THE OSBORNE INTERNET-LINKED

NCIENT

Fiona Chandler Designed by Susie Mccaffrey

History consultant: Dr. Anne Millard

Illustrated by Simone Boni, Alessandro Rabatti, Lorenzo Pieri, Luigi Critone, Lucia Mattioli and Francesco Petracchi at Inklink Firenze,

Ian Jackson, Nicholas Hewetson, Lorenzo Cecchi, David Cuzik and Justine Torode

Map illustrations by Jeremy Gower

Additional illustrations by Susanna Addario, Peter Dennis, John Fox, Joseph McEwan, Malcolm McGregor, Louise Nixon, Simon Roulstone, Claudia Saraceni, Chris Shields,

Sue Stitt, Ross Watton, Gerald Wood and David Wright

Additional designs by Matthew Hart

Editor: Jane Bingham

Picture researcher: Ruth King

Managing editor: Jane Chisholm

Cover designer: Stephen Moncrieff

Artwork co-ordinator: Cathy Lowe

Managing designer: Mary Cartwright

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Contents When? Where? How? 48 The Power of Persia The First Farmers 50 The Greeks at War The First Towns 52 Life in Ancient Greece The First Cities 54 The City of Athens Crafts and Trade 56 Alexander the Great Kings and War 58 Riders of the Plains

10 Farmers of the Nile Valley 60 The People of Early China 12 Mummies and Pyramids 62 China's First Emperor 14 Cities of the Indus Valley 64 The Han Dynasty 16 Europe's First Villages 66 The People of Ancient Japan 18 The Monument Builders 67 The Riches of Arabia 20 Palaces and Legends 68 Life in Ancient Africa 22 Life on Crete 70 The Ideas of India 24 Palaces and Tombs 72 The First North Americans 26 Warriors and Traders 74 The People of Ancient Peru 28 The Empire of Hammurabi 75 The Olmecs 29 The Hittite Empire 76 Ancient Cities of the Americas 30 The Egyptian Empire 78 The Celtic Tribes 32 Temples and Gods 80 The Rise of Rome 34 Life at Home 82 The Roman Army 36 The People of Canaan 84 Life in a Roman Town 37 Raiders of the Mediterranean 86 Fun and Games 38 The Hebrew Kingdoms 88 The Spread of Christianity 40 Traders from Phoenicia 90 The Fall of Rome 42 The Assyrians at War 92 World Time Chart 44 The Assyrians at Home 94 Word List 46 The City of Babylon 95 Index

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'ff'i:'~ THE FIRST SETTLERS: c. l0,000Bc-5600Bc

The First Farlllers

The very first people hunted wild animals, caught fish and gathered

nuts, plants and berries to eat. It was thousands of years before people learned how to farm.

Farming began in the Middle East, in an area we call the Fertile Crescent. Around 10,000BC, the weather there became wetter and warmer, so plants could grow more easily.

Cutting wheat with a tool called a sickle

People noticed that seeds which had fallen on the ground grew into plants. They began to collect the seeds and plant them on purpose. The first crops grown like this were wild wheat and barley.

Around the same time, people learned how to tame animals. This meant that they always had plenty of meat, milk and wool. They could also use cattle for working in the fields.

10,000BC

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S000BC

These pots were made by early farmers .

Once people knew how to farm, they no longer needed to move around to hunt for food . They began to settle down in villages and learned how to make bricks from mud and clay to build homes.

In this picture of an early village, one house has been cut away to let you see inside.

The roofs are made of ofes covered with straw.

4000BC

Map of the Fertile Crescent

3000BC

Pots are baked hard

MIiking a goat

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Internet links: For links to websites where you can uncover the 'ff~;,~ mysteries of (:ata/ Hiiyiik, go to www.usborne-quicklinks.com ••• -

The First Towns

S lowly, small farming villages grew into towns. The oldest town that has

been found so far is at Jericho.

Jericho The people of Jericho lived in small, round houses made of mud bricks.

*

Dead people were buried underneath the houses. Their skulls may have been put on display, as a way of showing respect.

Skull found at Jericho

* Cowrie shells in place of eyes

Plaster (,/ling

Jericho grew rich by trading with other communities, and people in the nearby villages became jealous. To protect themselves, the people of Jericho built a massive stone wall around the town.

Building the walls of Jericho

2000BC

~atal H iiyiik Gatal Hiiyiik (pronounced "chatal hoo-yook") was the largest of the early towns. Around 6,000 people lived there.

When someone in Gatal Hiiyiik died, the body was left outside to rot. The skeleton was buried under a bench in the house or in a shrine room, where the people prayed to their gods.

This picture shows a shrine room at <;:atal HUyUk.

\ Model of a btll/'s head with real horns

This priest .. is wearing a · leopard skin.

These priestesses have brought offerings of food and drink for the goddess.

The houses ~.___,.....__,_,,_ have one main room.

The walls--~ - ­are made of mud bricks.

The Gatal Huyiik people make clay sculptures of very large women. Some experts think that these are models of a great Mother Goddess.

Clay figure from <;:atal HUyUk

c. I 0,000sc Farming begins in the Fertile Crescent.

c.8000Bc Jericho grows into a wealthy town.

c.6250-5650sc Cata! Hi.iyiik is at its largest.

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5 THE SUMERIANS: c.5000Bc-2000Bc

The First Civilization

Map of Sumer

F rom around 5000Bc, farmers settled in the wide valley between the Tigris

and Euphrates rivers. This area became known as Mesopotamia, which means "the land between two rivers". Some of the world's first cities grew up in Sumer, in the southern part of Mesopotamia.

The flat land of Sumer was good for farming, but there was very little rain. Once a year, the two rivers flooded, soaking the dry ground. The Sumerians built ditches and canals, to store the water and carry it to the fields.

Farmers were soon able to grow more crops than they could eat. There was no need for everyone to farm, so some people had time to learn specialist skills, such as pottery and weaving.

These people are making mud bricks.

Bricks are shaped in a wooden frame.

At first, the Sumerians lived in houses made of reeds. Later, they learned how to make bricks from mud and straw.

Small farming villages gradually grew into huge walled cities, each with its own temple. Each city had a ruler who also had control of the farmland around the city. Cities organized like this are called city-states.

This picture shows part of the Sumerian city of Ur.

A wall protects the city The houses are built

This huge, stepped platform is called a ziggurat.

10,000BC SOOOBC

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Temple of Nanna, the moon god

from attacks by other of mud bricks. city-states.

4000BC

Temple courtyard

3000BC

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The invention of writing Farmers had to give part of their crop to the temple, and temple officials needed to know if a farmer had paid his share. Writing probably developed as a way of recording this information.

Farmers bringing grain to the temple

Internet links: For links to websites where you can find out more about cuneiform A writing and life in ancient Sumer, go to www.usborne-quicklinks.com ~

I At first, people drew simple pictures of the objects they wanted to record. These pictures are called pictograms.

Object Pictogram

2 The pictures were drawn one below the other on a piece of wet clay. Reed pen

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3 Later, people turned the clay around and wrote from side to side. This stopped them from smudging the pictures they had already drawn.

Picture turned sideways

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4 Because of the shape of the reed pen, the pictures gradually changed into wedge-shaped symbols, which we call cuneiform writing. Cuneiform means "wedge-shaped".

* Cuneiform writing

Orchard of date palms

Fields of barley and wheat

A canal joins the city to the Euphrates. This cutaway picture

shows a house in a Sumerian city.

2000BC I000BC

The walls are whitewashed.

The house is built around a central

These men are drinking beer through metal tubes.

courtyard. ----+--IPJ----

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6,_ THE SUMERIANS: c.5000Bc-2000Bc

Crafts and Trade

There was no stone, metal or strong wood in Sumer, so all these things had to be brought in from other lands. In exchange, the

Sumerians sold grain and wool, as well as the pots and metal objects they made in their workshops.

Sumerian traders sailed along canals and rivers into the Persian Gulf and beyond. They traded with merchants from as far away as the Mediterranean Coast in the west and the Indus Valley in the east.

In this picture, merchants are trading at a busy Sumerian market.

are setting off on a trading expedition.

Stone carving Sculptors carved small stone

statues of people praying. People believed that if they placed a statue in the temple, the statue would pray for them. * Stone statue of

a temple official

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Metalwork The Sumerians were skilled metalworkers, and made beautiful objects from gold, silver and copper.

Gold dagger and sheath

Stone is (looted down the river on wooden ra~s.

Wood from the mountains in the north

This trading ship has just come back from the Persian Gulf.

- A man called a scribe lists the goods as they are unloaded.

Pots and wheels Sumer had plenty of clay for making pottery. Pots were shaped by hand until around 3500BC, when the potter's wheel was invented.

Potters at work = =tN~'1,t=

* Boys mix the clay with their feet.

People soon realized that wheels could be attached to carts or chariots, and used for getting around. A donkey pulling a cart could carry three times as much as it could on its back

* Wheel from a Sumerian chariot

Pots are baked hard in an oven called a kiln.

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10,000BC

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S000BC 4000BC 3000BC

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