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"A 300-year drought may have caused the demise of several Mediterranean cultures, including ancient Greece, new research suggests. A sharp drop in rainfall may have led to the collapse of several eastern Mediterranean civilizations, including ancient Greece, around 3,200 years ago. The resulting famine and conflict may help explain why the entire Hittite culture, chariot-riding people who ruled most of the region of Anatolia, vanished from the planet, according to a study published today (Aug. 14) in the journal PLOS ONE."

"Before we'd even become Homo sapiens sapiens, humans lived everywhere from South Africa up to Britain and over to China. There were mountain people, coastal people, people who hunted woolly mammoths, and people who'd never seen a woolly mammoth in their lives. Just like we see with distinct groups of other animals, these differences of experience, adaptation, and expectation would have made for real cultural and even physical differences between populations. A few hundred thousand years later, as groups began to settle down and build cities they often enclosed them within massive walls. The ways different cultures interact across those walls could be seen as the central story of civilization. Top archaeologists from around the world have been exploring that story for the past week in public presentations and conversations at the 2015 Dialogue of Civilizations in Beijing."

"All civilizations depend on available water, but not all depend on rivers. Rivers also provided ancient societies with access to trade -- not only of products, but ideas, including language, writing, and technology. River-based irrigation permitted communities to specialize and develop, even in areas lacking adequate rainfall. For those cultures that depended on them, rivers were the life blood."

"All civilizations depend on available water, but not all depend on rivers. Rivers also provided ancient societies with access to trade -- not only of products, but ideas, including language, writing, and technology. River-based irrigation permitted communities to specialize and develop, even in areas lacking adequate rainfall. For those cultures that depended on them, rivers were the life blood."

"Our big idea is centreing aorund the idea of asking the question of what is a civilization and how did it form?  Why did culture arise?  How did the environment play a vital role in the growth and development of civilizations?  What aspects of civilizations are still around today?  For our final summative assessment we will build our own civilization!  "

"Our big idea is centreing aorund the idea of asking the question of what is a civilization and how did it form?  Why did culture arise?  How did the environment play a vital role in the growth and development of civilizations?  What aspects of civilizations are still around today?  For our final summative assessment we will build our own civilization!  "

"Where some people might see only a sere landscape and crumbling stacks of bricks, he sees a civilization that became increasingly hierarchical and income-stratified, held together by ritual that came unglued when a series of droughts left too many people with not enough food. It's not a new or radical story, Stuart said. "It happened in Rome and in Byzantium.""

A ThinkQuest page with information, interactive ativities, galleries, links and vocabulary lists about Ancient Mesopotmia

"Adam Nicolson suggests that Homer be thought of not as a person but as a tradition and that the works attributed to him go back a thousand years earlier than generally believed."

Scholars of ancient history and IT experts at Stanford University have collaborated to create a novel way to study Ancient Rome. ORBIS, a geospatial network model, allows visitors to experience the strategy behind travel in antiquity. (Find a handy tutorial for using the system on the Web and YouTube). The ORBIS map includes about 750 mostly urban settlements of the Roman period

Scholars of ancient history and IT experts at Stanford University have collaborated to create a novel way to study Ancient Rome. ORBIS, a geospatial network model, allows visitors to experience the strategy behind travel in antiquity. (Find a handy tutorial for using the system on the Web and YouTube). The ORBIS map includes about 750 mostly urban settlements of the Roman period

"Learning Ancient History for Free"

"Learning Ancient History for Free"

"By 3,000 BC, the Mesopotamians had already invented the wheel, developed writing, and created the world's first cities and monumental architecture. Find out more about the many aspects of Mesopotamia's rich legacy."

"By 3,000 BC, the Mesopotamians had already invented the wheel, developed writing, and created the world's first cities and monumental architecture. Find out more about the many aspects of Mesopotamia's rich legacy."

"Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern day Iraq, is often referred to as the cradle of civilization because it is the first place where complex urban centers grew. The history of Mesopotamia, however, is inextricably tied to the greater region, which is comprised of the modern nations of Iran, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, the Gulf states and Turkey: the Near or Middle East. "

"Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern day Iraq, is often referred to as the cradle of civilization because it is the first place where complex urban centers grew. The history of Mesopotamia, however, is inextricably tied to the greater region, which is comprised of the modern nations of Iran, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, the Gulf states and Turkey: the Near or Middle East. "

"The Western Tradition is a free series of videos that traces the arc of western civilization. Starting in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the survey proceeds to cover the Byzantine Empire and Medieval Europe,..."

"The purpose of this page is to provide a source of information on all aspects of Mesopotamian mathematics. We explain the origins of mathematics in Mesopotamia from the earliest tokens, through the development of Sumerian mathematics to the grand flowering in the Old Babylonian period, and on into the later periods of Mesopotamian history. We include some general surveys to get you oriented in each period, and some more detailed resources for those interested in specific aspects of this fascinating episode in history. Like most other Web pages it is under slow construction as time permits. Some of these resources are of general interest, others are intended mainly for use by students in my History of Mathematics class. "

"Map of the ancient Near East during the Amarna period, showing the great powers of the period: Egypt (green), Hatti (yellow), the Kassite kingdom of Babylon (purple), Assyria (grey), and Mittani (red). Lighter areas show direct control, darker areas represent spheres of influence. The extent of the Achaean/Mycenaean civilization is shown in orange. On the map above: the territory between Medes and Iberia was called Ararat or Armenia, around the lake Van."

"Cuneiform script[nb 1] is one of the earliest known systems of writing,[1] distinguished by its "wedge-shaped" marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma "shape," and came into English usage "probably from Old French cunéiforme."[2]"

" Welcome to the Theoi Project, a site exploring Greek mythology and the gods in classical literature and art. The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive, free reference guide to the gods (theoi), spirits (daimones), fabulous creatures (theres) and heroes of ancient Greek mythology and religion."

"In the 12th century, all of Mesopotamia blossomed. The Islamic Golden Age was a time of thriving science, scholarship and art, including bright and vivid Persian miniatures-small paintings on paper created to be collected into books."