Ancient Civilizations

Ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia.

Ancient region of Asia, the territory about the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, included in modern Iraq.

By 3000 B.C. a flourishing urban civilization existed. Sumerian civilization was predominantly agricultural and had a well-organized communal life.

Ancient city, capital of the Ugarit kingdom, W Syria, on the Mediterranean coast N of modern Latakia. It developed as a great center of commerce, having important connections with Mesopotamia.

Ancient empire of Mesopotamia.

Occupied as far back as the 4th millenium B.C. After Solomon built the Temple on Mt. Moriah in the 10th cent. B.C., Jerusalem became the spiritual and political capital of the Hebrews.

Ancient territory occupied by Phoenicians.

Ancient city of Phoenicia, S of Sidon.

Ancient rock city in present-day Jordan. The site includes some 800 structures, the best known of which is the Khazneh el-Farun, a mausoleum, monument, or temple with a two-story facade and Hellenistic split pediment.

The Red Sea was an important trade route in antiquity.

In antiquity, some of the great cities of Mesopotamia, including Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, stood on the banks of the Tigris, and the river served as an important transportation route.

Mesopotamia, birthplace of many great civilizations, depended on the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris for survival.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide
In antiquity, gardens at Babylon, the capital of Mesopotamia, considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Ancient empire of W Asia. It developed around the city of Ashur, or Assur, on the upper Tigris River and south of the later capital, Nineveh.

Occupied as far back as the 4th millenium B.C. After Solomon built the Temple on Mt. Moriah in the 10th cent. B.C., Jerusalem became the spiritual and political capital of the Hebrews.

The Hittites established the first major civilization in Asia Minor about 1800 B.C. Beginning in the 8th cent. B.C. Greek colonies were established on the coast lands, and the Greeks thus came into contact with Lydia, Phrygia, and Troy.

Ancient city in Asia Minor (modern Hissarlik in Turkey). It has a long and complex history dating from about 3000 BC to AD 1200.

The ancient Persian Empire, in which present-day Iran has its roots.

Ancient region of Asia Minor in present E central Turkey.

Ancient Greek city of Asia Minor, in what is today W Turkey. One of the greatest of the Ionian cities, it became the leading seaport of the region.

The strategic position of Cyprus has long made it a coveted territory, and from the 15th century BC it was colonized by a succession of peoples from the mainland. In the 8th century it was within the Assyrian empire, then the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian.

The island was settled by Dorians from Argos before 1000 BC. By the 7th century BC, it was dominated by its three city-states of Camirus, Lindos, and Ialysus, all commercial centres.

Ancient Greek city in Mysia in western Asia Minor, which became the capital of an independent kingdom in 283 BC under the Attalid dynasty. As the ally of Rome it achieved great political importance in the 2nd century BC, and became a centre of art and culture.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Babylonian king (r 1792–1750 BC) best known for the large stele on which he had some 282 laws inscribed, the so-called Code of Hammurabi.

Ancient people of Asia Minor and Syria, who flourished from 1600 to 1200 B.C. The artistic work of the Hittites, as in reliefs, round sculptures, and seals, shows a high state of culture and considerable Babylonian and Assyrian influence.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
King of Babylonia (c.605–562 B.C.), Nebuchadnezzar was a splendid builder, and Babylon with its hanging gardens was then the greatest city of the ancient world.

D. 529 B.C., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire.

D. 486 B.C., king of ancient Persia (521–486 B.C.).

c.131 B.C.–63 B.C., king of Pontus, sometimes called Mithradates the Great. He waged three wars against Rome.

From Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures
A Celtic people who migrated into central Anatolia (modern Turkey and northern Syria) during the 270s BC, and who settled in an area that subsequently became known as Galatia.

The mythical Trojan War probably reflected a real war (c.1200 B.C.) between the invading Greeks and the people of Troas, possibly over control of trade through the Dardanelles.

Series of conflicts between Greece and Persia in 499-479 BC. The Greek victory marked the end of Persian domination of the ancient world and the beginning of Greek supremacy.

Extinct language belonging to the East Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages.

Language belonging to the West Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages

System of writing developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley, probably by the Sumerians.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
In Babylonian legend, king of Uruk. He is the hero of the Gilgamesh epic, a work of some 3,000 lines, written on 12 tablets c.2000 B.C. and discovered among the ruins at Nineveh.

From The Columbia EncyclopediaForm of temple common to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. The ziggurat was a pyramidal structure, built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, with a shrine at the summit.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Religion founded by Zoroaster. In its origins Zoroastrianism appears to have been the religious expression of the peaceful, sedentary communities of N Iran.

Ancient god of Persia and India (where he was called Mitra). Until the 6th cent. B.C., Mithra was apparently a minor figure in the Zoroastrian system. Under the Achaemenids, Mithra became increasingly important, until he appeared in the 5th cent. B.C. as the principal Persian deity, the god of light and wisdom, closely associated with the sun.