Any of the rest of you come across this extraordinarily useful teaching
tool? Given the disputes about student use of Wikipedia this couldn't have
come at a better time, although it is admittedly a work in progress. No more
'grey areas' or subjectivity, just hard facts! As an example, here's the
page on Ancient History...
Introduction to Ancient History
Ancient history, which is everything before about A.D. 600, created or
discovered all the major religions today except Islam. Ancient history
created civilization and achieved many of the greatest intellectual
breakthroughs of all time. Literature, drama, mathematics, philosophy,
language, etc., were all created in ancient history.
When did mankind first begin? There is no reliable evidence of man existing
before 3500 B.C. The oldest writing is a pictographic tablet called a
“cuneiform” dated to about 3400 B.C. from Sumer (SOO-mur) in Southern
Mesopotamia (where Iraq is today). These cuneiforms look like
chicken-scratches featuring wedge-like or arrow-shaped characters. The
oldest western-style script is from the Indo-Aryan language, and one dated
to 1550 B.C. was found in the Sinai. The oldest verified civilization dates
to about 3000 B.C. We can also extrapolate backwards from modern populations
to estimate that only about 300 million people existed in the world at the
time of Christ, and extrapolating backwards further yields only one family
in the year 3300 B.C. Languages can be traced backwards to about 3000 B.C.,
and some experts reconstruct a point of origin in southeastern Europe near
the Baltic, not far from the Ararat mountain range cited in the Bible in
connection with Noah. Old trees never predate this time either; the oldest
sequoias, which never die of old age, are only 4000 years old.
No “civilization” has been found that is older than about 3000 B.C. By
“civilization” we mean order and hierarchy in the way of life. Some type of
political system or government is usually necessary to have a civilization.
A structure similar to a city or town is necessary to bring together people,
jobs, buildings or religious centers. Usually there are different classes of
people, such as rich and poor. Some historians say there must be an
agricultural surplus also: enough food to feed the people so that some
workers could spend time in jobs other than farming. In a nutshell, a
civilization must have cities, skilled (non-farming) workers, social and
government institutions, writing to maintain records such as property
ownership, and advanced technology. Memorize the oldest dates for the
ancient civilizations:
Mesopotamia (Mes-uh-puh-tay-mee-uh): 3500 – 500 B.C., when conquered by
Persia Egypt: 3100 – 525 B.C., when conquered by the Hyksos (HIK-sohs) Indus
(IN-dus) Valley: beginning in 2900 B.C. China: beginning in 2200 B.C.
Mexican Olmec (AWL-mek): 1200 – 300 B.C., the earliest known American
civilization Peru (South America): 900 B.C.
History books speculate at length about “prehistory”, which predates
writing. But there is no reliable evidence to support this speculation, and
not worth spending time on. There is no reason to think that man existed for
thousands of years without ever expressing himself in written form. But in
case you are asked, historians describe the period of time known as
“prehistory” as the “Stone Age.” They divide the Stone Age into two time
periods: “Paleolithic” and “Neolithic”. The Paleolithic Age is older, when
man relied mostly on hunting and picking nuts and fruit to supplement his
diet. The Paleolithic Age was followed by the Neolithic Age, which consisted
of the rise of agriculture. The “Neolithic Revolution” means the
“Agricultural Revolution,” when farming became dominant. The dates of these
ages are controversial, and historians have a bias for giving them older
dates than proven by archaeology.
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