history

although human beings have been around

for hundreds of thousands of years what

we'd recognize as human civilization

didn't appear until close to the year

7000 BCE when humans started

domesticating plants and animals and

inhabiting seasonal settlements

gradually those settlements grew into

full-blown civilizations many of which

came together much longer ago than you

may have realized today we're examining

some of the oldest known civilizations

in the world but before we get started

be sure to subscribe to the weird

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letting us know what other parts of the

ancient world you'd like to hear about

next okay time to hit the dating scene

the carbon dating scene that is

around 10 000 years BCE Humanity entered

what's now known as the Neolithic or New

Stone Age Era which lasted for around

five thousand to eight thousand years

while the term humans encompassed a few

different species in the earlier

Paleolithic Era by the Neolithic we're

only talking about our own folks good

old Homo sapiens sapiens Beyond more

magazine-friendly non-sloping foreheads

the Neolithic period brought a lot more

changes as well including the first

farming settlements widespread use of

metal tools in addition to Stone and the

first efforts at Pottery known

civilizations from this point in history

include

an early settlement in modern-day turkey

that flourished from around 7 500 to

5700 BCE it's likely this spot was

chosen for a city due to its proximity

to a Channel of the charchamba river

that no longer exists the combination of

fresh water and ground made of alluvial

clay would have made this spot favorable

for early attempts at agriculture at its

height the population of shatar huyuk

was probably between five thousand and

seven thousand people who were living in

a society that was notably communal and

egalitarian by modern day standards

that's less people than attended the

first WrestleMania so while it wasn't

quite a bustling Metropolis it was still

pretty impressive for such an early

community homes were made of mudbrick

and were clustered together in a

honeycomb design with holes in the

ceilings doors and walls allowing for

people to easily move between adjoining

structures oh ceiling holes we need to

bring those back no one lived in a

fancier Mansion than their neighbors

either all the homes were basically

identical so nobody had the fanciest

mcmansion on the Block fascinatingly

when upgrading buildings rather than

demolishing the old structures new ones

were simply built on top of them

eventually the city became a large Mound

constructed atop prior cities rising up

from the ground archaeologists have

excavated as many as 18 levels of

settlement on the same patch of ground

the whole area was named as a world

heritage by UNESCO in 2012.

forming around 7000 BCE the Ain gazal

civilization of present-day Jordan was

clustered near what is today the

bustling city of Oman it's believed in

gazal was composed of over 3 000 people

which was large enough to make it one of

the world's most populated cities of its

era though not much is known about the

people who lived in angazal around 15

large-scale statues and busts have

survived some of which are currently on

display in the Jordan Museum the statues

were created by modeling moist malleable

Limestone plaster around a reed core

fashioned entirely with plants found

along the banks of the zaka river as the

Reeds decayed over Millennia the hard

plaster shells have largely survived

while today the statues all appear bald

they probably also originally had wigs

it's likely they were crafted for some

kind of burial ritual and were designed

to be entombed with their owners but

further specifics about their use and in

gazal culture more generally have been

lost to time so the least we could do is

get those statues some new wigs their

heads have been nude for far too long

the Norte Chico the earliest known

civilization in the Americas formed

during the Bronze Age named after the

new innovation of smelting copper with

tin to produce the stronger metal alloy

they lived along the north central coast

of what is today Peru starting around

3100 BCE the name Norte Chico actually

refers to as many as 30 population

centers in and around this area which

remained active and settled for nearly 2

000 years until approximately 1800 BCE

the civilization existed along the banks

of Three Rivers the Fortaleza the

patevilica and the super undoubtedly if

they'd had a professional sports team

they would have played at Three Rivers

Stadium no Pottery or visual art from

the Norte Chico era has survived but

archaeologists have discovered some of

their buildings and architecture

including sunken circular plazas and

platform Mounds that likely once housed

buildings or other communal spaces

archaeological discoveries also suggest

that people living in the area had

textile technology possibly wearing

cotton clothes and fashioning fishing

nets from cloth as well as a

polytheistic religion

[Music]

perhaps the most famous Bronze Age site

Mesopotamia became a significant

population center around 3500 BCE and

remained a vital cluster of civilization

through 500 BCE it's also a popular

source of plot points for at least two

Ghostbusters movies the area located

between the Tigris and Euphrates river

in what's today Iraq Kuwait Saudi Arabia

and Syria was home to multiple distinct

societies over the years including the

acadians the Sumerians the Assyrians and

the Babylonians the area flourished

independently until it was conquered by

the first Persian Empire more Invaders

followed including Alexander the Great

the parthian Empire and ultimately the

Romans the civilizations that occupied

Mesopotamia are responsible for a vast

number of Innovations and firsts in

human history including writing early

political systems mathematics and

astronomy but perhaps the Region's

largest Leap Forward came during the era

of Babylonian rule with the explosion of

literature and libraries early Sumerian

language was expressed as a complex logo

syllabic script known as cuneiform which

took many years to learn and master and

was only understood by a small Elite

group within the population during the

Babylonian period many Sumerian Works

were translated into a simpler form that

more people could read and comprehend

some literature written during the

Babylonian era including the Epic of

Gilgamesh which was translated from the

original Sumerian are still widely read

today

the Harappan or Indus Valley people

lived between 2200 and 1900 BCE in an

area of South Asia that today stretches

across Afghanistan Pakistan and

Northwest India their cities were

particularly notable for elaborate urban

planning which included extensive

drainage and water supply systems as

well as non-residential buildings

designed for Artisans and Metallurgy in

other words they had plumbing and

Industrial districts just like modern

cities it's believed as many as 5

million people might have occupied the

Indus Valley at its height an area

larger than ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia

and more than one thousand mature

settlements have been discovered some

writings from this period have also been

found but the end of script has yet to

be fully deciphered shrouding their

culture and religious beliefs in mystery

to this day

today we refer to ancient Egypt as if it

was just one Society but actually the

term encompasses a variety of societies

that dominated the Nile Valley

coalescing around 3100 BCE and extending

all the way through Antiquity until 300

A.D by some accounts that's a pretty

long run like the Simpsons of the

ancient world this includes both stable

kingdoms and also intermediate periods

of relative instability ah so exactly

like the Simpsons Egypt was also

periodically invaded by other peoples

including the hixos the libyans the

Nubians the Assyrians the Persians and

the macedonians under Alexander the

Great there's that guy again man what

was his problem for most modern people

the blanket term ancient Egypt is most

closely associated with the Old Kingdom

stretching from around 2686 to 2181 BCE

a considerable increase in agricultural

productivity led to a population boom

more centralization of the Egyptian

government and many great works such as

the construction of the pyramids at Giza

and the Sphinx

historians typically date the passage of

the Bronze Age into the Iron Age to

around the 12th century BCE as sturdier

Iron and Steel started gradually

replacing bronze for most common

applications while some prior

civilizations had early forms of

literature and writing this is also the

period when the historical record truly

begins in Earnest and we have more

primary sources to consult about life on

Earth at the time though the Greek

Islands had already been settled

throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age

periods was thought of as classical

Antiquity the culture we today associate

with ancient Greece started forming

around the 8th Century BCE when Homer

was first jotting down his famous epic

poems in those early drafts Odysseus was

named Todd but the tadasi didn't quite

have the same ring to it a rapidly

growing population LED some Greeks to

spread out and form new colonies around

southern Italy Sicily and Asia Minor

this in turn spread their culture and

language throughout the Mediterranean

these colonies also experienced

significant economic success in Commerce

and Manufacturing bringing is even more

esteem and influence throughout the

ancient world the innovation of

democratic rule in the city-state of

Athens ushered in a golden age for a

Greek society while the conquests of

Macedonian leader and Perpetual weird

history guest star Alexander the Great

whose Army spoke Greek further spread

their culture and ideas leading into

what's known as the Hellenistic period

Roman civilization initially formed as a

kingdom along the river Tiber in central

Italy roughly in tandem with the rise of

Greek influence starting around 753 BCE

the final Roman King Taro quinnius

Superbus ruled until 509 BCE when he was

deposed in the first Roman Republic was

established however he continued to rule

long after his death because Superbus

Superbus is the greatest name of any

King in history this new democratically

elected government would ultimately

establish the Roman Empire and would

come to control the majority of the

Mediterranean world

beginning in what is now present-day

Iran in 550 BCE the accumulated Empire

also known as the first Persian Empire

steadily grew and conquered surrounding

societies by around the year 500 BCE it

had expanded into the largest Geographic

Empire the world had ever seen spanning

over 5.5 million square miles from Egypt

in the west all the way to the Indus

Valley in the East all that land and not

a single water slide what's the point of

even having an Empire due to the vast

amount of ground they needed to organize

and manage these early Persians made a

number of key Innovations including road

and postal systems tolerant

Multicultural societies and complex

bureaucracies and infrastructure they

were also among the first civilizations

to maintain a professional standing army

for both defense and expansion

while Western discussions about the

ancient world often Focus exclusively on

the Mediterranean humans were forming

early Societies in the Americas at this

time as well the almax lived in

modern-day Mexico from around 1400 to

400 BCE though it's likely they evolved

from previous cultures such as the

mokaya or mih tsuke they developed a

number of cultural practices and

traditions that became Hallmarks for a

future Central and South American

societies including ritual bloodletting

and a popular ball game similar to

modern day racquetball except way less

dentists and entertainment lawyers

played this version the all mechs are

also noted for their unique art style

which included colossal human head

sculptures formed from Basalt Boulders

you know the ones we mean the Maya

civilization meanwhile flourished in

South America around the Yucatan

Peninsula from 2600 BCE all the way

through the year 900 in the Common Era

some Mayan outposts and areas of

influence stuck around far longer than

that in fact they were the only ancient

South American society with a fully

developed writing system and many of

their impressive pyramids also known as

ziggurats are still standing to this day

the very last Mayan city

didn't fall to Spanish Invaders until

1697. 800 years after the Mayan central

government collapsed and most Mayan

cities had long disappeared

so what do you think could you have cut

it living in any of these early

civilizations let us know in the

comments below and while you're at it

check out some of these other videos

from our weird history

thank you