From the Oxford English Dictionary On

From the Oxford English Dictionary On-line. Accessed May 20, 2002.

culture kA.ltiur, sb. [a. Fr. culture (in OFr. couture), ad. L. cultura cultivation, tending, in Christian authors, worship, f. ppl. stem of colere: see cult.]
1. Worship; reverential homage. Obs. rare.

2. a.. The action or practice of cultivating the soil; tillage, husbandry; = cultivation 1.b. Cultivated condition. Obs. c. concr. A piece of tilled land; a cultivated field. Obs.

3. a. The cultivating or rearing of a plant or crop; = cultivation 2. b. transf. The rearing or raising of certain animals, such as fish, oysters, bees, etc., or of natural products such as silk. culture pearl = cultured pearl. c. The artificial development of microscopic organisms, esp. bacteria, in specially prepared media; concr. the product of such culture; a growth or crop of artificially developed bacteria, etc. Also applied to the similar growth of plant and animal cells and tissues, and of whole organs or fragments of them. Also in Comb., as culture-fluid, -tube, etc.;
culture medium , a substance, solid or liquid, in or on which micro-organisms, tissues, etc., are cultured.
d. The training of the human body. Obs.

4. fig. The cultivating or development (of the mind, faculties, manners, etc.); improvement or refinement by education and training.

5. a. absol. The training, development, and refinement of mind, tastes, and manners; the condition of being thus trained and refined; the intellectual side of civilization. b. (with a and pl.) A particular form or type of intellectual development. Also, the civilization, customs, artistic achievements, etc., of a people, esp. at a certain stage of its development or history. (In many contexts, esp. in Sociology, it is not possible to separate this sense from sense 5 a.)

civilization sivilizei.S<e>n, -<e>izei.S<e>n, . Also -isation. [f. civilize + -ation, q.v. In modFr. civilisation.]
1. Law. `A law, act of justice, or judgement, which renders a criminal process civil; which is performed by turning an information into an inquest, or the contrary' (Harris, quoted by J.) The assimilation of Common Law to the Civil Law.

2. The action or process of civilizing or of being civilized.

3. (More usually) Civilized condition or state; a developed or advanced state of human society; a particular stage or a particular type of this.

civilize si.vil<e>iz, v. [app. f. 16^th c. Fr. civilizer (Cotgr.) now civiliser; app. representing a med. or mod.L. civilizare, to make civil (a criminal matter), whence transferred to `make civil' in other senses; f. civil-is civil + verbal formative -izare, ad. Gr. -izein, in mod.Fr. -iser, Eng. -ize, q.v.

1. To make civil (sense 7); to bring out of a state of barbarism, to instruct in the arts of life, and thus elevate in the scale of humanity; to enlighten, refine, and polish. to civilize away; to do away with, by civilization.

b. To subject to civil authority. Obs.
c. To polish what is rude or uncouth.
d. transf. To domesticate, tame (wild animals).

2. To make `civil' (sense 15 b) or moral; to subject to the law of civil or social propriety.

3. To make lawful or proper in a civil community. Obs. rare.

4. Law. To turn a criminal into a civil cause. [Cotgr. has F. civilizer in this sense.]

5. intr. To become civilized or elevated.

6. intr. To conform to the requirements of civil life, to behave decently.

Things that Make Civilization Possible.

Paleolithic

Fire - 500,000 BC
Earliest modern human fossils (homo sapiens) found in Omo, East Africa - 130,000 ybp
Language - 100,000/50,000 BCE??????
HSS comes to Europe c. 40,000 ybp (c. 32,000 - 25,000 ybp - Neanderthals disappear from Europe)
Beads - 40,000 BC in Africa and SW Turkey
String - 40,000 BC (32,000 ybp - earliest dated caved paintings in Europe, advance of ice sheet 28,000 ybp)
Copper used for tools - 8,000 BCE

Neolithic

Domestication of herd animals - 7,000 BCE
Settlements - 7,000 BCE
Agriculture - 7,000 BCE (flax)
Wheel - 7,000 BCE
Ceramics - 7,000 BCE (Northeastern Iraq)
Weaving - 7,000 BCE (Northeastern Iraq)
Wool - 4,000 BCE (Zagros Mts) Horse domesticated in Western Steppes of Ukraine
Irrigation - c.4,000 BCE - Mesopotamia

Bronze Age

Writing - c. 3,500 BCE - Mesopotamia
Cities - c. 3,500 BCE - Mesopotamia
Smelting bronze - 3,500 BCE (accidental byproduct of firing ceramics?)
Writing - 3,500 BCE

Iron Age

Iron - 1,000 BCE

Paleolithic Tool Kit of Homo Sapiens Sapiens

stone tools, beads, barbed projectile points, bone needles, hafted tools, light spears

Modern HSS are in Israel c. 100,000 ybp.