Ancient civilizations live in our popular imagination and influence our ideas and practices to this day. To be PomegranateGreece, Egypt or Persia, many of us have a closer relationship with these first peoples than with neighboring countries today. But the question hangs in the air: what is the oldest civilization in history?
30 years ago, this question would have had a simple answer: the Sumerians. Around 4000 BC the first phase of the Sumerian culture arose as the oldest civilization in the region of Mesopotamia, on the territory of modern Iraq. These people are named after the city of Sumer, located a few kilometers south of the modern city of Kut. Archaeologists refer to this first phase of the Sumerian civilization as the “Uruk period”, also named after the ancient city of the same name, where many artifacts of this culture were found.
However, evidence from the last few decades indicates that the Sumerians have competitors for this title, including the ancient Egyptians.
What is civilization?
First of all, it is important to clarify the terminology used here: the concept of “civilization” tends to be vague, but in general, in order to be considered as such, a culture must meet certain requirements, such as urbanization, the scope of irrigated agriculture and writing; and the Sumerians scored points in these three areas.
Sumerian heritage
From 2000 BC the Sumerians directly gave rise to the Babylonian civilization, also located in Mesopotamia. The latter is responsible for the discovery of several mathematical concepts such as trigonometry and prime, square and cubic numbers.
The Sumerians are also believed to have invented the concept of “religion” as an institution, as can be seen from their large temples called ziggurats (see image in this article), which housed a caste of priests devoted to the cult of certain gods, according to American historian Samuel Noah Cramer. .
One goddess, Inanna, who may have originally been a fertility deity associated with the city of Uruk, saw her cult spread to other Mesopotamian cities where she became known as Ishtar, and many believe she may have influenced the creation of the goddesses. other civilizations such as Aphrodite in ancient Greece.
Moreover, the oldest systematized writing found by archaeologists belongs to the Sumerians. They recorded their daily life, their economic transactions and political processes through cuts in clay blocks, applying cone-shaped symbols.
competitors
Some scholars argue that other civilizations may be as old or older than the Sumerians. “I would say that Egypt and Sumer emerged basically at the same time,” says Philip Jones, curator of the museum’s Babylonian department. Pennsylvania Museumin Philadelphia, USA.
The wars and instability that have gripped Iraq in recent decades have deprived archaeologists of access to many archaeological sites in the Mesopotamian region, while excavations in Egypt proceeded as usual. As a result, experts have found Egyptian written records as old as Sumerian, suggesting that the first phase Egyptian civilization arose around the same time as the first Sumerian historical period, around 4000 BC.
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Another contender for the title of the oldest civilization is the Indus Valley Civilization, which spanned the regions of present-day Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan and arose around 3300 BC, according to the oldest artifacts. However, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we find artifacts as ancient as [os dos sumérios]”, says Jones.
In addition, Jones suspects that trading networks along the Indian Ocean helped the rise of the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Indian civilizations, supplying them with resources and ideas from other parts of the world.
