GENERAL CURRICULUM TEST OBJECTIVE : 0008 Understand major developments and figures in world history.
[During the discussion of ancient civilizations, you may see the abbreviations B.C.E (Before the Common Era) or B.C. (for Before the time of Christ); You may also see C.E. for Common Era (time of Christianity from the birth of Jesus) or A.D. (anno domini, year of the Lord, meaning Jesus) - note that these abbreviations refer to the same time periods -- that is, B.C.E and B.C or C.E. and A.D.
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Evidence suggests that as much as 600,000 years ago, humans existed, gradually using tools and fire. Very adaptable these earliest humans lived in small nomadic communities and lived by hunting and gathering their food. We are not sure when they developed language. We base our understanding on the archaeological and anthropological evidence (e.g., cave paintings and artifacts like figurines). They apparently believed in fertility gods and some form of afterlife. Over time greater social organization led to the formation of villages, cities, kingdoms, etc. Societies have been classified by their level of technological development (that is ,which tools they were able to use). For example, the Old and New Stone Age people used stone tools, Bronze Age people used bronze tools, etc. Modern writing systems and law codes of Western civilization can be traced to early Middle Eastern civilizations (e.g., Sumeria, Israel, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia).
My 4000 B.C.E., humans lived in villages, domesticated animals, grew grains, sailed in boats, and appeared to have organized religious practices.
One area of early developed civilzations was Mesopotamia in the eastern area of the eastern Mediterranean in an area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This area is within a larger area sometimes called the Fertile Crescent, a piece of land that stretched from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. Some of the groups and their characteristics are the following:
Sumarians: Invented the wheel; developed irrigation through canals; devised a system of Cuneiform writing (an alphabet of 500 characters); learned to divide time; built large boats for trading; and developed a banking system
Assyrians: Developed the first library, dedicated to preserving knowledge; highly organized military with use of horse-drawn chariots; built a system of roads; developed a system of government using governors appointed by the king to oversee territories
Babylonians: Developed the first set of written laws called the Code of Hammurabi. They believed in astrology, which holds that the movements of the stars and planets have a direct effect on human life. Their recognition of the different planets and stars led to the scientific study of astronomy, the study of the universe.
Egypt: Significant contributions including the construction of the pyramids; development of hieroglyphic writing; preserving bodies after death; paper-making from papyrus; contributions in mathematics and astronomy, including counting in groups of ten (the decimal system); completion of a solar calendar; and many other of the foundational understandings of science and astronomy
Hebrews: Noted for institutionalizing monotheism (belief in one God) in their religious beliefs and practices
Phoenicians: Noted sea traders and navigators (learned to use the stars to sail at night); they developed the Phoenician alphabet of 22 letters, symbols to represent single speech sounds (this was an extension of the principles of language, but unlike the Sumerian and Egyptian written languages)
India - Caste system was developed; the principle of zero was discovered in mathematics; the major religion of Hinduism was founded
China - developed concurrently with the civilization previously described; studied nature and weather; stressed the importance of learning, of family, and of a strong central government; followed the religions of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism; invented such items as gunpowder, paper, printing, and the magnetic compass. The Chinese built the Great Wall, practiced crop rotation and terrace farming. They established the silk industry and developed trade routes across Central Asia for trade. They cultivated rice with increased efficiency and devloped a written language based on drawings and pictographs.
Two of the the most famous early civilizations are ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
Ancient Greece - One of the most important contributions was the Greek alphabet which came from the Phoenician alphabet and became the basis for the Roman alphabet which is close to what we used today. Extensive trading and colonization helped spread Greek civilization; Greek love of sports with emphasis on a sound body led to the tradition of the Olympic games. Independent strong city-states developed in Greece. The Greeks also influenced the development of early theatre, epic and lyric poetry. Their religion included a mythology of stories about many gods and goddesses. Science, astronomy, medicine (Hippocrates), mathematics, philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates), art, architecture, and the practice of recording historical events were all important aspects of Greek culture. Ancient Greece was the place of the first democratic government.
Alexander the Great was a Greek warrior who helped spread Greek ideas throughout Asia and he promoted cultural sharing.
Ancient Rome's civilization perserved and adapted many aspects of Greek culture, but over time achieved even greater dominance and influence in the Middle East and the Mediterranean area. The ancient Roman civilization lasted about 1000 years and it was the first empire to extend northward into Europe.
Julius Caesar was a powerful Roman reform leader who is known for his military conquests and the establishment of a calendar system still in use today (with a few minor changes). Beginning in the time of the Emperor Augustus, there began a long peace called the Pax Romana, which enabled a time of much development of new architecture (bridges, aqueducts, arches, domes, and columns) and an extensive system of roads for trading, as well as a vast postal system. They wrote a set of laws that became the basis of the system used by many countries in Europe and Latin America. Their language, Latin, became the basis for many modern Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portugueses, Romanian). They invented Roman numerals that are still used in numbering systems today.
Beginning in the third century C.E., the Roman civilization began its decline and gradually was invaded by neighboring tribes. The empire divided into two parts, west and east, and the western part was eventually taken over by Germanic tribes and the Eastern part , retaining imperial power, established Christianity as the major faith.
Resources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/ancient-medieval (Khan Academy: Ancient and Medieval History)
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