Europeans have a saying that 'all roads lead to Rome.' From a European standpoint they may look as if they do. But Europe is one of the fringes of the Old World, and eccentric position produce distorted views.-- Arnold J. Toynbee,
Plant yourself, not in Europe, but in ‘Iraq, which is the historic center of our Oikoumene. Seen from this central position, the road-map of the Old World will assume a very different pattern. ...
Civilization in the Old World seems to have started in ‘Iraq about 5000 years ago, and in the meantime it has spread from ‘Iraq both eastwards and westwards.
Eastwards it has spread to Persia, Afghanistan, the Indo-Pakistani Subcontinent, Central Asia, Eastern Asia. Westwards it has spread to Egypt, Anatolia, the Aegean, North-West Africa, Europe, Russia.
This progressive spread of civilization from its birth-place in ‘Iraq to the ends of the Earth has turned the Oikoumene into a house of many mansions.
Between Oxus and Jumna , p. 1.
Michael Wood Legacy: The Origins of Civilization
We humans have been on the Earth for more than a million years, but civilization – life in cities – has come about only in the last 5,000. Through history civilizations have rose and fell, carved out of nature, dependent on nature, in the end – nature took them back. But in the past few hundred years, one form of civilization – that of the West – has changed the balance of nature forever. And now it is civilization itself that has become the central problem of our planet.
To understand why, we must look afresh at how we see history. Host Michael Wood traces the rise of both Asian and Western civilization in one global perspective in these thought-provoking videos. From the crumbling ruins in the Iraqi desert to those of Greece and Rome, viewers contemplate thriving cities and complex societies that have vanished, a reminder that other nations prospered for thousands of years. Now all that remains is their legacy.
To understand why, we must look afresh at how we see history. Host Michael Wood traces the rise of both Asian and Western civilization in one global perspective in these thought-provoking videos. From the crumbling ruins in the Iraqi desert to those of Greece and Rome, viewers contemplate thriving cities and complex societies that have vanished, a reminder that other nations prospered for thousands of years. Now all that remains is their legacy.
Iraq:
The Cradle of Civilization
After thousands of years as a hunter/gatherer, man built the first cities 5,000 years ago on the banks of the Euphrates River. Civilization as we know it began with the glorious cultures of Ur, Nineveh, and Babylon.
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