Semi-arid Steppe

The passage from one millennium to another — so rare in human experience — is an ideal occasion to reflect deeply on the path traced by the human species from the moment that certain of its members decided to live in larger groups and adopted habits that went with this new lifestyle. Such reflection leads to all sorts of questions: How did the first human societies emerge? How were they organized? And how did they evolve?

Twining devices

If we wish to retrace the origins of civilization — that is, the establishment of a system that still influences social change, economic patterns and intellectual progress — we must go all the way back to the time when groups of humans had acquired efficient means of survival and began to take various steps that allowed a new culture to develop. Such developments took place so long ago that they can be observed only through objects that the members of these human societies left behind them, never imagining that one day their possessions and products would be used to interpret the way they lived. These objects bear witness to a bygone time in the history of humankind. But was this time so very different from ours? In many ways, our society may be seen as a prolongation of the first socioeconomic experiments undertaken by the human species.

Modern Syria

For the past 12 000 years, Syria has, more than any other place in the world, been marked by the birth and interaction of civilizations that changed the course of human history. With its cultural wealth and close links with neighboring peoples, Syria has truly played the role of a crucible in the development of ancient civilizations in the Near East, while these in turn, as this catalogue demonstrates, have had a marked influence on the Western world. The period covered by this exhibition begins with the first attempts to settle in villages on Syrian territory — the earliest villages known. It ends with a period of confrontation, when European knights came to Syria during the Crusades. To be sure, this period symbolizes a brutal contact between East and West, but it was also the starting point for intellectual exchange between the two. This moment of contact has been chosen as the time at which our chronological presentation draws to a close.

Arms

The dawn of the third millennium seems an appropriate time to look back at the past 12 millennia of the human adventure. The purpose of this exhibition is not simply to provide information about different aspects of the cultural process we call “civilization” or about the great civilizations that succeeded one another in parts of the Near East. Its purpose is also — perhaps above all — to present the various elements that make up the concept of civilization itself. It is hoped that this exhibition will inspire visitors to stop and reflect on the characteristics and foundations of the civilization in which they live — and even, if possible, lead them to turn towards the future and wonder what the civilization of tomorrow will look like.

_{© Musée de la civilisation, 1999}