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The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters separate eastern Europe and western Asia. The Black Sea also connects to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch.

The Black Sea has an area of (not including the Sea of Azov), a maximum depth of , and a volume of . The Black Sea forms in an east-west trending elliptical depression which lies between Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south, the Caucasus Mountains to the east and features a wide shelf to the northwest. The longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km.

Important cities along the coast include Batumi, Burgas, Constanța, Giresun, Hopa, Istanbul, Kerch, Kherson, Mangalia, Năvodari, Novorossiysk, Odessa, Ordu, Poti, Rize, Samsun, Sevastopol, Sochi, Sukhumi, Trabzon, Varna, Yalta and Zonguldak.

The Black Sea has a positive water balance; that is, a net outflow of water 300 km³ per year through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange. The Black Sea outflow is cooler and less saline, and therefore floats over the warm, more saline Mediterranean inflow, leading to a significant anoxic layer well below the surface waters. The Black Sea also receives river water from large Eurasian fluvial systems to the north of the Sea, of which the Don, Dnieper and Danube are the most significant.

In the past, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the water level in the basin the surrounding shelf and associated aprons have sometimes been land. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established. It is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a lake, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is relatively high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black and Aegean Seas and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles.

Extent

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows:

''On the Southwest.'' The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara [A line joining Cape Rumili with Cape Anatoli (41°13'N)].

''In the Kertch Strait.'' A line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia (45°02'N).

Name

Modern names

Current names of the Sea are equivalents of the English name, "Black Sea", including:

Abkhaz: ''Амшын Еиқәа'' (Amshyn Eiqʼʷa)

Greek: ''Mavri Thalassa'' (Μαύρη Θάλασσα, )

Bulgarian: ''Cherno more'' (Черно море)

Georgian: ''Shavi zghva'' (შავი ზღვა)

Laz: ''Ucha Zuğa'' (უჩა ზუღა), or simply ''Zuğa'' 'Sea'

Russian: ''Chornoye more'' (Чёрное море)

Turkish: ''Karadeniz''

Ukrainian: ''Chorne more'' (Чорне море)

Ubykh:

Such names have not yet been shown conclusively to predate the twelfth century, but there are indications that they may be considerably older.

The Black Sea got its name from the Ottoman Turks. 'Kara (Black)' denotes 'North' in Medieval Turkish, as in Kara Denizi- Kara Sea north of Siberian Yakut Turks, similar to Black Sea. In Turkish 'Red' denotes south as in Kizil Deniz, Red Sea to the south of Anatolia, while 'Ak'-White denotes west. The old name for the Aegean and the Mediterranean combined in Anatolian Turkish is "Akdeniz" -the White Sea-; although in contemporary Turkish, Akdeniz denotes only the Mediterranean Sea as now the northern part of the Mediterranean is called the Aegean Sea following its Western name. During the Ottoman times this was not the case as the Aegean was called the Sea of Islands – Adalar Denizi referring to the 12 islands lying between Greece and Anatolia.

The Black Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms — the others being the Red Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea.

Historical names

Strabo's Geography (1.2.10) reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called "the Sea" (''ho pontos''). For the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the 'Hospitable sea', ''Euxeinos Pontos'' (). This is a euphemism replacing an earlier 'Inhospitable Sea', ''Pontos Axeinos'', first attested in Pindar (early fifth century BCE,~475 BC). Strabo (7.3.6) thinks that the Black Sea was called "inhospitable" before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to "hospitable" after the Milesians had colonized southern shoreline, the Pontus, making it part of Greek civilization.

It is also possible that the name ''Axeinos'' arose by popular etymology from a Scythian Iranic ''axšaina-'' 'unlit,' 'dark'; the designation "Black Sea" may thus date from Antiquity.

A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Ortelis's Theatrum labels the sea "Mar Maggior."

English-language writers of the 18th century often used the name "Euxine Sea" to describe the Black Sea. Edward Gibbon, for instance, calls the sea by this name throughout ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''.

==Geology and bathymetry==

The geological origins of the basin can be traced back to two distinct relict back arc basins which were initiated by the splitting of an Albian volcanic arc and the subduction of both the Paleo-and Neo-Tethys Oceans, but the timings of these events remain controversial. Since its initiation, compressional tectonic environments led to subsidence in the basin, interspersed with extensional phases resulting in large-scale volcanism and numerous orogenies, causing the uplift of the Greater Caucasus, Pontides, Southern Crimea and Balkanides mountain ranges. The ongoing collision between the Eurasian and African plates and westward escape of the Anatolian block along the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Faults dictates the current tectonic regime, which features enhanced subsidence in the Black Sea basin and significant volcanic activity in the Anatolian region. It is these geological mechanisms which, in the long term, have caused the periodic isolations of the Black Sea from the rest of the global ocean system.

The modern basin is divided into 2 sub-basins by a convexity extending south from the Crimean Peninsula. The large shelf to the north of the basin is up to 190 km wide, and features a shallow apron with gradients between 1:40 and 1:1000. The southern edge around Turkey and the western edge around Georgia, however, are typified by a narrow shelf that rarely exceeds 20 km in width and a steep apron that is typically 1:40 gradient with numerous submarine canyons and channel extensions. The Euxine abyssal plain in the centre of the Black Sea reaches a maximum depth of just south of Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula.

The littoral zone of the Black Sea is often referred to as the Pontic littoral.

Hydrology and hydrochemistry

The Black Sea is the world’s largest meromictic basin where the deep waters do not mix with the upper layers of water that receive oxygen from the atmosphere. As a result, over 90% of the deeper Black Sea volume is anoxic water. The current hydrochemical configuration is primarily controlled by basin topography and fluvial inputs, which result in a strongly stratified vertical structure and a positive water balance. The upper layers are generally cooler, less dense and less salty than the deeper waters, as they are fed by large fluvial systems, whereas the deep waters originate from the warm, salty waters of the Mediterranean. This influx of dense water from Mediterranean is balanced by an outflow of fresher Black Sea surface-water into the Marmara Sea, maintaining the stratification and salinity levels.

The surface water has an average salinity of 18 to 18.5 parts per thousand (compared to 30 to 40 for the oceans) and contains oxygen and other nutrients required to sustain biotic activity. These waters circulate in a basin-wide cyclonic shelfbreak gyre known as the Rim Current which transports water round the perimeter of the Black Sea. Within this feature, two smaller cyclonic gyres operate, occupying the eastern and western sectors of the basin. Outside the Rim Current, numerous quasi-permanent coastal eddies are formed as a result of upwelling around the coastal apron and ‘wind curl’ mechanisms. The intra-annual strength of these features is controlled by seasonal atmospheric and fluvial variations. The temperature of the surface waters varies seasonally from to .

Directly beneath the surface waters the Cold Intermediate Layer (CIL) is found. This layer is composed of cool, salty surface waters, which are the result of localised atmospheric cooling and decreased fluvial input during the winter months. The production of this water is focused in the centre of the major gyres and on the NW shelf and as the water is not dense enough to penetrate the deep waters, isopycnal advection occurs, dispersing the water across the entire basin. The base of the CIL is marked by a major thermocline, halocline and pycnocline at and this density disparity is the major mechanism for isolation of the deep water.

Below the pycnocline, salinity increases to 22 to 22.5 ppt and temperatures rise to around . The hydrochemical environment shifts from oxygenated to anoxic, as bacterial decomposition of sunken biomass utilises all of the free oxygen. Certain species of extremophile bacteria are capable of using sulfate (SO₄²⁻) in the oxidation of organic material, which leads to the creation of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S). This enables the precipitation of sulfides such as the iron sulphides pyrite, greigite and iron monosulphide, as well as the dissolution of carbonate matter such as calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), found in shells. Organic matter, including anthropogenic artifacts such as boat hulls, are well preserved. During periods of high surface productivity, short-lived algal blooms form organic rich layers known as sapropels. Scientists have reported an annual phytoplankton bloom that can be seen in many NASA images of the region. As a result of these characteristics the Black Sea has gained interest from the field of marine archaeology as ancient shipwrecks in excellent states of preservation have been discovered, such as the Byzantine wreck Sinop D, located in the anoxic layer off the coast of Sinop, Turkey.

Modelling shows the release of the hydrogen sulphide clouds in the event of an asteroid impact into the Black Sea would pose a threat to health—or even life—for people living on the Black Sea coast.

Ecology

The Black Sea supports an active and dynamic marine ecosystem, dominated by species suited to the brackish, nutrient-rich, conditions. As with all marine food webs, the Black Sea features a range of trophic groups, with autotrophic algae, including diatoms and dinoflagellates, acting as primary producers. The fluvial systems draining Eurasia and central Europe introduce large volumes of sediment and dissolved nutrients into the Black Sea, but distribution of these nutrients is controlled by the degree of physiochemical stratification, which is, in turn, dictated by seasonal physiographic development. During winter, strong wind promotes convective overturning and upwelling of nutrients, while high summer temperatures result in a marked vertical stratification and a warm, shallow mixed layer. Day length and insolation intensity also controls the extent of the photic zone. Subsurface productivity is limited by nutrient availability, as the anoxic bottom waters act as a sink for reduced nitrate, in the form of ammonia. The benthic zone also plays an important role in Black Sea nutrient cycling, as chemosynthetic organisms and anoxic geochemical pathways recycle nutrients which can be upwelled to the photic zone, enhancing productivity.

Phytoplankton

The main phytoplankton groups present in the Black Sea are dinoflagellates, diatoms, coccolithophores and cyanobacteria (see list below). Generally, the annual cycle of phytoplankton development comprises significant diatom and dinoflagellate-dominated spring production, followed by a weaker mixed assemblage of community development below the seasonal thermocline during summer months and a surface-intensified autumn production. This pattern of productivity is also augmented by an ''Emiliania huxleyi'' bloom during the late spring and summer months.

Dinoflagellates: Annual dinoflagellate distribution is defined by an extended bloom period in subsurface waters during the late spring and summer. In November, subsurface plankton production is combined with surface production, due to vertical mixing of water masses and nutrients such as nitrite. The major bloom-forming dinoflagellate species in the Black Sea is ''Gymnodinium'' sp. Estimates of dinoflagellate diversity in the Black Sea range from 193 species to 267 species. This level of species richness is relatively low in comparison to the Mediterranean Sea, which is attributable to the brackish conditions, low water transparency and presence of anoxic bottom waters. It is also possible that the low winter temperature <4 °C of the Black Sea prevent thermophilous species from becoming established. The relatively high organic matter content of Black Sea surface water favour the development of heterotrophic (an organism which uses organic carbon for growth) and mixotrophic dinoflagellates species (able to exploit different trophic pathways), relative to autotrophs. Despite its unique hydrographic setting, there are no confirmed endemic dinoflagellate species in the Black Sea.

Diatoms: The Black Sea is populated by many species of marine diatom, which commonly exist as colonies of unicellular, non-motile auto- and heterotrophic algae. The life-cycle of most diatoms can be described as `boom and bust' and the Black Sea is no exception, with diatom blooms occurring in surface waters throughout the year, most reliably during March. In simple terms, the phase of rapid population growth in diatoms is caused by the in-wash of Si-bearing terrestrial sediments, and when the supply of Si is exhausted, the diatoms begin to sink out of the photic zone and produce resting cysts. Additional factors such as predation by zooplankton and ammonium-based regenerated production also have a role to play in the annual diatom cycle. Typically, ''Proboscia alata'' blooms during spring and ''Pseudosolenia calcar-avis'' blooms during the autumn.

Zebra mussel: The Black Sea along with the Caspian Sea is part of the Zebra mussel's native range. The mussel has been accidentally introduced around the world and become an invasive species where it has been introduced.

Common Carp: The Common Carp's native range extends to The Black Sea along with the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea. Like the Zebra mussel the Common Carp is an invasive species when introduced to other habitats.

Round Goby: Is another native fish that is also found in the Caspian Sea. It preys upon Zebra mussels. Like the mussels and common carp it has become invasive when introduced to other environments, like the Great Lakes.

The effect of pollution on Black Sea ecology

Since the 1960s, rapid industrial expansion along the Black Sea coast line and the construction of a major dam has significantly increased annual variability in the N:P:Si ratio in the basin. In coastal areas, the biological effect of these changes has been an increase in the frequency of monospecific phytoplankton blooms, with diatom bloom frequency increasing by a factor of 2.5 and non-diatom bloom frequency increasing by a factor of 6. The non-diatoms, such as the prymnesiophytes ''Emiliania huxleyi'' (coccolithophore), ''Chromulina'' sp., and the Euglenophyte ''Eutreptia lanowii'' are able to out-compete diatom species because of the limited availability of Si, a necessary constituent of diatom frustules. As a consequence of these blooms, benthic macrophyte populations were deprived of light, while anoxia caused mass mortality in marine animals. The decline in macrophytes was further compounded by overfishing during the 1970s, while the invasive ctenophore ''Mnemiopsis'' reduced the biomass of copepods and other zooplankton in the late 1980s. Additionally, an alien species—the warty comb jelly (''Mnemiopsis leidyi'')—was able to establish itself in the basin, exploding from a few individuals to an estimated biomass of one billion metric tons. The change in species composition in Black Sea waters also has consequences for hydrochemistry, as Ca-producing coccolithophores influence salinity and pH, although these ramifications have yet to be fully quantified. In central Black Sea waters, Si levels were also significantly reduced, due to a decrease in the flux of Si associated with advection across isopycnal surfaces. This phenomenon demonstrates the potential for localised alterations in Black Sea nutrient input to have basin-wide impacts.

Pollution reduction and regulation efforts have led to a partial recovery of the Black Sea ecosystem during the 1990s, and an EU monitoring exercise, 'EROS21', revealed decreased N and P values, relative to the 1989 peak. Recently, scientists have noted signs of ecological recovery, in part due to the construction of new sewage treatment plants in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria in connection with membership in the European Union. ''Mnemiopsis leidyi'' populations have been checked with the arrival of another alien species which feeds on them.

Climate

Short-term climatic variation in the Black Sea region is significantly influenced by the operation of the North Atlantic Oscillation, which is a term used to describe the climatic mechanisms resulting from the interaction between the north Atlantic and mid-latitude air masses. While the exact mechanisms causing the North Atlantic Oscillation remain unclear, it is thought the climate conditions established in western Europe mediate the heat and precipitation fluxes reaching Central Europe and Eurasia, regulating the formation of winter cyclones, which are largely responsible for regional precipitation inputs and influence Mediterranean Sea Surface Temperatures (SST's). The relative strength of these systems also limits the amount of cold air arriving from northern regions during winter. Other influencing factors include the regional topography, as depressions and storms systems arriving from the Mediterranean are funneled through the low land around the Bosphorus, Pontic and Caucasus mountain ranges acting as wave guides, limiting the speed and paths of cyclones passing through the region

Mediterranean connection during the Holocene

The Black Sea is connected to the World Ocean by a chain of two shallow straits, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. The Dardannelles is deep and the Bosphorus is as shallow as . By comparison, at the height of the last Ice age, sea levels were more than lower than they are now. There's also evidence that water levels in the Black Sea, too, were considerably lower at some point during the post-glacial period. Thus, for example, archeologists found fresh-water snail shells and man-made structures in roughly of water off the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey. Therefore it is agreed that the Black Sea has been a landlocked freshwater lake (at least in upper layers) during the last glaciation and for some time after.

In the aftermath of the Ice Age, water levels in the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea rose independently until they were high enough to exchange water. The exact timeline of this development is still subject to debate. One possibility is that the Black Sea filled first, with excess fresh water flowing over the Bosphorus sill and eventually into the Mediterranean Sea. There are also catastrophic scenarios, such as the "Black Sea deluge theory" put forward by William Ryan and Walter Pitman.

Deluge hypothesis

In 1997, William Ryan and Walter Pitman from Columbia University published a hypothesis according to which a massive flood through the Bosphorus occurred in ancient times. They claim that the Black and Caspian Seas were vast freshwater lakes, but then about 5600 BC, the Mediterranean spilled over a rocky sill at the Bosphorus, creating the current communication between the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Subsequent work has been done both to support and to discredit this hypothesis, and archaeologists still debate it. This has led some to associate this catastrophe with prehistoric flood myths.

History

The Black Sea was a busy waterway on the crossroads of the ancient world: the Balkans to the West, the Eurasian steppes to the north, Caucasus and Central Asia to the East, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to the south, and Greece to the south-west. The oldest processed gold in the world, arguably left by Old Europeans, was found in Varna, and the Black Sea was supposedly sailed by the Argonauts. The land at the eastern end of the Black Sea, Colchis, (now Georgia), marked for the Greeks an edge of the known world. The steppes to the north of the Black Sea have been suggested as the original homeland (''Urheimat'') of the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, (PIE) the progenitor of the Indo-European language family, by some scholars (see Kurgan; others move the heartland further east towards the Caspian Sea, yet others to Anatolia). Numerous ancient ports line Black Sea's coasts, some older than the pyramids.

The Black Sea was a significant naval theatre of World War I and saw both naval and land battles during World War II.

Archaeology

Ancient trade routes in the region are currently being extensively studied by scientists, as the Black Sea was sailed by Hittites, Carians, Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Romans, Byzantines, Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Slavs, Varangians, Crusaders, Venetians, Genoese, Lithuanians, Georgians, Poles, Tatars, Ottomans, and Russians. Perhaps the most promising areas in deepwater archaeology are the quest for submerged prehistoric settlements in the continental shelf and for ancient shipwrecks in the anoxic zone, which are expected to be exceptionally well preserved due to the absence of oxygen. This concentration of historical powers, combined with the preservative qualities of the deep anoxic waters of the Black Sea, has attracted increased interest from marine archaeologists who have begun to discover a large number of ancient ships and organic remains in a high state of preservation.

Holiday resorts and spas

In the years following the end of the Cold War, the popularity of the Black Sea as a tourist destination has been steadily increasing. Overall, tourism at Black Sea resorts has become one of the region's growth industries. The following is a list of well-known Black Sea resorts:

2 Mai (Romania)

Agigea (Romania)

Ahtopol (Bulgaria)

Amasra (Turkey)

Anaklia (Georgia)

Anapa (Russia)

Albena (Bulgaria)

Alupka (Crimea, Ukraine)

Alushta (Crimea, Ukraine)

Balchik (Bulgaria)

Batumi (Georgia)

Burgas (Bulgaria)

Byala (Bulgaria)

Chakvi (Georgia)

Constantine and Helena (Bulgaria)

Corbu (Romania)

Costineşti (Romania)

Eforie (Romania)

Emona (Bulgaria)

Eupatoria (Crimea, Ukraine)

Foros (Crimea, Ukraine)

Feodosiya (Crimea, Ukraine)

Giresun (Turkey)

Gagra (Abkhazia, Georgia¹)

Gelendzhik (Russia)

Golden Sands (Bulgaria)

Gonio (Georgia)

Gurzuf (Crimea, Ukraine)

Hopa (Artvin, Turkey)

Istanbul (Turkey)

Jupiter (Romania)

Kamchia (Bulgaria)

Kavarna (Bulgaria)

Kiten (Bulgaria)

Kobuleti (Georgia)

Koktebel (Crimea, Ukraine)

Lozenetz (Bulgaria)

Mamaia (Romania)

Mangalia (Romania)

Năvodari (Romania)

Neptun (Romania)

Nesebar (Bulgaria)

Novorossiysk (Russia)

Ordu (Turkey)

Obzor (Bulgaria)

Odessa (Ukraine)

Olimp (Romania)

Pitsunda (Abkhazia, Georgia¹)

Pomorie (Bulgaria)

Primorsko (Bulgaria)

Rize (Turkey)

Rusalka (Bulgaria)

Samsun (Turkey)

Saturn (Romania)

Sinop (Turkey)

Sochi (Russia)

Sozopol (Bulgaria)

Sudak (Crimea, Ukraine)

Skadovsk (Ukraine)

Sulina (Romania)

Sunny Beach (Bulgaria)

Şile (Turkey)

Sveti Vlas (Bulgaria)

Trabzon (Turkey)

Tsikhisdziri (Georgia)

Tuapse (Russia)

Ureki (Georgia)

Vama Veche (Romania)

Varna (Bulgaria)

Venus (Romania)

Yalta (Crimea, Ukraine)

Zonguldak (Turkey)

¹ Abkhazia has been a ''de facto'' independent republic since 1992, although remains a ''de jure'' autonomous republic of Georgia.

The Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution

The Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution

Mission.

Acting on the mandate of the Black Sea countries (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine) which on the 21-04-1992, signed and shortly thereafter ratified the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution, the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (the Black Sea Commission) implements the provisions of the Convention and the Black Sea Strategic Action Plan.

Main Challenges

Combating Pollution from land-based sources and maritime transport,

Achieving sustainable management of marine living resources,

Pursuing sustainable human development.

Regional organizations

{| style="width:500px" |- | |- | |} See also the Balkans Regional organizations and Post-Soviet Regional organizations. The EU is also involved through two of its member countries, Bulgaria and Romania.

See also

1927 Crimean earthquakes

Ancient Black Sea shipwrecks

Anoxic event

Black Sea deluge theory

Black Sea Games

Black Sea Technical University

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast

Internationalization of the Danube River

Romanian Black Sea resorts

References

Bibliography

Stella Ghervas, "Odessa et les confins de l'Europe: un éclairage historique", in Stella Ghervas et François Rosset (ed), ''Lieux d'Europe. Mythes et limites'', Paris, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2008. ISBN 978-2-7351-1182-4

Charles King, ''The Black Sea: A History'', 2004, ISBN 0-19-924161-9

William Ryan and Walter Pitman, ''Noah's Flood'', 1999, ISBN 0-684-85920-3

Neal Ascherson, ''Black Sea'' (Vintage 1996), ISBN 0-09-959371-8

Özhan Öztürk. Karadeniz: Ansiklopedik Sözlük (Black Sea: Encyclopedic Dictionary). 2 Cilt (2 Volumes). Heyamola Publishing. Istanbul.2005 ISBN 975-6121-00-9.

Rüdiger Schmitt, "Considerations on the Name of the Black Sea", in: ''Hellas und der griechische Osten'' (Saarbrücken 1996), pp. 219–224

West, Stephanie. "‘The Most Marvellous of All Seas’: the Greek Encounter with the Euxine", ''Greece & Rome'', Vol. 50, Issue 2 (2003), pp. 151–167.

Petko Dimitrov, Dimitar Dimitrov. THE BLACK SEA, THE FLOOD AND THE ANCIENT MYTHS. - Varna, 2004.

External links

Space Monitoring of the Black Sea Coastline and Waters

Pictures of the Black sea coast all along the Crimean peninsula

The Center for Black Sea Archaeology

The IHU School of Humanities and the MA in Black Sea Cultural Studies

Black Sea Environmental Internet Node

Black Sea Organization for Integration and Sustainable Development

Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor during the last 30 ky: UNESCO IGCP 521 WG12

Category:Anoxic waters Category:Back-arc basins Category:European seas Category:Georgia (country) – Russia border Category:Georgia (country) – Turkey border Category:Bulgaria–Turkey border Category:Bulgaria–Romania border Category:Romania–Ukraine border Category:Russia–Ukraine border

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Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
name	At First Sight
director	Irwin Winkler
producer	Rob CowanIrwin Winkler
writer	Oliver Sacks (essay)Steve Levitt (screenplay)
starring	Mira SorvinoVal KilmerKelly McGillisSteven WeberNathan LaneBruce Davison
music	Mark Isham
cinematography	Ivan MuñizJohn Seale
editing	Julie Monroe
distributor	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released	January 15, 1999
runtime	128 minutes
country
budget	$60,000,000
gross	$22,365,133 }}

''At First Sight'' is a 1999 American film starring Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino, based on the essay ''To See and Not to See'' in neurologist Oliver Sacks' book ''An Anthropologist on Mars'' and inspired by the true life story of Shirl Jennings.

Plot

Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) takes a break from working as an architect at a spa in Pinecrest, a small town outside New York City. Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer) is a masseur at the spa and gives Amy a massage. Amy breaks down and cries, later falling asleep as Virgil leaves the room. When she wakes up, she runs after him to compliment the massage, only to realize that Virgil is blind. Virgil asks her out, and the two eventually fall in love and begin a relationship.

Virgil lives alone, though his over-protective sister, Jennie (Kelly McGillis), who lives next door, takes care of him. During an intimate session with Amy, Virgil reveals that he went blind when he was three and that the last thing he saw was something fluffy. Amy describes the horizon to Virgil as something that you "can see but can never reach".

While researching Virgil's condition, Amy learns of Doctor Charles Aaron, a specialist in eye treatment who suggests to Virgil that, with surgery, he could restore his sight. Virgil refuses. To understand Virgil's reaction Amy seeks out Jennie, who reveals that their father left the family years ago after putting Virgil through several kinds of treatment to restore his sight.

After waking up with Amy one morning, Virgil decides he will give the operation a try. It is a success, but after Virgil regains sight for the first time, he becomes confused and disoriented, unable to perceive light and distance. Dr. Aaron suggests that he should visit Phil Webster (Nathan Lane), a visual physiotherapist. Webster in turn suggests that Virgil needs to learn everything from scratch himself, through experience.

Virgil and Amy begin living in New York City, with Virgil finding his feet with his new-found sight. The pair begin drifting apart, as Virgil finds it hard to decipher the look on Amy's face at times. Amy finds herself constantly having to explain basic things to Virgil. While at a party, Virgil sees Amy kiss her ex-husband for his birthday. While trying to leave the party, Virgil walks into a glass pane due to his poor perception.

Virgil's father sees him on television and arranges a reunion; Virgil goes to his father's workplace, but decides at the last minute that he cannot face him yet.

On one of the regular consultation visits with Webster, he brings Virgil to a strip club. They engage in a deep conversation, where Webster notes that instead of just "seeing", Virgil should instead "look"; there are a lot of things that sight alone cannot solve. Virgil confesses that he and Amy are drifting away, but insists that Amy is the most important thing in his life.

Upon returning from a work trip to Atlanta, where she and her ex-husband shared a sensual moment, Amy decides to save the relationship. She finds Virgil in a park looking for "the horizon" in the city.

Virgil's sight begins deteriorating. He begins experiencing vision blackouts. After consulting with Dr. Aaron, Virgil realizes that he is losing his sight. He decides to look for his father. Virgil reveals to him that he is going blind again, and asks him why he left. His father tells him that he felt he was a failure when he did not find a way to help his son regain sight. Virgil states that he should not have left because his mother and sister suffered greatly after his father walked away.

Virgil looks for Amy, who tells him about her plans to travel with him to places like Egypt and Europe. Withholding the fact that he is turning blind, Virgil tells her there is one thing he really wants to see, and brings her to a New York Rangers game.

At the game, Virgil realizes that the fluffy stuff he last remembers seeing was cotton candy. As he buys some, he suffers a lengthened vision blackout and admits to Amy that he is going blind. Back home, Virgil and Amy argue. He asks if she wants to spend her life with him if he is going to be blind forever. Amy hesitates, and Virgil decides to return home.

Virgil is welcomed by Jennie and eases into his old way of life. While losing his sight, Virgil spends his remaining time with sight to look at as many things as possible, going through magazines and pictorial books in the library. He stays up to watch the sunset, seeing the horizon for the first and last time.

After he has been blind for some time, Virgil is at a park with a guide dog. He takes a seat, finishes a sandwich, and tosses the wrapping into a bin. Amy has found him and says, "You missed." Virgil takes a moment then realizes it is Amy. She sits down and they reconnect; then she reveals that she finished a significant sculpture that he broke during their argument. Amy apologizes to Virgil for trying to change him and moving too fast, which led to their problems together. Virgil puts his hands on Amy's face and touches it tenderly. She asks if he wants to take a walk and 'see what they see'. They leave the park together.

Cast

Mira Sorvino as Amy Benic

Val Kilmer as Virgil Adamson

Kelly McGillis as Jennie Adamson

Steven Weber as Duncan Allanbrook

Bruce Davison as Dr. Charles Aaron

Nathan Lane as Phil Webster

Drena De Niro as Caroline

Reception

The film currently holds a "rotten" rating on the movie review site Rottentomatoes, with 36% of people giving it a positive review. The film and its plot are mentioned in the ''Friends'' episode, "''The One with Rachel's Big Kiss''", the character of Chandler Bing describes it as "a tutti-frutti love story where he [Val Kilmer] played a blind guy."

References

External links

Category:1999 films Category:1990s drama films Category:American romantic drama films Category:Films based on non-fiction books Category:Films directed by Irwin Winkler Category:Films_about_blind_people

de:Auf den ersten Blick es:A primera vista fr:Premier regard it:A prima vista pt:At First Sight

thumb|right|400px|The Acropolis, universally viewed as one of the most influential structures in world history, and renowned throughout both the [[Classical_antiquity|Mediterranean and Asiatic ancient worlds. Directly influencing architecture and engineering in Western, Islamic, and Eastern civilizations up to the present day, 2400 years after construction.]] thumb|right|300px|The ancient city of Mohenjo-daro of the Ancient Indus valley civilization, spanning Pakistan, Afghanistan and India is known to be one of the world's earliest cities.

Civilization (or civilisation) is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally urbanized. In classical contexts civilized peoples were called this in contrast to "barbarian" peoples, while in modern contexts civilized peoples have been contrasted to "primitive" peoples.

In modern academic discussions however, there is a tendency to use the term in a less strict way to mean approximately the same thing as "culture" and can therefore refer more broadly to any important and clearly defined human society, particularly in historical discussions. Still, even when used in this second sense, the word is often restricted to apply only to societies that have attained a particular level of advancement, especially the founding of cities, with the word "city" defined in various ways.

The level of advancement of a civilization is often measured by its progress in agriculture, long-distance trade, occupational specialization, and urbanism. Aside from these core elements, civilization is often marked by any combination of a number of secondary elements, including a developed transportation system, writing, standards of measurement (currency, etc.), contract and tort-based legal systems, characteristic art styles (which may pertain to specific cultures), monumental architecture, mathematics, science, sophisticated metallurgy, politics, and astronomy.

Definition

The word ''civilization'' comes from the Latin ''civilis'', meaning ''civil'', related to the Latin ''civis'', meaning ''citizen'', and ''civitas'', meaning ''city'' or ''city-state''.

In the sixth century, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian oversaw the consolidation of Roman civil law. The resulting collection is called the ''Corpus Juris Civilis''. In the 11th century, professors at the University of Bologna, Western Europe's first university, rediscovered the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'', and its influence began to be felt across bodies. In 1388, the word ''civil'' appeared in English meaning "of or related to citizens." In 1704, ''civilization'' was used to mean "a law which makes a criminal process into a civil case." ''Civilization'' was not used in its modern sense to mean "the opposite of barbarism" — as contrasted to ''civility'', meaning politeness or civil virtue — until the second half of the 18th century.

According to Emile Benveniste (1954), the earliest written occurrence in English of ''civilisation'' in its modern sense may be found in Adam Ferguson's ''An Essay on the History of Civil Society'' (Edinburgh, 1767 - p. 2): "Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood, but the species itself from rudeness to civilisation."

It should be noted that this usage incorporates the concept of superiority and maturity of "civilized" existence, as contrasted to "rudeness", which is used to denote coarseness, as in a lack of refinement or "civility."

Before Benveniste's inquiries, the New English Dictionary quoted James Boswell's conversation with Samuel Johnson concerning the inclusion of ''Civilization'' in Johnson's dictionary:

Benveniste demonstrated that previous occurrences could be found, which explained the quick adoption of Johnson's definition. In 1775 the dictionary of Ast defined ''civilization'' as "the state of being civilized; the act of civilizing", and the term was frequently used by Adam Smith in ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'' (1776). Beside Smith and Ferguson, John Millar also used it in 1771 in his ''Observations concerning the distinction of ranks in society''.

The history of the word in English appears to be connected with the parallel development in French, which may be the original source. As the first occurrence of ''civilization'' in French was found by Benveniste in the Marquis de Mirabeau's ''L'Ami des hommes ou traité de la population'' (written in 1756 but published in 1757), Benveniste's query was to know if the English word derived from the French, or if both evolved independently — a question which needed more research. According to him, the word ''civilization'' may in fact have been used by Ferguson as soon as 1759.

Furthermore, Benveniste notes that, contrasted to ''civility'', a static term, ''civilization'' conveys a sense of dynamism. He thus writes that:

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, both during the French revolution, and in English, "civilization" was referred to in the singular, never the plural, because it referred to the progress of mankind as a whole. This is still the case in French. More recently "civilizations" is sometimes used as a synonym for the broader term "cultures" in both popular and academic circles. However, the concepts of civilization and culture are not always considered interchangeable. For example, a small nomadic tribe may be judged not to have a civilization, but it would surely be judged to have a culture (defined as "the arts, customs, habits... beliefs, values, behavior and material habits that constitute a people's way of life").

Civilization is not always seen as an improvement. One historically important distinction between culture and civilization stems from the writings of Rousseau, and particularly his work concerning education, ''Emile''. In this perspective, civilization, being more rational and socially driven, is not fully in accordance with human nature, and "human wholeness is achievable only through the recovery of or approximation to an original prediscursive or prerational natural unity". (See noble savage.) From this notion, a new approach was developed especially in Germany, first by Johann Gottfried Herder, and later by philosophers such as Nietzsche. This sees cultures (plural) as natural organisms which are not defined by "conscious, rational, deliberative acts" but rather a kind of pre-rational "folk spirit". Civilization, in contrast, though more rational and more successful concerning material progress, is seen as un-natural, and leads to "vices of social life" such as guile, hypocrisy, envy, and avarice. During World War II, Leo Strauss, having fled Germany, argued in New York that this approach to civilization was behind Nazism and German militarism and nihilism.

In his book ''The Philosophy of Civilization'', Albert Schweitzer outlined the idea that there are dual opinions within society: one regarding civilization as purely material and another regarding civilization as both ethical and material. He stated that the current world crisis was, then in 1923, due to a humanity having lost the ethical conception of civilization. In this same work, he defined civilization, saying that it "is the sum total of all progress made by man in every sphere of action and from every point of view in so far as the progress helps towards the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the progress of all progress."

Characteristics

Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society. Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of livelihood, settlement patterns, forms of government, social stratification, economic systems, literacy, and other cultural traits.

All civilizations have depended on agriculture for subsistence. Growing food on farms results in a surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as irrigation and crop rotation. Grain surpluses have been especially important because they can be stored for a long time. A surplus of food permits some people to do things besides produce food for a living: early civilizations included artisans, priests and priestesses, and other people with specialized careers. A surplus of food results in a division of labor and a more diverse range of human activity, a defining trait of civilizations. However, in some places hunter-gatherers have had access to food surpluses, such as among some of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest and perhaps during the Mesolithic Natufian culture. It is possible that food surpluses and relatively large scale social organization and division of labor predates plant and animal domestication.

Civilizations have distinctly different settlement patterns from other societies. The word ''civilization'' is sometimes simply defined as "'living in cities'". Non-farmers tend to gather in cities to work and to trade.

Compared with other societies, civilizations have a more complex political structure, namely the state. State societies are more stratified than other societies; there is a greater difference among the social classes. The ruling class, normally concentrated in the cities, has control over much of the surplus and exercises its will through the actions of a government or bureaucracy. Morton Fried, a conflict theorist, and Elman Service, an integration theorist, have classified human cultures based on political systems and social inequality. This system of classification contains four categories: ''Hunter-gatherer bands'', which are generally egalitarian.

''Horticultural/pastoral societies'' in which there are generally two inherited social classes; chief and commoner.

''Highly stratified structures'', or chiefdoms, with several inherited social classes: king, noble, freemen, serf and slave.

''Civilizations,'' with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments.

Economically, civilizations display more complex patterns of ownership and exchange than less organized societies. Living in one place allows people to accumulate more personal possessions than nomadic people. Some people also acquire landed property, or private ownership of the land. Because a percentage of people in civilizations do not grow their own food, they must trade their goods and services for food in a market system, or receive food through the levy of tribute, redistributive taxation, tariffs or tithes from the food producing segment of the population. Early civilizations developed money as a medium of exchange for these increasingly complex transactions. To oversimplify, in a village the potter makes a pot for the brewer and the brewer compensates the potter by giving him a certain amount of beer. In a city, the potter may need a new roof, the roofer may need new shoes, the cobbler may need new horseshoes, the blacksmith may need a new coat, and the tanner may need a new pot. These people may not be personally acquainted with one another and their needs may not occur all at the same time. A monetary system is a way of organizing these obligations to ensure that they are fulfilled fairly.

Writing, developed first by people in Sumer, is considered a hallmark of civilization and "appears to accompany the rise of complex administrative bureaucracies or the conquest state." Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing to keep accurate records. Like money, writing was necessitated by the size of the population of a city and the complexity of its commerce among people who are not all personally acquainted with each other.

Aided by their division of labor and central government planning, civilizations have developed many other diverse cultural traits. These include organized religion, development in the arts, and countless new advances in science and technology.

Through history, successful civilizations have spread, taking over more and more territory, and assimilating more and more previously-uncivilized people. Nevertheless, some tribes or people remain uncivilized even to this day. These cultures are called by some "primitive," a term that is regarded by others as pejorative. "Primitive" implies in some way that a culture is "first" (Latin = primus), that it has not changed since the dawn of mankind, though this has been demonstrated not to be true. Specifically, as all of today's cultures are contemporaries, today's so-called primitive cultures are in no way antecedent to those we consider civilized. Many anthropologists use the term "non-literate" to describe these peoples.

Civilization has been spread by colonization, invasion, religious conversion, the extension of bureaucratic control and trade, and by introducing agriculture and writing to non-literate peoples. Some non-civilized people may willingly adapt to civilized behaviour. But civilization is also spread by the technical, material and social dominance that civilization engenders.

Cultural identity

"Civilization" can also refer to the culture of a complex society, not just the society itself. Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of manufactures and arts that make it unique. Civilizations tend to develop intricate cultures, including literature, professional art, architecture, organized religion, and complex customs associated with the elite.

The intricate culture associated with civilization has a tendency to spread to and influence other cultures, sometimes assimilating them into the civilization (a classic example being Chinese civilization and its influence on nearby civilizations such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam). Many civilizations are actually large cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in which someone lives is that person's broadest cultural identity.

Many historians have focused on these broad cultural spheres and have treated civilizations as discrete units. Early twentieth-century philosopher Oswald Spengler, uses the German word "Kultur," "culture," for what many call a "civilization". Spengler believes a civilization's coherence is based on a single primary cultural symbol. Cultures experience cycles of birth, life, decline, and death, often supplanted by a potent new culture, formed around a compelling new cultural symbol. Spengler states civilization is the beginning of the decline of a culture as, "...the most external and artificial states of which a species of developed humanity is capable." Resin found later in the Royal Tombs of Ur it is suggested was traded northwards from Mozambique.

Many theorists argue that the entire world has already become integrated into a single "world system", a process known as globalization. Different civilizations and societies all over the globe are economically, politically, and even culturally interdependent in many ways. There is debate over when this integration began, and what sort of integration – cultural, technological, economic, political, or military-diplomatic – is the key indicator in determining the extent of a civilization. David Wilkinson has proposed that economic and military-diplomatic integration of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations resulted in the creation of what he calls the "Central Civilization" around 1500 BC. Central Civilization later expanded to include the entire Middle East and Europe, and then expanded to a global scale with European colonization, integrating the Americas, Australia, China and Japan by the nineteenth century. According to Wilkinson, civilizations can be culturally heterogeneous, like the Central Civilization, or homogeneous, like the Japanese civilization. What Huntington calls the "clash of civilizations" might be characterized by Wilkinson as a clash of cultural spheres within a single global civilization. Others point to the Crusades as the first step in globalization. The more conventional viewpoint is that networks of societies have expanded and shrunk since ancient times, and that the current globalized economy and culture is a product of recent European colonialism.

Future

Political scientist Samuel Huntington has argued that the defining characteristic of the 21st century will be a clash of civilizations. According to Huntington, conflicts between civilizations will supplant the conflicts between nation-states and ideologies that characterized the 19th and 20th centuries. These views have been strongly challenged by others like Edward Said, Muhammed Asadi and Amartya Sen. Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris have argued that the "true clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and the West is caused by the Muslim rejection of the West's more liberal sexual values, rather than a difference in political ideology. In ''Identity and Violence'' Sen questions if people should be divided along the lines of a supposed 'civilization', defined by religion and culture only. He argues that this ignores the many others identities that make up people and leads to a focus on differences.

Some environmental scientists see the world entering a Planetary Phase of Civilization, characterized by a shift away from independent, disconnected nation-states to a world of increased global connectivity with worldwide institutions, environmental challenges, economic systems, and consciousness. In an attempt to better understand what a Planetary Phase of Civilization might look like in the current context of declining natural resources and increasing consumption, the Global scenario group used scenario analysis to arrive at three archetypal futures: Barbarization, in which increasing conflicts result in either a fortress world or complete societal breakdown; Conventional Worlds, in which market forces or Policy reform slowly precipitate more sustainable practices; and a Great Transition, in which either the sum of fragmented Eco-Communalism movements add up to a sustainable world or globally coordinated efforts and initiatives result in a new sustainability paradigm.

Author Derrick Jensen argues that modern civilization is intrinsically directed towards the domination of the environment and humanity itself in a harmful and destructive fashion.

The Kardashev scale classifies civilizations based on their level of technological advancement, specifically measured by the amount of energy a civilization is able to harness. The Kardashev scale makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist ''(see also: Civilizations and the Future, Space civilization)''.

Fall of civilizations

There have been many explanations put forward for the collapse of civilization. Some focus on historical examples, and others on general theory.

Edward Gibbon's work ''"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"'' was a well-known and detailed analysis of the fall of Roman civilization. Gibbon suggested the final act of the collapse of Rome was the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD. For Gibbon:-

''"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long."''[Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed., vol. 4, ed. by J. B. Bury (London, 1909), pp. 173–174.-Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.--Part VI. General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West.]

Theodor Mommsen in his ''"History of Rome (Mommsen)",'' suggested Rome collapsed with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and he also tended towards a biological analogy of "genesis," "growth," "senescence," "collapse" and "decay."

Oswald Spengler, in his ''"Decline of the West"'' rejected Petrarch's chronological division, and suggested that there had been only eight "mature civilizations." Growing cultures, he argued, tend to develop into imperialistic civilizations which expand and ultimately collapse, with democratic forms of government ushering in plutocracy and ultimately imperialism.

Arnold J. Toynbee in his ''"A Study of History"'' suggested that there had been a much larger number of civilizations, including a small number of arrested civilizations, and that all civilizations tended to go through the cycle identified by Mommsen. The cause of the fall of a civilization occurred when a cultural elite became a parasitic elite, leading to the rise of internal and external proletariats.

Joseph Tainter in ''"The Collapse of Complex Societies"'' suggested that there were diminishing returns to complexity, due to which, as states achieved a maximum permissible complexity, they would decline when further increases actually produced a negative return. Tainter suggested that Rome achieved this figure in the 2nd Century AD.

Jared Diamond in his 2005 book ''"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed"'' suggests five major reasons for the collapse of 41 studied cultures: environmental damage, such as deforestation and soil erosion; climate change; dependence upon long-distance trade for needed resources; increasing levels of internal and external violence, such as war or invasion; and societal responses to internal and environmental problems.

Peter Turchin in his ''Historical Dynamics'' and Andrey Korotayev ''et al.'' in their ''Introduction to Social Macrodynamics, Secular Cycles, and Millennial Trends'' suggest a number of mathematical models describing collapse of agrarian civilizations. For example, the basic logic of Turchin's "fiscal-demographic" model can be outlined as follows: during the initial phase of a sociodemographic cycle we observe relatively high levels of per capita production and consumption, which leads not only to relatively high population growth rates, but also to relatively high rates of surplus production. As a result, during this phase the population can afford to pay taxes without great problems, the taxes are quite easily collectible, and the population growth is accompanied by the growth of state revenues. During the intermediate phase, the increasing overpopulation leads to the decrease of per capita production and consumption levels, it becomes more and more difficult to collect taxes, and state revenues stop growing, whereas the state expenditures grow due to the growth of the population controlled by the state. As a result, during this phase the state starts experiencing considerable fiscal problems. During the final pre-collapse phases the overpopulation leads to further decrease of per capita production, the surplus production further decreases, state revenues shrink, but the state needs more and more resources to control the growing (though with lower and lower rates) population. Eventually this leads to famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and demographic and civilization collapse (Peter Turchin. ''Historical Dynamics.'' Princeton University Press, 2003:121–127).

Peter Heather argues in his book ''The Fall of the Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians'' that this civilization did not end for moral or economic reasons, but because centuries of contact with barbarians across the frontier generated its own nemesis by making them a much more sophisticated and dangerous adversary. The fact that Rome needed to generate ever greater revenues to equip and re-equip armies that were for the first time repeatedly defeated in the field, led to the dismemberment of the Empire. Although this argument is specific to Rome, it can also be applied to the Asiatic Empire of the Egyptians, to the Han and Tang dynasties of China, to the Muslim Abbasid Caliphate, and others. Bryan Ward-Perkins, in his book ''The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization'', shows the real horrors associated with the collapse of a civilization for the people who suffer its effects, unlike many revisionist historians who downplay this. The collapse of complex society meant that even basic plumbing disappeared from the continent for 1,000 years. Similar Dark Age collapses are seen with the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean, the collapse of the Maya, on Easter Island and elsewhere. Arthur Demarest argues in ''Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization'', using a holistic perspective to the most recent evidence from archaeology, paleoecology, and epigraphy, that no one explanation is sufficient but that a series of erratic, complex events, including loss of soil fertility, drought and rising levels of internal and external violence led to the disintegration of the courts of Mayan kingdoms which began a spiral of decline and decay. He argues that the collapse of the Maya has lessons for civilization today. Jeffrey A. McNeely has recently suggested that "A review of historical evidence shows that past civilizations have tended to over-exploit their forests, and that such abuse of important resources has been a significant factor in the decline of the over-exploiting society."

Thomas Homer-Dixon in "''The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization''", considers that the fall in the energy return on investments; the energy expended to energy yield ratio, is central to limiting the survival of civilizations. The degree of social complexity is associated strongly, he suggests, with the amount of disposable energy environmental, economic and technological systems allow. When this amount decreases civilizations either have to access new energy sources or they will collapse....

History

Early civilizations

Old Stone Age

New Stone Age

Ancient Near East

*Mesopotamia

*Indus Valley Civilization

*Levant / Canaan

*Bronze Age Anatolia / Aegean

Bronze Age Europe

Bronze Age India

Bronze Age China

Africa

*Ancient Egypt

*Kush

*Axum

Pre-Columbian Americas

* Norte Chico / Caral

* Olmec

* Zapotec civilization

Antiquity (Axial Age)

Karl Jaspers, the German historical philosopher, proposed that the ancient civilizations were affected greatly by an Axial Age in the period between 800 BC-200 BC during which a series of male sages, prophets, religious reformers and philosophers, from China, India, Iran, Israel and Greece, changed the direction of civilizations forever. William H. McNeill proposed that this period of history was one in which culture contact between previously separate civilizations saw the "closure of the oecumene", and led to accelerated social change from China to the Mediterranean, associated with the spread of coinage, larger empires and new religions. This view has recently been championed by Christopher Chase-Dunn and other world systems theorists.

Mediterranean civilizations of the Classical Period

*Ancient Greece

*Ancient Rome

* Hellenistic civilization

Middle East

* Persia since the Achaemenids

* Second Temple Judaism

Ancient India (Maurya Empire, Gupta Empire)

Ancient China (Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty)

Ancient Nomads (Hun Xiongnu, Kok Turk Empire)

Medieval to Early Modern

Christendom

*Western Christianity

*Eastern Christianity

Islamic World

*Islamic Golden Age

*Caliphate

*Mongol-Turkish (Ilkhanate, Timurid Empire)

*Mughal India

*Ottoman Empire

Asia

*Chola, India

*Pallava, India

*Pandiya, India

*Chera Dynasty, India

*Tang China

*Mongol Empire (Yuan)

*Ming China

*Feudal Japan

*Confucian Vietnam

South East Asia

*Funan, Chenla, Champa, Anghor Cambodia

*Dvaravati, Hariphunchai, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya Kingdom, pre Modern Thailand

*Pagan Burma

*Chola, Pallava, Sri Vijaya, Sailendra, Mataram and Majapahit

Meso-American civilizations

* Toltec

* Kingdom of Cusco/Inca Empire

* Aztec civilization

* Maya civilization

African civilizations

*Wagadou

*Mali Empire

*Songhai Empire

*Abyssinia

*Benin Empire

Contemporary

Western World

*Europe

*Anglosphere

*Latin America

Post-Soviet states

*Russia

Islamic world

*Arab world

*Middle East

*North Africa

Eastern world / Far East

*East Asia

**Sinosphere

**Nomadic (Altaic)

*South Asia

*Southeast Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

See also

Anarcho-primitivism

Barbarian

Civilized core

Cradle of civilization

Culture

History of the world

Human population

Kardashev scale

Mission civilisatrice

Muslim world

Proto-civilization

Western civilization

Notes

References

Clash of Civilizations and information on other civilizations, Discussion and news surrounding the clash and concepts such as dialog, equality, acceptance etc. between civilizations.

BBC on civilization

Wiktionary: civilization, civilize

# ''From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Lepanto.'' ISBN 0-306-80304-6 (1987 reprint).

# ''From the Defeat of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Waterloo.'' ISBN 0-306-80305-4 (1987 reprint).

# ''From the American Civil War to the End of World War II.'' ISBN 0-306-80306-2 (1987 reprint).

Korotayev, Andrey, ''World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World Oikumene Civilizations: A Cross-Cultural Perspective''. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004. ISBN 0-7734-6310-0

Kradin, Nikolay. Archaeological Criteria of Civilization. ''Social Evolution & History'', Vol. 5, No 1 (2006): 89-108. ISSN 1681-4363.

A. Nuri Yurdusev, International Relations and the Philosophy of History: A Civilizational Approach (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

Category:Anthropological categories of peoples Category:Cultural anthropology Category:Cultural history Category:Society Category:Theories of history Category:Sociocultural evolution Category:Cultural geography Category:Culture Category:Civilizations

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