... founded in 1984. The private collection designed to keep giving .

Now numbering close to 400 exhibits reaching back 11 thousand years into prehistory, with natural phenomena of meteorites and fossils from as far back as 3 Billion years, the collection now serves as a repository of many of civilization's footprints including perfect exhibits of the very first writing of Mankind.

This gathering of man's 'footprints' and those of the planet has achieved it's purpose: Those of us with an interest, or even obsession, to understand what life meant 'back then' can, through the intimacy of artifacts, better see people we wish to know more about.

Hal Colebatch Phd., an award-winning author of more than a dozen books, wrote about Anthony Richter and published a book under the title of 'RICHTER's LAWS'. Colebatch for his own reasons wrote the book as an unofficial biography. It needs to be said that Richter strenuously resisted the idea of a book about himself but was reminded that as a public figure he was 'fair game' meaning the book could be written with or without his blessing. Logically the book recounts Richter's rough intro-duction to Humanity. In fact his early meeting with Mankind was sufficiently demanding for him as a child to shape his world view and personal philosophy throughout his life. Colebatch recounted that in the early 1980's he had interviewed Richter for the Richter's Laws book research, wanting to know how or why he [Richter], having come from an impoverished background would choose to become a Private Collector.

Colebatch recalls "I was sufficiently familiar with Tony Richter to ask him quite directly what possible practical value could be found in the distant past or for that matter why he would indulge in what is normally reserved for the 'rich and idle'.

Colebatch added: I suggested to him that what remained of proto-civilizations was hardly more than dust and that any surviving artifacts were mostly of interest to dealers, black-market looters and museums ... some having knowingly purchased looted national heirlooms to be disposed of through famous auction houses.

Wasn't he [Richter] after all not just another of those with money buying historic artifacts simply because they can?"

Familiar with journalists that confuse abruptness and rudeness as 'probing questions' Richter, was relaxed and said: "Firstly I'll address the oftentimes undeserved negative press 'private collectors' get. For every collector acquiring 'treasures' of one kind or another ... perhaps for the gaining of attention, admiration or envy, there are more by far buying wonderful artifacts of antiquity purely for their beauty alone or as a means of contributing to the experience of those without the means to visit such faraway places.

He continued ... I may be defending the seemingly indefensible but for those of us with depth greater than a Petrie dish ... beyond ownership, there is the bonus of preserving objects that may have otherwise been 'lost' to us all. Frankly it should be be more widely understood that treasures of time may be bought but never owned" he said.

The often unseen wonder of humanity is its astonishing diversity. Objects and artworks show the creative variation that are each unique expressions of countless cultures

Where thought useful, links to major museums or galleries are placed beside various exhibits to read of alternative interpretations of histories that may attach to the artifact we have chosen to display.

The Artifacts, objet d'Art, exhibits, artworks, seen in these pages are each parts of the CIVILIZATION COLLECTION and are the property of the Richter Civilization Trust. The Graphics, illustrations and artwork are original copyrighted works of A J Richter.

Given the unfortunate absence of expertise from some 'experts', the building of this website necessitated an unpleasant return to the phenomenon of the Expert: Defined by me as 'a reliable source of data, informed thought and scholarly discourse'. It would be wrong to imply that the absence of expertise is the prevailing state in archaeology but opinions on matters of time, place, circumstance or causes in our distant past have too often been determined not by defensible data but by the contemporary preference of an ill-informed speaker: Not what a thing is but 'what it should be'; Not where things were but 'where I expect them to be'.

Some readers may believe I have elevated myself to a place enabling me to judge what constitutes an expert when in fact the goal is to present markers or alerts that can be useful guides to whom you will listen to or read. Fortunately, I have the luxury of not needing to be an expert in this field, and the experience to know who is. The one, and the only conclusion ever wholeheartedly agreed to by those interested in the topic of early Man, is that there are civilizations we have yet to meet: Those that are almost certain to have existed as far back as we wish to imagine. Special Note re. experts: Harvard Kennedy School (see Button link)

A remarkable achievement of experts: Report; July 27, 2023. In a Harvard Kennedy School survey of 150 academic experts in the United States on the issue of Misinformation was the conclusion that … “The most agreed-upon future direction for the field of Misinformation was to collect more data outside of the United States”.

When thinking of ancient man, we make a comfortable jump and land at a wonderful cave just as the family sink their collective teeth into a prime piece of Sabre-tooth Tiger. We have arrived in the very well known 'stone Age' in the year of a-long-time-ago. The so-called stone age has captivated our imaginations for centuries. There were cartoon 'film Features' made of the 'Rock Age' as long ago as the 1930's through to Betty and Barney Rubble ending in 1966. The Stone Age continues to retain its unusual popularity due possibly to a pervasive error of 60 million years. So far as we can can tell Man has never seen a living Dinosaur. He has never eaten one nor has he ever ridden one.

Now, in pursuit of a higher level of education we stamp both feet outside the cave, causing two names to rise slowly through the ancient sands: Paleolithic and Neolithic. Stones and Rocks 101. Lithic is what Greeks called rocks. Paleo is what separated a very old rock age from the Neo (think Matrix) much newer 'rock-age'. Just so we are clear: no stones had their ages changed nor at any time was the demeaning title of 'pebble" used during the writing of this important work.

Even with that deep and meaningful dissertation - we still have a problem: At that so-called 'rock-ape' time of wrongly presumed beetle-browed, knuckle-dragging crotch-scratching nitwits it seems that not everyone dressed quite like Barney Rubble. Breaking News: 'Recent discoveries show that a nascent civilization of sorts was forming at Catalhoyak in modern day Turkey. That puts a proto-civilization on the same time-zone as true Stone Age people'. Note: Neanderthal DNA does still exist in our civilizations with adorable crotch-scratching as popular in the 21st century as it ever was.

"It would be helpful as a species to find our limits before they find us".

Lascaux Cave paintings Pablo picasso painting inserted

It seems unlikely that a writer would begin their expressions of a belief without leaving space on the page for doubt. My perceptions of humanity are presented in that way. I do realize that I, like countless others that are sufficiently foolish, bold or brash, to point out one or two of man's shortcomings will forevermore be reviewed as 'misanthropes' and become the subject of endless ire, memes and trolls: I give you my personal assurance I wouldn't do this if I didn't believe even that could be fun.

On having very often skirted the borders of 'Misanthropichood' I would on such occasions painstakingly research the most recent definitions of the 'title' misenthrope. Having done this for more than 55 years I am happy to report we have finally reached a milestone of having more definitions of a misanthrope than we have actual misanthropes. To my knowledge this is an achievement unparalleled for us or for any other presently known species.

As in all thought, balance is an ally. Contrasts in human ex- perience are legion. For Good we have Bad. For complex - simple: I shall confidently leave the reader in command of countless other antonyms. I have bought antonyms to the minds that might, without seeing, imagine that the images I present have satisfied what I believe to be the entirety of humanity. Before contemplating 'The Paradigm' image below which I most sincerely hope you will, Mark Twain, by divine right gets the first observation.

HUMANITY ... The Bad, the really bad, the good and the hurt.

HOMO SAPIENS

a person of interest .....

HUMANITY DENIAL

As a starting point of my efforts to better understand Homo Sapiens-sapiens it was essential to go beyond reading the nonsensical scribbling produced by the Anthropological Institute of Wild-Eyed Guesses. For this reason and a drive to get more personal insight to our species true nature, I began the Civilization Collection.The collection, now comprised of 400 or more exhibits, represents Man's oldest known civilizations - somewhat before humanity's first writing then onward.

Times prior to the civilizations of Sumeria and those of the Indus Valley could be thought of as proto-civilizations that began around 10,000 BCE. with the Civilization Collection tapering at around 750 ACE. Of principal purpose the collection represents a path of artifactual breadcrumbs: A path when followed gives a sometimes uncomfortably higher resolution of mankind and the bumpy ride he has had through to civilizing.

Antiquities as data, do accurately reflect the evolving stages of a civilization. Through its written records, its conflicts and art there are intriguing periods in an evolving civilization when cultural transition are wonderfully visible in art, style, color texture and form. It may be surprising to know the gifted artist Pablo Picasso would be comfortable dashing off a 'bull or two' in the 20,000 year old gallery in the Lascaux caves in France. Not averse to publicity he would definitely snap a selfie.

In reading even this limited applause of what might be thought prosaic objects of the past, archaeologists and anthropologists of all stripes are choking back tears of professional despair as they ponder the spectacle of an otherwise seemingly 'educated' person uttering such ill-informed banalities. What neither of these admirable professions will confess is how special they feel about being among the few that will actually hold the artifacts of antiquity: To smell them, (many have odours) to touch them. How many of our increasing billions of fellow humans have never had or will ever have that experience. It is unfortunate to my mind that billions will never see such wonders let alone feel them.

It has always seemed apparent to me that the seeds of all answers lie in the question. Of the first of many questions that have mattered to me is one that would reveal a way to reconcile ourselves with the stark reality of what presents as Man's true nature. There has always been a need to challenge how in light of my own childhood, family tragedies - mine and others, later personal experiences and the torment of knowing of the suffering experienced by hundreds of millions of innocents through interminable wars and man-made tragedies I or any caring other could not arrive at the conclusion but that Mankind is an immutably flawed species.

On cue the cry misanthropy! goes up in hopes of diminishing the implication that Man is anything less than divine. The underpinnings for the first knee-jerk reflex is the religious view holding Man to be made in the image of his creator: That first misconception is faithfully followed by the use of any word or belief that would divert suggestions that an all-embracing criticism of Mankind must by default be a censure of every representative of the species. That cannot be true.

Decades have passed in the ongoing search for thoughts and words that I could form in an order that would capture the complexity of us as a species without either shrinking from the horror of man at his worst or to wrongly blend in the good and arrive at the error of seeing mankind as some collective degrees of iniquity.

There exists an almost overwhelming number in our population that are  critical of any effort to ‘capture’ humanity in this way on the grounds that the enigma of Man is beyond any ‘parochial’ arrangement of words: Perhaps words more acceptable to those with this view should be elevated, more ethereal perhaps in their embrace of the 'flawless inscrutable divinity of man that is ineffable’! Wow ... I'm feeling more and more superior by the minute.

Many of the naysayers could find it instructive to examine why they feel so compelled to resolutely oppose any acknowledgement of our own reality: It may feel to some, that admitting to our flawed selves is a perilous thing being fearful of seeing themselves in the definition. Since my childhood Man has never seemed remotely close to flawless, enigmatic or inscrutable – in any direction.

This conclusion, is a belief that to continue as we are, offers no more or less than we have ever had or will have. Defensive counter-punching is understandable but will occur on the wrong assumption that a 'flawed species' means the wholesale condemnation of every member of the species: this unthinking reaction seems impervious to evidence showing countless humans capable of selfless life-giving sacrifices, breathtaking heroism and fathomless compassion. Equally inescapable is that an overwhelming percentage of us are fully capable of the most extreme cruelties and evils of which other species known to us are innocent.   [Chimpanzee excluded]

I have found in more recent years I quote others less: Richard Leaky - author of ORIGINS and ORIGINS REVISITED so captured the simplicity of Man's existence I can't resist:"Man may yet prove to be the greatest biological blunder of all time"

It is a relief - after more than 50 years of seeking out the immutables of Homo Sapiens, to now ask others to accept what seems unacceptable. As I have long believed, the answer was in the question: In this case it was in the need to ask the question at all. Setting aside the intervention of science or non-human-intelligence, one cannot alter the nature of a species. The encouragement that keeps my spirits up is a certainty that the science of genetic re-engineering is creeping closer. I wish to record here that my own contribution on the human path of a practical kind included the invention of the world's first Neurocomputer (The Richter Paradigm Computer) modeled on the human brain, the invention of the Solid State Drive (SSD) of computers that became the world standard, the invention of the USB or 'thumb-drive' and five books analyzing the way in which a far too large a part of our human population live in physical uncertainty, poverty and fear. Each book attempts to show ways or to provide any method, awareness or means to help, in even the least way, to dig a pathway out to a more 'humane' existence.

Anthony J Richter October 2024

and its