关于四大文明迄今为止发现的最为权威的英文文献。

关于四大文明迄今为止发现的最为权威的英文文献。

首先，将要引用的内容来自于Complete History of the World- The Ultimate Work of History Reference. 这本书由伦敦的Times Books出版社出版，请看该书扉页的简介：
The Times Complete History of the World has sold over 2 million copies since
its first publication in 1978. It is the most exciting, authoritative and
and accessible work on world history available today....

我手上的这本是2004年出版，2005年重新印刷的第六版。该版的主编是伦敦大学国王学院现代历史
教授Richard Overy。其他编辑都是剑桥，牛津等多所大学的教授，副教授。所以这本书的权威性是不容质疑的。

好了，言归正传，我们感兴趣的东西在该书第第二节，The First Civilizations，的开端部分。以下内容是作为对这一节内容的简介：

About 6000 years ago, in a few areas of particularly intensive agriculture, the dispersed villages of Neolithic peoples gave way to more complex societies. These were the first civilizations, and their emergence marks the start of a new phase of world history. They arose, apparently independently, in four widely dispersed areas (the early civilizations of America emerged considerably later): the lower Tigris and Euphrates valleys; the valley of the Nile; the Indus valley around Harrappa and MohenjoDaro; and the Yellow River around An-yang. The characteristic feature of them all was the city, which now become an increasingly dominant social form, gradually encroaching on the surrounding countryside, until today urbancivilization has become the criterion of social progress.
一下就是解释城市在文明中的重要作用，就不贴出了。

可以看出，黄河流域的文明，在这样权威的历史书籍里面，是作为最早的四个文明中的一个
和其他三者并列的。虽然没有专有的名词比如The four major civilizations，但是，
作为对这种人类早期文明的概括，用中文提出四大文明是符合历史事实的。