Everyone knows of some ancient civilizations, either from World History classes in school, from books or films, or from television specials on the Discovery Channel, the BBC or Public Broadcasting. Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, all of these are covered again and again in our books, magazines, and television shows. But there are so many interesting, less well-known civilizations! Here's an admittedly biased selection of some of them and why they are not to be forgotten.
The Indus Civilization is one of the oldest societies we know of, located in the greater Indus Valley of Pakistan and India, and its mature phase is dated between 2500 and 2000 BC. The Indus Valley people were probably not destroyed by the so-called Aryan Invasion; but they certainly knew how to build a drainage system.
At its height about 500 BC, the Persian empire had conquered Asia as far as the Indus River, Greece, and North Africa including what is now Egypt and Libya. Among the longest-lasting empires on the planet, the Persians were conquered by Alexander the Great, but Persian dynasties remained a coherent empire up into the 6th century AD.
The Minoan culture is the earliest of two Bronze Age cultures known on islands in the Aegean Sea which are considered precursors to classical Greece. Named after the legendary King Minos, the Minoan culture was destroyed by earthquakes and volcanoes, and is considered a candidate for the inspiration of Plato's Atlantis myth.
The Etruscans were a cultural group in the Etruria region of Italy, from the 11th through the first century BC (Iron Age into Roman times). Few Etruscan sites have been excavated, in part because the cities were reused by the Romans. One exception is Poggio Colla, currently being excavated by the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project from Southern Methodist University and the University of Michigan.
The site of Caral and the cluster of eighteen similarly dated sites located in the Supe Valley of Peru are important because together they represent the earliest known civilization in the America continents--nearly 4600 years before the present.
The Olmec civilization is the name given to a sophisticated central American culture dated between 1200 and 400 BC. Its baby-faced statues have led to some fairly baseless speculation about prehistoric international sailing connections between what is now Africa and central America.
The Moche civilization was a South American culture, with villages located along the coast of what is now Peru between 100 and 800 AD. Known particularly for its amazing ceramic portraiture, the Moche were also excellent gold and silversmiths.
The Hittite empire ruled much of Anatolia--roughly what today is Turkey--between about 1340-1200 BC. The Hittites who are mentioned in the Hebrew (Old Testament) bible are only the Iron Age cultures, who bloomed after the fall of the great Hittite Empire.
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