The revolutions of civilisation

Author / Creator

Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), 1853-1942, author

Available as

Online

Summary

Among the leading Egyptologists of his day, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie excavated over 50 sites & trained a generation of archaeologists. This short yet well-illustrated work sketches human...

Among the leading Egyptologists of his day, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie excavated over 50 sites & trained a generation of archaeologists. This short yet well-illustrated work sketches humankind's achievements over 10,000 years, establishing patterns in the rise & fall of civilisations. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of ancient Egypt, & looking also at Greece, Rome & beyond, Petrie defines each civilisation as having a summer of growth & a winter of decline, revealing his eugenic view that while migration can initially reinvigorate a society, the mixing of peoples over time leads ultimately to that society's deterioration. Correlating developments in the production of art & material culture in different places, Petrie argues that civilisation is not a continuous state, but intermittent & recurrent.

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