But it this really were typical, that civilisation could not have lasted even a million years, let alone a billion or more.

If civilization lasts that long!

If our civilization lasts 1,000 years, my neck will last 1,000 years.

It was not a civilization; few civilizations lasted longer than a million years.

"No nation or civilization lasts forever."

A civilization usually lasts for a few hundred years, a few thousand, before either collapsing or transforming into something fundamentally different.

No civilisation has lasted for ever, and perhaps our own is perishing of natural old age.

Without the necessity of putting forth this energy, a survival of the original force in man, how long would our civilization last?

We also recognize that no civilization lasts forever, and that America a thousand years hence will be something very different, if it exists at all.

The civilization lasted for 12 centuries.