A scientific method used to ascertain the actual age of an artifact is called radiocarbon dating. The "revolution" then refers to its impact on archaeology, particularly on many of archaeology's theoretical assumptions until this tool was introduced after World War II. In effect, radiocarbon dating establishes that many artifacts are now known to be far older than previously thought, and thus going back to earlier ages than otherwise could have been if they had been only the inspired and diffused products of the Near Eastern civilization. Therefore, the notion that the ancient Near East was the fount of global human civililzation can no longer hold true. Clearly, various centers of civilization arose independently of one another even if the Near Eastern one remains the oldest on record.