Ife: lost civilisation...

Good review of the British Museum exhibition that starts early next month by the Guardian's Jonathan Jones. But referring to Ife as a 'lost civilisation'? What exactly is lost about Ife? The town is still there, the palace of the Ooni is still there, the Orunmila staff is still there. The only sense in which Ife is lost is that the city was at its cultural zenith many centuries ago. But would we describe Rome or Athens (for instance) in the same way? Its hardly Machu Picchu.