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The Paleolithic Era known for the cration of stone tools. It emerged with Homo habilis and reached its peak with our species, Homo sapiens, which appeared about 200,000 years ago. It lasted until about 10,000 BCE.
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The Neolithic Era was a period of development for human technology. It was also marked the beginning of farming.
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At first, people of Egypt and Mesopotamia used bronze to make staues for their pyramids and tombs. After awhile, they used bronze for everyday things like tools and weapons.
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The Sumerians began to form large city-states in southern Mesopotamia that controlled areas of several hundred square miles. Theys were constantly at war with one another and other peoples for resources and water.
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Cuneiform emerged from the Sumerian civilizations in Mesopotamia. It is made up of characters formed by the arrangement of small wedge-shaped elements.
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization concentrated along the lower Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. For almost 30 centuries ancient Egypt was the preeminent civilization in the Mediterranean world.
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King Menes was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who founded the first dynasty. He unified the fueding Lower Egyptians of the Nile and the Upper Egyptians that lived in the mountains.
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The first pyramid was built for King Zoser. It is known as a Step-Pyramid because it does not have a true pyramid shape but rises to the top in five giant steps
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Sargon was a very popular and powerful king who conquered many civilizations from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. He built the first city of Babylon and he reigned for 56 years.
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An ancient empire of Mesopotamia in the Euphrates River valley. It flourished under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II but declined after 562 BCE and fell to the Persians in 539 BCE.
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The Code of Hammurabi is a set of laws established by Hammurabi and are considered the oldest laws in history. It was the first attempt to codify, or have order in a law system.
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Phoenicia was an ancient civilization comprised of independent city-states which lay along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenicians were a great maritime people, known for their mighty ships adorned with horses’ heads. Phoenicians are creditied as the birthplace of the alphabet.
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The Hittites were forerunners of the Iron Age, developing the manufacture of iron artifacts. Iron was so rare and precious that it was employed only in prestige goods.
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The kingdom was established by the Israelites and united them under one king. The Kingdom of Israel existed as an independent state until it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.
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King Nebuchadnezzar made Babylon one of the wonders of the ancient world. He was the first Babylonian king to rule Egypt and he completely reconstructed the city, making it absolutely beautiful.
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Cyrus's army was able to conquer Babylon by diverting the flow of the Euphrates River into irrigation channels. He was then able to lower the level of the river flowing into the city enough so that his armies could storm the city from the river bank.
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Darius encouraged trade and economic development. He standardized weights and measures and coinage on a that helped trade and the economy.
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The world's first movable type printing technology was invented and developed in China by Pi-Sheng. He made separate characters of clay, embedded the characters, face up, in a shallow tray lined with warm wax, laid a board across them and pressed it down 'til all the characters were at exactly the same level. When the wax cooled he used his letter tray to print whole pages.