Fall of Civilizations, 14 weeks, GAYLEY
S 2025

Based on Paul Cooper's excellent new book of the same name, we shall explore the rise and ultimate demise of fourteen world wide civilizations.  A civilization is a large and organized society, many of which lasted hundreds, even thousands of years.  But each of the fourteen we consider met their demise over a relatively brief time.  and in most cases, they totally disappeared, leaving it to archaeologists and historians to rediscover and explain.  Fortunately, we can expand on Cooper's eloquent descriptions with further research on our own.  Meanwhile, we will learn a lot, and consider the ultimate fate of our own civilization

1. The Sumerians; inventors of writing and counting;  2. The Collapse of the Late Bronze Age; a natural disaster?; 3. Assyria; from Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean;  4. Carthage; North Africa's greatest; 5. Han China; a high point in her history; 6. Roman Britain, a success story?;  7.  The Maya, sophistication in meso-America; 8. The Khmer; whose empire we experienced in our time; 9.  Byzantium, jewel of the Middle east;  10. Vijayanagara, dominating the Indian Ocean;  11. Songhai. central African ruler;  12. The Aztecs, familiar victims of our own civilization; The Inca; incredible rulers of South America; 14. Rapa Nui: Easter Island, home to the mysterious heads.

Cooper, Paul, FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS: Stories of Greatness and Decline, Hanover Square Press, Toronto, 2024,