Back to Europe 1000 to 700 B.C.
Beginning about 700 B.C. and lasting for the next 1,000 years most of Europe seems to have been somewhat colder and moister than it is now. (Ref. 215)
Crete remained under Dorian Greek control, while the Aegean islands overall belonged to a mixture of Ionian and Dorian tribes. Rhodes remained independent and even had a colony on Gela, in Sicily. (Ref. 38)
The Greek civilization continued to develop in Greece proper as well as on the coasts of southern Italy and Asia Minor. There was a series of city-states, most of which were aristocratic republics by the end of this century. Cavalry played a decisive role in inter-state warfare and only the wealthy could be cavalrymen, with the result that noble landowners developed an increased influence. Sparta was supreme in the Peloponnese, while Athens was the major power in Attica. The hillsides of Attica had already been denuded of lumber for houses, ships and charcoal for metal working by 650 B.C. and the consequent erosion of the marginal land removed the soil to the point where little would grow and the peasants began to go into debt. All of Greece had poor land for livestock and thus with scarcity of animal fats, the Greeks cultivated olives for their oil, and depended on food imports for the remainder of their food necessities. The urgent need for grain stimulated much of their later enterprises.
Metal coins were introduced stamped with the likeness of an ear of wheat. Although gold, ivory and marble were used on sculpture and public buildings, the common people lived in houses of sun-dried brick, built on rubble in narrow streets strewn each day with litter thrown from the houses. Wives were held to housekeeping and childbearing while husbands, if they could afford it, openly took concubines and associated with the hetairae, women of education, wit and beauty, groomed for this profession, not unlike the Geisha of more modern Japan. There were about ten slaves for every free citizen and it was felt that about one hundred slaves were necessary to keep one philosopher in comfort. (Ref. 222, 211, 77)
The Greeks had cities on the Black Sea coast of present day Bulgaria and Romania while Thrace began its period of highest culture. The Macedonians were Greeks, speaking a dialect remotely connected to those in Greece, proper, but developed separately. A series of local chieftains ruled until the middle of this century when the country was partially united by King Perdiccas I. (Ref. 180 )
On the Italian peninsula there were multiple tribes, including the Latins and the Sabines, but dominating most of the north and central parts were the Etruscan city- states. Rome, itself, was ruled after 616 B.C. by Tarquinius Priscus, son of a Corinthian Greek man and an Etruscan woman. The Etruscans absorbed writing and other elements of the Hellenic civilization, assimilated and changed them and passed them on to other Italic peoples. The Latin alphabet was derived from the Etruscans, but the latter were never able to inflict their language on the Romans and in essence Rome remained a city of a dual culture. The Etruscans, themselves, had attained a certain degree of unity of culture and language. They attempted to form an Etruscan League, but the ties with adjacent tribes were more religious and cultural than truly political and concerted action was difficult to obtain. The Etruscans were superior engineers, and the Roman Theophrastus, writing later in the third century B.C. stated that they cultivated medicine and were rich in their pharmacopoeia. There is some evidence that they excavated tunnels and leveled hills to drain swamps as malaria control projects. They definitely practiced some surgery and dentistry, using gold wires in the latter field. (Ref. 176, 28, 8, 45, 185, 75)
The Etruscans seemed to particularly like the painted pots and vases brought from Corinth in Greece and were soon imitating them on a massive scale. Near the end of this century, due to the acquisition of more metal resources, perhaps at the expense of Tarquinii, the city-state of Caere became enormously wealthy, covered about 375 acres and had a population of about 25,000. Saleable copper and iron allowed them to acquire massive quantities of gold from the Greek markets of Pithecusae and Cumae. There is a strong possibility that the Etruscan alphabet, an adaptation of Greek letters in use in the Greek markets, was introduced to Etruria by way of Caere.
At about this same time the city-state of Vetulonia apparently became another prominent Etruscan community, lying just northwest of Vulci and characterized archeologically by great mound tombs, some of which reached a height of nearly fifty feet. Large stone sculptures have been found in these tombs, consisting of both male and female figurines and apparently adaptations from Syrian originals. Bronze horse-buckles indicate much horse traffic. Jewel works with a special granulation process of applying tiny grains of gold were typical. Village amalgamation into a single city perhaps occurred just at the end of the century. (Ref. 75)
There were Greek cities in Sicily and on the southern tip of Italy. In particular, there was Sybaris, a city of renowned wealth, situated in the toe of the Italian boot. Its inhabitants delighted in luxury and pleasures, features which gave rise to the term "sybarite", still in our vocabulary. It has only recently been located, now buried twenty feet deep in water soaked soil. The Carthaginians had a trading post at Motya in western Sicily, just after 700 B.C.
This was an age of Celtic domination, but with gradually increasing pressure from Germanic groups descending from the north. It was the late Iron Age in Austria and people wore bracelets, anklets and decorations over their chests. Intricate designs in iron with piece interlocking with closed eyes, perfect animal figurines, etc. can be found in the collections from multiple excavations of this era. Celtic ornamentation was greatly influenced by Scythian modes and the latter also contributed a new concept of cavalry, including snaffles, two-part bits and movable side reins. (Ref. 91)
The Iberians in most of this area were overrun by the Urnfield Celts except in the south, where the Tarshish Culture persisted and resisted the Celtic Hallstatt and later La Tene Iron Age Cultures. Contact with Phoenicians and realization of the local mineral wealth, resulted in the development of the only really native unit in this Kingdom of Tartessos. Greeks also came to this area about 630 B.C., introducing olives[43] and grapes. Investigations in Portugal and Spain in 1975 and 1976 revealed stone writing in the Celtic Ogam, but using Libyan and Phoenician languages, indicating a fusion of Gaels and native Iberians with Semitic and Libyan sailors. Fell (Ref. 65) believes that it was from this area that mariners sailed on across the Atlantic to America at this time, and regardless of one's acceptance or non-acceptance of Fell's theories, there is definite archaeological evidence that the sailors of Tarshish sailed up the Atlantic at least as far as Brittany, to obtain Cornwall tin. Only limited excavation of the Tartessian urban developments have been made to date. (Ref. 136, 88)
This part of western Europe was now almost entirely Celtic. The Celtic languages had two large divisions which the Welsh Sir John Rhys (1877) called the Q-Celtic and P-Celtic, with the former using Q,K or Ch of ten where the latter used P or B. The ancient representatives of the Q-Celtic speakers were the Goidels (Gaels) and probably the Celts of Spain and Portugal, with the modern descendants being the speakers of Irish and Scots Gaelic and Manx. The ancient P-Celtic speakers were the Brythonic peoples of Britain, the Gauls of central and eastern Europe and the Picts of Scotland. Their descendants are the current Bretons of Brittainy, the Cornish and the Welsh. Of interest is the fact that while the P-Celts wrote using Greek or Latin letters, the Q-Celts originally wrote in a now defunct script called "Ogam", which had an alphabet of fifteen letters, all consonants and developed from a finger sign language. Later some tribes added more consonants and vowel signs. (Ref. 65, 91)
While Norway, Sweden and Finland remained in a Bronze Age culture, Denmark had both bronze and iron. This was a time of Germanic tribe growth, particularly in the latter country. Ty, in northern Jutland, was the alleged homeland of the Teuton tribe, while the Cimbrians are said to have originated in Himmerland. There is still no complete agreement on the relationship of the early Germanic and Celtic tribes. In ancient times they were often confused, and apparently there was not a great deal of difference physiologically. Language was supposedly the chief difference, but even with that problems arose with such tribes as the Teutones and Ambrones whose languages may have been mixtures with both Celtic and Germanic elements. (Ref. 91)
Southern Russia was dominated at this 7th century B.C. by the Scythians who finally absorbed some culture from the rising Persian civilization on one flank and the Greek cities of the western and northern shores of the Black Sea, on the other flank. Some elaborate gold sculptures of that time have been found in Scythian burial mounds. Northern Russia and the Baltic area remained as described in the last chapter. (Ref. 176)
The Vedic Culture continued in Pakistan and northern India, but there was now a shift of emphasis from the region of the Indus to the Ganges River plains, where previously existing villages now became true city-states. The jungles of the Ganges area could not be cleared until iron axes and plows were available. That new metal - iron - also changed warfare to regulation infantry and cavalry. Farther south, Kosala and Magadha kingdoms were built by marcher lords of that area. (Ref. 45, 211) (Continue on page 185)
Back to The Near East: 1000 to 700 B.C.
Northern Arabia and the region of present day Jordan were completely under the control of the Assyrians, but independent civilizations continued in the south, with regular camel caravans traveling to Egypt and to other parts of north Africa. As noted above, Yemen was actually overpopulated and many families migrated to Ethiopia. (Ref. 83)
For a short time the Assyrians controlled the entire eastern Mediterranean shore, but after losing thousands of men with a disease (see Iraq), they retreated to the region of Syria. In Palestine Josiah became king in 639 B.C. and launched a campaign to purify the religion of Yahweh and to repress all traces of other cults. The Pentateuch, a code of laws designed to re-invigorate the moral life of the nation, was started in 621 B.C. This code supported the prophets by embodying the less extreme of their ideas. To facilitate the acceptance of this, according to Durant (Ref. 46), the elders, with Josiah's permission, conveniently "found" a scroll allegedly from Moses himself. This was the Book of the Covenant which is probably part of the Biblical book of Exodus or Deuteronomy. It is interesting to note that the prophets Amos and Isaiah had never mentioned Moses.
At the end of the century Judea was overrun by the Egyptians, under Necho, as they started to attack the Assyrians. Only four years later, in 605 B.C., however, the Chaldeans of the second Babylonian Empire soundly defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish, Syria, and Judah then passed under Babylonian rule. (Ref. 46)
The Assyrians, under King Sennacherib, sacked and destroyed Babylon in 689 B.C. and then proceeded under their General Esarhaddon to the borders of Egypt where, according to the Bible (Il Kings), a pestilence struck producing "an hundred four-score and five thousand" corpses, and the survivors retreated to Nineveh. Ashurbinipal became king in 669 B.C. and led Assyria to the climax of its wealth and prestige, destroying Elam in the process. In this reign, the governor of Ur was one Sin-balatsu-iqbi who decided to restore the ancient city, and much was accomplished even though later archeologists say that his brick work was the worst that they encountered in the many strata at Ur. (Ref. 238) King Ashurbanipal was also the first book collector of history, accumulating in this 7th century B.C. a library of 25,000 clay tablets, some of them already 3,000 or more years old, including some medical "books" of ancient Sumer and Akkadia, written in primitive ideographs. In many ways the Assyrians had an advanced civilization, producing, for example, many great engineering feats for that time. Their military might was in great part based on iron weapons, particularly the iron-capped battering ram. They had excellent roads and communications. King Sennacherib had constructed a 919 feet long stone aqueduct to carry a canal across a valley and then continued with a six mile long canal to bring water for his orchards and parks. Palaces had lavatories and bathrooms as modern as some even today in parts of Europe. (Ref. 213) In the end, however, the military activity consumed so much manpower that local production atrophied and all vitals had to be imported. The constant warfare had also killed off the strongest and bravest men, and the biological type was undermined. The captive peoples bred and became a disintegrating force from within. In 612 B.C. an army of Chaldean nomads (an Aramaic people) under General Napopollaser, with the help of some Scythians and Medes, defeated the Assyrians in a great battle at Nineveh and the latter disappeared from history. These Chaldeans founded the second Babylonian Empire which controlled Mesopotamia until well into the next century. It was their General Nebuchadrezzar who defeated the expanding Egyptians at Carchemish in 605, giving them access to all the old Assyrian lands in Syria and Palestine. By 600 B.C. Babylon was the greatest walled city that the world has ever known, and Nebuchadressar had built it.
In this same period, between about 630 and 610 B.C. still another people appeared in this area. These were the Indo-European Scythians who raided down through Syria, destroying and killing as they went. Their raids were for plunder only and no settlements were made. (Ref. 45, 238, 15)
NOTE: Insert Map from Reference 97. (7. THE EAST)
In eastern Iran the Indo-European speaking Medes were growing in numbers and power in an independent kingdom. Their greatest king, Cyaxares, started his reign in 640 B.C. but he had his hands full fighting off the Assyrians in the west and the horse-riding Scythians who periodically descended on them from central Asia, often defeating them
In the eastern part of the Anatolian peninsula, Urartu (or the Kingdom of Van), after being conquered by the Assyrians, made common cause for awhile with the Scythians and under Rusa II (685-645 B.C.) successfully raided for slaves along the Assyrian frontier as these slaves were the essential foundation of their economy. The kingdom continued to prosper under Sarduri III and briefly under Rusa III until 609 B.C. when the Scythians turned on them and sacked the imperial city on Lake Van, while the Medes crushed the Assyrians nearby. Thus the Kingdom of Urartu came to an end about 600 B.C. The true Armenians were probably a Phrygian tribe which gradually occupied the territory of Urartu perhaps not until after 612 B.C. They initially adopted the religion of the Persians and were under the kings of Media for a time. (Ref. 160, 18)
Forward to The Near East: 600 to 501 B.C.
The rich, well watered area of Yemen, which was then called "Arabia Felix", produced a distinctive Arabic script about 700 B.C.
Back to The Far East: 1000 to 700 B.C.
The many provinces of early China gradually coalesced into five states covering what is now the district of Honan and some adjacent areas. The most important provinces were T'si, where the basic type of Chinese government developed, and Chin (or Tsin), which gave to China the name by which it is known to nearly all the world but itself. The organizing genius of T'si was Huan Chung, adviser to the Duke of Huan (683-640 B.C.). As prime minister, Kuan Chung replaced bronze with iron weapons and tools. Cast iron was used either in this century or the early 6th B.C., some 1,000 years before it was used in Europe. Sophisticated kilns developed for firing ceramics laid the foundation for this, in reaching the very high temperatures (1,835 degrees centigrade) necessary. T'si became a well ordered state with a stable currency and efficient administration. A code of manners, ceremonies and a sense of honor was developed and served as a substitute for religion among the upper classes. Extensive canals irrigated fields and agriculture and the silk industry prospered. Huan Chung taught the farmers to dig drainage ditches, stored surplus grain and rented farm equipment for them. (Ref. 222) Carts were used, leather shoes were worn, and houses were well built, with tables and chairs available. In the early years of the Spring and Autumn Era of the Eastern Chou, warfare was really more of a polite gamesmanship with very limited real fighting and few people hurt or killed. The art of diplomacy was supreme. (Ref. 45, 46, 101)
Three elements appear to be mingled in the Japanese race: A primitive white strain through the Ainus, who seem to have entered Japan from the region of the Amur River in Neolithic times; a yellow Mongol strain, coming from or through Korea in this 7th century B.C.; and a brown-black Malay and Indonesian strain, filtering in from the western Pacific islands. Gradually a new race developed from this 7th century on. In the Japanese mythology, 660 B.C. dates the legendary first emperor, Jimmu.
Neolithic societies continued as previously, with metal in use in Thailand.
Forward to The Far East: 600 to 501 B.C.