Classical concept of History

The funny thing is, everytime I travel to the British Museum in London England and climb the stairs to their oldest relic room, that it is dated from 4000 to 3500BC and everything in there is from Mesopotamia. Are they just trying to trick me?

It was all "Mesopotamia" when I was studying earliest human history, and ancient Mesopotamia remains the primary source. The climate there was ideal for preserving the cuneiform clay writing tablets.

Most old Egyptian hieroglyphs come from tombs, some call it "the mortuary cult". Papyri don't last as long as clay tablets, even in the desert. The oldest Egyptian artifacts, I believe, are coming from very recent finds and ongoing digs; not sure how much there is or how well they've been evaluated.

It was only within the past year I read that the Indus Valley is being included as a "cradle of civilization" based largely on Mesopotamian trade records.

I know NOTHING about recent archaeological activity in China (I'm thinking a very small area in the yangtze river valley, not sure) -- have no idea about what's been found, the reliability of reports, etc.

rebecca

Many of the north american history predates our western history, they tell stories about gigantic creatures, such as giant sloths eating leafs from trees.