A Museum Lecture Series
in seven chapters

The Rise & Fall
of Civilizations

From the first mud-brick cities to the observatories of Baghdad — seven illustrated lectures, each ending with genuine artefacts from our own collection.

IFirst CitiesMesopotamia & the Indus Valley — where it all beganOpen → IIAncient EgyptThree thousand years along a single, forgiving riverOpen → IIIAncient GreeceQuarrelsome little cities that invented how we thinkOpen → IVThe Roman EmpireFrom village to superpower — and the long fallOpen → VImperial ChinaThe dynastic cycle — two thousand years of reinventionOpen → VIMesoamericaThe Maya and the Aztecs — civilization invented twiceOpen → VIIThe Islamic Golden AgeBaghdad, the House of Wisdom, and the thread of the seriesOpen →

Each lecture ends with “From Our Own Collection” — real artefacts from these civilizations, on display in this museum.

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