ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS (3000 BCE)

Figure 1 - Important Civilization Map 1

Figure 2 - Important Civilization Map 2
CHINESE CIVILIZATION
GREATEST CONTRIBUTION - THE ANCIENT SILK & SPICE ROUTE

Ancient China produced what has become the oldest extant culture in the world. The name
'China' comes from the Sanskrit Cina (derived from the name of the Chinese Qin Dynasty,
pronounced 'Chin') which was translated as 'Cin' by the Persians and seems to have become
popularized through trade along the Silk Road. The Romans and the Greeks knew the country
as 'Seres', “the land where silk comes from”. The name 'China' does not appear in print in the
west until 1516 CE in Barbosa's journals narrating his travels in the east (though the Europeans
had long known of China through trade via the Silk Road). Marco Polo, the famous explorer
who familiarized China to Europe in the 13th century CE, referred to the land as 'Cathay.

It has generally been accepted that the Chinese 'Cradle of Civilization' is the Yellow River
Valley which gave rise to villages sometime around 5000 BCE. While this has been disputed,
and arguments have been made for the more widespread development of communities, there is
no doubt that the Henan province, in the Yellow River Valley, was the site of many early
villages and farming communities. In 2001 CE, archaeologists uncovered two skeletons
"buried in a collapsed house, which was covered with a thick layer of silt deposits from the
Yellow River. In the layer of deposits, archaeologists found more than 20 skeletons, an altar, a
square, pottery, and stone and jade utensils" (Chinapage.org). This site was only one of many
prehistoric villages in the area.

From these small villages and farming communities grew centralized government; the first of
which was the prehistoric Xia Dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BCE). The Xia Dynasty was considered,
for many years, more myth than fact until excavations in the 1960s and 1970s CE uncovered
sites which argued strongly for its existence. Bronze works and tombs clearly point to an
evolutionary period of development between disparate Stone Age villages and a recognizable
cohesive civilization. Ancient Chinese scientists and engineers made significant scientific
innovations, findings and technological advances across various scientific disciplines including
the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, military technology, mathematics, geology and
astronomy.

Among the earliest inventions were the binary code, and one of the earliest examples of genetic
sequencing, abacus, the sundial, and the Kunming lantern. The Four Great Inventions, the
compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing – were among the most important
technological advances, only known to Europe by the end of the Middle Ages 1000 years later.
The Tang dynasty (AD 618–906) in particular was a time of great innovation. A good deal of
exchange occurred between Western and Chinese discoveries up to the Qing dynasty. The
"Four Great Inventions" are the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing. Paper and
printing were developed first. Printing was recorded in China in the Tang dynasty, although
the earliest surviving examples of printed cloth patterns date to before 220. Pin-pointing the
development of the compass can be difficult: the magnetic attraction of a needle is attested by
the Louen-heng, composed between AD 20 and 100, although the first undisputed magnetized
needles in Chinese literature appear in 1086.
Figure 3 - Different Chinese Empires

Figure 4 - Terracotta Army

Figure 5 - Great Wall of China

Figure 6 - First Use of Paper and Scroll Writing

INDIAN CIVILIZATION
GREATEST CONTRIBUTION - THE URBAN SETTLEMENTS OF INDUS

The Indus Civilization represents the earliest manifestation of urban development in the plains
of the Indus valley and its extension along the Arabian sea-coast. The four principal settlements
so far excavated provide the material to reconstruct the cultural content of the civilization. Two
lie in Pakistan: Harappa, usually identified with Hariyupiya of the Rigveda, is situated on an
old bed (sukbrawa) of the river Ravi in Sahiwal District of Punjab, and Mohenjo-daro4
(literally ‘mound of the dead’) is on the right bank of the Indus river in Larkana District of
Sind. The other two sites are in western India; Lothal5 is situated on the Sabarmati river at the
head of the gulf of Cambay on the west coast of India, and Kalibangan (literally ‘black
bangles’) lies some 310 km north-west of Delhi along the left bank of the now-dry Ghaggar
(old Sarasvati) river in northern Rajasthan.

The Indus Civilization, for the first time, also established overseas trade. The advantaged
gained through new mechanics of trade may have enabled an adventurous community to make
a bid for the mastery of their resources and lay the foundation of a political system that imposed
their supremacy over the entire Indus zone. Such is the case from the available evidence at
Harappa, where a new citadel complex7 had been imposed on an earlier village settlement. The
Kalibangan evidence again shows a new pattern of urban planning on an earlier fortified
settlement. While the earlier phases of the Bronze Age cultural complex show varying patterns
in the different geographical regions of Pakistan and western India, the Indus Civilization
imposes a certain uniformity in its basic cultural manifestation and hence there is little
difficulty in identifying the urban pattern associated with it.

This pattern is confined to a restricted geographical area and adheres mainly to the alluvial
plains of the Indus, east of the Jhelum river. Hence it belongs to the Indus system, and therefore
the name Indus Civilization is appropriate, but it also extends along a wide coastal stretch from
the mouths of the Narmada and Tapti rivers in the east to Sutkagen Dor in the west. The last-
named is one of the four major port sites, the other three being Balakot and Sotkakoh in
Baluchistan, and Lothal in Gujarat. The discovery of six mounds in the vicinity of Shortugai in
the Kunduz province of north-eastern Afghanistan appears to be a case of an isolated colonial
settlement probably acting as a trading depot. The northern limit of the Indus zone has been
extended to Manda, Akhnor, located on the right bank of the Chenab, about 28 km north-west
of Jammu, while the easternmost site being Alamgirpur on the banks of the Hindan, a tributary
of the Jamuna, is about 45 km north-east of Delhi
Figure 7 - Great Bath of Mohenjodaro

Figure 8 - Terracotta Seals

Figure 9 - Citadel Tower & City Planning

Figure 10 - Lothal Port

Figure 11 - Lothal Seal

Figure 12 - Indus Valley Toys

Figure 13 - Important Artefacts

MESOPOTAMIA - SUMERIA CIVILIZATION
GREATEST CONTRIBUTION – SUN WORSHIP TEMPLES CALLED ZIGGURATS

Sumer is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now
south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth
and fifth millennium BC. Like nearby Elam, it is one of the cradles of civilization, along with
Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, Caral-Supe, and Mesoamerica. Living along the valleys of the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, a
surplus which enabled them to form urban settlements. The world's earliest known texts come
from the Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, and date to between c. 3350 – c. 2500 BC,
following a period of proto-writing c. 4000 – c. 2500 BC.

Known for their innovations in language, governance, architecture and more, Sumerians are
considered the creators of civilization as modern humans understand it. Their control of the
region lasted for short of 2,000 years before the Babylonians took charge in 2004 B.C. The
Sumerian language is the oldest linguistic record. It first appeared in archaeological records
around 3100 B.C. and dominated Mesopotamia for the next thousand years. It was mostly
replaced by Akkadian around 2000 B.C. but held on as a written language in cuneiform for
another 2,000 years. Cuneiform, which is used in pictographic tablets, appeared as far back as
4000 B.C., but was later adapted into Akkadian, and expanded even further outside of
Mesopotamia beginning in 3000 B.C.

Architecture on a grand scale is generally credited to have begun under the Sumerians, with
religious structures dating back to 3400 B.C., although it appears that the basics of the
structures began in the Ubaid period as far back as 5200 B.C. and were improved upon through
the centuries. Homes were made from mud bricks or bundled marsh reeds. The buildings are
noted for their arched doorways and flat roofs. Elaborate construction, such as terra cotta
ornamentation with bronze accents, complicated mosaics, imposing brick columns and
sophisticated mural paintings all reveal the society’s technical sophistication. Sculpture was
used mainly to adorn temples and offer some of the earliest examples of human artists seeking
to achieve some form of naturalism in their figures. Facing a scarcity of stone, Sumerians made
leaps in metal-casting for their sculpture work, though relief carving in stone was a popular art
form.

Ziggurats began to appear around 2200 B.C. These impressive pyramid-like, stepped temples,
which were either square or rectangular, featured no inner chambers and stood about 170 feet
high. Ziggurats often featured sloping sides and terraces with gardens. The Hanging Gardens
of Babylon was one of these. Palaces also reach a new level of grandiosity. In Mari around
1779 B.C., an ambitious 200-room palace was constructed.

Sumerians had a system of medicine that was based in magic and herbalism, but they were also
familiar with processes of removing chemical parts from natural substances. They are
considered to have had an advanced knowledge of anatomy, and surgical instruments have
been found in archeological sites. One of the Sumerians greatest advances was in the area of
hydraulic engineering. Early in their history they created a system of ditches to control
flooding, and were also the inventors of irrigation, harnessing the power of the Tigris and
Euphrates for farming. Canals were consistently maintained from dynasty to dynasty.
Figure 14 - Ziggurat Temple of Iraq

Figure 15 - Ziggurat Temple of Iran

Figure 16 - Map of Ancient Sumeria

Figure 17 - Carvings of King Hammurabi & his Edicts

Figure 18 - Mesopotamian Solar Calendar

Figure 19 - Carvings of earliest deities like Enki, Enlil, Anu & Shamash

Figure 20 - The Bel Temple of Palmyra, Syria

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION
GREATEST CONTRIBUTION – THE GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

Ancient Egypt was a civilization in Northeast Africa situated in the Nile Valley. Ancient
Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC (according to
conventional Egyptian chronology) with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
under Menes (often identified with Narmer). The history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series
of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods:
the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age
and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age.

Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a
sizable portion of the Levant, after which it entered a period of slow decline. During the course
of its history, Egypt was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the
Hyksos, the Libyans, the Nubians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenid Persians, and the
Macedonians under Alexander the Great. The Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom, formed in the
aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the
Roman Empire and became a Roman province.

The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the
conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture. The predictable flooding and controlled
irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a denser population,
and social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored
mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an
independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural
projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended to assert Egyptian dominance.
Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders,
and administrators under the control of a pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of
the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying, surveying, and
construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and
obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation
systems, and agricultural production techniques, the first known planked boats, Egyptian
faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and the earliest known peace treaty,
made with the Hittites. Ancient Egypt has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were
widely copied, and its antiquities were carried off to far corners of the world.

Major advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the Old Kingdom, fueled
by the increased agricultural productivity and resulting population, made possible by a well-
developed central administration. Some of ancient Egypt's crowning achievements, the Giza
pyramids and Great Sphinx, were constructed during the Old Kingdom. Under the direction of
the vizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield,
drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain
peace and order.
Figure 21 - The Great Pyramids & Sphinx

Figure 22 - The Monotheism of Sun God Aten & King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti
Figure 23 - Temple of Luxor City
Figure 24 - The Hieroglyphic Script

Figure 25 – Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt like Ra, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Anubis, etc.
GREEK - ROMAN CIVILIZATION
GREATEST CONTRIBUTION – DEMOCRACY AND THE OLYMPICS

Ancient Rome had a large influence on the modern world. Though it has been thousands of
years since the Roman Empire flourished, we can still see evidence of it in our art, architecture,
technology, literature, language, and law. From bridges and stadiums to books and the words
we hear every day, the ancient Romans have left their mark on our world. Although the Romans
were heavily influenced by ancient Greece, they were able to make improvements to certain
borrowed Greek designs and inventions. For example, they continued the use of columns, but
the form became more decorative and less structural in Roman buildings. Ancient Romans
created curved roofs and large-scale arches, which were able to support more weight than the
post-and-beam construction the Greeks used. These arches served as the foundation for the
massive bridges and aqueducts the Romans created. The game-loving ancients also built large
amphitheaters, including the Colosseum. The sports stadiums we see today, with their oval
shapes and tiered seating, derive from the basic idea the Romans developed.

The arches of the Colosseum are made out of cement, a remarkably strong building material
the Romans made with what they had at hand: volcanic ash and volcanic rock. Modern
scientists believe that the use of this ash is the reason that structures like the Colosseum still
stand today. Roman underwater structures proved to be even sturdier. Seawater reacting with
the volcanic ash created crystals that filled in the cracks in the concrete. Ancient Romans
pioneered advances in many areas of science and technology, establishing tools and methods
that have ultimately shaped the way the world does certain things. The Romans were extremely
adept engineers. They understood the laws of physics well enough to develop aqueducts and
better ways to aid water flow. They harnessed water as energy for powering mines and mills.
They also built an expansive road network, a great achievement at the time. Their roads were
built by laying gravel and then paving with rock slabs. The Roman road system was so large,
it was said that “all roads lead to Rome.” Along with large-scale engineering projects, the
Romans also developed tools and methods for use in agriculture. The Romans became
successful farmers due to their knowledge of climate, soil, and other planting-related subjects.

Much of the literature of the world has been greatly influenced by the literature of the ancient
Romans. During what is considered the “Golden Age of Roman Poetry,” poets such as Virgil,
Horace, and Ovid produced works that have had an everlasting impact. While Roman literature
had a deep impact on the rest of the world, it is important to note the impact that the Roman
language has had on the Western world. Ancient Romans spoke Latin, which spread throughout
the world with the increase of Roman political power. Latin became the basis for a group of
languages referred to as the “Romance languages.” These include French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan. Many Latin root words are also the foundation for many
English words. The English alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. Along with that, a lot of
Latin is still used in the present-day justice system.

The use of Latin words is not the only way the ancient Romans have influenced the Western
justice system. Although the Roman justice system was extremely harsh in its punishments, it
did serve as a rough outline of how court proceedings happen today. For example, there was a
preliminary hearing, much like there is today, where the magistrate decided whether or not
there was actually a case. If there were grounds for a case, a prominent Roman citizen would
try the case, and witnesses and evidence would be presented. Roman laws and their court
system have served as the foundation for many countries’ justice systems, such as the United
States and much of Europe.
Figure 26 - The Great Temple of Parthenon

Figure 27 - Library of Agora City for Philosophical Debates

Figure 28 - Great Stadium of Colosseum

Figure 29 - Aqueduct System of Municipal Freshwater Supply

Figure 30 - Socrates & Plato

Figure 31 - The Early Olympics

MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS
GREATEST CONTRIBUTION – GREAT PYRAMIDS OF THE NEW WORLD

The Caral-Supe civilization is the oldest known advanced civilization in the American
continents discovered to date. Discovered only as recently as the 21st century, the villages of
the Caral Supe were located along the coast of central Peru. Nearly 20 separate villages have
been identified, with a central place at the urban community at Caral. The city of Caral included
enormous earthen platform mounds, monuments so large that they were hidden in plain sight
(thought to be low hills). The capital of the Tiwanaku Empire was situated on the shores of
Lake Titicaca on both sides of the border between what today is Peru and Bolivia. Their
distinctive architecture shows evidence of construction by workgroups. During its heyday,
Tiwanaku (also spelled Tiahuanaco) controlled much of the southern Andes and coastline of
South America.
The Olmec civilization flourished on the gulf coast of Mexico and constructed the first stone
pyramids in the North American continent, as well as the famous stone "baby-faced" head
monuments. The Olmec had kings, built enormous pyramids, invented the Mesoamerican
ballgame, domesticated beans, and developed the earliest writing in the Americas. The Olmec
also domesticated the cacao tree and gave the world chocolate. The ancient Maya Civilization
occupied much of the central North American continent based on the gulf coast of what is now
Mexico between 2500 B.C. and 1500 A.D. The Maya were a group of independent city-states,
which shared cultural qualities. This includes their amazing complex artwork (particularly
murals), their advanced water control system, and their graceful pyramids.

The Inca civilization was the largest civilization in the Americas when the Spanish
conquistadors arrived in the early 16th century. Known for their unique writing system (called
the quipu), a magnificent road system, and the lovely ceremonial center called Machu Picchu,
the Inca also had some pretty interesting burial customs and an amazing ability to build
earthquake-proof buildings. The best-known civilization in the Americas is the Aztec
civilization, largely because they were at the height of their power and influence when the
Spanish arrived. Warlike, intractable, and aggressive, the Aztecs conquered much of Central
America. But the Aztecs are so much more than simply warlike.

The people of the Nasca civilization on the south coast of Peru are best known for drawing
huge geoglyphs. These are geometric drawings of birds and other animals made by moving
around the varnished rock of the vast arid desert. They were also master makers of textiles and
ceramic pottery. The capital city of the Zapotec Civilization is Monte Alban in the valley of
Oaxaca in central Mexico. Monte Alban is one of the most intensively studied archaeological
sites in the Americas, and one of the very few "disembedded capitals" in the world. The capital
is also known for its astronomical observatory Building J and Los Danzantes, a stunning carved
record of captive and slain warriors and kings.
Figure 32 - The Great Pyramid of Chechen Itza

Figure 33 - The Great Temple of Tikal

Figure 34 – Heritage Water Supply System of Palenque City of Yucatan Mexico

Figure 35 - Solar Calender of the Aztecs

Figure 36 - Ruins of Machu Pichu City, Peru

Figure 37 - Nazca Geoglyph Lines of Peru