Ancient World : Beginning to 500 AD

⇒ Mesopotamia means ‘land between the rivers’. Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

⇒ Mesopotamia comprises four regions Sumer (Southernmost region), Babylonia and Akkad (middle region) and Assyria (Northernmost region).

⇒ Hammurabi (C.2100 BC), the greatest Babylonian ruler, united the whole of what is now called Iraq into a single kingdom. Hammurabi gave his people a code of laws famous as ‘Hammurabi’s Code’. His code covered every aspect of life. His code was based on the law of ‘eye for eye’ and ‘tooth for tooth’ i.e., the law of ‘tit for tat’.

⇒ The Hittites, who came from Asia Minor (now Turkey) and destroyed the Babylonian kingdom, were the first to make regular use of horses for war chariots and to make iron implements.

⇒ The potter’s wheel was perhaps first used in Mesopotamia.

⇒ The Mesopotamians also seem to have been the first to make glassware.

⇒ The Sumerians were the first to evolve a proper system of writing. This system is called cuneiform. The cuneiform script was invented in C. 3400 BC. This script is found on clay tablets. The cuneiform script was deciphered by Henry Rawlinson.

⇒ The Mesopotamian system of counting is known as sexagesimalbecause the Mesopotamian people counted by sixties as we count by tens (decimal system). Their sexagesimal system is no longer in use but we still use it as the basis of division of time into minutes and seconds and of a circle into 360 degrees.

⇒ In geometry, the Mesopotamians had discovered what was later called the Pythagoras’ theorem.

⇒ In astronomy, the Mesopotamians made astonishing progress. They could calculate the length of the day and the night. They divided the whole day into 24 hours. They divided the sky into 12 parts, each assigned a name. This has come down to us as the 12 signs of zodiac or rashis as we call them in India. Another remarkable achievement of the Mesopotamians was the invention of a lunar calendar, based on the moon.

⇒ Egypt is called the ‘Gift of the Nile

⇒ Historians divide the history of Egypt into three periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom.

⇒ The Old Kingdom is also called the ‘Age of the Pyramids’.

⇒ The Egyptian king was called the pharaoh.

⇒ The Egyptians were worshippers of nature and the sun was their most important god.

⇒ The Egyptians believed that after death both the body and the soul live while other people believed that only the soul lives and the body perishes. So the Egyptians took great care in preserving the body of the dead. The body was embalmed in spices and then wrapped ir stripes of fine linen. Such a preserved body is called mummy. The mummy was put in a wooden box anc buried.

⇒ The Pyramids and the Sphinx are the two specimens Egyptian architectural excellence.

⇒ The Pyramids were the tombs of kings and the contained the mummies of these monarchs. The mo imposing of all is the Great Pyramid at Gizeh in Cair built by the king Cheops (Khufu) of the old kingdom The Great Pyramid is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

⇒ The Sphinx is a mythological animal with the body a lion and the head of a man. Each Sphinx was car out of a single solid rock.

⇒ The Egyptian script, known as hieroglyphics, invented in C. 3100 BC. The script is found on pap sheets made of reeds. The Egyptian script-hierogly script- was deciphered by Champollion.

⇒ The Egyptians developed a decimal system numeration.

⇒ The crowning achievement of the Egyptians wa solar calendar.

⇒ The Harappan Civilization extended over a bigge: than any of the contemporary civilization.

Note: For Details, See ‘Indus Civilization’.

⇒ The earliest Chinese civilization is the Shang civiliz

⇒ The Shang dynasty was overthrown by the dynasty.

⇒ The Chinese script is a pictographic script. It is remarkable that the Chinese script has changed very little since the earliest times.

⇒ The Chinese calendar – Solar-lunar calendar, was a combination of solar and lunar calender. The Chinese were the first to calculate the length of the year as 365=1/4 days.

⇒ In 3rd century BC, the Chindynasty became important. To keep out invaders from the north, he began construction of a wall known as the Great Wall.

⇒ The Handynasty followed the Chin dynasty in 202 BC and the Han emperors ruled China for almost 400 years.

⇒ The political practices of the Han rulers were greatly influenced by the teachings of Confucius. During the Han rule, to qualify for appointment, the youngmen had to pass through an elaborate system of examination before they were chosen. Such ‘scholar-officials’ came to be known as mandarins. The Chinese was the first civilization in history to have a system of selecting public officials on the basis of education and competitive examination.

⇒ Under the Hans, silk was a principal item of export.

⇒ Two main roads were built across the Great Wall to carry on trade with the West.

⇒ The two major religions of ancient China are Taoism (based on the teachings of Lao-tse: b. 604 BC) and Confucianism (based on the teachings of Confucius : 551 BC-479 BC). Confucius was a contemporary of Mahavira and Buddha.

⇒ Buddhism was brought into China by Indians during the Han rule.

⇒ The Great Wall is a mighty monument to the building skill of ancient China. This wall, built of stone and earth to a height of 6 metres extends over 2400 km.

⇒ The Chinese script was standardized by the Chin ruler. The Chinese script spread to other countries also. It influenced the Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese scripts.

⇒ In the 1st century AD, paper was invented in China. The invention of paper and its importance in spreading knowledge within the outside China makes it one of the great contributions of China to the world.

⇒ Some of the first historical works in the world were written in China. Each dynasty compiled its own history. The pattern of these histories was set by Ssuma Chien (1st or 2nd cent. BC), who is commonly remembered as the ‘Herodotus of China’.

⇒ The water clock, abacus, umbrella were invented by Chinese.

⇒ In the 2nd cent. AD, Chinese invented seismograph.

⇒ In the middle of the 6th century BC, a powerful empire Achaemenid empire- arose in Iran (Persia). The founder of this empire was Cyrus with his capital at Pasaragadae.

⇒ He was succeeded by Darius I(522 BC-486 BC). The empire reached its greatest extent under him and covered entire Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, Asia minor and north-western India. He built a new capital at Persepolis.

⇒ Darius I and his successors were involved in wars with the Greek states. They were defeated by the Greeks. Alexander dealt a final blow to the empire during the reign of Darius III.

⇒ In the 3rd century AD, a new and powerful empire. Sassanid empire – arose in Iran. This empire which was founded by Ardashirin 226 AD held sway in Iran up to the middle of the 7th century AD.

⇒ The Arabs, who emerged as a strong power after the rise of Islam, conquered Iran in 651 AD.

⇒ The Achaemenids had introduced the use of money – coins of gold and silver – on a large scale throughout the empire.

⇒ Iran, in ancient times, produced a number of famous sailors and explorers. One of them, Scylax, undertook a voyage from the mouth of Indus to Egypt on orders of Darius.

⇒ The main religion of the ancient Iranians was Zoroastrianism. This religion was founded by Zarathustra or Zoroaster (628 BC-551 BC) as the Greeks called him in 7th century BC. The teachings of Zarathustra are recorded in the Zend Avesta, the holy book of Parsis. Zarathustra said that the world consists of two forces, good and evil. The god, Ahura Mazda represents the forces of good, and Ahirman, the forces of evil. The sun and the fire came to be worshipped as visible symbols of Ahura Mazda, who represents light. Both Judaism and Christianity were indebted to Zoroastrianism.

⇒ During the Achaemenid empire the official language was Aramaic. The Sassanids revived old Persian and made it the official language of their empire. But then a new script called Pahlavi had also developed. The best known ancient literature of Iran is the Zend Avesta, which contains the work of Zarathustra.

⇒ The early Greeks (or the Hellens), like the Aryans in India, lived in tribes, each composed of a number of families under a leader. A group of tribes had a king.

⇒ The main occupations were agriculture and herding.

⇒ The early Greeks had many gods whom they imagined to be like human beings, though more powerful and immortal. Zeuswas the god of the sky and hence caused thunder. Poseidon, god of the sea, raised stroms that sank ships.

⇒ Appollo, the sun god, could reveal the future. Athena was the goddess of victory and patroness of the arts. Dionysus was the god of wine and there were many others. The Greeks thought their gods lived on Mount Olympus.

⇒ Around 800 BC, groups of Greek villages began joining into larger units to form city-states. At the highest point in a city-state, an acropolis or citadel was built for defence and the city spread out around the acropolis. Such cities were Sparta, Athens, Macedonia, Corinth, Thebes and others. Sparta and Athens were the two most important city-states.

⇒ The Spartans’ main concern was with militarism and war so much so that the word ‘spartan’ is often used to mean militaristic.

⇒ Spartans were fine soldiers, but they contributed little else to Greek culture.

⇒ The city-state of Athens developed along lines quite different from Sparta. The territories it ruled had been occupied gradually and peacefully and militarism had not developed. Athens had excellent harbours and mineral deposits. The Athenians built a prosperous trade and culture. Pericles (469 BC – 429 BC) was the most important ruler of Athens.

⇒ The Battle of Marathon (490 BC): The Greek defeated the Iranian (Persian) king Darius I at Marathon near Athens.

⇒ The Peloponnesian war, between Sparta and Athens from 431 BC to 404 BC, ended in tragedy for Athens.

⇒ Philip of Macedonia conquered most of the states in the years following Athens’ defeat.

⇒ Then his son, Alexander, set out at the age of 20 to conquer the world.

⇒ During the 13 years (336 BC-323 BC), he compelled all Greece to accept his leadership and conquered the Achaemenid empire. This brought him to the borders of India where he defeated king Porus on the Jhelum in 326 BC. He sailed down the Indus and then returned to Mesopotamia where he died of fever in 323 BC at the age of 32.

⇒ Alexander’s conquests brought many important changes to the world. Trade between Europe and Asia developed. Many new cities were founded.

⇒ In the 2nd century BC, the Roman empire started expanding eastward. As a result of Roman conquests, almost the entire territory of the Greeks and their empire became a part of the Roman empire.

⇒ The glory of Greece that the world has never forgotten was largely the glory of Athens at the time of Pericles.

⇒ The Olympic Games were first held in 776 BC by the Greeks in honour of God Zeus at Mount Olympus (Olympia) in Greece, hence the name, and they continued till 394 AD. From 394 AD these games started degenerating and by 580 AD they altogether vanished. They were banned by the Roman Emperor Theodosius as pagan manifestations.

⇒ It was the French baron, Pierre de Coubertin, who (nearly over 1500 years after the last ancient Olympics) revived these games in 1894 and the modern series of the Olympic games started in 1896 at Athens and since then they are being held every fourth year.

⇒ Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ are among the best epics of the world. The Iliad is the story of seize and destruction of the city of Troy, as the western coast of Asia Minor. The Odyssey describes the adventures and home coming from Troy of a Greek hero Odysseus.

⇒ The founder of the Greek tragedy was Aeschylus, author of ‘Promethus Bound’. Sophocles is considered to be the greatest of Greek tragedians. His famous plays are ‘Oedipus Rex’, ‘Antigone’ and ‘Electra’.

Aristophanes is considered to be the master of Greek comedy.

⇒ Greece produced some of the world’s earliest great historians e.g. Herodotus (known as ‘the Father of History’), Thucydides, Plutarch etc.

⇒ The most famous philosophers of Greece were Socrates, Plato (disciple of Socrates and author of ‘Republic’), and Aristotle (disciple of Plato). Aristotle was both philosopher and scientist. He made important contributions to philosophy, medicine, biology and astronomy. He believed in the principle of the Golden Mean, that is neither extreme luxury nor self-denial.

⇒ The Greek made many contributions to mathematics, especially to geometry as is seen in the works of Euclid and Pythagoras.

⇒ In medicine, Hippocrates laid the foundation of modern medicine. He is known as the ‘Father of Medicine’.

⇒ The most important astronomers were Aristarchus, Ptolemy, Hipparchus, Eratosthenes etc. Ptolemy’s belief that the earth was the centre of the universe was accepted as truth until the 16th century. Eratosthenes prepared a fairly accurate map of the globe and was the first to suggest that one could reach India from Europe by sailing west.

⇒ The temple of Athena, the Parthenon is the best example of Greek architecture. Myron and Phidias are two best-known sculptors of ancient Greece. It was Phidias whom Pericles appointed to supervise the construction of the Acropolis in Athens.

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