The Egyptian Civilisation Over 5000 years ago the fertile valley of the river Nile, in Egypt, was the home of a thriving civilisation which lasted for about 3000 years. The people were ruled by kings who were called the *Pharaohs’. Most of the people were farmers who worked for rich land owners or the king. Besides farming, the Egyptians used boats made from papyrus reeds to fish in the Nile river...

The Science of Archaeology Archaeology involves the study of the remains of past civilisations and societies. One of the earliest pioneers of this science was the German Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann who discovered the remains of the city of Troy in the year 1870. There have been many discoveries since then and most of the artifacts we see in museums are a result of excavations all over the world. These excavations are...

Ancient Alphabets and Languages Modern alphabets are a very recent development, in the earlier days people used to draw small pictures to represent things in text. This was called Picture writing. The Egyptian system of picture writing was called Hieroglyphics. Writing originated in Mesopotamia about 5000 years ago. The Mesopotamians began to use wedge shaped marks to represent sounds. Since paper had not yet been discovered in those days the Mesopotamians...

The Babylonians The land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was the home of the first civilisation about 6000 years ago. The people who lived here were called the Babylonians. Since the land on which they lived was very fertile, they largely depended upon farming through refined farming methods. The Babylonians were the first to build cities, and develop a method of writing. One of the first cities they developed was...

The Assyrians About three thousand years ago most of’ modern Iraq was inhabited by the Assyrians. These people lived in the highland area around the river Tigris. The Assyrian empire lasted for over three centuries. During the 7th century B.C. this empire was at it’s peak and stretched across the area between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. The Assyrians were great warriors and their armies included a large number...

The Beginning of Farming Initially man survived on herbs, roots and berries which were naturally available. Farming first began in 9000 B.C. in the Middle Fist when people discovered that they could grow cereal crops. The crops they grew included corn, barley, millets and wheat. As a result of this development people gave up their nomadic life and small villages began to develop. Farming then spread to other parts of the...

The Bronze Age It was in about 6000 B.C. in Middle East that man first tried to make things out of metal and copper was the first metal used. At first man just hammered natural pieces of this soft metal to form various shapes. Subsequently he learnt how to heat copper and other metals to a stage when they became liquid. This molten liquid was then poured into moulds and various...

The Iron Age Subsequent to the use of bronze and copper, man learned how to use Iron. It was probably in 4000 B.C. that the first objects made with iron appeared in the Middle East. The first people learnt how to hammer iron into various shapes, it was much later that they discovered that iron could be heated and hammered into various shapes much more easily. It was around 1500 B.C....