The everyday lives of our ancestors could appear to be a lot separated in terms of language, society, technology etc. A lot of people are attracted to vital and significant differences when comparing the modern and ancient civilizations. The basic foundation of who we are lies at the palms of history of our ancestors. Human beings happen to be superior to all other creation due to the fact that we have the ability to use our brains to provide solutions to problems, obstacles and challenges. We are also able to ensure that we achieve development in all areas; cultural, philosophy, technology etc, which happens to be the reason why we are superior creatures.
History of humanity is a very intriguing subject matter that comes with very exciting information about how our ancestors lived their lives. History has help with the knowledge of understanding nature and how evolution is necessary. Having said all that, here are the top 12 civilizations that ever existed in the world.
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The ancient roman civilization came into existence sometime within the 6th century B.C. The Roman Empire dates back as far as 30 B.C which lasted till around the 476 B.C. This particular civilization has lot of legendary stories and myths. The roman civilization is known to be the most powerful of all the ancient civilizations. Before becoming an empire, it was a small city that rested at the center of Italy. The Roman Empire was also known for some very big innovations which gave rise to the shape of the roman civilization. They innovated rather than inventing, because they made necessary changes to already existing technology and ideas. In this case, they developed and worked on the ideas and knowledge of other civilizations. Here are some of the major advances in innovations and engineering that were noticeable and superior to the civilizations of the concurrent period.
The ancient Roman Empire had established numerous amounts of public latrines and baths. These latrines and baths were all connected through an interlinked sewage system which was considered as an advanced level of engineering by other concurrent civilizations. The ancient Romans also did make use of coverings to close their gutter and sewer lines which made the Romans way more advanced for practices in sanitary management all around the world.
The ancient Romans played a very important role in the area of transportation especially construction of roads. About 700 B.C, the Romans have built about 55,000 miles of highways ranging from the Mediterranean basin and across Europe. These roman constructed roads were very easy to navigate and quite efficient for making travels faster without confusions.
The roman numerals as the name already implies, was birthed to in ancient Rome. The first usage of the exact kind of numeration started somewhere around 800-900 B.C. before these kind of numbering came about there was already numbering and counting systems which were been practiced by the Egyptians and Greeks to be precise. These numbers came with some major flaws like the non-appearance of the number zero and being unable to calculate fractions.
The ancient china was also referred to as Han China. Ancient China civilization was a civilization that is very well known for its change of civilization as the years came by.
The Yellow River Civilization the father of the civilizations of the entire ancient Chinese civilizations. Around 2,700 B.C, the Yellow Emperor ruler-ship started and it was from this civilization that the other many dynasties of China came into place.
After the Yellow River came about the Xia dynasty in 2070 B.C. the Xia dynasty was the first to govern and rule the entire China. The Xia dynasty was founded by Yu the Great who for thirteen years worked unabatingly to stop the flooding of the Yellow River which continued to destroy their farm produce. The ancient Chinese civilization was also very famous for some of its inventions. Here are some of the top inventions made by the Chinese
The ancient Chinese back then created the first explosive chemical is called black powder by them. The black powder was contained with sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate. This Gunpowder was invented during the Tang dynasty which came to be around the 9th century. The ancient Chinese used this powder as a weapon to prevent them from being invaded by other civilizations.
The Great Wall of China till date is considered as one of the greatest wonders of the world. This is one of the punctilious ventures made by mankind in History. The Great Wall of China was built by Qin Shi who was the first emperor of china. The walls main purpose was to protect china from northern invaders and was built by criminals and slaves. Over a thousand years was used in the construction of the Great Wall of China.
The ancient Mayan civilization by 700 B.C had already formulated their own method of writing which they used to develop a system of solar calendar that were carved in stones. According to their own beliefs, the world came into existence on the 11th of august 3114 BC which is the day that marks the starting point of their calendar.
The ancient Mayan had the richest culture when compared to its various concurrent civilizations. The Mayans joined forces with the Aztecs to built pyramids which were bigger than those in Egypt. The Mayans also have some inventions entitle to their name and these includes;
The Mayans who were the ancient Americans introduced the most advance type of writing. This type of writing was known as Glyphs. The Glyphs are uses pictorial or symbolic descriptions to represent a sound or a word. History made it clear that the ancient Mayans used over 700 different glyphs. Recent studies have also shown that about 80% of the ancient Mayans language is understood and interpreted in this current time.
The Mayans did endure great pride in their culture and customary beliefs. Every traditional event that the Mayans celebrated, they always celebrated it in grand style. Amongst them, the persons who were allowed to display for the gods were known as the Shamans. The shamans when performing took substances that would initiate tranquilize-like states exhibition making the performer look dazzled. The substances would make the shamans feel no pain and energy levels in their system will be risen up. These hallucinogenic drugs were also being used as pain relievers.
The Mesopotamian Civilization is the very first civilization in the entire world. The origin of Mesopotamia dates as far back as 750 BC. By history, it’s the first civilization because there has been no other evidence of a civilized society that evolve before them.
Mesopotamia is the original place of birth of the most vital discoveries and inventions. Their inventions were mostly based on transportation. These are their top inventions:
Mesopotamian which is also known as the cradle of civilization were the first to come up with the concept of urbanization. Mesopotamia is known to be the first city in the world that was built with solid sundried bricks. And its was with the period of 4300 BC – 3100 BC that urbanization emerged in Mesopotamia.
This was a type or form of writing that was invented by the ancient Mesopotamians. The cuneiform was created mainly to keep and maintain business records, mostly for trading. Cuneiform was a writing that was written in form of a pictograph. It was also a very difficult form of writing which took 12 years to completely master the art of learning the cuneiform. The cuneiform writing was used by the Assyrian, Babylonians, and Akkadians for over a period of 3,000 years.
The Indus Valley civilization is definitely one of the oldest civilizations alongside with its concurrent civilizations like the Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Indus valley civilization was a Bronze Age civilization. This civilization flourished and became the areas we now call northern Afghanistan, northwest and India. The Indus valley civilization covered a space area of about 1.25 million kilo-meters.
With the very large space area the Indus civilization gave room for other population of people to reside.
The Indus civilization is also called the Harappa civilization or the Mohenjo-Daro civilization, names which originated from the names of the archaeological sites where the rest of the civilization were found. The people of this civilization where greatly known for their accuracy in measurements. The artifacts founded by recent archeologists say that the culture was very rich in crafts and arts.
Ancient Egypt is the most known and widely recognized civilization. The ancient Egypt is by far one of the oldest and richest civilizations which was located at the bank of the River Nile. According to the Egyptian chronology, the civilization amalgamated sometime around the 3150 BC by the unification of the Lower and Upper Egypt under the ruling of the first Pharaoh. The history of ancient Egypt came in phases meaning that they were major development and changes as they grew older. These phases were identified as the Intermediate Periods; the Old Kingdom, the Middle kingdom and the New Kingdom of the late Bronze Age.
The ancient Egyptians are still very well known till this present day for their constructions, artifacts, inventions and culture as they believed in so many gods like the Anubis(the god of the daed), Ptah (the Creator god), Amun-Ra (the ancient god of sun and wind), etc. Back then, amongst their contemporary civilizations, they were regarded as the most innovative civilization. Here are their top inventions:
The pyramids in Egypt are the most symbolic and recognized inventions that were made by the ancient Egyptians. The pyramids were used as temples for their religion and were tombs to their deceased kings. The oldest pyramid is dated far back as 2667 B.C and was built and structured for King Zoser.
The pyramid of Giza is a wonder of the world. It is also the largest of all the pyramid structures that were built in ancient Egypt. The particular pyramid was structured during the time of the fourth, the regime of Snorfu. On the walls, were carefully drawn Hieroglyphs which contained some sort of messages from the ancient Egyptians.
As early as 4000 B.C, the Egyptians had already invested the art of cosmetics and make up. It was used regardless of their social and gender status. But for them, make-up and cosmetics were used for therapeutic and medical reasons.
For the eye make-up, it was used by the ancient Egyptians to protect their eyes from infections. In order to do this they had to apply “Kohl” which was form from a mixture of soot with galena (a lead mineral). The kohl was being applied with a small stick to the upper and lower eyelids.
Back then before some discoveries were made, many historians did believe that the idea of the plow originated in either the Sumerian or Egyptian civilization sometime around 4000 B.C. But back then, the plows were dragged by men down the fields.
Then soon later some discoveries were found where the Egyptians hooked their plow to oxen. This idea has a significant effect on agriculture. This is still used in some present-day underdeveloped countries.
The ancient Greeks are definitely not the oldest civilization but they played a very important role in influencing civilizations after it. It was the most influential amongst other contemporary civilizations. The ancient Greece was birthed from the Cycladic and Minoan civilization. This civilization also created the concept of democracy, government and senate.
The ancient Greece produced many legends whose ideas and actions changed the world forever. In this present day, many of these Greek legends are still being talked about. The likes of Archimedes, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle…. can never be forgotten because of how much knowledge they imparted into the basic of modern philosophy, biology, geometry, physics etc. which had significant influence on civilizations till this present times.
The Greeks ideas were not only known theoretically because they also had some inventions of their own.
Cartography which is the study, practice and making of maps started as far as the ancient times. Cartography played a very important role in transportation and navigation even till this recent time.
The evidence of map studying and map making projects towards Babylon. With these ideas the Greeks brought contributions to both geography and astronomy. Anaximander (611-610 B.C) was one of the Greek legends who contributed to the creation of the world map which brought a whole new different concept to geography.
The ancient Greek Olympic Games can be traced back as far as 776B.C. According to history, these games played on the ancient plains of Olympia, were dedicated to the Olympian gods. The games were played once in every four years at Olympia which was located at the South-West of Greece. The Olympics hosted loads of spectator who came from all over the world.
The founder of the international Olympic committee, Pierre de Coubertin was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games that were hosted in ancient Greece. The first modern Olympic started in 1896.
In the ancient time, it was widely believed that diseases were a sign of punishment from the gods. This mentality all changed by the help of Hippocrates of Cos who believed that sign of disease was a natural cause. He believed that they were reactions of the body towards diseases and started conducting experiments showing diseases to be a natural process.
Hippocrates most famous contribution was the Hippocratic Oath, an oath that was historically taken by doctors to provide their clients with the best of their ability and protect patient privacy. This document brought about the doctor-patient confidentiality that is still being practiced in this present day.
Ancient Greek scientist had some very vital contributions in aspects of physical and applied science. They made some solid and propounding discoveries in the area of philosophy, physics, geometry and astronomy.
Aristotle birthed the idea of the earth being a globe and made reference to the classification of animals. The first botanist in history was Theophrastus. The Pythagoreans did not only make the earliest advance in geometry just like the Pythagorean Theorem but they also proposed hypothesis the earth constantly moving around the sun. Archimedes discovered the Archimedes principle about the up thrust of an object when displaced in water.
The ancient Greeks had major influence in the early science and featured in the basis of the modern science. Their alphabets are widely used in higher mathematics and physics equation in recent times.
The Persian civilization was at a time the strongest civilization in the world. The Persians have the most powerful empire in the world, conquered lands and covered over 2,000,000 square miles. The Persian Empire was significantly known for its great military power. They were also being ruled by wise Persians.
Now before jumping into conclusion on how they managed to acquire such a great empire in just a period of 200 years. The Persis (the name they were called back then) was divided into many factions.
Then around 550 B.C, king Cyrus II also known as Cyrus the great, amalgamated the factions into one unified Persian Kingdom. After the unification, he went ahead to conquer ancient Babylon. His military strength was so powerful that by the end of 553 B.C, he had already seized India that was far in the east.
After the death of king Cyprus, his bloodline continued to pursue his ruthless ambition of conquering the world. They even fought against the legendary Spartans. Ancient Persia at some point ruled over all of Central Asia, Europe and Egypt. In 530 B.C, The Persian Empire was brought down to its knees by Alexander the great and effectively dissolved the civilization.
This civilization was known to be the largest in the Pre-Columbian era. The Incas were devoted worshippers of the sun god, Inti. They called their king “Sapa Inca” which meant the child of the sun. Emperor Pachacuti, the first Inca, transformed the village into a great city that was designed in the shape of a puma. When their king dies, his heir would take over the throne leaving all his wealth to be distributed amongst his relatives who would in favor preserve his body (mummification).
The Incas went on to become high skilled builders when compared with their contemporary civilizations. They built fortresses like the Machu Picchu and the city of Cusco. The Incas had well established societies and the empire was a bloom since its very existence.
Ecuador, Chile and Peru are now the present location of the Incas civilization, that is, these areas were where their civilization rested. The Inca Empire lasted form 1438-1533.
The Aztecs civilization came about the time when the Incas were the most powerful civilization in North America. The rise of the Aztecs civilization came a century after the Mayan civilization had fallen.
The Aztec religion demanded human sacrifices and rituals in order to please the gods they believed in. They had over 300,000 men and women who lived at Tenochtitlan which was the capital city.
The Aztec civilization didn’t ever go under one rule as the Aztec emperor didn’t rule every city. Local governments were forced to pay contributions to the tribute Alliance. This civilization then later reached its peak of power sometime around the early 1500’s and that was the exact same time Spaniards arrived with their expansion plans. This dispute eventually led to huge battles between the Spanish conquistadors, the native of Incas and the Mexica (the name the Aztecs preferred to be called).
The Aztecs were defeated and this was what led to the fall of the Aztec empire.
In the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC, the Hattians were the ancient beings who dwelled on the terrain of Hatti in Asia. Their language was called the Hattic. The Hattic is a language that is spoken by the Northwest Caucasian Language group.
In 2500 B.C, the Hattians established their capital which rested high on a hill at the the city of Hattusa.
The storyline of the Hattian civilization ended when their kingdom was conquered and destroyed by the neighboring kingdom of Kussara that was ruled by a king Anitta. King Anitta who had so much disdain for the city burnt it down to ashes.
After the passing away of King Anitta, the next king of Kussara, king Hattusili, rebuilt and re-established the city.
The hurri civilization became well-known in the late stages of the 3rd millennium B.C. The king of this civilization came from an Indian decadency. The city was located nearby the Eastern Anatoila which was governed by the Mitanni kingdom. The kingdom was also referred to the ‘’ Land of Hurri’’ which developed to be a rival to Egypt and Babylon.
The culture and the language of the Hurrians were also being spoken by the Hitties and the Urartus.
The hurrians were Bronze Age people who flourished with the Eastern area by expansion of territory. But this expansion was halted by the Assyrians who successfully defeated several hurrian cities.
Tags: oldest civilization, ancient civilization
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