Taking a Look at Greek, Chinese and Indian Civilizations

A very long time ago, there were many ancient civilizations, three of them were called the Olmecs, Aztecs and Mayans. These were ancient civilizations that, throughout history, had many accomplishments. Focusing in on some of these achievements, a lot of the advancements made by these civilizations were in religion, economy, and technology.

In examining the impact that the ancient world has had on modern Western civilization, the two ancient civilizations which are frequently understood as having had the greatest influence are Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. These two civilizations would eventually come to shape much of what would become the modern European culture, politics and society, and by extension, a vast proportion of global culture and society. In examining the trajectory of modern history in an era of globalization of Western ideas and modes of living, the importance of these civilizations in world history is extensive, contributing to cultural, political and social trends which may well dominate the globe in the future.

Ancient civilizations have had profound effects of what we know as the modern world today. The primary purpose for anything that lives is to survive. Throughout history animals, plants and humans have adapted to their surroundings. All living things have changed throughout time. The thing that differs humans from rest is, humans are more cognitively advanced. Over the course of time the shape and size of the human skull has changed. The size of the human brain has increased, which has allowed humans to adapt more to their surroundings. To survive, humans were making tools for hunting and to cut with. The closer you lived to the equator the darker your skin may have been, so you could adapt to the intensity of the sun’s rays. If you lived further

Over the course of human history, humans and our ancestors have made tremendous strides. From Homo habilis making the first stone tools to the Egyptians building The Pyramids of Giza, human history is nothing short of intriguing. If it wouldn’t have been for each stride made by our ancestors we probably wouldn’t live in the world that we live in today. When the Neolithic Era began in 9600 BCE, human civilizations gradually started to spring up all over the world. Humans set up civilizations from Mesopotamia in the Middle East, to China in East Asia, and all the way to Caral-Supe in South America. Although these ancient civilizations were separated by thousands of miles, they all share common patterns and

All the way from the start of civilization through to the Early Christianity there has been a pantheon of; destruction, recognition, wars, cultural diffusion, religious breakthroughs, laws that have been established, kings and queens crowned and dethroned. The Mesopotamian Civilization it was the land between two rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers that civilization first began.

The Ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamia, and Greeks were some of the oldest complex societies, although similar in many aspects. Mesopotamia is located in the Fertile Crescent, land in and between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers usually known as modern day Iraq and Eastern Syria.(24) In Egypt, the Nile River creates a fertile valley which is rich in nutrients and essential to their survival. The Nile flows from Burundi, slightly south of the equator eventually traveling through Egypt and into the Mediterranean. Ancient Greece is situated very closely to Egypt so trading was easy between them. How are these three civilizations comparable and different?

An interesting question to ask oneself about ancient civilizations is “How did the various governments keep their respective populations under control?” By taking a look at some of the literature and forms of art, one can get an idea of the crafty techniques used by leaders to control the populace. The concept of social control has been around as long as civilizations have been. This can be seen in the Roman stoic ideals portrayed in the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, the Four Noble Truth’s teachings in India, and the emphasis on harmony in China with the Chinese Bronze Bell. It’s interesting to see the ways works of art and even religious texts were used to control the common people.

Some ancient civilization depend on rivers for their agriculture like Mesopotamian, Egypt, India, and China. Neolithic Mesopotamian and Chinese civilization learned to adjust to climate by using a systematic agriculture of farming and herding, living sedentary and developing a pottery, allowing the preparation and storing food and water. Over time other civilization such Indus Valley from India learned to predict a flooding of the river and use it to their benefit. Unlike the Canaanites society from Egypt in which believed to sacrifice an infant and child in the name of the earth god(Baalim)and goddess(Baalot) to ensure a prosperous harvest.

Most places make advancements that help societies. But, ancient civilizations like China, Mesopotamia, and Egypt that started over thousands of years ago heavily advanced the future of societies. Such as, languages, laws to follow, and architecture. These contributions helped our society and societies in the future.

In 1950, V Gordon Childe drew up a list of traits of to what he considered to be the common characteristics of early civilizations. According to Fagan & Scarre, a recent archaeologist Charles Redman divided Childe’s list into primary and secondary characteristics. The primary characteristics included cities and states, together with full-time specialization of labor, concentration of surplus, and a class-structured society. For the secondary, the characteristics included symptoms or by-products of these major economic and organizational changes: monumental public works, long-distance trade, standardized monumental artworks, writing, and the sciences (arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy)(Scarre and Fagan 2003). One of the most common characteristics involve was a large, dense population living in a city. This essay well state and describe two early cities in Mesopotamia and explore the layouts and characteristics of these two cities. Also, whether each city is unique or share common characteristics with each other. The two cities are Maskan-shapir and Ur.

Most people believe that all ancient civilizations were the same: they all lived with a steadfast loyalty to their one and only king that ruled all of the lands, civilizations only achievements were monumental buildings, and they vacuously attacked neighboring societies to gain more land for millennia. While some of this knowledge is true to an extent, civilizations accomplished an abundance more than some realize. Some fail to register that early civilizations are unique from each other. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two distinct civilizations. Despite similarities such as both being river civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia contrasted with each other in the areas of, type of ruling, religion, and

These emerging civilizations were much larger than the earlier ones of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and Shang China – displaying more complex political, economic, cultural, and military organization. All civilizations traded with others and many conquered new territories. Classical civilizations include those such as Zhou and Han China, the Gupta Empire in India, and the Mediterranean civilizations of Greece and Rome.

Arnold Pacey published Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand Year History in the year 1991. Arnold Pacey was an associate lecturer at The Open University in Britain as well as an author to three additional books: Meaning in Technology, The Maze of Ingenuity, The Culture of Technology. He published all four of his books within a ten-year span. Arnold Pacey was trained as an engineer but is well known as a historian of technology because of the conclusions he drew of society and technology and their relationship. Society is defined as the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community. Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. Technology influences every aspect of our lives today, but we often forget that it profoundly affected the lives of past generations dating back to the beginning of civilization. Perhaps not to today’s extent, but the impact was still dramatic. New inventions or innovations produced more food, created new processes and tools, made life easier and made war more devastating. This course traces the evolution of technology and its impact on civilization from the creation of elementary tools up to today’s latest devices and even looks into future technologies.

Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Israel are all important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development.

Civilization is the period in which humans develop and organize their community in an advanced form in different aspects. As time was fleeting the ancient Greek civilization was starting to shape and adopt many alterations which started to center a more stable community. Just as the Greeks there were other civilizations developing some similar to the Greeks attributes and some differing them in different aspects.