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الحضارات الأولى : الأصول والأساطير
An eminent archeologist and prehistorian looks back at the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and China in the Old World, and Mexico, Yucatan, and Peru in the New. What were the origins of the first urban literate societies that came into being? Did the process of civilization take place only once in human history, or did it occur independently in various parts of the world, furthered at certain periods by contacts among different cultures? The answers to these questions are based in archeology, and this classic study draws on a wealth of evidence to discover the truth.
253 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2009
102 people want to read
About the author
Glyn Daniel
80 books2 followersAka Dilwyn Rees
Taken from a cover from a book published in 1962:
Dr Glyn Daniel, who has been a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, since 1938, and a University Lecturer in Archaeology since 1948, was born in Pembrokeshire in 1914. Proceeding from Barry County School and University College, Cardiff, to Cambridge, he took a 'First' with distinction in archaeology and anthropology, and subsequently was awarded several prizes and studentships and took a Ph.D. in 1938. During the war he served in the R.A.F. and was mentioned in despatches while in charge of air-photo interpretation in India and S.E. Asia, as a Wing-Commander. Since the war he has held several lectureships and achieved a wide popular fame as question master in the TV game, Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? He is now a director of Anglia Television. Along with golf and squash (both of which he plays badly), travel, food, and wine (taken in France for preference), Glyn Daniel, who is married, regards his detective fiction as a hobby.
Taken from a cover from a book published in 1962:
Dr Glyn Daniel, who has been a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, since 1938, and a University Lecturer in Archaeology since 1948, was born in Pembrokeshire in 1914. Proceeding from Barry County School and University College, Cardiff, to Cambridge, he took a 'First' with distinction in archaeology and anthropology, and subsequently was awarded several prizes and studentships and took a Ph.D. in 1938. During the war he served in the R.A.F. and was mentioned in despatches while in charge of air-photo interpretation in India and S.E. Asia, as a Wing-Commander. Since the war he has held several lectureships and achieved a wide popular fame as question master in the TV game, Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? He is now a director of Anglia Television. Along with golf and squash (both of which he plays badly), travel, food, and wine (taken in France for preference), Glyn Daniel, who is married, regards his detective fiction as a hobby.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 16, 2021
رغم قِدَم الكتاب (صدرَ ١٩٦٨)، ففيه من المعلومات ما يُفيد مَن أرادَ مَدخلاً عن الحضارات السبع الأولى: سومَر ومصر ووادي السند وصين شانغ والمكسيك والمايا وبيرو.
صاحب الكتاب من أشهر الآثاريين، وله باعٌ في هذا المجال، واطّلاعٌ عجيب على كتب الآثار القديمة وتتبعها.
كنت أبحث في الكتاب عن أصول العبادات في الحضارات الأولى علّي أجد فيها ما ينقضُ نظرية الآثاريين التي تقوم على أصالة الشرك وطروء التوحيد. ليس في الكتاب ما يشفي الغليل في هذا الأمر، فلم يتطرق كثيراً لهذا. ولكن يبقى الكتاب ممتعاً، ويفتح أُفُقاً جديدة عن الحضارات الأولى حسب علم الآثار.
صاحب الكتاب من أشهر الآثاريين، وله باعٌ في هذا المجال، واطّلاعٌ عجيب على كتب الآثار القديمة وتتبعها.
كنت أبحث في الكتاب عن أصول العبادات في الحضارات الأولى علّي أجد فيها ما ينقضُ نظرية الآثاريين التي تقوم على أصالة الشرك وطروء التوحيد. ليس في الكتاب ما يشفي الغليل في هذا الأمر، فلم يتطرق كثيراً لهذا. ولكن يبقى الكتاب ممتعاً، ويفتح أُفُقاً جديدة عن الحضارات الأولى حسب علم الآثار.
June 4, 2020
What is civilization? In Southern Europe there were a variety of cities that were built by speakers of unknown and lost languages, and few books are written about them or even mention them at all. The main reason for this appears to be the fact that these lost cities did not have a written language, which has hindered our understanding of what they thought. To be sure, there are civilizations in the ancient world whose written languages we still cannot understand--Elamite and the Indus River Civilizations come to mind--but we know that they wrote and literacy counts. This book attempts to explore common threads in civilization that demonstrate the subtle form of influence and look at how it is that civilizations formed in the first place. The author posits seven original civilizations in the ancient world: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus River, China, Mesoamerica, the Mayans, and Peru. There are likely a few other ones that could be added as well if they were better understood, but this certainly amounts to a good start and there is a lot that this book has to offer as a basic discussion of the archaeology of the ancient world.
This book is about 200 pages or so and it is divided into eight chapters. The book begins with a list of illustrations and figures, their sources, a chronological table, as well as a preface. This leads to a chapter on savagery, barbarism (where some material culture is present), and civilization and the difference between the three, including the presence of cities and literacy for civilization in the author's view (1). The author's discussion of the discovery of the first civilization (2) leads to a look at the origin of civilization in Sumer (3). After that comes a discussion of the diffusion of civilization to Egypt and the Indus River valley (4) and then after that to the Yellow River valley in China (5). After that the author spends some time discussing the development of civilization in the Americas (6), as well as a look at what archaeology had, by 1968, revealed about these civilizations in the Americas (7). After that discussion the book ends with seminar notes, books for further reading, as well as an index.
That is not to say that this book is by any means perfect. The author has a mistaken view of biblical chronology that leads him to view Genesis as a 9th century text when it was likely written long before at least to start, and substantially complete in the mid-1400's or so if not before. Given that the author's interest in ancient history extends far beyond the Middle East, though, the author is on more solid ground when talking about the pattern of civilizations to occur in areas close to river valleys in the Old World, and the way in which knowing that civilization had been accomplished somewhere, and the possibilities of trade and knowledge coming from existing civilizations likely helped later areas that were in the process of trying to work out the process of civilization as well. The author speaks a lot about the way that fully developed bronze work in China signifies that the technology might have come from elsewhere, like the Middle East. It is hard to know these things but the author does a good job at presenting some interesting ideas about the diffusion of the idea of civilization and the potential of simultaneous development of the key set of qualities involved in the start of civilization, as well as the difference between savagery and barbarism from an archaeological and material perspective.
This book is about 200 pages or so and it is divided into eight chapters. The book begins with a list of illustrations and figures, their sources, a chronological table, as well as a preface. This leads to a chapter on savagery, barbarism (where some material culture is present), and civilization and the difference between the three, including the presence of cities and literacy for civilization in the author's view (1). The author's discussion of the discovery of the first civilization (2) leads to a look at the origin of civilization in Sumer (3). After that comes a discussion of the diffusion of civilization to Egypt and the Indus River valley (4) and then after that to the Yellow River valley in China (5). After that the author spends some time discussing the development of civilization in the Americas (6), as well as a look at what archaeology had, by 1968, revealed about these civilizations in the Americas (7). After that discussion the book ends with seminar notes, books for further reading, as well as an index.
That is not to say that this book is by any means perfect. The author has a mistaken view of biblical chronology that leads him to view Genesis as a 9th century text when it was likely written long before at least to start, and substantially complete in the mid-1400's or so if not before. Given that the author's interest in ancient history extends far beyond the Middle East, though, the author is on more solid ground when talking about the pattern of civilizations to occur in areas close to river valleys in the Old World, and the way in which knowing that civilization had been accomplished somewhere, and the possibilities of trade and knowledge coming from existing civilizations likely helped later areas that were in the process of trying to work out the process of civilization as well. The author speaks a lot about the way that fully developed bronze work in China signifies that the technology might have come from elsewhere, like the Middle East. It is hard to know these things but the author does a good job at presenting some interesting ideas about the diffusion of the idea of civilization and the potential of simultaneous development of the key set of qualities involved in the start of civilization, as well as the difference between savagery and barbarism from an archaeological and material perspective.
April 7, 2020
الحضارات الأولى الأصول والأساطير - غلين دانيال.
يتحدث الكتاب بشكل رئيس عن الحضارات البدائية تحت ضوء علم الآثار، كيف وُجدت، ولماذا وجدت؟
يبدأ بالحديث عن سومر، الحضارة الأولى والأساس الأول، حضارات الرافدين الخالدة تلك التي من الممكن أن كل الحضارات انبثقت منها، ومن ثم عن الحضارة المصريّة، حضارة حوض النيل، فحضارة السند فحضارة حزض النهر الأصفر ومن ثم حضارات الأمريكيتين.
أما العوامل على نشأة الحضارات فكثيرة ومتنوعة والأسباب التي نسبت إليها قيام الحضارات كثيرة.
وقد تتلخص أهمها باتحاد عدة قرى وبلدات، وجود قنوات الري، وجود الأنهار أو غيره..
يتحدث الكتاب بشكل رئيس عن الحضارات البدائية تحت ضوء علم الآثار، كيف وُجدت، ولماذا وجدت؟
يبدأ بالحديث عن سومر، الحضارة الأولى والأساس الأول، حضارات الرافدين الخالدة تلك التي من الممكن أن كل الحضارات انبثقت منها، ومن ثم عن الحضارة المصريّة، حضارة حوض النيل، فحضارة السند فحضارة حزض النهر الأصفر ومن ثم حضارات الأمريكيتين.
أما العوامل على نشأة الحضارات فكثيرة ومتنوعة والأسباب التي نسبت إليها قيام الحضارات كثيرة.
وقد تتلخص أهمها باتحاد عدة قرى وبلدات، وجود قنوات الري، وجود الأنهار أو غيره..
November 7, 2020
الحضارات الأولى ( أصولها في ضوء علم الآثار ) غلين دانيال / ترجمة سعيد الغانمي 2020 / 260 صفحة .
كتاب ممتع ومفيد لأي شخص هاوي قراءة كتب التاريخ وحضارة العالم القديم، يتكلم عن أول سبع حضارات انبثقت في العالم القديم بدون مؤثرات خارجية، أي بمعنى حضارة أصلية تكونت وازدهرت داخلياً واثرت على التجمعات البشرية التي تحيطها، وكان هذا الازدهار في فترات متباعدة من الزمن واماكن مختلفة من بقاع العالم الكبير، وهذه الحضارات تبدأ من الأقدم زمناً الحضارة السومرية وتنتهي عند الحضارة الأمريكية الأحدث .
علي غضبان مُشكل .
كتاب ممتع ومفيد لأي شخص هاوي قراءة كتب التاريخ وحضارة العالم القديم، يتكلم عن أول سبع حضارات انبثقت في العالم القديم بدون مؤثرات خارجية، أي بمعنى حضارة أصلية تكونت وازدهرت داخلياً واثرت على التجمعات البشرية التي تحيطها، وكان هذا الازدهار في فترات متباعدة من الزمن واماكن مختلفة من بقاع العالم الكبير، وهذه الحضارات تبدأ من الأقدم زمناً الحضارة السومرية وتنتهي عند الحضارة الأمريكية الأحدث .
علي غضبان مُشكل .
January 3, 2017
I enjoyed this book although it might have been a bit dated. Pretty concise version of ancient history.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews