Ancient civilizations live in our popular imagination and influence our ideas and customs to this day. Whether it's Rome, Greece, Egypt or Persia, many of us have a closer relationship with these ancient peoples than our neighbors today. But a question hangs in the air: what is the oldest civilization in history?
Thirty years ago, that question would have had an easy answer: the Sumerians. Around 30 BC, the first phase of Sumerian culture emerged as the oldest civilization in the region of Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq. These people get their name from the city of Sumer, which was a few kilometers south of the modern city of Kut. Archaeologists call this first phase of Sumerian civilization the 'Uruk period', also named after an ancient city of the same name, where many of the artifacts of that culture were found.
However, evidence found in recent decades indicates that the Sumerians have some claimants to that title, including the ancient Egyptians.
What is a civilization?
First of all, it is important to clarify the terminology used here: the concept of 'civilization' tends to be vague, but, generally speaking, to be considered as such, a culture must meet certain requirements, o urbanization, mastery of agriculture irrigated and writing; and the Sumerians scored points in these three areas.
The Legacy of the Sumerians
From 2 BC, the Sumerians gave rise directly to the Babylonian civilization, also located in Mesopotamia. The latter is responsible for the discovery of various mathematical concepts such as trigonometry and prime, square and cubic numbers.
It is believed that the Sumerians also invented the concept of 'religion' or an institution, which can be observed through their large temples called ziggurats (see the featured image in this article), which concentrated a priestly caste dedicated to the cult of specific gods, according to American historian Samuel Noah Kramer.
One goddess, Inanna, who may originally have been a fertility deity linked to the city of Uruk, saw her cult spread to other cities in Mesopotamia, where Ishtar became known, and many believe that she may have influenced the creation of goddesses. from other civilizations, Aphrodite in Ancient Greece.
In addition, the oldest systematized writing found by archaeologists belongs to the Sumerians. They recorded their daily lives, their economic operations and political processes through incisions in clay blocks, marking cone-shaped symbols.
the petitioners
Some scholars argue that other civilizations may be as old or older than the Sumerians. “I would argue that Egypt and Sumer were basically contemporaneous in their rise,” says Philip Jones, curator of the Babylonian section at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, USA.
The wars and instability that afflicted Iraq in recent decades made it impossible for archaeologists to access many archaeological sites in the Mesopotamia region, while excavations in Egypt continued as normal. As a result, experts have discovered Egyptian written records as old as those of the Sumerians, which suggests that the first phase of Egyptian civilization arose at about the same time as the first Sumerian historical period, around 4 BC.
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Another contender for the title of oldest civilization is the Indus Valley Civilization, which encompassed regions of present-day Pakistan, India and Afghanistan and originated approximately 3300 BC, according to the oldest artifacts. However, "I wouldn't be surprised if we found artifacts as old as [the Sumerians]," says Jones.
Furthermore, Jones suspects that webs of ercium along the Indian Ocean coast contributed to the rise of the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Indic civilizations by providing them with resources and ideas from other corners of the world.
Via: Live Science
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