A civilization which knew it was about to die had made its last bid for immortality.
To her, it seemed incredible that civilization should have made such inroads.
Early civilizations also made decisions about whether to permit and how to tax trade.
In those days civilization had not made any great progress in Southern Africa.
Another civilization beyond the stars got it, and made a pen to control the future - by writing to the book, things could change.
We ourselves came from that place, and were in turn overrun by the Ye-tai after civilization made us soft.
But one dirty alley does not a civilization make.
Without bread to make our sandwich technology possible, would human civilization have ever made it out of the Stone Age?
In a Universe without a hegemonic power, random single civilizations with independent principals would make contact.
The Maya civilization made lots of discoveries about art and thinking there.