Human civilization has come a long way since the era when there were no defined means of communication and prey was the primary source of food. Gradually, from agriculture to grazing, animals are domesticated, societies are created and developed and ultimately led to the society in which we live today.
Each of the individual civilizations listed here has contributed in different ways: new inventions, new ideas, new cultures, philosophies, lifestyles, etc. From the very infancy of civilization to the modern-day, what we have become is the result of all civilizations that came before. In this article, we discuss some famous Oldest Ancient Civilization In the World.
1. The Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Ancient Egypt is one of the oldest and most culturally rich civilizations on this list. Ancient Egyptian civilization, a glorious civilization from the banks of the Nile River, is known for its famous culture, its pharaohs, permanent pyramids, and sphinxes. Civilization In 150 BC (according to the conventional Egyptian chronology) civilization merged with the political unification of upper and Lower Egypt under the first Pharaoh.
But this would not have been possible without the settlement around the Nile Valley in early 50000 BC. The history of ancient Egypt can be divided into a series of stable states separated by periods of relative instability known as the Middle Ages: the ancient kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age, and the New Kingdom of the Last Bronze Age.
Ancient Egypt gave us pyramids, mummies that preserve the ancient pharaohs to this day, hieroglyphics, and much more. Ancient Egypt reached its peak during the New Kingdom, when pharaohs like Ramesses the Great ruled with such power that another contemporary civilization, the Nubians, also came under Egyptian rule.
2. The Ancient Greek Civilization
The ancient Greeks may not have been the oldest civilization, but they are no doubt one of the most influential. Although the rise of ancient Greece dates back to the Cycladic and Minoan civilizations (2700 BC – 1500 BC), evidence of burial in the Franois Cave of Argolid, Greece, dates to about 7250 BC.
The history of this civilization spans so long that historians have divided it into different periods, the most popular being the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. During this time many ancient Greeks came to light, many of whom changed the world forever and are still talking about it today.
They laid the foundations of modern geometry, biology, and physics. Pythagoras, Archimedes, Socrates, Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great history books are full of names whose inventions, theories, beliefs, and heroism have had a significant impact on later civilizations.
3. The Roman Civilization
Roman civilization originated in the sixth century BC. Even the story behind the foundations of ancient Rome is legendary and mythical. At the height of his power, the Roman Empire ruled over a vast territory, and all present-day Mediterranean countries were part of ancient Rome. At first, Rome was ruled by kings, but after only seven of them ruled, the people took control of their cities and ruled themselves.
They introduced a council called the Senate that ruled over them. From this point on, Rome was referred to as the Roman Republic. Rome witnessed the rise and fall of the greatest emperors in human history, such as Julius Caesar, Trajan, and Augustus. But in the end, the empire became so huge that it was not possible to bring it under a single rule. Eventually, the Roman Empire was occupied by millions of barbarians from the north and east of Europe.
4. Vedic Civilization
In addition to the archaeological heritage discussed above, the Vedas contain the oldest literary record of Indian culture from this period. Ancient, or Vedic, Sanskrit, usually written between 1500 and 800 BC, and circulated orally, the Veda contains four major texts – igg-, Sam-, Yajur- and Atharvaveda.
The Aveda is believed to be the first of these. Among the Indo-European-speaking people known as Aryans (from the present-day Sanskrit Aryans, the “great”), who probably entered India from the Iranian region, are hymns, charms, spellings, and religious observations.
5. Ethiopia Civilization
Ethiopia is a country in the Horn of Africa. The country is located entirely in tropical latitudes and is relatively compact, with similar north-south and east-west dimensions. The capital is Addis Ababa (“new flower”), located almost in the center of the country. Ethiopia is the largest and most populous country in the Horn of Africa.
1 Sea Eritrea, the former province on the shores of the Red Sea, becomes Ethiopia landlocked. Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, its territorial boundaries have changed over the millennia of its existence. In ancient times it was centered on Aksum, an imperial capital located in the northern part of the modern state, about 100 miles (160 km) off the coast of the Red Sea.
The current region was consolidated in the 19th and 20th centuries as European powers entered Ethiopia’s historic region. Ethiopia first became prominent in modern world affairs in 1896, when it defeated colonial Italy in the Battle of Adwa, and again in 1935-36, when it was invaded and occupied by fascist Italy.
6. Kurdish Civilization
The Kurds are members of an ethnic and linguistic group living in the Taurus Mountains in southeastern Anatolia, the Zagros Mountains in western Iran, parts of northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and western Armenia, and other adjoining areas. Most Kurds live in the vicinity of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey – a somewhat loosely defined geographical area commonly referred to as Kurdistan (“Kurdish country”).
The name has different meanings in Iran and Iraq, which officially recognizes an internal entity by the name: the western Iranian province of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq. There is also a large inconsistent Kurdish population in the Khorasan region of northeastern Iran. Kurdish is a Western Iranian language related to Persian and Pashto.
The number of Kurds, including those in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Syria, and Europe, is thought to be between 25 million and 30 million, but the sources of this information vary widely due to different ethnic, religious, and linguistic criteria; Statistics can also be manipulated for political purposes.
7. The Inca Civilization
This civilization developed in present-day Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, and its administrative, military, and political center was Cusco, located in modern Peru. The Inca civilization was a well-established and prosperous society. The Incas were devoted followers of the sun god Inti and their king was referred to as “Sapa Inca” which means son of the sun. The first Incan emperor, Pachakuti, transformed the capital from an ordinary village to a great city built in the shape of a puma.
He continued to spread the tradition of ancestral worship. When the king dies, his son will have all the power, but his wealth will be distributed among his other relatives, who will protect his mummy and maintain his political influence. This led to a significant increase in the power of the Incas who became great builders, building forts and sites like the cities of Machu Picchu and Cusco that still stand today.
8. The Aztec Civilization
The Aztecs came to the scene almost at the time when the Incas emerged as strong rivals in South America. In the early 1200s and early 1300s, the people of present-day Mexico lived in three large rival cities Tenochtitlan, Texocoko, and Talakopan. Around 1325, these rivals allied and the new state dominated the valley of Mexico. At the time, people preferred the Mexican name to the Aztecs. The rise of the Aztecs was within a century of the fall of another influential civilization in Mexico and Central America – the Mayans.
The city of Tenochtitlan was a base of military power and became the spear to conquer new territories, but the Aztec emperor did not rule every city or region directly. Local governments were stable and the Triple Alliance was forced to pay homage to various degrees. In the early 1500s, the Aztec civilization was actually at the height of its power. But then, the Spanish came. This led to a huge battle in 1521 between the Inca and Spanish conquerors and their local allies, led by the famous (or rather infamous) Hernn Corts. Aztec Empire.
9. The Persian Civilization
There was a time when the ancient Persian civilization was the most powerful empire on earth. Although in power for more than 200 years, the Persians conquered over two million square miles of land. Persia (or Persia as it was then called) was divided into several factions before they built such a huge empire in just 200 years before 550 BC.
But then King Cyrus II, later known as Cyrus the Great, came to power and unified the entire Persian kingdom before conquering ancient Babylon. His conquest was so rapid that by the end of 533 BC, he had already invaded India, much earlier. In its prime, ancient Persia ruled all of Central Asia and Egypt. But that all changed when Alexander the Great, a legendary Macedonian soldier, brought the entire Persian Empire to its knees and effectively ended civilization in 330 BC.
10. The Indus Valley Civilization
This civilization developed over a wide area from northeastern Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwestern India. In addition to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of the three earliest civilizations in the ancient world and among the three it was the most extensive covering an area of 1.25 million square kilometers.
The entire population settled in the Indus River Basin, one of the major rivers in Asia, and another river called Ghagar-Hakra which once flowed through Northeast India and East Pakistan. Also known as the Harappan Civilization and the Mohenjo-Daro Civilization, the site of the excavations where the ruins of the civilization were found is said to have lasted from 2600 BC to 1900 BC.
The Indus Valley Civilization has a sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture with the capital being the first urban center in the region. The people of the Indus Valley Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time, and based on the patterns found in the excavations, it is clear that the culture was also rich in art and crafts.
11. The Maya Civilization
The ancient Maya civilization developed in Central America from about 2600 BC and was much talked about due to the calendar is introduced. Once established, the Mayan civilization flourished and became highly sophisticated with a population of about 19 million. By 700 BC, the Mayans had already developed their writing system, a solar calendar engraved in stone.
According to them, the earth was created on August 11, 3114 AD, the date from which their calendar begins. The estimated deadline was December 21, 2012. But the sudden fall and abolition of the Mayans has long been one of the most fascinating mysteries of ancient history: Why did the Mayans suddenly collapse in the middle of the eighth or ninth century, a remarkably sophisticated civilization of more than 19 million people? Maya people but did not completely disappear; Their descendants still live in parts of Central America.
12. The Chinese Civilization
Ancient China – also known as Han China – comes in at number five and is undoubtedly one of the most diverse in history. If you consider all the dynasties that ruled China from beginning to end, a significant period needs to be covered. The Yellow River civilization is considered to be the beginning of the entire Chinese civilization because it was the foundation of the early dynasty.
The legendary Yellow Emperor began his reign around 2700 BC, which later gave birth to many dynasties that ruled mainland China. In 2070 BC, the Xia dynasty ruled China for the first time in ancient historical history. Since then, the Xinhai Revolution has controlled several dynasties in different periods until the end of the King Dynasty in 1912.
It spans more than four millennia of ancient Chinese civilization. During this period, though, the Chinese gave him his most useful inventions and products such as gunpowder, paper, printing, compasses, alcohol, cannons, and much more.
13. The Mesopotamian Civilization
The origins of Mesopotamia go so far that there is no known evidence of any other civilized society before them. The period of ancient Mesopotamia is generally held from about 3000 BC to 5050 BC. Mesopotamia is generally credited as the first place where civilized society began to take shape.
It was around 8000 BC that people developed the concept of agriculture and gradually began to domesticate animals for food and to assist in agriculture. People were creating art before the Mesopotamians, but it was part of human culture, not human civilization. They flourished in modern-day Iraq, then known as Babylonia, Sumer, and the Assyrian Mountains.
14. Bronze Age Aegean Civilization – Minoan Civilization
The Minoan Progress was a period of the Bronze Age Aegean human advancement that thrived on the island of Crete and the encompassing of the Aegean Islands around 3500 BC ., with this complex metropolitan culture starting around 2000 BC, and afterward that slowly decreased from around 1450 BC to around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages. It was Europe’s previously exceptional human progress, with immense building edifices, refined workmanship, and composing frameworks left behind. Its economy developed because of a business network that extended across the greater part of the Mediterranean.
The progress was uncovered at the turn of the 20 th century because it was crafted by British classicist Who fostered the expression “Minoan,” which is gotten from the mythical King Minos and alludes to the site at Knossos as the Minotaur’s maze. The Minoans have been depicted as Europe’s first human progress, with antiquarian Will Durant naming them “the principal connection in the European chain.”
The Minoans fabricated enormous, complex castles with many-sided plumbing frameworks and four-story-high frescoes. The main Minoan royal residence is Knossos, which is followed by Phaistos. The capacity of the castles, similar to that of different pieces of Minoan administration and religion, is obscure. During the Minoan time frame, Crete exchanged broadly with Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, and individuals close to them, especially those in the Near East .
Through the ones like dealers and specialists, the Minoans’ society has got an extraordinary effect spread past the island of Crete to the island of Cyclades, and to the Old Kingdom of Egypt, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan, the Levantine coast, and Anatolia. The Minoan people groups emission successfully obliterated the put and the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, which has likewise been annihilated. despite the fact that it safeguarded some of the best Minoan craftsmanship.
15. Mycenaean Civilization
The Late Bronze Age (c. 1700–1100 BCE) saw Mycenaean progress arrive at its zenith during the fifteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE. The Mycenaeans controlled all of Greece’s Peloponnese and across the Aegean Sea from Crete to the Cycladic islands. They take their name from Mycenae, which is situated in the Argolid locale in the upper eastern Peloponnese.
The Mycenaeans were likewise affected by the past progress of the Minoan culture (2000-1450 BCE), which had extended all through the Aegean from its beginnings in Knossos and the island of Crete. Engineering, craftsmanship, and strict ceremonies were joined and changed to all the more likely portray the Mycenaean culture, which was potentially more military and severe. The Mycenaeans managed the majority of central Greece and various islands, laying out an exchange network with other Bronze Age social orders in Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt.
16. Pre Columbian Civilization
Individuals of American Indian societies that advanced in Mesoamerica (part of Mexico and Central America) and the spot called the Andean area (western South America) before modern Spanish investigation and success in the sixteenth century are known as pre-Columbian civilizations. The pre-Columbian civic establishments were remarkable improvements in the old human culture and culture, equivalent to Egypt’s civilizations, Mesopotamia’s civilizations, and China’s initial civilizations.
Realms and domains, and the tremendous landmarks and urban areas in those civilizations , were advanced in human expression and, furthermore, all around cutting edge in metallurgy and composition. They described the old civic establishments of the Americas, which additionally showed comparable repeating examples of the rise and decrease of the general public, solidarity and disunity, as did the antiquated developments of the Old World.
The underlying foundations of human advancement in the New World were found in a local agrarian lifestyle. These rural starting points can be followed back a few centuries, to around 7000 BCE, when early Americans tried different things with plant development. The taming of effective grains and food plants ended up being a long, troublesome interaction, which won’t be quickly over, and it will require a ton of energy and stability in town. Cultivating life was not accomplished in the tropical scopes of the two mainlands until some other time.
17. Teotihuacán Civilization
Teotihuacán, otherwise called “City of the Gods”, was the most significant and biggest pre-Aztec city in central Mexico, situated around 30 miles (50 km) east of the present Mexico City. Its pinnacle (c. 500 CE) covered 8 square miles (20 square kilometers) and had a populace of 125,000-200,000 individuals, making it one of the world’s biggest urban areas in the period. It was the district’s generally significant financial and strict focus. In 1987, Teotihuacán was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The region in the Teotihuacan was settled by 400 BCE, but huge scope metropolitan development didn’t happen for a long period, until three centuries after the fact, when exiles from Cuicuilco, a city annihilated by volcanic action, showed up. It’s hazy whether the principal metropolitan arrangement was made at a similar period. Focal Teotihuacán was consumed around 750 CE, potentially because of an uprising or common conflict.
Regardless of the way that pieces of the city were involved after the occurrence, quite a bit of it was left in ruins. Hundreds of years after the fact, Aztec pioneers venerated the site. The Teotihuacanos’ beginnings and language are obscure. Their social impact spread all through Mesoamerica, and the city exchanged with the distant. Roughly 66% of the city’s populace worked in the encompassing fields. Others made weapons, instruments, and decorations out of obsidian, a volcanic glass utilized for weapons, devices, and ornamentation.
The Teotihaucanos city likewise had an enormous number of shippers working there, a considerable number of whom had made significant distances to show up at the spot . For the city’s minister rulers likewise set on fantastic strict shows and services, which every now and again included human penances.
18. The Norte Chico Civilization
This is human progress. It is a riddle to settle. They showed up all of a sudden around 3,000 B.C., as though by enchantment, and settled along a parched and troublesome stretch of the area. The Norte Chico development was named after this Andean area in north-central Peru, and it continued for quite some time regardless of the hard, desert climate. Without writing, the Norte Chico individuals had the option to succeed, and no sign of social class has been found.
The capacity to develop huge pyramids, homes, and courts encompassing their sanctuaries infers that the civilisation had an administration, bountiful assets, and thoroughly prepared work. Numerous ancient countries are known for their stoneware and painting, yet this clan never created a solitary shard, nor did they seem, by all accounts, to be learned to get a paintbrush. Since not many antiquities have been abandoned, little has had some significant awareness of these individuals’ every day presence.
Shockingly, the North Chico Civilization figured out how to construct around 20 towns that were among the biggest urban communities of the time. Moreover, the Norte Chico’s engineering was so giant, precise, and all around arranged that different societies, particularly the Inca, transparently took a couple of ideas for use in their own general public. The Norte Chico’s quiet and absence of proof hide what befallen them and why they said farewell to their urban areas prior to vanishing.
History specialists may always be unable to sort out where this courageous troop came from.Shockingly, The North Chico Civilization figured out how to construct around 20 towns that were among the biggest urban communities of the time. Moreover, the Norte Chico’s engineering was so giant, precise, and all around arranged that different societies, particularly the Inca, transparently took a couple of ideas for use in their own general public.
The Norte Chico’s quiet and absence of proof hide what befallen them and why they said farewell to their urban areas prior to vanishing. History specialists may always be unable to sort out where this courageous troop came from.
19. Polynesian Civilization
The civilization of the Polynesians is Prior to Western colonialism, Polynesian civilization was set up in ways that were sometimes considered necessary for humanity’s intergalactic migration. into the void. A core population has existed for thousands of years, miles over an open ocean. They expanded to settle on hundreds of scattered islands in Polynesian culture, while maintaining a shared identity among them, continuing to be aware of each other and making contact with each other on a regular basis.
Their expansion is crucial.and was the development of strong ocean-going vessels, as well as their amazing capacity to travel across enormous stretches of open sea. There was a boom in the early half of the 1800s.Following contact between Polynesia and western missionaries and whalers, disease and, from 1850, the introduction of Western laws, resulted in severe depopulation power over the political process.
Following WWII, pro-decolonization attitudes began to spread across the country. When Samoa obtained independence from New Zealand in 1962, it became the first postcolonial Pacific nation. It features a parliamentary system, although traditional chiefs (matai) are the only ones who may vote and run for office. Tuvalu is governed by a parliamentary system as well.
Traditional monarchies existed on three island groups: Tonga, Tahiti, and Hawaii. Only the island of Tonga retains this system of governance in Polynesia, where a British-style parliament grants the traditional aristocracy special status. To some extent, the majority of the remaining islands are in that place where groups have gained independence from colonial rule.
Conclusion
In the course of human evolution, the practice of living in a group with mutual understanding and dependence has become a very useful and practical way of life and has formed a larger community from smaller isolated groups. Then came a society that eventually became a civilization. How the human psyche and psychology led to this development is still a popular topic among historians and anthropologists and a big discussion for another day.
For now, let’s talk about some of the oldest civilizations on earth. We are talking about civilizations that we know existed in reality, to name a few, in contrast to the ones that were covered in myths like Atlantis, Lemuria, and Rama. To properly list the oldest civilizations chronologically, it is necessary to go back to the very depths of civilization.