If we wish to retrace the origins of civilization — that is, the establishment of a system that still influences social change, economic patterns and intellectual progress — we must go all the way back to the time when groups of humans had acquired efficient means of survival and began to take various steps that allowed a new culture to develop. Such developments took place so long ago that they can be observed only through objects that the members of these human societies left behind them, never imagining that one day their possessions and products would be used to interpret the way they lived. These objects bear witness to a bygone time in the history of humankind. But was this time so very different from ours? In many ways, our society may be seen as a prolongation of the first socioeconomic experiments undertaken by the human species.

For the past 12 000 years, Syria has, more than any other place in the world, been marked by the birth and interaction of civilizations that changed the course of human history. With its cultural wealth and close links with neighboring peoples, Syria has truly played the role of a crucible in the development of ancient civilizations in the Near East, while these in turn, as this catalogue demonstrates, have had a marked influence on the Western world. The period covered by this exhibition begins with the first attempts to settle in villages on Syrian territory — the earliest villages known. It ends with a period of confrontation, when European knights came to Syria during the Crusades. To be sure, this period symbolizes a brutal contact between East and West, but it was also the starting point for intellectual exchange between the two. This moment of contact has been chosen as the time at which our chronological presentation draws to a close.