Bringing together the contributions of seventy-one world specialists, it is a global vision of the history of civilizations made possible by the most recent developments in archeology that this major work offers.
"A History of Civilizations", or how archeology is changing our knowledge.
“This book was born out of a silent revolution “, immediately announce its authors. That of the upheaval in knowledge generated over the past two decades by the rise of archeology, particularly preventive archeology, and the extraordinary technological progress that has accompanied it. Not a piece of history in France or in the world that has not been touched in one way or another by these transformations and covered by this sum of 600 pages:whether it is the emergence of man 2 million years ago, from his departure from Africa to conquer the world or even from the first agricultural societies in the Near East, in New Guinea, in the Andes or in China, in the Yangzi basin. Likewise for the birth of civilizations – whether in the Near East, China, Australia or the Americas; not to mention the advent of States in these same regions up to that of the Russian State in the 9th century, the foundation of the Chinese, Mongol, Khmer or Roman empires, globalization or the emergence of religions.
The skeleton of Little Foot still in place in the depths of Sterkfontein Cave, South Africa, where it was discovered in 1994. The South African forms of Australopithecines are clearly distinguishable from those of East Africa. East or Chad. © Laurent Brussels / Inrap
This exceptional work has been placed under the direction of eminent specialists:Jean-Paul Demoule, archaeologist, professor emeritus at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and honorary member of the Institut de France; Dominique Garcia, member of the Institut universitaire de France, professor of archeology at Aix-Marseille University, current president of the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap); Alain Schnapp, professor emeritus of Greek archeology at Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, founder of the National Institute of Art History. "It was necessary to offer the general public an ambitious work, giving a global vision of all this abundance of discoveries .
Including by listing, in the last chapters, the new fields of study and approaches to the discipline, whether it is the contribution of genetics and paleogenomics, the use of drones and Lidar remote sensing methods , or the renewal of dating methods and the impact of archeology on society. What examines, in the last pages, Nathan Schlanger, director at the National School of Charters. “There was no equivalent of this book in the French language. Or anywhere else to be honest", says Jean-Paul Demoule.
Lavau burial chamber (5th century BCE), unearthed in 2015. The deceased called "prince de Lavau" was lying on the body of a tank. In the foreground, a major piece:a bronze cauldron of Mediterranean origin nearly one meter in diameter. An exceptionally rich tomb, witness to the appearance of the Celtic principalities. © Denis Gliksman / Inrap
A preamble, presented by the best specialists, opens each of the five main parts organized around ten articles dealing with different regions of the world. Thus Jean-Jacques Hublin, of the Max-Planck Institute of Jena, in Germany, introduces the pages on hominization and hunter-gatherer societies in the Paleolithic, and Dominique Garcia does the same for the origin and extension centralized states. "With the means it has given itself for a new interpretation of social systems and their evolution, archeology has indeed become a contemporary science essential to understanding the history of the world we read in the foreword to this volume, which wanted to avoid a Eurocentric approach. A successful bet for this synthesis of current knowledge on the material development of societies in the classical worlds as much as those of the ancient Far East or the often more neglected cultures of Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa.
ANE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS. How archeology is changing our knowledge. Under the direction of Jean-Paul Demoule, Dominique Garcia and Alain Schnapp, Editions La Découverte/Inrap, 608p., 49 euros