Exploring the Origins of Early Civilizations

When we think of ancient or disappeared civilizations, Egypt, Greece, Rome come to mind, but in other contexts other thousand-year-old civilizations have developed.

Some have totally disappeared, others have been absorbed by new peoples, others still resist today.

Our species, Homo Sapiens, dates back 300 thousand years, but we learned from our predecessors to use tools.

With the ability to create we have managed to provide for our primary needs: to eat, and have a safe place away from predators.

To be even safer, humans have learned to live in societies with governments, laws, hierarchies and social organizations.

We have created myths and legends to explain our origins, the difficulties of life and the mysteries of the sky and stars.

Early civilizations can be defined by several improvements in their way of life: development of agriculture, complex architectural, political and economic systems, technology, writing and artistic depictions.

With these advances for humanity in mind, we will take a look at seven civilizations in different historical eras and their impact on our contemporary society.

Mesopotamia: cities, writing and early empires

Mesopotamia refers to the broad region centered on the Tigris and Euphrates river systems. It formed part of the wider Fertile Crescent, where agriculture, villages and eventually large urban societies developed over thousands of years.

In particular, on the banks of the Tigris up to the Zagros mountains, important crops and human settlements have developed. The major cities, from Uruk to Ur, from Babylon to Assur, followed one another or coexisted at the head of empires that took control of the area.

Southern Mesopotamian city-states such as Uruk, Ur and Lagash competed during the third millennium BCE. Sargon of Akkad later created a much larger territorial empire, while Babylonian and Assyrian states rose during later periods. Mesopotamian history was a long sequence of overlapping kingdoms rather than a simple handoff from one people to another.

Babylon is especially associated with Hammurabi’s eighteenth-century BCE law collection, though earlier Mesopotamian law codes also survive. The famous Hanging Gardens were later counted among the Seven Wonders, but their location and even their identification with Babylon remain debated.

Mesopotamian societies expanded irrigation agriculture and developed influential mathematical traditions, including base-60 notation used by Babylonian scribes. Technological developments such as wheeled transport, plows and complex metalworking emerged across Mesopotamia and neighboring regions over long periods rather than from one identifiable inventor.

Writing first developed in southern Mesopotamia largely for administration and later expanded into law, letters, scholarship and literature. The Epic of Gilgamesh preserves themes of kingship, friendship, mortality and flood tradition that became part of the wider literary heritage of the ancient Near East.

Temples and stepped ziggurats dominated many city landscapes. For Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria, cuneiform, Hammurabi and the first cities, continue with our full Mesopotamia guide.

Ancient Greece: the search for perfection

Archaeological studies have shown that present-day Greece was inhabited since the Paleolithic era, that is, 10 thousand years ago. The Cyclades islands, in the Aegean Sea, were able to develop thanks to their strategic position for trade.

Meanwhile, the island of Crete saw the Minoan civilization flourish, at the center of trade in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Ionian Seas.

The Mycenaeans created the first major civilization in mainland Greece between 1600 and 1100 BC. known for writing, Linear B, and a political system centralized in palaces. They probably disappeared with the invasion of the Dorians who began the Hellenic Middle Ages, a period of decline, abandonment of the cities and return to small rural communities.

It was precisely in this transition period, the archaic period, which goes from 600 to 480 BC. which laid the foundations for the period of maximum splendor of Greek culture: the classical period (510-33 BC)

Inca Empire: roads, quipu and administration

The Inca used knotted-cord devices called quipu or khipu for administrative recordkeeping. Knot type, position and cord structure could encode numerical information; whether some quipu also recorded more complex narrative information remains under study.

Inca history is reconstructed from archaeology, architecture, quipu and colonial-era accounts that preserve both Spanish observations and Indigenous testimony. Those written sources are valuable but must be read critically.

Spanish conquerors seized and melted large quantities of Inca gold and silver objects, destroying much elite metalwork while redirecting precious metals into the colonial economy.

The organization of the Inca civilization, which began in the 13th century and ended in the 16th century, was a great surprise to the Spaniards, who encountered a strong political system and a society that observed unwritten rules for the collective good. All this, in the largest empire in the Americas which crossed the entire Andes chain, embracing parts of today’s Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

Andean healers used extensive knowledge of plants and practiced procedures including trepanation. Old World epidemic diseases nevertheless caused catastrophic mortality because Indigenous populations had no previous exposure to pathogens such as smallpox.

The empire left an extraordinary legacy of roads, terraces, water systems and stone architecture. For the full history of Tawantinsuyu, Pachacuti, quipu, Machu Picchu and the Spanish conquest, see our Inca Empire guide.

Australian Aborigines: a leap into the Stone Age

If men got there by boat, it would be the first use of navigation in history, given that the settlement of Australia dates back to 65,000 years ago.

Before British colonization there were no official documents on the life of the native Australian peoples.

Written communication could take place via sticks of about 30 cm with engravings, but we cannot speak of writing.

For thousands of years, Australia’s native peoples have lived in unison with their land. Their belief system was based precisely on union with nature and the duty to take care of it.

The main activities were hunting and fruit gathering, given their nomadic nature.

Respect for nature and mastery of fire are the greatest legacies left by the native Australian peoples. Fire was used to keep poisonous creatures such as insects and snakes at bay, and to make the undergrowth fertile.

Social stratification was practically non-existent, as was a hierarchical system of power.

The Maya civilization: cities, writing and mathematics

Across southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and neighboring regions, Maya communities developed complex societies over thousands of years. By the Preclassic and Classic periods, powerful kingdoms built monumental cities and supported scribes, artisans, merchants, priests and royal courts.

Twentieth-century breakthroughs by Yuri Knorozov, Tatiana Proskouriakoff and other scholars showed that Maya glyphs recorded language and historical events, including royal accessions, wars and dynastic relationships.

Maya writing, archaeology and surviving Indigenous traditions reveal a politically diverse world that extended across the Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

Maya societies were not erased by the ninth-century decline of many Classic cities or by the sixteenth-century Spanish invasions. Maya communities continued throughout the Postclassic and colonial periods and remain alive today. For the full chronology, calendar, cities and evidence behind the Classic-period collapse, see our Maya Civilization guide.

Ancient Egypt: the best-known ancient civilization

The first colonies were established in the Nile Valley over 5,000 years ago. Menes was the first ruler to unify Upper and Lower Egypt, founding Memphis the capital of a series of dynasties that would rule Ancient Egypt for 3,000 years.

Like many ancient civilizations, advances in agriculture led to the creation of great cities, but not without periods of conflict and eccentric rulers.

The papyrus and hieroglyphics, the pyramids and the Egyptian deity system have been passed down and studied for centuries; there are still new findings.

The Aztecs, the masters of agriculture

Among the civilizations introduced here, that of the Aztecs is the most recent, together with the Inca, and also the least long-lasting.

The people at the center of the later Aztec Empire called themselves the Mexica. Their traditions described a migration from a homeland called Aztlan before they established themselves in the Valley of Mexico.

By the early fourteenth century, the Mexica had become part of the competitive political world of the Valley of Mexico. They founded Tenochtitlan on islands in Lake Texcoco and developed the city within an older regional tradition of intensive wetland agriculture, including chinampas.

A legend has it that the Aztecs identified the territory in which to settle, an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, thanks to the divine sign of the eagle devouring a snake.

Their complex society produced an elaborate writing system for recording official transactions and the events of daily life.

Mexica society placed unusual emphasis on formal education. Schools trained young people in religion, civic obligations, military service, history and other knowledge, although education differed according to social status, gender and institution.

As a legacy they left great architectural works, books and codes.

After the Triple Alliance formed in 1428, Tenochtitlan expanded rapidly through warfare and tribute. For the full history, society, religion and 1521 conquest, see our Aztec Empire guide.

Our ancestors built great civilizations, based on advanced agricultural, technological, political and social systems that have been passed down to us through architecture, art and writing.