In the course of human evolution, the practice of living in a group with mutual understanding and dependency has become a very useful and practical lifestyle, and from small isolated groups, larger communities have formed.
Then came societies which in time became civilizations.
How human mentality and psychology led to this development is still a popular topic among historians and anthropologists, and a major discussion for another day.
For now, let’s talk about some of the oldest civilizations to have ever existed in the world.
We are talking about the civilizations that we know existed for real, unlike the ones that are shrouded in myth such as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Rama to name a few.
To correctly list the oldest civilizations in chronological order, it is necessary to go back to the very cradle of civilization.
Here is a list of the top 10 oldest civilizations to have ever existed, starting with the most recent first:
10. The Incan Civilization
Civilization Name: Incan civilization
Period: 1438 AD–1532 AD
Original Location: Present-day Peru
Current Location: Ecuador, Peru, and Chile
Major Highlights: Largest empire in South America in the pre-Columbian era
The Incan Empire was the largest empire in South America in the pre-Columbian era. This civilization flourished in the areas of present-day Ecuador, Peru, and Chile and had its administrative, military, and political center at Cusco which lies in modern-day Peru.
The Incan civilization was a well-established and flourishing society. The Incas were devout followers of the sun god Inti, and their king was referred to as “Sapa Inca” meaning the child of the sun.
The first Incan emperor, Pachacuti, transformed the capital from a modest village into a great city laid out in the shape of a puma. He continued to expand the tradition of ancestor worship.
When the king died, his son would get all the power, but his wealth would be distributed among his other relatives, who in return would preserve his mummy and maintain his political influence.
This led to a significant rise in the power of the Incas who went on to become great builders, constructing fortresses and sites like Machu Picchu and the city of Cusco that still stand to this day.
9. The Aztec Civilization
Civilization Name: Aztec civilization
Period: 1345 AD–1521 AD
Original Location: Southcentral region of pre-Columbian Mexico
Current Location: Mexico
Major Highlights: Nahuatl became the major language
The Aztecs came on to the scene pretty much around the time when the Incas were emerging as powerful contenders in South America. Around the 1200s and early 1300s, the people in present-day Mexico lived in three big rival cities – Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan.
Around 1325, these rivals created an alliance and the new state came to dominate the Valley of Mexico. Back then, the people preferred the name Mexica to Aztecs.
The rise of the Aztecs was within a century of the fall of another influential civilization in Mexico and Central America – the Mayans.
The city of Tenochtitlan was the military power base and became a spearhead for the conquest of new territory, but the Aztec emperor didn’t rule every city or region directly. Local governments remained in place and were forced to pay varying amounts of tribute to the Triple Alliance.
In the early 1500s, the Aztec civilization was indeed at the height of its power. But then, the Spanish arrived. This led to a huge battle between the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors and the native allies they had assembled led by the famous (or rather infamous) Hernan Cortes in 1521.
A defeat in this decisive battle eventually led to the fall of the once-famous Aztec Empire.
8. The Roman Civilization
Civilization Name: Roman civilization
Period: 550 BC–465 AD
Original Location: Village of the Latini
Current Location: Rome
Major Highlights: Most powerful ancient civilization
Roman civilization emerged around the sixth century BC. Even the story behind the foundation of ancient Rome is the stuff of legend and myth. At the height of its power, the Roman Empire ruled over a huge chunk of land, and all the present-day Mediterranean countries were part of ancient Rome.
Early Rome was governed by kings, but after only seven of them had ruled, the people took control over their own city and ruled themselves. They introduced a council known as the Senate which ruled over them. From this point, Rome was referred to as the Roman Republic.
Rome also saw the rise and fall of some of the greatest emperors in human history, like Julius Caesar, Trajan, and Augustus. But eventually, the empire became so vast that it was simply not possible to bring it under single rule.
In the end, the Roman Empire was overrun by millions of barbarians from the north and east of Europe.
See also:
- Top 10 Religious Practices in Ancient Rome
- Top 10 Famous People in Ancient Rome
- Top 10 Important Events in the History of Ancient Roman (BC)
- Top 10 Ancient Roman Inventions
7. The Persian Civilization
Civilization Name: Persian civilization
Period: 550 BC–331 BC
Original Location: Egypt in the west to Turkey in the north, and through Mesopotamia to the Indus river in the east
Current Location: Modern-day Iran
Major Highlights: Royal road
There was a time when the ancient Persian civilization was, in fact, the most powerful empire in the world.
Though only in power for a little over 200 years, the Persians conquered lands that covered over two million square miles. From the southern parts of Egypt to parts of Greece and east to parts of India, the Persian Empire was known for its military strength and wise rulers.
Before they created such a vast empire in the space of just 200 years, before 550 BC, Persia (or Persis as it was called back then) was divided into factions among a number of leaders. But then King Cyrus II, who later on became known as Cyrus the Great, came into power and unified the entire Persian kingdom before going on to conquer ancient Babylon.
In fact, his conquest was so rapid that by the end of 533 BC, he had already invaded India, far in the east. Even after Cyrus’ death, his descendants continued this ruthless expansion and even fought in the now legendary battle with the brave Spartans.
At its prime, ancient Persia ruled over all of central Asia and Egypt. But this all changed when a legendary soldier of Macedon, Alexander the Great, brought the whole Persian Empire to its knees and effectively ended the civilization in 330 BC.
6. The Ancient Greek Civilization
Civilization Name: Greek civilization
Period: 2700 BC–479 BC
Original Location: Italy, Sicily, North Africa, and as far west as France
Current Location: Greece
Major Highlights: Concepts of democracy and the Senate, the Olympics
The ancient Greeks may not have been the oldest civilization, but they are doubtlessly one of the most influential.
Even though the rise of ancient Greece came from the Cycladic and Minoan civilizations (2700 BC–1500 BC), there is evidence of burials in the Franchthi Cave in Argolid, Greece, dating back to around 7250 BC.
The history of this civilization is spread over such a long period of time that historians have divided it into different periods, the most popular of them being the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. These periods saw a number of ancient Greeks come into the limelight, many of whom changed the world forever and are still being talked about to this day.
Among other things, the Greeks invented the ancient Olympics, and formed the concept of democracy and the Senate. They laid the foundations for modern geometry, biology, and physics. Pythagoras, Archimedes, Socrates, Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great… the history books are full of these names whose inventions, theories, beliefs, and heroics have had a significant impact on subsequent civilizations.
See also:
- Top 10 Most Important People in Ancient Greece
- Top 10 Famous Clothes in Ancient Greece
- Top 10 Inventions and Discoveries of Ancient Greece
- Top 10 Ancient Greek Goddesses
- Top 10 Ancient Greek Gods
5. The Chinese Civilization
Civilization Name: Chinese civilization
Period: 1600 BC–1046 BC
Original Location: Yellow River and Yangtze region
Current Location: Country of China
Major Highlights: Invention of paper and silk
Ancient China – also known as Han China – comes in at number five and doubtlessly has one of the most diverse histories. In fact, if you consider all the dynasties from the very first to the very last that ever ruled in China, a significantly huge period of time needs to be covered.
The Yellow River civilization is said to be the beginning of the entire Chinese civilization as this is where the earliest dynasties were based. It was around 2700 BC that the legendary Yellow Emperor began his rule, which later led to the birth of many dynasties that went on to rule mainland China.
In 2070 BC, the Xia dynasty became the first to rule the whole of China as described in ancient historical chronicles. From then on, there were a number of dynasties that held control during different periods of time until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912 AD with the Xinhai Revolution.
This marked the end of more than four millennia of ancient Chinese civilization. By this time, however, the Chinese had given the world some of its most useful inventions and products such as gunpowder, paper, printing, the compass, alcohol, cannons, and many more.
See also:
- Top 18 Ancient Chinese Inventions and Discoveries
- Top 10 Astonishing Ancient Chinese Mythology Stories
- Top 10 Marvelous Pieces of Ancient Chinese Art
4. The Maya Civilization
Civilization Name: Maya civilization
Period: 2600 BC–900 AD
Original Location: Around present-day Yucatan
Current Location: Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and south through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras
Major Highlights: Complex understanding of astronomy
The ancient Maya civilization flourished in Central America from about 2600 BC and has been much talked about because of the calendar it introduced.
Once established, the Mayan civilization went on to prosper and become highly sophisticated with a booming population of about 19 million at its peak. By 700 BC, the Mayans had already devised their own system of writing which they used to create solar calendars carved in stone.
According to them, the world was created on August 11, 3114 BC, which is the date from which their calendar begins. The supposed end date was December 21, 2012.
The ancient Mayans were culturally rich compared to many of their contemporary civilizations, and the Mayans and Aztecs both built pyramids, many of which are larger than those in Egypt.
But the sudden decline and abrupt end of the Mayans has long been one of ancient history’s most intriguing mysteries: Why did the Mayans, a remarkably sophisticated civilization made up of more than 19 million people, suddenly collapse sometime during the eighth or ninth century? The Maya people did not disappear completely however; their descendants still live in parts of Central America.
See also:
Top 10 Inventions of the Mayan Civilization
3. The Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Civilization Name: Egyptian civilization
Period: 3150 BC–30 BC
Original Location: Banks of the Nile
Current Location: Egypt
Major Highlights: Construction of pyramids
Ancient Egypt is one of the oldest and culturally rich civilizations on this list. The ancient Egyptian civilization, a majestic civilization from the banks of the Nile, is known for its prodigious culture, its pharaohs, the enduring pyramids, and the Sphinx.
The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology) with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh. But this would not have been possible had there not already been settlers around the Nile valley in early 3500 BC.
The history of ancient Egypt can be divided into a series of stable kingdoms separated by periods of relative instability known as intermediate periods: The Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age.
Ancient Egypt gave us the pyramids, the mummies that preserve the ancient pharaohs to this day, hieroglyphics, and much more. Ancient Egypt reached its pinnacle during the New Kingdom, when pharaohs like Ramesses the Great ruled with such authority that another contemporary civilization, the Nubians, also came under Egyptian rule.
See also:
2. The Indus Valley Civilization
Civilization Name: Indus Valley civilization
Period: 3300 BC–1900 BC
Original Location: Around the basin of the Indus river
Current Location: Northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India
Major Highlights: One of the most widespread civilizations, covering 1.25 million km
One of the oldest civilizations on this list, the Indus Valley civilization lies at the very heart of subsequent civilizations that arose in the region of the Indus Valley.
This civilization flourished in areas extending from what is today northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilizations of the ancient world, and of the three, it was the most widespread, covering an area of 1.25 million kilometers.
Entire populations were settled in the Indus river basin, one of the major rivers in Asia, and another river named Ghaggar-Hakra which once used to flow through northeast India and eastern Pakistan.
Also known as the Harappan civilization and the Mohenjo-Daro civilization, named after the excavation sites where the remains of the civilization were found, the peak phase of this civilization is said to have lasted from 2600 BC to around 1900 BC. A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley civilization making its capital the first urban center in the region.
The people of the Indus Valley civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time, and based on artifacts found in excavations, it is evident that the culture was rich in arts and crafts as well.
1. The Mesopotamian Civilization
Civilization Name: Mesopotamian civilization
Period: 3500 BC–500 BC
Original Location: Northeast by the Zagros mountains, southeast by the Arabian plateau
Current Location: Iraq, Syria, and Turkey
Meaning: Land between rivers (ancient Greek)
Major Highlights: First civilization in the world
And here it is, the first civilization to have ever emerged. The origin of Mesopotamia dates back so far that there is no known evidence of any other civilized society before them.
The timeline of ancient Mesopotamia is usually held to be from around 3300 BC to 750 BC. Mesopotamia is generally credited as being the first place where civilized society truly began to take shape.
It was somewhere around 8000 BC that people developed the idea of agriculture and slowly started to domesticate animals for both food and to assist in farming.
People had already been creating art well before the Mesopotamians, but this was part of human culture, not human civilization. It was the Mesopotamian civilization that refined this, adding to and formalizing all these systems, and combining them to create the first civilization.
They prospered in the regions of modern-day Iraq, then known as Babylonia, Sumer, and the Assyria Highlands.
See also:
Conclusion
Modern-day culture and civilization owes a lot to the earliest civilizations that emerged after millions of years of human evolution.
Human civilization has come a long way from an age when there were no defined means of communication and hunting was the primary source of food. Gradually, agriculture took over from foraging, animals were domesticated, societies were created and developed, and eventually led to the societies that we live in today.
Each individual civilization listed here contributed in many ways: new inventions, new ideas, new cultures, philosophies, lifestyles, etc. From the very cradle of civilization to the modern day, what we have become is a result of all civilizations that came before.
Bonus: How Ancient Civilizations Started (Video)
Loved your article, thank you very much. It was very informative yet concise.
If you use the definition of civilized in the dictionary these may be the top ten, but there is evidence that the Aborigines of Australia have been around for close to sixty-thousand years. They believed “the Rainbow Serpent” created everything and everything belonged to everyone, thus they had no wars. That sounds much more civilized than the world we live in today.
What about the Khoisan (foraging San/ Pastoral Khoi) of the Kalahari?
In the 1990s, genomic studies of worlds peoples found that the Y chromosome of San men share certain patterns of polymorphisms that are distinct from those of all other populations.[10] Because the Y chromosome is highly conserved between generations, this type of DNA test is used to determine when different subgroups separated from one another, and hence their last common ancestry. The authors of these studies suggested that the San may have been one of the first populations to differentiate from the most recent common paternal ancestor of all extant humans, the so-called Y-chromosomal Adam by patrilineal descent, estimated to have lived 60,000 to 90,000 years ago.
Similar to findings from Y-Chromosome studies, mitochondrial DNA studies also showed evidence that the Khoe–San people carry high frequencies of the earliest haplogroup branches in the human mitochondrial DNA tree. The most divergent (oldest) mitochondrial haplogroup, L0d, have been identified at its highest frequencies in the southern African Khoe and San groups.
The distinctiveness of the Khoisan in both matrilineal and patrilineal groupings is a further indicator that they represent a population historically distinct from other Africans.
Also…African pygmy populations are genetically diverse and extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. Their uniparental markers represent the second-most ancient divergence right after those typically found in Khoisan peoples. Recent advances in genetics shed some light on the origins of the various pygmy groups. Researchers found “an early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations 60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies’ ancestors into the Western and Eastern Pygmy groups 20,000 years ago.
We’ve now crossed the threshold from ancient history into deep history. Dispelling many myths as we move along.
What about Gobekli Tempe, at 11,600 BC
Unfortunately hunter gatherers do not fall within the definition of a civilization. In order to really reach the point of civilization you need to be stable enough to form cities. (I don’t necessarily personally agree with this but I don’t get to say).I don’t deny that they were in many ways civilized but they wouldn’t fall within the accepted anthropological definition of “civilization “.
Do these ancient Africans have some man-made buildings or cities that could prove their existence? Because words like ‘foraging’ kind of give me the impression that they were nomadic and sourced for food either by scavenging (or foraging) and or hunting. If so they did not qualify as civilizations. Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) exist more than 30,000(?) years ago but civilizations only appear after mankind understood the concept of irrigation which in turn allow farming which then led to towns and cities constructed. What I am curious to find out is with the discovery of several more ancient civilizations what is the official word on Gobekli Tepe. It is supposedly older than Mesopotamia by 3,000-4,000 years circa 7,000 B. C. so would Mesopotamia still be considered as the earliest known civilisation? Thank you.
There are man made ancient african buildings. Plus i got some problems with this list. The kingdom of aksum is way older than all those American civilizations such as the mayans and the incas, but it’s whatever.
What about Armenia? We are one of the oldest ones in the world aswell. Existed along with Egypt, Persia and Mesopotamian coutries. And as well Armenia was one of the biggest ones then. What country was inbetween Sumer and Persia? That huge country inbetween, which was one of the biggest and richest ones then. Why do always everyone misses that part of history, though there are thousands of facts?
Agreed. Modern humans have been around for over 150K years and Neanderthals (and others) for over 500K years. The question is what will we uncover further underground in the future? Gobelkli Tempe and other were only down 10 t0 50 feet. What’s lower? Even the Sphinx was completely buried.
If it’s more than 12,000 years ago, those cities would be dust by now given that construction materials would not hold up THAT long unless some evidence is berried somehow. As you go back in time, the evidence would be more likely to be destroyed.
Worldwide, scholars, archaeologists and the Historians have watched closely Keezhadi, a small village situated 12 km from Madurai.
Not only Tamil Nadu but the people from the Northern states come in mass at Keezhadi. What’s there in Keezhadi to see by the immense visitors daily?
Continue reading to find the answer.
More than fifteen thousand archaeological objects have been found in the five-stage excavation performed in the Keezhadi village near the city Madurai.
All these performances were an example of the age of the Sangam period, which stretch as much lengthy in the Tamil literature!
The ancient city Madurai so-called Moothoor is the traditional one, where is lying in the river banks of Vaigai.
Believed the events described in the Shiva Purana was in this ancient city. It’s also believed the Vishnu’s fish incarnation has performed in this city.
The Archaeological survey of ancient antiquity, which has so far been considered merely a believer, has become acceptable to the world.
As well the Tamil Vaigai River civilization will be speak along with these Greek , Mesopotamian ,, Babylonia , Sumerian , Palestine , Roman , Persian ,
Mayan ,German , Peru, Turkish, Bonesia, Indus Valley , Ganges , Nile River , the Yellow River, the Tamil civilizations .
Just mythology and the literatures cannot be taken as historical evidence.
All these excavations of brick houses, well, pottery and the Tamil scripts on the pottery- wares proved that the Tamils had urbanized civilization since in the 6 BCE to 1 AD
You have short changed the East Asian culture, Chinese possibly, by not mentioning the Liangzhu. This civilization was perhaps more advanced than their western contemporaries and ruled their territory for a thousnd years from about 3300-2300 BCE.
Ancient Chinese civilization one of the oldest in the world and certainly the longest continuous civilization with plethora of technological advances that went from China to the west. Astrology, philosophy, agriculture and medicine were also far advanced for the time. Many great inventions and innovations from China thousands of years ago are still being used throughout the world today.
They were talking about the first civilizations. Not the first humans. Fantastic info though!
Sachin
Thanks for your tireless work, it is a credit to you.
I’m with Ben not just because I’m Australian (Germanic Keltic Australian that is, not Indigenous) but because of the evidence we have today.
Starting with DNA this article points to the work that finds like many other works that Indigenous Australians represent one of the oldest continuing human cultures and civilisations.
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2011/09/dna-confirms-aboriginal-culture-one-of-earths-oldest/
Let’s not be post-industrial and define civilisation by the material wealth and prowess of a culture at a given time. Let’s look at deeper aspects of culture:
# ability to live on the lands inhabited;
# laws & customs related to those lands;
# languages – 250-300 distinct Indigenous Australian languages of antiquity far greater than any European and probably most other existing languages;
# religions of great age and development;
# tribal, clan and family rules of deep complexity;
# Indigenous Australian art goes back thousands of years and is still visible all over this continent and is spectacularly visible in the great art galleries of Kakadu, the Kimberleys and the Dampier Peninsula.
No doubt ancient African and Eurasian cultures have similar qualities and deserve to be considered as very early human civilisations.
Dominic Sydney
So far the “click” languages, particularly that of the San, are regarded as the most ancient. Even after having lost some of their language, the San language still uses over 800 distinct sounds, more than any other language in the world. All languages are regarded as having descended from this tongue. No other language, and no other people, have been scientifically documented as being older.
Let’s look at deeper aspects of culture:
1 ability to live on the lands inhabited;
They had the richest piece of real estate on the planet and they did nothing with it. They never put one stone on another to make a dwelling. In the Northern hemisphere people were building great cities, roads and various means of transport.
They never discovered the wheel and their “throwing sticks” boomerangs were in use in Africa about the same time. Fire came every year as it does today. They used it but hardly controlled it. Iron, copper, tin and other metals are here in abundance but they never found them.
2 laws & customs related to those lands;
All tribes have very similar laws as to their location. Look after the family and the tribe. The 10 commandments!
3 languages – 250-300 distinct Indigenous Australian languages of antiquity far greater than any European and probably most other existing languages;
They had no common language until today. They had no written language or common means of communicating.
4 religions of great age and development;
Religions are an invention of male man to gain power. It is an excuse to fob off the unknown and pretend they are in touch with the ‘Gods.’
5 tribal, clan and family rules of deep complexity;
Goes back to the laws and customs of the tribes.
6 Indigenous Australian art goes back thousands of years and is still visible all over this continent and is spectacularly visible in the great art galleries of Kakadu, the Kimberley’s and the Dampier Peninsula.
Compared to the art works in the caves in Southern Europe, aboriginal ‘art’ is very basic. Continuing on from that, where is the aboriginal art comparable to Picasso, Rembrandt etc of the European Middle Ages?
Aboriginals are stone age, always were, still are and always will be. Go to the Tanami, Kununurra or across to Darwin and that’s where the live.
It is only inbreeding with Europeans that gives them some intelligence.
They had the richest piece of real estate on the planet and they did nothing with it. (They worshiped, preserved and revered it for the gift that it was and never took more than they need or the land could afford to give.)
All tribes have very similar laws as to their location. (Because they lived peacefully and felt no need to impede on others whom had every right to exist sovereignly as they did.)
250-300 distinct Indigenous Australian languages of antiquity far greater than any European. (Aboriginal people all learned the invading language, most Europeans wouldn’t and couldn’t due to prejudice and don’t forget they didn’t develop one master language because they lived peacefully and felt no need to impede on others whom had every right to exist sovereignly as they did.)
Religions are an invention of male man to gain power. (Agreed, it was religious and racial ideas brought to the continent that allowed them the believe they had the right to execute power of the indigenous people.)
Goes back to the laws and customs of the tribes. (Because they lived peacefully and felt no need to impede on others whom had every right to exist sovereignly as they did.)
Compared to the art works in the caves in Southern Europe, aboriginal ‘art’ is very basic. Continuing on from that, where is the aboriginal art comparable to Picasso, Rembrandt etc of the European Middle Ages? (The art of Picasso is closer to that of aboriginal people than it is to Rembrandt’s.) (You are referring to formal composition in artwork which is still relatively modern. Especially when you are talking about 60,000 year old art. ) The most modern and complex expression in the art world is still abstraction which require higher brain function and reasoning that crude attempts at realism.)
It is only inbreeding with Europeans that gives them some intelligence. (You attempted to make some fair points but your racism and pre conceived western notions about culture got in your way. In the Americas the same is done regarding it’s indigenous people. As soon as one finds that the native people further south began to form civilizations and stone building they are regarded as higher forms of culture. It’s simply not true.) (It’s not inbreeding if the DNA is coming from outside the pool, but you are correct that the DNA from all of the white European rapist did change the tribe and people forced to endure such benefits of their “civilized” conquerors.)
But, while what you say is true, the aboriginals are and always have been a culture and not a civilization. They don’t meet any of the varied criteria to be considered so.
Lol. Aboriginal people did not form a true civilization. The were/are an ancient tribe. Apples vs oranges
And what is the criteria of a “true civilization” as you call it?
I always thought that humans have become “civilized” when they stop living as hunter-gatherers and start living in a non-shifting community in an area (or maybe move from one location after another) but still within one community.
I also thought that a mark of a civilization is when humans have some sort of social structure (whether it is matriarchal or patriarchal leadership) when they could self-govern themselves.
Julius Caesar was a not a Roman emperor and the Roman civilization was around until 1453.
There is hard proof that aboriginal australians are originally from south asia along with some other small islands and regions. They originally are more of direct decedents of essentially south asians. But to be noted, the middle east/india region of the world is where majority of everything was actually created, not africa or europe. Ancient medicine, math, science, along with a lot of the main pillars of our societies were created by these first civilizations which were all in the asia/africa region (which includes middle east).
No Sir, the Aboriginals and most people from the oceanias migrated out of Africa 75,000 years ago. There were several waves of migration out of Africa. Africa is the most genetically diverse continent. A DNA test confirms that the Aboriginals, as well as ALL people across the earth, share same genotypes as the Sand Bushman in South Africa.
Correct sir. These people migrated out of Africa to other parts of the world to create the people that are currently there. And most people would prefer not to say so but the so-called middle east was actually part of Eastern Africa. The Original people of Mesopotamia and Sumer were BLACK.
Bob,
How do you know they had no wars if we have very little historical evidence of them? Especially if the Aborigines were around 60,000 years ago…there just isn’t any evidence to suggest one way or the other, but only assumptions.
All societies and all humans wage war – this is based off what we actually know (which is still very little considering the thousands of years we’ve been around – so much history [written, verbal, art, etc.] has been lost/forgotten too). War, misery and other issues have always been here, and unfortunately, will always be here. I highly doubt the Aborigines – or any other civilization – did not wage war.
My regards!
It’s hard for a white man to understand that isn’t it. The Aboriginal idea was that “everything belonged to everybody” thus there were no wars.
Groups of aboriginals routinely waged war for revenge, stealing women or for superiority. This has been cited and proven many times. Just because they didn’t fight for land doesn’t mean they didn’t fight.
They have a long verbal history that is passed along and includes no mentions of carnage or attacks until the Europeans came. I know it’s hard to believe, knowing how man has proven to be throughout preserved history. The Indigenous people of Australia weren’t even similar to native Americans in this way. They did not believe that they had any claim to the land or its gifts. Take that away and there is little to fight over.
Impossible.. Australia wasn’t even named until 1804… before then they were indigenous people of Kammerra. ;)
I have to point out that you have forgotten about one old civilization. I’m talking about Vincha, civilization that become in today’s Serbia, near the river Danube.They are older then Egiptians.Look it on Google.
‘Bout time someone brought up the Old Europeans. And if you think Gimbutas was just a batty old lady, then you haven’t done your homework recently. Also Knossos, Etruria, Malta, Thrace, and our old friends at Golbeke Tepe. BTW not to mention the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (if you haven’t looked at those dazzling bronzes out of NOWHERE then you are a savage). Also will somebody explain to me why people who put entasis and diminution on a Doric column are a Civilization and people who put entasis and diminution on a trilithon are just a bunch of ignorant savages? It might be argued that building your houses in a continuous stone or brick defensive ring around the outside and smelting your bronze in the safety of the middle per Jericho and Sintashta is a part of civitas, but it hasn’t been yet on this web page. So I suppose the people who built at the Manachaqui Cave or Skara Brae don’t count either.
Dear Bob,
Absolutely true. The Australian Aborgines were in harmony with nature and each other roughly 50,000 yrs ago.
This is a serious ommision of the most ancient civilisation .
Except they are not a civilization by the definition of the word. They are a culture.
And also sounds as confused as today´s society, where people still wonder where we came from. The evidence point to a design. We were designed for an infinite being that most people call God. I call him: My God, the one who sent his Son to die for humankind.
I appreciate your recognition of the indigenous people of Australia. I suppose there has to be some irony in the fact that they were not recognized as human by Australian govt till 1950’s. Breeding programs and such. Disgraceful.
Let me guess… Sounds like Arun is speaking some form of modernized romanized Gobeklian language. Yes? Not even close? I’m sure it’s not Aramaic nor Arabic.
Well, if so either Arun… you got to fire your English teacher or your keyboard is fried!
Spot on Bob
If by civilisation we mean managing to have a population exposion long enough to withstand the next minor disaster there are quite a few. Having regard to the number of foods the whole world appear to rely on and take for granted ;which emanated from the Americas , i do wonder whether they have had the longest civilisation in the world. Potatoes,sweet potatoes,beans chillies,tomatoes,corn,etc we would be pretty malnourished if not for the Americas
As an Australian: this is correct. The exact date of Aboriginal civilisation in Australia is uncertain but believed to be 65k-100k years ago. Also: Aboriginal, not Aboriginie. Call Aboriginal people that to their face and you might encounter some issues as it’s a super dodgy term and most don’t like it.
Although the many criticisms of which civilisations you’ve chosen to cast on this list, whether wrong or right of the line up, chosen cultures or ultimate decision for the earliest of civilisation.. I found the work you’ve provided here to be very informative, enlightening, with very little to no error, tis well presented for the public. To use your time going through various sources, difficulties of accumulating accurate facts, giving your best judgement to place all the findings periodically dated with avoiding cultures/civilisations that may not have solid factual standing quite yet, may, according to previous commenters, have unnoticed other acceptable candidates for your research. I do believe looking into some of the other options posted by fellow readers, to keep up accuracy in the information we collect to better help ourselves. I truly appreciate your time, effort, knowledge and delightful way the work you provided us had been displayed, thank you.
You forgot about Kush aka the ancient Nubians. Yes, they conquered Egypt but they should not be included as part of the ancient Egyptians civilization. They deserve their own title.
The Nubians did not conquer Egypt this is the following from Wikipedia: “Early Neolithic settlements from prehistoric Egypt have been found in the central Nubian region dating back to 7000 BC, with Wadi Halfa believed to be the oldest settlement in the central Nile valley.” There is no indication from Wikipedia that Nubians conquered Egypt. People need to stop making things up.
Wikipedia should never be considered the last and absolute word of truth. Things that get posted may not have been based on the latest information from recent archeological finds.
Remember, the interpretation of those finds are made by people who conclude things based on their knowledge and beliefs which may not reflect the reality of the artifacts. They may be ‘experts’ – their opinions are generally accepted but those opinions are in reality only their best educated guesses.
Too often archeologists discovered and interpreted historical artifacts without consulting the living descendants of that culture. Happily that has been changing and we are discovering ancient civilizations that flourished in the Americas, Africa, Australia far earlier than had been considered as ‘fact’ not so long ago.
Proven historical evidence tells us all people are decedents of people from the African continent. This article doesn’t mention Kemet. Kemet (Land of the black) is the name of the land now known as Egypt.
Indeed the Aboriginies have the oldest RELIGION in the world: The belief that all we know manifested from the ancient Dreamtime, and that all reality is actually dreampt into existence by extradimensional intelligent design. Maybe the Aboriginies just never saw the need to build cities and temples, as the world was their temple…everyones temple. All the empires which ever existed collapsed, and collapsed without grace. The Aboriginies had no empire and their ways have never changed.
I ended up on this web page randomly. Enjoyed the article and read (or scanned) most of the comments. Well done, everyone. Regardless of competing opinions, it is truly wonderful to see that people take an interest in such subjects. It is not a ‘competition’ however. More than one commenter made the point that it doesn’t matter which was first, and that’s the truth. I am primarily Anglo-Saxon but with some Australian Aboriginal blood by descent. I have always been interested in anthropology, ancient history, archaeology, and sociology. It is my understanding from schooling (at university level) and further study, that man came out of Africa and spread across the globe as it was (whenever that was – witness the division of opinion here, just on that question alone). It seems to me from what I’ve read here, that people are mixing up ‘civilisations’ and ‘cultures’, myth and legend, and criss-crossing thousands of years. And many are forgetting the importance of the ‘city-state’ of which there have been many, across lots of countries and thousands of years. I did note one interesting comment (sorry, don’t recall the commenter’s name) that there may be other civilisations as yet uncovered, that we know nothing about. Good point. Who knows how many layers of the lost and unknown are below our feet ? I believe in God, Heaven and Hell. I hope that one day in the future – when I get to Heaven, maybe ! – that I will have the opportunity to ask Someone for all the information we lack down here, with our small-world view of things. Now, wouldn’t that be something
I too read the top 10 list and the many comments. It was intriguing to see the the author chose to pick Mesopotamia as the oldest. However, i do agree with Tim buktu, when there is no need for cities why build them therefore the aboriginal people should be included but then again I’m only a British-Indian. On that know watch the movie ‘The man from Earth’. it presents a brilliant story spanning 14,000 years and how humans have evolved .
History is vast and the beginning is blurred, human logic has a tendency to set up a beginning (to make one feel like there is a reason, a cause, a connection to a greater figure). All religion is a symptom in society. In time it will fade. All the ancient civilisation followed a religion (or several) but as they died, so did the religions. Religion is used by individuals or groups of individual to rule over others because the fear and scope of one path stretches far beyond a lifetime therefore the need for it only arises when one wishes to be civilised. the prove lies within these civilisations, the terrible ancient kings were only respected because they were revered as gods no? in time even your religion Auriel will be seen as another pagan religion.
Absolutely. That is right. It was the most ancient and most civilised civilisations in the world. Only we did not accept it. Except Indus valley one, most were barbaric civilisations with cruel customs by any standard.
You are so right. Additionally, all of the African civilizations, except Egypt were obviously ignored, and Egypt was relegated to minuteness re “just the pyramids” after earlier stating how Central America had larger ones (pyramids). Credit is thrown to civilizations that had “lasting” monuments, rather than the most ancient documented peoples on the planet, the San and the Kwa, located in Southern and central Africa. They were master conservationists and environmentalists, leaving the Earth pristine as they lived through scores of thousands of years. That is civilization and being civilized. Look at the ruins our planet is in. And that ruin is based on the civilizations this article admires and purports as the most ancient.
Sad that truth telling only applies to modern day Australians.
60,000 years of occupation does not a great civilisation make. It’s what they contribute to the advancement of mankind that distinguishes a great culture.
Aboriginal Australian culture is a very primitive culture with no written history .
Who were the great thinkers and leaders over the 60;000 years. We only have fanciful stories and basic rock art to show existence. They lived in harmony with nature a failure to do so would meant extinction.
No, communism is not civilised, and there is no reason to think that lack o private ownership would prevent wars. The Abos were savages.
Reply to the post of Bob Shaw:
Yes, humans appear to have been living on the continent of Australia for tens of thousands of years, but who the first people were, we can never know. The evidence suggests there have been three distinct migration routes of humans into Australia from the north. The artifacts we find give us no indication of who made the stone tools, or the rock engravings and paintings. It cannot be determined how long a tribe or group of people lived in any specific area. There is no basis in fact to support claims that any of the cultural groups today have been living on the same land with the same culture. All of humanity has spent some 90% of its time in the Paleolithic Stage of culture (old stone age); some cultures existing, in remote areas like Australia, until very recently.
There appears to be conclusive evidence that “Pygmy” people (once so-called “negrito” meaning “small black”) had survived in the rain-forests of Northern Queensland till modern times, and that is consistant with similar peoples who have survived in remote islands and jungle-covered mountains, from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal to the mountains of the Phillipines. These peoples had been displaced by the arrival of Neolithic farming peoples, such as the Malays, who cultivated the lowlands.
The Tasmanian Aboriginals were certainly a distictly different people (a “race”?) from those found on the Australian Mainland, and it can be assumed that they had only survived because the rising seas after the last Ice Age cut them off from predation by the arrival of subsequent “races” of peoples. Those “Tasmanians” living on the northern side of what was to become the Bass Strait were no doubt exterminated or possibly assimilated by subsequent waves of humans.
Thus, we can assume that Australia experienced the same dynamic pre-histories as anywhere else in the world. In other words, there is no historical or archeological record how long a specific Paleolithic tribal culture has been living upon a specific area of land. The only thing we can know is how to differenciate between Paleolithic culture and Neolithic culture, and there is no evidence that the later culture was ever in existance on the Australian continent.
In conclusion, it is complete fantasy to say things like, “Australian Aboriginals are the world’s oldest surviving cultural groups.” Or, to say, “They had no wars” or “They shared everything” We know that women/girls were bought and sold, and the stealing of women, to become the slave of the man who possessed her, was perhaps the major cause of inter and intra tribal conflict.
Bob, all people have been around for 60,000 years and more (homo sapiens evolved at least 200,000 years ago). Australian aborigines are no different than prehistoric peoples in every part of the world.
(1)Kumarikandam the Tamil culture which existed before all of them that is now under water ir it covers a wast area starting from Australia and end of africa to India that was a large land mass and today’s all south indian languages are derived from Tamil. (2) port city of dwarka is also existed before Indus the city of Lord Krishna at the time of
only one thing to ask if kumarikandam is true how do you explaind the theory of contiental drift
Hi Swarm Kant
I don’t know too much about geology and your comment made sense to me at first. But the response from Layan Y Karma’s is a valid theory in itself. Perhaps continent drift happened through earth flooding (Noah’s Arc), melting of ice from a previous ice age.
Did you mention polar reversals? Could civilizations contact with each other from Africa to South America pre historically?
Too much history missing from fire that destroyed the library of Alexandria.
Check out the creation mythology of the muscogee from north America …they had one god ,also had a horned serpent,an underworld of chaos,there was a flooded earth in the beginning..man was created from a clay mound, the first two native American creek were lucky hunter and corn woman..
2nd all south indian languages has come from tamil is like all indian languages has emerged from hindi
All Indian Languages immerged from Sanskrit.
yes absoulitly right sanskrit is a mother of all languages ……..
it is that language which is also prepfered by nasa scientist the its a only language which can be used for a space reserch
All North indian languages arrived from sanskrit. But sanskrit comes from tamil. And if you searched in the internet also you can find tamil language is the core root of all the languages in the world. Many scientist also confirmed this. Try this word in google “alex collier tamil” Alex collier scientist has confirmed this.
Kumarikandam is the very oldest and may be the first civilization in the world.
That’s not true. Tamil and Sanskrit are entirely different. Tamil is the parent of Dravidian south Indian languages.
Mr. Rajesh RR
when did the Internet and Google came to an Existance?
when did the Alex collier born?
You believe Internet,Google and Alex collier More than our Hindu Purana’s. Vedic Sanskrit, was considered as the language of the gods. Sanskrit was born when the Vedas Born. i am not degrading your Tamil Language Being on Hindu We all should Respect our Vedic language Sanskrit, please Never Say Tamil is the Core Root Language for Sanskrit.
2nd all south indian languages has come from tamil is like all indian languages has emerged from hind. it belongs to the same script dravidian like others from devnagri. but almost all south indianlanguages had developed their own script overtimei
Actually this is false, TAMIL is an OFF SHOOT of Sumerian culture when the sumers fled north after the babylonian invasion.
In comparison TAMIL IS YOUNG
Have you researched well into History, I think not! What about Ancient Troy in Asia Minor in present day northern part of Turkey? What about Carthage in located in present day Tunisia is one of the most Advanced civilization rival to Ancient Rome and came long into existence before Ancient Rome, history has it that the founders of Ancient Rome visited Ancient Carthage while escaping from just destroyed Ancient Troy by the Greeks which lies right in the heart of Africa before heading for Italy to establish Ancient Rome. What about Parthia in present day Turkey that defeated Ancient Rome in fierce battle.
(3)And Aryan invasion theory is found fake it was a product of british colonialisms (4) the Indian texts have been conciderd as myths but now there are proof that they are facts(like the bramastra in Vedas Ramayana and mahabaratha is same as described as nukes and even after effects of nclear explosions like loss of nail hair etc are described perfectly (5) even many resurch organization’s are researching on vimanashastra(6)Russian korien languages resemble Sanskrit and Tamil also wors like mathr become mother and brother and bhratr etc
Jiroft in iran is the oldest ancient civilization in the world .aratta kingdom
Completely agree with Bob Shaw. I’m sorry but this list is simply incorrect, my culture the Australian aboriginals are the oldest culture on earth going back over 50 000 years
No question that the Australian aborigines are the oldest surviving culture (not sure about the San) but were they a civilisation? Certainly Aboriginal material culture is showing itself to be more complex each day – ie the recent discovery of a rock solar calendar, and the earliest ground tools in the world, but it’s difficult to call Aboriginal society a civilisation. Certainly they had and have an empire of the mind comprising mythology, law, custom, epic songs and poems, art, and a shared canon of oral literature. Nomads can be civil but I don’t think that they can be said to create a civilisation. I think it has something to do with staying in one place and building common use structures like agoras, palaces, libraries, courts, religious buildings and so on.
There is a pretty astonishing Aboriginal ‘cathedral’ carved out of stone over the millennia and decorated with rock art, but I put this more of a par with the decorated cathedral caves of ice age France. (The carving is impressive!)
Who cares though. Aboriginal society punches above its weight in attracting the worlds attention.
When we speak about civilisation. It means too many things invented such as writing sys.adminstration sys. Military sys and social sys which had been created in mesapotamia. They are too many places in iran .syria and turkey that dates back to more than 10000 yrs ago .so civilisation dznt mean just being old by age
More recently, the discovery of Göbekli Tepe has changed this timeline, not that these civilizations (Egypt, Mesopotamia) aren’t the oldest but that they may be older and there may be others we didn’t know about before like the one in Turkey.
Gobe Tepe , Turkey dates to 12500BC with star charting circles and underground caverns nearby. The caverns go down many levels with animal storage and family areas, Food storage and common rooms
Leopard man statue in Schwaben area German caves dates back 45,000 BC German. It is the oldest carved item found . They had Bronze star discs. The Celts in cave sites in germany after that are 12500BC.
The mummies are still there with jewelry. Open Daily for visits.
500 years older than the Pyramids; is The Irish famous — New Grange. It is a burial tomb that calendar dates the three shortest days of the year. There is a writing on the tomb walls . Around it are moon charting posts–by inserted drilling holes. Knowth , next to it; dates when to start Spring and planting. Near Slain, Ireland. 330 BC. Before that there were only timbers back to 4200 BC , they are being excavated.
What about kush axum civilization. You just dont want to tell about african civilization nemroid is son of kush who built Babylon Mesopotamia. Kushitic built the pyramids. Read greek histrian Herodotus and homer. Some times you just hide the truth because people know the truth black people the first on earth Lucy.
Gobekli Teppi is the oldest discovered civilization now. It’s about 11-12,000 years old.
Gobekli Tepe isn’t a civilization, it’s a religious gathering place. It’s a wee bit older than the city of Jericho. At that point, you don’t have civilizations yet. Between 12,000 and 4,000-ish BC you had cultures rather than full blown civilizations. Before then people were living in huts and caves and as far as we know communicated through animal pictures.
These are not the oldest civilizations. You’re missing Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, the Olmecs in South America, the Clovis in North America, and all of Indian history. Not to mention the Mycenaean in the Minoans which predate ancient Greece. Also other various other civilizations scattered throughout history. Heck by comparison Rome is incredibly recent. In my opinion you can barely call it ancient.
And if you really want to get technical, the solutreans who were technically Hunter and gatherers in archaic France had an established home base and fit many of the criteria for a civilization and they existed during the last ice age.
My point is that your list is super inaccurate. Even if your criteria includes having an established written language you should at least have the Mycenaeans and Minoans over the Greeks and the Romans. They are so ancient that the Greeks and the Romans considered them their ancient ancestors. And in fact we have recently deciphered their language in the past like 2 years. That alone should put them on this list.
Frankly it’s insulting that Mesopotamia is constantly considered the oldest. Because it simply wasn’t. Gobekli Tepe which has been known since the 90s is much older. We just haven’t deciphered theyre pictographs.
Oh and with a cursory look at the other comments I completely forgot the Aboriginal people.
Next time you do a list like this clearly state what your criteria for the list are.
Anything before then isn’t considered a civilization. Civilizations are the sum of cultures and indigenous groups, which are what these older gatherings of people were. All scientific authorities use similar criteria when regarding civilization. The term ‘civilization’ is derived from the Latin civis, meaning citizen, and civitas, meaning city.
There is no “Greek” civilization. That was an Illyrian-Pellasgian civilization, predecessors of modern day Albanians.
An academic way of defining civilization, which misses the truth. Sorcerers know the Beginning and the End,,, however they are despised
As for Mesopotamia location is concerned, Zagros mountain is in current Iran. Therefore, northeast of zagros is still in Iran.
what about carthage civilization 814 BC ( Tunisia , Malta ,Sicilia , palma, sardinia, corsica,Balearic Islands,south spain ,north coast morocco and algeria )
Informative but textbook style. It has already been proven that the “hunter gatherers” of Gobekli Tepi understood astronomy and advanced construction methods more than 10 000 years ago. There is reason to assume that much more advanced civilisations existed much earlier than those you mentioned. The evidence are piling up.
Dear friend,(2022) archaeologist announced that The Great Indus Valley Civilisation is the world’s oldest civilisation.They found some evidence on harappan sites afterthat they conclude it by carbon dating.
I really like this how it explains the first people to come together and form civilizations. Many people don’t understand the difference between the first civilizations and the first humans to be on the planet. I think that the people that wrote this article have explained the differences between the two ideas of the first civilizations and everything that came from civilizations. I really like the article and it was very informative and interesting to me. Thank you
Nice article. But, what about the dwaraka city from india. Recently found this dwaraka city from gujarath state of INDIA. 32,000 years old..
“dwaraka city” is that a civilization? It is clear that this article is talking about CIVILIZATION.
City is an evidence for existence of civilisation..
No, a city is not evidence for a civilization. It is one aspect of a civilization.
And what about Danube river valley civilization? Older than than Mesopotamia and more civilized.. the old slavic nation ! Still alive in people of Slovakia Czech Poland Serbia Croatia Ukraine Russia Belarus Bulgaria Slovenia etc.
You have made an interesting point that may be linked to the people who lived before the great flood, and those who did survive it, and propagated the human race thereafter. However, who exactly were these people and what did they leave behind as proof of their existence, and the proof of they being of more ancient origins than the Sumerians and Akkadians?
You provided us with a list of the Slavic nations that are of modern times, but if your theory is correct, what were these people known as, specifically? Did they have a writing system? What about their religious, and spiritual beliefs?
Recently, there were some massive stones that were discovered, I believe in the northern Russian mountains. These mega-ton stones, according to the scientists who discovered them, are not of natural formation; but were rather “made” carried through a densely forested area and raised in rows of approximately 100 yards at a total elevation of almost 140 forty feet from the ground. Is there a possibility that this civilization of which you speak, were the amazing builders architects of this paleolithic structure? Do a little more research into your theory, and see if there’s any concrete evidence /proof to substantiate your claim. Thank you for the comment, though. Very thought-provoking.
Are you talking about Baalbek In Lebanon? Have a look by googling it. Huge artificially cut stones! And there are many theories about what they were used for. The ancient Greeks and Romans built temples on them but are not the builders of the plateau.
Check your twisted history Adolf! All civilizations came originally from Mesopotamia, starting from the very original Civilization of SUMERIA. Mankind started and originated from Southern Africa, if you want to get right down to it. The first human was a “black head” and called ADAMU (the earthling) to be exact. He could not reproduce and
was “created” as a slave. Do some more reading and studying before you make unsubstantiated claims.
Are you getting this information from a religious text or something because this is not based on science or hard facts that hav been proven. I am not going to bring religion into this and just state wat science says. Science says that we evolved from other species, Apes. There are the bones of our ancestors found in the Middle East to prove it. Bones that have distinct aspects of a human’s and an apes skeleton. If you want more proof look it up. Also the fact that these bones and all of the bones found were in the Middle East proves that humans originate from their.
And how can you substantiate your claim that the first human was called ADAMU? The first human existed probably around 200,000 YA. No writing existed then so you can not prove that. Also, no one was the FIRST HUMAN; that doesn’t exist. We are all a product of evolution and that takes 100’s of thousands of years to consolidate a trait.
Isn’t the Chinese civilization the oldest one?
Dwaraka City : Birthplace of God KRiSHNA @ Dwapar Yug of Copper Age of Cyclic Eastern Philosophy or Hindusim Dharma @ Concept .
God KRiSHNA : Holy Gita Science is based on many human lives one needs to attain salvation of freedom of no life.
My own research is if a Human is not Human in one life there is no point even giving another life, because that Individual won’t change to be human race or rather animals at life business of species of civilizations .
My concept is more practicality of engineering so that this world would have saved & protected in the past than in the future of nuclear armageddon crisis of civilizations .
My philosophical engineering concept @ practicals of real world : For a human one simple word , hence it should be one simple life of freedom @ no life .
I’m not God Krishna to understand the complexities of many lives, rather , be simplicity of one human life , based on what happened in the past life business with Human Civilizations & Human Race .
In the current world they are the real threat not only there existence but also millions of species live among us on the global life systems vision of Billion Years ahead @ life business to no life business ( For Ex : Mars & Civilizations )
Yeah, early literature aboyt trading activities, coinage, mega temples (one of which still exist) well planned roads, buildings etc doesnt count. Stupid when you say city it doesnt mean there was no civilisation around it. Great cities never come into exostence without any civilisation to back them up. Go look up dwarka city.
Dwaraka City & Civilization @ Dwapar Yug :
Earth existed for millions of years prior to Dwaraka Civilizations & the city itself . There were ancient civilizations before the won or Yuga of Dwapar as this City became famous because of God KRiSHNA ‘s birth , life & death @ Dwaraka City & Civilization & Peoples @ Dwapar Yug or Eon @ life business .
The historical records & artifacts clearly proove with that Holy Scriptures literature . The city of Dwaraka went to so many times submerged under floods before , during & after like any coastal cities of civilizations , life & constructions .
The most famous is God Krishna’s wealthiest temple built in memory of him by his ardent devotees with carat of Gold which is not even 24 carat but above & beyond the current zgold Carat .
His devotees even built the same one in the Middle East Holy Lands of Yerusalem ( Origin Source : Jerusalem : Yadava tribe which God KRiSHNA was born ) right at the Temple Mount prior to the current existing modern religious faiths & infrastructures built in at that place .
I think dawaraka have antiquity but not as much as this ten civilization
your right, but their histories mention much older events.
R u now the meaning of CIVILIZATION?? Google….
Other researchers are only consider if they find EVIDANCES … indian civilization is the mother of all civilizations … refer RAMAYAN … u will get that .. the civilization of india is 100000 years old… still counting zeros ?? Lol
DHARMIL SONI You are right with the Indian Civilization being one of the oldest one. The Indian Civilization was the dominant Civilization pre Atlantis. But unfortunately both got destroyed for similar reasons out Civilizations might be at an end today.
In reality, the SUMERIAN Civilization was and is (as we should look at it much closer today then we have thus far) the OLDEST Civilization on Earth. Their clay tablets tell the whole, and I mean the WHOLE STORY. All religious texts in this world are derived from them and they had a civilization we cannot even today equal, for very obvious reasons, which will be explained in my upcoming website soon. It probably will be under this domain name:
questionablehistory.com and be a slow progression explaining the way I and a few “experts” see our human history!
dwarka city is all fake nothing is real.. so called shri krishna never existed. it is just a manifestation of ideologies spread by brahmin class of india. much of it has no relevance. hindu culture itself has no roots if u look in a practical manner. nothing existed before indus valley civ. and so called epics such as mahabharat nd ramayana claim to have been existed atleast 8000 years back in a time when stone was just discovered as tool these people claimed to have been using bows and arrows and shields in war. not to mention the vayu yaan using mercury. i mean use of alchemy in stone age.. seriously ?
Ashish you don’t knwo anything, NASA has itself proved that Dwarka City Civilization was the oldest one and NASA has also agreed about the Ram Setu (ADAM’s Bridge). RAM sethu is now an under water bridge linking India and Sri Lanka. It got under water now due to increasing level of water in oceans and NASA is also researching about all the weapons which Indians used to have(including Nuclear weapons and Shri Krishna’s Sudarshan Chakra which was time dimension controller kind of a weapon). Dwarka city is the oldest one which has been discovered till date. Its ranges between 32000-100000 years old. And then I consider Egyptian civilization as the second oldest one because a few years back , researchers have discovered a 20000 years old pyramid which was undergrounded by sand.
Its 100% proved now that we Indians have best technology and weapons and you also know that we have given the concept of 0. many mathematical theorems have been given by us and the credit of many mathematical theorems have been hijacked by English and other mathematicians. Neil Bohr(father of modern atomic theory), Heisenberg and many other modern days scientists had committed that they got idea of this kind of sciences from HIndu Vedas. Nowadays, NASA has hired Sanskrit language scholars(World’s most ancient and richest language–mother of all languages) and they are translating all the VEDA, Upanishads, Shashtra and other scientific Hindu texts to English and other modern day languages. There is a Vimana Shashtra which gives ideas, models and designs of aprrox. 900000 Air machines which can even travel from galaxy to galaxy and also capable of time travel. Wait for some time, NASA will prove that HIndu/Indian civilization was the most scientific civilization in the world. Aeroplane/Glider was not first made by Wright Brother, it was made by an Indian during British rule in India around 1892 and Britishers forcefully taken that model from him and later on when Britishers were unable to do anything then they sell that idea/documents/model to a company of Europe(France or any other country) and later on before that company could be able to do anything with that , it got insolvent and later on in approx 1900, Wright brothers stole the idea of Flying machine and then they created Glider.
Pranav, do you know who built NASA and installed it’s culture? Werner von Braun, one of the staunchest NAZI’s there ever were! Liars by nature and living of their lies. They will make anything sound possible as long, as it serves their intentions.
If Dwarka city was and is the oldest city ever discovered and as you say 32000-100000 years old, then the next oldest civilization would be the Sumerian civilization and the Epic of the Anunnaki would either be crap or the Anunnaki have started mankind off much earlier than the 40,000 years others have talked about. Just don’t tell me that “god” was the originator of Homo Sapiens, please. If he was, he was not very wise and if he created mankind in his image, I don’t ever want to meet him!
The “God” I know is our consciousness and everything that is on Earth and in the Universe! Not a Being, it, or he/she. The word “God” means “I don’t Know” and “will never know”. Whatever it, he, she, it is it is indistinguishable. If you ever would understand God, your brain would burn out! And the Religions? They are only created by mankind to suppress mankind and not to favour you. How many wars have been fought over Religion and how many people have been killed and persecuted over the Millennia? As long, as there is mankind, there will be lies, killing, underhandedness, and I leave it up to your imagination, what! If we, humans, don’t open our eyes, then there will be no GOOD future but more of the same! And it is “funny” that every 3600 years there was a sudden increase in mankind’s knowledge until modern times and we acquired our own knowledge and manifold it within a very short time, historically speaking. Just think about that for a while! History has been falsified by mankind for mankind’s own purposes and, you can be sure, these purposes were not benevolent!
I agree with you.
Bharat is the oldest civilization /
(Sindhu Khin Sanskruti)( Indus Valley civilization)
Dwarka is indeed a oldest civilization known as Daruka van at that time. Interesting to know other comments.
Maybe you guys believe too much in what the mainstream scientists are trying to force down your throat. There is no dobut in my mind that we are completely wrong in what we believe. Do I believe in God Yes, do I believe in any life, magic, powers, or abilities out there being gifts from God Yes. BUT do I believe that this planet is as young as many says? NO. Do I think that we have had many small and big world wipeouts during all of life on Earth? I think there have been many different homid like species on this planet over millions of years. I do not think 8000 years ago or even 10,000 years ago was the first homids. I believe far back to the 12,000 years ago or further. Look into what Plato was told by the Egyptian priest, maybe Atlantis was real or maybe he used those stories to tell of other catastrophes. They the government(all over) are hiding the truth of our history from us. check under the sphinx. Check under the pyramids. check Stonehenge. these are places and things no human could have made with as little knowledge we are led to believe that our ppl had back then. Ya way too many mysterious things out there. The facts are this. We only remember the past 8000 years but our earth is much older than that and I totally believe there are even older civilizations out there then you have on this whole list.
We have 6000 years old civilization called aarya civilization in india.
I don’t think specific cultures are a disaster for not been stable or wealthy or evolved….I think, nothing is for ever and because of that..older civilizations are not doing well and disappearing….greed, materialism….I think could be their down fall…to my understanding us humans go around in circle repeating the same mistakes…of creed and intentions to control others…just for the sake of power…and I don’t think we are the generation to fix it….perhaps the great flood was a opportunity to start over…perhaps another great flood is needed and hopefully our old mistakes will be preserve so we can involve towards peace…..at the end is all up to us….our planet responds to our behaviours…perhaps the answer is taking care of it if we want to evolve as humans…..if you really noticed, most of those civilizations die out because low resources diminishing or because if war…in order to process we must take into account past mistakes…taking care of the planet is the most important survival technique…we are all those oldest civilizations….going in circles…..
This list is wrong.. Civilizations may have developed in India and China dates back to 10000s of years. Also people settled in Africa and Australia before that. May be even in south america. This list is for people who think they are the only civilized people
Dwaraka was part of sindhu-saraswati civilisation.Indian civilisation started in 5000 BC as per latest estimation.India is the first civilised country in the world.Unfortunately present India is highly uncivilised.Dwaraka is not 32,000 years old
I recently read a book by Russian author Yuri Shilov stating that the Arattan civilization preceded the Sumerian civilization, and that the center of the Arattan civilization was in modern day Ukraine. Check out Shilov’s book and see what you make of it. It said that the gods of the Arattan civilization were the same as those of the Sumerians, suggesting that it was the same civilization.
Hello,
There is a huge difference between a civilization with all its required aspects and just an old city or grave or whatever!
Nice article. But, what about the dwaraka city from india. Recently found this dwaraka city from gujarath state of INDIA. 32,000 years old..
“Conclusions arrived at after carrying out these underwater archaeological explorations support and validate the dates arrived at through astronomical calculations. They also prove that the reconstructed city was a prosperous port town, and that it was in existence for about 60-70 years in the 15th century B.C. before being submerged under the sea in the year 1443 B.C.”
-archaeology team that found the city
Actually the Mesopotamians were the first civilisation ( not because I’m Iraqi ) since all of the other countries have been stealing their inventions . Why do you think there is a war happening???
Archaeology however indicate that at Cuddie Springs NSW Australia, that Aboriginal people were making bread about 30 000 years ago. The discovery is the earliest evidence of bread making in the world. Most believe that Egypt is where bread was first baked 17 000 years ago. Egyptian tombs have been discovered with boomerang and eucalyptus leaves.
What about Mehrgarh Balochistan ,which date backs to 7500 BC.
that is true it is by archaeology and radiometric and carbon dating the 2nd oldest known civilization in the modern world. I don’t know where the writer of this article got those incorrect facts from about these baby civilizations being old.
Yeah well the oldest knoqn library was in ninveh asssyria it contained elbrate explaines on farming astrolgy medicine divorce courts roads sewers cleaning everything used today architecture storys far older then it own dateing u guys are trippin
Yeah the oldest known library is found in ninveh contianing the secrets of the world and ur talkin lile that no body knows how far aumerians actaully date its always a guess
mehraghar is a neolithik site where small settlements were living. they knew agriculture but mehraghar was not a big, well organized society.
Why is it that almost always the term “neolithic” is applied to Eurasia, but not to Africa- where the terms early, middle, late stone age are used?
Even though it’s exactly the same time period.
Victorian racial/ cultural bias perhaps?
Yet- this type of thinking dominates the western mind.
really the early mayan civilization (pre classic) range from 1800 bce-250ce before classic mayan culture emerged.
what about the African civilization? Werent they the first?
NO! If you can backup your claims of africa being the first civilization then what is that african civilization that is OLDER AND GREATER than the Mesopotamia? Again, we are talking about the CIVILIZATION not just human activity/settlement and not also city.
I have to agree, in part with Anti- Afrocentrism. The problem is a question of semantics.
One dictionary defines civilized as :
: marked by well-organized laws and rules about how people behave with each other
: polite, reasonable, and respectful
: pleasant and comfortable
and yet another defines it as
: having an advanced or humane culture, society, etc.
: polite; well-bred; refined.
: easy to manage or control; well organized or ordered
Which raises another question regarding how you describe the terms, advanced culture, well-bred and refined.
In my opinion evidence of the Aborigines having been around for over 50000 years would make then the first known civilization on earth.
They were polite, reasonable, and respectful, pleasant and comfortable and didn’t need to be managed, organized or controlled. They believed the Serpent Rainbow created everything, and everything belonged to everyone.
They could have been considered uncivilized by some well educated persons interpretation of what civilized meant, but they had no wars because there was nothing to fight over, and that to me puts them eons ahead of the rest of the known “civilizations” of the world.
But then the so called civilized British arrived in 1778, considered them savages and began to slaughter both them and their way of life.
Every civilization has failed, no matter how great they considered themselves. The Aborigines seemed to be the most civilized people on the planet, until “civilization” showed up.
What about the Nubian civilisation that’s widely ignored by European archaeologists to propagate the notion of Africans as uncivilised . Recently its found that Nubia preceded Egyptian civilisation by a number of years. Nubia (parts of modern day Sudan) has evidence of the first oldest monarch. Before you attack Afrocentrism remember Europeans rendered all other races as savages and uncivilised at one point in history except them while they perpetuated more savergery and incivility than any other conquering race. Why is it that no one can agree which civilisation came first? Because of white western bias.
There are many "anomalies" that the hierarchy of historians prefer to ignore: Romania, Malta, Peru at Lake Titicaca
To Anonymous! About Romania, read Tartaria writing 1000 years older than Sumer writing !
The flood ended in the year 3381 BC
Bravo!!
and PS the Aztecs of Mexico aren’t ancient. Maybe their origins- but not their civilization. Mesoamerican history is totally biased. There is plenty of evidence from linguistics, pottery, pollen studies, DNA, and countless other sciences that validate the fact that some Mesoamerican cultures flourished as far back as 12,000 years ago. Think about that!! Another cradle of civilization perhaps?
Now that we know that the new world wasn’t that new, we’re in the process of rewriting a more accurate account of history.
That is correct. The aztecs were actually the last big civilization to develop before the arrival of the europeans. Mexico´s most ancient known cultures date back to around 3000 A.C, with the advent of the Olmec civilization.
This isn't proved. 320000000 years old Dwaraka city just a hypothesis.
It is not a Hypothesis…Just dive beside Gujarat in India and see for yourself
Why ? Will looking at it somehow tell you when it was built ? Amazing !
You guys are having a field day flooding this site with nonsense about some city that was supposedly older than anything else by about 30,000 years but you have yet to explain why people would simply ignore this “fact” if it were true. The reason is simple : It’s nowhere near as old as you think it is and since you have no proof other than a few assumptions (last time it was on dry land was x years ago) you think that that qualifies as proof. It doesn’t. There are a lot of reasons why any place would become submerged. In fact, that sort of thing happens remarkably frequently.
My friend, navigators are doing underwater research there and palaces are being there inside water along with a whole city. Please google it, you will get to see under water images, Secondly , carbon dating is getting used there to identify the age but carbon dating has also its limitations to specify the correct age of any thing so nowadays scientists are using other modern techniques for its age determinations. I don’t care if you or anybody will consider it right not because fact remains a fact. Secondly, search about Ram Sethu(Adams Bridge) which is being recently discovered by NASA, it was already written in Hindu religious textbook Ramayan but earlier nobody used to consider it as right but when NASA itself proved that is millions year old then the world is considering it as a fact,
How many things have been “discovered”, “analyzed” by “scientists” and then later been proven to be not quite what they thought it to be? Our Science continually corrects itself over time and evolves. We have been duped by “science” for at least the last 126 years, ever since the findings of Nikola Tesla. We have been Brainwashed ever since the creation of mankind. Ever since the creation of the Brotherhood of the Snake which has remained intact ever since it’s inception but under different names. We are made to believe (translate “I don’t know”) that the Petroleum Technology is all there is but some of us know better. What mankind is doing for the last couple of hundred years is to treat everything like if we were switching off the light switch with a sledgehammer.
Think about this for a while before you answer the question!
Aboriginals also go back 10s of thousands of years, and they are the oldest nown race anyway not sure about empire lol
And that “hypothesis” is currently sitting a few miles off the coast of Dwarka, Goa with a small part of the city above the water and have become Pilgrim site for the past 2,000 years.
West are ignoring it not because the site is a “hypothesis” but because they are “hypocrites” who still believes that the World is about 6,000 years old (based on a 1,700 year old book called the Bible).
Firstly refresh your minds timeline .. Where bible is 1700 years old… And please tell me the verse where it mentions the world is 6000 years old … Or in Quran which is more closer to the time line you mentioned. Further more yes there are cities much older than time frames mentioned in this article. Please open a dictionary and read up the difference between city and civilization. Finally hypothesis is a word which does not agree with followers of mythologies ( Hinduism ) so to all of you obsessed with some ancient city near Gujarat … Get a life and understand the article.
Lol really u think so. Its proven that indian culture, civilization and all other things are the oldest on this world. The creation of this earth through science and hindu matches.
This proves everything. There is no other arguement.
You are right, the Bible never mention anything about the World being 6,000 years old. But that did not stop the Church from persecuting :-
1. Micheal Servetus (1511 – 1553) – burned alive for wanting the Church to reformed.
2. Galileo (1564 – 1642) – on house arrest for saying the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way around (another “fact” not mentioned in the Bible).
And many more. You will not find anyone being presecuted by Hindus for saying similar thing. Matter a fact, quite the opposite happened.
Most of the persecution from the church were for political reasons, just so you know, not theological reasons. Galileo was best friends with the pope and a devote Christian, so why was he persecuted? He portrayed lower members of the clergy as uneducated idiots. People will often do things for secular reasons under the guise of religion.
Hey rain, those “mythologies” created the modern number and place value system including zero. It also made buttons, swimming pools, plumbing (thats right it was not the romans), plastic surgery (as a punishment), 3 major religions today (buddhism, jainism, and sikhism are all descended from hinduism), and two of the oldest languages on earth, one of which is still spoken today (tamil). Above all, these “mythologies” are what make up the oldest religion on the face of this planet. By the way, city and civilizations are closely tied. A city is an organized society of people working in a well-mannered fashion. Civilisation is just an extension of a city.
I disagree with the notion that Civilization is just an extension of a city. There are great number of Civilizations which did not even had walled cities or complex bartering system or large armies.
Creating cities depends on the environmental factors. You cannot create large cities in the middle of desert if there is no water supply to support the populations – which is why the major cities in Ancient Worlds created around major rivers like Nile, Eurates, Ganges and Yangtze. In Africa, people lived in nomadic style for generations, moving from one place to another in order to herd their animals and hunt/gather natural resources. Even the Badawins of the Desert lived nomadic life from one water hole to another, trading along the way.
Therefore existence of walled cities should not be a mark to indicate civilization. Civilization should be marked by its people’s ability to survive, adapt and produce new technologies and skillset.
No that’s not true . I reject Bible Theories prior to that there were ancient civilizations existed on the earth as per the historical records.
BHARAT is the oldest civilization by historical records to exist & probably may be the last one to exist as well on the earth system @ life business .
Gobi, the bible is not the reason people believe the world is only 6,000 years old. In fact in Genesis it talks about all the generations of man and the lifetimes of the men all add up to way more then than 6,000 years. An ill advised clergyman decided that the world couldn’t be more that roughly 5,000 years old. He was obviously wrong. You though are correct India is one of the oldest if not the oldest civilization. Your legends go back over 100,000 years and are probably more fact based than legend.
[quote] In fact in Genesis it talks about all the generations of man and the lifetimes of the men all add up to way more then than 6,000 years. [/quote]
Oh really? Did your Bible mentioned in detail when these “generations” of men were born, how long they lived and where they died for anyone in the Church to able to make such “accurate” calculation?
Did your Bible mentioned how long Adam and Eve lived on Eden (between the time the Earth was created to the point the couple was exiled)?
Oh, and before you ask whether Hinduism have such records – IT DOES. Between Ramayana epic and beginning of Mahabratha, it is recorded (by name) of Rama’s predecessors leading up to Rama’s birth and then (about twenty Solar Dynasty Kings as they were known) lineage down to Kuru Dynasty which lead to birth of Pandavas and Kauravas, It is too long or I could list it down.
These are all NEW clans, try something older like Lithuania (even their language is older than Sanskrit) they are about 85,000 years old. And all the Goddess societies between 1/2 million years bce – 65,000 bce
First of all be the honest about History and read the Indian system, culture, and history. when you will read it you will found that it is began from the god.
First off anything written by man is not the full truth and is twisted to the will and perception of it’s author, therefore no book whether religious or historical can prove any existence of God.
The vedas never mentioned a god. From what I understand they describe “people” coming from the sky.
In fact just about every single religion on earth describes “people” coming down from the sky to build the first city and thus civilization began…and with it came slavery and war along with all those other nasty things that came with civilization. We were much better off before.
Yes, 85,000 years ago when there were NO Homo Sapiens, that is when you say you had civilizations.
Man put down that pot and focus. I understand that you are not ignorant as you are reading and replying so why not grasp full Knowledge.
(P.S. first civilization was in India)
@Dr. Nathani, #Respect
Actually 250,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens already existed. By 80,000 years ago they have spread to most regions in the Planet except for colder regions of Antartica and Artic and the desert region.
80,000 yrs – the Super Volcano Mt. Toba in Sumatera had erupted causing a change in a global scale and number of population had dwindle to about a few thousands, mostly around Asia (India, Africa and South-East Asia). It is these people who spread across the globe and created the human population that exists today.
Where the earliest human bones are found which date backs to 21000 years BCE. It is not species found in dwarka but bones of human being. It is ancient country kangleipak in between eastern tract of India and western tract of Burma presently Myanmar.
Rama sethu is dated back 1,75,000 years ago and nasa claimed that it is a man made bridge and there is only one reference for this bridge which is in ramayana which happened before a long time.These western white people think they are superior but they don't know the indian civilization is the oldest civilization in the world.
Actually what we know as Western Civilization had only began around 1500s in Europe after a time period called the Dark Ages.
This “Renaissance Period” as it was known was accompanied by series progress made – especially with production of paper and books (technology which Marco Polo brought back from China in late 1200s) which allowed Westerners to copy knowledge from the Muslims, Indian and Chinese traders and made it into their own. This allowed them to travel around Africa to Goa, India in 1400s and then to Malacca by 1500s and finally reach China and Japan by 1600s – something that Indian and Chinese traders had been doing since 1st AD.
So the bottomline is – Western Civilization is an immature but arrogant kid who kept on claiming that they did it first, when all they did was copy what someone else had done.
Rama sethu is just a geological point where two lands are connected by a land bridge called Isthmus. Panama and Suez are two other examples. Ramayana is just a mythological story.
Please dont confuse geology with mythology!
There is always a grain of truth in all myths & legends. They should never be dismissed out of hand.
How many years was the city of Troy considered to be a myth before its ruins were discovered/identified?
Puma punku , defys modern age testing techniques so atleast 20,000 yrs old this is located in the new world highlands of Bolivia an ignorant fools ancient india has some of the oldest civilizations in the world there are two cities under the ocean off the west coast of india they obviously wernt built under water soo the last time that area was dryland was before the last ice age when modern historians say we were just emerging out of our cave dwellings there blind fools there is numerous ancient cities on every continent that out date sumerian civilization also parts of the ancient ruins at nazca peru an parts if the incan empire are all close to 12,000 yrs old not the 3500 yrs you would read in any hjstory book todayhistorians an scientists today will spend more time on disproving an discrediting these discoveries they looking at the hard facts an admitting the mainstream scientific community is completely oblivious
Harappa and mohanjadaro are Indian civilisation it related to early hindu civilisation.Pakistan was not existed that time and also their were no muslims in subcontinent. Islam came in subcontinent only 500 yrs ago.
Harappa is what they have full evident structures for, there were civilizations before that in India. Pakistan came into existence 68 yrs ago (u knew that) and Islam 1300 yrs ago (as I have read). So from Harrappa to long after Vedic Period, It was all Hindu.
There is no evidence for Indus Valley being “hindu”. All we know is that they had some script (which has not been deciphered). There seems to be a similarity between them and Sumerians was some interaction with Mesopotamia. Also they had a high priest . He bears resemblance to their priests as well.
First of all I would thank you a lot for such a good and very useful article. I was preparing some lessons for the general intellectual formation and needed something about civilisation and its ranking. It looked to me a foolish idea because one could never find so ready something that he is trying to find. It was really a surprise. I thank you so much for such a contribution.
Regardless the contention of which civilization is the oldest, each has contributed for the betterment & progress of mankind
C14 Carbon dating has proved conclusively that pre-Indus valley civilization with pottery, cities with drainage existed in Haryana at around 7500 BC. That makes it the oldest “civilization” (as opposed primitive humans making cave drawings).
Unbelievable youguys left out the African civilizations e.g,Ethiopia,Cush.
Older then all mentioned.
Didn’t leave out. Africa’s civilizations are smaller and its contribution to the World was overshadowed by the Egyptian civilizations which came after it. It is true that Old Egypt started further south (along the Blue Nile) toward Sudan and lower regions.
Today, not many could knows about the great Zulu Kingdom, the Bantu States, Bachwezi, Kongo or many other civilizations that exists with Egypt or after the fall of Egypt.
Thing here is, by the time Harappa and Mohendajaro was build, human civilzations in Indus valley have reach significant amount of progress. They were using metal tools, planned cities, water and land management as well as have proper government.
Matter a fact, archaeologists had found some 1,000 cities in Indus valley, with Harappa and Mohendajaro to be the biggest. And recent discoveries shows that traders from Indus Valley were trading on sea routes, all the way to Mesopotamia as Indus valley official signets and jewerly were found in tombs of people buried in Middle East.
These achievement cannot be made over night or within a few decades. Some of them could have taken hundreds of years to perfect. So, when did these Indus cities were created? How old are their civilization? How long did they last?
Comments are more informative than the article.
Thanku for your ignorance and ego people and knowledge too.
History doesnt matter people, whats your contribution to the society except this article. We all come from great civilizations about which we read in book and on google instead of hearing about it from our parents..i cant understand why cant we all progress and prosper and make some actual real contribution to the planet. We are calling twitter and facebook technological advancement and spending billions on then but they are just a waste of time. No actual real output. Being an indian i m proud of my history too but considering what is my contribution in the history of my country and where are we taking out country. We dont wanna be america or other european nations .it makes me sad sometimes..
Do a little research Gentlemen… Stuff was going down in Africa long before any of your civilisations were around. Dating in the Border Caves in South Africa put origins at 40 000 years ago. If you really are looking for the truth… its easy to find… unless you insist on remaining ignorant.
This post is about CIVILIZATION, again CIVILIZATION, NOT about earliest human activities. And reading this, I can understand that this is also about the OLDEST and GREATEST CIVILIZATION, meaning not just being earliest but also those which have contributed a lot to the modern world. So if you all insist that yours or the others are older, oh puhlease read the article again then come back giving what your ”older civilization” has greatly contributed.
Mouth watering well spoken they can all say they are this and that Africa is original and its where their ancestors came from and civilisation
Riwat (Rawat, Murree) is a Lower Paleolithic site in Punjab [INDIA], northern Pakistan, providing evidence of Homo occupation that is the earliest outside Africa, dating to 1.9 million years ago.
I think you have misunderstood the article. Here are some of the important aspect you should read and understand :-
Geneticists have scanned the genomes of 173 Armenians from Armenia and Lebanon and compared them with those of 78 other populations from around the world. [b]They found that the Armenians are a mix of ancient populations [/b] whose descendants now live in Sardinia, Central Asia and several other regions. This formative mixture occurred from 3000 to 2000 B.C., the geneticists calculated, coincident with Movses Khorenatsi’s date for the founding of Armenia.
After 1200 B.C., the Bronze Age civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean suddenly collapsed … No significant mixing with other peoples after that date can be detected in the genomes of living Armenians, the geneticists said.
So, summary here is that there were older civilization before the Armenians in Sardinia, Asia and several other regions who produced the group of people you call the Armenians and this “gene pool” stopped pouring in after the end of the Bronze Age 1200 BC. It does not prove that the Armenians were the first civilization or the oldest, merely a byproduct of several races or group of people.
The next stage in the advancement of human civilization will be all the different races and creeds debating respectably with each other.Sometimes agreeing to disagree in a calm and respectful manner ,and coping with our differences in culture etc .The greatest step forward for us as a diverse species is a handshake and conversation. Who cares who invented what/when?! The fact is one of us discovered/invented it! Appreciate our differences and Appreciate each other .
Most agree that the Sumerians were the VERY first to take the stage as the first Civilisation and then the Assyrians, Babylonians and other followed suite. The first Empire was the Akkadians though.
what about kingdom of Axum isn’t amazing and ancient that have their own writing alphabets and numbering
Put your afrocentricism somewhere else. Just because your afrocentric books, afrocentric history and afrocentric experts claim that your afrocentric civilization is the oldest doesn’t mean they are REALLY the OLDEST and GREATEST. Only the afrocentrist say that. We all know the only greatest civilization of Africa is Ancient Egypt and they are not even black. Just accept that your race didn’t start the advancement and didn’t contribute great improvements to the modern world.
What I understand is that this article is showing the OLDEST AND GREATEST civilization, and remind you, city and human activity is different from civilization.
And just because you read white history books and believe white scientists and historians doesn’t make their his-story of mankind true. People will do anything and everything to try to discredit darker human beings. All over the world people have been brainwashed to be racist towards people of color. I’m all for reading interesting articles but don’t try to put anyone down to make yourself look and feel superior. A lot of these modern civilizations stole to get what they needed and wanted anyway. Robbed and killed for it. Started wars and wreaked havoc all over the world.
So what! People of color were living peaceable all over the world until the white man showed up? No, they were killing each other just like the Europeans were! Modern civilization has brought about progress in every aspect of life that tribal society never could.
The library found in ninveh will make u think twice the people ur talking about exsisted but the sumerians is were advance mathamticas stems from the first writeing text the first divorce systems courts plans for maps astrolgy farming medicine and it is stil beeing used and it blows people away studing that library
Iranian lived in Mesopotamia.
NO dude! its not the Timeline of Ancient Mesopotamian civilization: c. 5000-3500 BC: its Indus Valley Civilization with perfect sewage and drainage system &hence it says INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION is the oldest one .(3300–1300 BC; mature period 2600–1900 BC, pre-Harappan cultures starting c.8000 BCE
yay! someone took an anthropology class. Kudos!
Deep History is non existent to most in this forum. Everything begins in the Neolithic….Yet, some Venus dolls are upto 50,000 years old….(Btw can you appreciate the craftsmanship) Anyway…
Although many in this forum claim not to be religious, their timelines, and core beliefs certainly coincide with those perpetuated by the same religious institutions you criticize. Deep history is real and will shatter most of your false beliefs. -yet most are afraid of it. (Anti-Afrocentrism) I wonder why?…
No, Iranians lived in the area of modern day Persia. At the time they were a tribe of people like any else.
Babylon is not the first civilization as you claimed. It was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city which dated back to 2300 BC and fell after the rule of King Hammurabi. It can hardly called the First Civilization.
Didn’t you guys read wikipedia,
It says INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION was established some close to 7600+ BCE.
Still you say, Mesopotamian Civilization is the oldest. -_-
Wake up kids, have some milk!
It’s a good thing that some of us use this to re-trace our ancestors or lineage, while others are struggling with regards to there’s being the first. Let’s say all your/our countries did contribute, how has it affected our lives and the lives of our future generations? Is it by cursing, insulting, degrading, abusing, or defaming one another? Or is it by showing good examples by living a godly lifestyle, training up our children in the way of the Lord, loving your neighbour and caring for one another? We are all God’s children, whether you are from India, Africa, Europe, North/South America, etc, and we will all pass on some day. What matters most is how we have lived our lives while we were alive. What positive or negative impact have you made to those around you? The sooner we start recognizing this, the better for us all.
Thank you for the post.
The Sphinx is over 10,000 + BCE and that is in Africa…must deal with the facts folks. There are tangible evidences all around us! The artifacts, the mummies, the statues, etc. It’s hard to dispute Africans contribution toward mankind!
It’s even harder to dispute ancient Egypt was not black. All you have to do is take a trip to the Cairo’s, British, French and German museums. While you are at it stop at Luxor and take a tour in all of the Temples along the Nile River. I guarantee that you will know for sure that the Ancient Egyptians were tremendous black people and very dark!!!
We should be grateful for we owe a lot to these Ancient Africans who left behind the blueprint of all that we have today that is meaningful. Do the research and leave skin color out of it; it will catapult your transformation effortlessly towards consciousness. Real talk…
Here’s someone who knows what is talking about. You all can be misguided by the ethnocentrist views perpetuated in your school curriculum, but the facts cannot be denied when they are plane clear. Africa is the womb of all civilization, and africans were the ones who spread acroos the world. If you actually do some research you will see the presence of africans around the globe. Every single continent had african (black people) living on it. You can paint it and argue about it, but it won’t change the fact that africans were the first civilizitionon this planet.
The Sphinx Is actually 4500 years old. Just to clarify
We should all be grateful for all the past civilizations. I, not sure we can prove anything. We ASSume too much to begin to build our theories on. We can’t see all the history currently under water, as the planet evolves into stages of life itself. We don’t know… what we don’t know‼️
This is a joke! Alexander the Great didn’t take power until 336 bc, 200 years later than this lame article states. Also, the Persians didn’t control any of Europe, much less most of it. I could of read this in a public school AP class. Pathetic read!
Thing is a lot of you are debating which civilization is “better”. That in itself is ignorant. It’s like arguing about which shade of the color blue is better or which butterfly is superior.
FACT. Archeologists continually change the dates of the oldest civilizations with each new find. I wouldn’t be surprised if fifty years from now we had discovered a new city that’s 15,000 years old. It’s a constant changing factor based on new discoveries. Instead of being biased based on your or someone else’s ethnicity, look at facts and then use those fact to prove your point.
Too much “ethnic pride” going on
so much ignorance unleashed in these comments.
Many Egyptians were black Africans. Based on current genomic studies, all human life first was grounded in Africa. However today’s truth is tomorrow’s misunderstanding. India is full of different kinds of old civilizations. There is some evidence they may be even older by an order of magnitude. The smartest folks admit how little they know.
My perspective is that we have yet to develop a civilization. Civilized people do not mess up the place they live or debase and kill each other.
I agree. Instead of everyone using their ethnicity history as a proxy for their superiority complex, how about we just compare notes and admit we all don’t know anything for certain. Leave your skin color and ethnic pride at the door and instead open your minds to real facts, not distorted ones.
very true, we are not certain where the first humans existed. however it is best to know that we are all humans best we could do is to improve our human qualities to live in peace and harmony.
Brian, you have made the most sense since I had the courage to read this thread. Only the facts matter! We were never there 4,000 or 5,000 years ago. There’s little point in speculating about it. Also, when we continue to promote our own uncertain and sometimes misguided views about something that we know nothing about then we muddy the waters. And then everyone becomes blind to any truth that we might glean from any sensible discussion. The blind cannot lead the blind. And by the way, the article has son many inaccuracies that I have decided to ignore it altogether. Remember, only the facts matter!
Many blessings to everyone.
The Adams Calender in Southern Africa has been dated over 250,000 yrs old a group of ppl wouldnt built something like that but a civilization would unless it was the so called Annunaki who created hunans to mind gold as the so called story goes.
Assyrian, Babylonian, Mesopotamian, Chaldeans etc. are all relatives with one another.
Being these people came up with the calendar and writing, and are still around, it is safe to go by what they say and go by in regards to the ancient times, since they were the only ones around, recording history. This year the Assyrians just celebrated the year 6750. Mind you, who knows how long after their existance, that the calendar even appeared. If a flood happened like the Bible says, then they are even much older than the calendar date. Before mocking me saying the Bible, the first recorded book ever written is the Epic of Gilgamesh and this also refers to global flood. In a short, I highly find it suspect by anyone else’s word for them to be an older civilization the them.
Everything that you wrote is 100% as factual as we know of history & archaeology! But one thing that you failed to mention….reading your post u seemed very proud….is that the people that live in the land today are not always the same people who named the land in antiquity! People migrate! Prime example, I’m pretty sure you’re no stranger to this quote….
“I can not respect the people who claim to be Jews today, because they left Israel black, and cane back white!”
The nations on Assariyia of antiquity you named them right but they were Africans! They descend from Ham!
Dear friends, please don’t quarrel. Does it really matter – which one is old and which is the oldest! Academic discourse and interactions are always good. At this stage and on this platform, our words – so to say ‘conduct’, really speaks how civilized we are. Well, it is individual responsibility: a whole country or nation should not suffer the blunt of our ignorance (regret to call it ‘knowledge’ for the way some of you reflect).
You made a mistake, the oldest civilization is the civilization of Berbers (Amazighi) in North Africa (Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Mali, Niger, Morrow, Mauritania).
The Maghreb or western North Africa on the whole is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers from at least 10,000 B.C. Northern African cave paintings, dating back twelve millennia, have been found in the Tassili n’Ajjer region of southern Algeria. Others were found in Tadrart Acacus in the Libyan desert. A Neolithic society, marked by domestication and subsistence agriculture, developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean region (the Maghreb) of northern Africa between 6000 B.C and 2000 B.C. This type of life, richly depicted in the Tassili n’Ajjer cave paintings of south-eastern Algeria, predominated in the Maghreb until the classical period. Prehistorical Tifinagh scripts were also found in the Oran region. During the pre-Roman era, several successive independent states (Massylii) existed before the king Masinissa unified the people of Numidia
Did you forget arata civilization???!!!
Yes .now arata is called the cradle of world.
Well,
I don’t care which civilization was oldest as I believe in today but to find the truth is great. I am from Afghanistan and our Bamian buth (Idol) is approx 5000 years old.
Important for me is how are we taking this world to our next generation who will be our grand grand children and how should we behave and help each others as humans.
I just want to know how far can I find my Afghan blood back ground and my far grand dads. I am pashtun. I could only find up to around 6000 years ago but still not sure as some may lied. I just want to find the truth from independent sources like yourselves if you can help me please. Thanks. D AHMADZAI
Hi Dawod,
Pashtun are most likely the the lost tribes of Israel. When the Assyrian conquered the Norther Kingdom of Israel, they deported its inhabitant to Afghanistan. Let me know if you require further evidence of this claim. Which Pastun tribe are you from?
The Pushtan belongs to a haplo group that migrated from India….many afgans fall under this haplo group
Sadiq,
You are correct.
They have had more recent studies show that The Pashtun share the genetic markers with the Jewish people. While Pashto, the language, is from the Eastern Iranian Group of the Indo-European language family, genetically, the Pashto people are closer to the Jewish people than Persians, Or any other of the Iranian “tribes” in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iran, or Northern India (Parsis).
Indus Valley civilisation is majority in Present day Pakistan (also in North Eastern Afghanistan, North west India, Eastern Iran). India was historically known as Bharat and was never unified, it was divided in 100s of kingdoms. why haven’t India excavated 1 ancient city yet? Pakistan is proven to have ancient history.
Indus Valley Civilisation originated around river Indus in present day Pakistan. Proud moment for us Pakistanis. BTW, The subcontinent was first united under Mauryan Empire 2200 years back.
Not true. The mauryan and gupta empires took up 90% of Bharat. Including pakistan and afghanistan. And ut wasnt 100s it was much less. It was only small kingdoms after the mogul invasions and vritish ones too. And the people in pakistan used to be indians, and so were the indus people
Did we forget to mention that none of what you speak is true, but we calculated DIAMETER of the earth when WEST was giving theory of Flat earth. And did we forget to tell you that the diameter of earth, the precise cause of eclipses, the revolution of sun, moon are all explicotyluly mentioned in our ‘religous books’. Or did we foregt to mention to you that in Hinduism our actual holy book never talk about one God over head, and the other gods of hinduism are merely representstion of nature, we still belive in one God. And did we mention that our ‘religoous books’ talks more about psychology and freudian topographical model of mind was already explained in our books. Problem is thay you people can never accept that some other civilization already had been doing something great before you started thumping your chest. Indian civilization statrted roughly around 5k,
Yrs (i am talking of the modern one, which you still see in India) we were protected from Invaders by our position, desert on one side, Himalayas on one side and Ocean on anothers, so we had time to settle down and think about science and since we never followed one book or one concept of a God, this was a society of seekers and not believers thats why we reached that height, oh but wait you never read this did you? May be you need to read the writings of Atheist historians of the west who were not weighed down by Bible.
Civilizations :
East , Central , Africa & West :
Eastern is the oldest civilization for example BHARAT Civilization they existed & survived for billions & millions of years ever since Earth
had life of the species ( For Ex : Human Species evolved naturally from mammals ).
Western civilizations ( For Ex : Americas Civilization ) are the baby ( Just 300+ years ), civilizations of the newest ones which also evolved naturally from the mammals as well ( For Ex : Dinosaurs which roamed @ Americas of the lands millions & millions of years ago ).
I don’t think all these civilizations & species will be history very similar like the human species predecessors ( For Ex : Dinosaurs ) with nuclear armageddon very similar like what happened to the Spatial Systems ( For Ex : Mars & Maritian civilizations : Wiped out by nuclear armageddon ).
The Sphinx of Giza is older than 3000BC, the Olmecs the God Father of all ancient civilizations of the Americas were omitted, Greece and Rome were the least homogenous of all civilizations; they invented the word “cut, copy, & paste” , the contributions of the Moors to Europe is omitted.
This article (as amateurish as it is) is about oldest Civilizations using our modern definition of such, not oldest settlement/village, oldest language, oldest clay tablets with things scratched on them etc..
If it was an article about “contributions to civilzation” you might have a point.
Something is unclear. If anyone study geography than you all should know that we were the part of one land ” Godvana Land” and then due to the tectonic plates we weee differentiated and developed our different civilization. We are still moving and I m damn sure after 5000 thousand years if we will exist than no land gonna this present shape which we all see in maps. We can discuss only upto now but I am waiting for new discoveries which will be never gonna end.
Something is unclear. If anyone study geography than you all should know that we were the part of one land ” Godvana Land” and then due to the tectonic plates we weee differentiated and developed our different civilization. We are still moving and I m damn sure after 5000 thousand years if we will exist than no land gonna this present shape which we all see in maps. We can discuss only upto now but I am waiting for new discoveries which will never come to halt.
I find this all very interesting. I was wondering at what time man began his struggle to control his world and those around him. Religion has certainly been used to control, and is now the major tool being fought over. Western civilization is certainly in control now and trying to hold on to that control. It manipulates the world and the people in ways seen and unseen. I don’t know about Hindu history. Have they killed and conquered to push their views? Do they suppress and reject other views? Right now we (Westerners) to create wars to create power and control. I’m not sure how radical Islam would be if we didn’t take a house for an eye. Before we wanted to control the region to control the oil…how radical were they? I honestly don’t know. All I know is that humans are lost. The places we look are often places others invent, or tell us to look. Love and respect seem to me two very good universal concepts. Being controlled by those hungry to retain power…and to increase power…to keep truth hidden. It’s just a shame. Great people have come into this world and spoke of Peace…and have been killed for it. Peace is an idea…but you need a map to get there. I don’t know much…but I know that the route is being hidden. Those in power don’t want anyone to find it. Sad is all…Peace in your life…it’s very hard when theirs not peace in all of our lives. We are all connected and part of something…and we can create so many wonderful things…but look what we do with them…sell them…use them wrongfully… Sad is all… We are capable of so much more…
It all hinges on your definition of civilization. There may have been many cultures, but no civilization yet. I would define “civilization” as a city state or city states with permanent buildings where the people are ordered into a coherent social system led by political or religious officials, all of whom live by a specific social or moral code, whether written or unwritten. By this definition, probably the Sumerian or Akkadian civilizations were the first, coming into being around 8000 B.C.E. Jericho in modern Israel may be the world’s oldest city, which may date back to 12,000 years ago, or 10,000 B.C.E. Early pyramids called ziggurats were recently unearthed in Egypt. These date back to 7,500 B.C.E. A bone flute was recently found in China that dates to about the same time, 7,500 B.C.E.
Dear Adikari,
Its interesting. If possible come down to Sri Lanka. Its a country with large number of historical monuments that speaks of very advanced ancient civilization.
I was in the process of writing a paper on ancient irrigation systems of Sri Lanka and accidentally came across your work.
According to information gathered by me so far, the aborigines who lived here have moved onto agriculture as far back as 20000 years.
The excavations done by the sri lankan archaeological department in the ancient city Anuradhapura has found ruins of a small city dating back to the period as far as 6000 to 8000 BC. It was opiniond that international trading had been taking place there. The man made water reservoirs net work that covered up the part of the island was a first in the world. Well please read the web site History of Sri Lanka and Significant world Events for 700,000 BC to 483 BC. It might definitly help you.
Regards.
Asoka Dias Weerasingha.
yes what you said is true, even blue whales the only available ancient species come to the shore of the Sri Lanka to breed, long long back Sri Lanka might have been on the top of earth but it might have gradually come down. Even we Indians respect Ravana of Sri Lanka to be a great philosopher and consider him to be one of Brahma, creator.
lol, all of you are really making people confused,.
lets just talk the fact, alright
the world is so big, and I believe there are many ancient civilization out there that are yet to discover, Indians , American or even Australian all surely have their old legend or history back then,. lets be clear, without evidence its mean that civilization is just a myth legend – no offence on this- but if u believe there do exist just like I believe, we need to find a real evidence, not just by reading one article and u say its the olders,.im talking about firm evidence that those mention civilization do exist, for example: those of you indian believe that Dwaraka city do exist? where is the ruin located? who are they? there must be evidence to proof that they existed, as you guy said they build temple and stuff, there must be some ruin hidden somewhere to prove this is real, so find the evidence and everyone around the world believe u, not being jealous here but just a lover to all the history and wont entertained people who talks about one ancient civilization but without hard evidence, Dwaraka might just be myth legend to me and might be real.
peace all
lets gather more evidence together
you should study more. alexander conquest of persia only disturbed the persian or ancient iran for only 2 century. persian civilization continued on under arsacid and sassanid dynasty.
Looks like you forgot about the Phoenician civilisation
No use of fighting ourshelves on proving which and whoose civilization is oldest or true ir great whatever.
But we all know fact can never be hide. it will find its way to appear oneday.
All we
know today about civilization is from scientific proof ,excavation , and scripture and fossils else.
just i want to day that science of today is not so mature that can privide us fact information about what lies on or inside earth .we all know science theories are changables. science have rediscovered only a few% what is in earth. yet more to be discovered . yet more civilization may come who knows . only god knows. so keep faith on god and see what happens next.
Hi Mukesh chauhan,
You are right to a fault. Yes, there is more than modern science and it has been proven by the translations of the Sumerian Clay Tablets, written in Cuneiform Language.
A great man, Zecharia Sitchin (decesed), started publishing these translation in 1976 with very controversial claims. In 1982, through Voyager 2, these translations were proven perfectly correct by corroborating Sitchin’s claim that Neptune and Uranus are WATERY planets, blueish green in colour. Our Astrologer until than had claimed them to be rocky, or gaseous. How did Sitchin know this?
Further, Sitchin’s claim of a 12th planet. Our Astrologers downgraded Pluto from its title as a planet recently! The Sumerians claim that there is a 12th planet called Nibiru, a Red Dwarf sun with its own planets, circling our Sun every 3600 years. Yesterday I heard the Canadian CBC News reporting that Astrologers had found that there must be another, they claim 9th planet out there, 10 times the size of Earth and circling our sun every 10 000 to 20 000 years. Well, they are half right again, aren’t they! The size might be right but the timespan is wrong.
If you look throughout History, mankind has had immense technical advances every 3600 years. Odd, isn’t it? It correlates with the emergence of Nibiru, doesn’t it. Thus, what you call God is really gods from outer space. We always venerate beings who help us and dominate us, the gods from Outer Space.
The real God who created all of us and our surroundings is within you only. The only evidence us humans have of him is ourselves and our surroundings. “He” or “It”, we don’t know does not watch, or guide us. It has been arranged so that we, everyone of us, is responsible for what happens and what we do. The so called God is not going to help us unless we help ourselves. Does that make sense to you?
We have been mislead Millennia ago to believe that these creatures, called Anunnaki, are gods but they where our creators and deceived us into believing them. They gave us only 4% of their DNA in the process of creating us, making us impotent compared to them and deceiving us into being their slaves.
Read the Books of Zecharia Sitchin and Michael Tellinger, they will open your eyes wider than you ever immagined. All that religious hocus pocus has been designed to suppress your mind and keep you being a slave! It is what makes up todays societies; and we call ourselves “developed”? Since god does not want you to, think out of the box and get a mind of your own. It just might surprise you!
Bravo@ “The real God who created all of us and our surroundings is within you only”
Everything else you say is merely speculative and sensational.
(nothing new or empirical)
Lemuria had been setting up best ancient cultural and human lived in humanity, but this time did not researched some place, in my ancient south and west india, the ‘kumarikandam’ is also know us but not proper handled this area, reason for multicultral languages and political unstability, the govt has not interested for this, the govt told that mahabharathm, ramayanam, but not researched, Tamil and sanskrit is keeping for best pronunciation and grammatical, scientific and medical, teached in humanity and logical and ethical factors but peoples like for business languages is learning for only self benefit
Without man’s writing, there would be no religious scriptures because like the Bible everything stems from the Sumerian Cuneiform texts and probably first through the verbal transmission. Open your eyes and smell the Roses, your theories are as brainwashed as anyone else’s in this stupid world. Absolute lies!! Not that the things written in these books are false, they are only about 10% of what really happened.
Before a list like this is published, they should note the criteria in which they are defining a Civilization. Trade, Diplomacy, government, currency, religion, arts, science/tech, laws, public works, schools, military, medicine, etc. They what they feel is the criteria for The Greatest Civilizations” Only after that, they can give their opinion on the matter.
“They”, whoever they are can voice their opinion anytime “they” chose! This is a “free” society and people like you (Barzn) scare me. As you can say tahat”they” are wrong, they can do wrong, as “they please.
there is so many conflicting opinions on the oldest civilizations. I would
like to know what or whom is the oldest civilization ever discovered. Through my research it seems to be Dwarka. Can someone give me information to the contrary? I know there have been possible farming communities that have dated some 60 to 70 thousand years. I would appreciate any help in this area.
I read your article’s dear friend, I am an Iranian culture and civilization of my country one of the oldest civilizations
Is that mankind has ever seen
The results are in Mesopotamia in Iraq that is today part of the culture and civilization of my country.
You better about Jiroft civilization of ancient cities and civilizations Iran Gilan research thanks
Who said the results in Mesopotamia to be part of Persian civilization, I doubt the opposite is true. I don’t care anyway however the facts still facts. Thanks to the honest researchers and historians as Iraq now is very weak and can speak and show their bright ancient picture.
My brother, the people of Iraq and Iran are very close and intertwined when it comes to history. There wasn’t even an Iraq before 1932. Go back even further and you realize that we were the same people separated by a language and a little solution of both our blood. So your history does not stop with Mesopotamia, but it also continues with your brothers and sisters in the Persian and Iranian culture. Don’t let the world continue to divide us.
Peace be with you.
There were no Iraq or any other countries on those days, After 500BC and Cyrus the great unite the Persian Plateau tribes to gether , Persian Empire created. The civilization In Persian Plateau (Include todays Iran, Iraq, Syria, some part of Turkey and Afghanistan) was the start of All time Modern Civilisation. No one can change the history.
It is part of the culture of Iraq where Mesopotamia, and all the great architecture of the sumerians exist.
how about Ethiopia…….you completely forgot nubia the ancient city of ethiopia
My sisters and brothers ! Stop this pissing contest, if you are a descendent of some ancient tribe that created great civilization, it doesn’t mean anything. Very poor ethics to inherit credits for something you personally didn’t do ! As for historical fact, when you discover, if you ever discover, you’ll be very surprised . My dear nerdy friends. Everything is a lie! Enjoy your journey , become a living God. Love is universal law, but to grasp it , become free first, I mean really free of everything , starting with stripping yourself off your national pride, lol, you understand it constitutes your absence, my best regards , love you all
Dear all,
I really worried that we all fighting with each others like who is superior among us.
Whatever might be the arguments regarding oldest civilisations, race, religion or any sort of divisions that we have with in us.
Throw out all these complexities and just think a while that we all are same (humans).
We all are the sons and daughters of this mother Earth. Only we created borders and territories between nations and not God nor our mother Earth.
Whether it is Africa or Europe or Asia or North America or South America or Australia, all these continents are been seen as diversity of land masses but in reality all comprises within this globe.
If there is a quarrel between siblings in a home they will fight with each other, but assume if there is a quarrel between their neighbours do we think that these two will keep fighting each other?
Absolutely no, they will become allies and now the fight will starts between their house and neighbouring house. The same concept will apply for street, area, province or state, then nation. Then????? Beyond to this point with whom do we fight yet?
If we get a life threat from aliens, do we still continue to fight among each other or else will take a remedial action to save our entire man kind along with other living creatures?
Life is very beautiful to love and live it but we all losing the same.
I believe whatever might be the number of religions that exist but all the religions preach us to live a harmonious life and to keep peace within us.
Last but not the least, just imagine what we all can able to do if a huge meteor strikes our mother Earth and costs all the lives. Who else will be left out to make quarrels?
Only we humans can make this Earth either a Heaven or a Hell.
I believe that I’ve not hurt anyone. If still there is a one or more been hurt, for them here is my sincere apologies.
Thanks & regards,
INDIAN (TAMIL)
Tamil, I like and appreciate what you have to say. I carry the same ideals. If you truly speak from the heart, no one has any right to judge.
This is all interesting; some of it funny, and some of it insulting. Anyway, here goes a curve ball to you all: The Mayan calendar (the long-count calendar – there are other shorter ones) covers a period of about 1,200 years of the modern, Gregorian calendar. In 2012 of these counts ended and a new one started. I have to check my records, but I believe this is the 3rd or 4th cycle that is being kept track of. So, if you do your math, you get a civilization of 3×1200 or 4×1200. How old is that??? Yet archeologists and historians only place the Mayan civilization about 1500BC; this has been changing over the years, one of the latest ones says about 3000BC.
Anyway, how long does it take for an educated person to realize that the phases of the moon repeat monthly? Does it take one month? Of course not, it takes quite a few months. Now, how long does it take to figure out the phases of the moon and the sun? Does it take one year? Of course not! Now, how long does it take to be aware and figure out a period of 1,200 years???
it was an awesome article but i want to say that new research shows that ancient Mesopotami is not the oldest any more ,now ُShahr-e-Sukhte (the burnt city) is known as the oldest one where is located in Iran
Minoan Crete deserves more than a mere mention under the heading for ancient Greece.
The oldest we know for now is Vinca culture and Starcevo… Old Arian European civilization that you hide from the all charts of this kind…
Wow! Great written shortened history thesis. Thank you for your trouble in doing so. I printed it out, so I can keep it in my bookshelf. This is a summary of very much studying and research. Well done. As for the fools (looking at the comments) who does not understand the word civilization in the context you try to depict it, I feel sorry.
This article is ridiculous, the civilization has 6 cradles: Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, North Chico and Mesoamerica. All other civilizations have come from any of these, Greece is a copy of the Phoenician, which is Canaan successor, in a correct list without white chauvinism she was not even in the top 20.
Even if you’re a white chauvinist , anciente Greeks are the mediterranea race, of “oliver skin”, they are very different from the Germanic/Nordic barbarians who lived in primitive and tribal way until destroy and steal the roman empire
What about the Armenian Civilization? Pay attention that first leather shoes (7500 y.o.) and first winery (6100 y.o.) were discovered in the caves of Armenian highlands.
So, given that the oldest winery is about 6100 years old, the people of that area must already have been highly organised, even ‘civilised’ to be able to maintain an industry that requires permanent settlement; which gives good credence to their culture.
Whatever, I raise my glass to them!
Agreed. Even the Armenians in modern day Iran are an old civilization in itself!
The Iranian people (many different cultures) is always mentioned without the true wealth of the culture and the contributions given to the world are always overlooked, unfortunately, the Armenians hey it way worse. Armenians are an ancient civilization, with an ancient language and culture. They were the first country/civilization to accept Christianity, which people tend to forget is ancient as well.
Just because some people choose to misinform and try to erase a people, doesn’t mean they do not exist. This is part of the reason Armenia has the highest literacy rate on the world – fact. This is so that the world may forget, but not the Armenian people.
I grew up with a lot of Parskahye. Armenians are a proud and honorable people that have maintained their culture throughout the Armenian diaspora.
Take care my brother.
Really?
Still claiming that Mesopotamia was the first?
(Not to mention how preposterous it is to claim understanding of Egyptian history; since no one truly does)
Let’s go about 7 or 8 thousand years earlier..
Two words:
Gobekli Tepe
______
Everything on this article is said so matter-of-fact’ly
When in reality:
This is all purely speculation.
We should, as a human race, at the very least acknowledge that we don’t KNOW hardly anything, and that a massive portion of taught history is pure speculation & educated guess-work.
We should call it how it really is: Guess Work;
instead of pretending that we know everything about everything definitively
Shame shame shame.. it’s stuff like this that dumbstruck down, and slows down, the evolution & expansion of human knowledge and understanding of our reality.
Come on, let’s get real.
It’s better to call it a hypothesis than just guess work, for the simple fact that history has been put back together through heavy research….most civilizations that began to write recorded there history and when archaeologists go to these said places that’s been written about the things that they dig up lines up with the history that has been written most of the time….history has became more of a lie once the renaissance and the colonization periods came about….a lot of deceitful tactics for power came into during this time period….recorded history is accurate to the point that….during the dark ages Europe pretty much lost a lot of their culture and the land mass was recivilized when the Moors reached Europe…the Moors (most scholars believe Arabian origins because many were Mohammedans) were in fact the custodians of Greek culture and retaught Greece their history….look these things up!
You forgot about The Cucuteni culture:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucuteni-Trypillian_culture
a bit older older than sumerian
I don’t know who did the article and with what knowledge but Greece IS one of the oldest civilizations. They should not start the article saying that we are not. Its an insult. And the most important actually. If there were not Greeks and everything they accomplished people wouldnt be where they are now and we wouldn’t have this conversation here. Because even words all around the world vocabulary are based in greek. History(ιστορία-istoria) knows better.
Greeks learned mathematics arts & sciences from ancient Egyptians and other Mesopotamian cultures…do better research
What about the kushite civilization in Africa, particularly Sudan? How come it isn’t mentioned here when it is one of the oldest civilizations and is even older than the Egyptian civilization.
I am proud because I of the oldest civilizations of the world (Iraq) .. We invented wars and agriculture laws, human rights and animal invention of writing .. .. if you want to see the history of mankind .. Come to Iraq is not afraid of the security situation is bad .. because of natural oldest civilization will fight by the States
Old and great, Iran is. Some of the arguments made here are needless and based on need for pride. Civilization is born when it takes over living, evolving culture. It becomes monolithic, bureaucratic in one way or the other, and static in its arts. I like all old cultures, the stirrings of tribal cultures, which probably were the very first and most important way of survival. I treasure languages, as they are a trove of a people’s accumulated experiences. Who knows definitively the first civilization? For sure, there were many great cultures, and in many ways they are more interesting. To me, it is important that people belong to a culture, a language, a nation, and before that, a tribe, clan and family. There are many unknown things. In some parts of the world the climate and/or customs helped preserve the remains of human activity better than at other climates and their conditions. All reminders of progenitors, or very early ancestors are moving, as are remnants of their culture or civilization. We are all related to some extent, all people, and as people, as carriers of life, with all other living things. Some things may have developed earlier, but as in all endeavours, be it philosophy, science, art, mathematics, everything is built on the shoulders of those who came before. So we should not think that we are so much more intelligent than people at other times or consider ourselves so much more advanced. In many ways we may lag behind earlier peoples or ways of apprehending the world. Vying for credit as to who started this or that first in a way is pointless, unless it is a historical record. We can say the first organic elements, or the single-celled organism started first. What is very interesting how many elements of stories of origins, or sacred stories, circulate among peoples in one way or another. Did God write sacred books? Some people takes certain sacred books as written by God himself. I say that people, inspired, and with sudden insight, wrote under that apprehension which must have been almost like something had taken hold of them and dictated what they were writing. In this way, it is spiritual, and if God, whatever the form or type of being, can be said to be anything beyond all powerful and of infinite existence, then surely God is a spiritual being. I am not a scholar, but have always been interested in the intersections between so called pagan religions, myths, and more formalized religions. Usually, there are seeds of truth to myths, and in total, everything is a way of reaching for that one undefined power and source of creativity. Of things that have given me a faith, whatever the circumstances, it is like certain words that reach the heart, the pain and suffering in life, the inexpressible depth of love, the wonder of the night sky, the Sufi devotional songs, and on seeing death take life away, the sense that this sudden lack of relation with anything and everything can’t be all, that relatedness is at the core of life itself. (This is written as I have read a few pages here and there, and there is no thought out theory or program in my words.)
The oldest civilization in the world founded in Iran , kerman province , jiroft city . The jiroft civilization belongs to 5000 B.C
Try to find “CUCUTENI” or from where come simmerian civilisation . BTW: “culture”(living;art;construction;scients;education;ocupation;organization) means civilization today vs what you thinking was “culture” (agriculture;living;hunting;art;construction) in 7000BC ?
First static place was a future”culture”, first hole builded/habitated on eart was a civilization for that time !!!
The first and the mother of all is much more oldest then 5000BC!
hi
thank you for article
some tips are importance
1. oldest culture is shahre sukhte (In east of iran) culture .(first animation is for this culture)
2. Mesopotamia is active in persian land and it has not related Arabic culture specially in that time. (Zagrose is name of mountain in iran)
the most ancient civilization of all are the dwellers that dwells beneath and within each person. And you can feel it and that is el odio. el perra n la muerte.
Did everyone knew that before Persia was civilized the firs person to colonize that area was Peni Kapua Gliber Don Haqer Mitch.
What your text shows is your lack of information about Iranian history. Iran’s civilization is much older than That’s all. So that civilization in every corner of this vast land is older than the other. Do it about The city is burned, do you know anything? Or about Jiroft’s civilization? In my opinion, when one can only understand the civilization of Iran, As much as understanding the entire civilizations you named. The positive impact of any Iranian ruling dynasty on Iran Human progress has not been found in any civilization. There is something in the other civilizations of some kind of selfishness. Let’s see Iran better …
“Sadeq”
Okay….working the night shift and it’s a ghost town…I read pretty much all of these comments and even replied to a few! We are so ignorant by the disrespect towards each other, and the national pride in these comments are crazy and half of the biggest egos in the comment section can’t even define their own origins! Smh….to set the record straight about one thing! Summerian writings, their own records say they migrated from Africa….Egyptian records say they migrated from more interior of Africa….the Middle East is a man made word by white supremacist for the simple fact that the Middle East sits on the African tatonic plates and white supremacist did not want to state the fact that the “holy cities” are in Africa! It wasn’t til recent history that white supremacist finally admit that the ancient Egyptians were black! Why? Because the holy cities had close ties with ancient Egypt and that’s a clear confession the the people of god were black! And white supremacy will do anything, still to this day, to try to cover up that confession…..Africans travelled the world while most other nations were just jumping off the front porch! IM NOT AFRICAN BY THE WAY! I’m just giving props where props is due! The olmecs were the first advanced civilizations in the americas and they have African origins! The phonecians Canaanite Babylonian assyriasns all descend from Ham! They were Africans! Look into these things for yourself and you will see that I do not exaggerate not one time
Reese you are really showing your ignorance with this comment:
“the Middle East is a man made word by white supremacist for the simple fact that the Middle East sits on the African tatonic plates…”
The entire continent of Africa sits on the African plate and Arabia, sits on its own plate called the Arabian plate. Arabia is geographically Asia. What we call the Middle East today encompasses parts of Western Asian (Arabia, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, etc) and Northern Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria). Not only do you not understand how to spell “tectonic” you also don’t know the basic plate configuration which can easily be found with a Google search. Stop talking about things you don’t comprehend, yourself.
Göbekli Tepe over 10000bc years old. how old is this site there is evidence of civilizations all over the world dating much older than all of this and they are lying to you about the pyramids the base they sit on was there well before them. this is mostly because of religious belief and the powers that be hiding the truth. the facts are now showing us that 12800bc is the main consensus of a global cataclysm via an asteroid wiping out most of us and causing a world wide flood buring most of our civilisation under the sea. the sphinx has water damage from rain fall over thousands of years so could be even older that 26000bc as it is in alignment with leo etc. there is so much we don’t know and we will just keep finding things that will change things constantly.
I do not believe that the Turkish are older than the ancient Greeks, that is what i have been told. Thank you for giving me a lesson about the oldest civilizations ever existed.
Hi Guys,
I don’t really know what the definition of civilization includes but is this not considered a finding of a civilized population?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_Necropolis
Now, looking at this burial apparently they had hierarchy, as this seems to be the grave of some ruler or a noble.
Also ,considering that the gold was made around 6500 years ago, the city they populated and buried this person into is even older…It actually predates the Mesopotamian civilization with at least a thousand years.
It could be, or at least tied to the oldest civilization, but that’s a relatively new find compared to other sites and needs far more objective study. The problem is that Gobelki Tepe wasn’t a city, and the purpose of building it then burying the entire thing, and even which civilization is responsible for building it are unknown or still being debated. More archaeologists from all over the world need to get that one solved..or at least get further along. The problem is that such things take lots of funding, and unless Turkey allows it to become a tourist attraction (the worst of bad ideas) the site itself only takes money without giving back, at least right away..a common problem in archaeology and anthropology.
Sumer is a area of the Mesopotamia Region.
Tamil civilization is most oldest civilization than others.
I think he didn’t Read About Tamil Civilization.
The Indus Valley civilizations are not the oldest….India was populated through the Aryan migration! India’s historians say that this is the opposite (Indus Valley civs became the Aryans) for political reasons! They say it’s the opposite because the Indo-European language groups also claim Aryan origins so Indian historians say they were proto-aryans for the sake of national origins over Europeans
Human civilization should not be classified as we have done in our attempt to know different ancient tribes who lived in a compact area. We have mismanaged the ancient world in such a gigantic way that scholars not in a position to reshape their attitude. It is our ignorance only that shapes our ideas on ancient civilization, on origin of life and on alll aspects of human knowledge.
My only suggestion is to refer to Ptolemy’s Map of the inhabited world known as Jambudvipa Map. That will give us some idea on our foolishness.
There are 4 known Civilization of the world. 1st is Eyptian, 2nd Mesopotamia, 3rd is Indus valley and 4th is Chinese Civilization. This dates back to stone and bronze age. My passion to know from everything from the Day earth and sun rose up mountains got settle down, sea cover up the face of earth till Day of Judgement arrives. whenever people got lost time to time God sent down his Prophet to Guide them. Till now Billion of lives came and departed and more to come and depart. Take care You all wonderful people around.
It is known and proven that there were civilizations in the Americas to. There is some evidence pointing towards the Americas being inhabited for over 40,000 years now, if not even longer than we can imagine. They found out footprints left in the White Sands of New Mexico are around 30,000 years old. On Perú there is great evidence of actual civilization being as old as any civilization in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and any where else (maybe older than what some may want to believe as well).
Kudos to the author of the blog in sharing his enthusiasm on human history. Interesting comments too lol Fact is there is only one civilization, the Human Civilization. While it is human nature to believe only what can be seen – evidence? , logically we are all from the same source. Evidence shows humans or human-like creatures existed before written history. What i can conclude from written history is just one thing man trying to outwit one another by all means. Time to write our history for the future generation – how to live in harmony with one another and mother nature
One of the major problems of defining our true origins is the separation we have thrust upon ourselves. Everybody’s religion, colour, culture, god is better than everybody else’s and everyone else is wrong. We have an abundance of creation stories from all corners of the earth. creation stories that share striking similarities to each other. however these stories have been twisted and moulded and embellished and presented as myth, as forklore. yet it is these myths and folklores have been passed down through oration or carved in stone by humans who had advanced knowledge. I personally feel that a creator exists but I do not adhere or following a religion as I feel that man has created that and not the creator. if we look back through ancient history we can find proof, physical proof of how we were created yet people struggle to find hard evidence to validate a religion. struggle, not impossible. So if we put our heads together by removing barriers and actually working as the one race that we are. imagine what we could discover. imagine the questions we could answer instead of letting our pride and indoctrinated ego do the talking.
Enough of this Civilization war!
Life,as we were taught in school, originated in oceans and other large water bodies and after several billions of years later the current species of humans (the Homo-erectus) evolved. Wouldn’t it be foolhardy to postulate that The first humans evolved in such and such a place? I’m no anthropologist or historian to invalidate such claims but it is reasonable to put forth the premise that human beings evolved in every habitable adaptations on the surface of earth.
Being an Indian, I may take pride in claiming that ours is the oldest known civilization but alas that could be further away from the truth! I shall not make this foolish statement. There must be other civilizations unbeknownst to the historians of the yore which may have not been discovered hitherto.
The civilizations listed by this author are the ones that have recorded evidences based on current day Carbon-14 dating technology. There may be many more civilizations that may be lying buried under several layers under the surface of the earth.
What about the scarcely inhabitable places like the Urals, Mainland Australia etc? I can’t possible imagine what these places might have looked like before the plate tectonics split the land masses and drifted them apart.
Kemet.
documented pre history dating well before the Civil arrived and Land Ethics became a religion. We are Humans Being and have for well over 100,000 cycles full story is was and always will BE if you choose to read.
information disclosed.
Kemet
Wow, the article was interesting but the banter was more so. What came across was the strike-in-your-face jingoism about how my civilization is greater than yours. My language is the oldest and the greatest and so on. It is nice to know of history but in no way is the former glory going to rub off on its present crusaders. Let us learn and rejoice from what we learn about each civilization. And let us remember to cast away any emotion when it comes to language. Language, old or new is but a tool for communication. The oldest surviving language is not the oldest language. Many have perished because of lack of speakers. On an idealistic note, I hope the present world can become as border-less as it was during the ancient civilizations.
I couldn’t agree more with you. You have put it perfectly!
Also, what is known as fact at this time is different from what was know just a week ago. Our understanding of History is ever changing, and ever evolving. Which is wonderful.
I appreciate your response because, you advocate for peaceful living amongst one another. I hope to see open boarders in my day. I hope before my time is up here I get to see us look at each other as brothers and sisters, and come to understand that not one is [ever] greater than the other.
LZ
What about Ethiopian civiliazation? Like Yeha and Axum civiliazation
Nice article. Why do we need to know that?
Somewhere the civilization started in this part of world and spread across and came to this day. Let’s live what we got and die.. It can’t be changed.. We all die.. The rulers, kings and legends were dead as so as we… Actual truth is no one knows.. so stop questioning and quarreling. And one more actual truth is i wasted time to reply this, so as to teach some sense..
Good effort. Still I think u have missed to mention Mehrgarh Civilization , was about 7000 BC.
This a bit inaccurate.
For instance, Chinese Civilization of the Yellow river came before the Mayans.
Chico Norte (or North Chico, whichever you prefer) of the Fortaleza, Pativilca, and Supe rivers came before the Mayans as well.
As you can see, earliest civilization started on rivers.
The Great Flood or Deluge was not only in Sumer writing and Bible, Lord Vishu in Vedic scriptures reincarnated into Matsya, The Fish reincarnation to drive the Great Ark of the current survivors of that civilisation. Many Vedic Knowledge coinsides with the natural scientific discoveries or redivories of modern time. PS: Im not an Indian nationality, Im south east asian.
As i learned some languages, i now understand more about where we came from and some other interesting things.
There is one very old book which American and English people try to “DECODE”, but what i found that the language is not dead yet, it jus t evolved a lit, and i can reed that book easy. So its anciant book which some people stil can read in nowday language.
I came from country, where we speak what you call SANSKRIT, but Sanskrit is our old alfabet only, and not a language. We speek advansed sanskrit as we changed alfabet around 4000 years a go, we evolved. We can understand easy old sanskrit, its like removing some nowday gramer from my mother language. But who speek sanskrit- cant understand much from our nowday language, as we set up much rools for corecting gramer.
I am not from India, and i came from near Baltic Sea. There is no family of our Nation with Indus and nowday Sanskrit users, exept “ewolved” sanskrit alfabet of our brother coutrys. They use “evolved sanskrit” now day, it is not paitings anymore, now its real writing, as much as it posible. Stil writing in ADVANSED SANSKRIT is close to painting :)
Ever interesting, You have tried to covered number of arrears But how can we believe this some are very complicated and different from the others which I have red and heard.
Hi.
Everyone fights for which civilization is the oldest, but it’s a fact that the oldest one is the Thracian – 6500 BC. And I mean it – CIVILIZATION. Not some human like tribes that existed. The oldest ever existed crafted gold was made by them too, which was found in Varna, Bulgaria (Europe), and which is that old. The civilization is much much older. By that time none of those you mentioned existed. So…. go and read more. \\//
What about keeladi its 300 bc there’s a whole town over there building’s with proper drainage system
wow the fact that so many ppl are here giving opinions made my day I’m happy that I’m not the only one that is dying to explore the unknown of the past, hope I understand the truth before my journey is over.
The real Egypt as well as Sudan ancient are black Nubian ,they’re still found along the northern Egyptian nile valley and Northern Sudanese nile valley.
Egypt was under the rule Kingdom of kush for over a 100 years.
The twenty-fifth dynasty
Please go Wikipedia and search for kushit umpire
The ancient Egypt (Nubian being 20%) the 80% of modern Egyptian are d the escendant of roman and Arabs invaders they’ve nothing to do with Egyptian history.
All evidences proofed that pharaohs are black Nubian including the dna which means the giant pyramids of Egypt you can see today were built by Nubian.
Egypt history is twisted after the collapse of the kush Kingdom
There are other old civilizations not listed here.
The Sumerian Civilization (5000 BCE to 1750 BCE) existed at the same time as the Indus Valley/ Harrapan Civlization (5000 BCE to 1500 BCE). The Assyrians
emerged in 2500 BCE and lasted until 612 BCE.
The Minoans (2000 BCE to 1450 BCE), the Amorites (2000 BCE to 1600 BCE), and the Mycenaean (1900 BCE to 1100 BCE) all existed before the emergence of the Mayans (Accepted by most historians to have existed from around 1800 BCE to 900 CE).
The Gandhara Civilization (1500 BCE to 500 CE), The Phoenicians (1500 BCE to 300 BCE), the Celts (1400 BCE to 4 CE), The Olmec (1200 BCE to 400 BCE), The Vikings (1,100 BCE to 1066 CE), The Kushnite (1069 BCE to 350 CE), The Kingdom of Judah (934 BCE to 586 BCE), and Carthage (800 BCE to 146 BCE) all existed before the founding of the CITY of Rome in 753 BCE.
In addition, Mesopotamia is not considered a single civilization. It refers to the area where some of the first civilizations arose, and is usually associated with the Sumer, Assyrians, and Babylonians.
The 10 oldest civilizations (that I can recall) are thus:
1. Indus Valley (5000 BCE to 1500 BCE) and Sumer (5000 BCE to 1750 BCE)
2. Cycladic Civilization (3200 BCE to 1300 BCE) and Unified Ancient Egyptian (3200 BCE to 1,100 BCE) *note upper and lower Egypt existed prior to this)
3. Elamite / Susiana Civilization (2700 BCE to 539 BCE
4. Assyrian (2,500 BCE to 612 BCE)
5. Hatti (2350 BCE to 630 BCE)
6. Minoan (2200 BCE to 1450 BCE)
7. Amorite (2000 BCE to 1600 BCE)
8. Mycenaean (1900 BCE to 1100 BCE)
9. Mayan (1800 BCE to 900 CE)
10. Gandhara (1500 BCE to 500 CE)
There seems to be many inaccuracies, misinformation, and omitted information in your article.
While I appreciate anyone learning, reading, and writing about history, there is a lot to be said for bias within those same readings and writings. Not just you, a lot of people that write about history do the same. This is not meant as an insult, but merely an observation of what so many people have been taught and are now missing.
For example, “Major Highlight” that the Persians gave to the world was “the Royal Road (Silk road to some).” Really? Uhm….I don’t know, maybe Algebra might be a contribution? How about pants? Do you like wearing pants? Thank the Parthians for that one. Have you read some of the writings on Cyrus the Great’s cylinder? It contained laws that we have only recently been “granted.” Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to protest your “government,” to name a few. Stating the Persian empire was only a couple hundred years old? Man o man….that one made me smile, just like the Armenians are conveniently “forgotten,” The Iranian people, and I mean all the Iranian people (Persians, Kurds, Lors, Laks, and many more), are always “forgotten” along with the many achievements that we enjoy even in modern day. There are far too many misrepresentations in this article to name, of course I mention the ones that hit closer to home, but you should definitely read a bit more, or at least update what you’ve learned, or maybe even write without bias, if that’s the case.
There have been many more civilized cultures that have been discovered that are far older and not mentioned here….Aborigines, the people of Göbekli Tepe, and lets not forget the mother of us all, Africa. There are sedentary civilizations that are far older than all mentioned on this list. They might not be on the grand scale of the empires and civilizations mentioned here, but they exist(ed) regardless.
A lot of cultures are either misrepresented, misnamed, forgotten, or outright intentionally not mentioned in many “lists.” That’s something that the Iranian culture faces quite often in more recent days….you even did it….Zagros? What about the Aratta civilization? Jiroft? Which, by the way, might actually be Aratta. Aratta is so old that it’s even considered old and even mythological to the Sumerians. I also assume you’ve heard of the Hebrews? They fought a bloody war with another major civilizations not mentioned in your article, the Assyrians. Another couple amazing cultures you failed, or chose not to mention.
If you mean to comprise a list of the oldest civilizations, by all means, please do. I’d love to read it. But sometimes, you might have to include things you don’t want to include, or maybe not even like. If that were the case, than this article should not be named “The 10 Oldest Ancient Civilizations That Have Ever Existed,” it should be renamed as “The 10 ancient civilizations I chose to write about.”
There is a lot that I have not added in my reply, and of course, not just about my ancestors, but my main point in all this is to bring about an honest look at our history, by our I mean all of humanity. It’s always disheartening and painful for a people to be completely disregarded, dismisses, and disappeared. Erasing ones history is not even murder, it’s a Thano’s snap….sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
I appreciate the time you took in creating this list. The comments alone are a work of art!
Good thoughts, Good words, Good Deeds….Good education should be added to that.
I bid you a fond farewell.
Lepenki Vir and Vinca (Serbia) civilisations were booming in 7000 BC . Also known as the oldest civilisation i the world.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepenski_Vir
The Cycladic people were not a full civilization. They did not have a centralized organized government nor did they have writing. Also, your dates for the Indus Valley and Sumerian civilizations are way off. The consensus is as follows:
1. Sumer
2. Egypt (though it depends on if you define civilization as with writing or not. If so, Sumer is first; if by centralized government, Egypt is first).
3. India
4. China
5. Minoan
Regarding the Americas, we are only recently discovering more information about these cultures. How ‘civilized’ they were is debated, but by far the only serious contender to the Old World River Valley Cultures is the Caral civilization in Peru. None of the others are nearly as old.
Ok… So what about the Cucuteni-Tripolie Culture that dates 5200-3500 BC. ???
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucuteni%E2%80%93Trypillia_culture
I think I have some information that all posters will agree on. The Shulaveri-Shomu culture is the first civilization of importance. Because – The earliest evidence of domesticated grapes in the world has been found in the general “Shulaveri area”, near the site of Shulaveri gora, in Marneuli Municipality, in southeastern Republic of Georgia. Specifically, the most recent evidence comes from Gadachrili gora, near the village of Imiri in the same region; carbon-dating points to the date of about 6000 BC.
This is the civilization that is credited as the first wine makers. The most significant contribution to human kind. :)
Hey great list, but people in the comments are incredibly biased or misunderstood. Just feel the need to say to address common points.
Firstly, it does not matter where the original cradle of civilization is. Truth is we do not actually know. The dates are just estimates, and tools like carbon dating are very inconsistent.
Aboriginals area very old, recently shown to be 80,000 years plus. I have studied the culture in Sydney extensively. But I honestly you can not class them in the same ‘civilization’ category as the rest of the list. They are the oldest surviving culture, relatively unchanged up until couple hundred years ago. But there are many indigenous tribes in Africa and throughout the world just as old. The ‘four cradles of civilizations’ were once tribesmen, with thousands of years of agriculture development and the dates above do not account for that.
Examples of civilizations most people giving are of that, including toys, buildings, utilities, idols but do not have the consistency as the top three in this list. Aboriginals ‘walked’ to Australia through a connective landmass of southeast Asia, which is now underwater (rising sea level nearing the end of the ice-age), so you can imagine the lost pockets of human activity there. It is also important to note, aboriginals were the first out of Africa migration, or correctly the only surviving one, as humans were largely wiped out (middle east/ India subcontinent, East Asia to a fraction of the population by an unknown event – and so ‘rebooted’ out of Africa migration for several thousands of years. So if you put aboriginal in the ‘civilization’ categories, there would also be an incalculable number of ‘civilizations’ from the ancestors of aboriginals, and by extension the successors of Africans.
There is no point using religion in your argument, especially to contradict a scientific claim. Yes, Indus valley is probably most unknown out of the top three but does not mean it is the oldest. Agriculture/buildings etc evidence does not initiate the civilization period, but only with consistency and extensive, accumulative evidence.
Tectonic plates movement is irrelevant here, Pangea existed 175 million years ago.
Sanskrit/Dravidian languages are not the mother language for all Indo-European languages (albeit thought during the 1900s) but surpassed by lost a lost Indo-European language around the black sea (Armenia, turkey, etc.) that with migration gave rise to Indo-Dravidian languages to the east as well as Latin and other European languages. Middle-eastern, Mesoamerican and Chinese languages were constructed independently.
Ancient Egypt was not all black, as would Afrocentrist would say. Geneticists found gene variation from mummies to modern day Egyptian remained relatively unchanged despite Arab, Levant, European migration. North Africans (Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt etc.) remain genetically distinct from Arabs. Hieroglyphics do show individuals of black skin colour but was differentiated as Nubian, whilst they showed themselves copper-skinned, and Nubians only part of Egypt under Ramses to a more multicultural society. Yes Egypt is in Africa, but the majority of black skinned people remained largely sub-Saharan – to the south and west.
They had found that deviation from African genes were around 80,000 or older, a similar time to out of Africa migration. It is thought they migrated through Horn of Africa and Yemen. Mixing with Neanderthals (1-4% found in Eurasian), and with a colder climate, not as much melanin was needed. Most prominent theory suggests Ancient Egypt has been heavily influenced by the middle east, with many Mesopotamian parallels
My last point is, the competition most commenters are arguing whose ancestors were older and thus ‘smarter’. None were smarter than the other and these are all circumstantial. Northern Eurasia was still within the recent Ice-age, so even having a prominent culture with languages and religion, they were not as comparable to most in the above list. Most favorable lands were the fertile Egypt/Middle East, Indus valley, etc around rivers. I would expect the aboriginals had no need to rage war due to the untouched abundance of resources of Australia, shortage of no space nor food. War is a common catalyst in the advancement of technology.
I thought it was interesting someone had mentioned Gobekli Tepe, as it is in a similar location to the Indo-Eurasian mother language. Honestly, I think there are much older ‘civilizations’ as every new find just surpasses the previous in terms of age. The very information I put could be outdated or invalidated in the near future.
Hello, all, Thank you for everyone’s comments, I have learned a lot. I am confused about why people keep talking so much about archeology as proof. It seems to me that DNA and genetics would be better proof because it is more easily dateable and easier to find old examples. In the Americas, an international team of scientists was given permission to do genome-wide analyses on 49 ancient people whose remains were unearthed in the following Central and South American countries: Belize, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. The oldest of these people lived about 11,000 years ago, the DNA associated with the North American Clovis culture, but only between about 11,000 to 9,000 years ago (when it was replaced) (https://www.livescience.com/64048-ancient-dna-first-americas.html). But I’m from the Americas and realize from these conversations that, of course, there is a lot more DNA/genome evidence from other cultures/civilizations from other continents that are much older. Can anyone speak to these? Thank you for the brilliant, civil and fascinating comments from everyone.
Dawn,
A civilization is more than just a group of people living in the same area. Sure, there were humans in the Americas long before the Mayan civilization, but they were hunter/gatherers. A civilization is a group of people living together UTILIZING domestication of animals and agriculture, thus increasing population size and diversifying the economy. Societies and civilizations are different things.
Not in your top 10 sadly but an amazing civilization the Norte Chico people of Peru and especially the Pyramid complex of Caral built from 2600 BC. Visited last year when we did Peru, plenty of civilizations in Peru before the Inca’s.
You are totally right with this commment, David. In fact, the Caral – Supe civilization is not only older than the Incas but also is the oldest civilization in the whole Americas, given that some of the archeological remains are dated around 3000 years BC.
I expected all the lunatics to show up here with every bush-country temper-tantrum. Where is the one representing “Native American’s” It was the great spirit, they say, in some areas turned a mountain into a man, or woman, or whatever! LOL Most people here are not getting the point. DEFINITION of Civilization is not the same as “Genetic Study”, or even hunter-gatherers. Chimps have something like 80% of the SAME genetic code we do. THEY OCCUPY their lands, right? They have SOCIAL HIERARCHY! So do lions, Tigers, Rodents! These are all “animals”, but then again SO ARE WE (Some of you more than others!) What makes the difference, is what we DEFINE ourselves. To set us apart from most other animals, we are talking about humanoid-made cities, and evidence of RAPIDLY increasing technology. Chimps can hit each other with sticks, “Weapons” and even KILL that way. That is technology, and War, between TRIBES, but not enough for us to consider CIVILIZATION. You people from third world, or religious groups that want to support your 3rd world legends that go back to TRIBAL and or ANIMAL history, need to lighten up. Nobody denies ANY of the groups, sometimes “settlements”, or whatever other place are there. No doubt, as the last ice age 12,000 yo melted (even now melting) water levels flooded many areas. There is almost certainly a good chance there may be actual CIVILIZATIONS under that, some see evidence, and science will catch up. But all sides of this debate need to take a chill pill and allow science to be disciplined enough to only “formally” except what there is evidence for. A huge misunderstanding is that science proves anything wrong! For all we know, Santa Claus may be REAL flying to our homes every Christmas! Science just has not found any evidence “yet!” You don’t have to be offended, or hate science for this. If more people could communicate more clearly this way, there would be less INCIVILITY in comments online! Cheers to all, Civilizations, and Animals, and all of you someplace BETWEEN!
I’m laughing, that couldn’t had been said better.
You forgot mention the Olmec Civilization, which came before the Incas or Myans civilizations. Also from the continental of Africa you have the Kingdom of Mali and Timbuktu just to name a couple.
Very funny that you never mentioned the most ancient ones from Africa, fir example (The Kingdom of Kerma) that existed between 2500 BC and 1500 BC, located in what is today the northern part of Sudan. This kingdom has been regarded as the first Nubian state, and its capital, Kerma, is today an important archaeological site.
The following kingdom, Kush (900BC-AD350), has more that 300 pyramids and unique realtions with ancient civilizations. Their famous kings, contrlled Egypt during 25th dynasty, and their temples and pyramids were built every where along the Nile Valley.
Yes the 10 oldest civilizations of the past 10,000 years that would be more accurate.. Now when you look at the 10,000+ year old temple structure in Turkey, the 10,000+ year old sunken city off the coast of Japan, recognize Dwarka is at least 10,000 years old, the water erosion marks on the Sphinx, the ancient writings that say Khufu repaired the pyramids he didin’t build them…..understand that you have 1000’s of megoliths and artifacts around the globe that none of the above civilizations were capable of builiding…”Hey look at this crappy Mayan structure with all the little rocks and mortar, but that giant smooth cut 100 ton megolith behind it , that was built by cavemen!”
The Hiawatha 50mile wide comet hit Greenland 12,800 years ago and wiped out whatever civilization came before us, that or some other natural disaster which rose the sea level and created the flood story of every culture around the world. Open your eyes, it’s not even debatable anymore— the only real question is who knows the real truth, and why are they lying?
This is funny. The Ancient Egyptians told Herodotus and other Greeks and Romans that their ancestors are the Maya and that the Maya are the oldest in the world. This is in accurate according to Egyptians themselves.
Civilization is a large group of people that has its own system and organization with law, society, architecture, art and others; while Empire is a tyrannical and authoritarian governing place and people that depends on its military might and structure, containing its defensive and offensive security forces.
Great article! However I can’t help but notice the usual western-focused reporting!
Civilizations in between Mesopotamia and Egypt are not even mentioned. Cannan, Phoenicia,…. Etc
The cities of Byblos, Tyr and Sidon in Lebanon, Carthage in Tunisia, Palmyra and Ugarit in Syria! Not to mention cities in Iran, Israel, Armenia and Yemen.
All those great cities and civilizations! Also others in India and East Asia.
You describe the Romans, Greeks, and everything in the Americas while not mentioning the Levant.
Levantine civilisations were key in the development of modern civilization, they were a connection between Mesopotamia and Egypt, they developed and exported much of their knowledge and methods to Europe.
Two not so minor points.
CHINA has continued since it’s inception, and is STILL going strong. It’s the oldest continuous civilization, and trying to say that somehow the ancient Han dynasty is separate from Chinese civilization as a whole is ingenuous at best.
ROME did not end in 465. The WESTERN Roman Empire effectively fell, even counting barbarian leaders, in the mid 500s when Justinian decided to reunite the two halves of the Roman Empire, and instead unleashed a deadly plague that killed of the city dwellers and trade in the Mediterranean areas (and Britain). The EASTERN Roman Empire lasted until 1453.
At last, Cheri Teleri, a significant comment!
Firstly:
If the legendary Yellow Emperor is taken into account, then Chinese civilisation is 4720y.o. and still going strong. If we discount His Celestial Excellence and allow for the Xia dynasty, then Chinese civilisation is around 4100y.o. and still going strong. Even if people raise the argument that many Chinese dynasties were not ethnically Chinese, that is somewhat invalid, because they ‘became Chinese’ and adopted the Chinese culture.
Then, if the ‘urban’ Liangzhu culture is accounted for, even though they may not have been ‘ethnically Chinese’, that would extend ‘Chinese civilisation’ back to around 3500BCE, making Chinese civilisation around 5500y.o. and still going strong.
And then, there is the 8000y.o. flute from near Wuyang in Henan Province, made from a bird’s (Crane’s) wing bone, 20cm in length, with 7 finger holes and an (8th) embouchure/blowhole, upon which a contemporary tune was be played, in 1987, in the key of A. (As a maker of flutes, I can assure you that the length and pitch data is accurate). This indicates more than a certain level of musical sophistication, in that a sense of intonation or temperament and certainly a musical octave had already been established, which seems somewhat ‘civilised’. Could this then evince that Chinese civilisation is about 10,000y.o. and still going strong, based upon real material objects, rather than pink unicorns and sky fairies?
Secondly:
Regarding Rome, and especially the Western Roman Empire; it simply transformed into an ’empire of the mind’, under the effective rule of the Roman Catholic Church, where Latin became the language of the court, and common Latin evolved into the Romance languages. (Even English is about 50% Latin derived). Even Protestantism is effectively Catholicism, albeit without a Pope.
And of which church have almost all, if not all, ‘Presidents of Europe’ been de facto or nominative members? Roma victoria 2570AUC?
Finally:
The ‘Maes Howe/Skara Brae’ culture of what is now Orkney was highly organised/civilised nearly 5,000 years ago. Who were they trading with?
This author should be commended for the work and efforts trying to be accurate and truthful.
However, I’ve come to see that many of these civilization ranking pieces don’t normally clearly define what their rankings are based on:
1) Are we talking about earliest human evidence on earth?
2) Are we ranking based on earliest cultures which could be almost same as #1?
3) Are we going by the textbook definition of civilization (formation/creation of art, government, language, religion etc)?
I think most of these rankings have to give the oldest to African given that that’s where Human life began as per evolution. So its conceivable that there could have been at least earliest cultures and civilizations in Africa older than the rest of the world.
The problem is that the rest of the world finds it easy to dismiss Africa because its people haven’t advanced as much as others.
A link to the Migration Out of Africa some 500,000 (five hundred thousand ) years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations
As I read the original article and most of the comments that followed I saw that the arguments were based on semantics. It is obvious that what the article’s author meant my civilizations is “Empires”. The two are not the same. It is true that there are many civilizations that we know nothing about at all. They have disappeared into the mists of time, and we may never hear of them. There are also many civilizations that only exist in our memories as myths and legends and the evidence for them might never be found or may be discovered tomorrow. But in all it is best to remember that the study of history has only one real purpose and that is to learn from our past mistakes and grow together towards a brighter future.
I just spent a couple hours reading all the comments in between living my insomniac life (“,) I have got to firstly thank the author for an interesting summary to read( and debate apparently), that certainly has great insight into history in the simple context it was presented, bravo! To all the commentators fighting for ‘their’ number one spot in history lol, dont fight please :) To echo others, we still dont know what is to be found in our historical record, earthquakes and excavations continue to find new evidence every year. You gonna look really silly in 2nd place when they find an ancient city under Antarctica ok..
Finally I want to add my one to the list. I expect eventually to be confirmed a civilization, with no race or creed for anyone to claim, they were merely homo superior, our ancestors from ~2-3billion BCE when the Sun burned a little cooler, from Venus… ;) Adieu
Why do you mention ancient Egyptians but leave out their neighbors, the ancient Nubians/Kingdom of Kush, who built more and older pyramids located in modern Sudan and also conquered the Egyptians at one point in time. There is also Axum/Aksum which conquered Nubians later on and are located in modern Ethiopia/Sudan
I appreciate your research and efforts to add. And all the civilizations you put are the reall. But you guys don’t like to talk about African civilizations and wisdoms. Why? History is a lesson we all should learn from. We know that black people participated from Indian to Mayan civilization including Egyptian.
For instance, let me remember you that Bible talks about, Axumite Civilization. This civilization was a very powerful civilization especially starting from the legendary ancient Queen of Sheba 1000 BC – 600 AD until the first Hijira Muslim emigration from Saudi Arabia to African Nation Ethiopia (Axum). This civilization was even famous in the Bible. Queen of Sheba was legendary Queen and visited Jerusalem to see the wisdom of King Solomon and her Ethiopian merchant known as Tamrin was even famous from India to Greek. And her son Menelik 1st brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia from his father’s temple King Solomon. When you see Axumite empire’s civilization, they had their own alphabet (ግዕዝ), paintings, medication, strong army, ancient constitutions such as Kibre Negest (a constitution about the limitations and rights if the king and who can be a king or queen), Tarike Negest (it’s a chronicles book of the kings and the royal family), Fiteha Negest (a constitution that shows the rights and obligations of the people). Even Ethiopia is the first country to be a Christian nation in the world and an ancient country to followel Judaism 3000 years a go, the first country in Africa to give a right for Muslims to live and worship in the time of Prophet Mohammad. Ethiopia had its own gold, silver and bronze currencies 2000 years a go. A country that any European nation including the Greeks and Romans never colonised and never been defeated by any external nation in a big war battle. Ethiopians have their own calander and strong culture.
You forgot to put the NORTE CHICO CIVILIZATION (another one from Peru). Which is about 2,000 years older then the mesoamerican civilizations.
Hah,what about ancient Nubia? It was oldest of this 10 civilization and started as taseti civilization between 4000 BC~31000 BC and there is other civilizations raised in Nubia!!
Skewed and inaccurate. The article should be titled 10 significant ancient civilizations. 1. There are many far older civilizations than the Aztecs, Inca and Roman empires. Assyrian, Philistine, Aksum and the oldest one of all, the Canaanite. Jericho was dated to 9000 BC. So there! meh!
I believe that there were large civilizations prior to the floods, maybe around 11,000 years ago. After the last galcial maximum when ice began to melt, large cities and settlements or what we refer as civilizations were wiped out. And its not just the floods. The aftermath of such an event would have triggered series of devastating incidents all over the globe. All our finds are after this period. Different religions, civilizations and texts mentions great flood.
What surprises me the most is, our underlying assumption that the ancient people were like monkeys or some stupid looking hairy hominids! Do you actually believe that the Homo Sapiens have developed only in past ~1000 years in their history of 500,000 years’ existence? And not to forget the million years Sapiens took to evolve from early hominids. Maybe they were smarter that we think.
Regarding Australian Aboriginals, yeah they are very old. If we look closely we will find such existence in all parts of the world. We have just limited ourselves with ‘Archaeology’ and evidence. Like monuments or big structures or stone things. I dont know why. In fact it makes me very angry when scientists refer every single structure they cannot justify as the temple or place of worship. Its stupid. May be true but its out of proportion. Its like, we have only found the places of worship and cemetaries for these ancient civilizations. I wonder where they lived! May be they all hated societies and continued bagpacking throughout their lives until someone sacrificed them for ‘religious purpose’.
Well said, Uday: you make some excellent points.
Especially relevant is the ‘religious purpose’ designation of artifacts or edifices, as a default, by ‘scientists’. Some of the most ancient (‘primitive’) cultures still in existence have no concept of ‘godhead’, let alone ‘holy scripture’ or Theology.
The default response by ‘archaeo-scientists’ is reminiscent of a comedy sketch Rorschach Test: ‘It’s about your mother’ is replaced by, ‘It’s a religious site’, it’s ‘Evidence of deity worship/goddess worship/ancient matriarchial society’.
As Human Beings (intentional capitals), we ARE vain and arrogant, we DO admire ourselves and our achievements, and we DO depict the things that we like or prefer, and we ARE very self-image conscious. Even the monochrome style of Puritanism is a form of vanity in itself: ‘Look at how plain and modest WE are’.
How about the possibility that depictions/caricatures of humans and idealisations of human form are not much different from ‘then’ until ‘now’? The aesthetic forms and expressions have changed, as indeed cultures have evolved, but the essence is the same. What many ‘archaeo-scientists’ (willfully) ignore is the fact that we Humans like creating images of ourselves, and of our physical attributes, usually exaggerated. Instead, they tend to attribute it to a ‘fertility cult’, and enforce religion upon it.
Of great significance, also, is the correlation between ‘civilisation’ and ‘written language’; which is especially questionable, given that Neolithic urban cultures (civilisations) tend to be lacking in evidence of written systems, even though the archaeology suggests a high level of organisation and industry.
I sincerely hope that the drystone barbecue I built 30 years ago survives for another 4,000 years, so that a future archaeologist can designate as an ‘ancient fire altar to the fertility gods’.
I agree with Uday, there has been various writings on the great flood and we have to look from beyond the floods. Also I’d like to point out that the present world is formed after many tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions over thousands of years. Prior to this the world was one single unit of habitable land. Humans originated from the great continent of Africa and drifted gradually over the years. Nothing of this sort happened overnight but over thousands of years. This is why people of Madagascar and Indonesia have similarities just like the Aboriginal and South Indian/Sri Lankan have similarities.
Civilization existed with astronomy, science, trade, irrigation throughout human existence but most were destroyed through war in making another conquering nation superior. The conquering and colonisation by the west had a devastating impact on the destruction altogether. Coz they used modern weapons and wanted to instil there power by destroying everything. Please remember the western grabbing of land and resources destroyed civilised societies and the literature of the Africans, specially the Romans. Also bear in mind the destruction of the Alexandria library that housed thousands and thousands of literature of African civilisation.
While the article, as well as many of the comments are quite interesting, the thing many of you seem to forget is the fact that there’s absolutely zero information on any of the plethora of possibilities which go against the belief system set up by those who want you to believe they are the “be-all-end-all” experts and have all the answers. There has been more then a hint of evidence there may well have been civilizations on earth well over 40,000 year ago; however, as their existence would seem to belie that which the mainstream wants you to believe and which they will go to (and already have) great lengths to dispute or make light of as unlikely, at the least, or totally crazy. Just as an example, there was a civilization located high in the Andes known as Tiahuanaco. Although there was a great deal of on- site research conducted by several people, much of which could have been borne out had the mainstream, so called scientists, not made it a point to deliberately change the settings which existed there when the site was first discovered and researched, in depth. One of those who initially spent many years there conducting research was an engineer and at least one other was an astronomer. Unfortunately, while their initial research was based on what they initially found, it called into dispute many pre-concieved notions of academia, an intense effort was made to quash, or make jokes about those findings. No doubt, the same wasn’t done at other sites.
What about kurdish civilization.The kurdish civilizationś structure,Gobakli Tepe is for almost 12000 years ago.
There was no Civilization in the name of Kurds , but yes The first civilization come from Persian Plateau which include Iran, Iraq, Syria and some part of Afghanestan and Turkey. The whole nation was named differently in comapre to moderm day.
China has a continuous written history of over 5,000 years, some say over 6,000 years. Certainly, they would have been civilized for 1000 or more years before they invented written language. None of the other civilizations that you list had a written language that predates Chinese so based on whatever criteria you use, I think the Chinese would should be first as the oldest in your list.
what about Ethiopian civilization some scholars say 3000 and 6000 ,Ethiopia should be number one
Yes, The oldest civilization was in Zagros mountain, which is located in current Iran and Iraq in Persian Plateau, Not Arabian Plateau. Definitely Iraq, Syria or Turkey and Iran are not arab countries that you name that Plateau as Arabian. I see alot of distorted content in this website that want to disapear the truth about the Iranian and Persian Civilasation which I believe it comes from moderm propaganda against Iran. As you know History can not change. Iran and Persian Plateau is the start of civilization in history and because of that persian culture does not disapear after the invasion of Greeks, Arabs and Mongols. and Again it flourished in a better condition.
What about the Aunnaki !! they have the oldest scrolls carved in stone there are 14 of them dating back to 24BC.But it clashs with monden day thoughts. They Talk about the 9 planet with Astrology has recently found. Its thought that they lived over half a million years ago. They made the Wheel,the fist clocks and many more things we use today .
The main stream established studies need to take in account the The established timeline of human evolution and eventual development of civilization is based on a meniscal amount of information due to the fact we haven’t explored enough of the Earth’s surface, including the ocean. I feel some of the experts rush to get their name on the latest discovery when it should be a collaborative collection of information. Gobekli Tepe and the yet to be explored regions of South and Central America are great examples of the newest information. Along with the lack of explanation of how the ancient civilizations were able to construct stone structures that we are not able to understand. Most of these ancient civilizations are built on top of what appears to be older and more sophisticated civilizations.
You did not include the oldest one which is the oldest civilization in the human history. Vedic civilization is much older than any other civilization
There’s a lot of people trying to make the argument that certain groups, older than the one listed, have been left off this list.
This is a list of civilizations, not groups or tribes. Scientifically, to qualify as a civilization they must have had: cities, government, religion, social structure, writing, and art. These are the 6 qualifiers of a civilization.
Yours, sir, is about the only sensible comment on this long list. I would have added some further signs of civilization: the controlled use of fire; the wheel; domesticated animals; cultivation of grain and other crops; cooking; musical instruments.
The mere existence of a group of proto-hominids in one region for an extended period does not constitute a civilization.
Seeing that civilisation comes from the word “civis”, I would invite people to look that up and to see just to what cultures in the past that label would apply. So many people here ready to put savage cultures of the deep past on a pedestal. Let’s keep it real.
Your information is outdated, sir!
Rakhigarhi has changed it all. It is the site of a pre-Indus Valley Civilisation settlement going back to about 6500 BCE. And it is bigger than Mohenjodaro or Harrapa
hello, what about india ? where is india? indus civilization, also called Indus valley civilization or Harappan civilization, the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. The nuclear dates of the civilization appear to be about 2500–1700 BCE, though the southern sites may have lasted later into the 2nd millennium BCE. Among the world’s three earliest civilizations—the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt—the Indus civilization was the most extensive.
One of the oldest civilizations present to this day is the Mzab civilization: it is one of the thrones of the Berber Zenata tribe, and the Mzab people have lived in North Africa since about 900 BC, where they adapted to all natural conditions and dealt with the Greeks and Romans and confronted the aggression of the Arabs coming from the Arabian Peninsula Throughout history, they exchanged trade with the Turks, and after them France, which occupied Algeria, so they concluded an autonomy agreement with it in 1850 AD. It was one of the oldest autonomy agreements in our time. We find them in conflict to this day with the Algerian state that persecutes them and tries to obliterate their Amazigh-Ibadi identity through civil wars. And the repeated attacks and ethnic cleansing by the Bedouin Arabs coming from the Arabian Peninsula, with the full support of the Algerian criminal authority, to Arabize the Mzab and dismantle their cultural and ethnic structure rooted throughout history.
One of the oldest civilizations present to this day is the Mzab civilization: it is one of the thrones of the Berber Zenata tribe, and the Mzab people have lived in North Africa since about 900 BC, where they adapted to all natural conditions and dealt with the Greeks and Romans and confronted the aggression of the Arabs coming from the Arabian Peninsula Throughout history, they exchanged trade with the Turks, and after them France, which occupied Algeria, so they concluded an autonomy agreement with it in 1850 AD. It was one of the oldest autonomy agreements in our time. We find them in conflict to this day with the Algerian state that persecutes them and tries to obliterate their Amazigh-Ibadi identity through civil wars. And the repeated attacks and ethnic cleansing by the Bedouin Arabs coming from the Arabian Peninsula, with the full support of the Algerian criminal authority, to Arabize the Mzab and dismantle their cultural and ethnic structure rooted throughout history.
Excellent article and even more fascinating are the diverse comments about australian natives and Afrocentric origins!!!!
Thank you all for sharing your comments, right or wrong and everything by every one is an interesting point of view.