>From: Hagbard Celine <hagbard@ix.netcom.com>
>I thought the earliest was Sumer.
Well, I don't know what the oldest civilization might be, but Minoan
civilization was at its height about 37 centuries ago, quite a long
while. However, Jherico was a fortress city with a Stone tower and moat in
6000BC(E), ~80 centuries ago.
I often wonder if some pretty impressive City-states or whole
civilizations existed that were in the long inbetween years when humans
were essentially fully formed genetically before the fertile-crescent
revolutions. If they created nothing durable enough to show up with
cursory study, we may never know. Any oo-parts(sp?) devotees out there?