When and where did civilisation first appear in the Old
World? Scholars disagree.
Scholars dispute which civilisation appeared
first and whether or not these four civilisations were in contact with one another - or the extent and nature of contact.
It is generally agreed that the first civilisation
was called Sumer and appeared between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers [in the area that is today known as Iraq] and was followed
shortly afterward by the appearance of civilisation along the Nile River in Egypt.
However, some scholars maintain that Egyptian
civilisation is the oldest and that Sumer appeared shortly afterward.
The Fertile Crescent
The area from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates is called the Fertile Crescent.
The Indus River Valley Civilisation
Civilisation along the Indus River in
India formed shortly after Sumer and Egypt.
Many scholars believe
civilisation appeared along the Ganges River at the same time as the Indus - or spread from the Indus
to the Ganges soon afterward.
The
Four Old World River Valley Civilisations
Map shows the Indus and Ganges
civilisations as one, the Indus-Ganges Civilisation.
Civilisation along
the Yellow River in China is believed to be more recent.
River Valley Civilizations
Short description
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKCKgHVf1jI
Orientation and Introduction to the Ancient World
Lecture by Kenneth Harl
Ancient Cities,
Modern Inquiries
2016
PIER Summer Institute for Educators
Yale U.
5 July 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EKk_pjr2hw
------------
Origins
of Great Ancient Civilisations
12 lectures by Kenneth W. Harl from The Great Courses
All lectures in order:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7j2YddNq2g&list=PLpXbTvMbzG8xukIngI7rOV_u1jKCU9RQy
Introduction
1. Cradles
of Civilization
- Earliest civilizations
appear in river valleys (c. 3500 - 3000 B. C.)
- Tigris-Euphrates
rivers
- Nile River
- Indus River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7j2YddNq2g
Three-lecture survey of Mesopotamia
2. First Cities
of Sumer
- Trade and Writing
- The Uruk Period
(3100 - 2500 B. C.), Ur
- The Proto-Literate Period (3100 - 2800 B. C.)
- Early Dynastic Period (2800 - 2300 B. C.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqZVIRStNQ
3. Mesopotamian Kings, Scribes and Soldiers
From city-states to regional kingdoms to territorial empires
in the Early and Middle Bronze Age
- Sargon of Akkad and the first empire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3El5pftOxkI
4. Hammurabi’s Babylon
Middle Bronze Age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0vsA6GU6A
Three-lecture survey of Egypt in the Bronze Age
(3500 - 1200 B. C.)
5. Egypt in the Pyramid Age
Early Dynastic (Archaic) Period (31200 - 2700 B. C.)
Old Kingdom (2700 - 2181 B. C.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no8rtMkbCgk
6. The Middle Kingdom (2050 - 1674 B. C.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M35IFF61bZs
7. Imperial Egypt (The New Kingdom or Empire) (1570
- 1175 B. C.)
Regional dominance in the Late
Bronze Age
To Ramses II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcqMBhO4e0s
8.
New Peoples of the Bronze Age
The spread of populations through
trade and . . .
The Fertile Crescent - from the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, to the Levant, and to the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt
- Anatolia
(Asia Minor) - The Hittites
- The Aegean - central and southern Greece,
Crete and the Cycladic islands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZBuL-o9FV8
9. The End (Collapse) of the Bronze
Age / "The Dark Ages" (1200 - 900 B. C.)
Collapse
of ruling orders
Migrations
Sea Peoples (1182 - 1150 B. C.)
Iron Age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUA0CYwuWwQ
The Iron Age
10. From Hebrews to Jews (1000 B. C. - )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fGEloKz2qY
11. Imperial Assyria (911 - 612 B. C.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKuQBPjS098
12. The Persian Empire ( - 500 B. C.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr7B6SG26Cc
-------------------
The First Cities
Episode from the 2001 British documentary series Secrets
of the Ancient Empires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idxZLKVpU7o
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUZSrZntR4o
----------
On the Age of Metals
The Three Main Ages - Stone, Bronze and Iron
1. Stone Age
New Stone Age (Neolithic)
Chalcolithic Age (Copper)
2. Bronze Age
3.
Iron Age
Below are maps and chronologies of the spread of the use of stone, bronze and iron for making tools, weapons, ornaments,
etc.
Note that
different sources offer different models of chronologies or timelines
Stone Age
Diffusion
of the Neolithic
Credit:
Joey Roe (modified by Essential Humanities)
Bronze
Age
Spread of the Bronze Age
Credit: Essential Humanities
What is bronze?
Oxford English Dictionary (OED): Bronze is a yellowish-brown alloy of copper with up to
one-third tin.
OED: An alloy is a metal made by combining two or more metallic elements, especially to give greater strength
or resistance to corrosion.
Iron
Age
Spread of the Iron Age
Credit: Essential Humanities
What
is iron?
OED: Iron is a strong, hard magnetic silvery-grey metal much used as a material for construction and manufacturing, especially
in the form of steel.
Some charts
show civilisations in Central and South America beginning around the same time as Old World civilisations.
The graph below
offers current time-lines of the development of civilizations.
The Bronze Age Collapse
Discussion on the weekly BBC radio programme
In Our Time hosted by Melvyn Bragg
16 June 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07fl5bh
The programme can be downloaded
from the webpage.
The
Iron Age
Discussion on the weekly BBC radio programme In Our Time hosted by Melvyn Bragg
24 March 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zm1ks
-----------------
The Age of Metal and the Evolution of European Civilization
Lecture by William A. Parkinson at the New Mexico History Museum in 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7HStd26qJE
----------
The Origin of the Seven Days of the Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoCWAsIr_x8
It's About Time
A Brief History
of the Calendar and Time Keeping
A lecture by Donna Carroll at the Univeristy of Maastrict on 23 Fevruary 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaYMK2n9Aow
The Calendar
Discussion
on the weekly BBC radio programme In Our Time hosted by Melvyn Bragg
19 December 2002
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548m9
------------------
On dating systems:
B. C. = Before Christ (or before the birth of Christ) =
B. C. E. = Before the Common Era
All
dates given as B. C. are the same as dates given as B. C. E.
For example: 300 B. C. is the same as 300 B. C. E.
A. D. = Anno Domini = "The Year of Our Lord" (or
since the birth of Christ) = C. E. = Common Era
For example: A. D. 400 is the same as 400 C. E.
The Anno Domini dating system was invented in A.
D. 525 but was not in common use before A. D. 800
Note that Jesus Christ is believed to have been born between
6 B. C. and 4 B. C.
