Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to

as far as late antiquity.

Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BC – AD 500.

The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and
the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age.

In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to
3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some
regions to the late first millennium AD in others.

While in 10,000 BC, the world population stood at 2 million, it rose to 45 million by 3,000 BC.

Study[edit] Main articles: Archaeology and History History is the study of the past using
sources such as archaeology and written records.

A fundamental difficulty of studying ancient history is that recorded histories cannot

document the entirety of human events, and only a fraction of those documents have
survived into the present day.

[12] Evidence for the use of fire has been dated as early as 1.8 million years ago, a date
which is contested,[13] with generally accepted evidence for the controlled use of fire dating
to 780,000 years ago.

They reached Australia about 45,000 years ago, southwestern Europe about the same time,
southeastern Europe and Siberia around 40,000 years ago, and Japan about 30,000 years
ago.

[19] The Nile River Valley has evidence of sorghum and millet cultivation starting around
8000 BC and agricultural use of yams in Western Africa perhaps dates to the same time
period.

[20] Cattle and water buffalo were domesticated around 7000 BC and horses, donkeys, and
camels were domesticated by about 4000 BC.

How to make metal alloys began with bronze in about 3500 BC in Mesopotamia and was
developed independently in China by 2000 BC.