John Allan (numismatist) John Allan (numismatist) John Allan, (8 August 1884 – 29 August 1955) was a British numismatist and scholar of Sanskrit. Allan was a noted numismatist and produced the first systematic study of the coins the Gupta Empire, which remains a standard reference today. Allan was born in Bolton, East Lothian. His father, John Gray Allan, was the local schoolmaster. After studying at the universities of Edinburgh and Leipzig, Allan took up a position at the British Museum in 1907, eventually becoming the Keeper of the Department of Coins and Medals in 1931. He was also a lecturer in Sanskrit at
A Study of History 23 civilizations identified by Toynbee in vol. Vii. This table does not include what Toynbee terms primitive societies, arrested civilizations, or abortive civilizations. Civilizations are shown in boldface. Toynbee's "Universal Churches" are written in "italic" and are chronologically located between second- and third- generation civilizations, as is described in volume VII. The social scientist Ashley Montagu assembled 29 other historians' articles to form a symposium on Toynbee's "A Study of History", published as The book includes three of Toynbee's own essays: "What I am Trying to Do" (originally published in "International Affairs" vol. 31, 1955); "What the Book is For: