Mesopotamia & the Ancient Near East. Indus Valley Civilization. Ancient Egypt. Ancient Roman Empire. Ancient Chinese Civilization. Archeological Discoveries in Europe. Archeological Discoveries in Asia. Archeological Discoveries in the Americas. Archeological Discoveries in Africa & the Middle & Near East. The Ancient Worlds Great Civilizations. The forefathers of Europe: Two thirds of modern European men descend from just THREE Bronze Age leaders. Scientists analysed the DNA of 334 modern European men They found distinct paternal families originating 3,500 to 7,300 years agoMutations in the DNA suggest these families sprung from just three menTheir descendants spread across Europe around 2,000 to 4,000 years ago By Richard Gray for MailOnline Published: 15:45 GMT, 19 May 2015 | Updated: 17:32 GMT, 19 May 2015 More than 60 per cent of males in modern-day Europe descend from Bronze Age leaders.
Genetic researchers estimate that three families in particular, which originated around 5,000 years ago, rapidly expanded across the continent. And the study suggests that the spread of modern populations across Europe occurred much later than had originally been thought. The researchers found three distinct recent mutations that occurred in 63% of the men tested - I1, R1a and R1b - as shown in the diagram (a) above. These are thought to originate from the Middle East to Southeast Asia between 2100BC and 1100AD. 10 Forgotten Ancient Civilizations. History The typical history textbook has a lot of ground to cover and only so many pages to devote to anything before Jesus. For most of us, that means ancient history is a three-dog show—Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Which is why it’s easy to get the impression that, outside of those three, our map of the ancient world is mostly just blank space.
But actually nothing could be further from the truth. Plenty of vibrant and fascinating cultures existed outside that narrow focus. Let’s fill in the blanks. 10Aksum The kingdom Aksum (or Axum) has been the subject of countless legends. The Ethiopian kingdom of reality, not myth, was an international trading power. Aksum adopted Christianity not long after the Roman Empire did and continued to thrive through the early Middle Ages. 9Kush Known in ancient Egyptian sources for its abundance of gold and other valuable natural resources, Kush was conquered and exploited by its northern neighbor for nearly half a millennium (circa 1500–1000 B.C.). 8Yam. Ancient History Encyclopedia - Мозилин фајерфокс (Mozilla Firefox) World History/Ancient Civilizations. Maps | Resources | Contributors' Corner Before the Rise of Civilization[edit] Early people were nomadic hunter-gatherers and lived off the land.
Over time, nomadic groups of foragers and hunters began to settle down. The pastoral society helped to further tie groups to specific areas of land. The raising of animals created strains on nomadic peoples to find large and reliable sources of food to feed their growing population of animals. Drawbacks at the onset of civilization were that they were unusually aggressive, babies were greatly dependent for many years on adult care, and they were aware of the inevitability of death. In the Paleolithic Age (Paleolithic means "old stone") 2 million to 10,000 years ago, Homo sapiens evolved, originating in Africa. Over several thousand years, these developments, as well as other factors, led to what is known as the Neolithic Revolution or the Agricultural Revolution.
Civilization makes its début (8000 - 3000 BC)[edit] River Valley Civilizations[edit] Digging Up the Past. Ancient Civilizations News -- ScienceDaily. What is Archaeology? - Definitions. Archaeology, or archeology[1] (from Greek ἀρχαιολογία, archaiologia – ἀρχαῖος, arkhaios, "ancient"; and -λογία, -logia, "-logy[2]"), is the study of human activity in the past, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes (the archaeological record). Because archaeology employs a wide range of different procedures, it can be considered to be both a science and a humanity,[3] and in the United States it is thought of as a branch of anthropology,[4] although in Europe it is viewed as a separate discipline.
Archaeology studies human history from the development of the first stone tools in eastern Africa 3.4 million years ago up until recent decades.[5] (Archaeology does not include the discipline of paleontology.) The discipline involves surveyance, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past. Purpose Theory. How Eclipses Destroyed Empires, Enabled Columbus, and Inspired the Birth of Science.
The umbral shadow of the moon. Credit Rob Glover. Tonight at around 7:50pm EST, the Earth's outer shadow will be cast upon the moon, causing a penumbral eclipse. It will be visible in the early evening in the eastern Americas, while those in the Greenwich mean time zone will be be treated to a perfect midnight showing. Eastern Europeans and Asians will have to compete with the sunrise to get a glimpse of the eclipse in the early morning of October 19. Though penumbral eclipses aren't as dramatic as total lunar eclipses, the subtle shading of the moon's southeastern chunk is still an exciting event for stargazers. Even a modest eclipse is worth checking out, if only because these orbital shadow puppet shows have such a profound effect on the development of our weird species.
Lunar eclipses have hastened the fall of juggernaut empires, sparked the scientific method, and inspired some aggressively insane myths. The Aztec moon god Coyolxauhqui. Anaxagoras with his own shadow on a globe. Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World by Guy Deutscher | Book review. This tale begins with a Liberal leader and his innovative exploration of the colour blue. Not Nick Clegg and the Tories, but William Gladstone and his concern about Homer's use of colour in The Iliad and The Odyssey. Gladstone was the first prominent intellectual to notice something awry with the Greek poet's sense of colour. Homer never described the sky as blue. In fact, Homer barely used colour terms at all and when he did they were just peculiar.
The sea was "wine-looking". Oxen were also "wine-looking". Guy Deutscher's interest in the Homeric eye is less about evolution or optics than it is linguistic. It turned out that it wasn't just the Ancient Greeks who never said the sky was blue. Deutscher has a lot of fun relating the discovery that colour words emerge in all languages in a predictable order. Secondly, he argues that gender systems can "exert a powerful hold on speakers' associations". Of these three examples, only the first felt significant.
Astrolabe – Magnificent Computer of the Ancients. It is an ancient tool, created over two thousand years ago when people thought that the Earth was the center of the universe. They are often referred to as the first computer and however debatable that statement might be there is one thing for sure without a doubt. Astrolabes are objects of immense mystery and beauty.
So what does an astrolabe do and how were they useful in the ancient world? Firstly they are problem solving instruments – they compute things such as the time of day according the position of the sun and the stars in the sky. Like a computer, you input information and then you receive output. They were typically made of brass and had a 6 inch diameter, although as we will see much larger ones were made. The sky is drawn on the face of the astrolabe, focusing on the twenty brightest stars. Moveable components on the astrolabe are then set to a specific time and date and then the sky is represented on the face of the instrument. Yes, but when did theory become solid?