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....

The Stone Age About two and a half million years ago, before man learnt the use of metals, man used stone as a raw material for making weapons, tools and fire. This period was called the Stone Age. The Stone Age can be divided into three parts i.e. the Palaeolithic or Old stone age, the Mesolithic or Middle stone age and the Neolithic or the New stone age. During the palaeolithic...

The Cro-Magnon Man The earliest and the first true form of human beings were the Cro-magnons. It was in South Western France that excavations first revealed the remains of the Cro-magnon man. The scientific name given to this species was Homo Sapiens, Sapiens which meant ‘the very wise man’. Like the Neanderthals the Cro-magnons also lived in caves. In Altamira in Spain and Lascaux in France, various cave paintings created by...

The Neanderthal Man Excavations have revealed remains of the Neanderthal man in Middle East and Africa. Around 70,000 years ago during the Ice age Europe was inhabited by the Neanderthal man. This is evidenced by the fact that the first remains of the Neanderthal man were found in the Neander valley in Germany in the year 1856. Subsequent to this remains were also found in various parts of Italy, Britain and...