Thursday 26th March 2015 Time: 6pm to 7.45pm Location: Institute of Archaeology Lecture Theatre; followed by a reception from 7.45-8.30pm in the Anthropology Common Room G11 Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT Since modern scholarship began in the eighteenth century, it has focused not on 'ancient civilisation' but 'ancient civilisations'. Researchers divided the world up into Classics, Egyptology, Assyriology, Indology, Sinology and a host of other regional specialities. Focusing on the details of particular languages and cultural traditions, they emphasized the uniqueness of ancient civilisations rather than global patterns. In this lecture, Ian Morris argues that we are now in a position to tell a coherent story about ancient civilisation at the global level, tracing a ten-thousand-year tale of rising scale, development, peace, and prosperity--to be weighed against a parallel tale of rising inequality. Global antiquity culminated in a massive series of crises that rocked the Old World and then the New. Until we can make sense of ancient civilisation at a global scale, we cannot hope to make sense of the human story as a whole. Respondents: Kevin Macdonald (UCL African Archaeology) Corinna Riva (UCL Mediterranean Archaeology)

• published: 12 May 2015
• views: 5