![]() ![]() At Göbekli Tepe in particular, there is physical evidence of turmoil and collapse, and the site was intentionally buried circa the ninth millennium BCE. The discovery of the sophisticated archaeological complex of Göbekli Tepe in modern southeastern Turkey (northern Mesopotamia), the oldest portions of which date to the tenth millennium BCE or earlier, demonstrates that monumental stonework and other attributes of civilization existed prior to the end of the last ice age (that is, prior to circa 9700 BCE). Work in Egypt, namely examining the origins of dynastic Egypt, initially through reevaluating the age of the core body of the Great Sphinx (the head is a dynastic re-carving), demonstrates that the great civilization of the Nile has roots going back thousands of years further than originally believed. New discoveries, as well as theoretical reevaluations, have questioned the standard paradigm, both in terms of chronology and the driving factors leading to civilization. Gordon Childe, 1950, “The Urban Revolution.” The Town Planning Review, Vol. Independently, thousands of years later, civilization was achieved in the New World. In terms of chronology, according to the traditional paradigm, the stage of civilization was first reached during the fourth millennium BCE in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. ![]() Gordon Childe in the middle of the last century: that humanity has progressed through a series of stages (“revolutions”) from savagery (foragers, hunters, and gatherers) to barbarism (early agriculture and husbandry associated with village life – the “Neolithic Revolution”) to civilization (recognized by such attributes as monumental stone architecture, literacy, cooperative social behavior guided by centralized authority, and cities – the “Urban Revolution”). The standard paradigm, still accepted implicitly (as well as explicitly) by many scholars and laypersons, follows the thinking outlined by V. The Institute for the Study of the Origins of Civilization (ISOC) at Boston University’s College of General Studies is dedicated to the investigation of the deep foundations that underlie the rise of civilization. Institute for the Study of the Origins of Civilization
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