Proceedings, of the Worcester Society of Entiquity, Vol. 21 (Classic Reprint)

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Prehistory is the period before written history. Most of our knowledge of that period comes from the work of archaeologists. [2] Prehistory is often known as the Stone Age, and is divided into the Paleolithic (earliest), Mesolithic, and Neolithic. [3] a b World and Its Peoples. Marshall Cavendish. September 2009. p.1458. ISBN 978-0-7614-7902-4 . Retrieved 5 December 2012. Greece was home to the earliest European civilizations, the Minoan civilization of Crete, which developed around 2000 BC, and the Mycenaean civilization on the Greek mainland, which emerged about 400 years later Shaw, Thurstan (1978). Nigeria: Its Archaeology and Early History. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-02086-9.

Hellenistic philosophy was succeeded by continued developments in Platonism and Epicureanism, with Neoplatonism in due course influencing the theology of the Church Fathers.The " Cup of the Ptolemies" was set in Carolingian precious mounting and preserved in the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Frucht, Richard C (31 December 2004). Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. p.847. ISBN 978-1-57607-800-6 . Retrieved 5 December 2012. People appear to have first entered Greece as hunter-gatherers from southwest Asia about 50,000 years... of Bronze Age culture and technology laid the foundations for the rise of Europe's first civilization, Minoan Crete It was during this period that Greece flourished, fought the Persians, was conquered by the Macedonians, and later the Romans; the Romans got rid of their kings, established the Republican form of government and then started the rule by emperors. In the later years of this period, in Biblical History, the Seleucids were the monarchs under whom the Hasmonean and then the Herodian kings arose. The Maccabees were Hasmoneans. The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with some influences from the ancient Near East, was the basis of art, [5] philosophy, society, and education in the Mediterranean and Near East until the Roman imperial period. The Romans preserved, imitated, and spread this culture over Europe, until they were able to compete with it, and the classical world began to speak Latin along with Greek. [6] [7] This Greco-Roman cultural foundation has been immensely influential on the language, politics, law, educational systems, philosophy, science, warfare, poetry, historiography, ethics, rhetoric, art and architecture of the modern world. [8]

Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and a half millennia. [63] It began with the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3100 BC, traditionally under Menes. [66] The civilisation of ancient Egypt was characterised primarily by intensive agricultural use of the fertile Nile Valley; [67] the use of the Nile itself for transportation; [68] the development of writing systems – first hieroglyphs and then later hieratic and other derived scripts – and literature; [69] the organisation of collective projects such as the pyramids; [70] trade with surrounding regions; [71] and a polytheistic religious tradition that included elaborate funeral customs including mummification. [72] Overseeing these activities were a socio-political and economic elite [73] under the figure of a (semi)-divine ruler from a succession of ruling dynasties. [74]Gernet, Jacques (1996). A History of Chinese Civilization. Translated by Foster, J. R.; Hartman, Charles (Seconded.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-49781-7. BC: The Zhou force (led by King Wu of Zhou) overthrow the last king of Shang dynasty; Zhou dynasty established in China. This was the period when, if the Trojan War is real, it probably happened. It probably corresponds to the time of the Biblical Book of Exodus. Boardman, John; Hammond, N. G. L., eds. (1970). "Preface". The Cambridge Ancient History Volume III, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries B.C. ISBN 978-0-521-23447-4.

The East Asian nations adjacent to China were all profoundly influenced by their interactions with Chinese civilisation. Korea and Vietnam were brought under Han rule by Han Wudi in the second century BC, and this rule led to cultural influences on both areas for many centuries to come. [124] Wudi also faced a threat from the Xiongnu, a nomadic people from the Central Asian steppes. Wudi's invasions ended the Xiongnu state. [125] Main article: Roman Republic The extent of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in 218 BC (dark red), 133BC (light red), 44BC (orange), 14AD (yellow), after 14AD (green), and maximum extension under Trajan 117 (light green) Shaanxi History Museum notice". Shaanxi History Museum. Archived from the original on 14 January 2021 . Retrieved 18 October 2020.

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The period between the catastrophic end of the Mycenaean civilization and about 900 bce is often called a Dark Age. It was a time about which Greeks of the Classical age had confused and actually false notions. Thucydides, the great ancient historian of the 5th century bce, wrote a sketch of Greek history from the Trojan War to his own day, in which he notoriously fails, in the appropriate chapter, to signal any kind of dramatic rupture. (He does, however, speak of Greece “settling down gradually” and colonizing Italy, Sicily, and what is now western Turkey. This surely implies that Greece was settling down after something.) Thucydides does indeed display sound knowledge of the series of migrations by which Greece was resettled in the post-Mycenaean period. The most famous of these was the “ Dorian invasion,” which the Greeks called, or connected with, the legendary “return of the descendants of Heracles.” Although much about that invasion is problematic—it left little or no archaeological trace at the point in time where tradition puts it—the problems are of no concern here. Important for the understanding of the Archaic and Classical periods, however, is the powerful belief in Dorianism as a linguistic and religious concept. Thucydides casually but significantly mentions soldiers speaking the “Doric dialect” in a narrative about ordinary military matters in the year 426. That is a surprisingly abstract way of looking at the subdivisions of the Greeks, because it would have been more natural for a 5th-century Greek to identify soldiers by home cities. Equally important to the understanding of this period is the hostility to Dorians, usually on the part of Ionians, another linguistic and religious subgroup, whose most-famous city was Athens. So extreme was this hostility that Dorians were prohibited from entering Ionian sanctuaries; extant today is a 5th-century example of such a prohibition, an inscription from the island of Paros. The Huns were a nomadic people who formed a large state in Eastern Europe by about AD 400, and under their leader Attila, they fought against both sections of the Roman Empire. However, after Attila's death, the state fell apart and the Huns’ influence in history disappeared. [166] The Hun-Xiongnu connection is controversial at best and is often disputed but is also not completely discredited. [167] [168] Diocletian becomes emperor of Rome and splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western Roman Empires. The Chinese civilisation that emerged within the Yellow River valley is one of earliest civilisations in the world. [99] Prior to the formation of civilisation, neolithic cultures such as the Longshan and Yangshao dating to 5000 BC produced sophisticated pottery, cultivated millet, and likely produced clothes woven from hemp and silk. [100] Rice was also farmed and pigs and water buffalo were kept for food. Longshan potters may have used the pottery wheel to produce their wares. [101] Ancient Chinese traditions described three ancient dynasties that predated the unification under the Qin and Han dynasties. These were the Xia, the Shang, and the Zhou. It was not until the later 20th century that many historians considered the Shang or Xia to be anything other than legendary. [102] Little is yet known about the Xia, which appears to have begun around 2200 BC, and may have controlled parts of the Yangtze River valley. [103]

BC: King Khufu completes the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Land of Punt in the Horn of Africa first appears in Egyptian records around this time. In the 8th century BC, power became decentralized during the Spring and Autumn period, [107] named after the influential Spring and Autumn Annals. [108] In this period, local military leaders used by the Zhou began to assert their power and vie for hegemony. [107] The situation was aggravated by the invasion of other peoples, [109] forcing the Zhou to move their capital east to Luoyang. [110] In each of the hundreds of states that eventually arose, local strongmen held most of the political power and continued their subservience to the Zhou kings in name only. The Hundred Schools of Thought of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period, and such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism and Mohism were founded, partly in response to the changing political world. [111] [112]BC – 2270 BC: Akkadian Empire is founded, dating depends upon whether the Middle chronology or the Short chronology is used. Based on the collation of data for more than 1000 individuals, we have identified spatial and temporal patterns in the deposition of human remains in European mires. Following an extended period of sporadic examples, the phenomenon of intentional deposition of human remains first becomes consistently visible in the Early/Middle Neolithic, subsequently continuing over the next seven millennia. Distinct fluctuations in the intensity of deposition are apparent. Bog mummies, which have been central to scientific debates to date, form only one end of a spectrum of preservation. These bog mummies generally date to the more recent phases discussed here and are only found in parts of the study area. Our more inclusive approach, including bog skeletons, significantly increases the size of the database and allows for the recognition of specific and robust trends that have not previously been recognised. Qin Shi Huangdi ruled the unified China directly with absolute power. In contrast to the decentralized and feudal rule of earlier dynasties the Qin ruled directly. Nationwide the philosophy of legalism was enforced and publications promoting rival ideas such as Confucianism were prohibited. In his reign unified China created the first continuous Great Wall with the use of forced labour. Invasions were launched southward to annex Vietnam. The Qin period also saw the standardization of the Chinese writing system and the government unified the legal systems as well as setting standardized units of measurement throughout the empire. [118] After the emperor's death rebellions began and the Han dynasty took power and ruled China for over four centuries with a brief interruption from AD 9 to 23. [119] The Han dynasty promoted the spread of iron agricultural tools, which helped create a food surplus that led to a large growth of population during the Han period. Silk production also increased and the manufacture of paper was invented. [120] Though the Han enjoyed great military and economic success, it was strained by the rise of aristocrats who disobeyed the central government. Public frustration provoked the Yellow Turban Rebellion; though a failure it nonetheless accelerated the empire's downfall. After AD 208, the Han dynasty broke up into rival kingdoms. China would remain divided for almost the next 400 years. [121] Neighbours of China [ edit ] Gold stag with eagle's head, and ten more heads in the antlers. Inspired by Siberian Altai mountain art, possibly Pazyryk, unearthed at Nalinggaotu, Shenmu County, near Xi'an, China. Possibly from Huns of the Northern Chinese prairie. 4th to 3rd centuries BC, [122] or Han Dynasty period. Shaanxi History Museum. [123] Under PhilipII, (359–336BC), Macedon expanded into the territory of the Paeonians, the Thracians and the Illyrians. Philip's son, Alexander the Great, (356–323BC) managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states but also to the Persian Empire, including Egypt and lands as far east as the fringes of India. The classical period conventionally ends at the death of Alexander in 323BC and the fragmentation of his empire, which was at this time divided among the Diadochi.