3000BCE
Mesopotamian civilisation.
Egyptian civilisation.
Yellow river civilisation.
Indus valley civilisation.
Kings.
Battles.
The third millennium witnessed the crystallisation of some significant observable civilisations.
There is more archaeological evidence available from this period onwards.
What was a hazy picture earlier slowly starts to come into focus.
This does not mean we know everything or even most things that happen in this period.
We do have enough clues to stitch together the fabric of civilised life of this period.
It is interesting that the world oldest trees which exist today, were born during this period.
The oldest known tree is called Methuselah.
It is estimated to be about 2700 years old.
The life span of human beings is however much shorter.
More than a thousand human generations have gone by since the third millennium.
The Mesopotamian civilisation, the Egyptian civilisation, the yellow river civilisation,
and the Indus valley civilisation, are the significant and more visible civilisations of this period.
This does not mean that other civilisations did not exists.
They were pockets of human habitation through out the world.
It is estimated that the total number of human beings in the planet,
was only around 90 million at this time.
Compared to more than 7.3 billion today, we can appreciate that the planet was very sparsely populated.
We can imagine that many pockets of civilisation, existed without being aware, of other civilisation.
It is only that some civilisations were more advanced, prominent and visible than others.
When discussing the history of these relatively advanced civilisations,
we do have to bear in mind that other civilisations also existed.
Mesopotamian civilisation.
The Mesopotamian civilisation is the oldest prominent civilisation.
It sprung up the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates.
In many ways rivers were the binding force of civilisation.
The banks of the rivers provided fertile soil for crops to grow.
Some of the population of society could now grow enough food, for everyone in the society.
Agriculture laid the foundation of civilisation.
The Sumerians were a prominent civilisation in this place and period.
The Akkadian civilisation is another closely related civilisation.
The Akkadian empire is a prominent kingdom, which existed early during this period.
This empire broke up into two empires later on.
The northern part of the empire became the Assyrian kingdom.
The southern part of the empire became the Babylonian kingdom.
The oldest known king, was possibly Gilgamesh.
He was more of a legend.
His accomplishments were written much after his lifetime.
It is possible that some of the attributes were exaggerated or even fictional.
However, we had the outline of the personality of a king in Gilgamesh.
He was the legendary king of Uruk, in Mesopotamia.
More is known about a king called Sargon.
His existence is better documented.
At one point, Sargon ruled over most of Mesopotamia.
He was possibly the founder of the concept of kings.
The cities were densely populated.
Typically 40,000 people would live in an area of about 2 square kilometers.
The Sumerians gave great importance to building of temples.
Typically the most important structure in the town, will be the temple.
A lot of skill and labour went into constructing these temples.
Stones had to be mined, transported, cut to size for the construction.
Given the state of technology and tools, at that time, this was no easy task,
we can easily imagine that the best minds, and the best skills were deployed for this purpose.
Usually the king sponsored the building of the temple.
The more prosperous the kingdom was, the more magnificent the temple was.
Temples were built in ziggurat style, which seem to reach out to the sky.
One of the well known temples, built by the Sumerians during this period,
was the temple of Ur.
The building of elaborate structures for burials or worship was a common trend across many early civilisations.
In Europe, a massive stone structure was erected at the Stonehenge.
It is believed it was a burial site, and maybe also a place of worship.
The best of a civilisation's technology was displayed in its places of worship.
Interestingly Ur is thought to be the birth place of Abraham.
He was a prominent character who appeared in later religious texts.
It is said that Jacob was the grandson of Abraham.
Jacob is believed to have had 12 sons, the progenitors for the 12 tribes of Israel.
The Sumerians invented a form of writing called cuneiform script.
They used a sharp wedge to make impressions on clay tablets.
The writing was in the form of pictograms.
This was the earliest form of recording thoughts.
Clay tablets were the books of this age.
Knowledge was stored in these tablets.
This no doubt helped to pass on knowledge from one person to another.
This also helped to conserve and build upon knowledge,
by passing it from one generation to another.
Interestingly there were libraries housing a large number of these tablets.
The library in Babylon, is the oldest known library of such tablets.
The use of the sexagesimal number system, by Sumerians during this period.
The number 60 is the base of the sexagesimal system.
The number 12 and the number 60, have very interesting properties.
It is amazing how the Sumerians discovered this system,
which is still used till today, to measure time.
A day is comprised of 12 hours and night 12 hours,
to compose a day of 24 hours.
An hour comprises of 60 minutes, and minute comprises of 60 seconds.
The number 60 has many interesting properties.
It has a very large number of factors, 1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30, and 60.
This makes it very convenient to have fractions of 60.
60 is the smallest number, that is divisible by all the numbers from 1 to 6.
It is a lowest common multiple of all the numbers from 1 to 6.
It is very likely that the Sumerians used there fingers to count.
Using the thumb of the right hand, they could count up to 12 ridges in the other four fingers.
The number 12 is still used to represent a dozen.
For every round of 12, one finger of the left hand is opened.
This made counting up to 60,- with five fingers on the left hand -, relatively simple.
The cuneiform system developed to represent the 60 numbers, in the sexagesimal system.
The origins of primitive arithmetic can be traced to this period.
The most important achievement of a civilised society was to produce surplus food.
Progress of society during this time came from better agricultural technology.
The Sumerians used animal power to cultivate the land.
They developed tools like ploughs to help till the land.
They built canals to bring water from the rivers to the fields.
All these helped to increase the productivity of agriculture manifold.
The Sumerians used stone weights for trading.
This was an interesting beginning to standardisation.
It helped to seed the business of trading.
Egyptian civilisation.
The Egyptian civilisation was a prominent civilisation in the third millennium BCE.
It existed on the banks of the river Nile, and flourished for more than 3000 years.
Its history was divided into many periods.
The old kingdom existed between 2700 and 2200 BCE.
The Nile valley provided the springboard for this civilisation.
The Nile river flooded yearly.
This brought rich sediments which fertilised the banks of the river.
This was very conducive for growing crops.
Like other prominent civilisations, production of surplus food, seeded civilised life.
Food could be traded for other essential and valuable commodities.
The amount of food produced literally defined the wealth of a nation.
Indirectly the power that a country wielded was related to its surplus food production.
Surplus food made available more man power, who could engage in other activities.
The famous Egyptian pyramids was built, during this period.
Building the pyramids would have involved an enormous amount of man power.
We can imagine that so many people could devote themselves to building pyramids,
only because the civilisation produced enough surplus food to feed all of them.
The famous Giza pyramid, - considered one of the seven wonders of the world,
- and the sphinx was constructed during this period.
The Egyptians were ruled by a dynasty of kings.
Historians have documented each dynasty.
One of the well known kings was Khufu, of the 4th dynasty.
He is credited with building the pyramid of Giza.
Egyptians worshiped a pantheon of Gods.
Chief among them was Ra, the sun God.
Each God had a specific portfolio of responsibilities.
Amun was the God of air.
Osiris was the God of life, afterlife and resurrection.
Isis was the wife of Osiris, also worshipped as a God.
The Egyptians were one of the earliest people to use papyrus for writing.
Papyrus is made from the papyrus plant, which grew abundantly in the Nile valley.
This fibrous substance of papyrus, was used to make a paper like sheet.
In fact the word 'paper' comes from papyrus.
Papyrus is also used for making other artefacts, like rope, mats, baskets, etc..
Many ancient writing of Egypt, were written on papyrus scrolls.
Later some other civilisations also adapted this technology.
The famous library in Babylon also had papyrus scrolls.
The Egyptians developed their own script using pictorial characters.
This script is called as Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
It was a complex language using about 900 pictorial characters.
A character represents a concept.
This is unlike a phonetic language, where a character represents a sound.
Egyptian hieroglyphs was inscribed in papyrus, wood, and sometimes stone.
The Egyptian language developed independently and lasted till the 4th century AD.
Many of this inscriptions were later found in Egyptian tools and excavation sites.
The language was not understandable to modern humans for more than a thousand years.
It was only in 1820 that scientists were able to decipher it, with the help of the Rosetta stone.
The Rosetta stone recorded three versions of an ancient Egyptian decree.
The top and middle text was written in ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
The bottom was written in ancient Greek.
All the versions was of the same decree.
Greek was very familiar to historical scholars.
Using this stone, historians wee able to decipher the hieroglyphic Egyptian language.
Yellow river civilisation.
The yellow river, is one of the largest and oldest rivers in China.
An independent civilisation developed along the banks of this river.
We refer to them as the yellow river civilisation.
This civilisation is also based on agricultural surplus.
Rice was a favoured crop in this region.
Indus valley civilisation.
The Indus valley civilisation was another prominent and advanced civilisation.
This developed along the banks of the Indus river in India.
This civilisation is known for building well planned towns.
They used burned clay bricks to build the structures.
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are prominent towns, of this civilisation.
It appears that this civilisation cultivated cotton.
It is significant, in the sense, that cotton is not a food, but a commercial crop.
We can imagine primitive textiles were woven by these people.
Cultures.
Early civilisation developed in many parts of the world.
We discussed four early civilisations, because they were the most prominent at that time.
Civilisations developed at different times in different places.
At a point of time some were more advanced and others less.
We tend to focus on the more advanced civilisations of the time.
This does not mean that there was no other civilisation.
There were pockets of civilisation spread through out the world.
Each was in its own state of development.
These civilisations developed almost independently.
The people in one civilisation, would not have been aware of the existence of other civilisations.
An Egyptian in the third millennium, would not have imagined the existence of yellow river civilisation.
Long distance travel was not common place at that time.
Communication between civilisations was poor, and mostly non existent.
Each civilisation created a world of their own.
To the best of their knowledge, that was the only world we knew.
It is interesting to observe that each civilisation developed its own culture.
For example, each civilisation developed their own language.
They developed their own script.
There were many common ideas that developed concurrently in different civilisations,
but they were expressed in different languages, and recorded in different scripts.
Each civilisation developed their own religion.
They developed unique style of art, music and dance.
They even developed their own musical instruments.
They developed their own patterns of behaviour.
Many of those patterns lasted for many generations as a tradition.
Some traditions even today can be traced back to this period.
Harp.
Population.
Transport.
Kings.
Civilisation is strongly associated with leadership.
The concept of leadership goes back far in time.
It even extends into the animal kingdom.
Even today, some species of apes, who live in groups, have a leader.
Typically, the leader is the strongest member of the group.
Elephants who live in a herd, have a natural leader.
Flocks of migratory birds, are also known to have a leader.
Early humans lived as tribes.
Typically a tribe who would have a tribal leader.
Leadership normally vested with the strongest person.
In many cases, the leader might also be endowed with practical wisdom.
The leader was looked upon by members, with awe, fear and respect.
The concept of leadership evolved into civilised society also.
Some leaders became more influential and powerful.
They ruled over a larger number of people, spread over a larger area.
Today we call these people as kings.
Kings did not spring up overnight.
They evolved over a long period of time.
How much influence did a king have over his subjects?
What do we mean when we say, that he ruled over his kingdom.
Early kings, we can imagine had very limited influence on their subjects.
His role was probably just to defend his people, in times of battle.
It is possible he did not indulge too much in governing the people.
People more or less did what ever they had to do, to make a living.
There were no established laws, for kings to enforce, and people to follow.
Over time, kings evolved to exert a stronger influence on people.
They formulated laws, which people had to obey.
They imposed taxes, which people had to pay.
Society needed infrastructure.
They needed granaries to store grain.
They needed roads to travel.
They needed fortifications to protect their towns.
They needed canals to irrigate their land.
Their responsibility of building infrastructure was slowly shouldered by early kings.
This no doubt increased their influence over the people.
How was the kingdom defined.
There was no clearcut borders in those days.
If we travel through the kingdom, and found pockets of people,
and asked them, "who is your king."?
Some of them would have asked, "what is king"?
Some of them would not have known.
Some of them would have probably mentioned an earlier king,
that they had heard of.
The concept of a kingdom would have started as a hazy domain of influence.
Battles.
Many kings ruled different regions of Mesopotamia during this millennium.
The power of different kings waxed and waned.
We can imagine that many battles were fought during this period.
It appears that a strong group of people, strived to conquer and dominate weaker people.
This tendency to seek more power, can be observed throughout history.
It is saddening in the sense, that battles fought in the quest for power,
were always violent.
The history of civilisation is punctuated with violent battles and bloodshed.
Battles can also be viewed as a way of competition.
In early battles numbers and brute strength, would have played the major role,
in determining winners and losers.
As civilisation progressed technology started playing a role.
Better technology meant better weapons.
A metal sword was much more potent, then a wooden club.
Societies which could produce better weapons, prevailed over those,
which could not.
To fight a battle a king needed an army of soldiers.
Soldiers who fought in battle, needed to be fed.
This was a fundamental need.
To maintain an army, a king needed a large reserve of food.
To start with the society needed to produce sufficient amount of surplus food.
The king needed to have access to this resource, by taxing the people.
Societies which produced more surplus food, could feed larger armies.
Larger armies helped to win battles.
There was a strong relationship between production of surplus food,
and winning battles.
Having a full time army would have been an expensive affair.
Soldiers would have to be fed, all round the year.
This would have been a considerable financial burden for the king.
Most of them could not afford to have a full time army.
They recruited peasants to augment the army, when the need arose.
Agricultural work load, was not uniform throughout the year.
Typically it was seasonal like sowing time and harvest time.
Did the king recruit peasants , when they were relatively free?
May be some smart kings did.
The kings army was an important source of employment.
It could have been full time, or part time employment.
Nevertheless the profession of soldiering became an internal part of society.
You can imagine that early battles were not well organised.
It was probably a chaotic clash of two unruly mobs.
Military tactics and strategy came later.
As civilisation evolved, superior tactics and strategy,
would have been one of the factors that influenced the outcome of battle.
Humans who lived in this period, would have been relatively simple minded.
As society grew more complex, more complex thinking facilities also co-evolved.
Why were battles fought?
People did not have much wealth during this period.
The winner of the battle could not expect to carry away enormous loot,
like it happened often in later day battles.
The spoils of battles at this time, could have been at best a few pots, beads and some cattle.
We can assume that battles were not fought, merely for the pleasure of killing of the opponents.
There had to be more tangible benefits, which motivated battles.
One system which evolved early, was the payment of tribute.
When a king won a battle, the subjugated ruler, was allowed to continue ruling his domain,
but he had to pay a tribute, to the conquering king.
Afterlife.