What is the oldest known civilization?
Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq, is usually considered the oldest known civilization. Its cities, such as Uruk and Ur, flourished from about 4500 to 1900 BC.
A civilization usually means a complex society with cities, a government, social classes, specialized jobs and often writing. The Sumerians built some of the first cities, with populations in the tens of thousands, monumental temples called ziggurats and large irrigation systems. They developed cuneiform, one of the first writing systems, around 3200 BC.
Ancient Egypt developed soon after, with a unified kingdom by about 3100 BC. The Indus Valley Civilization, in present-day Pakistan and northwest India, flourished from about 3300 to 1300 BC with carefully planned cities like Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Early Chinese civilization developed along the Yellow River.
Even older settlements
Some settlements are older than these civilizations. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, built more than 11,000 years ago, has massive carved stone pillars. Jericho and Çatalhöyük were also early towns, but they did not have all the features of a full civilization.
Did You Know?
The Sumerians invented the earliest known form of beer and recorded a hymn to the goddess of beer, Ninkasi, which includes a recipe.