We explain what the Ancient Age is and its main events. Also, the civilizations that made up this historical period.
What is the Ancient Age?
The historical period that witnessed the emergence and development of the first human civilizations (known as ancient civilizations), especially after the invention of writing, an event considered the end of writing. prehistory and the start of the history as such.
The beginning of the Ancient Age dates back to the founding of the first City-States, far superior in size and organization to the Neolithic villages. Along with them appears political power (kings, palaces), organized religions (priests, temples) and a first commercial and bureaucratic order, that is, everything that is understood by the “urban revolution”.
There is no clear and definite date for this series of events, but it is assumed that one of the first civilizations that demonstrated such a level of social development was Sumeria in 4,000 BC.
A particular period in the Ancient Age is constituted by what is known asClassical antiquity, which is located in the fullness of Greco-Roman culture (5th century BC - 2nd AD), famous for its artistic, political, philosophical and commercial development, which laid the foundations for the entire culture of the West. Hellenic Greece and the later Roman Empire were the cultural and political epicenters of the time.
However, other ancient cultures found their splendor before or after Classical Antiquity, such as the Mesopotamia Antigua, which consisted of various empires: the Renaissance Sumerian (XXII BC - XXI BC), the Akkadian Empire (XXII BC), Babylonian Empire (1792-1750 BC), Assyrian Empire (1813 BC - 609 BC) or the Kingdom of Mitani (c.1650 BC - c.1270 BC ). Other important civilizations were Ancient Persia and Ancient Egypt, among many others.
The end of the Old Western Age is around the year 476, when the Western Roman Empire fell and was razed by the barbarian tribes, dismembering its ancient territory into a diverse number of kingdoms that would emerge during the Middle Ages. It must be said that this periodization is valid only for the Europe Western, as Asian, American, and Middle Eastern civilizations have different historical landmarks.