LuciusCorneliusSulla

I didn't see he him say anywhere that it didn't develop there. Why is it that a pissing contest always develops when speaking of ancient civilizations, is it a nationalism thing or what?

I mean, if we wanted to get technical, tribal structures that precede civilization in the sense you are using it developed along similar paths hundreds of years before ANY city dwellers came to be. So it seems like a rather childish argument. Also, since we don't know a whole lot about Uruk, the Proto-Indo-Europeans, etc. It is pretty pointless to speculate about "who did what first," because, for all we know, a nomadic tribe in Mongolia could have done all of these things first, but left no record. (satire)

Helen's Daughter

A lot of people don't know about the Mycenaeans and Minoans. Many comment on my blog that they weren't taught about them in school, and didn't know there was this whole other Bronze Age world 1,000 years before Classical Greece.

Vintersorg

When I was in high-school, during history courses the teachers couldn't stop talking about Egypt, whereas other middle-eastern cultures of the same era were barely mentioned (Hittites, Assyrians,...). They even barely mentioned Sumer in my history classes.
Egypt received slightly less attention than Greece and Rome, but that's logical since:
a) There are far less written records of Ancient Egypt than of Greece/Rome
b) the Egyptian civilisation, while impressive, had very little influence on the history of Europe.

AlpinLuke

"Romanization of Greece is not a valid example: it was Greece that hellenized the Romans, not the other way around. Greece also hellenized Egypt starting aorund the 5-4th centuries BC, before the conquests of Alexander."

Actually I was just thinking to that process, in the way you are presenting it here.

About the origin of Egyptian civilization, it came from Northern Eastern Africa and the area of modern Sudan while the desert was advancing.

The first cultures [Naqada overall] show a clear connection with neolithic populations of the area.

It could be a good argument for a long digression. I will come back later.

AlpinLuke

Before of the period of Naqada, when also some Asian exchanges appear, the main system of settlements is the one of the culture of Badari. Agriculture, fishing, hunting and breeding were the main activities [like of any other neolithic culture]. Were they native of that region? Studies are in progress, but the African component is well predominant.

More interesting, and more "international" was the previous culture of Merimda, in the Delta. The presence of signs of contacts with minor Asia are evident like the evidences of contacts with the Nubian region.

So when someone asks me if Egypt was an African civilization I answer "yes it was", without hesitation.

If someone wants to know if the core of that civilization was ONLY Africa, I tend to underline that its historical development was unique and so, being in Africa, African ...

And I add that anyway the civilization of Middle East weren't alien to the birth and the early development at least of the local cultures [pre dynastic] in the area of the Delta.

Alcibiades

Do you have an official comment on how your book is ridiculed around here,Mr. Bernal?
Alcibiades

Alcibiades

Anyway,no,Egypt is not pushed aside.As Guaporense put it,it's the most studied Bronze Age country.
Alcibiades

tagradh

Yeah, through school I was taught far, far more about Egypt than Greece (of which we were taught essentially nothing), and I doubt the average person in this country even really knows anything about Mesopotamia. A fair number probably don't even know the name.

India and China only ever came up in relation to the British Empire.

Guaporense

In my school history book it was the following:

Mesopotamia - Egypt - Greece - Rome - Middle Ages - Early Modern period - Modern period

India, China and Mesoamerican civilizations were only mentioned in reference to the main axis of history.

Egypt is the bronze age culture which has produced the greatest number of surviving ruins. That was a combination of two factors:

1 - The size of Egypt: it was perhaps the first state in history to surpass 1 million inhabitants, maybe the first to surpass 5 million, in the New Kingdom. Hence the Egypt was probably the largest economy for the 2,000 years of the bronze age.

2 - The lack of wood and other building materials that lead to the generalized use of stone building construction, which lasts for thousands of years.