Art makes it (too) easy to compare civilisations. As you enter Taipei's National😉 Palace Museum ( 國立故宮博物院 ) you go through a room which surrounds you with a timeline of the art of different cultures at the same different points in history. Though nothing really prepares you for the firehose of history that follows in the main exhibits, twirling clockwise and taking some of it in helps you brace yourself. I'm going to attempt something similar: a three-culture snapshot of circa 1000AD.
I try to write something smart twice a month.