Ancient history From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ancient history
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Ancient history From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search This article is about history from the beginning of writing. For earlier periods, see Prehistory. For other uses, see Ancient history (disambiguation). "Ancient" redirects here. For other uses, see Ancient (disambiguation). "Ancient World" redirects here. For the TV series, see The Ancient World (TV series).
Well-known Ancient artworks, each representing a certain civilisation. From left to right: the Standard of Ur (Sumerian), the Mask of Tutankhamun (Egyptian), the Priest-King (sculpture) (Harappan), the Venus de Milo (Greek), the Sarcophagus of the Spouses (Etruscan), the Augustus of Prima Porta (Roman), a soldier from the Terracotta Army (Chinese), the Haniwa warrior in Keiko Armor (Japanese) and a colossal head (Olmec)
Ancient history is the aggregate of past events[1] from the beginning of writing and recorded human history and extending as far as late antiquity. The phrase may be used either to refer to the period of time or the academic discipline. The academic study of ancient history can be either scientific (archaeology, with the examination of physical evidence) or humanistic (the study of history through texts, poetry, and linguistics). 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 three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age.[3] The start and end of the three ages varies between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC,[4] while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. The broad term "ancient history" is not to be confused with "classical antiquity", the period that follows the Iron Age. Classical antiquity refers to the period of Mediterranean history during which the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome flourished, from the first Olympiad in 776 BC and the founding of Rome in 753 BC, to the middle of the first millennium BC. The latter part of classical antiquity is known as late antiquity. 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),[5][6] the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529 AD,[7] the death of the emperor Justinian I in 565 AD,[8] the coming of Islam,[9] or the rise of Charlemagne[10] as the end of ancient and Classical European history. Outside of Europe, there have been difficulties with the 450–500 time frame for the transition 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 10,500 years, the world population increased by 100 times.[11] Contents 1Study 2Chronology 2.1Prehistory 3Developments 3.1Religion and philosophy 3.2Science and technology 3.3Maritime activity 3.4Warfare 3.5Artwork and music 4History by region 4.1Southwest Asia (Near East) 4.2Afro-Asiatic Africa 4.3Niger-Congo Africa 4.4The Sahel 4.5South Asia 4.6East Asia 4.7The Americas 4.8Europe 5End of the period 6See also 7References 7.1Sources 8Further reading 9External links 9.1Websites 9.2Directories Study[edit] Main articles: Archaeology and History History is the study of the past using sources such as archaeology and written records. Historians divide source texts into two general types - primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are usually considered to be those recorded near to the event or events being narrated. Historians consider texts recorded after an event to be secondary sources, and they usually draw on primary sources directly. Historians use archaeological evidence to help round out the written record or when there is no written record at all.[12] Archaeology is the excavation and study of artifacts in an effort to interpret and reconstruct past human behavior.[13][14] Most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquity's own historians. 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.[15] Furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered.[15][16] Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history.[17] Chronology[edit] Prehistory[edit] Main articles: Prehistory and Neolithic Revolution Prehistory is the period before written history. Most of our knowledge of that period comes from the work of archaeologists.[18] Prehistory is often known as the Stone Age, and is divided into the Paleolithic (earliest), Mesolithic, and Neolithic. The early human migrations[19] 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, some 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 civilisations saw the invention of the wheel and the spread of proto-writing. In the 4th millennium BC, the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture in the Ukraine-Moldova-Romania region develops. By 3400 BC, "proto-literate" cuneiform is spread in the Middle East.[20] 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. Download 280.6 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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