The Old history It is considered the first period in the History of Humanity, preceded by Prehistory and followed by the Middle Ages. The invention of writing has traditionally been indicated as the beginning of Ancient History, a very important historical fact that allowed human beings to develop a more advanced form of communication. For its part, the end of Ancient History is dated around the year 476 AD. with the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Throughout Ancient History, the first great civilizations of Humanity have developed which, in addition to having writing, meant a complexification of urban life, the division of labor, the establishment of different social organizations, the creation of religions and the establishment of the first governments or states. It is for this reason that in this period of history we find great villages and cities in many respects superior to the simple and primitive Neolithic villages.
The aforementioned characteristics have been present in different regions of the globe in which human communities settled permanently. Ancient History therefore studies the civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia located in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (where the Sumerian civilization was the first to develop its power), Ancient Egypt, the small Hebrew and Phoenician communities, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, perhaps the most important in terms of its geographical extension at the time of the Empire. Finally, Ancient History must also include those historical civilizations that are outside the geographical framework known as the Old World and among them we find China, India and the pre-Columbian communities in America.
The legacy of Ancient History is undoubtedly very rich and in many respects its influence reaches the present day. Among the most important and significant phenomena for the Humanities, developed at this time in history, we find cuneiform writing (the first form of human writing), the development of important religions (such as Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Jewish and the Christian), important literary works (such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Code of Hammurabi, the Bible, the Book of the Dead among many others), the construction of incredible monuments and buildings (such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Sphinx, the Parthenon, the Roman Colosseum, the Ishtar Gate, the Palace of Knossos), and the creation of unique elements such as democracy, law, different sciences, philosophy, the Olympics, engineering, etc.
