Ancient History As A Term Refers To The Aggregate of Past Events

Ancient history
as a term refers to the aggregate of past events[1] from the beginning of writing

and recorded human history and extending as far as post-classical history. The phrase may be used
either to refer to the period of time or the academic discipline.
The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script,
with the oldest coherent texts from about 2600 BC.[2] Ancient history covers all continents inhabited
by humans in the period 3000 BC – AD 500.
The broad term "ancient history" is not to be confused with "classical antiquity". The term classical
antiquity is often used to refer to Western history in the Ancient Mediterranean from the beginning of
recorded Greek history in 776 BC (first Olympiad). This roughly coincides with the traditional date of
the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome, and the beginning of
the Archaic period in Ancient Greece.
The academic term "history" is not to be confused with colloquial references to times past. History is
fundamentally the study of the past, and can be either scientific (archaeology, with the examination
of physical evidence) or humanistic (the study of history through texts, poetry, and linguistics).
Although the ending date of ancient history is disputed, some Western scholars use the fall of the
Western Roman Empire in 476 AD (the most used),[3][4] the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529
AD,[5] the death of the emperor Justinian I in 565 AD,[6] the coming of Islam,[7] or the rise
of Charlemagne[8] as the end of ancient and Classical European history. Outside of Europe the 450–
500 time frame for the end of ancient times has had difficulty as a transition date from ancient to
post-classical times.
During the time period of ancient history (starting roughly from 3000 BC), the world population was
already exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progress.
According to HYDE estimates from the Netherlands, world population increased exponentially in this
period. In 10,000 BC in prehistory, the world population had stood at 2 million, rising to 45 million by
3,000 BC. By the rise of the Iron Age in 1,000 BC, the population had risen to 72 million. By the end
of the period in 500 AD, the world population is thought to have stood at 209 million. In 3,500 years,
the world population increased by 100 times.[9]
Contents
 1Study
o 1.1Archaeology
o 1.2Source text
o 1.3Timeline of ancient history
 2Chronology
o 2.1Prehistory
 3Developments
o 3.1Religion and philosophy
o 3.2Science and technology
o 3.3Maritime activity
o 3.4Warfare
o 3.5Artwork and music
 4Timelines
o 4.1Comparative timeline
o 4.2Comparison table
o 4.3Historical ages
 5History by region
o 5.1Southwest Asia (Near East)
o 5.2Afro-Asiatic Africa
o 5.3Niger-Congo Africa
o 5.4The Sahel
o 5.5South Asia
o 5.6East Asia
o 5.7The Americas
o 5.8Europe
 6End of the period
 7Maps
 8See also
 9References
o 9.1Citations
o 9.2Sources
 10Further reading
 11External links
o 11.1Websites
o 11.2Directories
Study[edit]
Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient
world: archaeology and the study of source texts. Primary sources are those sources closest to the
origin of the information or idea under study.[10][11] Primary sources have been distinguished
from secondary sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources.[12]
Archaeology[edit]
Main article: Archaeology
Archaeology is the excavation and study of artifacts in an effort to interpret and reconstruct past
human behavior.[13][14][15][16] 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:
 The Egyptian pyramids:[17] giant tombs built by the ancient Egyptians beginning about

2600 BC as the final resting places of their royalty.
 The study of the ancient cities of Harappa (Pakistan),[18] Mohenjo-daro (Pakistan),
and Lothal[19] in India (South Asia).
 The city of Pompeii (Italy):[20] an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius in AD 79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a valuable window into
Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans and the Samnites.
[21]
 The Terracotta Army:[22] the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China.

 The discovery of Knossos by Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans.
 The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann.
Source text[edit]
Main article: Source text
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 accounts are the
basis for our understanding of the ancient past. Some of the more notable ancient writers
include Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, Plutarch, Polybius, Sima
Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, and Tacitus.
A fundamental difficulty of studying ancient history is that recorded histories cannot document the
entirety of human events, and only a fraction of those documents have survived into the present day.
[23]
Furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be
considered.[23][24] Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in
almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history.[25]
The earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning
with Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484–c. 425 BC). Thucydides largely eliminated divine causality in
his account of the war between Athens and Sparta,[26] establishing a rationalistic element which set a
precedent for subsequent Western historical writings. He was also the first to distinguish between
cause and immediate origins of an event.[26]
The Roman Empire was an ancient culture with a relatively high literacy rate,[27] but many works by
its most widely read historians are lost. For example, Livy, a Roman historian who lived in the 1st
century BC, wrote a history of Rome called Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City) in 144
volumes; only 35 volumes still exist, although short summaries of most of the rest do exist. Indeed,
no more than a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived.
Timeline of ancient history[edit]

Main article: Timeline of ancient history
Brief ancient chronology

(Common Era years in astronomical
year numbering)
This gives a listed timeline, ranging from 3300 BC to 600 AD, that provides an overview of ancient
history.
Chronology[edit]
Prehistory[edit]
Main articles: Prehistory and Neolithic Revolution
Prehistory is the period before written history. The early human migrations[28] in the Lower
Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago. The controlled use of fire
first occurred 800,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. 250,000 years ago, Homo
sapiens (modern humans) emerged in Africa. 60–70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of
Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia. 50,000 years ago,
modern humans spread from Asia to the Near East. Europe was first reached by modern humans
40,000 years ago. Humans migrated to the Americas about 15,000 years ago in the Upper
Paleolithic.
The 10th millennium BC is the earliest given date for the invention of agriculture and the beginning of
the ancient era. Göbekli Tepe was erected by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millennium BC (c. 11,500
years ago), before the advent of sedentism. Together with Nevalı Çori, it has revolutionized
understanding of the Eurasian Neolithic. In the 7th millennium BC, Jiahu culture began in China. By
the 5th millennium BC, the late Neolithic civilizations saw the invention of the wheel and the spread
of proto-writing. In the 4th millennium BC, the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the Ukraine-Moldova-
Romania region develops. By 3400 BC, "proto-literate" cuneiform is spread in the Middle East.[29] The
30th century BC, referred to as the Early Bronze Age II, saw the beginning of the literate period
in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Around the 27th century BC, the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the
First Dynasty of Uruk are founded, according to the earliest reliable regnal eras.

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Ancient history

as a term refers to the aggregate of past events[1] from the beginning of writing

 The Egyptian pyramids:[17] giant tombs built by the ancient Egyptians beginning about

 The Terracotta Army:[22] the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China.

Timeline of ancient history[edit]

Brief ancient chronology

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