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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. * John Bulwer, Euroclassica * 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. * Nature * What Makes Civilization? [...] is expertly grounded, thoughtfully written and discreetly radical in its findings. * Dominic Green, Minerva * 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. * Current Anthropology * This book promises a lot and delivers even more...It guides readers into the heart of the sources of civilization. * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institue * Provocative....stimulating... * Steven Snape, History Today * Lively and insightful work. * Geoff Ward, Western Daily Press *

What Makes Civilization?: The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West

PART ONE: THE CAULDRON OF CIVILIZATION; PART TWO: FORGETTING THE OLD REGIME