pay taxes without great problems, the taxes are quite easily collectible, and the
population growth is accompanied by the growth
of state revenues. During the intermediate phase,
the increasing overpopulation leads to the decrease
of per capita production and consumption levels, it
becomes more and more dicult to collect taxes,
and state revenues stop growing, whereas the state
expenditures grow due to the growth of the population controlled by the state. As a result, during this phase the state starts experiencing considerable scal problems. During the nal precollapse phases the overpopulation leads to further
decrease of per capita production, the surplus production further decreases, state revenues shrink, but
the state needs more and more resources to control the growing (though with lower and lower rates)
population. Eventually this leads to famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and demographic and civilization collapse (Peter Turchin. Historical Dynamics. Princeton University Press, 2003:121127;
Andrey Korotayev et al. Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 2006).
Peter Heather argues in his book The Fall of the
Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians[46] that this civilization did not end for moral
or economic reasons, but because centuries of contact with barbarians across the frontier generated its
own nemesis by making them a much more sophisticated and dangerous adversary. The fact that Rome
needed to generate ever greater revenues to equip
and re-equip armies that were for the rst time repeatedly defeated in the eld, led to the dismemberment of the Empire. Although this argument is specic to Rome, it can also be applied to the Asiatic
Empire of the Egyptians, to the Han and Tang dynasties of China, to the Muslim Abbasid Caliphate,
and others.
Bryan Ward-Perkins, in his book The Fall of Rome
and the End of Civilization,[47] shows the real horrors

associated with the collapse of a civilization for the

people who suer its eects, unlike many revisionist
historians who downplay this. The collapse of complex society meant that even basic plumbing disappeared from the continent for 1,000 years. Similar
Dark Age collapses are seen with the Late Bronze
Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean, the collapse of the Maya, on Easter Island and elsewhere.
Arthur Demarest argues in Ancient Maya: The
Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization,[48] using a
holistic perspective to the most recent evidence from
archaeology, paleoecology, and epigraphy, that no
one explanation is sucient but that a series of erratic, complex events, including loss of soil fertility,
drought and rising levels of internal and external violence led to the disintegration of the courts of Mayan
kingdoms which began a spiral of decline and decay.
He argues that the collapse of the Maya has lessons
for civilization today.
Jerey A. McNeely has recently suggested that A
review of historical evidence shows that past civilizations have tended to over-exploit their forests,
and that such abuse of important resources has
been a signicant factor in the decline of the overexploiting society.[49]
Thomas Homer-Dixon in "The Upside of Down:
Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization", considers that the fall in the energy return on
investments; the energy expended to energy yield
ratio, is central to limiting the survival of civilizations. The degree of social complexity is associated
strongly, he suggests, with the amount of disposable
energy environmental, economic and technological
systems allow. When this amount decreases civilizations either have to access new energy sources or
they will collapse.
Feliks Koneczny in his work On the Plurality of
Civilizations calls his study the science on civilizations. Civilizations fall not because they must or
there exist some cyclical or a biological life span.
There still exist two ancient civilizations BrahminHindu and Chinese which by no means are ready
to fall any time soon. Koneczny claimed that civilizations cannot be mixed into hybrids, an inferior civilization when given equal rights within a
highly developed civilization will overcome it. One
of Konecznys claims in his study on civilizations is
that a person cannot be civilized in two or more
ways without falling into what he calls an abcivilized state (as in abnormal). He also stated that
when two or more civilizations exist next to one another and as long as they are vital, they will be in
an existential combat imposing its own method of
organizing social life upon the other.[50] Absorbing
alien method of organizing social life that is civi-

10

8 SEE ALSO

lization and giving it equal rights yields a process of argues, stems from their over-exploitation and diminudecay and decomposition.
tion of their own local resources. Therefore, civilizations inherently adopt imperialist and expansionist policies and, in order to maintain these, highly militarized, hierarchically structured, and coercion-based cultures and
Future
lifestyles.

See also: Global catastrophic risk

Political scientist Samuel Huntington[51] has argued that
the dening characteristic of the 21st century will be a
clash of civilizations. According to Huntington, conicts
between civilizations will supplant the conicts between
nation-states and ideologies that characterized the 19th
and 20th centuries. These views have been strongly challenged by others like Edward Said, Muhammed Asadi
and Amartya Sen.[52] Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris
have argued that the true clash of civilizations between
the Muslim world and the West is caused by the Muslim
rejection of the Wests more liberal sexual values, rather
than a dierence in political ideology, although they note
that this lack of tolerance is likely to lead to an eventual
rejection of (true) democracy.[53] In Identity and Violence
Sen questions if people should be divided along the lines
of a supposed 'civilization', dened by religion and culture only. He argues that this ignores the many others
identities that make up people and leads to a focus on
dierences.
Some environmental scientists see the world entering a
Planetary Phase of Civilization, characterized by a shift
away from independent, disconnected nation-states to a
world of increased global connectivity with worldwide institutions, environmental challenges, economic systems,
and consciousness.[54][55] In an attempt to better understand what a Planetary Phase of Civilization might look
like in the current context of declining natural resources
and increasing consumption, the Global scenario group
used scenario analysis to arrive at three archetypal futures: Barbarization, in which increasing conicts result
in either a fortress world or complete societal breakdown;
Conventional Worlds, in which market forces or Policy
reform slowly precipitate more sustainable practices; and
a Great Transition, in which either the sum of fragmented
Eco-Communalism movements add up to a sustainable
world or globally coordinated eorts and initiatives result
in a new sustainability paradigm.[56]
Cultural critic and author Derrick Jensen argues that
modern civilization is directed towards the domination
of the environment and humanity itself in an intrinsically
harmful, unsustainable, and self-destructive fashion.[57]
Defending his denition both linguistically and historically, he denes civilization as a culture... that both leads
to and emerges from the growth of cities, with cities
dened as people living more or less permanently in one
place in densities high enough to require the routine importation of food and other necessities of life.[58] This
need for civilizations to import ever more resources, he

The Kardashev scale classies civilizations based on their

level of technological advancement, specically measured by the amount of energy a civilization is able to
harness. The Kardashev scale makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist (see also: Civilizations and the Future, Space civilization).

8 See also
Anarcho-primitivism
Barbarian
Civilized core
Cradle of civilization
Culture
Outline of culture
Historical powers
History of the world
Human population
Intermediate Region
Kardashev scale
Law of Life
Mission civilisatrice
Muslim world
New Tribalism
Proto-civilization
Sedentism
Western civilization
Christendom
Role of the Christian Church in civilization
Future Shock

11

Notes and references

[1] Adams, Robert McCormick (1966). The Evolution of Urban Society. Transaction Publishers. p. 13.
[2] Haviland, William, et al (2013). Cultural Anthropology:
The Human Challenge. Cengage Learning. p. 250.
[3] Wright, Ronald (2004). A Short History of Progress.
House of Anansi. pp. 115, 117, and 212.
[4] Civilization. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, LLC.
2014See denition #6
[5] Llobera, Josep (2003). An Invitation to Anthropology.
Berghahn Books. pp. 136137.
[6] Fernndez-Armesto, Felipe (2001). Civilizations: Culture,
Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature. Simon &
Schuster.
[7] Boyden, Stephen Vickers (2004). The Biology of Civilisation. UNSW Press. pp. 78.
[8] Solms-Laubach, Franz (2007). Nietzsche and Early German and Austrian Sociology. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 115,
117, and 212.
[9] Bolesti, Maria (2013). Barbarism and Its Discontents.
Stanford University Press.
[10] Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, Cambridge
University Press, 1986, vol.1 pp.34-41.
[11] Haas, Jonathan; Winifred Creamer, Alvaro Ruiz (23 December 2004). Dating the Late Archaic occupation of
the Norte Chico region in Peru, Nature 432 (7020):
10201023. doi:10.1038/nature03146. PMID 15616561

[17] cited after mile Benveniste, "Civilisation. Contribution

l'histoire du mot" (Civilisation. Contribution to the history
of the word), 1954, published in Problmes de linguistique
gnrale, Editions Gallimard, 1966, pp.336345 (translated by Mary Elizabeth Meek as Problems in general linguistics, 2 vols., 1971)
[18] Velkley, Richard (2002), The Tension in the Beautiful:
On Culture and Civilization in Rousseau and German Philosophy, Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in
Question, The University of Chicago Press, pp. 1130
[19] e.g. in the title A narrative of the loss of the Winterton East
Indiaman wrecked on the coast of Madagascar in 1792;
and of the suerings connected with that event. To which
is subjoined a short account of the natives of Madagascar,
with suggestions as to their civilizations by J. Hatchard, L.B.
Seeley and T. Hamilton, London, 1820.
[20] Civilization (1974), Encyclopdia Britannica 15th ed.
Vol. II, Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., 956. Retrieved
25 August 2007. Using the terms civilization and culture
as equivalents is controversial and generally rejected, so
that for example some types of culture are not normally
described as civilizations.
[21] "On German Nihilism" (1999, originally a 1941 lecture),
Interpretation 26, no. 3 edited by David Janssens and
Daniel Tanguay.
[22] Gordon Childe, V., What Happened in History (Penguin,
1942) and Man Makes Himself (Harmondsworth, 1951)
[23] Hadjikoumis; Angelos, Robinson; and Sarah VinerDaniels (Eds) (2011), Dynamics of Neolithisation in Europe: Studies in honour of Andrew Sherratt (Oxbow
Books)
[24] Gbekli Tepe. National Geographic. Retrieved 13
November 2014.

[12] Kennett, Douglas J.; Winterhalder, Bruce (2006). Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture. University
of California Press. pp. 121. ISBN 978-0-520-24647-8.
Retrieved 27 December 2010.

[25] Tom Standage (2005), A History of the World in 6 Glasses,

Walker & Company, 25.

[13] Carniero, R.L. (Ed) (1967), The Evolution of Society:

Selections from Herbert Spencers Principles of Sociology, (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1967), pp. 3247,63-96, 153-165.

[27] Grinin, Leonid E (Ed) et al. (2004), The Early State and
its Alternatives and Analogues (Ichitel)

[26] Gary B. Ferngren (2002). "Science and religion: a historical introduction". JHU Press. p.33. ISBN 0-8018-7038-0

[14] Ferguson, Niall (2011), Civilization

[28] Bondarenko, Dmitri et al. (2004), Alternatives to Social

Evolution in Grinin op cit.

[15] Larry E. Sullivan (2009), The SAGE glossary of the social

and behavioral sciences, Editions SAGE, p. 73

[29] Bogucki, Peter (1999), The Origins of Human Society

(Wiley Blackwell)

[16] It remains the most inuential sociological study of the

topic, spawning its own body of secondary literature. Notably, Hans Peter Duerr attacked it in a major work (3,500
pages in ve volumes, published 19882002). Elias, at
the time a nonagenarian, was still able to respond to
the criticism the year before his death. In 2002, Duerr
was himself criticized by Michael Hinzs Der Zivilisationsproze: Mythos oder Realitt (2002), saying that his criticism amounted to a hateful defamation of Elias, through
excessive standards of political correctness. Der Spiegel
40/2002

[30] DeVore, Irven, and Lee, Richard (1999) Man the

Hunter (Aldine)
[31] Beck, Roger B.; Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip
C. Naylor, Dahia Ibo Shabaka, (1999). World History:
Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell.
ISBN 0-395-87274-X.
[32] Pauketat, Timothy R. 169.
[33] Spengler, Oswald, Decline of the West: Perspectives of
World History (1919)

12

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY

[34] Samuel P. Huntington (1997), The clash of civilizations

and the remaking of world order, Simon and Schuster, p.
43

[53] Inglehart, Ronald; Pippa Norris (MarchApril 2003).

The True Clash of Civilizations. Global Policy Forum.
Retrieved 23 January 2009.

[35] Algaze, Guillermo, The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization"
(Second Edition, 2004) (ISBN 978-0-226-01382-4)

[54] Orion Thoughts on America

[36] Wilkinson, David (Fall 1987). Central Civilization.

Comparative Civilizations Review 17. pp. 3159.

[56] GTinitiative.org

[37] http://72.52.202.216/~{}fenderse/Carneiro.htm
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[38] Bondarenko, Dmitri M. Early State in Cross-Cultural

Perspective: A Statistical Reanalysis of Henri J. M.
Claessens Database (Cross Cultural Research)
[39] Diamond, J.; Bellwood, P. (2003). Farmers and
Their Languages: The First Expansions.
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300 (5619): 597603. Bibcode:2003Sci...300..597D.
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[42] The Junior Encyclopdia Britannica: A reference library
of general knowledge. (1897). Chicago: E.G. Melvin.
[43] C. J. Thomsen and Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae rst applied the system to artifacts.
[44] Tarnas, Richard (1993). The Passion of the Western Mind:
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View (Ballantine Books)
[45] Massimo Campanini (2005), Studies on Ibn Khaldn,
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[55] Kosmos Journal Paths to Planetary Civilization

[57] Jensen, Derrick (2006), Endgame: The Problem of Civilization, Vol 1 & Vol 2 (Seven Stories Press)
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11 External links

Jensen, Derrick (2006). Endgame. New York:

Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-58322-730-5.

The dictionary denition of civilization at Wiktionary

Keppie, Lawrence (1984). The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire. Totowa, N.J.:
Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0-389-20447-1.

Quotations related to Civilization at Wikiquote

Korotayev, Andrey, World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World Oikumene Civilizations: A
Cross-Cultural Perspective. Lewiston, NY: Edwin
Mellen Press, 2004. ISBN 0-7734-6310-0
Kradin, Nikolay. Archaeological Criteria of Civilization. Social Evolution & History, Vol. 5, No 1
(2006): 89108. ISSN 1681-4363.
Lansing, Elizabeth (1971). The Sumerians: Inventors and Builders. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN
0-07-036357-9.
Lee, Ki-Baik (1984). A New History of Korea.
trans. Edward W. Wagner, with Edward J. Shultz.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674-61575-1.

BBC on civilization

14

12

12
12.1

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Text

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QuiteUnusual, Bogolov, Flibjib8, Lself, Edokter, Osubuckeyeguy, Nine9s, Smartse, Modernist, Credema, Glc9144, Phanerozoic, Fennessy,
JAnDbot, Poga, Athkalani, Barek, Skomorokh, The Transhumanist, Johnnewton, 100110100, SiobhanHansa, Acroterion, Gert7, Magioladitis, Bongwarrior, VoABot II, CiteCop, Je Dahl, Wikidudeman, Appraiser, Jramsay1927, Jespinos, Singularity, Farennikov, Rorrenigol,
Snowded, KConWiki, JLMadrigal, Americanhero, Dixielander, DerHexer, Megalodon99, Pax:Vobiscum, Seba5618, Arturj, Jimmilu,
Eo, Rettetast, MarshalN20, R'n'B, CommonsDelinker, AlexiusHoratius, VirtualDelight, OStewart, Wiki Raja, RockMFR, J.delanoy,
Pharaoh of the Wizards, Trusilver, Shin19, FillardQ, Nightshadow28, Nigholith, Eliz81, Zone101, Neotribal42, NerdyNSK, Mianhassan, Historic1982, Dispenser, It Is Me Here, Skullketon, BrokenSphere, Nodoze, P4k, JCha, RaGnaRoK SepHr0tH, AdamBMorgan,
GhostPirate, Gregp278, Mufka, X911, BrettAllen, Sprayed, Ja 62, CardinalDan, Medicineman84, Idioma-bot, Ottershrew, ArchetypeRyan, Signalhead, Hitec81, VolkovBot, Thedjatclubrock, ABF, Mrh30, TheRhani, Je G., Indubitably, Fundamental metric tensor, PsotS,
Nrvpraveen, Guardian Tiger, Teledildonix314, Philip Trueman, TXiKiBoT, Jacob Lundberg, Java7837, Ali besharatian, Amitkasher, Miranda, Anonymous Dissident, Combatentropy, Jongmalunga, Rocklee11, Martin451, Leafyplant, Don4of4, Abdullais4u, LeaveSleaves,
Wmcg, Jjmckool, 116redrock, FunkDemon, Mazarin07, Steve Masterson, Vicer99, Madhero88, BigDunc, Daku1, Tctwood, Cantiorix,
Krisna2, Root Beers, Spinningspark, Jjoutcast2000, Master of the Orchalcos, Jihinotenshi, Soccerproesor, Brianga, Monty845, Azukimonaka, Symane, Radical Robert, Pruxo, Dark Dragon Sword, NHRHS2010, S8333631, Vbrayne, Krisna3, Peter.thelander, Flamarial,
Enkyo2, M.V.E.i., SieBot, Work permit, WereSpielChequers, Zephyrus67, Pengyanan, Washdivad, Caltas, Matthew Yeager, Afroshman,
Yoshirocks8, Andersmusician, Emilfarb, Yerpo, Byrialbot, AngelOfSadness, Diyforlife, Benea, AnonGuy, Lightmouse, Bhazad, MASQUERAID, Reginmund, Belligero, Akarkera, Spartan-James, ConanBaltar, Wabbit98, Susan118, Pinkadelica, Jobas, Angelo De La Paz,
WikipedianMarlith, Livinginhaidian, Someone the Person, Elassint, ClueBot, Binksternet, Bob1960evens, Blackangel25, Rodhullandemu,
Gaia Octavia Agrippa, XPTO, Ukabia, SuperHamster, Regibox, Parkwells, Hunterkiller04, Burmanow, OceaNotion, Tomeasy, Wikiscribe,
Kanguole, Tamaratrouts, Roadsh, Estirabot, Yorkshirian, Jimmy da tuna, NuclearWarfare, Ice Cold Beer, Jokernuget, Iohannes Animosus, Takabeg, Basilo12, SchreiberBike, Ottawa4ever, Athkalani2000, Majlesi, Mitch360, Bob24616, Thingg, Aitias, Zaledin, 7, Ayyagari
ravi15, Porkies84, Sparkygravity, Sven10, Herunar, DumZiBoT, Tinaaa222, Ano-User, Shawnregan, Heironymous Rowe, Skunkboy74,
Bridies, XLinkBot, Pichpich, Gnowor, Sumerophile, Rokus2000, Swift as an Eagle, Avoided, Noctibus, ElMeBot, Bendyboom, Addbot,
Manuel Trujillo Berges, Brekass, Arcillaroja, Ronhjones, Jncraton, GD 6041, Martindo, CactusWriter, MrOllie, RTG, Ccacsmss, Antivandalblaster, FiriBot, Relyable info, Numbo3-bot, F Notebook, Tide rolls, Bguras puppy, Pietrow, Zorrobot, Jarble, Swarm, Legobot,
Luckas-bot, Yobot, Legobot II, Abasass, Nirvana888, Washburnmav, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, CK6569, QueenCake, Knownot,
Eduen, Eric-Wester, Andrew schaug, AnomieBOT, 1exec1, Rjanag, Sonia, Jim1138, Galoubet, JackieBot, Piano non troppo, Rejedef,
LlywelynII, Gyaidun, Larrycz, Oceanlakesskater, Materialscientist, Danno uk, Citation bot, Teeninvestor, Eumolpo, GB fan, ArthurBot,
LilHelpa, Xqbot, Temari Lovers, Timir2, The Banner, Romanfall, MercuryApex, Ponticalibus, Teamjenn, Cryogenist, GrouchoBot,

12.2

Images

15

Alumnum, RibotBOT, BluenoseGuy, Wmcg2, GhalyBot, N419BH, Corollo12, Miyagawa, Colt .55,
, George2001hi, FrescoBot,
Tangent747, , Tobby72, Pepper, Meanmrmustard1,07, Evalowyn, Louperibot, Citation bot 1, EduardoValle, Aogouguo, Taipei
SocialScience, Sopher99, SpacemanSpi, Pinethicket, Vicenarian, HRoestBot, Adlerbot, Alonso de Mendoza, Calmer Waters, Skyerise,
Fat&Happy, Jschnur, RedBot, Impala2009, Cplax21, The Poetaster, Baumgaertner, Ahsaninam, Zhonghuo, Crusoe8181, Sattler31, ActivExpression, SkyMachine, C messier, Leodescal, TobeBot, DixonDBot, Sheogorath, Lotje, Vrenator, Qazmlp1029, Blackfungo, MegaPr0n,
Luvenno, Cowlibob, Shaka Marday, PleaseStand, Tbhotch, Hmmwhatsthisdo, Jbbo9, Wpfdc, Whisky drinker, TjBot, Bento00, Regancy42,
Beyond My Ken, WildBot, Slon02, EmausBot, WikitanvirBot, Immunize, Niluop, Aramx123, ZxxZxxZ, Quincy2010, Tommy2010, K6ka,
ZanLJackson, Chricho, ZroBot, Life in General, Cogiati, Hydao, Josve05a, AmazingAthiest, , Pantaxen, Cobaltcigs, Averaver, Wayne Slam, MBenwa4225, Tolly4bolly, Green9118, Maxim11maxim, Thine Antique Pen, Openstrings, L Kensington,
Mayur, Donner60, Mythbuster2010, ChuispastonBot, VictorianMutant, CAAP AH1, DASHBotAV, Purpleravens, Rockman03, Nirutochi,
ClueBot NG, Moof100, Washnugget, Appenzeller, Gareth Grith-Jones, Draksis314, Georgepauljohnringo, CloveWiki, Hongkongeditor,
Navops47, Cheater no1, Jozwiak22, O.Koslowski, Runehelmet, Widr, Antiqueight, WikiPuppies, Oddbodz, Helpful Pixie Bot, MsFionnuala, Titodutta, PatternOfPersona, Hengist Pod, REJS H, BG19bot, TGilmour, Bismaydash, Northamerica1000, PhnomPencil,
, Hallows AG, RecoveringAddict, Amp71, Cold Season, Spidey665, Andrewmcmahon96, Mark Arsten, Olev Vinn, Ssnnuu ssnnuu,
Viller the Great, Mozzini66, Meatsgains, Nkowali, AK63, Carsoncvb, The Link Changer, 123957a, Lieutenant of Melkor, Ahwoooga, BattyBot, Jujube123, GHDTHGGJYSWGDHU, Krystoforos, Polupolu890, Intiguemaster, Macknack123, ChrisGualtieri, Soulparadox, Sn80,
Smartylolipops, EagerToddler39, Dexbot, Luckimg2, TomoK12, Sahgal, Mogism, Numbermaniac, Lugia2453, Isarra (HG), Reatlas, BurritoBazooka, BaodlywoaterAlbanian, Ahmed 313-326, Theos Little Bot, Ruby Murray, RedRalph, Melonkelon, Surfer43, PhantomTech,
Hendrick 99, Drlouie, Tallest Mauve, AcidSnow, Bubills7701, Valery Staricov, Ginsuloft, WPGA2345, Robin N. Huber, Infantom, Barjimoa, JaconaFrere, CogitoErgoSum14, Monkbot, Ikey Ike, Haefoe, NativePride98, JohnTheWalter, Daisibo, TranquilHope, Dt Mos Ios,
Loraof, Rmfp04, Nobodys Historical Editing Station, Bluez Cluez, Johnolbrich, Mihiress, Account 223 and Anonymous: 1257

12.2

Images

File:Acropolis_Athens_in_2004.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Acropolis_Athens_in_2004.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Harrieta171
File:Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg
License: Public domain Contributors: Jastrow (2006) Original artist: Copy of Lysippus
File:Centres_of_origin_and_spread_of_agriculture.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Centres_of_
origin_and_spread_of_agriculture.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Joey Roe
File:Edit-clear.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg License: Public domain Contributors: The
Tango! Desktop Project. Original artist:
The people from the Tango! project. And according to the meta-data in the le, specically: Andreas Nilsson, and Jakub Steiner (although
minimally).
File:Egypt.Giza.Sphinx.02.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Egypt.Giza.Sphinx.02.jpg License: CCBY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Most likely Hamish2k, the rst uploader Original artist: Most likely Hamish2k, the rst uploader
File:Forum_Romanum_April_05.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Forum_Romanum_April_05.jpg
License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Simatai_Great_Wall.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Simatai_Great_Wall.JPG License: CC
BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Walter Grassroot
File:Sumerian_26th_c_Adab.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Sumerian_26th_c_Adab.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: http://www.schoyencollection.com/religions_files/ms3029.jpg Original artist: Unknown
File:Tartaria_amulet_retouched.PNG Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Tartaria_amulet_retouched.
PNG License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Mazarin07

12.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0