Alright folks. Here is another topic for discussion. In all of the ancient civilizations, which one remains the most impressive. What are some of the most impressive advancements and inventions of these civilizations. Just anything thats interesting about them.

 

 

Lets see how this goes.

Probably Ancient Rome. It for a while had the most advanced government and it took a thousand years for civilization to get back up to par with the peak of roman civilization.

The Mayans had one of the most advanced calendars. They built temples that celebrated the equinox. The great pyramid at Chichen Itza is amazing in that the shadows from the stairs project a serpent exactly at the Spring equinox on March 21.

The Greeks. Just go to DC, and look around. I'm not just talking about the buildings either. They gave us a system that works, they gave us THE system. They showed us how individuals could band together to defeat a common enemy (Persian Wars). They gave us the Olympics. They taught the Romans most of what made them great. Today's society is mostly thanks to what the Greeks left behind.

Egypt. They created buildings that have remained almost completely intact for thousands of years.

where do the aztecs fit in?

where do the aztecs fit in?

or how about the Mayas?

Indians aren't the only races people forget about. How about the germanic tribes? The Slavic peoples? The Mongols? The Persians? The people from Scandinavia? Those 'other' civilizations from Ancient Europe/Asia/Middle East/Africa are often ignored, but they often had HUGE impacts on society today.

Indians aren't the only races people forget about. How about the germanic tribes? The Slavic peoples? The Mongols? The Persians? The people from Scandinavia? Those 'other' civilizations from Ancient Europe/Asia/Middle East/Africa are often ignored, but they often had HUGE impacts on society today.

I guess you could talk about Hammurrabi's Code, the first known written set of laws in history.

Ancient Greek civilization in my opinion.

Indians aren't the only races people forget about. How about the germanic tribes? The Slavic peoples? The Mongols? The Persians? The people from Scandinavia? Those 'other' civilizations from Ancient Europe/Asia/Middle East/Africa are often ignored, but they often had HUGE impacts on society today.

I guess you could talk about Hammurrabi's Code, the first known written set of laws in history. Actually they were not. They are just as far as I know the oldest remaining set of complete laws.

 

Hammurrabi implies that other laws existed before his, just they are not as complete and he in many ways takes his laws from varous sources and puts them together.

 

 

Also why has nobody mentioned the Chinese?

 

Lastly, what constitutes an ancient civilization?

Indians aren't the only races people forget about. How about the germanic tribes? The Slavic peoples? The Mongols? The Persians? The people from Scandinavia? Those 'other' civilizations from Ancient Europe/Asia/Middle East/Africa are often ignored, but they often had HUGE impacts on society today.

I guess you could talk about Hammurrabi's Code, the first known written set of laws in history. Actually they were not. They are just as far as I know the oldest remaining set of complete laws.

 

Hammurrabi implies that other laws existed before his, just they are not as complete and he in many ways takes his laws from varous sources and puts them together.

 

 

Also why has nobody mentioned the Chinese?

 

Lastly, what constitutes an ancient civilization? Fine, the first WRITTEN code of laws.

Great Civilizations pt. 1 of 5; "The Celts"

 

 

 

?The Celts?

 

Proud and ancient are the Celts. Here is their world and their culture. They and their history date back to the earliest times in human history. The lands of poets and heros and kings. Their's are the lands of mists and mystery, of heros and maidens, and of Arthur the King. They are varied, yet share a common bond; they are different, yet they are alike; they are separate, yet they are one. For they are indeed, the lands of dreams and legends. From the mists of the highlands, to the emerald isle, to the rocky coasts of Wales and Cornwall, here then are the Celts and their world. As a famous saying goes, "Before man, there was time. Before time, there were Celts."

The Celts were a varied people, unified only in the basics of their religion and language. Celtic culture between Scotland, Britain, Ireland, Mann, Iberia, and the Rhine Valley was vastly different. This brief look into Celtic culture will just account for generalizations for the sake of conserving space.

 

Among ancient European peoples were the Celts--muscular, red-haired wanderers who probably came from the distant steppes beyond the Caspian Sea. By 500 BC they were living in northeastern France, southwestern Germany, and Bohemia. The Celts, continued to migrate in all directions.

 

In Asia Minor they founded the kingdom of Galatia. St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians in the New Testament is addressed to the descendants of these Celts. In Britain, Celtic warriors overran and conquered the islands.

 

The Celts were pushed out of their lands with the conquering Legions of Rome, and eventually assimilated into Roman society. The last two strongholds of the Celts (Scotland and Wales) were never conquered by Rome. The Scotch and Manx Celts forced the building of Hadrian?s Wall in effort to prevent the constant raiding of northern Roman settlements. Hadrian never conquered the Welsh Celts for unknown reasons, some scholars believe that it may have been out of curiosity of these people. Others conclude that the Emperors of Rome did not believe expanding into Wales was worth the costs.

 

The Celts of Man and Scotland would eventually turn into the Picts, than the Scots through an odd mixture of pre-Viking Norse settlement and small groups of Britains and Romans migrating north. It was eventually Viking Age Norseman that would ultimately bring about the change from Pictish culture to that of modern Scotland.

 

The Welsh Celts survived in Wales until the Anglo-Saxon invasions, in which they eventually fled to Ireland. The Celtic culture never entirely disappeared from Ireland, and in the 1800?s, the Celtic Renaissance hit in Ireland. The revival was especially strong in Ireland, where it led to the writing of plays with Irish-Celtic themes. Erse, or Irish Gaelic, is now an official language of Ireland.

 

Religion

It?s nearly 4am here now, so I?m just going to copy and paste this from Compton?s Home Encyclopedia:

 

The Celts were organized loosely in tribes. Each tribe had a chief, nobles, freemen, and slaves. Usually it lived in a fortified village, often built on a hilltop, with fields and pastures outside. The tribes often fought each other. If one tribe conquered several others, its chief took the title of king.?

 

The Celts brought many new skills to the peoples they conquered. They knew how to smelt iron and forge it into useful implements. They decorated their helmets, shields, and arms with artistic metalwork and enameling. The Celts were also adept in such practical matters as curing hams, keeping bees, and making wooden barrels.?

 

Celtic priests were called druids, and their religion, druidism. Little is known of the druids because their rites were never written down. Apparently their gods were similar to those of other early peoples. The druids of Gaul were both judges and priests who sacrificed criminals to their gods. The druids of Britain were chiefly religious teachers.?

Only men of good family could become druids. Membership was highly prized because druids did not have to fight or pay taxes. The druids taught that the soul was immortal, passing after death from one person to another. They deemed the mistletoe sacred, especially if grown on an oak tree. The oak was also sacred, and druids often held their rites in an oak forest. Wise in the lore of plants, animals, and stars, the druids were also magicians and astrologers. Many ancient stone monuments were once thought to have been built by druids, but scientists now date them from pre-Celtic times.

 

Contributions

The Celtic contributions to the world include Stone Henge, Beowulf, and King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The prose poem and the ballad are also contributions from Celtic society. Any society that started that long ago, contributed what it has, and still survives (sort of) today deserves to be called on of the greatest civilizations in history.

 

 

 

Tomorrow: Carthage

I am reading this book called When In the Course of Events. Anyway, it mentions a parallel between Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln. It is really quite interesting. Anyway, the whole ancient civilization thing reminded me of this.

 

I suggest everyone read that book, btw. But first, read A Land Remembered (especially if you are a Floridian or a Yankee who moved to Florida).

 

Anyways...ancient civilizations? I'd say Greek. They contributed so much. I'd say Greek as most impressive, but I'd say I'm more intrigued by the Cherokee Indian tribes (part of the Iroquoian tribe). Pretty much I'm interested in less ancient Cherokee stuff, like from the introduction of the Europeans all the way to the American Civil War. Just wrote a paper on the Cherokee involvement in the Civil War, and similiarities between Cherokee culture and Southern American culture.

 

Ok, I'm rambling. back to topic.

What do you know about the role of disease and Native American populations, once the Europeans arrived?

What do you know about the role of disease and Native American populations, once the Europeans arrived?

I am not about to join your Oh So opinionative debates BUT i wanted to share the knowledge of the europeans where known to actually throw the blankets with plaige and other horrible diseases at the natives...

What do you know about the role of disease and Native American populations, once the Europeans arrived?

I am not about to join your Oh So opinionative debates BUT i wanted to share the knowledge of the europeans where known to actually throw the blankets with plaige and other horrible diseases at the natives... the blankets were thrown but they didnt have plague ( i assume you mean bubonic plague)

again, this isnt my area of expertise but i do know this was the case.

i dont know of any instances of bubonic plague being thrown on native populations.

 

i do know of smallpox being thrown at the natives.

Smallpox was put on blankets. That was used by AMERICANS (not Europeans) on Indians. It was also a tactic used by the Union on Southern civilians during the Civil War. FACT.

 

What can I say about disease and how it was brought over? Well, although that had nothing to do with what my paper was about, it was obviously big on killing off civilizations. It did take out different Indian tribes, but I think it was mostly famous for helping in the taking over of the Aztec civilization.

 

I know everyone heard the dumb little story about how Moctezuma believed Cortes was a god (Quetzalcoatlin), but in fact that had very very little to do with it (if true at all). In actuality, Cortes defeated the Aztecs by having superior weapons, and built an army out of rival tribes, such as the Tlaxcalans. It is said that his army actually numbered 200,000 soldiers. The original call for soldiers by the Union at the beginning of the civil war was only 75,000 I believe. So you know that is a LARGE # of warriors.

my paper on the Cherokees dealt more with the role of slavery and the actual Civil War itself.

smallpox was also using during the American Revolution and throughout the many numerous colonial Indian Wars.

 

 

Smallpox was the number one disease that killed off the Indians, vastly decreasing their populations and allowing the Ameircans a lot easier 'access' to the land and ability to overtake the Indians because of their drastically reduced populations.

 

 

 

I was just wondering.

No question on this one. The Greeks.

LMAO. I just got how ironic it is that this one is posted under CURRENT events.

LMAO. I just got how ironic it is that this one is posted under CURRENT events.

Not so ironic when you think about it.