To ensure survival in the next world, they built elaborate tombs and mummified the bodies of the dead. The Egyptians had many gods and were preoccupied by life after death. Religion was the most powerful force in Egyptian society. Thereafter, Egypt entered a period of political decline and foreign rule. Ancient Egyptian history is divided into three broad areas of unified rule, separated by periods of division and anarchy: the Old Kingdom (2700-2160 B.C.), the Middle Kingdom (2134-1786 B.C.), and the New Kingdom (1575-1087 B.C.). Egypt became a highly bureaucratic society ruled by a god-king, the pharaoh. Eventually, all of Mesopotamia was absorbed by the Persian Empire in the sixth century B.C.Īnother Neolithic hydraulic society developed along the Nile River in Egypt, which was first united into a single state around 2850 B.C. The Sumerian city-states gave way to the Babylonian (about 2300 B.C.) and Assyrian (about 1100 B.C.) empires. Among the legacies of Mesopotamian culture are the first law codes, the first epic, Gilgamesh, and certain religious concepts, such as the story of a primeval flood, that have persisted in Western thought. There were many cities, each with its own bureaucracy and temple. Mesopotamia was what historians call a hydraulic society, one based on the centralized control of irrigation and flood management. the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia had invented bronze and developed cuneiform writing into a flexible tool of communication. The decisive step from prehistory to history was the invention of writing by the Neolithic inhabitants of Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C. humanity advanced to the New Stone (Neolithic) Age, marked by the domestication of animals and plants and the development of more permanent dwellings. Paleolithic humans have left remarkable cave paintings and carvings. Although fossil remains of apelike human ancestors have been found that date back millions of years, the first generally accepted humans appeared in Europe and the Near East about thirty-seven thousand years ago and are called Homo sapiens, meaning the “one who thinks.”Īrchaeologists call early human culture the Old Stone (Paleolithic) Age because of the crude stone implements in use at the time. Our knowledge of this period depends on archaeological findings. The period before humans left written records is called prehistory.