PART III – THE HISTORY

CHAPTER 6

§ 1. Humanity in prehistoric times

The Stone Age. While excavating the medieval site of Dmanisi in Georgia, the
archaeologists found the jaw of an ancient man and then – his foot bone. But most
sensational was the discovery of two human sculls. Nowadays there are found
five such sculls in this region.

Scientists say that the most ancient human being appeared on African continent
some 4 million years ago. It’s also generally perceived that this species settled in
Eurasia much later. Up to the modern times, the oldest remnants of the most
ancient human being found in Europe have been dated as 800.000 years old. That
is why it’s easy to imagine, what an interest and excitement caused the Dmanisi
discovery. As the scientists have proved, the human being inhabited there for
some million and eight hundred years ago. Thus, this discovery changed the date
of human settlement in Eurasia to more than twice old. That turned Dmanisi
discovery into the fact of worldwide archaeological importance.

After the paleoanthrophological studies of the remnants of Dmanisian Man, it

turned out that it was the so-called Hominid, i.e. specie of Homo Erectus.
Dmanisian Homo Erectus is the far-off ancestor of modern Homo Sapiens
Sapiens.

The slow biological evolution for several Millenniums – from Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens
Sapiens, was also accompanied by the social and technologic development. The human beings
now used to cut the stones, sharpen them for tools and weapons, as well as turned long poles into
tip-sharpened spears.

As we have already noted, the Stone Age was the longest period in the human history and it
lasted even till the end of VI millennium BC. If at the beginning of this age, the stone
tools/weapons were so roughly crafted that only most experienced archaeologists can distinguish
them from natural stones, the tools and weapons of the last period of the Stone Age really amaze
the viewers. That is why the scientists mainly divide this period into three big sub-periods –
according to the techniques of stone work up: the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic era, the middle
Stone Age or Mesolithic era, and the New Stone Age – or the Neolith Era.

As for the above-mentioned Dmanisian man, he lived in the earliest stage of Paleolithic Era – the
so-called Lower Paleolithic. This specie lived as a kind of pre-historic common herd, collecting
fruits and roots, hunting and fishing. According to the ways of finding food, the human being of
this period also can be named as savage or primitive hunter/collector.

Gradually, the human beings learned to get and to keep the fire. Using fire was such a great and
impressive event in the human history, that this fact left its trace in tales and legends of many
peoples. The most well-known amongst such is the ancient Greek story of Prometheus.

Roughly 120-100 thousand years ago, there appeared the Homo Sapiens - direct ancestor of the
modern men. The human beings of those times preferred solid stones for tools and weapons, but
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afterwards, bones and horns were mostly used. Such technological evolution took its rapid start
just some 50.000 years ago. Roughly 40 thousand years ago there appeared the Cro-Magnon man
i.e. the modern Homo sapiens as such. The scientists also call him Homo Sapiens Sapiens. He
did not differ from us neither by appearance, nor by mental capabilities. Step by step, the Cro-
Magnons settled all over the world. Studying the modern man’s genes, biologists concluded that
the original population of Homo Sapiens Sapiens consisted with only several couples and the
modern humans are their descendants.

The human being of Upper Paleolithic Era reached relatively higher stage of technological and
social development. They made various types of stone tools like knives, saws, etc. They also
started to use bones and horns for fishing - making crooks and spears. The Upper Paleolithic
itself started some 40-35 years ago and its beginning coincided with one of the most severe icing
in history. People tried to find shelter in caves and frequently had to fight with beasts to take
their dwellings there. Naturally, fire made it easier for them to survive this harsh period.

A man of upper Paleolithic era already lived as a commune, though if a tribe in the Stone Age
was matriarchal, after some time, the males used to leave their native tribe and would settle with
females of another one. The people of those epochs already had primitive beliefs and faiths, i.e.
their simple religion, that now are named by the scientists as Animism, Totemism, Fetishism,
etc.

After the evolution of religious beliefs and perceptions of afterlife, men of Upper Paleolithic era
started to bury there dead according to certain rituals. Though, some scholars argue that the dead
had been buried even before that era.

In parallel, there has evolved art that on the first stage was determined by religious necessities
and the most ancient religious rituals had been accompanied with rhythmic movements of the
body and kind of “musical” chanting.

First paintings are also dated by this period. A man of upper Paleolithic era mainly described
animals and scenes of hunting, and it’s no surprise, as hunting was most important way to get
food. The most impressive examples of such remotely ancient art are kept in the caves of
Pyrenees mountains and of the of Sahara desert. Especially notable are colored images on the
walls of Altamira (Spain) and Leasco (France) caves. These paintings on the rocks contain
information about the everyday activities and religious rituals of those times. The scenes of
hunting also carried some magical content and served yet another pragmatic goal: using this
magic, to ensure the future success.

The savage hunters of Paleolithic lived on the merge of life and death, famine following the
periods of “fat days”. In such times, only the strongest used to survive, and if the unlucky days
had been lasting for long, the tribe would change the habitation or even perish.

In general, one of the exclusive features of a human being in any time is its mobility: in search of
food or better environment, the primitive man had to cover vast distances and it became possible
thanks to the self-regulating process of metabolism (for example, the ability to sweat).

In spite of unbeneficial climatic conditions in various regions of the earth, the people of upper
Paleolithic era still managed to settle down on most part of it. To the end of Paleolithic era, some
10-12 thousand years ago, our planet was populated from Arctic to South Africa and from
Australia to Tierra del Fuego, though this population was rather sparse. The integrity of
population was proportional to the flora and fauna of the environment. That is why, most of the

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human beings inhabited tropical and subtropical zones. As for the number of Homo Sapiens
Sapiens by the end of Paleolithic era, to some estimation it varied from 20 to 10 millions.

Mesolithic Era.

Approximately 10-12 thousand years ago, the melting of last continental glaciers caused most
important geographic and climatic changes – especially in Northern hemisphere and this played
crucial role in the Human history. The change of temperature was followed by the extinction of
many those mammals that were the main food for people in the late Paleolithic era. Long-haired
mammoths and fury rhinos perished and the moose deer moved to the north, to the places of their
present inhabitance. North Africa and Central Asia mostly turned into deserts, while deep forests
and mountains appeared beyond the Alps and in the eastern Mediterranean hills became covered
with high grass.

After the retreat of glaciers, 4-5 millennia were also marked with important technologic
innovations – especially in the Near and Middle East. The stone tools and weapons were
perfected, and in the Mesolithic era, the human being invented the bow. It enabled him to kill his
prey from the distance and eventually, to dominate over the animal world.

Neolithic Era.

Approximately in VIII-VII millenniums BC, the Mesolithic Epoch was followed by Neolith –
New Stone Age. It is the epoch of fundamental changes in human history and otherwise it’s
called Neolithic Revolution. From a collector, the human being had turned into a maker: it’s
when the agriculture and cattle breading emerged, as well as sewing, knitting, pottery, etc.

It’s possible that the cradle of Neolithic civilization was the Near East, as it’s assumed that
planting seeds of cereals the women originally started in the mountains of modern northern Iraq
or Kurdistan and in the South Caucasus - the uncultivated species of wheat and barley naturally
grew in these regions.

In fact, Georgia really is one of the birthplaces of cereals: from 19 various kind of wheat, known
nowadays, 12 grew here, and 5 of them are endemic. While the men were hunting in nearby
mountains, the women that stayed in their temporary dwellings used to collect the seeds of
various plants and eventually started to cultivate them. As for the animals, it seems that
originally, human beings domesticated sheep and goats (not to speak of dogs that might have
been tamed by the hunters of Paleolithic Era). This process started roughly 10.000 years ago. As
for the cattle, its domestication is supposed to have started approximately in the VI millennium
BC. However, one thing is doubtless: it’s already proved that in VI millennium BC, there existed
developed agriculture, cultivation of wheat and barley, as well as having sheep, goats, pigs, and
may be – cattle, in domestic husbandry on the territories from western Iran to the Mediterranean,
in south Caucasus, Anatolia, and both shores of the Aegean Sea.

The emergence and development of agriculture and cattle husbandry was of the greatest
importance for human history. The nomad collector and savage hunter has gradually transformed
into farmer and cattle breeder. That enabled people in general to settle more stably at this or that
place – to accumulate more products and spend more time for such activities as art and religion.
This Neolithic revolution has changed the basics of existence of the Homo Sapiens Sapiens and
thus, turned out to be a kind of determinant for modern human civilization.
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The “invention” of the most ancient farmers was of a rather simple kind: most primitive sickle –
usually a piece of flint or sharpened fang attached to a wooden or bone handle. It was originally
used for cutting the wild grass, but eventually - to collect the cultivated cereals. As for the first
tools for planting, they were the sharp-pointed sticks and most primitive hand-ploughs – the
sharpened stones on a wooden handle. This type of agriculture still existing in most backward
regions, often is called the culture of a plough. But gradually, these primitive tools had been
modified and diversified, as well as the species of cereals.

I general, the emergence of villages and places of permanent habitation made it possible to
divide labor not only according to the age and gender, but by the degree of “professional”
skillfulness.

When the nomad peoples used to settle somewhere for permanent living, it changed its
temporary shelter – the tents made of skins or branches – by more solid and convenient
dwellings. At first it was kind of dug-outs, then – the wooden cabins, and eventually, houses of
brick or stone. The brick as a material, caused the demand for clay, and production of clay also
gave birth to the pottery and ceramics. In parallel with pottery, and may be even earlier, people
started to knit baskets, and soon they learned to weave and make fabrics. The first fabric
produced by a human being approximately on the merge of VI-V millenniums BC, was linen. It
proves that in those times the flax-plant has been already widely cultivated.

It was supposed that the first sites of urban type appeared just in the middle of IV millennium
BC, in parallel with the emergence of the fist city-states. However, the recent archeological
discoveries proved the existence of such type of communal settlements that by their structure,
radically differed from that of the hamlets. Thus, they can be considered as the first cities. One of
such is, for example, the most ancient one excavated in Jericho (Palestine) that had been
functioning from VIII millennium BC. It’s interesting to note that roughly in VII millennium
BC, this site was encircled with a massive stone wall.

The traces of other similar type of ancient cities are found in the area of Aegean Sea and some
places of the Near East. That makes undisputable that such sites in various parts of the world
should have been existing even before the Great civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. These
most ancient urban sites played kind of manufacture-commercial centers for the agricultural
communes living around them. Their existence also proves much more complex structure of
economics than it was considered possible for those faraway times.

It also should be noted that the Neolith era was the “golden age” of matriarchy, though the latter
also ended with the end of the Neolith. The appearance of metal technologies in the pre-historic
societies gave start to the new period of patriarchal relationships.

Eneolithic Era.

The first metal used by the human being was copper. Though, without some mixtures it’s a
rather soft material. Copper could not fully substitute the stone tools or weapons and that is why
this period of societal history is called the Copper-Stone or Eneolithic Era. It’s a transition stage
between the Stone Age and the times of metal; that is why, it’s not considered as an independent
historic period by many scholars. Some see it as the starting point of the Bronze period, and
others – as the last period of the Neolithic Era.

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Georgia is the part of that advanced region of the Near East, where the Eneolithic era started
rather early - in the VI millennium BC and also ended up rather early – in the first half of IV
millennium BC, when the bronze metallurgy has emerged.

Naturally, the advancement of Georgia on the first place was determined by the fact that the
copper mines had to be found in many regions of the Near East, as well as in Georgia proper.
The usage of copper considerably changed the life of pre-historic society. First of all, it made the
role of a mail more important and caused eventual substitution of Matriarchy by Patriarchy.

In the times of Eneolithic era, the agriculture developed even further: people started cultivating
more plants of various kinds; as for the cereals, if previously they had been used just as porridge,
the appearance of stone mills enabled them to start baking bread. Eventually, they also learned to
brew beer and the bread kvass. The archaeologists found the cultivated kind of vine grapes on
the territory of Georgia and Iran, and dated them as of VI-V millennium BC, that also indicates
viticulture in these regions.

However, the improvement of nourishing and living conditions caused the growth of population,
and thus, the communities still carried on at the merge of the minimal living standards. Any
natural disaster – flood, draught or swarms could have terminated the well-being of a whole
village. Stable dwelling and the population density also reinforced the risks of epidemics.
Therefore, the average rate of life was up to just 20-25 years.

The Bronze Age.

After utilizing the copper, it took several more millennia to a human being, before he could have
substituted stone with metal. It became possible only after the smelting of bronze. The bronze
itself doesn’t exist naturally – it’s a complex mixture produced by adding some other metals and
components to the copper – according to some specific proportions. A human being gradually
learned how and what to mix with copper, how to smelt it, give form and obtain bronze. This can
be considered as a starting point of metallurgy.

The bronze age started from the second half of the IV millennium BC, when in the most
advanced parts of that time world – Near and middle East, as well as at the territory of Georgia –
the stone has been substituted by bronze tools, weapons and accessories.

Te Bronze Age itself lasted more than three thousand years and is divided into three periods –
early, middle, and late Bronze ages. In the first period, the Bronze objects were not much in
quantity; the middle Bronze Age is the time of flourishing of bronze metallurgy; and in the latest
period, the human being already got acquainted with iron.

In these times, the agriculture in general, became even more developed, and it was mainly the
result of appearing ox-carried ploughs in the IV/III millenniums BC.

The Middle Bronze Age.

This period lasted from the III millennium BC till the middle of second millennium BC. The
main centers of bronze metallurgy in those times were the Balkan Peninsula, and the South
Caucasus. In the latter, the sites of bronze metallurgy were found in southern and Western
Georgia. There are mines of copper, stilbium, and arsenic that had been used by our ancestors
since III millennium BC.
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The copper had been transported from the mines down to the plains where it was smelted in the
ovens. The part of pure copper used to be exported in the foreign countries (i.e. Mesopotamia)
and another part was mixed with arsenic and stilbium – to get the bronze.

In general, the middle of the Bronze Age in the history of mankind was marked by various
important novelties. It was then also, when horses were domesticated and used not just as a
transport, but as means of warfare as well. The Middle Bronze Age in southern Caucasus is the
time of barrow-type archaeological cultures. The barrows in the Trialeti region of Georgia were
massive structures of solid stone, with 8 meters high, 100 meters in diameter and 1 of total
Square hectare. In the middle of such a construction there was tiled burial ground with depth of 6
meters and 175 of total square miters. The wooden pillars were supporting the ceiling and
sometimes, they were ornamented with golden tablets. In some cases, the dead man was laid on
the chariot set in the special chamber.

Iron Age.

The I millennium BC was marked with one more great technological achievement in the human
history: people started to work on iron. This technology was originally adopted in the east of
Anatolia and Southern Caucasus. The ancient Greeks, speaking about Georgian tribes of
Mosinics, Khalibs, and others, always stressed the fact of quality of their swords and used to
explain this by the special metal smelt technologies – unknown to the Greeks themselves.
However, in X-XVIII centuries BC, generally the quantity of iron was rather small and that is
why, this period is also named as the Late Bronze/Irion Age.

Gradually, the iron totally substituted the bronze and the Iron Age started. On the political map
there appeared powerful states and soon the process was ended by the formation of Great global
empires.

§ 2. The historical period of Early Antiquity

We have already talked about the problems concerning the periodization of History, and know
that nowadays, the history of statehood is divided into four large periods: Ancient, or antique,
Medieval, New, and modern.

The Ancient history of the world is traditionally divided by scholars into two different
“histories”: one of ancient East, and of the so-called countries of antiquity (Greece and Rome).

The term history of antiquity in the sense of Greek and Roman histories had been offered by the
Humanists in those times, when almost nothing was known about the histories of Eastern
countries and in fact, the histories of Greece and Rome were the only known history of the
mankind.

At the same time, it’s rather remarkable the difference between the early civilizations of the
ancient East and the States of relatively later period. That is why when we are studying the
period of antiquity in the human history, it would be better to divide it into two large stages: the
early antique and the late antique sub-periods, where the earlier one is the time of more or less
developed statehood, and the later – the epoch of merging and developing of Great global
empires.

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In spite of such division in time of the period of antiquity, speaking from the point of view of the
basics for economic development, the antique civilizations may be grouped in a following way:
the great river civilizations, i.e. the countries developed thanks to the advanced agriculture; the
countries that developed thanks to naval trade – i.e. naval civilizations, and nomad nations whose
development had been based on the cattle-breed.

The agricultural, i.e. the great river civilizations of the ancient East.

As we already know, any civilization of Antiquity, first of all, was an urban one. In fact, the
urban-type sites of Neolithic and Eneolithic eras, had been transformed into large centers of trade
and craftsmanship, and eventually developed into large, well-known cities of antiquity in the
Bronze Age. They had strong defense walls, squares, temples and other cult constructions, baths,
as well as their own political rule and civil institutions appropriate to such governance.

For the period of antiquity, the military-political domination of cities over the neighboring
villages is characteristic; the cities of antiquity, with their satellite territories, originally
represented small statehoods ruled by a king or officials elected by the city population. That is
why, scholars name them as city-states or Poleis. Generally, Polis is the Greek equivalent for the
word “city”. This name was commonly used in relation with any city-states of antiquity only for
the reason that this type of statehood took most developed form in ancient Greek realm: the old
Greek civilization, during most part of its history, was mainly the civilization of such
independent cities, i.e. poleis.

In other cases, the city-poleis gradually had been invaded and united by one, most powerful city-
states. That is how many big states of antiquity had been developed and their names practically
derive from their main capital cities: Assyr=Assyria, Babel=Babylon, Rome=Roman Empire,
etc. As for the most ancient kingdom of kartli in Eastern Georgia, i.e. Iberia according to the
ancient Greek sources, it had been named after the city of Kartli in the gorge of Armazi – located
to the north-west to Tbilisi.

As the cities of antiquity at the first place were the centers of trade and craftsmanship, they
emerged on the banks of great rivers or on the sea-shores, i.e. main arteries of trade and
transportation. Even in the early and middle Bronze ages, the trading routes were rather
important for the success of any civilization.

The period of antiquity in the human history was the starting point of statehood – the antique
society had already worked out the stable laws for securing the private property. The wealth had
been transferred from a father to his children, and the economic independence of women was
guaranteed by her dowry, which stayed untouched from brothers, husband or children all through
her life. In general, the antique society defended the private property rather strictly, and theft or
burglary was severely punished.

The antique society reached considerably high level of commerce and usury. The people in those
times already knew such economic categories as profit, loss, benefit, loan, etc. In the same
period there developed entrepreneurship, systems of labor division and labor organization. In the
end of early antiquity there had been coined first metal money and emerged the embryonic forms
of banking institutions.

The most ancient states emerged in Asia and Africa, and as we have already noticed, that is why
the scholars also name this period as the history of the ancient East. However, this name is rather
conventional: the term itself – “Ancient East” implies the vast territories from the Mediterranean
and Aegean seas to the Pacific, where in the basins of big rivers there emerged various most
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ancient states. They all had much in common: the warm and mild climate, fertile soil (though it
needed irrigation) and rivers that flooded seasonally and covered large territories, and that also
urged the people living in these regions towards the necessity of developing irrigation. So, we
may say that the economic basics of those first civilizations were founded on rather productive
agriculture.

But what made this agriculture so productive? The exclusive characteristics of the soil,
especially beneficial climate, and the ability to produce more with less labor inputs?

Not at all! Just on the contrary – the basins of the big rivers of the ancient East – Nile, Tigris,
Euphrates, Indus, Hwang Ho and Yangtze, Sir Darya and Amu Darya – were the regions where
to harvest crop was rather labor-intensive. Moreover, it was almost impossible without well-
planned artificial irrigation. Thus, it can be said that mankind should be thankful to the rather
unbeneficial natural conditions for flourishing agriculture of the first civilizations. These
conditions urged human beings to work harder and show more skills to get food and avoid
starvation. The irrigation works of such scale needed not only personal skills and labor, but the
united and well-organized activities of many people. This could be possible only in case of
statehood and institutions to organize and direct such activities. Namely, the necessity to
organize collective labor gave stimulus for emerging the first states of the Ancient East.

The states of ancient east were as follows: the ancient Egypt on the river Nile in the North-East
Africa; the city-states of Sumer, the kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria in Mesopotamia, the
antique states in China and India, the kingdoms of Hittites, Phrygia, and Lydia in the Asia Minor
(on the territory of modern Turkey); Xorazm, Bactriya, and Sogdian kingdom in the Central
Asia, and the ancient states of Mydia and Achaemenid Persia – on the territory of modern Iran.
As for the latter, it united the most part of ancient eastern countries and formed the first real
empire in the human history – spread from Eurasia to Africa.

The states of the ancient East also existed on the south-eastern shore of Mediterranean sea: the
city-states of Phoenicia, and kingdoms of Israel and Judea. In the Southern Caucasus there were
kingdoms of Kolkhis and Urartu.

The ancient Egypt.

One of the most ancient states emerged in Egypt and let’s begin our survey of the history of
ancient East from this starting point. The ancient Egypt had been situated in the north-east Africa
and its borders mainly coincided with the borders of modern ARE. Here, on these territories, the
agricultural lands go parallel in relatively narrow stripe with one of the world’s biggest river –
Nile. Thus, in fact, the ancient Egypt may be considered as the “Country of Nile”. The
productive soil of Nile valley contrasts the hot sands of desert that surrounds the Nile delta. That
is why the Egyptians called their motherland Kemet (The country of Black Soil) and so, differed
it from the desert with red soil or the so-called Deshet.

The Europeans originally got acquainted with the history of ancient Egypt through the works of
antique Greek and roman historians. One of the first amongst them was Herodotus, who visited
this land in the V century BC and described the myths, legends and historic stories of the locals.
Rather precise notes about the ancient Egypt can be found in the works of Strabo – like
Herodotus, he himself traveled to Egypt and one of the books of his opus, The Geography is
dedicated entirely to this country. In spite of all this, the written relics of Egypt itself were
unknown for the scientists till XIX century. The case is that the Egyptians used hieroglyphic
writings and after the fall and elimination of Egyptian civilization, there was nobody to read such
scriptures. The new attempt to decipher hieroglyphs had been taken when the French – in time of
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Napoleon’s raid in Egypt – discovered big tablet of basalt near Alexandria. It contained the same
text in three writings – Egyptian, Demotic, and ancient Greek. This tablet is known under the
name of Rosetta stone.

The first states on the territories of Egypt appeared in the IV millennium BC. Originally, there
had been formed two – Upper (northern) and Lower (southern) Kingdoms – along the river Nile.
It is said that the ruler of the Southern Egypt – Pharaoh Menes united these two kingdoms and
made the city of Memphis the capital of United Egypt. The integration of country was such an
impressive event for the Egyptians that Menes was declared as God and this tradition went from
this time on.

The Egypt is famous by its pyramids that had been built as the burial places for pharaohs. The
classic Egyptian pyramid as such, is considered to be one of the most perfect architectural forms.
By its size, most impressive is the pyramid of pharaoh Kheops: with its 146,6 meters height it
equals to a 48-store building. Traditionally, the history of Egypt is divided into the periods of
Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The pyramids had been built only in the period of Old
Kingdom, though they still stay as symbols of Egypt in general.

In the period of Middle kingdom, there developed foreign trade, and the ships of Egyptian
merchants used to reach the islands of the Aegean Sea; though most advanced in the history of
Egypt it was the period of New Kingdom that lasted from XVI century BC till XII century BC. It
was marked with previously unprecedented military victories and growth of welfare.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped many gods and main deities were the gods of Sun – Ra,
Amun, and Aton. The God of fertility – Osiris used to die periodically and then again revive like
nature itself. The desert had its own god – the cruel Set, and etc. and etc.

One of the greatest reformers of the period of the New Kingdom was Amenhotep IV (Eknaton),
whose attempts to establish monotheism in Egypt ended with no success. His wife was Nefertiti
– famous for her beauty. She was rather witty as well – after the scrupulous analyze of historical
sources, the Egyptologists assumed that she even ruled the country as a pharaoh herself –after
her husband’s death. Their son – Tutankhamen – was on the Egyptian throne for short time,
because he unexpectedly died young – in some suspicious circumstances.

In the 20-ies of the XX century, the English archaeologists excavated his richly ornate tomb.
Tutankhamen turned out to be luckier after death then in his life – his burial place was the only
one that stayed untouched and the pieces of art found there, still amazes the viewers.

However, the New Kingdom reached its peak of power in times of Ramses II, also named as
pharaoh “Ramses the Great”. He conducted many successful wars and enlarged the borders of
Egypt in almost every direction. However, after the death of Ramses II, Egypt gradually
weakened and in the last quarter of VI century BC, it had been conquered by the Achaemenid
Persia.

The culture of ancient Egypt had great influence over the countries of ancient East as well as
over the Greeks. It’s hard to imagine the history of development of modern world’s art,
architecture or literature, without the achievements of the Egyptians. The roots of such discipline
as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, are also to be found in the ancient Egypt.

The Egyptians were sure that a man still continues life after death, and that is why they used to
mummify corpses. There are still to be found thousands of such mummies. This practice itself
was due to the detailed knowledge of anatomy. The Egyptian medics were famous throughout
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the antique world, and as it became evident, the pharmacology also was rather advanced there.
Judging by the deciphered recipes, some medicines consisted of 30 or even more ingredients.

The building of pyramids, palaces and temples, as well as constructing the irrigation systems,
accumulated the great knowledge of engineering in Egypt; this knowledge was mainly based on
rather high level of mathematic science. People went to Egypt from other countries to study this
discipline – for example, the well-known Archimedes stayed several years in Egypt to study
mathematics there. Astronomy was also advanced in Egypt: even the great Julius Caesar ordered
to form a new calendar to the Egyptian scholar, Ptolemy.

As we have already noted, the ancient Egypt was notable by the surprising growth of agricultural
production, and it resulted in the considerable growth of population too. Egypt, with its
developed irrigating systems, eventually became the main producer and exporter of wheat in the
antique world.

The Egypt also was a country of most developed written traditions. They used stones and papyri
as the material for writing. Many such papyri containing texts of religious character or creative
writings survived till today. The music was also very popular there – the most of it had been
played on various string instruments and percussions.

The Sumerians.

Another region of the world where the most ancient states had emerged was Mesopotamia. This
geographic term implies the territories between the two big rivers – Tigris and Euphrates, and its
most part now is inside the borders of Iraq. The statehood here was first established by
Sumerians. They say that this people appeared in the southern part of Mesopotamia in the middle
of IV millennium BC. However, until now, the origin of this people and their language is still
vague.

Roughly, until the year 4500 BC, the southern Mesopotamia was populated much more sparsely,
than the other regions of the Near/Middle east. The reason was the lack of natural resources here
that was rather unbeneficial for living. In fact, the southern Mesopotamia is an extremely wasted
land, and even no stones fit for building can be found there. However, the Sumerians
miraculously managed to turn this desert into the cradle of one of the greatest civilizations. Like
the Egyptian one, this civilization also had been based on extremely productive agriculture. The
Euphrates and Tigris in comparison with Nile were much difficult to “tame”, as their floods not
always coincided with season changes, and thus were rather unpredictable. In spite of this, the
Sumerians managed to construct the yet unprecedented system of irrigation and reached the
amazing level of agriculture productivity that resulted in considerable growth of population and
accordingly, to the labor force that made possible even further division of labor and improved
the system of economic organization. Gradually, there appeared professional viewers, potters,
and blacksmiths, etc. Eventually, there developed such disciplines as architecture and
engineering that enabled them to construct monumental buildings and temples.

As we have already noted, the only natural recourse for Sumerians was fertile soil; the maximal
usage of it needed skilled labor, strict supervision and protection. These last two functions were
carried on by the priests and social class of warriors that ruled over the population – mainly
peasants and artisans. Due to taxes and cheap labor of slaves, these rulers accumulated much
wealth that afterwards, used to be spent on constructing numerous temples or other buildings.

10
The eventual growth of cities resulted in developing of religious, cultural, literary or scientific
traditions. The cities gave birth to such disciplines as medicine, mathematics, astronomy. The
Sumerians worked out the system of measuring – length and weight, the decimal system of
counting, invented the fractional numbers, etc.

The lack of stones as building material, as well as the lack of necessary row materials for making
tools and weapons might have stimulated the use of copper and bronze in the early times of
Sumer civilization. In the cities there was great demand for imported stones as well as for
copper, and as the latter turned out to be cheaper, it had been widely used. The copper was
transported from Oman – through the Persian Gulf, as well as from Anatolia and Caucasian
mountainsides, via rivers. Thus, the metallurgy eventually became one more characteristic
feature of Sumerian civilization.

The economic necessities also determined the invention of Sumerian alphabet. The earliest cities
of Lagash, Eridu, Ur, and Uruk were not just religious, but also economic centers, and from the
temples built for worshiping the local deities, i.e. from zikkurats, there had been managed all the
religious and economic activities of the country. As for the priests, they were also responsible for
agriculture in General, and were supervising the accumulation of products, custom service, tax
paying, etc. To make records of all this, the writing - the so-called cuneiform had been invented.
This still is considered as the highest achievement of Mesopotamian civilization.

The first literary works appeared in the III millennium BC. The Sumerian literature – in the form
of myths, epos, tales, fables, lyrics – all written on the clay tablets, survived until our times. In
some of the myths we can read stories of genesis: there are mentioned Adam created by gods, as
well as myth about the Flood, when the Gods let to survive only devoted king Ziusudra and
advised him to construct a shop.

But in this literary heritage, the most notable is the epos of Gilgamesh: in it we can find the first
discussion about the problems of life and death, being and not-being… As for Gilgamesh
himself, he was the king of Uruk, one of the city-states in Sumer.

The Acadian kingdom.

Eventually, the king of neighboring city of Acadia – Sargon (Sargon the Great), brought the end
to the independence of Sumerian city-states.

As for the Acadia itself, it was situated in the North Mesopotamia, where the rivers Tigris and
Euphrates come most close to each other. The city had been founded by Semite tribes that
inhabited Mesopotamia from the middle of III millennium BC. Sargon formed the regular army
of 5,400 warriors and gradually conquered all the Sumerian cities. Soon after, he managed to
unite all Mesopotamia into one state – spread from Persian Gulf to Asia Minor.

However, in spite of invasion of the Semite Acadians, the Sumer civilization did not vanish
without trace: Even after the perishing of the Sumers, their cultural heritage influenced other
civilizations for millenniums.

The kingdom of Babylon.

From the end of III millennium BC, the leadership in Mesopotamia went to the other Semite city
of Babylon. In Acadian language “Babili” means “the Gate of God”. As for Babylon, it’s an
11
ancient Greek form of the same word. Babylon became especially powerful in times of famous
king Hammurabi. During his rule, in Mesopotamia there has been built numerous wonderful
architectural constructions, trading routes, and new irrigation systems.

In the world history, Hammurabi is mostly known as the author of the first code of laws that
survived till our times. Thus, he is the first king-legislator in the human history.

Kingdom of Assyria.

This kingdom had been named after the city of Ashur that in the III millennium BC was located
on the right bank of the river Tigris. From the south, it bordered Babylon. The ancient Greeks
called it Assyria, and that’s how the name Assyrians, i.e. Aysors has been derived.

From the Geographic point of view, Ashur considerably differed from the rest of Mesopotamia:
it was mountainous country with developed cattle breed. There also were vineyards on the slopes
that were rather exclusive for the region.

The territory of this country was crisscrossed with great trading routs, connecting Mesopotamia
with the countries of Asia Minor. Ashur had been the crossroad of trade and commerce and it
was the important source of its incomes.

Ashur entirely accepted and absorbed the achievements of Babylonian culture and
Mesopotamian civilization in general. In fact, the religion also was similar to that of Babylonian,
with the same pantheon of gods and deities, though the supreme god was one – named Assur.

Ashur became the independent kingdom – Assyria in 80-70-ies of the XX century BC. The
Assyrians showed great commercial talent and gradually established their own trading colonies
in the Asia Minor.

In the times of king Tiglatphileser I, it enlarged territories to the north, up to the shores of the
Black Sea, and even invaded the ancient Georgian country of Diaokhi – in the basin of the river
Chorokhi. This king made his kingdom on of the most powerful states of the ancient East,
though after his death, Assyria declined and lost most part of its territories.

The period of new ascendance of Assyria started in the IX century BC, when its kings raided and
enslaved several countries. Assyrian army was notorious for its brutality – devastating
everything on its way. Practically, it was a new method of warfare: they were oriented not on
economical domination over the enslaved countries, but on their total economic and physical
termination.

The main cause of these military successes was the regular and well-equipped royal army,
formed as a result of military reform. This army was accompanied by special “engineering”
troops that were able to build roads, bridges, or citadels in a short time.

Assyria reached the peak of its power in times of the king Sargon II, when it incorporated the
kingdoms of Babylon and Syria, and enlarged its territories up to the riverheads of Tigris and
Euphrates.

The heir to Sargon II moved the capital to the city of Nineveh, which had been built by his own
order. However, the most important military success was that of enslaving Egypt. Afterwards,
the period of decline followed, because the neighboring countries formed a kind of anti-Assyrian
coalition. At the end of VII century BC, they occupied the city of Ashur and then – devastated
12
Nineveh. Babylon played crucial role in the fall of Assyria, and that’s no wonder that it took
control over the most part of its territories.

The Chaldaean Babylon.

To differ the kingdom of Babylon of those times from the old one, it has been called “the New
kingdom of Babylon” or otherwise, The Chaldaean Babylon – after the ruling dynasty. This new
kingdom reached its power in the times of king Nebuchadnezzar II, which was marked with the
migration of peoples, destroying Jerusalem, and enslaving the Jews in Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar started full-scale rebuilding of Babylon, and he also ordered to build new city
citadel that was considered to be impregnable. However, after his death, the kingdom of Babylon
declined and soon after, had been invaded by the powerful king Cyrus of Achaemenid Persia.

The kingdom of the Hittites

The Asia Minor also is one of the cradles of the world civilizations. This region otherwise is
called Anatolia, and here, in the basin of the river Halis (modern Iyeshil Irmal in Turkey), there
had been formed the powerful kingdom of the Hittites in the II millennium BC.

The study of this state and civilization started in the beginning of the XX century, when the
archaeologists excavated the capital city – Khatusa – of the above-mentioned kingdom, near the
Boghaz-Coy, in some 150 kms from Ankara. There has been found about 10.000 written tablets
of clay in different writings and amongst them – the Hittite cuneiform.

This enabled the scholars to reconstruct the large periods of history of the Hittite state. It turned
out that their language belonged to the Indo-European group of languages and as for the ethnic
name, it came out from the local pre-Hittite population, which – from the linguistic point of view
– might have been in some relations with Georgians and other South-Caucasian peoples.

The Indo-European tribes settled down in Anatolia on the merge of III-II millennia BC. They
managed to assimilate the locals almost peacefully, and later, the newcomers took the name of
the aborigine Hittites. At first, there emerged several independent city-poleis, but afterwards, one
– the most powerful – enslaved others and the united kingdom of Hittites had been founded.

This kingdom reached the peak of its power in times of Hattusil III. In those times, the Hittites
dominated over the large part of northern Syria – the territory that also was under the eye of
Egypt. The war for this territory between the named kingdoms ended up with the treaty signed
by the pharaoh Ramses II, and the king of the Hittites, Hattusil III.

In the second part of the XIII century BC, the invasion of the so-called “Sea Peoples”
considerably changed the geopolitical situation in Asia Minor: these tribes of Phrygian origin
invaded Asia Minor via the Aegean Sea. These invasions resulted in the decline of the kingdom
of the Hittites and on the merge of XIII-XII centuries BC, this kingdom has perished.

However, the Hittites left great cultural heritage. In the archive of Boghaz-Coy, there were found
not just the texts of official character, but numerous records of myths, legends and even poetry.
As for the royal archive itself, it kept the autobiography of Hattusil III himself – one of the most
ancient opus of this kind in the human history.

13
As it turns out, the Hittites were well acquainted with cultural achievements of the ancient East.
In the same archive there had been found translations of many masterpieces of the world
literature, and the Gilgamesh epos amongst them. They also translated many scientific opuses of
the ancient scholars. Rather developed was architecture as well – the Hittite buildings were
outstanding by its monumentality.

The Hittite believes and faiths were rather diverse: there religion was a kind of mixture,
borrowed from the neighboring peoples, and they worshipped numerous gods and deities. That is
why the country was often called “The Land of Thousand Gods”.

Phrygian-Mushkian kingdom.

The Phrygians, who came by sea, were the Indo-Europeans like the Hittites themselves. Thus,
they managed to assimilate the latter rather rapidly, and soon after, on these territories there
emerged the new Phrygian kingdom, where the Mushkian – i.e. Meskhian tribes also played
rather important role. Some scholars consider them to be of Indo-European origin just like
Phrygians, and think they came to Asia Minor simultaneously. As for another part of scholars,
they connect them to Georgian-Caucasian realm.

Anyway, one thing is clear: during the centuries, these tribes moved to the south Caucasus and
spread there elements of Hittite civilization and played crucial role in founding and developing
the Georgian statehood.

Ancient Palestine, the kingdom of Israel-Judea.

Palestine is situated on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and in Bible it’s named
Canaan. The Jewish tribes settled there in the second half of the III millennium BC. According to
the Bible, their legendary forefather was Abraham, who had been born in the city of Ur – in
Mesopotamia. These tribes originally were nomad cattle-breeders, but their main property was
enormous flocks of sheep. The nomad Jews came to Egypt for some time and had been enslaved
by pharaoh. As Bible tells us, the prophet Moses saved them from this slavery and after 40 years
of wandering in desert, brought them to their ancient fatherland, Canaan – i.e. Palestine.

The united state of Jews – Israel, had been established in XI century BC; its founder was King
Saul, who freed his people from the oppression of the Philistines. After him, David became the
king, and he was the one who enlarged the borders of the kingdom of Israel. David took away
the city of Jerusalem from Canaanites, and declared it the capital of his kingdom. He rebuilt
Jerusalem, and proclaimed it as the Holy city.

After the death of David, his son Solomon had been enthroned. Solomon is known for his great
wisdom and his rule was marked by the great economic growth. It was the result not of just
political stability, but of the trading rout that criss-crossed the country from Egypt to Syria and
Mesopotamia. This transit trade was rather profitable for the state. Solomon the Wise paid
special interest to the city of Jerusalem: he built the royal palace and the famous temple there.
Solomon’s reign in Israel lasted for forty years.

However, gradually, in the kingdom of Israel the situation changed to the worse: relatively poor
Judea – the southern part of Palestine – started to oppose and conflict with the rich northern
region of Palestine – Israel proper. The unequal economic development of these two parts of

14
then united kingdom of the Jews resulted in disintegration into two smaller ones at the end of X
century BC: Israel in the north and Judea in the south.

This event had rather negative impact on the history of Jewish people; the weakened country
became the target for its more powerful neighbors. A first, Israel was occupied by Assyrians, and
then – Babylonians. Only after half of a century, the Jews enslaved in Babylon were allowed to
return home: this became possible after the Persian king Cyrus defeated the Babylonians.
However, the Jews lacked peace and comfort for many centuries thereafter.

Urartu.

In the IX century BC, at the sites of Lake Vani (modern Turkey) there emerged another powerful
country of ancient East – Urartu. It was typical ancient eastern state and its development was
determined by the advanced irrigated agriculture. Actually, the ancient Urartians managed to
transform these rocky and fruitless territories into the prosperous region – due to the unique
system of irrigating canals. The capital city of Urartu was Tushpa, on the south-east shore of the
named lake.

Most part of the population were Urartians themselves, that are considered to be of Hurrian
origin and their language had some kinship with south-Caucasian languages.

The end of the IX and the first half of VIII centuries BC is the period of flourishing the Urartu
Kingdom, when the kings Menua, Argisht I, and Sardur II ruled the country. All of them carried
out the full-scale invasive wars in all directions and considerably enlarged the territories of their
kingdom. They defeated Assyrians for several times and took away their territories in northern
Syria and northern Mesopotamia.

In the southern Caucasus, the Urartians straggled with ancient Georgian kingdom – Diaokh
(Daiaen) – i.e. Taokh. At the same time, they managed to occupy the valley of Ararat and
founded two big cities there: Argishtikhinil (lately – Armavir) and Erebuni (near the capital of
modern Armenia).

Though, we may suggest that the progress of Urartians into the depths of south Caucasus was
blocked by the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kolkha (Kolkhida – according to the Greek
sources). The survived epigraphic scriptures manifest the proud quotations of Urartian kings
about their victories over Kolkha; however, it seems that this was true only partially, as they
occupied only the southern marginal part of Kolkha, but couldn’t intrude into the heart of the
country.

In the second half of the VIII century, the Scythians and Cimmerians appeared in the south
Caucasus and temporarily weakened Urartu; however, soon the Urartians managed to benefit
from the power of these nomad tribes: as at the end of the VIII century, they defeated Assyrians
and simultaneously ruined the cities of Phrygians and Mushks.

In the beginning of the VI century, Urartu itself had been crashed down by its south-eastern
neighbor – the Persian kingdom of Media. After the fall of Urartu, part of its population moved
to the north and assimilated with Georgian tribes. Another part of them mixed with the Indo-
European Armenian tribes that migrated to the territories of Urartu proper. That is why important
part of Urartian vocabulary has dispersed in Georgian and Armenian languages. As for Georgian,
we can find the words of this origin in various idioms like “kiramala” (topsy-turvy), “tavdakira”
15
(upside-down), gadakiraveba (turning over), etc. We wouldn’t have understood the meaning of
these words without knowing that “kira” in Urartian language meant “land” or “earth”. Also of
Urartian language are such refrains of Georgian folk songs as ivri-arale, hari-arale, hari-arale.
To day, they bear no sense for modern Georgians, but in fact, these refrains are dedicated to the
Urartian deity of productivity – Harale/Arale and can be translated as “God Arale, the powerful
Arale, be good to me, Arale”.

The name “Urartu” itself is the form that Assyrians used in relation with this country. Of the
same root is the name of Mount Ararat.

The kingdom of Kolkhida, a.k.a. kingdom of Egrisi.

The most ancient Georgian kingdom in the western part of the country is called Egrisi –
according to the “Life of Georgians”. As for the Urartians, their scriptures named the same
kingdom as Kulkha, and Assyrians mentioned it as Kilkha. In ancient Greek sources, Egrisi
originally is called Aia, and lately – as Kolkhida. In the Georgian historiography, and then in
geography too, the term “Kolkheti” has been established in the XX century, but it is an
artificially constructed form. It would be proper to name this first Georgian kingdom of antiquity
as Egrisi, Aia, or Kolkhida.

The ancient Egrisi is also the first known kingdom of the whole south Caucasus. The records
about it are kept in the Greek myth about the Argonauts: these Greek heroes sailed to Kolkhida
on their ship Argo. The event took place in the beginning of the XIII century BC.

The ancient Egrisi – typical kingdom of early antiquity emerged after the cultivation of the
territories in the basins of Rioni and Enguri rivers. Originally, the vast valley in the eastern part
of the Black Sea shore was swampy and unbeneficial for agriculture. The emerging of the
kingdom of Egrisi is connected with those irrigation canals and drainage systems that our
forefathers constructed in this region in early antiquity. According to the myth of Argonauts,
Kolkhida or Aia, was a country rich with gold, it had its own fleet and rather developed urban
life. The Kolkhis also worked out their own system of writing that Greeks named as Kirbs.

The ancient India

In spite of the diversity of geographic and climatic conditions, India - from the most ancient
times, constituted unified realm, where the agricultural tribes and peoples were neighboring with
nomad cattle-breeder ones.

For the progress of agricultural civilization, the valleys of the rivers Hindis and Ganges were
especially beneficial and in fact, in the IV-III millennia, in parallel with Mesopotamian and
Egyptian civilizations, the ancient Indian civilization had emerged here. It also was based on the
irrigated agriculture.

The archaeological excavations revealed the centers of ancient urban civilization with sites of
city of Harappa and this civilization is now called according to this place.

These Excavations made clear that the Harappa society had been occupied with developed
agriculture and husbandry. Also, craftsmanship was very advanced in the cities, and the local
masters were the first to start manufacturing and knitting cotton. There were also skillful potters
16
and goldsmiths. The cities of Harappa had been built with great skill and taste with lot of
temples, palaces, baths, etc. the success of this civilization was doubtlessly due to the intensive
trade that merchants held with faraway countries. Unfortunately, the writing of Harappa is still
not deciphered and that is why, we cannot say much about the politics, religion and life of its
society.

The Harappa civilization had been spread over such a vast territory, that it’s hard to imagine that
it had no military forces. The scholars also suggest that Harappa had the republican structure of
political rule, or the theocracy - that means the rule of priests or clergy.

On the merge of the III-II millennia, the Harappa civilization fell down. The reason was invasion
of the Indo-European tribes of Arians. They were of Iran origin and linguistically, showed some
kinship with ancient Persians. Gradually, they occupied the whole territory of modern India,
eliminating the whole local population.

The Arian society had been divided into castes. The first and the supreme was the caste of
Brahmans – i.e. the priests; the second – that of warriors, and the third – that of peasants. The
lowest one was of Shudras, who – like slaves, were occupied with most difficult and heavy labor.
Scholars suggest that this caste was composed of defeated and enslaved survivals of the previous
civilization. Unlike hierarchy, where one could change position, here the caste was absolutely
self-contained social structure, where nobody had any right or ability to move from one to
another. This structure officially had been abolished only in 1977.

It may be said that after the Arian invasion, the history of India started anew. That’s because in
the mentality of the population, the pre-Arian period is totally forgotten. In fact, the old Indian
tradition considers the kingdom of Arian legendary king – Bharata as the first State on the
territory of India. Bharata integrated the whole Indian peninsula and formed the united kingdom
of Bharatavasha. That’s why the locals now call their state not India, but Bharata.

The Ancient China.

China is one of the biggest states in the world. The civilization of ancient china emerged on the
territory between the rivers Hwang Ho and Yangtze. The ancient Chinese traditions of statehood
that survived up to our times are similar to that of Egyptian and Mesopotamian. The kings’ rule
here also had been imposed by the need to manage water resources, to develop agriculture and to
distribute food.

According to the Chinese historical tradition, the most ancient Chinese kingdom had been
formed in the beginning of the III millennium (2950 BC). The very first monarch is considered
to be Hu Sia. That is why, the rule of Sia family is called “the period of Sea dynasty.” According
to the same historical tradition, Hu Sia banned the practice of incest - the marriage between close
relatives. He also implemented many of those rules and habits that are still kept by the
population. As the legend goes, he was the founder of Chinese hieroglyphic writing. The next
king of this dynasty had been named as “Heavenly Sent Agriculturist”, because it was he who
transformed the nomad Chinese into farmers and peasants. The grandson to Hu Sea – Huang Di
gave final shape to the hieroglyphic writing and also started silk manufacturing in his kingdom.
In times of his rule, there had been built the first bridges and the first two-wheel and four-wheel
carts. His time was marked by developing craftsmanship and many such branches of science and
art as astronomy and architecture.

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From the beginning of the XVI century BC, the Shan dynasty overtook the Sia dynasty and
became the ruler of the country. This dynasty reached the peak of its power in the second half of
the second millennium BC.

The records about the Shan kingdom are written on the bones. In fact, the animal bones were
used to forecast future. One of the most important functions if the priests were to foresee and
predict gods’ wills. Then the scholars used to make scripts of this forecasts on the bones. The
records make clear, what the Chinese wanted to know most of all, and they also help us to
reconstruct various aspects of the life of ancient Chinese society.

The emperors of the Shan dynasty were great reformers as well, and there activities pushed the
society for advancement. For example, the Emperor U Din was famous engineer, who managed
“to tame the forces of nature and subdued rivers to canals.” The early folk tradition connects the
same period of time with such a rapid urban development, that “the celebrations for settling the
new ones never stopped.”

The chronology of the rule of U Din is not quite clear, but traditionally, his government is dated
by the first half of the XIII century BC. He was remembered even after thousand years and his
rule was always considered exceptional for the Chinese society. In general, the kings and
emperors of the Shan dynasty spent the most part of their lives in wars, and it was important
source of their wealth. Their tombs are surprisingly luxurious.

The Shan dynasty declined in XI century BC, and the country was occupied by the semi-nomad
tribes of the Zhou people.

§ 3. The civilizations of sea-trade in early antiquity.

It’s conditional name for those countries in early antiquity that went through economic growth
not by structuring irrigation systems and thus increasing productivity, but developed thanks to
navigation and sea-trade. That was the main source of income for such states as Crete, Mycenae,
Phoenicia, and Greece of classic times.

On the island of Crete the archaeologists found two different types of writing: one of them,
conventionally named as A-linear – is a pictographic one, and is still not deciphered for the time
being. The second – B-linear – was deciphered in the 50-ies of the XX century and it made clear
that the Cretans were talking language rather similar with the Greek one.

The most ancient state on this island had been formed as far as in the end of the III millennium.
The excavations carried out on the place of the ruined Knossos revealed a big palace that is
considered to be the living place of the Cretan king Minos.

According to the folk tradition, in center of this palace set a beast – Minotaur, to whom the
human beings had been sacrificed. The kingdom of Crete reached the peak of its power XVIII-
XVI centuries BC. At those times they had very powerful army, in which important role was
played by the battle-carts. However, the Cretans became especially famous for their fleet –
thanks to which they dominated in the Mediterranean till the island was demolished by a
volcano.

In the first half of the second millennium BC, the population of the ancient Greece mainly
consisted of Acadian tribes; as for the city-poleis, the leadership was of Mycenae’s, and that is
18
why, this ancient period of Greek history is called the Mycenae. The excavations revealed that in
Mycenae there were citadels, palaces and a lot of workshops.

After awhile, the trading interests of the Mycenaean Greeks conflicted with the interests of the
city-state of Troy, which had been situated on the shore of the Aegean Sea near the channel of
Dardanelles. Troy – or, otherwise – Ilion controlled this channel and it was rather problematic
for the Greeks, as they themselves tried to sail the Black Sea and get the naval trade routes via
this and the Marble Seas. All these caused the Greeks raid towards Troy. After the ten-year
siege, they managed to defeat the Trojans and this history is immortalized in the epos of the great
Greek poet Homer, The Iliad.

But soon, the Mycenae had been invaded by other Greek tribes from the north – the Dorians that
were on far less level of development. In spite of this, gradually they managed to occupy the
most part of Greece and ruined the city-poleis of the Achaeans.

That was the end of the first – Achaean era of the Greek civilization.

The Phoenicians.

The Phoenician city-states should be considered as one of the most powerful sea-trade
civilizations of the early antiquity. On the Mediterranean seashore of Phoenicia, the city-states of
Tyre, Gebal (Byblos), and Sedona existed from the ancient times. The fall of Mycenaean Greece
left Phoenicians without powerful rival and stimulated their rapid development. In fact,
Phoenicia itself was a prolongation of Palestine to the north, and its ancient population was of
Semite origin – from Canaan.

As for the name of Phoenicia, it’s derived from the Greek word meaning “people”. That is how
the Mycenaean Greeks had been calling the country of Canaan and then this name spread
throughout the whole antique world.

It should be noted that in spite of common name, the Phoenician city-states – unlike other eastern
analogies, had never been united into one.

Phoenicia was a prosperous region, well-known for its gardening, vinery, and timber. The bays
and rivers falling into the Mediterranean were especially beneficial for developed fishing and
navigation. In fact, navigation and sea-trade helped the Phoenician cities to accumulate great
wealth. One of the most important transit trading routs of the ancient world also passed along the
Phoenician seashore and it’s no wonder that the Phoenicians themselves actively participated in
this transit trade. It should be noted that the experienced Phoenician merchants from the city of
Byblos had some trading relations with Egypt even from the IV millennium BC. For the XIII
century BC, the Phoenicians also possessed the Cyprus Island. For more successful foreign trade
and stable merchandise relations, Phoenicians used to settle alongside the trade routs and thus,
on the merge of II-I millennia BC, established numerous colonies in northern Africa, Sicily,
Sardinia, and at the seashores of France and Spain.

As for the cities established in the northern Africa, the most well-known and prosperous was
Carthage. We must note that the Phoenicians were also the first to invent the ABC.

The Greece of the Classic Period – the Hellenes.

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The new rise of Greek culture and statehood started in the IX-VIII centuries BC. The Greeks of
that period called themselves Hellenes and mainly, populated the southern part of Balkan
Peninsula, islands of the Aegean Sea, and the western shore of Asia Minor. Traditionally, the
Greek territory on the Balkan Peninsula proper was called Ellada, and the territories populated
by them at the shore of Asia Minor – Ionia.

There are some 800 islands in the Aegean Sea. Most famous are Lesbos, Samos, and Rhodes.
The Greek territories geographically located on the Balkan Peninsula are divided into three parts:
Northern, Middle, and Southern - otherwise called Peloponnesus.

The scholars name this period of Greek history (IX-VI cc. BC) as Classic Era, which is marked
with such important event in the human history, as the Great Greek Colonization. This process
developed into three directions: to the west, the ancient Greeks colonized the southern Italy,
Sicily, and the Mediterranean shore of modern France and Spain. Among the cities found on
Sicily, there should be mentioned Syracuse – the birthplace of the famous ancient Greek scholar,
Archimedes. On the French seashore, the Greeks founded the city of Marsil – the Modern
Marseille.

In the process of colonization to the east and north-east, as well as regions in the basin of the
Black Sea, the most important role was played by the city of Millet. It founded more than 80 new
cities on the shores of Marble and Black seas. Several cities, like Amiso, Kerasunt, Kotiora, and
Trapesunt had been founded on the territories taken away from Kolkhida. Afterwards, the Greeks
founded the trading colonies on the territories of Kolkhida proper – in the eastern part of the
Black Sea coast: Phasis (Poti) and Dioscuria (Sokhumi). In the same times, the Greek poleis
appeared in the northern part of the Black Sea – on Crimean peninsula and its neighboring
regions.

After the emergence of the Greek colonies, Kolkhida became more integrated into the Greek
realm and got acquainted with the achievements of Greek culture. These two countries had
intensive naval trades and Kolkhida took active part in that-time world’s sea trade.

The Greeks supplied the world market with various products and goods like olives, wine, oil,
high-quality, richly ornamented pottery, perfumes, etc.

§ 4. The nomadic, cattle-breeder civilizations of early antiquity.

These kinds of civilizations were one more economic-political model of early

antiquity. Generally speaking, the period of nomadic way of life was natural for
almost any agricultural civilizations, before peoples there settled down and started
cultivating soil. First of all, we should mention Jews as an example, whose life as
nomadic tribes is recorded in the Bible. However, we lack information about
those nomadic people because they had not left any monuments, buildings,
constructions or written relics.

More or less valuable information we have about Cimmerians and Scythes. The
former appeared in the ancient world in the 30-ies of the VIII century BC, and the
latter followed them soon after. By their way of life they both considerably
differed from the other peoples populating the Front-Asia: their “homes” were
covered wagons for transporting children, elders, and possessions. The
Cimmerians and the Scythians had been followed by their sheep and cattle. That
was their main property and wealth. In search of the better pastures, they often
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changed the places of habitation and it was no problem for them to cover
hundreds or even thousands of miles. Even more so, when the wealthy kingdoms
of the Front-Asia were good targets for raids and looting. The Cimmerians and the
Scythes had no cities, no statehood, and they did not use any writing at all. That is
why, they had been considered as savages - from the point of view of other
peoples inhabiting the Front-Asia. But in fact, it was not quite so: as the
excavation of Scythian barrows revealed that they were rather skilled craftsmen,
manufacturers, and produced golden, silver, iron and bronze weapons and
amazing accessories. Living severe nomadic lives, these tribes were exclusively
good warriors, and it can be proved by the root of Georgian and Armenian words
for “hero” (gmiri – gimiri) that had been derived from Cimmerian tribal name.

History kept more records about the Scythians. We know that the used to breed
horses and were famous in this field. All their army consisted of rider archers,
who used to attack enemy with outstanding speed. This way of warfare was
unfamiliar for other peoples that were mostly unmounted and armed with long
spears. The Cimmerians and the Scythians raided southern Caucasus, Asia Minor
and even reached the borders of Egypt. Many of them afterwards settled down in
Front-Asia as well as in the Southern Caucasus. The name of one of the regions of
Georgia even carries the name of Trialeti – evidently derived from Cimmerian
tribe of Trels.

All the abovementioned three kinds of civilizations that emerged in antiquity, had
notable success for a time, but sooner or later, most of nomadic peoples had to
settle down and transform into the agricultural nations. However, it came out to
be a long-term process, and even nowadays, some more or less large tribes still
use to live in tents and lead a nomad way of life.

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