Human Evolution and the Ancient World History

The word “ancient history”  talks about the past events recorded in the form of scripture or manuscripts, or textbooks. Simply, this term is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of writing and recorded history of human evolution that extends as far as post-classical history. This term also refers to the period in which scientists have discovered the earliest remains of human activity, around 6,000 BCE.

You can refer to the above phrase as the period or the academic discipline. Also, it is estimated that the span of recorded history is around 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script, along with the oldest coherent texts from about 2600 BC.  Thus, ancient history covers all continents possessed by humans in the period 3000 BC – 500 AD. 

On this page, we will learn about human evolution that was covered in ancient world history. Now, let us discuss the evolution of humans in early history.

Human Evolution

Evolution entails slow changes from simple to more complicated forms. Humans are believed to have evolved from simpler forms. Evolution is hypothesized to have started in the oceans billions of years ago. Darwin gave the theory of evolution. In his book -The Origin of Species, Darwin has said that evolution has come via a series of natural selections. 

However, human evolution is the prolonged series of changes by which people originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific proof states that all people’s physical and behavioural tendencies originated from apelike ancestors and evolved over a length of about six million years. Thus, humans are primates, and there are the following six stages of human evolution:

• Dryopithecus

• Ramapithecus

• Australopithecus

• Homo Erectus

• Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis

• Homo Sapiens Sapiens

Now, let us discuss the ancient world history that comprises the historical inventions and artworks.

History Of The Famous Arts And Personalities 

In today’s era, the world owes a profound debt to the powerful empires and great cities of early history. Their discoveries, inventions, and ideas enabled the development of human society and initiated the foundation for modern life. So, here we are going to discuss the history of well-known personalities, such as Mark Antony, Alexander The Great, Julius Caesar, Herodotus, and arts like Greek Art, and Codes Of Hammurabi, and so on.

Mark Antony

Mark Antony was a Roman politician and general whose complete name was Marcus Antonius. He was the son of a military commander named Marcus Antonius Creticus. His father was Cretius because of his military operations in Crete. He was a grandson of a well-known consul and orator, who was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero’s De oratore.

He was a friend of Julius Caesar and the main enemy of his successor Octavian (later Augustus). With those two men, he was fundamental to Rome’s transformation from a constitutional republic into the autocratic Roman Empire.

His romantic and political coalition with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra was his eventual undoing, and centuries later, led an inspiration for artists from Shakespeare to Cecil B. DeMille. 

After a large idle youth, he was sent to the east as a cavalry officer, where he won major victories in Palestine and Egypt. In 54 B.C., he joined his mother’s cousin Julius Caesar as a staff officer in Gaul. In 49 B.C., he was elected a tribune and worked as a loyal defender of Caesar in opposition to his rivals in the Senate.

Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great was also known as Alexander III or Alexander of Macedonia. He was born on July 20, 356 BCE, at Pella in Macedonia, the son of Philip II and Queen Olympia. 

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During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle till the age of 16. His father, Philip, was assassinated in 336 BC at the wedding of Cleopatra of Macedon, Alexander's sister, and Alexander assumed the throne of the Kingdom of Macedon. After sacking the city of Thebes at the age of 19 with the support of the Macedonian Army, Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece. He used his authority to release his father's pan-Hellenic project, which concerned him assuming the leadership position of all the Greeks in their conquest of Persia.

In 334 BC, he attacked the Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire) and began a sequence of campaigns that lasted ten years. Following his conquest of Asia Minor (contemporary Turkey), Alexander broke the strength of Persia in a chain of decisive battles, including those at Issus and Gaugamela. 

He ultimately overthrew King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety. At that point, his empire started from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. Alexander endeavoured to attain the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea" and invaded India in 326 BC, accomplishing a crucial victory over King Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes. 

He, in the end, turned back on the Beas River because of the demand of his homesick troops, dying in Babylon in 323 BC, the city he planned to set up as his capital. He did not control to execute a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a sequence of civil wars tore his empire apart.

Egyptian Pyramids

Constructed at some stage in a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids—in particular the Great Pyramids of Giza—are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their large scale reflects the unique position that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. 

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Egyptian pyramids were constructed from the start of the Old Kingdom to the cease of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century A.D.; the height of pyramid construction commenced with the late third dynasty and continued till the sixth (2325 B.C.). 4 000 years later, the Egyptian pyramids still retain much of their majesty, offering a glimpse into the country’s rich and wonderful past.

Ancient Greek Art

In about 450 B.C., the Athenian general Pericles attempted to merge his power by using public money, the dues paid to Athens by its allies in the alliance of the Delian League, to help the city-state’s artists and thinkers. 

1. Goddesses from the east pediment of the Parthenon (From 438 to 432 BC)

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The first image shows three goddesses from the east pediment of the Parthenon sitting and reclining in an elegant concert. The speciality was that these goddesses were formed in marble for the Parthenon in Athens and are one of the most cheerful and enigmatic images of the human form ever carved. 

Surprisingly, the artist makes the draperies that engulf their bodies as real and splendidly textured as similar clothes painted by Leonardo da Vinci a millennium later – and who need not have to draw his illusions in stone. These are just dream goddesses.

2. The Motya charioteer

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The second image is one of the most shocking Greek statues to stay and quite revealing about the erotic charge of the Greek nude. This youth isn't technically nude always. However, he wears tight-fitting clothes instead of hiding his body. Greek statues are portraits of human splendour that are supposed to be arousing as well as noble. This athlete poses in sensual triumph.

Did You Know?

• Six ancient civilizations are:

• Egypt, 

• Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and Iran), 

• The Indus Valley (present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan), 

• China, 

• Mexico, and 

• Peru

• Chandragupta Maurya was the first Indian ruler who founded the Maurya Dynasty. He won most of the fragmented kingdoms in ancient India. He united them into a large empire, boundaries of which were even stretched to Afghanistan and towards the edge of Persia.