“Written history is at least six thousand years old. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.7, Introduction, 1935
"[...] In this rough theater of teeming peoples and conflicting cultures were developed the agriculture and commerce, the horse and wagon, the coinage and letters of credit, the crafts and industries, the laws and government, the mathematics and medicine, the enemas and coinage systems, the geometry and astronomy, the calendar and clock and zodiac, the alphabet and writing, the paper and ink, the books and libraries and schools, the literature and music, the sculpture and architecture, the glazed pottery and fine furniture, the monotheism and monogamy, the cosmetics and jewelry, the checkers and dice, the ten-pins and income tax, the wet-nurses and beer, from which our own European and American culture derive by a succession through the mediation of Crete and Greece and Rome. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.7, Introduction, 1935 (italics added)
"The 'Aryans' did not establish civilization -- they took it from Babylonia and Egypt. Greece did not begin civilization -- it inherited far more civilization than it began; it was the spoiled heir of three millenniums of arts and sciences brought to it cities from the Near East by the fortunes of trade and war. In studying and honoring the Near East we shall be acknowledging a debt long due to the real founders of European and American civilization. "
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.7, Introduction, 1935 (italics added)
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