Archaeology and politics
Egypt might be the only civilization with a continuous recorded history stretching back to the 4 th millenium BC. And when we come across Egyptologists reeling off third millennium BC dates with ease and with an assured familiarity, it makes us gape with awe. But does this mean that other civilizations did not count for as much as the Egyptians. Until recently, we too might have felt so but of late, discoveries have proved that there are other civilizations that might approach the Egyptians in continuity and they and the Mesapotamians in antiquity and that we had known far less about these old civilizations than the Egyptians only because archaeologists were less interested in them than Ancient Egypt or Mesapotamia. The reason for this neglect lies in our religious affiliations. Over thirty percent of the world’s population is Christian and universities with the best archaeology departments are situated in the Christian world. In fact, archaeology as a discipline originated th...