Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder2.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Peter Flass Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: The joy of Civilization Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2024 12:49:49 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 23 Message-ID: <1958473383.752355311.660061.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> References: <2ItTO.338744$v8v2.95701@fx18.iad> <199392d0-9628-8177-2f3b-35b23a721dd4@example.net> <086607f1-2283-f7fb-ddf9-ac4766b06530@example.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2024 20:49:49 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="45b02ddd81cf3a24e4ae5e3c5b66b23c"; logging-data="546353"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18HJqUqEPoeAX5NTdahg3mr" User-Agent: NewsTap/5.3.1 (iPad) Cancel-Lock: sha1:ifR7aCzq0dP/uTYudUEjTBktKKA= sha1:FvvZtaLFvEtA5+GH1R2nRERxcX0= Bytes: 2255 Lawrence D'Oliveiro 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