Page Title

    Ancient Civilizations

             Part One

                            Prologue

                By Johannes Rammund De Balliel-Lawrora

                                   Genesis
Before the World was populated; before there was even a world, which we call
the earth, there was only a great void of emptiness; and before the emptiness,
there was only a beautiful heaven that shined magically brighter than the
brightest star. And long before there was even a Jesus Christ, there was an
immortal God who ruled a kingdom far above the void. This was from whence
the later human forms were produced by a generous God, there was only a
wondrous Kingdom with God, the Highest, ruling over hundreds of legions of
Angels, and other immortals that commandeered them. This was heaven, the
Valhalla, that God was the King of Kings, the Highest of the High, who was
there long before there were Universes, stars, planets, and the planet earth.

The Astronomers and others define the beginning as the "Big Bang", but God,
who was responsible for his later creation, might have decided upon a later
experiment, who knew then, long before His Creation, exactly what would
happen after his experiment; and this will be the beginning of the story.

In the Heavens, there was an Angel that was later called Lucifer who contrived
shrewdly with other Angels to overthrow God and his loyal angels and their
commanders. There was nothing like guns, cannons and bombs of mass
destruction, only crafted spears and other weaponry whose type we have not
yet learned about.

As God rested, the Luciferion Angels commenced with their plotted overthrow
of the Kingdom of Heaven; and he had thousands of followers. But God's loyal
and dedicated Angels finding out about the plot designed by Lucifer, attacked
the disloyal angels and threw them out of Heaven, and created far, far, below
an abyss of fire and brimstone that burned, and burned, and burned. And since
the bad angels were also immortal they were confined to a fiery world with the
flames constantly whipping around them, and their immortality prevented them
from dying, and whilst in the fiery abyss with the flames searing their flesh,
their bodies did not burn up.

The latter might be considered the imagination of this mortal person, but the
scientific world still has not been able to come up with any facts regarding this,
the beginning of the universe, the stars, the planets, and the world that we call
earth. It is this writer's belief, therefore, that the genesis in the bible is closer
to the truth than any scientific revelations.

            Introduction
As heaven was eternal and the established Kingdom of God, it existed far
beyond the void, the emptiness of a weird and silent space that had
neither form or breadth, and after God and his Angels had vanquished the
Luciferion hordes, he turned his attention to a far greater task; the filling of
the great void with many stars that were as "Suns", and many planets that
circled there own stars, and established myriads of universes, too numerous to
calculate, as there distances were millions of light years from each other.   And
with outstretched arms he began the wondrous task of creating many
universes, and when a million years had passed, and the void was being
populated, he set forth to create one bleak and empty universe where there a
number of large spheres, circurling one of the stars, the sun, and centered his
attention on the third sphere from the sun, which became known as the planet
earth. And the beginning of time was about to commence.

The earth at this time was without form and unable to sustain life, and there
were many types of mountains, some of which came about through the molten
lava that created in time, beautiful valleys, lakes, oceans, seas, and inland
waterways which became rivers. God wanted everything that he created
through evolution to be perfect in every way, and when the formation of land
and water was completed, he allowed millions of forests and woods to appears,
plus flowers, fruits and vegetables, for an even broader task, the creation
of the first homo sapien.

Capsuled in this time span of millions of years, God had created light from the
darkness, and this then was the first day. God then said; let there be a
firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the
waters, and this produced land, which became continents, and this was then the
second day.

Thence God decided to populate the barren earth with vegetation of all
kinds so that the creation of living things could be sustained and could in time
populate themselves, and these living things
became animals, fish, amphibious types,
and birds that flew, and this then became
the third day; and in so doing he had also
created night from day, and the seasons of
the years, and this then became the fourth
day.

As you are now aware that even though,
God had so far created things for four days,
the time span of days took in most cases,
millions of years, but as time had not yet
become a factor, millions of years would appear as one day for each task.

Now then that God had created animals large and small, and amphibious beings
that lived on land and in water, birds large and small that flew, and animals of
very small and gigantic sizes, and then he had separated night from day, and
morning from evening, he had then completed his fifth day.   And this
experiment thus far was pleasing to God.

At last, God created man in his own image from the dust of the earth and then
he created a female companion for the male, by taking a rib from the
male while he lay sleeping.   God blessed them both and said
for them to be fruitful and multiply; and then to have
dominion over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air,
and the animals on the land, and to then multiply so that
they might then populate the earth.   And as it so
happened God had given the male and female
everlasting life.   Only one provision did God request
from the first man and woman who he called Adam and
Eve, for now they were living in the Garden of Aden.
His only request was that they not partake of any fruit
from the "Tree of Knowledge" as this was
forbidden to them, and in the creation of Adam and Eve,
he had also created the sixth day.

The Seventh day, therefore became the day that God Rested.

It is not known how old Adam and Eve was at this time, for since they were
created, they did not age at all, and could have lived in the Garden of Eden for
a Thousand Years. That then was their life in this beautiful garden which lay in
a valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which today is an arid valley
in the nation of Iraq.

Through the shrewed intercession of Lucifer disguised as a serpent, he
persuaded Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit, God expelled them
from the Garden of Eden, whereas from that day forward, they were no longer
immortal, and thus were destined to the diseases and attributions of mortal
beings, but yet lived until they were in their nine hundredth year as mortal
souls; which by that time they had produced a considerable community of other
mortal souls through their children, their descendants children, and so on.   But
their unashamed bodies as immortals, now had to produce garments to hide
their shames.   And after the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, the calmness
of the beautiful world that God had miraculously produced; the world thereon
was filled with anxieties, bigotry, hostility and hatred between families and
nations, which led to the calamities of wars, plagues, pestilence and disasters.

             Chapter One

                    Adam and Eve:
                              From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer (1507)Adam (Hebrew: אָדָם‎, ʼĀḏām, "dust;
man; mankind"; Arabic: آدم‎, ʼĀdam) and Eve (Hebrew: חַוָּה‎, Ḥawwā, "living
one"; Arabic: حواء‎, Ḥawwāʼ) are the first man and woman created by God,
according to the Book of Genesis. (They are also credited as the first man and
woman in Islam).

Contents [hide]
1 Narrative
2 Textual notes
3 Later Abrahamic traditions
3.1 Jewish traditions
3.2 Christianity
3.3 Gnostic and Manichaean traditions
3.4 Islamic tradition
4 As a theme in art and literature
5 Notes
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

Narrative

Marriage of Adam and Eve: Genesis tells the story of Adam and Eve in
chapters 1, 2 and 3, with some additional elements in chapters 4 and 5:

In Genesis 1 God creates humans "male and female" in His image, and gives
them dominion over the living things He has created, and commands them to
"be fruitful and multiply."

Genesis 2 opens with God fashioning a man from the dust and blowing life into
his nostrils. God plants a garden (the Garden of Eden) and sets the man there,
"to work it and watch over it," permitting him to eat of all the trees in the
garden except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, "for on the day you
eat of it you shall surely die." Then God creates the animals, attempting to find
a help-mate for the man; but none of the animals are satisfactory, and so God
causes the man to sleep, and creates a woman from his rib. The man names her
"Woman" (Heb. ishshah), "for this one was taken from a man" (Heb. ish). "On
account of this a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his
woman." Genesis 2 ends with the note that the man and woman were naked,
and were not ashamed.

Genesis 3 introduces the Serpent, "slier than every beast of the field." The
serpent tempts the woman to eat from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil,
telling her that it will not lead to death; she succumbs, and gives the fruit to the
man, who eats also, "and the eyes of the two of them were opened." Aware
now of their nakedness, they make coverings of fig leaves, and hide from the
sight of God. God, perceiving that they have broken His command, curses them
with hard labour and with pain in childbirth, and banishes them from His
garden, setting a cherub at the gate to bar their way to the Tree of Life, "lest
he put out his hand ... and eat, and live forever."

Genesis 4 and 5 give the story of Adam and Eve's family after they leave the
garden: they have three children, Cain, Abel and Seth, as well as other sons
and daughters, and Adam's lifespan is 930 years. ("The woman" is given the
name Eve in the closing verses of Genesis 3, "because she was the mother of
all living"; Adam gets his name when the initial definite article is dropped,
changing "ha-adam", "the man", to "Adam".)

Textual notes:

"Let us make man..." (Genesis 1:26) - The plural "us" (and "our" in the
phrase "in our image") is traditionally understood to refer to God and the
angels, or to be a "plural of majesty".[citation needed] More recent
scholarship is that it reflects the common Middle Eastern view of a supreme
god (referred to in Genesis 1 by the generic noun "Elohim", god, which is itself
in a plural form, rather than by his personal name of Yahweh) surrounded by a
divine court, the Sons of God (Heb. bene elohim).[1] Christians have
traditionally interpreted the plural "us" as evidence for the doctrine of the
Holy Trinity.[2]

"man" (Genesis 1:26-27) - Though the word for "man" is in the singular, when
in the text a pronoun is used, it is rendered by the plural "them", indicating
that the word is used generically to cover "man and woman", and that a
rendition of "mankind" or "human beings" is not out of place.[3]
"...in our image" (Genesis 1:26-27) - The phrase image of God has had many
interpretations, although something more than the simply anthropomorphic
seems intended. Elsewhere in the ancient Near East kings were called the
"image of god", symbolising their rule by divine appointment: the phrase may
therefore indicate that mankind is God's regent on earth.[4]

"...a living being" (Genesis 2:7) - God breathes into the man's nostrils and he
becomes nefesh hayya. The earlier translation of this phrase as "living soul" is
now recognised as incorrect: "nefesh" signifies something like the English
word "being", in the sense of a corporeal body capable of life; the concept of a
"soul" in our sense did not exist in Hebrew thought until around the 2nd
century BC, when the idea of a bodily resurrection gained popularity.[5]
"...tree of knowledge of good and evil..." (Genesis 2:9) - The tree imparts
knowledge of tov wa-ra, "good and bad". The traditional translation is "good
and evil", but tov wa-ra is a fixed expression denoting "everything," rather
than a moral concept.[6]

"...you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17) - Adam is told that if he eats of the
forbidden tree the consequence will be moth tamuth, "die a death", indicating
not merely death but emphatically so. As Adam does not in fact die immediately
on eating the fruit, some exegetes have argued that it means "you shall die
eventually," so that Adam and Eve would have had immortality in the Garden,
but lost it by eating the forbidden fruit. However, the grammar does not
support this reading, nor does the narrative: Adam and Eve are expelled from
the Garden lest they eat of the second tree, the tree of life, and gain
immortality. (Genesis 3:22)[7] The 2nd century Book of Jubilees (chapter 4 29-
31) explained that "one day" is equivalent to a thousand years and thus Adam
died within that same "day".[8]

"...a rib..." (Genesis 2:21-24) - Hebrew tsela` can mean side, chamber, rib, or
beam. The traditional reading of "rib" has been questioned recently by feminist
theologians who suggest it should instead be rendered as "side," supporting the
idea that woman is man's equal and not his subordinate.[9]

Later Abrahamic traditions:

Jewish traditions:

Adam after the Fall. Fresco from the monastery of Cantauque, Provence.The
Sibylline Oracles, dating from the centuries immediately around the time of
Christ, explain the name Adam as a notaricon composed of the initials of the
four directions; anatole (east), dusis (west), arktos (north), and mesembria
(south). In the 2nd century, Rabbi Yohanan used the Greek technique of
notarichon to explain the name אָדָם as the initials of the words afer, dam, and
marah, being dust, blood, and gall.

According to the Torah (Genesis 2:7), Adam was formed from "dust from the
earth"; in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) of the first centuries of the
Christian era he is, more specifically, described as having initially been a golem
kneaded from mud.

Even in ancient times, the presence of two distinct accounts of the creation of
the first man (or couple) was noted. The first account says male and female
[God] created them, implying simultaneous creation, whereas the second
account states that God created Eve subsequent to the creation of Adam. The
[Midrash Rabbah - Genesis VIII:1] reconciled the two by stating that Genesis
1, "male and female He created them", indicates that God originally created
Adam as a hermaphrodite, bodily and spiritually both male and female, before
creating the separate beings of Adam and Eve. Other rabbis suggested that
Eve and the woman of the first account were two separate individuals, the first
being identified as Lilith, a figure elsewhere described as a night demon.

Genesis does not tell for how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden,
but the 2nd century BC Book of Jubilees, provides more specific information. It
states (ch3 v17) that the serpent convinced Eve to eat the fruit on the 17th day
of the 2nd month in the 8th year after Adam's creation. It also states that they
were removed from the garden on the new moon of the fourth month of that
year (ch3 v33). Other Jewish sources assert that the period involved was less
than a day.[citation needed]

According to traditional Jewish belief Adam and Eve are buried in the Cave of
Machpelah, in Hebron.

Christianity:

Adam, Eve, and the (female) Serpent (Often identified as Lilith.) at the
entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Medieval Christian art often
depicted the Edenic Serpent as a woman, thus both emphasizing the Serpent's
seductiveness as well as its relationship to Eve. Several early Church Fathers,
including Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea, interpreted the
Hebrew "Heva" as not only the name of Eve, but in its aspirated form as
"female serpent."The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the Christian
doctrine of original sin: "Sin came into the world through one man and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned," said Paul
of Tarsus in his Epistle to the Romans,[10] although Chapter 3 of Genesis does
not use the word "sin" and Genesis 3:24 makes clear that the couple are
expelled "lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat,
and live for ever". St Augustine of Hippo (354-430), working with a Latin
translation of the epistle, understood Paul to have said that Adam's sin was
hereditary: "Death passed upon (i.e. spread to) all men because of Adam, [in
whom] all sinned".[11] Original sin, the concept that man is born in a condition
of sinfulness and must await redemption, thus became a cornerstone of
Western Christian theological tradition through Augustine's misunderstanding
of Paul's Greek - the belief is not shared by Judaism or the Orthodox churches,
[12] and has been dropped by some post-Reformation churches such as the
Congregationalists and the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Because Eve tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, some early Fathers of the
Church held her and all subsequent women to be the first sinners, and
especially responsible for the Fall. "You are the devil's gateway," Tertullian
told his female listeners in the early 2nd century, and went on to explain that
they were responsible for the death of Christ: "On account of your desert (i.e.
punishment for sin) - that is, death - even the Son of God had to die."[13] In
1486 the Dominicans Kramer and Sprengler used similar tracts in Malleus
Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") to justify the persecution of "witches".

Over the centuries, a system of uniquely Christian beliefs has developed from
the Adam and Eve story. Baptism has become understood as a washing away of
the stain of hereditary sin in many churches, although its original symbolism
was apparently rebirth. Additionally, the serpent that tempted Eve was
interpreted to have been Satan, or that Satan was using a serpent as a
mouthpiece, although there is no mention of this identification in the Torah and
it is not held in Judaism.

Gnostic and Manichaean traditions:

(1) Gnostic Christianity has two unique texts containing stories of Adam and
Eve: the Nag Hamadi text "Apocalypse of Adam" and the "Testament of
Adam" text. The creation of Adam as Protanthropos – the original man – is the
focal concept.

(2) The Manichaean Gnostic sect believed that the Protanthropos was "the
World Soul", (Anima Mundi), sent to fight against darkness. The "Fall" meant
the primordial man being delivered up to evil and swallowed in darkness, with
the Universe as a whole coming into existence as a means of delivering the
primordial Adam from Darkness. Sex between Adam and Eve was seen as the
way in which darkness overcame the light.

"Mani said, 'Then Jesus came and spoke to the one who had been born, who
was Adam, and … made him fear Eve, showing him how to suppress (desire) for
her, and he forbade him to approach her… Then that (male) archon came back
to his daughter, who was Eve, and lustfully had intercourse with her. He
engendered with her a son, deformed in shape and possessing a red complexion,
and his name was Cain, the Red Man.'"[14]

(3) Another Gnostic tradition held that Adam and Eve were created to help
defeat Satan. The serpent, instead of being identified with Satan, is seen as a
hero by the Ophite sect.

(4) Still other Gnostics believed that Satan's fall, however, came after the
creation of humanity. As in Islamic tradition, this story says that Satan refused
to bow to Adam. (As a result of his exclusive love of God, Satan felt that
bowing to humankind was a form of idolatry.) This refusal led to the fall of
Satan, recorded in works such as the Book of Enoch.

Islamic tradition:
See also: Adam (prophet of Islam)

Painting from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and
Eve. From Maragh in Mongol Iran, 1294-99The Qur'an tells of آدم (ʾĀdam) in
the surah al-Baqara (2):30-39, al-A'raf (7):11-25, al-Hijr (15):26-44, al-Isra
(17):61-65, Ta-Ha (20):115-124, and Sad (38):71-85.

The early Islamic commentator Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari adds a number
of details to the Torah, based on claimed hadith as well as specific Jewish
traditions (so-called isra'iliyat). Tabari records that when it came time to
create Adam, God sent Gabriel (Jibril), then Michael (Mika'il), to fetch clay
from the earth; but the earth complained, saying I take refuge in God from
you, if you have come to diminish or deform me, so the angels returned empty-
handed. Tabari goes on to state that God responded by sending the Angel of
Death, who took clay from all regions, hence providing an explanation for the
variety of appearances of the different races of mankind.

According to Tabari's account, after receiving the breath of God, Adam
remained a dry body for 40 days, then gradually came to life from the head
downwards, sneezing when he had finished coming to life, saying All praise be
to God, the Lord of all beings[citation needed]. Having been created,
Adam, the first man, is described as having been given dominion over all the
lower creatures, which he proceeds to name. As one of the people to whom
God is said to have spoken to directly, Adam is seen as a prophet in Islam.

At this point, Adam takes a prominent role in Islamic traditions concerning the
fall of Shaytan(Satan), which is not recorded in the Torah, but in the Book of
Enoch which is used in Oriental Orthodox churches. In these, when God
announces his intention of creating Adam, some of the angels express dismay,
asking why he would create a being that would do evil. Teaching Adam the
names reassures the angels as to Adam's abilities, though commentators
dispute which particular names were involved; various theories say they were
the names of all things animate and inanimate, the names of the angels, the
names of his own descendants, or the names of God.

When God orders the angels to bow to Adam one of those present, Shaytan
Iblis in Islam, a Djinn who said "why should I bow to man, I am made of pure
fire"), refuses due to his pride, and is summarily banished from the Heavens.
Liberal movements within Islam have viewed God's commanding the angels to
bow before Adam as an exaltation of humanity, and as a means of supporting
human rights, others view it as an act of showing Adam that the biggest enemy
of humans on earth will be their ego.[15]

More extended versions of the fall of Shaytan also exist in works such as that
of Tabari, and the Shia commentator al-Qummi. In these explanations Iblis is
sent against the jinn, who had angered God by sin and fighting. In such versions
where Satan leads the battle on God's behalf, rather than his own, it is the
pride and conceit resulting from his victory which results in his expulsion, since
pride is seen as a sin. Islamic traditions further record that, in vengeful anger,
Iblis promises God that he will lead as many humans astray as he can, to which
God replies that it is the choice of humans - those who so desire will follow
Satan, while those who so desire will follow God.

Eve is referred to in the Qur'an as Adam's spouse, and Islamic tradition refers
to her by an etymologically similar name - حواء (Hawwāʾ) . In fact, although her
creation is not recounted in the Qur'an, Tabari recounts the biblical tale of her
creation, stating that she was named because she was created from a living
thing (her name means living). The Torah gives an etymology for woman, or
rather the Hebrew equivalent (ish-shah), stating that she should be called
woman since she was taken out of man (ish in Hebrew). The etymology is
regarded as implausible by most Semitic linguists. The Quran blames both
Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit and as a punishment they were
both banished from Heaven to the Earth. Muslims therefore interpret that this
event does not pose a problem of women inferiority to men intrinsically. The
concept of original sin doesn't exist in Islam. Adam and Eve were forgiven
after they repented on Earth.

Al-Qummi records the opinion that Eden was not entirely earthly, and so,
having been sent to earth, Adam and Eve first arrived at mountain peaks
outside Mecca; Adam on Safa, and Eve on Marwa. In this Islamic tradition,
Adam remained weeping for 40 days, until he repented, at which point God
rewarded him by sending down the Kaaba, and teaching him the hajj.

The Qur'an also describes the two sons of Adam (named Qabil and Habil in
Islamic tradition) that correspond to Cain and Abel.

Eve is said in local folklore to be buried in "Eve Grave" in Jeddah, KSA.

According to some Islamic traditions, Adam is buried beneath the site of the
Kaaba in Mecca. Shi'a Muslims on the other hand, believe that Adam is buried
next to Ali, within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq.

As a theme in art and literature:
Adam and Eve by Titian
"Adam and Eve" by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Adam and Eve were used by early Renaissance artists as a theme to represent
female and male nudes. Later, the nudity was objected to by more modest
elements, and fig leaves were added to the older pictures and sculptures,
covering their genitals. The choice of the fig was a result of Mediterranean
traditions identifying the unnamed Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as
a fig tree, and since fig leaves were actually mentioned in Genesis as
being used to cover Adam and Eve's nudity.

Another issue was whether they should be depicted with navels (The Omphalos
theory). Since they were created fully grown, and did not develop in a uterus,
they would not have had the umbilical scars possessed by all born humans.
However, paintings without navels looked unnatural.

John Milton's Paradise Lost is a famous seventeenth century epic poem written
in blank verse which explores the story of Adam and Eve in great detail.

Notes:

^ H. Orlinski's Notes to the NJPS Torah, at blogspot "Voice of Iyov"
^ http://www.trinitarianbiblesociety.org/site/articles/trinity.asp Rev. T. H.
Brown, Trinitarian Bible Society]
^ H. Orlinski's Notes to the NJPS Torah, at blogspot "Voice of Iyov"
^ H. Orlinski's Notes to the NJPS Torah, at blogspot "Voice of Iyov"
^ http://voiceofiyov.blogspot.com/search/label/Torah H. Orlinski's Notes to the
NJPS Torah, at blogspot "Voice of Iyov"
^ http://voiceofiyov.blogspot.com/search/label/Torah H. Orlinski's Notes to the
NJPS Torah, at blogspot "Voice of Iyov"
^ http://voiceofiyov.blogspot.com/search/label/Torah H. Orlinski's Notes to the
NJPS Torah, at blogspot "Voice of Iyov"
^ http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/ot/pseudo/jubilee.htm Online
translation of Jubilees
^ For the meanings of tsela see Strong's H6763. For the reading "side" in place
of traditional "rib", see Reisenberger, Azila Talit. "The creation of Adam...."
in Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, 9/22/1993
(accessed 03-05-2008).
^ Romans 5:12
^ For a brief overview see Robin Lane Fox, "The Unauthorized Version",
1991, pp15-27 passim
^ Orthodox beliefs
^ Tertullian, "De Cultu Feminarum", Book I Chapter I, Modesty in Apparel
Becoming to Women in Memory of the Introduction of Sin Through a Woman
(in "The Ante-Nicene Fathers")
^ Manichaean beliefs
^ Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, Mizan, Lahore: Dar al-Ishraq, 2001

[edit] References
Mahmoud Ayoub, The Qur'an and its Interpreters, SUNY: Albany, 1984.
R. Patai, The Jewish Alchemists, Princeton University Press, 1994.
Fazale Rana and Ross, Hugh, Who Was Adam: A Creation Model Approach to
the Origin of Man, 2005, ISBN 1-57683-577-4
Sibylline Oracles, III; 24-6. This Greek acrostic also appears in 2 Enoch 30:13.
David Rohl, Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation, 1998
Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve
C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"
Adam Mackie, The Importance of being Adam - Alexo 1997 (only 2000 copies
published)
Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version, Penguin, 1991 (no ISBN available)
Also known the life saver or friend when you find them in the game, "Bioshock"

[edit] See also
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Adam and Eve
Look up adam and eve in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve (LDS Church)
Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
Creation myth
Garden of Eden
Generations of Adam
Mitochondrial Eve
Pre-Adamite
Biblical narratives and the Qur'an
Tree of Life
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
Y-chromosomal Adam
The Holy Bible

[
Tower of Babel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the Biblical story. For other uses, see Tower of Babel
(disambiguation).

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563)
Engraving The Confusion of Tongues by Gustave Doré (1865), who based his
conception on the Minaret of Samarra[citation needed]The Tower of Babel
(Hebrew: מגדל בבל‎ Migdal Bavel Arabic: برج بابل‎ Burj Babil) according to
chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built at the city of
Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon (Akkadian Babilu). According to the
biblical account, a united humanity, speaking a single language and migrating
from the east, took part in the building after the Great Flood; Babel was also
called the "beginning" of Nimrod's kingdom. The people decided their city
should have a tower so immense that it would have "its top in the heavens."
(וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם) However, the Tower of Babel was not built for the worship and
praise of God, but was dedicated to the glory of man, with a motive of making a
'name' for the builders: "Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city,
and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'"
(Genesis 11:4). God, seeing what the people were doing, confounded their
languages and scattered the people throughout the earth. It had been God's
original purpose for mankind to grow and fill the earth.

Babel is the Hebrew equivalent of Akkadian Babilu (Greek Babylon), a
cosmopolitan city typified by a confusion of languages.[1] The Tower of Babel
has often been associated with known structures, notably the Etemenanki, the
ziggurat to Marduk, by Nabopolassar (610s BC). A Sumerian story with some
similar elements is preserved in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.

Contents [hide]
1 Biblical narrative and themes
1.1 Narrative
1.2 Themes
2 Historical context
3 In other sources
3.1 Destruction
3.2 Etemenanki, the ziggurat at Babylon
3.3 Book of Jubilees
3.4 Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews
3.5 Greek Apocalypse of Baruch
3.6 Midrash
3.7 Kabbalah
3.8 Qur'an and Islamic traditions
3.9 Book of Mormon
3.10 Irish folklore
3.11 In Western culture
4 Comparable mythemes
4.1 Sumerian parallel
4.2 Towers
4.3 Multiplication of languages
5 Height of the tower
6 Enumeration of scattered languages
7 Use in conlangs
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 External links

Biblical narrative and themes:

German Late Medieval (ca. 1370s) depiction of the construction of the tower.
[edit] Narrative
The story is found in Genesis 11:1-9 (King James Version) as follows:

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it
came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the
land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let
us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and
slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a
tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came
down to see the city and the tower, which the children built. 6 And the Lord
said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they
begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have
imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that
they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them
abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the
city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there
confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter
them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The phrase Tower of Babel does not actually appear in the Bible; it is always,
"the city and its tower" (אֶת-הָעִיר וְאֶת-הַמִּגְדָּל) or just "the city" (הָעִיר).

Themes:

The story explains the origin of nations, of their languages, and of Babylon
(Babel). The story's theme of competition between the Lord and humans
appears elsewhere in Genesis, in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden.[1] The story displays the Lord's contempt for human pride.[1]

The traditional Judaeo-Christian interpretation, as found for example
in Flavius Josephus, explains the construction of the tower as a hubristic act of
defiance against God, ordered by the arrogant tyrant, Nimrod.

Historical context:

The Tower of Babel in the background of a depiction of the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon by Martin Heemskerck.The Greek form of the name is
from the native Akkadian Bāb-ilim, which means "Gate of the god". This
correctly summarizes the religious purpose of the great temple towers (the
ziggurats) of ancient Sumer (Biblical Shinar). In Genesis 10, Babel is said to
have formed part of Nimrod's kingdom. It is not specifically mentioned in the
Bible that he ordered the tower to be built, but Nimrod is often associated with
its construction in other sources. The Hebrew version of the name of the city
and the tower, Babel, is attributed in Gen. 11:9 to the verb balal, which means
to confuse or confound in Hebrew. The ruins of the city of Babylon are near
Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq.

The peoples listed in Chapter 10 of Genesis (the Table of Nations) are
stated by 11:8-9 to have been scattered over the face of the earth from Shinar
only after the abandonment of the Tower. Some see an internal contradiction
between the mention already in Genesis 10:5 that "From these the maritime
peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each
with his own language" and the subsequent Babel story, which begins "Now the
entire earth was of one language and uniform words" (Genesis 11:1).[2]
However, this view presupposes a rigid chronological sequence of 10:5 and 11:
1, whereas the Judeo-Christian interpretation is that 10:5 refers to the same
later scattering as mentioned more fully in 11:9.

In other sources:

Destruction:

The account in Genesis makes no mention of any destruction of the tower. The
people whose languages are confounded simply stop building their city, and are
scattered from there over the face of the Earth. However, in other
sources such as the Book of Jubilees (chapter 10 v.18-27), Cornelius Alexander
(frag. 10), Abydenus (frags. 5 and 6), Josephus (Antiquities 1.4.3), and the
Sibylline Oracles (iii. 117-129), God overturns the tower with a great wind. In
the Midrash, it said that the top of the tower was burnt, the bottom was
swallowed, and the middle was left standing to erode over time.

Etemenanki, the ziggurat at Babylon:

Reconstruction of the Etemenanki (total height 91 m)Main article: Etemenanki
Etemenanki (Sumerian: "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth") was
the name of a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk in the city of Babylon. It was
famously rebuilt by the 6th century BC Neo-Babylonian dynasty rulers
Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II. According to modern scholars such as
Stephen L. Harris, the biblical story of the Tower of Babel was
likely influenced by Etemenanki during the Babylonian captivity of the
Hebrews.

Nebuchadnezzar wrote that the original tower had been built in antiquity: "A
former king built the Temple of the Seven Lights of the Earth, but he did not
complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order
expressing their words. Since that time earthquakes and lightning
had dispersed its sun-dried clay; the bricks of the casing had split, and the earth
of the interior had been scattered in heaps."

The Greek historian Herodotus (440 BC) later wrote of this ziggurat, which he
called the "Temple of Zeus Belus", giving an account of its vast dimensions.

Book of Jubilees:

The Book of Jubilees contains one of the most detailed accounts found
anywhere of the Tower.

And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and
the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them
together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of
water in the land of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years were they
building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height [of a brick] was the third
of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and [the extent of one
wall was] thirteen stades [and of the other thirty stades]. (Jubilees 10:20-21,
Charles' 1913 translation)

The Book of Jubilees recounts Genesis and the first twelve chapters of Exodus,
elaborating on the text (similar to a Midrash). It is often categorized as one of
the Pseudepigrapha and dated to the late 2nd century BC[1], but it is still in the
canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church[3].

Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews:

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews (c 94 AD),
recounted history as found in the Hebrew Bible and mentioned the Tower of
Babel. He wrote that it was Nimrod who had the tower built and that Nimrod
was a tyrant who tried to turn the people away from God. In this account, God
confused the people rather than destroying them because destroying people
with a Flood hadn't taught them to be godly.

Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God.
He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great
strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were
through his means they were
happy, but to believe that it
was their own courage which
procured that happiness. He
also gradually changed the
government into tyranny,
seeing no other way of turning
men from the fear of God, but
to bring them into a constant
dependence on his power... Now
the multitude were very ready
to follow the determination of
Nimrod, and to esteem it a
piece of cowardice to submit to
God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree
negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in
it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it
was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed,
upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt
brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be
liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not
resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the
destruction of the former sinners [in the Flood]; but he caused a tumult among
them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the
multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one
another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because
of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the
Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion...

Greek Apocalypse of Baruch:

Third Apocalypse of Baruch (or 3 Baruch, c 2nd century), one of the
pseudepigrapha, describes the just rewards of sinners and the righteous in the
afterlife.[1] Among the sinners are those who instigated the Tower of Babel. In
the account, Baruch is first taken (in a vision) to see the resting place of the
souls of "those who built the tower of strife against God, and the
Lord banished them." Next he is shown another place, and there, occupying the
form of dogs,

Those who gave counsel to build the tower,
for they whom thou seest drove forth
multitudes of both men and women, to
make bricks; among whom, a woman
making bricks was not allowed to be
released in the hour of child-birth, but
brought forth while she was making bricks,
and carried her child in her apron, and
continued to make bricks. And the Lord appeared to them and confused their
speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty-
three cubits. And they took a gimlet, and sought to pierce the heavens, saying,
Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron. When
God saw this He did not permit them, but smote them with blindness and
confusion of speech, and rendered them as thou seest. (Greek Apocalypse of
Baruch, 3:5-8)

Midrash:

Rabbinic literature offers many different accounts of other causes for building
the Tower of Babel, and of the intentions of its builders. The Mishnah (the first
written record of the Jewish Oral Law, c 200 AD) describes the Tower as a
rebellion against God. Some later midrash record that the builders of the
Tower, called "the generation of secession" in the Jewish sources, said: "God
has no right to choose the upper world for Himself, and to leave the
lower world to us; therefore we will build us a tower, with an idol on the top
holding a sword, so that it may appear as if it intended to war with God" (Gen.
R. xxxviii. 7; Tan., ed. Buber, Noah, xxvii. et seq.).

The building of the Tower was meant to bid defiance not only to God, but also
to Abraham, who exhorted the builders to reverence. The passage mentions
that the builders spoke sharp words against God, not cited in the Bible, saying
that once every 1,656 years, heaven tottered so that the water poured down
upon the earth, therefore they would support it by columns that there might not
be another deluge (Gen. R. l.c.; Tan. l.c.; similarly Josephus, "Ant." i. 4, § 2).

Some among that sinful generation even wanted to war against God in heaven
(Talmud Sanhedrin 109a.) They were encouraged in this wild undertaking by
the notion that arrows which they shot into the sky fell back dripping with
blood, so that the people really believed that they could wage war against the
inhabitants of the heavens (Sefer ha-Yashar, Noah, ed. Leghorn, 12b).
According to Josephus and Midrash Pirke R. El. xxiv., it was mainly Nimrod
who persuaded his contemporaries to build the Tower, while other rabbinical
sources assert, on the contrary, that Nimrod separated from the builders.

Kabbalah:

Some Kabbalistic mystics provide intriguing and unusual descriptions of the
Tower of Babel. According to Menachem Tsioni, an Italian Torah commentator
of 15th century, the Tower was a functional flying craft, empowered by some
powerful magic or technology [4]; the device was originally intended for holy
purposes, but was later misused in order to gain control over the whole world.
Isaac of Acre wrote that the Tower builders had reached, or at least planned to
reach the distance of 2,360,000,000 parsas or 9-10 billion kilometers above the
Earth surface, which is about the radius of the Solar System, including most
Trans-Neptunian objects. [5]. Similar accounts are also found in the writing of
Jonathan Eybeschutz and the ancient book Brith Menuchah [6], according to
which the builders of the Tower planned to equip it with some shield technology
("shielding wings") and powerful weapons. Many Kabbalists believed that the
ancient peoples possessed magic knowledge of the Nephilim, which allowed
them to construct such powerful devices. Moreover, according to some
commentaries, some Talmudic sages possessed a manual for building such a
flying tower.

These accounts coincide with some of Zecharia Sitchin's speculations and the
ufological theories concerning the ancient Indian vimanas[citation needed].
According to another mysterious Kabbalistic account, one third of the Tower
builders were punished by being transformed into semi-demonic creatures and
banished into three parallel dimensions, inhabited now by their descendants [7].

Qur'an and Islamic traditions:

Though not mentioned by name, the Qur'an has a story with similarities to the
Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, though set in the Egypt of Moses. In Suras
28:38 and 40:36-37, Pharaoh asks Haman to build him a clay tower so that he
can mount up to heaven and confront the God of Moses.

Another story in Sura 2:102 mentions the name of Babil, but tells of when two
angels taught the people of Babylon the tricks of magic and warned them that
magic is a sin and that their teaching them magic is a test of faith. A tale about
Babil appears more fully in the writings of Yaqut (i, 448 f.) and the Lisan
el-'Arab (xiii. 72), but without the tower: mankind were swept together by
winds into the plain that was afterwards called "Babil", where they were
assigned their separate languages by Allah, and were then scattered again in
the same way.

In the History of the Prophets and Kings by the 9th century Muslim historian al-
Tabari, a fuller version is given: Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, Allah
destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly Syriac, is then confused into
72 languages. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, Abu al-
Fida relates the same story, adding that the patriarch Eber (an ancestor of
Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, Hebrew in this case,
because he would not partake in the building.

Book of Mormon:

In the Book of Mormon (a scriptural text of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints), a man named Jared and his family are warned by
God about the destruction of the tower. Because of their prayers, God
preserves their language and leads them across the sea into the Americas. See
the Book of Ether [1] in the Book of Mormon.

Irish folklore:

Irish texts such as Lebor Gabála Érenn and Auraicept na n-Éces claim that the
legendary king Fenius Farsa chose the best features of all the confused
languages and fused them together to create Goidelic, the forerunner of the
Irish language.

In Western culture:

Further information: confusion of tongues and origin of language
Historical linguistics has long wrestled with the idea of a single original
language. In the Middle Ages, and down to the 17th century, attempts were
made to identify a living descendent of the Adamic language, e.g. in the Irish
legend of Fenius Farsa.

Pieter Brueghel's influential portrayal is based on the Colosseum in Rome,
while later conical depictions of the tower (as depicted in Doré's illustration)
resemble much later Muslim towers observed by 19th century explorers in the
area, notably the Minaret of Samarra. M. C. Escher depicts a more stylized
geometrical structure in his woodcut representing the story.

In the musical Godspell, the Prologue is called "Tower of Babel" and
consists of the company assuming the roles of famous philosophers in history
(such as Socrates and Martin Luther) expressing controversial parts of their
philosophies, focusing on religion.

The science fiction novel Snow Crash posits that the original language worked
in a deeper part of the brain and, as such, is more susceptible to "viruses" such
as memes.

The LDS fiction novel "Tower of Thunder" (2003), by Chris Heimerdinger
(part of the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series), is based on the adventures of
modern Mormon teenagers traveling in the past, and much of the story takes
place around the Tower of Babel.

According to one modern legend, "sack" was the last word uttered before the
confusion of languages.[8]

Comparable mythemes:

Sumerian parallel:

There is a Sumerian myth similar to that of the Tower of Babel, called
Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, where Enmerkar of Uruk is building a
massive ziggurat in Eridu and demands a tribute of precious materials from
Aratta for its construction, at one point reciting an incantation imploring the
god Enki to restore (or in Kramer's translation, to disrupt) the linguistic
unity of the inhabited regions — named as Shubur, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki
(Akkad), and the Martu land, "the whole universe, the well-guarded people —
may they all address Enlil together in a single language."[9]

One recent theory first advanced by David Rohl associates Nimrod, the hunter,
builder of Erech and Babel, with Enmerkar (i.e., Enmer the Hunter) king of
Uruk, also said to have been the first builder of the Eridu temple. (Amar-Sin (c.
2046–2037 BC), third monarch of the Third Dynasty of Ur, later attempted to
complete the Eridu ziggurat.) This theory proposes that the remains of the
historical building that via Mesopotamian legend inspired the story of
the Tower of Babel are the ruins of the ziggurat of Eridu, just south of Ur.
Among the reasons for this association are the larger size of the ruins, the
older age of the ruins, and the fact that one title of Eridu was NUN.KI ("mighty
place"), which later became a title of Babylon[10]. Both cities also had temples
called the E-Sagila.

Towers:

Various traditions similar to that of the tower of Babel are found in Central
America. One holds that Xelhua, one of the seven giants rescued from the
deluge, built the Great Pyramid of Cholula in order to storm Heaven. The gods
destroyed it with fire and confounded the language of the builders. The
Dominican friar Diego Duran (1537-1588) reported hearing this account from a
hundred-year-old priest at Cholula, shortly after the conquest of Mexico.

Another story, attributed by the native historian Don Ferdinand d'Alva
Ixtilxochitl (c. 1565-1648) to the ancient Toltecs, states that after men had
multiplied following a great deluge, they erected a tall zacuali or tower, to
preserve themselves in the event of a second deluge. However, their languages
were confounded and they went to separate parts of the earth.

Still another story, attributed to the Tohono O'odham Indians, holds that
Montezuma escaped a great flood, then became wicked and attempted to build
a house reaching to heaven, but the Great Spirit destroyed it with thunderbolts.
(Bancroft, vol. 3, p.76; also in History of Arizona)

According to Dr Livingstone, the Africans whom he met living near
Lake Ngami in 1849 had such a tradition, but with the builders' heads getting
"cracked by the fall of the scaffolding" (Missionary Travels, chap. 26).

In his 1918 book, Folklore in the Old Testament, Scottish social anthropologist
Sir James George Frazer documented similarities between Old Testament
stories, such as the Flood, and indigenous legends around the world. He
identified Livingston's account with a tale found in Lozi mythology,
wherein the wicked men build a tower of masts to pursue the Creator-God,
Nyambe, who has fled to Heaven on a spider-web, but the men perish when the
masts collapse. He further relates similar tales of the Ashanti that substitute a
pile of porridge pestles for the masts. Frazer moreover cites such legends
found among the Kongo people, as well as in Tanzania, where the men stack
poles or trees in a failed attempt to reach the moon [11]. He further cited the
Karbi and Kuki people of Assam as having a similar story. The traditions of the
Karen people of Myanmar, which Frazer considered to show clear 'Abrahamic'
influence, also relate that their ancestors migrated there following the
abandonment of a great pagoda in the land of the Karenni 30 generations from
Adam, when the languages were confused and the Karen separated from the
Karenni. He notes yet another version current in the Admiralty Islands where
mankind's languages are confused following a failed attempt to build houses
reaching to heaven. Some of these stories were later revealed to have derived
recently from Christian missionary teaching.

Traces of a somewhat similar story have also been reported among the Tharus
of Nepal and northern India (Report of the Census of Bengal, 1872, p. 160).

Multiplication of languages:

There have also been a number of traditions around the world that describe a
divine confusion of the one original language into several, albeit without any
tower. Aside from the Ancient Greek myth that Hermes confused the
languages, causing Zeus to give his throne to Phoroneus, Frazer specifically
mentions such accounts among the Wasania of Kenya, the Kacha Naga people
of Assam, the inhabitants of Encounter Bay in Australia, the Maidu of
California, the Tlingit of Alaska, and the K'iche' of Guatemala [12]. (See also:
Mythical origins of language)

The Estonian myth of "the Cooking of Languages" [13] has also been
compared.

Height of the tower:

The narrative in the book of Genesis does not mention how tall the Biblical
tower was, but the tower's height is discussed in various extra-canonical
sources.

The Book of Jubilees mentions the tower's height as being 5433 cubits and 2
palms, or nearly 2.5 kilometers (about 1.55 miles). The Third Apocalypse of
Baruch mentions that the 'tower of strife' reached a height of 463 cubits (696
feet or 212 meters), taller than any structure built in human history until the
construction of the Eiffel Tower (1,063 feet or 324 meters) in 1889.

Gregory of Tours (I, 6) writing ca. 594, quotes the earlier historian Orosius (ca.
417) as saying the tower was "laid out foursquare on a very level plain. Its wall,
made of baked brick cemented with pitch, is fifty cubits wide, two
hundred high, and four hundred and seventy stades in circumference. A stade
contains five agripennes. Twenty-five gates are situated on each side, which
make in all one hundred. The doors of these gates, which are of wonderful size,
are cast in bronze. The same historian [Orosius] tells many other tales of this
city, and says: 'Although such was the glory of its building still it was conquered
and destroyed.'"

A typical mediaeval account is given by Giovanni Villani (1300): He
relates that "it measured eighty miles round, and it was already 4,000 paces
high (5,920 m (19,423 ft)) and 1,000 paces thick, and each pace is three of our
feet." [14]. The 14th century traveler John Mandeville also included an
account of the tower, and reported that its height had been 64 furlongs (= 8
miles), according to the local inhabitants.

The 17th century historian Verstegan provides yet another figure - quoting
Isidore, he says that the tower was 5164 paces high, about 7.6 kilometers, and
quoting Josephus that the tower was wider than it was high, more like a
mountain than a tower. He also quotes unnamed authors who say that the spiral
path was so wide that it contained lodgings for workers and animals, and other
authors who claim that the path was wide enough to have fields for growing
grain for the animals used in the construction.

In his book, Structures or why things don't fall down (Pelican 1978–1984),
Professor J.E. Gordon considers the height of the Tower of Babel. He wrote,
'brick and stone weigh about 120 lb per cubic foot (2000 kg per cubic metre)
and the crushing strength of these materials is generally rather better than
6000 lbf per square inch or 40 megapascals. Elementary arithmetic shows
that a tower with parallel walls could have been built to a height of 7000 feet or
2 kilometres before the bricks at the bottom were crushed. However by
making the walls taper towards the top they ... could well have been built to a
height where the men of Shinnar would run short of oxygen and had difficulty in
breathing before the brick walls crushed beneath their own dead weight."

Enumeration of scattered languages:

There are several mediaeval historiographic accounts that attempt to make an
enumeration of the languages scattered at the Tower of Babel. Because
a count of all the descendants of Noah listed by name in chapter 10 of Genesis
(LXX) provides 15 names for Japheth's descendants, 30 for Ham's, and 27 for
Shem's, these figures became established as the 72 languages resulting
from the confusion at Babel — although the exact listing of these languages
tended to vary over time. (The LXX Bible has two additional names, Elisa and
Cainan, not found in the Masoretic text of this chapter, so early rabbinic
traditions such as the Mishna speak instead of "70 languages".) Some of the
earliest sources for 72 (sometimes 73) languages are the 2nd century Christian
writers Clement of Alexandria (Stromata I, 21) and Hippolytus of Rome (On
the Psalms 9); it is repeated in the Syriac book Cave of Treasures (c. AD 350),
Epiphanius of Salamis' Panarion (c. 375) and St. Augustine's The City of God
16.6 (c. 410). The chronicles attributed to Hippolytus (c. 234) contain one of the
first attempts to list each of the 72 peoples who were believed to have spoken
these languages.

Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae (c. 600) mentions the number of 72,
however his list of names from the Bible drops the sons of Joktan and
substitutes the sons of Abraham and Lot, resulting in only about 56
names total; he then appends a list of some of the nations known in his own
day, such as the Longobards and the Franks. This listing was to prove quite
influential on later accounts which made the Lombards and Franks themselves
into descendants of eponymous grandsons of Japheth, eg. the Historia
Brittonum (c. 833), The Meadows of Gold by al Masudi (c. 947) and Book of
Roads and Kingdoms by al-Bakri (1068), the 11th cent. Lebor Gabála Érenn,
and the midrashic compilations Yosippon (c. 950), Chronicles of Jerahmeel, and
Sefer haYashar.

Other sources that mention 72 (or 70) languages scattered from Babel are the
Old Irish poem Cu cen mathair by Luccreth moccu Chiara (c. 600); the Irish
monastic work Auraicept na n-Éces; History of the Prophets and Kings by the
Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915); the Anglo-Saxon
dialogue Solomon and Saturn; the Russian Primary Chronicle (c. 1113); the
Jewish Kabbalistic work Bahir (1174); the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (c.
1200); the Syriac Book of the Bee (c. 1221); the Gesta Hunnorum et
Hungarorum (c. 1284; mentions 22 for Shem, 31 for Ham and 17 for
Japheth for a total of 70); Villani's 1300 account; and the rabbinic Midrash ha-
Gadol (14th c.). Villani adds that it "was begun 700 years after the Flood, and
there were 2,354 years from the beginning of the world to the confusion of the
Tower of Babel. And we find that they were 107 years working at it; and men
lived long in those times". According to the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum,
however, the project was begun only 200 years following the Deluge.

The tradition of 72 languages persisted into later times. Both José de Acosta in
his 1576 treatise De procuranda indorum salute, and António Vieira a century
later in his Sermão da Epifania, expressed amazement at how much this
'number of tongues' could be surpassed, there being hundreds of mutually
unintelligible languages indigenous only to Peru and Brazil, respectively.

Use in conlangs:

In the culture of Constructed languages (conlangs), the Tower of
Babel passage is traditionally translated as one of the first rites of passage of a
new conlang.

The Tower is also used as a symbol, as in the Conlang Flag (right), the cover of
Umberto Eco's The Search for the Perfect Language, and the Language
Creation Society seal.

See also:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tower of Babel
Babel fish
Babylonia
Borsippa
Linguistic divergence
Origin of language
The Tower (Tarot card), a Tarot trump or "Major Arcana" card
Sons of Noah
Space tower
The Tower of Babel (Brueghel)
Tower of Babel (M. C. Escher)
Diana Al-Hadid

Notes:

^ a b c d e Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield.
1985.
^ http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/babel.html
^ The Book of Jubilees, translated by R. H. Charles
^ http://www.seforimonline.org/unsorted/%d7%a6%d7%99%d7%95%d7%
a0%d7%99.pdf
^ http://www.seforimonline.org/unsorted/%d7%9e%d7%90%d7%99%d7%
a8%d7%aa%20%d7%a2%d7%99%d7%a0%d7%99%d7%9d.pdf
^ http://www.hebrew.grimoar.cz/merimon_sefardi/berit_menucha.htm
^ The Inhabitants of the Seven Earths - Vol. 1 - Legends of the Jews - Louis
Ginzberg
^ Entry on "Sack" in Betty Kirkpatrick (ed), Brewer's Concise Dictionary of
Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1992.
^ 145f.: an-ki ningin2-na ung3 sang sig10-ga den-lil2-ra eme 1-am3 he2-en-na-
da-ab-dug4.
^ Rohl, David. Legend: The Genesis of Civilization, 1998.
^ Frazer, Folk-Lore in the Old Testament(1918), chap. 5.
^ Folk-lore in the Old Testament by James George Frazer, p. 384 ff.
^ Kohl, Reisen in die 'Ostseeprovinzen, ii. 251-255
^ Selections from Giovanni's Chronicle in English.

References:

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh
Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Pr. Diego Duran, Historia Antiqua de la Nueva Espana (Madrid, 1585)
Ixtilxochitl, Don Ferdinand d'Alva, Historia Chichimeca, 1658
Lord Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, vol. 9
H.H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States (New York, 1874)
Klaus Seybold, Der Turmbau zu Babel: Zur Entstehung von Genesis XI 1-9,
Vetus Testamentum (1976).
Samuel Noah Kramer, The "Babel of Tongues": A Sumerian Version, Journal
of the American Oriental Society (1968).

External links:

The Encyclopedia of Babel - collection of references to Babel in history, arts
and literature
Genesis 11 (KJV) (biblegateway.com)
The Tower of Babel from the Brick Testament.
Babel In Biblia: The Tower in Ancient Literature by Jim Rovira
Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel?-Christian Source.
Our People: A History of the Jews - The Tower of Babel
Livius.org: The tower of Babel
Tower of Babel - as envisioned by science fiction artist Frank Wu.
Virtual Tower of Babel The tower of Century XXI.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel"
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Ancient history
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"Ancient" redirects here. For other uses, see Ancient (disambiguation). The
times before writing belong either to protohistory or to prehistory.
Ancient history

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Ancient Near East

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Ancient history is the study of the written past[1] from the beginning of
recorded human history in the Old World until the Early Middle Ages[2] in
Europe and the Qin Dynasty in China.[3]

The period following these events includes the Imperial era in China[4] and the
period of the Middle Kingdoms in India;[5][6][7] The span of recorded history
altogether is roughly 5,000 years, with Sumerian cuneiform emerging from the
protoliterate period around the 30th century BC[8] being the oldest form of
writing discovered so far. This is the beginning of history, as opposed to
prehistory, according to the definition used by most historians.[9]

The term classical antiquity is often used to refer to ancient history since the
beginning of recorded Greek history in about 776 BC (First Olympiad). This
coincides, roughly, with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC,
the beginning of the history of ancient Rome. Although the ending date of
ancient history is disputed, Western scholars use the fall of the Western Roman
Empire in AD 476,[10][11] or the death of the emperor Justinian I,[12] or the
coming of Islam[13] and the rise of Charlemagne[14] as the end of ancient
European history.

Contents [hide]
1 The study of ancient history
1.1 Archaeology
1.2 Source text
2 Chronology
2.1 Prehistory
2.2 Timeline of Ancient History
2.2.1 Middle to Late Bronze Age
2.2.2 Early Iron Age
2.2.3 Classical Antiquity
2.2.3.1 Before the Common Era
2.2.3.1.1 Early ancient history
2.2.3.1.2 Late ancient history
2.2.3.2 In the Common Era
2.3 End of Classical Antiquity
3 Prominent ancient historical civilizations
3.1 Southwest Asia (Near East)
3.1.1 Mesopotamia
3.1.2 Persia
3.1.3 Anatolia and Armenia
3.1.4 Arabia
3.1.5 Levant
3.2 North Africa
3.2.1 Egypt
3.2.2 Northeast Africa
3.2.3 Carthage
3.3 South Asia
3.4 East Asia
3.4.1 China
3.4.1.1 Ancient Era
3.4.1.2 Spring and Autumn
3.4.1.3 Warring States
3.4.2 Japan
3.4.3 Korea
3.4.4 Vietnam
3.4.5 Mongols
3.4.6 Huns
3.5 Mediterranean Europe
3.5.1 Etruria
3.5.2 Phoenicians
3.5.3 Classical Antiquity
3.5.3.1 Greece
3.5.3.2 Rome
3.5.3.3 Late Antiquity
3.5.4 Germanic tribes
4 Religion and philosophy
5 Ancient science and technology
6 Ancient maritime activity
7 Ancient warfare
8 Ancient artwork and music
9 Protohistorical cultures in the New World
10 See also
11 References
11.1 Citations and notes
11.2 General Information
11.3 See Also
12 External links
12.1 Directories
12.2 General information
12.3 Videos

[edit] The study of ancient history
The fundamental difficulty of studying ancient history is the fact that only a
fraction of it has been documented and only a fraction of those recorded
histories have survived into the present day.[15] It is also imperative to
consider the reliability of the information obtained from these records.[15][16]
Literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of
ancient history, so there were few people capable of writing histories.[17] Even
those written histories which were produced were not widely distributed; the
ancients, not having the luxury of a printing press had to make copies of books
by hand.

The Roman Empire was one of the ancient world's most literate cultures,[18]
but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. For example,
Livy, a Roman historian who lived in the 1st century BC, wrote a history of
Rome called Ab Urbe Condita ("From the Founding of the City") in 144
volumes; only 35 volumes still exist, although short summaries of most of the
rest do exist. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian
has survived.

Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the
ancient world: archaeology and the study of source texts. Primary sources have
been described as those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea
under study.[19][20] Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary
sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources.[21]

Archaeological field surveys
Reasons that an area undergoes an archaeological field survey.

Artifacts found: Locals have picked up artifacts.
Literary sources: Old literary sources have provided archaeologists with clues
about settlement locations that have not been archaeologically documented.
Oral sources: In many locations, local stories contain some hint of a greater
past, and there is often some truth to them.
Local knowledge: In many cases, locals actually know where to find something
that is of interest to archaeologists.
Previous surveys: In some places, a survey was carried out in the past, and is
recorded in an obscure academic journal.
Previous excavations: Excavations carried out before the middle of the 20th
century are notoriously poorly documented.
Lack of knowledge: Many areas of the world have little known about the
nature and organisation of past human activity.

[edit] Archaeology
Main article: Archaeology
Archaeology is the excavation and study of artifacts in an effort to interpret
and reconstruct past human behavior.[22][23][24][25] In the study of ancient
history, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as
to how the people of the time period lived. Some important discoveries by
archaeologists studying ancient history include:

The Egyptian pyramids:[26] giant tombs built by the ancient Egyptians
beginning around 2600 BC as the final resting places of their royalty.
The study of the ancient cities of Harappa(Pakistan),[27][28] Mohenjo-daro
(Pakistan),[29] and Lothal[30] in South Asia.
The city of Pompeii:[31] an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a
volcano in AD 79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a valuable
window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the
Etruscans and the Samnites.[32]
The Terracotta Army:[33] the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient
China.
The Grand Anicut, also known as the Kallanai, is an ancient dam built on the
Kaveri River in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India.

[edit] Source text
Main article: Source text
Perhaps most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the
accounts of antiquity's own historians. Although it is important to take into
account the bias of each ancient author, their accounts, are the basis for our
understanding of the ancient past. Some of the more notable ancient writers
include Herodotus, Josephus, Livy, Polybius, Sallust, Suetonius, Tacitus,
Thucydides, and Sima Qian.

[edit] Chronology

[edit] Prehistory
Main article: Prehistory
Prehistory is a term often used to describe the period before written history.
The early human migrations[34] patterns in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo
erectus spreads across Eurasia. The controlled use of fire from ca.
800 thousand years ago occurred. Near c. 250 thousand years ago, Homo
sapiens evolves in Africa. Around c. 70–60 thousand years ago, modern humans
migrate out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and
reach Australia. About c. 50 thousand years ago, modern humans spread from
Asia to the Near East. Followed by c. 40 thousand years ago, in which Europe
was first reached by modern humans. By c. 15 thousand years ago, the
migration to the New World occurred.

In the 10th millennium BC, Invention of agriculture is the earliest given
date for the beginning of the ancient era. In the 7th millennium BC, Jiahu
culture began in China. By the 5th millennium BC, the late Neolithic
civilizations saw the invention of the wheel and spread of proto-writing. In the
4th millennium BC, the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the Ukraine-Moldova-
Romania region develops. By 3400 BC, "proto-literate" Sumerian cuneiform is
spread in the Middle East.[35] The 30th century BC, referred to as the Early
Bronze Age II, saw the beginning of the literate period in Sumer and Ancient
Egypt arise. Around ca. 27th century BC, the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the
First Dynasty of Uruk are founded, according to the earliest reliable regnal
eras.

[edit] Timeline of Ancient History
Main article: Timeline of Ancient history

Brief ancient chronology
(Common Era years in astronomical year numbering)

[edit] Middle to Late Bronze Age
The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system. In this system, it follows
the Neolithic in some areas of the world. In the 24th century BC, Akkadian
Empire[36][37] In the 22nd century BC, the First Intermediate Period of Egypt
occurred The time between the 21st to 17th centuries BC around the Nile has
been denoted as Middle Kingdom of Egypt. In the 21st century BC, the
Sumerian Renaissance occurs. By the 18th century, the Second Intermediate
Period of Egypt begins.

By 1600 BC, Mycenaean Greece begins to develop. Also by 1600 BC, the
beginning of Shang Dynasty in China emerges and there is evidence of a fully
developed Chinese writing system. Around 1600 BC, the beginning of Hittite
dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean region is seen. The time between the
16th to 11th centuries around the Nile is called the New Kingdom of Egypt.
Between 1550 BC and 1292 BC, the Amarna period occurs.

[edit] Early Iron Age
The Iron Age is the last principal period in the three-age system, preceded by
the Bronze Age. Its date and context vary depending on the country or
geographical region. During the 13th to 12th centuries, the Ramesside Period
occurred. Around c. 1200 BC, the Trojan War was thought to have taken place.
[38] By c. 1180 BC, the disintegration of Hittite Empire was underway.

In 1046 BC, the Zhou force, led by King Wu of Zhou, overthrows the last
king of Shang Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty is established in China shortly
thereafter. In 1000 BC, the Mannaeans Kingdom begins. Around the 10th to
7th centuries, the Neo-Assyrian Empire forms. In 800 BC, the rise of Greek
city-states begins. In 776 BC, the first recorded Olympic Games are held. The
Ancient Olympic Games origins are unknown, but several legends and myths
have survived.

[edit] Classical Antiquity
Main article: Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history, with a
focus on the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

[edit] Before the Common Era

[edit] Early ancient history
753 BC: Founding of Rome (traditional date)
745 BC: Tiglath-Pileser III becomes the new king of Assyria. With time he
conquers neighboring countries and turns Assyria into an empire
728 BC: Rise of the Median Empire
722 BC: Spring and Autumn Period begins in China; Zhou Dynasty's power is
diminishing; the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought
700 BC: the construction of Marib Dam in Arabia Felix
653 BC: Rise of Persian Empire
612 BC: Attributed date of the destruction of Nineveh and subsequent fall of
Assyria.
600 BC: Sixteen Maha Janapadas ("Great Realms" or "Great Kingdoms")
emerge. A number of these Maha Janapadas are semi-democratic republics.
c. 600 BC: Pandyan kingdom in South India
563 BC: Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), founder of Buddhism is born as
a prince of the Shakya tribe, which ruled parts of Magadha, one of the Maha
Janapadas
551 BC: Confucius, founder of Confucianism, is born
550 BC: Foundation of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great
549 BC: Mahavira, founder of Jainism is born
546 BC: Cyrus the Great overthrows Croesus King of Lydia
544 BC: Rise of Magadha as the dominant power under Bimbisara.
539 BC: The Fall of the Babylonian Empire and liberation of the Jews by Cyrus
the Great
529 BC: Death of Cyrus
525 BC: Cambyses II of Persia conquers Egypt
c. 512 BC: Darius I (Darius the Great) of Persia, subjugates eastern Thrace,
Macedonia submits voluntarily, and annexes Libya, Persian Empire at largest
extent
509 BC: Expulsion of the last King of Rome, founding of Roman Republic
(traditional date)
508 BC: Democracy instituted at Athens

Eastern Hemisphere in 500 BC.500 BC: Panini standardizes the grammar and
morphology of Sanskrit in the text Ashtadhyayi. Panini's standardized Sanskrit
is known as Classical Sanskrit
500 BC: Pingala uses zero and binary numeral system
490 BC: Greek city-states defeat Persian invasion at Battle of Marathon
480 BC: Invasion of Greece by Xerxes; Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis
475 BC: Warring States Period begins in China as the Zhou king became
a mere figurehead; China is annexed by regional warlords
469 BC: Birth of Socrates
465 BC: Murder of Xerxes
460 BC: First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta
447 BC: Building of the Parthenon at Athens started
424 BC: Nanda dynasty comes to power.
404 BC: End of Peloponnesian War between the Greek city-states

[edit] Late ancient history
331 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of
Gaugamela
326 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Indian king Porus in the Battle of the
Hydaspes River.

Eastern Hemisphere in 323BC.323 BC: Death of Alexander the Great at
Babylon
321 BC: Chandragupta Maurya overthrows the Nanda Dynasty of Magadha.
305 BC: Chandragupta Maurya seizes the satrapies of Paropanisadai (Kabul),
Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Qanadahar) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan)from Seleucus
I Nicator, the Macedonian satrap of Babylonia, in return for 500 elephants.
273 BC: Ashoka the Great becomes the emperor of the Mauryan Empire
257 BC: Thục Dynasty takes over Việt Nam (then Kingdom of Âu Lạc)
250 BC: Rise of Parthia (Ashkâniân), the second native dynasty of ancient
Persia
232 BC: Death of Emperor Ashoka the Great; Decline of the Mauryan Empire
230 BC: Emergence of Satavahanas in South India
221 BC: Qin Shi Huang unifies China, end of Warring States Period; marking
the beginning of Imperial rule in China which lasts until 1912. Construction of
the Great Wall by the Qin Dynasty begins.
207 BC: Kingdom of Nan Yueh extends from North Việt Nam to Canton
202 BC: Han Dynasty established in China, after the death of Qin Shi Huang;
China in this period started to open trading connections with the West, i.e. the
Silk Road
202 BC: Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal at Battle of Zama

Eastern Hemisphere in 200BC.c. 200 BC: Chera dynasty in South India
185 BC: Sunga Empire founded.
149 BC–146: Third and final Punic War; destruction of Carthage by Rome
146 BC: Roman conquest of Greece, see Roman Greece
140 BC: China was officially made a Confucian state by the imperial
examination of Han Wu Di.
111 BC: First Chinese domination of Việt Nam in the form of the Nanyue
Kingdom.

Eastern Hemisphere in 100 BC.c. 100 BC: Chola dynasty rises in prominence.
49 BC: Roman Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great
44 BC: Julius Caesar murdered by Marcus Brutus and others; End of Roman
Republic; beginning of Roman Empire
6 BC: Earliest theorized date for birth of Jesus of Nazareth
4 BC: Widely accepted date (Ussher) for birth of Jesus Christ

[edit] In the Common Era

World in 1.9: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Imperial Roman Army's
bloodiest defeat
14: Death of Emperor Augustus (Octavian), ascension of his adopted son
Tiberius to the throne
29: Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
68: Year of the four emperors in Rome
70: Destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Titus.

World in 100.117: Roman Empire at largest extent under Emperor Trajan
192: Kingdom of Champa in Central Việt Nam

Eastern Hemisphere in 200 AD.200s: The Buddhist Srivijaya Empire
established in the Malay Archipelago.
220: Three Kingdoms period begins in China after the fall of Han Dynasty.
226: Fall of the Parthian Empire and Rise of the Sassanian Empire
238: Defeat of Gordian III (238–244), Philip the Arab (244–249), and Valerian
(253–260), by Shapur I of Persia, (Valerian was captured by the Persians).
280: Emperor Wu established Jin Dynasty providing a temporary unity
of China after the devastating Three Kingdoms period.
285: Emperor Diocletian splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western
Empires

World in 300.313: Edict of Milan declared that the Roman Empire would be
neutral toward religious worship
335: Samudragupta becomes the emperor of the Gupta empire
378: Battle of Adrianople, Roman army is defeated by the Germanic tribes
395: Roman Emperor Theodosius I outlaws all pagan religions in favour of
Christianity
410: Alaric I sacks Rome for the first time since 390 BC
c. 455: Skandagupta repels an Indo-Hephthalite attack on India.
476: Romulus Augustus, last Western Roman Emperor is forced to abdicate by
Odoacer, a half Hunnish and half Scirian chieftain of the Germanic Heruli;
Odoacer returns the imperial regalia to Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno in
Constantinople in return for the title of dux of Italy; most frequently cited date
for the end of ancient history

[edit] End of Classical Antiquity
The transition period from Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages is
known as Late Antiquity. Some key dates marking that transition are:

293: reforms of Roman Emperor Diocletian
395: the division of Roman Empire into the Western Roman Empire and
Eastern Roman Empire

Eastern Hemisphere in 476 AD.476: the fall of Western Roman Empire
529: closure of Platon Academy in Athens by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I
The beginning of the Middle Ages is a period in the history of Europe following
the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD
500 to 1000. Aspects of continuity with the earlier classical period
are discussed in greater detail under the heading "Late Antiquity". Late
Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional
centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe
and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's
Crisis of the Third Century (c. 284) to the Islamic conquests and the re-
organization of the Byzantine Empire under Heraclius.

[edit] Prominent ancient historical civilizations

[edit] Southwest Asia (Near East)
Main article: Ancient Near East
The Ancient Near East is considered the cradle of civilization. It was the
first to practice intensive year-round agriculture; it gave the rest of the world
the first writing system, invented the potter's wheel and then the vehicular-
and mill wheel, created the first centralized governments, law codes and
empires, as well as introducing social stratification, slavery and organized
warfare, and it laid the foundation for the fields of astronomy and mathematics.

[edit] Mesopotamia
Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia, is one of the earliest known
civilizations in the world. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the
Ubaid period (late 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th millennium
BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Babylon in
the early 2nd millennium BC. The term "Sumerian" applies to all speakers of
the Sumerian language. Although other cities pre-date Sumer (Jericho,
Çatalhöyük and others, either for seasonal protection, or as year-round trading
posts) the cities of Sumer were the first to practice intensive, year-round
agriculture (from ca. 5300 BC). The surplus of storable foodstuffs created by
this economy allowed the population to settle in one place instead of migrating
after crops and herds. It also allowed for a much greater population
density, and in turn required an extensive labor force and division of labor. This
organization led to the necessity of record keeping and the development of
writing (ca. 3500 BC).

Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq),
with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi (fl. ca. 1728 –
1686 BC (short chronology) created an empire out of the territories of the
former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad. The Amorites being a Semitic people,
Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, and
retained the Sumerian language for religious use, which by that time was no
longer a spoken language. The Akkadian and Sumerian cultures played a major
role in later Babylonian culture, and the region would remain an important
cultural center, even under outside rule. The earliest mention of the city of
Babylon can be found in a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad,
dating back to the 23rd century BC.

Neo-Babylonian, or the Chaldean, was Babylonia under the rule of the 11th
("Chaldean") dynasty, from the revolt of Nabopolassar in 626 BC until the
invasion of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, notably including the reign of
Nebuchadrezzar II.

Akkad was a city and its surrounding region in central Mesopotamia. Akkad
also became the capital of the Akkadian Empire.[39] The city was probably
situated on the west bank of the Euphrates, between Sippar and Kish (in
present-day Iraq, about 50 km (31 mi) southwest of the center of Baghdad).
Despite an extensive search, the precise site has never been found. Akkad
reached the height of its power between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC,
following the conquests of king Sargon of Akkad. Because of the policies of the
Akkadian Empire toward linguistic assimilation, Akkad also gave its name to
the predominant Semitic dialect: the Akkadian language, reflecting use of
akkadû ("in the language of Akkad") in the Old Babylonian period to denote
the Semitic version of a Sumerian text.

Assyria was originally (in the Middle Bronze Age) a region on the Upper Tigris
river, named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur. Later, as a nation
and empire that came to control all of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and much of
Anatolia, the term "Assyria proper" referred to roughly the northern half of
Mesopotamia (the southern half being Babylonia), with Nineveh as its capital.
The Assyrian kings controlled a large kingdom at three different times in
history. These are called the Old (20th to 15th c. BC), Middle (15th to 10th c.
BC), and Neo-Assyrian (911–612 BC) kingdoms, or periods, of which the last is
the most well known and best documented. Assyrians invented excavation to
undermine city walls, battering rams to knock down gates, as well as the
concept of a corps of engineers, who bridged rivers with pontoons or provided
soldiers with inflatable skins for swimming.[40]

Mitanni was an Indo-Iranian[41] empire in northern Mesopotamia from
ca. 1500 BC. At the height of Mitanni power, during the 14th century BC, it
encompassed what is today southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern
Iraq, centered around its capital, Washukanni, whose precise location has not
been determined by archaeologists.

For more details on this topic, see Mesopotamia and the History of Iraq

[edit] Persia
Main article: Persia
Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest
Iran. Archaeological evidence associated with Elam has been dated to before
5000 BC.[42][43][44][45][46][47][48] According to available written records, it
is known to have existed beginning from around 3200 BC — making it among
the world's oldest historical civilizations — and to have endured up until 539
BC. Its culture played a crucial role in the Gutian Empire, especially during the
Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it, when the Elamite language remained
among those in official use. The Elamite period is considered a starting
point for the history of Iran.

The Medes were an ancient Iranian people. By the 6th century BC,
after having together with the Chaldeans defeated the Neo-Assyrian Empire,
the Medes were able to establish their own empire. The Medes are credited
with the foundation of the first Iranian empire, the largest of its day until Cyrus
the Great established a unified Iranian empire of the Medes and Persians,
often referred to as the Achaemenid Persian Empire, by defeating his
grandfather and overlord, Astyages the king of Media.

The Achaemenid Empire was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over
significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Median Empire as the
second great empire of the Iranian Peoples. The empire was forged by Cyrus
the Great. It is noted in western history as the foe of the Greek city states in
the Greco-Persian Wars, for freeing the Israelites from their Babylonian
captivity, and for instituting Aramaic as the empire's official language. Because
of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, Persian influence upon the
language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law and government of nations
around the world lasts to this day. At the height of its power, the Achaemenid
Empire encompassed approximately 7.5 million square kilometers and was
territorially the largest empire of classical antiquity.

Parthia was an Iranian civilization situated in the northeastern part of modern
Iran. Their power was based on a combination of the guerrilla warfare of a
mounted nomadic tribe, with organizational skills to build and administer a vast
empire — even though it never matched in power and extent the Persian
empires that preceded and followed it. The Parthian empire was led by the
Arsacid dynasty, which reunited and ruled over the Iranian plateau, after
defeating and disposing the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, beginning in the late
3rd century BC, and intermittently controlled Mesopotamia between 150 BC
and 224 AD. It was the third native dynasty of ancient Iran (after the Median
and the Achaemenid dynasties). Parthia had many wars with the Roman
Empire.

The Sassanid Empire, lasting the length of the Late Antiquity period, is
considered to be one of Iran's most important and influential historical periods.
In many ways the Sassanid period witnessed the highest achievement
of Persian civilization, and constituted the last great Iranian Empire before the
Muslim conquest and adoption of Islam.[citation needed] Persia influenced
Roman civilization considerably during the Sassanids' times,[49] and the
Romans reserved for the Sassanid Persians alone the status of equals. Their
cultural influence extended far beyond the empire's territorial borders,
reaching as far as Western Europe,[50] Africa,[51] China and India[52] and
played a prominent role in the formation of both European and
Asiatic medieval art.[53]

For more details on this topic, see Persian Empire and the History of Iran

[edit] Anatolia and Armenia
The early history of the Hittite empire is known through tablets that may first
have been written in the 17th century BC but survived only as copies made in
the 14th and 13th centuries BC. These tablets, known collectively as the Anitta
text,[54] begin by telling how Pithana the king of Kussara or Kussar (a small
city-state yet to be identified by archaeologists) conquered the neighbouring
city of Neša (Kanesh). However, the real subject of these tablets is Pithana's
son Anitta, who continued where his father left off and conquered several
neighbouring cities, including Hattusa and Zalpuwa (Zalpa).

Assyrian inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (ca. 1270 BC) first mention Uruartri as
one of the states of Nairi – a loose confederation of small kingdoms and tribal
states in Armenian Highland in the 13th - 11th centuries BC. Uruartri itself was
in the region around Lake Van. The Nairi states were repeatedly subjected to
attacks by the Assyrians, especially under Tukulti-Ninurta I (ca. 1240 BC),
Tiglath-Pileser I (ca. 1100 BC), Ashur-bel-kala (ca. 1070 BC), Adad-nirari II
(ca. 900), Tukulti-Ninurta II (ca. 890), and Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC).

The Kingdom of Armenia was an independent kingdom from 190 BC to 387 АD,
and a client state of the Roman and Persian empires until 428. Stretching from
the Caspian to the Mediterranean Seas.[55][56]

[edit] Arabia
Main article: Pre-Islamic Arabia
The history of Pre-Islamic Arabia before the rise of Islam in the 630s is not
known in great detail. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian peninsula has
been sparse; indigenous written sources are limited to the many
inscriptions and coins from southern Arabia. Existing material consists
primarily of written sources from other traditions (such as Egyptians, Greeks,
Persians, Romans, etc.) and oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars.

The first known inscriptions of Kingdom of Hadhramaut are known from
the 8th century BC. It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an Old
Sabaic inscription of Karab'il Watar from the early 7th century BC, in
which the King of Hadramaut, Yada`'il, is mentioned as being one of his allies.

Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of
fourth millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of
Uruk. The adjective Dilmun is used to describe a type of axe and one specific
official; in addition there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected
with Dilmun.[57]

The Sabaeans were an ancient people speaking an Old South Arabian language
who lived in what is today Yemen, in south west Arabian Peninsula; from 2000
BC to the 8th century BC. Some Sabaeans also lived in D'mt, located in
northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, due to their hegemony over the Red Sea.[58]
They lasted from the early 2nd millennium to the 1st century BC. In the 1st
century BC it was conquered by the Himyarites, but after the disintegration of
the first Himyarite empire of the Kings of Saba' and dhu-Raydan the Middle
Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century. It was
finally conquered by the Himyarites in the late 3rd century.

The ancient Kingdom of Awsan with a capital at Hagar Yahirr in the wadi
Markha, to the south of the wadi Bayhan, is now marked by a tell or artificial
mound, which is locally named Hagar Asfal. Once it was one of the most
important small kingdoms of South Arabia. The city seems to have been
destroyed in the 7th century BCE by the king and mukarrib of Saba Karib'il
Watar, according to a Sabaean text that reports the victory in terms that attest
to its significance for the Sabaeans.

The Himyar was a state in ancient South Arabia dating from 110 BC. It
conquered neighbouring Saba (Sheba) in c.25 BC, Qataban in c.200 CE and
Hadramaut c.300 AD. Its political fortunes relative to Saba changed frequently
until it finally conquered the Sabaean Kingdom around 280 CE.[59] It was the
dominant state in Arabia until 525 AD. The economy was based on agriculture.

Foreign trade was based on the export of frankincense and myrrh. For many
years it was also the major intermediary linking East Africa and the
Mediterranean world. This trade largely consisted of exporting ivory from
Africa to be sold in the Roman Empire. Ships from Himyar regularly traveled
the East African coast, and the state also exerted a considerable amount of
political control of the trading cities of East Africa.

The Nabataean origins remain obscure. On the similarity of sounds, Jerome
suggested a connection with the tribe Nebaioth mentioned in Genesis, but
modern historians are cautious about an early Nabatean history. The
Babylonian captivity that began in 586 BC opened a power vacuum in Judah,
and as Edomites moved into Judaean grazing lands, Nabataean inscriptions
began to be left in Edomite territory (earlier than 312 BC, when they were
attacked at Petra without success by Antigonus I). The first definite
appearance was in 312 BC, when Hieronymus of Cardia, a Seleucid officer,
mentioned the Nabateans in a battle report. In 50 BC, the Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus cited Hieronymus in his report, and added the following: "Just
as the Seleucids had tried to subdue them, so the Romans made several
attempts to get their hands on that lucrative trade."

Petra or Sela was the ancient capital of Edom; the Nabataeans must have
occupied the old Edomite country, and succeeded to its commerce, after the
Edomites took advantage of the Babylonian captivity to press forward into
southern Judaea. This migration, the date of which cannot be determined, also
made them masters of the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba and the
important harbor of Elath. Here, according to Agatharchides, they were for a
time very troublesome, as wreckers and pirates, to the reopened commerce
between Egypt and the East, until they were chastised by the Ptolemaic rulers
of Alexandria.

The Lakhmid Kingdom was founded by the Lakhum tribe that immigrated
out of Yemen in the second century and ruled by the Banu Lakhm, hence the
name given it. It was formed of a group of Arab Christians who lived in
Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in (266). The founder of the
dynasty was 'Amr and the son Imru' al-Qais converted to Christianity.
Gradually the whole city converted to that faith. Imru' al-Qais dreamt of a
unified and independent Arab kingdom and, following that dream, he seized
many cities in Arabia.

The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated
in the early 3rd century from Yemen to the Hauran in southern Syria, Jordan
and the Holy Land where they intermarried with Hellenized Roman
settlers and Greek-speaking Early Christian communities. The Ghassanid
emigration has been passed down in the rich oral tradition of southern Syria. It
is said that the Ghassanids came from the city of Ma'rib in Yemen. There was a
dam in this city, however one year there was so much rain that the dam was
carried away by the ensuing flood. Thus the people there had to leave. The
inhabitants emigrated seeking to live in less arid lands and became scattered
far and wide. The proverb “They were scattered like the people of Saba”
refers to that exodus in history. The emigrants were from the southern Arab
tribe of Azd of the Kahlan branch of Qahtani tribes.

Further information: History of Yemen

[edit] Levant
Main article: History of Ancient Israel and Judah
Though the Ugaritic site is thought to have been inhabited earlier, Neolithic
Ugarit was already important enough to be fortified with a wall early on. The
first written evidence mentioning the city comes from the nearby city of Ebla,
ca. 1800 BC. Ugarit passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which deeply
influenced its art.

Concerning the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, the Book of
Genesis traces the beginning of Israel to three patriarchs of the Jewish people,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the last also known as Israel from which the
name of the land was subsequently derived. Jacob, called a "wandering
Aramaean" (Deuteronomy 26:5), the grandson of Abraham, had travelled back
to Harran, the home of his ancestors, to obtain a wife. Whilst returning from
Haran to Canaan, he crossed the Jabbok, a tributary on the Arabian side of the
Jordan River (Genesis 32:22-33). After having sent his family and servants
away that night, he wrestled with a strange man at a place henceforth called
Peniel, who in the morning asked him his name. As a result, he was renamed
"Israel", because he had "wrestled with God" and became, in time, the father
of twelve sons by Leah and Rachel, (daughters of Laban), and their
maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah. The twelve were considered the "Children of
Israel." These stories of the origins of the Israelites locate them first on the
east bank of the Jordan. The stories of Israel move to the west bank with the
story of the sacking of Shechem (Genesis 34:1-33), after which the hill area of
Canaan is assumed to have been the historical core of the area of Israel.

For more details on this topic, see Levant.

[edit] North Africa

Khafre's Pyramid (4th dynasty) and Great Sphinx of Giza (c.2500 BC or
perhaps earlier)
[edit] Egypt
Main article: Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was a long-lived civilization geographically located in north-
eastern Africa. It was concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the
Nile River reaching its greatest extension during the second millennium BC,
which is referred to as the New Kingdom period. It reached broadly from the
Nile Delta in the north, as far south as Jebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of
the Nile. Extensions to the geographical range of ancient Egyptian civilisation
included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant, the Eastern Desert
and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula and the Western
Desert (focused on the several oases).

Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and a half millennia. It began with
the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3500 BC and is
conventionally thought to have ended in 30 BC when the early Roman Empire
conquered and absorbed Ptolemaic Egypt as a province. (Though this last did
not represent the first period of foreign domination, the Roman period was to
witness a marked, if gradual transformation in the political and religious life of
the Nile Valley, effectively marking the termination of independent
civilisational development).

The civilization of ancient Egypt was based on a finely balanced control of
natural and human resources, characterised primarily by controlled
irrigation of the fertile Nile Valley; the mineral exploitation of the valley and
surrounding desert regions; the early development of an independent writing
system and literature; the organisation of collective projects; trade with
surrounding regions in east / central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean;
finally, military ventures that exhibited strong characteristics of imperial
hegemony and territorial domination of neighbouring cultures at different
periods. Motivating and organising these activities were a socio-political and
economic elite that achieved social consensus by means of an elaborate system
of religious belief under the figure of a (semi)-divine ruler (usually male) from a
succession of ruling dynasties and which related to the larger world by means
of polytheistic beliefs.

[edit] Northeast Africa
Kushite state was formed before a period of Egyptian incursion into the area.
The Kushite civilization has also been referred to as Nubia. The first cultures
arose in Sudan before the time of a unified Egypt, and the most widespread is
known as the Kerma civilization. It is through Egyptian, Hebrew, Roman and
Greek records that most of our knowledge of Kush (Cush) comes.

It is also referred to as Ethiopia in ancient Greek and Roman records.
According to Josephus and other classical writers, the Kushite Empire covered
all of Africa, and some parts of Asia and Europe at one time or another. The
Kushites are also famous for having buried their monarchs along with all their
courtiers in mass graves. The Kushites also built burial mounds and pyramids,
and shared some of the same gods worshipped in Egypt, especially Amon and
Isis.

The Axumite Empire was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa,
growing from the proto-Aksumite period ca. 4th century BC to achieve
prominence by the 1st century AD. Its ancient capital is found in northern
Ethiopia, the Kingdom used the name "Ethiopia" as early as the 4th century.
[60][61] Aksum is mentioned in the 1st century AD Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea as an important market place for ivory, which was exported throughout the
ancient world, and states that the ruler of Aksum in the 1st century AD was
Zoscales, who, besides ruling in Aksum also controlled two harbours on the Red
Sea: Adulis (near Massawa) and Avalites (Assab). He is also said to have been
familiar with Greek literature.[62] It is also the alleged resting place of
the Ark of the Covenant and the home of the Queen of Sheba. Aksum was also
the first major empire to convert to Christianity.

[edit] Carthage
Carthage was founded in 814 BC by Phoenician settlers from the city of Tyre,
bringing with them the city-god Melqart.[63] The Carthaginian Empire was an
informal empire of Phoenician city-states throughout North Africa and modern
Spain from 575 BC until 146 BC. It was more or less under the control of the
city-state of Carthage after the fall of Tyre to Babylonian forces. At the height
of the city's influence, its empire included most of the western Mediterranean.
The empire was in a constant state of struggle with the Roman Republic, which
led to a series of conflicts known as the Punic Wars. After the third and final
Punic War, Carthage was destroyed then occupied by Roman forces. Nearly all
of the empire fell into Roman hands from then on.

[edit] South Asia

Standing Buddha, Gandhara, Pakistan, 1st century AD.Main articles:
History of India and Ancient India
The earliest evidence of human civilization in South Asia is from the Mehrgarh
region (7000 BC to 3200 BC) of Pakistan. Located near the Bolan Pass, to the
west of the Indus River valley and between the present-day Pakistani cities of
Quetta, Kalat and Sibi, Mehrgarh was discovered in 1974 by an archaeological
team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige, and was
excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986. The earliest settlement at
Mehrgarh—in the northeast corner of the 495-acre (2.00 km2) site—was a
small farming village dated between 7000 BC–5500 BC. Early Mehrgarh
residents lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned
tools with local copper ore, and lined their large basket containers
with bitumen. They cultivated six-row barley, einkorn and emmer wheat,
jujubes and dates, and herded sheep, goats and cattle. Residents of the later
period (5500 BC to 2600 BC) put much effort into crafts, including flint
knapping, tanning, bead production, and metal working. The site was occupied
continuously until about 2600 BC.[2]

In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest
evidence in human history for the drilling of teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person)
was found in Mehrgarh.Mehrgarh is sometimes cited as the earliest known
farming settlement in South Asia, based on archaeological excavations from
1974 (Jarrige et al.). The earliest evidence of settlement dates from 7000
BC. It is also cited for the earliest evidence of pottery in South Asia.
Archaeologists divide the occupation at the site into several periods. Mehrgarh
is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. The Indus Valley
Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BC, flourished 2600–1900 BC), abbreviated IVC,
was an ancient civilization that flourished in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra
river valleys primarily in what is now Pakistan, although scattered settlements
linked to this ancient civilization have been found in eastern Afghanistan,
Bahrain, eastern Iran, western India and Turkmenistan. Another name for this
civilization is the Harappan Civilization, after the first of its cities to be
excavated, Harappa in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The IVC might have
been known to the Sumerians as the Meluhha, and other trade contacts may
have included Egypt, Africa, however the modern world discovered it only in
the 1920s as a result of archaeological excavations and rail road building.
Prominent historians of Ancient India would include Ram Sharan Sharma and
Romila Thapar.

In the book, Pakistan before the Aryans, written by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, he
stated "Within this immense territory, archaeologists have found no fewer than
thirty-seven town or village sites (tells) representing this civilization, and many
more un-doubtedly await discovery." Much archeological work still remains in
order to fully understand Ancient Pakistan's history which has all too often
been neglected and under-funded by the government of Pakistan.[64]

The births of Mahavira and Buddha in the 6th century BC mark the beginning
of well-recorded history in the region. Around the 5th century BC, the ancient
regions of Pakistan was invaded by the Achaemenid Empire under Darius
in 522 BC[65] forming the easternmost satraps of the Persian Empire. The
provinces of Sindh and Panjab were said to be the richest satraps of
the Persian Empire and contributed many soldiers to various Persian
expeditions. It is known that a Indian contingent fought in Xerxes' army on his
expedition to Greece. Herodotus mentions that the Indus satrapy supplied
cavalry and chariots to the Persian army. He also mentions that the Indus
people were clad in armaments made of cotton, carried bows and arrows of
cane covered with iron. Herodotus states that in 517 BC Darius sent an
expedition under Scylax to explore the Indus. Under Persian rule, much
irrigation and commerce flourished within the vast territory of the empire. The
Persian empire was followed by the invasion of the Greeks under Alexander's
army. Since Alexander was determined to reach the eastern-most limits of the
Persian Empire he could not resist the temptation to conquer Pakistan, which
at this time was parcelled out into small chieftain- ships, who were feudatories
of the Persian Empire. Alexander amalgamated the region into the expanding
Hellenic empire.[66] The Rigveda, in Sanskrit, goes back to about 1500 BC.
The Indian literary tradition has an oral history reaching down into the Vedic
period of the later 2nd millennium BC.

A political map of the Mauryan Empire, including notable cities, such as the
capital Pataliputra, and site of the Buddha's enlightenment.Ancient India is
usually taken to refer to the "golden age" of classical Hindu culture, as
reflected in Sanskrit literature, beginning around 500 BC with the sixteen
monarchies and 'republics' known as the Mahajanapadas, stretched across the
Indo-Gangetic plains from modern-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. The largest
of these nations were Magadha, Kosala, Kuru and Gandhara. Notably,
the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata are rooted in this classical
period.

Amongst the sixteen Mahajanapadas, the kingdom of Magadha rose to
prominence under a number of dynasties that peaked in power under the reign
of Ashoka Maurya, one of India's most legendary and famous emperors. During
the reign of Asoka, the three Tamil dynasties of Chola, Chera and
Pandya were ruling in the south. These kingdoms, while not part of Asoka's
empire, were in friendly terms with the Maurya Empire. The Satavahanas
started out as feudatories to the Mauryan Empire, and declared independence
soon after the death of Ashoka (232 BC). Other notable ancient South Indian
dynasties include the Kadambas of Banavasi, western Ganga dynasty,
Chalukyas of Badami, Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Kakatiya dynasty, Pallavas,
Rashtrakutas of Manyaketha and Satavahanas.

The period between AD 320–550 is known as the Classical Age, when most of
North India was reunited under the Gupta Empire (ca. AD 320–550). This
was a period of relative peace, law and order, and extensive achievements in
religion, education, mathematics, arts, Sanskrit literature and
drama. Grammar, composition, logic, metaphysics, mathematics, medicine, and
astronomy became increasingly specialized and reached an advanced level. The
Gupta Empire was weakened and ultimately ruined by the raids of Hunas (a
branch of the White Huns emanating from Central Asia). Under Harsha (r. 606–
47), North India was reunited briefly.

The educated speech at that time was Sanskrit, while the dialects of
the general population of northern India were referred to as Prakrits. The
South Indian coast of Malabar and the Tamil people of the Sangam age traded
with the Graeco-Roman world. They were in contact with the Phoenicians,
Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, Jews, and the Chinese.[67]

The regions of South Asia, primarily present-day Pakistan and India, were
estimated to have had the largest economy of the world between the 1st and
15th centuries AD, controlling between one third and one quarter of
the world's wealth up to the time of the Mughals, from whence it rapidly
declined during British rule.[citation needed]

[edit] East Asia

[edit] China

[edit] Ancient Era
Main article: Ancient Era of China

Replica of an Oracle Bone
Territories occupied by different dynasties and modern political states
throughout the history of China.Written records of China's past dates from the
Shang Dynasty (商朝) in perhaps the 13th century BC, and takes the form of
inscriptions of divination records on the bones or shells of animals—the so-
called oracle bones (甲骨文). Archaeological findings providing evidence for
the existence of the Shang Dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BC is divided into two sets.
The first, from the earlier Shang period (c. 1600–1300) comes from sources at
Erligang (二里崗), Zhengzhou (鄭州) and Shangcheng. The second set, from
the later Shang or Yin (殷) period, consists of a large body of oracle bone
writings. Anyang (安陽) in modern day Henan has been confirmed as the last of
the nine capitals of the Shang (c. 1300–1046 BC).

By the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Zhou Dynasty (周朝) began to
emerge in the Yellow River valley, overrunning the Shang. The Zhou appeared
to have begun their rule under a semi-feudal system. The ruler of the Zhou,
King Wu, with the assistance of his uncle, the Duke of Zhou, as regent managed
to defeat the Shang at the Battle of Muye. The king of Zhou at this time
invoked the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to legitimize his rule, a concept
that would be influential for almost every successive dynasty. The Zhou initially
moved their capital west to an area near modern Xi'an, near the Yellow River,
but they would preside over a series of expansions into the Yangtze River
valley. This would be the first of many population migrations from north to
south in Chinese history.

[edit] Spring and Autumn
Main article: Spring and Autumn Period
In the 8th century BC, power became decentralized during the Spring and
Autumn Period (春秋時代), named after the influential Spring and Autumn
Annals. In this period, local military leaders used by the Zhou began to assert
their power and vie for hegemony. The situation was aggravated by
the invasion of other peoples from the northwest, such as the Qin, forcing the
Zhou to move their capital east to Luoyang. This marks the second large phase
of the Zhou dynasty: the Eastern Zhou. In each of the hundreds of states that
eventually arose, local strongmen held most of the political power
and continued their subservience to the Zhou kings in name only. Local leaders
for instance started using royal titles for themselves. The Hundred Schools of
Thought (諸子百家) of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period, and
such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism (儒家), Taoism (道家),
Legalism (法家) and Mohism (墨家) were founded, partly in response to the
changing political world. The Spring and Autumn Period is marked by a falling
apart of the central Zhou power. China now consists of hundreds of
states, some only as large as a village with a fort.

[edit] Warring States
Main article: Warring States Period
After further political consolidation, seven prominent states remained by the
end of 5th century BC, and the years in which these few states battled each
other is known as the Warring States Period (戰國時代). Though there
remained a nominal Zhou king until 256 BC, he was largely a figurehead and
held little power. As neighboring territories of these warring states, including
areas of modern Sichuan (四川) and Liaoning (遼寧), were annexed, they were
governed under the new local administrative system of commandery and
prefecture (郡縣). This system had been in use since the Spring and Autumn
Period and parts can still be seen in the modern system of Sheng & Xian
(province and county, 省縣). The final expansion in this period began
during the reign of Ying Zheng (嬴政), the king of Qin. His unification of the
other six powers, and further annexations in the modern regions of Zhejiang (浙
江), Fujian (福建), Guangdong (廣東) and Guangxi (廣西) in 214 BC enabled
him to proclaim himself the First Emperor (Qin Shi Huangdi, 始皇帝).

[edit] Japan
Main article: History of Japan
Japan first appeared in written records in AD 57 with the following mention in
China's Book of Later Han:[68] Across the ocean from Luoyang are the people
of Wa. Formed from more than one hundred tribes, they come and pay tribute
frequently. The Book of Wei written in the 3rd century noted the country was
the unification of some 30 small tribes or states and ruled by a shaman queen
named Himiko of Yamataikoku.

During the Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty, Chinese travelers to Kyūshū
recorded its inhabitants and claimed that they were the descendants of the
Grand Count (Tàibó) of the Wu. The inhabitants also show traits of the pre-
sinicized Wu people with tattooing, teeth-pulling and baby-carrying. The Book
of Wei records the physical descriptions which are similar to ones on Haniwa
statues, such men with braided hair, tattooing and women wearing large, single-
piece clothing.

[edit] Korea
Main article: History of Korea
Gojoseon was the first Korean kingdom. According to the Samguk Yusa and
other Korean medieval-era records,[69] Gojoseon was founded in 2333 BC by
the legendary ruler Dangun, said to be descended from the Lord of Heaven.

The Three Kingdoms (Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla) conquered other successor
states of Gojoseon and came to dominate the peninsula and much
of Manchuria. The three kingdoms competed with each other both
economically and militarily; Goguryeo and Baekje were the more powerful
states for much of the three kingdoms era. At times more powerful than the
neighboring Sui Dynasty, Goguryeo was a regional power that defeated
massive Chinese invasions multiple times.[70] As one of the Three Kingdoms of
Korea, Silla gradually extended across Korea and eventually became the first
state since Gojoseon to cover most of Korean peninsula in 676. In 698, former
Goguryeo general Dae Jo-yeong founded Balhae as the successor to Goguryeo.

Unified Silla itself fell apart in the late 9th century, giving way to the
tumultuous Later Three Kingdoms period (892-936), which ended with the
establishment of the Goryeo Dynasty.[71] After the fall of Balhae in 926 to the
Khitan, much of its people, led by the Crown Prince of Balhae, were absorbed
into Goryeo Dynasty.

[edit] Vietnam
Main article: Ancient Vietnam
The Đông Sơn culture was a prehistoric Bronze Age culture that was centered
at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. Its influence flourished to other
parts of Southeast Asia, including the Indo-Malayan Archipelago from about
1000 BC to 1 BC. The theory based on the assumption that bronze casting in
eastern Asia originated in northern China; however, this idea has been
discredited by archaeological discoveries in north-eastern Thailand in
the 1970s. In the words of one scholar, "Bronze casting began in Southeast
Asia and was later borrowed by the Chinese, not vice versa as the Chinese
scholars have always claimed. Evidence of early kingdoms of Vietnam other
than the Đông Sơn culture in Northern Vietnam was found in Cổ Loa, the
ancient city situated near present-day Hà Nội. According to Vietnamese myths
the first Vietnamese peoples descended from the Dragon Lord Lạc Long Quân
and the Immortal Fairy Âu Cơ. Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ had 100 sons before
they decided to part ways. 50 of the children went with their mother to the
mountains, and the other 50 went with their father to the sea. The eldest son
became the first in a line of earliest Vietnamese kings, collectively known
as the Hùng kings (Hùng Vương or the Hồng Bàng Dynasty). The Hùng kings
called the country, which was then located on the Red River delta in present-
day northern Vietnam, Văn Lang. The people of Văn Lang were referred to as
the Lạc Việt.

[edit] Mongols
Main article: History of Mongolia
The first surviving Mongolian text is the Stele of Yisüngge, a report on
sports in Mongolian script on stone, that is most often dated at the verge of
1224 and 1225.[72] Other early sources are written in Mongolian, Phagspa
(decrets), Chinese (the Secret history), Arabic (dictionaries) and a few other
western scripts.[73]

[edit] Huns
Main article: Huns
The Huns left practically no written records. There is no record of what
happened between the time they left China and arrived in Europe 150 years
later. The last mention of the northern Xiongnu was their defeat by
the Chinese in 151 at the lake of Barkol, after which they fled to the western
steppe at Kangju (centered on the city of Turkistan in Kazakhstan). Chinese
records between the 3rd and 4th century suggest that a small tribe called
Yueban, remnants of northern Xiongnu, was distributed about the steppe of
Kazakhstan.

[edit] Mediterranean Europe

Classical antiquity by region
Africa · Anatolia · Balkans · Britain · Egypt · Gaul · Greece · Iberia · Italy

[edit] Etruria
The history of the Etruscans can be traced relatively accurately, based on the
examination of burial sites, artifacts, and writing. Etruscans culture that is
identifiably and certainly Etruscan developed in Italy in earnest by 800 BC
approximately over the range of the preceding Iron Age Villanovan
culture. The latter gave way in the seventh century to a culture that was
influenced by Greek traders and Greek neighbors in Magna Graecia, the
Hellenic civilization of southern Italy.

From the descendants of the Villanovan people in Etruria in central Italy, a
separate Etruscan culture emerged in the beginning of the 7th century BC,
evidenced by around 7,000 inscriptions in an alphabet similar to that
of Euboean Greek, in the non-Indo-European Etruscan language. The burial
tombs, some of which had been fabulously decorated, promotes the idea of an
aristocratic city-state, with centralized power structures maintaining order and
constructing public works, such as irrigation networks, roads, and town
defenses.

[edit] Phoenicians
Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan,
with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, Syria and
Israel. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that
spread across the Mediterranean between the period of 1550 BC to 300 BC.

A written reference, Herodotus's account (written c. 440 BC) refers to a
memory from 800 years earlier, which may be subject to question in
the fullness of genetic results. (History, I:1). This is a legendary introduction to
Herodotus' brief retelling of some mythical Hellene-Phoenician interactions.
Though few modern archaeologists would confuse this myth with history,
a grain of truth may yet lie therein.

[edit] Classical Antiquity
Classical Civilisation portal
Main article: Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered
on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded
Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of
Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD),
ending in the dissolution of classical culture with the close of Late Antiquity.

Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many rather disparate
cultures and periods. "Classical antiquity" typically refers to an
idealized vision of later people, of what was, in Edgar Allan Poe's words, "the
glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome!" In the 18th and 19th
centuries reverence for classical antiquity was much greater in Western
Europe and the United States than it is today. Respect for the ancients of
Greece and Rome affected politics, philosophy, sculpture, literature, theatre,
education, and even architecture and sexuality.

In politics, the presence of a Roman Emperor was felt to be desirable long after
the empire fell. This tendency reached its peak when Charlemagne was
crowned "Roman Emperor" in the year 800, an act which led to the formation
of the Holy Roman Empire. The notion that an emperor is a monarch who
outranks a mere king dates from this period. In this political ideal, there would
always be a Roman Empire, a state whose jurisdiction extended to the entire
civilised world.

Epic poetry in Latin continued to be written and circulated well into the
nineteenth century. John Milton and even Arthur Rimbaud received their first
poetic educations in Latin. Genres like epic poetry, pastoral verse, and the
endless use of characters and themes from Greek mythology left a deep mark
on Western literature.

In architecture, there have been several Greek Revivals, (though while
apparently more inspired in retrospect by Roman architecture than Greek).
Still, one needs only to look at Washington, DC to see a city filled with large
marble buildings with façades made out to look like Roman temples, with
columns constructed in the classical orders of architecture.

In philosophy, the efforts of St Thomas Aquinas were derived largely from the
thought of Aristotle, despite the intervening change in religion from
paganism to Christianity. Greek and Roman authorities such as Hippocrates
and Galen formed the foundation of the practice of medicine even longer than
Greek thought prevailed in philosophy. In the French theatre, tragedians such
as Molière and Racine wrote plays on mythological or classical historical
subjects and subjected them to the strict rules of the classical unities derived
from Aristotle's Poetics. The desire to dance like a latter-day vision of how the
ancient Greeks did it moved Isadora Duncan to create her brand of ballet. The
renaissance was partly caused by the rediscovery of classic antiquity.[74]

The Mediterranean in ca. the 6th century BC. Phoenician cities are labelled in
yellow, Greek cities in red, and other cities in grey.
[edit] Greece
Main article: Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is the period in Greek history lasting for close to a millennium,
until the rise of Christianity. It is considered by most historians to be the
foundational culture of Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful
influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of
Europe.

The civilization of the ancient Greeks has been immensely influential on the
language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, art, and
architecture of the modern world, fueling the Renaissance in Western Europe
and again resurgent during various neo-Classical revivals in 18th and 19th
century Europe and The Americas.

"Ancient Greece" is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in
ancient times. It refers not only to the geographical peninsula of modern
Greece, but also to areas of Hellenic culture that were settled in ancient times
by Greeks: Cyprus and the Aegean islands, the Aegean coast of Anatolia (then
known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the
scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of Colchis, Illyria, Thrace, Egypt,
Cyrenaica, southern Gaul, east and northeast of the Iberian peninsula, Iberia,
Taurica and further to the east in exotic Asian cities such as Taxila, Sagala and
Jhelum in modern day Pakistan.

During its twelve-century existence, the Roman civilization shifted from a
monarchy to an oligarchic republic to a vast empire. It came to dominate
Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea
through conquest and assimilation. However, a number of factors led to the
eventual decline of the Roman Empire. The western half of the empire,
including Hispania, Gaul, and Italy, eventually broke into
independent kingdoms in the 5th century; the eastern empire, governed from
Constantinople, is referred to as the Byzantine Empire after AD 476, the
traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and subsequent onset of the Middle
Ages.

For more details, see the articles in the category of Ancient Greek culture

Timelapse of area under Roman control.
[edit] Rome
Main article: Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of the city-state of Rome,
originating as a small agricultural community founded on the Italian
Peninsula in the 9th century BC. In its twelve centuries of existence, Roman
civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to an increasingly
autocratic empire.

Roman civilization is often grouped into "classical antiquity" with ancient
Greece, a civilization that inspired much of the culture of ancient Rome.
Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development of law, war, art,
literature, architecture, and language in the Western world, and its history
continues to have a major influence on the world today. The Roman civilization
came to dominate Western Europe and the Mediterranean region through
conquest and assimilation.

Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome, residential
architecture ranged from very modest houses to country villas. A number of
Roman founded cities had monumental structures. Many contained fountains
with fresh drinking-water supplied by hundreds of miles of aqueducts, theatres,
gymnasiums, bath complexes sometime with libraries and shops, marketplaces,
and occasionally functional sewers.

For more details on this topic, see Culture of ancient Rome.

[edit] Late Antiquity
Main article: Late Antiquity
The Roman Empire underwent considerable social, cultural and organizational
change starting with reign of Diocletian, who began the custom of splitting the
Empire into Eastern and Western halves ruled by multiple emperors. Beginning
with Constantine the Great the Empire was Christianized, and a new capital
founded at Constantinople. Migrations of Germanic tribes disrupted
Roman rule from the late fourth century onwards, culminating in the eventual
collapse of the Empire in the West in 476, replaced by the so-called barbarian
kingdoms. The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman, Germanic and
Christian traditions formed the cultural foundations of Western Europe.

[edit] Germanic tribes
Main article: Germanic peoples

Map of the Nordic Bronze Age culture, around 1200 BCE.
The expansion of the Germanic tribes 750 BC – AD 1 (after the Penguin Atlas
of World History 1988):
Settlements before 750 BC

New settlements by 500 BC

New settlements by 250 BC

New settlements by AD 1Migration of Germanic peoples to Britain from what
is now northern Germany and southern Scandinavia is attested from the 5th
century (e.g. Undley bracteate).[75] Based on Bede's Historia ecclesiastica
gentis Anglorum, the intruding population is traditionally divided into Angles,
Saxons, and Jutes, but their composition was likely less clear-cut and may also
have included Frisians and Franks. The Parker Library holds the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle which contains text that may be the first recorded indications of the
movement of these Germanic Tribes to Britain. The Angles and Saxons and
Jutes were noted to be a confederation in the Greek Geographia written by
Ptolemy in around AD 150.

The Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the peoples living in the
south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD.[76] Benedictine
monk Bede identified them as the descendants of three Germanic tribes: the
Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula and Lower
Saxony (German: Niedersachsen, Germany). The Angles may have come from
Angeln, and Bede wrote their nation came to Britain, leaving their land empty.
[77] They spoke closely related Germanic dialects. The Anglo-Saxons knew
themselves as the "Englisc," from which the word "English" derives.

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age Europe. Proto-
Celtic culture formed in the Early Iron Age in Central Europe
(Hallstatt period, named for the site in present-day Austria). By the later Iron
Age (La Tène period), Celts had expanded over wide range of lands: as far
west as Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula, as far east as Galatia (central
Anatolia), and as far north as Scotland.[78] By the early centuries AD,
following the expansion of the Roman Empire and the Great Migrations of
Germanic peoples, Celtic culture had become restricted to the British Isles and
Ireland (Insular Celtic), with the Continental Celtic languages extinct by the
mid-1st millennium AD.

Viking refers to a member of the Norse (Scandinavian) peoples, famous as
explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates, who raided and colonized wide
areas of Europe beginning in the late 8th.[79] These Norsemen used their
famed longships to travel. The Viking Age forms a major part of Scandinavian
history, with a minor, yet significant part in European history.

Further information: Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Viking, Norsemen, Viking Age, and
Barbarian

[edit] Religion and philosophy
Main articles: Axial age, History of philosophy, Development of religion, and
History of religion
New philosophies and religions arose in both east and west, particularly about
the 6th century BC. Over time, a great variety of religions developed around
the world, with some of the earliest major ones being Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Jainism in India, and Zoroastrianism in Persia. The Abrahamic religions trace
their origin to Judaism, around 1800 BC.

The ancient Indian philosophy is a fusion of two ancient traditions: Sramana
tradition and Vedic tradition. Indian philosophy begins with the Vedas where
questions related to laws of nature, the origin of the universe and the place of
man in it are asked. Jainism and Buddhism are continuation of the Sramana
school of thought. The Sramanas cultivated a pessimistic world view of the
samsara as full of suffering and advocated renunciation and austerities. They
laid stress on philosophical concepts like Ahimsa, Karma, Jnana, Samsara and
Moksa. While there are ancient relations between the Indian Vedas and the
Iranian Avesta, the two main families of the Indo-Iranian philosophical
traditions were characterized by fundamental differences in their implications
for the human being's position in society and their view on the role of man
in the universe.

In the east, three schools of thought were to dominate Chinese thinking until
the modern day. These were Taoism, Legalism and Confucianism. The
Confucian tradition, which would attain dominance, looked for political morality
not to the force of law but to the power and example of tradition. Confucianism
would later spread into the Korean peninsula and Goguryeo[80] and toward
Japan.

In the west, the Greek philosophical tradition, represented by Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle, was diffused throughout Europe and the Middle East in the 4th
century BC by the conquests of Alexander III of Macedon, more commonly
known as Alexander the Great. After the Bronze and Iron Age religions
formed, the rise and spread of Christianity through the Roman world marked
the end of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval
philosophy.

Further information: Axial Age, religions of the Ancient Near East, Ancient
Egyptian religion, historical Vedic religion, Ancient Roman religion, Ancient
Greek religion, paganism,religions of the Ancient Near East, Ancient Egyptian
religion, historical Vedic religion, Greek polytheism, Roman polytheism, Celtic
polytheism, Confucianism, Taoism, History of Buddhism, History of Hinduism,
Hellenistic religion, Hellenistic philosophy, Roman imperial cult, Early
Christianity, Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism

[edit] Ancient science and technology
Main article: Ancient technology
Ancient technology
Egyptian technology
Indian technology
Chinese technology
Greek technology
Roman technology
Muslim technology

In the history of technology and ancient science during the growth of the
ancient civilizations, ancient technological advances were produced in
engineering. These advances stimulated other societies to adopt new ways of
living and governance.

The characteristics of Ancient Egyptian technology are indicated by a set of
artifacts and customs that lasted for thousands of years. The Egyptians
invented and used many basic machines, such as the ramp and the lever, to aid
construction processes. The Egyptians also played an important role in
developing Mediterranean maritime technology including ships and lighthouses.

The history of science and technology in India dates back to ancient times. The
Indus Valley civilization yields evidence of hydrography, metrology and sewage
collection and disposal being practiced by its inhabitants. Among the fields of
science and technology pursued in India were Ayurveda, metallurgy, astronomy
and mathematics. Some ancient inventions include plastic surgery, cataract
surgery, Hindu-Arabic numeral system and Wootz steel.

The history of science and technology in China show significant advances in
science, technology, mathematics, and astronomy. The first recorded
observations of comets and supernovae were made in China. Traditional
Chinese medicine, acupuncture and herbal medicine were also practiced.

Ancient Greek technology developed at an unprecedented speed during the 5th
century BC, continuing up to and including the Roman period, and beyond.
Inventions that are credited to the ancient Greeks such as the gear, screw,
bronze casting techniques, water clock, water organ, torsion catapult and the
use of steam to operate some experimental machines and toys. Many of these
inventions occurred late in the Greek period, often inspired by the need to
improve weapons and tactics in war. Roman technology is the engineering
practice which supported Roman civilization and made the expansion of Roman
commerce and Roman military possible over nearly a thousand years. The
Roman Empire had the most advanced set of technology of their time, some of
which may have been lost during the turbulent eras of Late Antiquity and the
Early Middle Ages. Roman technological feats of many different areas,
like civil engineering, construction materials, transport technology, and some
inventions such as the mechanical reaper went unmatched until the 19th
century.

A significant number of inventions were developed in the Islamic world, a
geopolitical region that has at various times extended from al-Andalus and
Africa in the west to the Indian subcontinent and Malay Archipelago in
the east. Many of these inventions had direct implications for Fiqh related
issues.

Further information: History of science, History of mathematics, and
History of philosophy

[edit] Ancient maritime activity
Main article: Ancient maritime history
In ancient maritime history, the earliest known reference to an organization
devoted to ships in ancient India is to the Mauryan Empire from the
4th century BC. It is believed that the navigation as a science originated on the
river Indus some 5000 years ago. Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
refers to interactions between the Americans and peoples of other continents –
Europe, Africa, Asia, or Oceania – before the arrival of Christopher Columbus
in 1492. Many such events have been proposed at various times, based on
historical reports, archaeological finds, and cultural comparisons.

The Ancient Egyptians had knowledge to some extent of sail construction.[81]
[82] According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Necho II sent out an
expedition of Phoenicians, which in three years sailed from the Red Sea around
Africa to the mouth of the Nile. Many current historians tend to believe
Herodotus on this point, even though Herodotus himself was in disbelief
that the Phoenicians had accomplished the act.

Hannu was an ancient Egyptian explorer (around 2750 BC) and the first
explorer of whom there is any knowledge. Hannu made the first recorded
exploring expedition. He wrote his account of his exploration in stone. Hannu
travelled along the Red Sea to Punt. He sailed to what is now part of eastern
Ethiopia and Somalia. He returned to Egypt with great treasures, including
precious myrrh, metal and wood.

[edit] Ancient warfare
Main article: Ancient warfare
Ancient warfare is war as conducted from the beginnings of recorded history to
the end of the ancient period. In Europe, the end of antiquity is often equated
with the fall of Rome in 476. In China, it can also be seen as ending in the fifth
century, with the growing role of mounted warriors needed to counter the ever-
growing threat from the north.

The difference between prehistoric and ancient warfare is less one of
technology than of organization. The development of first city-states, and then
empires, allowed warfare to change dramatically. Beginning in Mesopotamia,
states produced sufficient agricultural surplus that full-time ruling elites and
military commanders could emerge. While the bulk of military forces were still
farmers, the society could support having them campaigning rather than
working the land for a portion of each year. Thus, organized armies developed
for the first time.

These new armies could help states grow in size and became increasingly
centralized, and the first empire, that of the Sumerians, formed in
Mesopotamia. Early ancient armies continued to primarily use bows and spears,
the same weapons that had been developed in prehistoric times for hunting.
Early armies in Egypt and China followed a similar pattern of using massed
infantry armed with bows and spears.

[edit] Ancient artwork and music
Main article: Ancient art history
Ancient music is music that developed in literate cultures, replacing prehistoric
music. Ancient music refers to the various musical systems that were developed
across various geographical regions such as Persia, India, China,
Greece, Rome, Egypt and Mesopotamia (see music of Mesopotamia, music of
ancient Greece, music of ancient Rome). Ancient music is designated by the
characterization of the basic audible tones and scales. It may have been
transmitted through oral or written systems. Arts of the ancient world refers to
the many types of art that were in the cultures of ancient societies, such as
those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome

Further information: Ancient music and Ancient art

[edit] Protohistorical cultures in the New World
It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled
Protohistory. (Discuss)

Further information: Pre-Columbian, Mesoamerica, and New World
In pre-Columbian times, several large, centralized ancient civilizations
developed in the Western Hemisphere, which included the Olmecs and Mayans.
Between 1800 and 300 BC, complex cultures began to form and many matured
into advanced Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Izapa,
Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Tarascan, "Toltec" and Aztec,
which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before the first contact with Europeans.
These civilizations are credited with many inventions and advancements
including pyramid-temples, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and theology.

The Zapotec emerged around 1500 years BC. They left behind the great city
Monte Alban. Their writing system had been thought to have influenced the
Olmecs but, with recent evidence, the Olmec may have been the first
civilization in the area to develop a true writing system independently. At the
present time, there is some debate as to whether or not Olmec symbols, dated
to 650 BC, are actually a form of writing preceding the oldest Zapotec writing
dated to about 500 BC.[83] Olmec symbols found in 2002 and 2006 date to 650
BC[84] and 900 BC[85] respectively, preceding the oldest Zapotec writing. [86]
[87] The earliest Mayan inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to
the 3rd century BC in San Bartolo, Guatemala,[88][89].

For more details on this topic, see History of the Americas.

[edit] See also
History portal

Prehistory
Human evolution, Prehistoric man
Culture
Classical Antiquity
Other
Classics, Digital Classicist, Historiography

[edit] References

[edit] Citations and notes
^ Crawford, O. G. S. (1927). Antiquity. [Gloucester, Eng.]: Antiquity
Publications [etc.]. (cf., History education in the United States is primarily the
study of the written past. Defining history in such a narrow way has important
consequences ...)
^ ancient-history
^ Foster, S. (2007). Adventure guide. China. Hunter travel guides. Edison, NJ:
Hunter Publishing. Page 6-7 (cf., "Qin is perceived as 'China's first dynasty'
and [... developed] writing.)
^ Gernet, J. (1996). A history of Chinese civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
^ Elphinstone, M. (1889). The history of India. London: Murray.
^ Smith, V. A. (1904). The early history of India from 600 B.C. to the
Muhammadan conquest, including the invasion of Alexander the
Great. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
^ Hoernle, A. F. R., & Stark, H. A. (1906). A history of India. Cuttack: Orissa
mission Press.
^ see Jemdet Nasr, Kish tablet; see also The Origin and Development of the
Cuneiform System of Writing, Samuel Noah Kramer, Thirty Nine Firsts In
Recorded History, pp 381-383
^ WordNet Search - 3.0, "History"
^ Clare, I. S. (1906). Library of universal history: containing a record of the
human race from the earliest historical period to the present time; embracing a
general survey of the progress of mankind in national and social life, civil
government, religion, literature, science and art. New York: Union Book. Page
1519 (cf., Ancient history, as we have already seen, ended with the fall of the
Western Roman Empire; [...])
^ United Center for Research and Training in History. (1973). Bulgarian
historical review. Sofia: Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences].
Page 43. (cf. ... in the history of Western Europe, which marks both the end of
ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages, is the fall of the Western
Empire.)
^ Robinson, C. A. (1951). Ancient history from prehistoric times to the death of
Justinian. New York: Macmillan.
^ Breasted, J. H. (1916). Ancient times, a history of the early world: an
introduction to the study of ancient history and the career of early
man. Boston: Ginn and Company.
^ Myers, P. V. N. (1916). Ancient history. New York [etc.]: Ginn and company.
^ a b Gardner, P. (1892). New chapters in Greek history, historical results of
recent excavations in Greece and Asia Minor. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Page 1+.
^ Smith, M. S. (2002). The early history of God: Yahweh and the other deities
in ancient Israel. The Biblical resource series. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B.
Eerdmans Pub. Page xxii - xxiii
^ Nadin, M. (1997). The civilization of illiteracy. Dresden: Dresden University
Press.
^ Harris, W. V. (1989). Ancient literacy. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University
Press. (cf. ... extent of literacy in the Roman Empire has been investigated,
previous writers have generally concluded that a high degree of literacy ...)
^ "Primary, secondary and tertiary sources"
^ "Library Guides: Primary, secondary and tertiary sources"
^ Oscar Handlin et al., Harvard Guide to American History (1954) 118-246
^ Petrie, W. M. F. (1972). Methods & aims in archaeology. New York: B. Blom
^ Gamble, C. (2000). Archaeology the basics. London: Routledge.
^ Wheeler, J. R. (1908). Archaeology [a lecture delivered at Columbia
University in the series on science, philosophy and art, January 8, 1908]. New
York: Columbia University Press.
^ Barton, G. A. (1900). Archaeology and the Bible. Green fund book, no. 17.
Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union 1816 Chestnut Street.
^ Watkin, David (4th ed. 2005). A History of Western Architecture. Laurence
King Publishing. pp. 14. ISBN 978-1856694599. http://books.google.com/books?
id=39T1zElEBrQC&pg=PA14&dq=giza+pyramids+largest+structures&ei=_H
VTSNTHHIP6sQPHnNm5Cw&client=firefox-
a&sig=m5gbKzP5bc1gh6aiLkgFpIc_KVo. "The Great Pyramid...is still one of
the largest structures ever raised by man, its plan twice the size of St. Peter's
in Rome"
^ 'Earliest writing' found BBC News, May 4, 1999.
^ Basham, A. L. 1968. Review of A Short History of Pakistan by A. H. Dani
(with an introduction by I. H. Qureshi). Karachi: University of Karachi Press.
1967 Pacific Affairs 41(4) : 641-643.
^ Mohenjo-Daro An Ancient Indus Valley Metropolis
^ S. R. Rao (1985). Lothal. Archaeological Survey of India, 30–31.
^ Zarmati, Louise (2005). Heinemann ancient and medieval history: Pompeii
and Herculaneum. Heinemann. ISBN 1-74081-195-X. http://www.hi.com.
au/bookstore/bmoredetail.asp?idval=1220/3978/25002.
^ Lobell, Jarrett (July/August 2002). "Etruscan Pompeii". Archaeological
Institute of America 55 (4). Retrieved on September 2007.
^ Jane Portal and Qingbo Duan, The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Arm,
British Museum Press, 2007, p. 167
^ H. Liu, F. Prugnolle, A. Manica, F. Balloux, A Geographically
Explicit Genetic Model of Worldwide Human-Settlement History. The
American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 79 , Issue 2 , Pages 230 - 237
^ Diamond 1999, p. 218
^ akkadian, angelfire.com
^ Wells, H. G. (1921). The outline of history, being a plain history of life and
mankind. New York: Macmillan company. Page 137.
^ Strauss, Barry S. (2006) The Trojan War: A New History. Simon & Schuster
ISBN 0-7432-6441-9
^ Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Akkad.” Webster’s Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary. 9th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985.
ISBN 0-87779-508-8, ISBN 0-87779-509-6 (indexed), and ISBN 0-87779-510-X
(deluxe).
^ Bertman, Stephen (2005). Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. New
York: Oxford UP.
^ "Mitanni." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica
Online. 9 June 2008 <http://www.britannica.
com/EBchecked/topic/385882/Mitanni>
^ http://www.answers.com/topic/jiroft-civilization , During two seasons of
excavation, Caldwell unearthed 7 different sections of the massive 7000 year
old village. He also discovered the oldest known center for copper smelting and
bread baking ovens in the world.
^ http://cpprot.te.verweg.com/2005-June/000718.html , Iran recently sent an
appeal to a Belgian court asking for the return of nine boxes of smuggled
ancient artifacts and a 2800-year-old pin stolen from the exposition "7000
Years of Persian Art".
^ http://www.iran-daily.com/1383/2126/html/panorama.htm , The Municipality
of Shoush (Susa) accepted a proposal by the cityÕs Cultural Heritage
Department for the transfer of an under-construction passenger terminal from
the 7,000-year-old city, but conditioned destruction of the terminal to
demolition of other constructions and residential units in the area.
^ Jiroft Iran - Jiroft archaeology museum - GLOBOsapiens.net
^ "Persia 7000 years of civilisation" by David Abbasi (Siyavash AWESTA),
The discovery in Iran of a civilisation old of 7000 turns all the archaeological
data’s ups and down.
^ http://www.solcomhouse.com/iran.htm , The south-western part of Iran was
part of the Fertile Crescent where most of humanity's first major crops were
grown. 7000 year old jars of wine excavated in the Zagros Mountains and ruins
of 7000 year old settlements such as Sialk are further testament to this.
^ http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001705.html , Archaeologists
believe that Jiroft was the origin of Elamite written language in which the
writing system developed first and was then spread across the country and
reached Susa. The discovered inscription of Jiroft is the most ancient written
script found so far.
^ J. B. Bury, p. 109.
^ Durant, p. ??.
^ Transoxiana 04: Sasanians in Africa
^ Sarfaraz, pp. 329–330
^ Iransaga: The art of Sassanians
^ ed. StBoT 18
^ Time Almanac - Page 724 by Editors of Time Magazine
^ The New Review - Page 208 edited by Archibald Grove, William Ernest
Henley
^ Crawford, Harriet E. W. (1998). Dilmun and its Gulf neighbours. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 5. ISBN 0521583489
^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity, 1991.
^ See, e.g., Bafaqih 1990.
^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity.
Edinburgh: University Press, 1991, pp.57.
^ Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia, 2005.
^ Periplus of the Erythreaean Sea, chs. 4, 5
^ As recounted by Timaeus, FrGrH 566, fr. 60. Archaeological attestation for
so early a date is still wanting, though recent discoveries in situ may point
nearly as far back in time.
^ Indus Valley Civilization
^ Achaemenian rule of Pakistan
^ Alexander's invasion of Pakistan
^ (Bjorn Landstrom, 1964; Miller, J. Innes. 1969; Thomas Puthiakunnel 1973;
& Koder S. 1973; Leslie Brown, 1956
^ 後漢書, 會稽海外有東鯷人分爲二十餘國
^ See also Jewang Ungi, Dongguk Tonggam, Sejong Sillok, and Chronicle of
Korean Rulers, 제왕연대력 帝王年代曆 Jewang yeondaeryeok, Choe Chiwon
(최치원) (857 - ?)
^ Korea's History (Ko-Choson, Three Kingdoms, Parhae Kingdom, Unified
Shilla, Koryo Dynasty, Colonial Period, Independence Struggle, Provisional
Government of Korea, Independence Army, Republic of Korea,)
^ http://www.rootsinfo.co.kr/history/king08.html Wang Geon changed
the name of dynasty to Goryeo.
^ eg Γarudi 2002: 7
^ Rybatzki 2003: 58
^ The Renaissance discovery of Classical Antiquity by Roberto Weiss
^ Ancient Britain Had Apartheid-Like Society, Study Suggests
^ BBC - History - Anglo-Saxons
^ English and Welsh are races apart
^ Britannica (Turkey) People and Culture
^ Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings. Penguin, 1998. ISBN 0140252827 p. 9-22.
^ ::: 자랑스런 성균관 꽃피우는 유교문화 올바른 인성교육 성균관
예절교실 :::
^ This is governed by the science of aerodynamics. A primary feature of a
properly designed sail is an amount of "draft", caused by curvature of the
surface of the sail.
^ Hatshepsut oversaw the preparations and funding of an expedition of five
ships, each measuring seventy feet long, and with several sails. Various other
examples of Egyptian sailing vessels] exist, also.
^ Script Delivery: New World writing takes disputed turn Science News
December 7th, 2002; Vol.162 #23
^ Pohl, Mary; Kevin O. Pope, and Christopher von Nagy (2002). "Olmec
Origins of Mesoamerican Writing". Science 298: 1984–1987. doi:10.1126
/science.1078474.
^ "Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere.". New York Times. http:
//www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/science/15writing.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-
30. "A stone slab bearing 3,000-year-old writing previously unknown
to scholars has been found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and
archaeologists say it is an example of the oldest script ever discovered in the
Americas."
^ "'Oldest' New World writing found". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.
uk/2/hi/science/nature/5347080.stm. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. "Ancient
civilisations in Mexico developed a writing system as early as 900 BC, new
evidence suggests."
^ "Oldest Writing in the New World". Science. http://www.sciencemag.
org/cgi/content/abstract/313/5793/1610. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. "A block
with a hitherto unknown system of writing has been found in the Olmec
heartland of Veracruz, Mexico. Stylistic and other dating of the block places it
in the early first millennium before the common era, the oldest writing in the
New World, with features that firmly assign this pivotal development to the
Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica."
^ Science (subscription required)
^ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10maya.html

[edit] General Information
Alcock, Susan E.; Terence N., D'Altroy; Terence N., Morrison et al.,
eds. (201), Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 546, ISBN 978-0521770200
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MacMullen 1966, MacMullen 1990, Thomas & Wick 1993, Loftus 1996.
Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The Idea of History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of
Human Societies. New York: Norton.
Dodds, E. R. (1964). The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley,
Calif.: University of California Press.
Hodges, Henry; Judith Newcomer (1992). Technology in the Ancient World.
Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0880298933.
Kinzl, Konrad H. (1998). Directory of Ancient Historians in the USA, 2nd ed..
Claremont, Calif.: Regina Books. ISBN 0941690873. http://people.trentu.
ca/kkinzl/aahdir.html. Web edition is constantly updated.
Kristiansen, Kristian; Larsson, Thomas B. (2005), The Rise of Bronze Age
Society, Cambridge University Press
Libourel, Jan (1973). "A Battle of Uncertain Outcome in the Second Samnite
War" ([dead link] – Scholar search). American Journal of Philogy 94 (1): 71.
doi:10.2307/294039. http://www.jstor.
org/view/00029475/ap010369/01a00060/0. Retrieved on September 2007.
"Livius. Articles on Ancient History". http://www.livius.org/.
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Institute of America 55 (4). http://www.archaeology.
org/0207/newsbriefs/etruscan.html. Retrieved on September 2007.
Loftus, Elizbeth (1996). Eyewitness Testimony. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press. ISBN 0674287770.
MacMullen, Ramsay (1966). Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason, Unrest
and Alienation in the Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
MacMullen, Ramsay (1993). Changes in the Roman Empire: Essays in the
Ordinary. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691036012.
Toffteen, Olaf Alfred (1907). Ancient Chronology. University of
Chicago Press.
Thomas, Carol G.; D.P. Wick (1994). Decoding Ancient History: A Toolkit for
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York: Macmillan. Eight volumes.

[edit] See Also
Ram Sharan Sharma
Pandurang Vaman Kane
Will Durant

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