Photo Credit (Freepik)
The Greeks had their temples and sculptures, the Egyptians their pyramids. Additionally, everyone is aware of the Maya and their renowned calendar.
However, in world history, other ancient peoples are given less attention. These are a few long-lost cultures that aren’t given the credit they merit.
The Silla
She had an extended head, as evidenced by the 1,500-year-old skull (reconstructed here) of a lady who belonged to the ancient royal dynasty known as the Silla culture.
She had an extended head, as evidenced by the 1,500-year-old skull (reconstructed here) of a lady who belonged to the ancient royal dynasty known as the Silla culture.
One of the oldest royal dynasties ever was the Silla Kingdom. Despite controlling the majority of the Korean Peninsula from 57 B.C. to 935 A.D., it left few burials for archaeologists to examine.
Researchers did gain some information, though, from a recent Silla discovery. In 2013, the bones of a woman who lived to be in her late 30s were discovered undamaged close to Gyeongju, the Silla’s medieval capital. The woman was probably a vegetarian who consumed a lot of rice, potatoes, or wheat, according to an examination of her bones. Her skull was likewise elongated.
Bak Hyeokgeose, the king, established Silla. According to legend, he was formed from an enigmatic egg in the forest and wed a queen made from a dragon’s ribs. A affluent aristocratic class and a structured, hierarchical society were the results of the Silla culture’s gradual development. The Gyeongju National Museum in South Korea is home to a number of opulent artifacts that archaeologists have discovered, including a cast-iron Buddha, a gold-and-garnet blade, and jade jewelry, despite the rarity of human remains from the Silla people.
The Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished around 2600 BC close to the Ravi River, is represented by the archeological site of Harappa.
The area of the Indus people stretches from the Arabian Sea and the Ganges in India to the Indus River in present-day Pakistan, making it the biggest known ancient urban society. Around 3300 B.C., the Indus civilization began to flourish, and by 1600 B.C., it had begun to decline.
The Indus, also called the Harappans, created goods like pottery and glazed beads, constructed magnificent walls and granaries, and established sewage and drainage systems for their towns. They even received dental care: According to a 2006 study in the journal Nature, researchers discovered 11 drilled molars from adults who lived in the Indus Valley between 7,500 and 9,000 years ago. According to a 2012 study, the Harappan civilization was forced to gradually disintegrate and migrate to wetter climates as a result of climate change weakening monsoonal rains and drying up most of its area.
Who were the Sanxingdui, though? Nobody truly knows, despite the proof of the culture’s artistic prowess. According to the Sanxingdui Museum in China, they were prolific producers of painted masks made of metal and gold foil, which some archaeologists speculate might have symbolized gods or ancestors. There is evidence that the Sanxingdui site was abandoned some 2,800 or 3,000 years ago, and the adjacent discovery of Jinsha, another ancient city, suggests that the Sanxingdui may have relocated there. Researchers at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in 2014 contended that a significant earthquake and landslide at this period rerouted the Minjiang River, cutting off Sanxingdui’s water supply and necessitating a relocation.
The Nok
On July 27, American officials formally gave back two of the sculptures to the Nigerian government. The Nok culture created these approximately 2,000-year-old statues, which were taken from the national museum of Nigeria.
On July 27, American officials formally gave back two of the sculptures to the Nigerian government. The Nok culture created these approximately 2,000-year-old statues, which were taken from the national museum of Nigeria. (Photo courtesy of Wynne Parry)
In what is now northern Nigeria, the enigmatic and little-known Nok culture flourished from approximately 1000 B.C. to 300 A.D. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art claims that evidence of the Nok was accidentally found in 1943 while working as a tin-miner. A terra-cotta head discovered by miners suggested a rich legacy of sculpture. According to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, since then, other ornate terra-cotta sculptures have surfaced, such as representations of individuals brandishing batons and flails and wearing ornate jewelry, which are also images of authority found in ancient Egyptian art. According to the Met, some sculptures depict individuals suffering from illnesses like elephantiasis.
The objects have frequently been taken out of their original setting without archeological examination, which adds to the enigma surrounding the Nok. After being stolen from Nigeria’s national museum and smuggled into the United States, a stockpile of Nok figures was returned to Nigeria by the United States in 2012.
On the left, the whole skeleton of an Etruscan was lying on a stone bed.
The full skeleton of a human being lay on a stone bed on the left side of the little vaulted room. A spear was found along the torso, and the presence of brooches on the breast suggested that the guy had formerly worn a mantle.
From roughly 700 B.C. until 500 B.C., when the Roman Republic started to absorb them, the Etruscans enjoyed a flourishing society in northern Italy. They left behind opulent family tombs, including one belonging to a prince that was initially unearthed in 2013, and they created a distinctive written language.
Artifacts from the theocratic Etruscan culture indicate that religious ritual was a regular element of daily life. The Etruscan shrine of Poggio Colla is home to the oldest known representation of childbirth in Western art, which shows a goddess sitting to give birth. A 4-foot by 2-foot (1.2 by 0.6-meter) slab of sandstone with uncommon Etruscan-language drawings was discovered by archaeologists at the same location. There are not many surviving instances of Etruscan writing. Poggio Civitate, another Etruscan site, was a square complex with a courtyard in the middle. According to researchers who have uncovered over 25,000 artifacts from the site, it was the biggest structure in the Mediterranean at the time.
The Punt Land
Members of Hatshepsut’s commercial trip to the enigmatic “Land of Punt” are depicted on a superb relief from this pharaoh’s exquisite mortuary temple at Deir El-Bahri.
Members of Hatshepsut’s commercial trip to the enigmatic “Land of Punt” are depicted on a superb relief from this pharaoh’s exquisite mortuary temple at Deir El-Bahri. Axes and tree branches are carried by Egyptian soldiers in this image.
Records from other cultures are the primary source of information about some societies. This is true of the enigmatic state of Punt, which was located in Africa and engaged in trade with the ancient Egyptians. As early as the 26th century B.C., when Khufu, the pharaoh who constructed the Great Pyramid of Giza, was in power, the two countries were trading products.
Oddly, nobody actually knows Punt’s location. The Egyptians left behind several accounts of the maritime missions they dispatched to the vanished country and the goods (myrrh, ebony, and gold) they obtained from Punt. The Egyptians, however, are incredibly silent about the destination of all these expeditions. Punt might have been in Arabia, in the Horn of Africa, or perhaps along the Nile River at the border between present-day Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to scholars.
When archaeologists name a culture solely on the basis of its artifacts, you can be sure it is esoteric. Bell-shaped pottery pots were created by the Bell-Beaker culture. Between roughly 2800 B.C. and 1800 B.C., people in Europe made these unusual drinking cups. They also left behind tombs and copper artifacts, notably a cemetery with 154 graves in what is now the Czech Republic.
Researchers have discovered that the Bell-Beakers were also in charge of some of the building at Stonehenge. They most likely placed the site’s tiny bluestones, which came from Wales.