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The times before Writing belong either to Protohistory or to Prehistory . Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of human history until the Early Middle Ages . The goal of the modern day critical ancient historian is objectivity. The term Classical Antiquity is often used to refer to ancient history since the beginning of recorded Greek history in about 776 BC . 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, currently most Western scholars use the Fall Of The Western Roman Empire in AD 476 as the end of ancient European history. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 – 5,500 years, with Sumerian Cuneiform being the oldest form of writing discovered so far. Thus, this is the beginning of ''history'' by the definition used by all Historian s. 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 and the study of Primary Sources . Archaeology ''Main article: Archaeology '' Archaeology is the study of material remains in an effort to interpret and reconstruct past human behavior. 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:
Primary sources 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 firsthand (or primary) accounts, are the basis for our understanding of the ancient past. Some of the more notable ancient writers include: Valmiki , Vatsyayana , Vyasa , Kalidasa , Chanakya , Sun Tzu , Herodotus , Josephus , Livy , Polybius , Suetonius , Tacitus , Thucydides and Sima Qian . CHRONOLOGY Prehistory
History Some important events: Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Bronze Age through to the Early Iron Age
Classical Antiquity See Also: Classical antiquity
End of ancient history in Europe The date used as the end of the ancient era is entirely arbitrary. The transition period from Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages is known as Late Antiquity . Some key dates marking that transition are:
SOME PROMINENT CIVILIZATIONS OF ANCIENT HISTORY Southwest Asia See Also: Ancient Near East Ancient Mesopotamia See Also: Mesopotamia History of Iraq Ancient Persia See Also: Persian Empire History of Iran
Ancient Phoenicia See Also: Phoenicia Ancient Armenia See Also: History of Armenia Some scholars believe, for example, that the earliest mention of the Armenians is in the Akkadian inscriptions dating to the 28th-27th centuries BC, in which the Armenians are referred to as the sons of Haya, after the regional god of the Armenian Highlands . Artak Movsisyan , Hnaguyn Petut’yunĕ Hayastanum–Aratta (Yerevan: Depi yerkir 1992) 41. Ancient Arabia See Also: Arab Arabian Peninsula Ancient Israel/Palestine See Also: History of Palestine History of the State of Israel Africa ( 4th Dynasty ) and Great Sphinx Of Giza (c. 2500 BC or perhaps earlier)]] Ancient Egypt Main article: Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was a long-lived ancient 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 . See also: Egyptians South Asia , including notable cities, such as the capital Pataliputra , and site of the Buddha's enlightenment.]] The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BC, flourished 2600–1900 BCE), abbreviated IVC, was an ancient Civilization that flourished in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra River valleys primarily in what is now Pakistan and western India , parts of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan . Another name for this civilization is the Harappan Civilization, after the first of its cities to be excavated, Harappa . Although the IVC might have been known to the Sumer ians as Meluhha , the modern world discovered it only in the 1920s as a result of archaeological excavations. 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 . 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. , Gandhara , 1st Century CE .]] The births of Mahavira and Buddha in the 6th Century BC mark the beginning of well-recorded Indian history. Around the 5th century BC, the northern Indian subcontinent was invaded by the Achaemenid Empire and the Greeks of Alexander 's army. 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 India n dynasties include the Kadambas of Banavasi, western Ganga Dynasty , Chalukya s of Badami, Chalukya s, Hoysalas , Kakatiya Dynasty , Pallavas , Rashtrakuta s of Manyaketha and Satavahanas . The period between 320CE–550 is known as the Classical Age, when most of North India was reunited under the Gupta Empire (ca. 320CE–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 Prakrit s. 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 , Jew s, and the Chinese . (Bjorn Landstrom, 1964; Miller, J. Innes. 1969; Thomas Puthiakunnel 1973; & Koder S. 1973; Leslie Brown, 1956 India is estimated to have had the largest Economy of the world between the 1st and 15th centuries CE, 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. East Asia Ancient China New findings unveiled that the earliest (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. See Also: Spring and Autumn Period In the (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. See Also: 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 real 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). Europe and Mediterranean Classical Antiquity See Also: 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 got 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 Revival s, (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 Temple s, 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 discovery of Classical Antiquity'' is a book by Roberto Weiss on how the renaissance was partly caused by the rediscovery of classic antiquity. 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 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 and Taurica . 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 . Ancient Rome See Also: Ancient Rome 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 Americas NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY
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