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  #31 (permalink)  
Old 25-July-2006, 02:25 PM
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I think I'll put in a vote for the Minoans.
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Old 26-July-2006, 03:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mugaliens
I'd have to give my nod to the Persians, centered in what is today modern Iraq. It was there the beginnings of most modern technologies were created, including building design/construction, writing, and farming techniques, not to mention animal husbandry. They developed working versions of the same technologies which served us well into the 19th century, with very few additions that had any lasting impression on society..
yay! I'm not alone in this. On top of all that, they also instituted a system of fair and equitable taxation...or.. take a look at their quanat system. Darn fine engineers, they were!
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Old 26-July-2006, 09:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yuzuha
I think I'll put in a vote for the Minoans.
You can't fool me! You just like the women's style of dress!
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  #34 (permalink)  
Old 26-July-2006, 08:53 PM
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Uck. It must've been so uncomfortable for larger-breasted women. I've always been grateful for the invention of the bra.
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Old 27-July-2006, 02:56 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mugaliens
I'd have to give my nod to the Persians, centered in what is today modern Iraq. It was there the beginnings of most modern technologies were created, including building design/construction, writing, and farming techniques, not to mention animal husbandry. They developed working versions of the same technologies which served us well into the 19th century, with very few additions that had any lasting impression on society.

And if it be contemplated, I'm a white, Scottish/English/Irish/German descendant. So there! I just see things as they are.
It doesn't sound like you're thinking of Persia. Persia is farther East of Iraq, though the Iraq area was pretty much the first thing they conquered. Also, Persia as an empire didn't exist until after these technologies had been invented.
I've got to go with Greece over China, given the importance of Greeks to Roman development
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Old 27-July-2006, 03:08 AM
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It's interesting, because my initial answer would be that there were four great ancient civilizations: China, Harappan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. And Central and South America might be added, though I think it's difficult to define it as a single civilization. What's interesting is that Greece and Rome didn't even occur to me. Sure, they had an enormous influence on Western civilization.
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Old 27-July-2006, 03:23 AM
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Originally Posted by BigDon
You can't fool me! You just like the women's style of dress!
Um, I do like the style of dress, but I think I'd wear a shawl over that, thank you!
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Old 27-July-2006, 04:22 AM
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Sorry, Yuzuha, I made a gender assumtion!
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Old 27-July-2006, 04:23 AM
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The greatest of all ancient civilizations has to be...

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Old 27-July-2006, 05:06 AM
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Urgh... I'm tired of hearing about The Stonecutters. The joke was cute at first, but now it's getting just plain plumb annoying. The horse is dead, Jim!

Anyways, my hat's off to Poland, before WWI (when it got all religiosity-ified!). You can't be a society that was pretty much religiously "free" at the time of the Crusades... and they fought hard for their way of life.

They also didn't judge people based on race... if you were from Poland, you were Polish. I just like how they persevered at that time period... like an oasis in the middle of Mercury.
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Old 27-July-2006, 07:53 AM
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Phoenicians were pretty sharp.
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Old 27-July-2006, 10:29 AM
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Other than the Chinese ....

The civilisation that the Romans eradicated, Cartheginian I think it's called.
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Old 27-July-2006, 12:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jens
It's interesting, because my initial answer would be that there were four great ancient civilizations: China, Harappan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. And Central and South America might be added, though I think it's difficult to define it as a single civilization. What's interesting is that Greece and Rome didn't even occur to me.
As a Canadian I find your view unusual but refreshing. When I was in school (admittidly a good number of years ago) ancient history was always Egyptians -> Greeks -> Romans. If I just went with what school taught me I would never have known that there were civilizations in China, Mesopotamia and India back then. China tended to get its first mention when Marco Polo visited it, India during the Age of Exploration, Central America when the Spanish found it.

Hopefully things have changed now but the 'Eurocentric' history focus when I was in school got on my nerves. Glad to hear not everyone went through that.
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Old 27-July-2006, 02:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TriangleMan
As a Canadian I find your view unusual but refreshing. When I was in school (admittidly a good number of years ago) ancient history was always Egyptians -> Greeks -> Romans. If I just went with what school taught me I would never have known that there were civilizations in China, Mesopotamia and India back then. China tended to get its first mention when Marco Polo visited it, India during the Age of Exploration, Central America when the Spanish found it.

Hopefully things have changed now but the 'Eurocentric' history focus when I was in school got on my nerves. Glad to hear not everyone went through that.
How it works now, at least in Ontario, is that the mandatory history courses in elementary school and Grade 10 cover the history of Canada. You then have the option of taking the 'ancient civ.' course, which goes:
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Ancient China, Ancient Japan.
You can then take another history course that picks up where that one leaves off.
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  #45 (permalink)  
Old 27-July-2006, 02:43 PM
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Originally Posted by Eric Vaxxine
Other than the Chinese ....

The civilisation that the Romans eradicated, Cartheginian I think it's called.
They or the Etruscans.
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  #46 (permalink)  
Old 27-July-2006, 06:16 PM
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Hey! The Etruscans started it!
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Old 27-July-2006, 08:15 PM
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I'd have to say it was the ancient peoples of Persia, the Sumarians, and those that followed, for they're credited with the beginnings of written language, mathematics, engineering, etc.
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Old 27-July-2006, 09:50 PM
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Yeah, right, blame it on the Sumerians.
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Old 27-July-2006, 11:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yuzuha
They or the Etruscans.
Were they the ones that lived in what is now Tunisia?
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Old 27-July-2006, 11:28 PM
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The Etruscans were the next tribe over in the early days.
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Old 28-July-2006, 01:52 AM
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