Cultures of the Ancient World - out of chaos and darkness


last update: 28 January 2022


Mask of Agamemnon

Introduction


This is just a short introduction to my website covering ancient civilisations, often seen as beginning with '
recorded history' or the written record, and going through to the early middle ages, but also sometimes limited only to the Greco-Roman world and called classical antiquity. For me, I will look at Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and the Roman Empire (ending 476 AD), and I will also include the bronze age in Europe, the early Chinese dynasties, and the Olmec and Maya civilisations of Central America.


I would like to also include a page on lesser known ancient civilisations.

Strictly speaking ancient civilisations starts with the written word (protoliterate), but I have take some 'artistic license' and also included the Stone Age (pre-history) in my site.

I am going to kick-off this page with an odd looking map. You can kind of see that it is Europe, but not the Europe we know today. It is Europe some 13 million years ago, in the so-called Miocene period. We can see the Alpine orogeny squashed between the Eurasian and African plates, and what would one day become the Atlas, Pyrenees, Alps, and Balkans. And to put that into context, we must remember that the dinosaur disappeared some 66 million years ago, the Mediterranean dried up between 12 million and 5 million years ago, and the very earliest humans (Homo) migrated into Europe some 1.4 million years ago.

Evolutionary history shows that human populations likely originated in Africa, and the Genographic Project, the most extensive survey of human population genetic data to date, suggests where they went next. A study by the Project finds that modern humans migrated out of Africa via a southern route through Arabia, rather than a northern route by way of Egypt.


Mid Miocene Europe



Evolutionary history shows that human populations likely originated in Africa, and the Genographic Project, the most extensive survey of human population genetic data to date, suggests where they went next. A study by the Project finds that modern humans migrated out of Africa via a southern route through Arabia, rather than a northern route by way of Egypt.

Out of Africa Route



The below map shows the spatial and temporal locations of ancient civilisations in the African, Asian, and European continents. Each civilisation is colour coded by its period of origin (3500-1000 BC, 2100-1000 BC, or After 600 BC).

Ancient Civilizations of the Old World

Below we have the Ancient Near East, home of early civilisations within a region roughly corresponding to the Kingdom of Mitanni (ca. 1600-1260 BC), the Arzawa (ca. 1500-1200 BC), the Hittite Empire (ca. 1650-1178 BC), the Kassite Dynasty (ca. 1595-1155 BC), the New Kingdom Egypt (ca. 1550-1077 BC), Mycenaean Greece (ca. 1750-1050 BC), Mesopotamia (ca. 3100-539 BC), and the Elamite Empire (3200-539 BC).

Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East 1400 BC


Important Moments


This period includes some of the most important moments in human civilisation, namely:


Checkout the ancient history timeline and a timeline of human prehistory.

Warning - my webpages are a work in progress, so some will be semi-complete, others in a draft form, and others empty and waiting (perhaps forever).

Resources


Here are a few pointers to interesting resources:
You have an Ancient History Encyclopedia which is a non-profit educational resource.
The British Museum has a site dedicated to ancient civilisations, for young people between 3 to 16+.
Fordham has an Ancient History Sourcebook, covering Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Israel, Greece, and Rome.
The Perseus Digital Library is an open-access site cataloging research material, collections and texts. There are also academic resources providing access to the more general topic of European history, e.g. The European History Primary Sources. And of course you can check out the early chapters of the WikiBook on European History.
Ancient History is an open directory project which points to articles and resources. The site closed in 2017, but the resources are still available.

And you have a number of archaeology magazines and journals, such as the Archaeological Institute of America, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Open Access Archaeology, British Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, The Archaeologist, Virtual Archaeology Review, PastHorizons, Stone Pages, ...

Palaeontology podcasts are a great source of information presented in an easy to consume format. Here are few: Past Time, Palaeocast, Palaeo After Dark, Dragon Tongues, Tetrapod Zoology Podcast, …

And here are some links to background video material:
From Ape to Man, The European Origins of Behavioural Modernity, Mesolithic Madness, The Rise of Civilisation, The Indus Valley Civilisation, Ancient Mesopotamia, Early Archaeology in Mesopotamia, Great Ziggurat at Ur, Palette of Namer, Ishtar Gate and Processional Way, Queen of the Night - Babylonian Goddess, Statue of Khafre - Rebirth of a King, The Uruk Vase - Vision of an Ordered World, Ancient Egypt, Tomb Painting of Nefertari, Tutankhamun's Mask, The Real Life of an Egyptian, Petra Lost City of Stone, Persian Empire, Greece - Crucible of Civilisation, Hittites, Building the Ancient City of Athens and Rome - 1/2, Building the Ancient City of Athens and Rome - 2/2, Meet the Romans 1/3, Meet the Romans 2/3, Meet the Romans 3/3, Story of Buddha's Life, The Great Chinese History, The Beginning of China's Origins 1/3, The Beginning of China's Origins 2/3, The Beginning of China's Origins 3/3, Byzantium: The Lost Empire 1/4, Byzantium: The Lost Empire 2/4, Byzantium: The Lost Empire 3/4, Byzantium: The Lost Empire 4/4, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Introduction).

Here are a few additional, more in-depth analyses: The National Geographic Birth of Civilisation, Introduction to Archaeology with Hominids, Palaeolithic Europe, …, Archaeology at Work


I personally am a fan of the site Ancient Origins, which actually calls itself a ‘pop archaeology' site.


And if you have heard of the all the ‘discussions’ about alien 'involvement' in our past, check out this Ancient Aliens Debunked.