How do you differentiate the different overlapping growth of human civilization?
The ages of human civilizations, in history, archeology and anthropology, was a methodical categorisation based on recognisable chronological events. It was initiated in the year, 1816, by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, a Dutch Antiquarian and Curator. He classified the museum collections of the Royal Museum of Nordic Antiquities, Copenhagen. He classified the artifacts based on what materials they were made of; as Stone, Bronze and Iron Age objects. Before this, these artifacts were simply presented as objects of evolution and lacked a clear placement, in the evolution of human development with their environment.
What are the three ages of human civilization?
1. The Age of Stone
Period when weapons and implements were made of stone, wood, bone, or some such material, and during which very little or nothing at all was known of metals.
2. The Age of Bronze
Period in which weapons and cutting implements were made of copper or bronze, and nothing at all, or but very little was known of iron or silver.
3. The Age of Iron
The third and last period of the evolution of modern man, in which iron was used for those articles to which that metal is eminently suited, and in the fabrication of which it came to be employed as a substitute for bronze.
What are the other developments in the Age of Bronze?
The Bronze Age can be defined as second phase of material and human development of the modern man. It dates from :
- Early Bronze Age (3500-2000 BC)
- Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC)
- Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC)
Unsettled nomadic man from the Stone Age, started to settle into colonies which went on to form highly evolved civilizations. He started creating objects from copper and a mixture of copper and tin. Cast metal work evolved during this period. This can be deduced from clay casts of arrow heads. The organisation of mining, smelting and casting allowed the development of skilled labour and the organisation of settlements and developments in the field of farming, animal breeding, building and architecture, arts and design. The earliest writings, the cunieform writing on clay tablets, was developed by the Sumerians.
The Egyptians developed their own form of writing, the hieroglyphic and the hieratic script, soon after.
Another parallel development was transportation over long distances developed due to trading and mining. Elaborate ships were designed and built to transport materials over long distances.
Which were the great Bronze Age civilizations?
- Mesopotamia circa 3700 BC(end of the Neolithic period)
- Egypt circa 3300 BC
- Indus Valley circa 2500 BC
- India circa 1700 BC
- China circa 1600 BC