Introduction to World History The Ancient World

In this modern era, we have tendency to get wrapped up in our own little worlds. We envelop ourselves in cocoons of technology and personalized entertainment, offering little thought to those even in other parts of today’s world, much less to those who came before us. But the path that got us to this place, the history of the human species, is long and fascinating one. It’s full of sprawling civilizations, love and war, prosperity and tragedy. Who were these people that bridged the gap from prehistory until today, and what can we learn about them? Those who are interested in the past can be divided into two groups. First there are those who want to find out just how similar we are to the people who lived hundred, thousand, or even five thousand years ago. Did they have the same hopes and dreams as we do? The same problems? Did they have similar thoughts? And then there are those who look for the differences between us and them. How did their lives and worldviews fundamentally differ from ours? Anyone who has grown up in the civilized world during the last fifty years might naturally focus on how the pace of technological and social change has sped up dramatically in our time, and lump everything that happened prior into vague “back then” sort of era, when things remained more or less the same over human lifespan. On the other hand, when people study history they are often surprised at just how much they can relate to the people and events they are learning about. The people who write about them tend to identify with their subjects, and try their best to convey their essence to the reader. This makes studying history an exercise in empathy, as learning about other places and ways of life tends to make us more accepting of them, despite any differences. This series will cover world history from its earliest beginnings with the first human civilizations, all the way to the modern era, which means we will begin with the ancient world. This was time when many people received no education as we understand the term, and learned the skills upon which they built their livelihood from their own families, such as farming. Cities were quite small by modern standards for number of reasons, apart from the much smaller global population. First, they had to depend on whatever food they could grow in the area. They also had to be defensible, which meant building walls. They certainly had to have sources of fresh water, either from rainfall or rivers, though they often practiced irrigation in drier areas. And finally, it was not nearly as common as it is today for people to leave their birthplace and become citizens of another city. Communities tended be stratified, with landowning aristocracy, priesthood, and merchant class that produced or traded goods, which was sometimes considered less honorable profession than farming. Differences in social status, such as those between men and women, or between natives and foreigners, were common, and sometimes even mandated by law. And of course there were slaves, who might be foreigners captured in war, or the children of enslaved parents. In these ancient times, technological and scientific developments were scattershot, and did not spread spread from one place to another as easily as today’s globally interconnected civilization. But some techniques, like how to make bronze or iron, and how to design calendars, did spread throughout much of the ancient world. Furthermore, because there was not yet anything approaching true scientific method, both astronomy and astrology were considered sciences. In fact, what are now called the natural sciences were part of “natural philosophy”, which was built upon conjecture rather than rigorous experiment and observation. The ancient world had artists and craftspeople, but did not distinguish as we might between works of art and decoration or design. Both art and literature tended to be anonymous, and were often the product of many contributors, sometimes over more than one generation, rather than belonging to individual creators. But there is certainly evidence of creative impulse, as well as changes in taste and style over time. This is certainly true of ancient literature. Though it was divided into different types of poetry and prose, writers could play with the conventions that defined these genres. Even traditional myths, which were part of common heritage rather than the inventions of individuals, could be retold in ways that brought their characters to life, and raised the same existential questions that modern writing does. Because very few people could read, ancient literature tended to be produced and enjoyed by small minority, but this also meant reading aloud to others, and great deal of literature was originally oral, only to be written down much later. In the lands that bordered the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, sea travel was fairly efficient form of trade and communication, though it was limited to those times of the year when the winds were favorable. Ships tended to steer clear of the open sea, to avoid bad weather, as well as pirates, and cities would spring up along the coasts where they could easily stay in contact with one another. There were also commonly traveled roads, though these could be dangerous. It was the sign of particularly stable and well-run society if its inhabitants could safely travel from one place to another. But given the risks and expense of trading over long distances, it made sense for merchants to deal in valuable but easy-to-transport goods like precious metals, spices, and artworks, which they could expect to sell at profit. Our sources for this period are different in many ways from the ones used by researchers of modern history. The earliest societies we know about had no writing at all, or complicated systems that only experts could learn how to use. Even when alphabets were developed and it became easier to write, the books that were produced had to be written and copied by hand. This meant that in order to survive long enough for us to read them, they had to be recopied over the centuries, such that our earliest copies of an ancient book may be no older than the late Middle Ages. On the other hand, we have found inscriptions that were carved on stone or clay tablets that were preserved in the ruins of buildings, as well as books buried in the dry sands of the desert; and these have survived in their original form. We also have lot of information about this period from pictures painted on walls; from physical objects like tools, weapons, and coins; and from the ceramic containers used to transport commodities like wine and oil. Our survey of the ancient world, which will cover the years between around 4000 BCE and 500 CE, will begin with some of the first societies ever to build cities and make their living from settled agriculture. These are the Mesopotamian peoples known as Sumerians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. We will then move on to ancient Egypt and the eastern end of the Mediterranean, after which we will head over to the civilizations of ancient India. From there we will look at the histories of Greece and Rome. And then to wrap up our study of the ancient world, we will examine the early dynasties of China, and finally ancient Mesoamerica. Along the way, we will see what these various times and places had in common, and how they differed from one another. Beyond this, we will consider the broader characteristics that made the ancient world so different from the medieval and modern eras. So if you’re ready to go back in time, let’s begin to study world history.