History Essay Sample on Ancient Civilization

The first civilizations included Indus River, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mayan, Yellow River, and Moche. All were common in that they had similar characteristics, including and urban focus, nee artistic and intellectual activities, new social, military, and political structures, distinct religious structures, as well as the development of writing. For example, the Egyptians around 3100 BC. After the upper and lower Egypt had been unified, Pharaoh was supreme in performing rituals. As such, Egyptians worshiped deities, and believed that they should not be made angry, including, Horus, the god of Vengeance. Also, the Mesopotamia had Sumerian as the first civilization. It was organized in cities, such as Lagash, Ur, Eridu, Umma, and Uruk. They had aggressive city-states that competed for resources, utilized defensive walls, and towers that were made of sun-dried bricks. The religious structures, just as Egypt, gods ruled the cities and the government by divine authority, thereby creating a divine right of kings. The economy was agriculturally based while the social structure was dictated by kings and nobles, which included kings family and priestly class. The commoners included merchants, slaves, and artist free citizens. The writing was famously known a cuneiform while arts included Ziggurat. The Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as the Hammurabi Law Codes.

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The ancient and prehistoric ages, being divided into stone, bronze, and iron ages define early civilization. The stone age being divided into Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods is the age when people used stones as artifacts. Palaeolithic is distinguished by the use and development of primitive stone tools. Humans were grouped into smaller societies, for example, bands, and subsisted by gathering fishing and plants, scavenging or hunting wild animals. The stone artifacts used included knapped stone tools, as well as bone and wood tools. Also, other organic commodities that humans adapted to use included vegetable fibers and leather. Artifacts that survived in the era are known as palaeoliths. For this reason, the economy that was typical was the hunter-gatherer economy. Australopithecus are considered the early Palaeolithic hominids and the earliest stone tool industry in the era were Olduwan, which contained awls, burins, and choppers. By the end of the Lower Palaeolithic era, members of the hominid family lived in what is now China, Europe, and Indonesia. Middle Palaeolithic era also point out that hominids used projectile technology for hunting while in Upper Palaeolithic dictates that various inventions were made, such as nets, bow, and arrow, spears, as well as ceramic art, including the Venus of Dolni Vestonice. They also practiced religious rituals with the use of ochre, particularly in the Middle Palaeolithic.

Mesolithic cultures represent a wide range of fishing, hunting, as well as food gathering techniques due to various ecological adaptations, such as the growth of forests in Europe and deserts in North Africa. Characteristic of the era was hunting and gathering settlements along lakes, and river shores were mollusk and fish were abundant. The era was also characterized by stone implements, which were smaller and more delicate compared to those used in the Palaeolithic era. They also developed pottery techniques, and they also developed bows. The culture was mainly Azilian, centered in the Pyrenees region, but subsequently spread to Belgium, Scotland, and Switzerland. The Azilian culture was then followed by the Tardenoisian culture, covering most of the European countries and the settlements were found in sandy areas or dunes. The tools used were an improvement of those utilized in the Palaeolithic era, such as hand axes and bone tools.

The Neolithic period is also known as the New Stone Age period, and it is the final stage of technological development and cultural evolution among the prehistoric humans. Even so, the humans also used stone tools that were shaped by grinding or polishing, while they also depended on domesticated animals and plants. They also lived in permanent villages, as well as the use of crafts, such as weaving and pottery. Humans also learned to raise crops, as well as keeping domestic livestock, and therefore, they were no longer dependent on hunter-gatherer lifestyle and fishing. The cultivation of cereals grains enabled the humans in the era to build permanent dwellings and congregated in villages, as well as pursuing specialized crafts. For instance, in 7000 BCE, people practiced farming and lived in villages in the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, which is now located in Iraq and Iran. In agriculture, people raised barley and wheat, and also kept goats and sheep, which was later supplemented by pigs and cattle. Neolithic people also participated in trade. For example, while archaeologists were excavating Jericho, one of the oldest cities, found obsidian knives and blades that came from Catal Hoyuk. Towards the end of the Neolithic Era, people began using metallic and copper tools, characterized by the bronze and copper age.

Archaeologists study prehistoric archaeology using carbon dating; however, the method can be erroneous. One way of increasing its reliability is by lengthening the testing time. For example, if beta count decays for around 250 minutes gives an error of plus or minus 80 years with a 68% confidence. Doubling the counting time to 500 minutes allows half of the sample with the carbon footprint to have the same error margin, and thus, if similar amounts of carbon were used, the error would be reduced by two.