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Humans have been around for around 350,000 years, but it has only been a short time since they began to group together in what we call civilizations. In all of our history on this planet, humans have only civilized themselves for approximately 10,000 years thanks to the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, and eventually writing. Of the thousands of civilizations that have existed, most have disappeared. Few have remained in the same place they originated such as the Chinese or Egyptians, while most have died out. Many ancient civilizations existed throughout human history, but some lasted longer than you might believe.
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Although human beings have been around for hundreds of thousands of years
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what we'd recognize as human civilization didn't appear until close to the year 7000 BCE
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when humans started domesticating plants and animals and inhabiting seasonal settlements. Gradually, those settlements grew into full-blown civilizations
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many of which came together much longer ago than you may have realized
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Today, we're examining some of the oldest known civilizations in the world
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Time to hit the dating scene. The carbon dating scene, that is
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Around 10,000 years BCE, humanity entered what's now known as the Neolithic or New Stone Age era
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which lasted for around 5,000 to 8,000 years. While the term humans encompassed a few different species in the earlier Paleolithic era
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by the Neolithic, we're only talking about our own folks, good old Homo sapiens sapiens
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Beyond more magazine-friendly, non-sloping foreheads, the Neolithic period brought a lot more changes as well
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including the first farming settlements, widespread use of metal tools in addition to stone
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and the first efforts at pottery. Known civilizations from this point in history include
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Shutal-Huyuk, an early settlement in modern-day Turkey that flourished from around 7500 to 5700 BCE
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It's likely this spot was chosen for a city due to its proximity to a channel of the Cershamba River
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that no longer exists. The combination of fresh water and ground made of alluvial clay would have
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made this spot favorable for early attempts at agriculture. At its height, the population of
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Chetarhu-Yuk was probably between 5,000 and 7,000 people who were living in a society that was
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notably communal and egalitarian by modern-day standards. That's less people than attended the
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first WrestleMania, so while it wasn't quite a bustling metropolis, it was still pretty impressive
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for such an early community. Homes were made of mudbrick and were clustered together in a honeycomb
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design, with holes in the ceilings, doors, and walls allowing for people to easily move between
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adjoining structures. Ooh, ceiling holes. We need to bring those back. No one lived in a fancier
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mansion than their neighbors, either. All the homes were basically identical, so nobody had
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the fanciest McMansion on the block. Fascinatingly, when upgrading buildings, rather than demolishing
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the old structures, new ones were simply built on top of them. Eventually, the city became a large
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mound constructed atop prior cities, rising up from the ground. Archaeologists have excavated as
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many as 18 levels of settlement on the same patch of ground. The whole area was named as a World
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Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2012. Forming around 7,000 BCE, the Aangazal civilization of present-day
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Jordan was clustered near what is today the bustling city of Amman. It's believed Angazal
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was composed of over 3,000 people, which was large enough to make it one of the world's most
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populated cities of its era. Though not much is known about the people who lived in Angazal
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around 15 large statues and busts have survived some of which are currently on display in the Jordan Museum The statues were created by modeling moist malleable limestone plaster around a reed core
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fashioned entirely with plants found along the banks of the Zaka River. As the reeds decayed over millennia
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the hard plaster shells have largely survived. While today the statues all appear bald
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they probably also originally had wigs. It's likely they were crafted for some kind of burial ritual
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and were designed to be entombed with their owners. But further specifics about their use, and Angazal culture more generally, have been lost to time
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So the least we could do is get those statues some new wigs. Their heads have been nude for far too long
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The Norte Chico, the earliest known civilization in the Americas, formed during the Bronze Age
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named after the new innovation of smelting copper with tin to produce the stronger metal alloy
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They lived along the north-central coast of what is today Peru, starting around 3100 BCE
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The name Norte Chico actually refers to as many as 30 population centers in and around this area
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which remained active and settled for nearly 2,000 years, until approximately 1800 BCE
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The civilization existed along the banks of three rivers, the Fortaleza, the Patevilica
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and the Supe. Undoubtedly, if they'd had a professional sports team, they would have
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played at Three Rivers Stadium. No pottery or visual art from the Norte Chico era has survived
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But archaeologists have discovered some of their buildings and architecture, including sunken circular plazas and platform mounds that likely once housed buildings or
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other communal spaces. Archaeological discoveries also suggest that people living in the area had
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textile technology, possibly wearing cotton clothes and fashioning fishing nets from cloth
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as well as a polytheistic religion. Perhaps the most famous Bronze Age site
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Mesopotamia became a significant population center around 3500 BCE and remained a vital
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cluster of civilization through 500 BCE. It's also a popular source of plot points for at least
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two Ghostbusters movies. The area located between the Tigris and Euphrates River in what's today
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Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Syria was home to multiple distinct societies over the years
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including the Akkadians, the Sumerians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. The area flourished independently until it was conquered by the first Persian Empire
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More invaders followed, including Alexander the Great, the Parthian Empire, and ultimately
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the Romans. The civilizations that occupied Mesopotamia are responsible for a vast number of innovations
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and firsts in human history, including writing, early political systems, mathematics, and astronomy
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But perhaps the region's largest leap forward came during the era of Babylonian rule, with
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the explosion of literature and libraries. Early Sumerian language was expressed as a complex, logosyllabic script known as cuneiform
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which took many years to learn and master, and was only understood by a small, elite group
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within the population. During the Babylonian period, many Sumerian works were translated into a simpler form that more people could read and comprehend Some literature written during the Babylonian era including the Epic of Gilgamesh which was translated from the original Sumerian are still widely read today
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The Harappan, or Indus Valley people, lived between 2200 and 1900 BCE in an area of South Asia
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that today stretches across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northwest India. Their cities were particularly notable
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for elaborate urban planning, which included extensive drainage and water supply systems
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as well as non-residential buildings designed for artisans and metallurgy. In other words, they had plumbing and industrial districts, just like modern cities
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It's believed as many as 5 million people might have occupied the Indus Valley at its height
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an area larger than ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. And more than 1,000 mature settlements have been discovered
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Some writings from this period have also been found, but the Indus script has yet to be fully
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deciphered, shrouding their culture and religious beliefs in mystery to this day
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Today, we refer to ancient Egypt as if it was just one society, but actually the term
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encompasses a variety of societies that dominated the Nile Valley, coalescing around 3100 BCE
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and extending all the way through antiquity until 300 AD by some accounts
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That's a pretty long run, like the Simpsons of the ancient world. This includes both stable kingdoms and also intermediate periods of relative instability
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Oh, so exactly like the Simpsons. Egypt was also periodically invaded by other peoples, including the Hyksos, the Libyans
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the Nubians, the Syrians, the Persians, and the Macedonians under Alexander the Great
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There's that guy again. Man, what was his problem? For most modern people, the blanket term
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ancient Egypt is most closely associated with the Old Kingdom, stretching from around 2686 to 2181 BCE
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A considerable increase in agricultural productivity led to a population boom. more centralization of the Egyptian government, and many great works
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such as the construction of the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. Historians typically date the passage of the Bronze Age into the Iron Age to around the 12th
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century BCE, as sturdier iron and steel started gradually replacing bronze for most common
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applications. While some prior civilizations had early forms of literature and writing
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this is also the period when the historical record truly begins in earnest, and we have
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more primary sources to consult about life on Earth at the time. Though the Greek islands had already been settled throughout the Neolithic and Bronze
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Age periods, what's thought of as classical antiquity, the culture we'd today associate
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with ancient Greece, started forming around the 8th century BCE, when Homer was first
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jotting down his famous epic poems. In those early drafts, Odysseus was named Tad, but the Tadisi didn't quite have the
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same ring to it. A rapidly growing population led some Greeks to spread out and form new colonies around
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southern Italy, Sicily, and Asia Minor. This, in turn, spread their culture and language
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throughout the Mediterranean. These colonies also experienced significant economic success in commerce and manufacturing, bringing Greece even more
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esteem and influence throughout the ancient world The innovation of democratic rule in the city of Athens ushered in a golden age for Greek society while the conquests of Macedonian leader and perpetual Weird History guest star Alexander the Great
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whose army spoke Greek, further spread their culture and ideas, leading into what's known as the Hellenistic period
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Roman civilization initially formed as a kingdom along the River Tiber in central Italy
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roughly in tandem with the rise of Greek influence starting around 753 BCE
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The final Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus, ruled until 509 BCE, when he was deposed and the first
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Roman Republic was established. However, he continued to rule long after his death because
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Superbus, Superbus, is the greatest name of any king in history. This new democratically elected
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government would ultimately establish the Roman Empire and would come to control the majority of
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Mediterranean world. Beginning in what is now present-day Iran in 550 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire
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also known as the First Persian Empire, steadily grew and conquered surrounding societies. By around
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the year 500 BCE, it had expanded into the largest geographic empire the world had ever seen
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spanning over 5.5 million square miles from Egypt in the west all the way to the Indus Valley in the
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east. All that land and not a single water slide. What's the point of even having an empire
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Due to the vast amount of ground they needed to organize and manage, these early Persians made a
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number of key innovations, including road and postal systems, tolerant multicultural societies
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and complex bureaucracies and infrastructure. They were also among the first civilizations
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to maintain a professional standing army for both defense and expansion. While Western discussions about the ancient world
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often focus exclusively on the Mediterranean, humans were forming early societies in the Americas
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at this time as well. The Almecs lived in modern-day Mexico from around 1400 to 400 BCE, though it's
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likely they evolved from previous cultures, such as the Mukaya or Mihe-Suke
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They developed a number of cultural practices and traditions that became hallmarks for future Central
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and South American societies, including ritual bloodletting, and a popular ball game similar to modern-day racquetball
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Except way less dentists and entertainment lawyers played this version. The Almecs are also noted for their unique art style
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which included colossal human head sculptures formed from basalt boulders. You know the ones we mean
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The Maya civilization, meanwhile, flourished in South America, around the Yucatan Peninsula, from 2600 BCE
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all the way through the year 900 in the Common Era. Some Mayan outposts and areas of influence
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stuck around far longer than that. In fact, they were the only ancient South American society
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with a fully developed writing system. And many of their impressive pyramids, also known as ziggurats
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are still standing to this day. The very last Mayan city, Nachpeten
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didn't fall to Spanish invaders until 1697, 800 years after the Mayan central government collapsed
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and most Mayan cities had long disappeared