Ancient History (other)

This page covers ancient history other than that of Britain, Greece and Rome. Rightly or wrongly, it also includes pre–Columbian civilisations in America.

The region once known as Bactria, which gave its name to a type of camel, is in (modern country)		Afghanistan
Pharaoh immediately before Tutankhamun, and probably his father; Nefertiti was his consort		Akhenaten
Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for 'life': a.k.a. 'the breath of life' or 'the key of the Nile'; adopted by 'New Age' mystics in the 1960s; takes the form of a cross with a loop ('handle') as the top arm		Ankh
Eagle warriors and jaguar warriors were members of elite military forces in the empire of the		Aztecs
Roman name of the chieftain who led a coalition of Germanic tribes to victory over three Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD – effectively ending the Roman Empire's attempts to conquer what we now know as Germany		Arminius
The Ishtar gate – named after the goddess of fertility, love and war – now reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin – was originally built in about 575 BC, in		Babylon
Alternative name (after the city of Greek antiquity that later becam known as Constantinople) of the Eastern Roman Empire, which lasted until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453		Byzantine Empire
Village on the south coast of Brittany: gives its name to Europe's largest concentration of megalithic monuments, including the Ménec, Kermario and Kerlescan alignments		Carnac
Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, for whom the Great Pyramid of Giza was built		Cheops
Script with wedge–shaped letters, originating in Sumer approx 3,000 BC, used by the Babylonians, Persians and Hittites – one of the earliest known forms of writing		Cuneiform
Qumran Texts (found at Qumran, Jordan, 1947–56)		Dead Sea Scrolls
Temple of Apollo		Delphi
Legendary founder and first Queen of Carthage – best known from Virgil's Aeneid, in which Aeneas tells her the story of the fall of Troy		Dido
The Pschent was a "double crown" that combined those of the two kingdoms of ancient		Egypt
7th century poem from Mesopotamia, one of the earliest known works of fiction		The Epic of Gilgamesh
Oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world		Great Pyramid at Giza
Capital of the Shona empire, dating from c1000 AD, near Victoria in Mashonaland		Great Zimbabwe
People of Anatolia (Turkey), a major regional power through most of the 2nd millennium BC: originally associated with a tribe named in the Bible		Hittites
Food product widely used for embalming in the ancient world – e.g. for Alexander the Great and the Byzantine emperor Justinian, as well as the ancient kings of Sparta		Honey
Greek name for Asiatic invaders who founded Egypt's 15th dynasty (English name Shepherd Kings)		Hyksos
Roman name for the city known to the Greeks as Troy		Ilium
City on the West Bank of the River Jordan, believed to have the oldest known protective wall in the world (dating from around 8,000 BC)		Jericho
Dome of the Rock		Jerusalem
Temple complex near Luxor – Egypt's second most popular tourist destination, after the Pyramids of Giza; famous for its Hypostyle Hall, with 134 massive columns		Karnak
Capital of Egypt, during the Old Kingdom (c. 2700–2200 BC): gave its name to the second biggest city in Tennessee (incorporated in 1826)		Memphis
Ancient city of Teotihuacan, including the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon, and the Avenue of the Dead (dating to around 200 AD): modern country		Mexico
Ancient Mayan city of Uxmal, including the Pyramid of the Magician (dating from the 6th century AD)
Pre–Hellenic Bronze Age civilisation that flourished in Crete from about 2600 to 1450 BC		Minoan
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built by (for)		Nebuchadnezzar
Capital of the Assyrian empire, from about 800 BC until its destruction by the Medes under King Cyaxares in 612 BC		Nineveh
Mesoamerica's first civilisation: flourishing between around 1300 and 500 BC in what is now the states of Veracruz and Tabasco, in south–central Mexico; best known today for their artwork, particularly the so–called 'colossal heads'; they also built the Great Pyramid at La Venta, which was abandoned around 400BC "after 500 years of pre–eminence"		Olmecs
Ancient symbol (first used in Egypt) of the perpetual renewal of life, depicting a snake eating its tail: name derived from the Greek words for "eat" and "tail"; featured in an episode of Red Dwarf (Series VII)		Ouroboros
City in western Anatolia (the Asian part of modern Turkey), reputed to have the second best library in the ancient Greek civilisation; a thriving centre for the production of parchment during the Hellenistic period, to the extent that parchment was said, according to a later legend, to have been invented there to replace the use of papyrus, for which Alexandria had established a monopoly; Robert Maxwell gave its name to the publishing house that he bought in 1951; also gave its name to a museum in Berlin, which houses many artefacts excavated from there and other ancient middle–eastern sites		Pergamon
Capital of the Second Persian Empire, founded by Darius I c. 500 BC, sacked by Alexander the Great in 330 BC – now in Iran		Persepolis
Archaeological site in Jordan, cut into solid rock; capital of the Nabataean civilisation, constructed around 100 BC; described by English 'divine' J. W. Burgon (1813–88) as "a rose–red city, half as old as time"		Petra
Name given by the Greeks to the civilisation that flourished on the coast of what is now Lebanon, and is referred to in the Old Testament as Canaan, from around 1500 to 300 BC; Tyre and Sidon were their two most important cities; Carthage was a colony		Phoenicia
Biblical character: known as Bilquis to the Romans, Makeda in the Koran, Nakwith in Kenya and Nicaule in Ethiopia		Queen of Sheba
Five–rowed galley, extensively used by the Carthaginians and Romans; famous in modern times through its mention in John Masefield's poem Cargoes		Quinquereme
Pharaoh who commissioned the temples of Abu Simbel, and is represented in the four huge statues on the larger one		Rameses II
Species of dung beetle, regarded as sacred by the ancient Egyptians		Scarab
Mythical creature with a human head and the body of a lion; present in the traditions, mythology and art of South and South–East Asia, but often most closely associated with Greek mythology and ancient Egypt; numerous representations survive, the largest and most famous of which is on the Giza Plateau near the Great Pyramids; its head is believed to be that of the pharaoh Khafra (a.k.a. Chephren), whose pyramid temple complex is nearby		Sphinx
Civilisation that existed along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), from around 4500 BC to around 1900 BC		Sumer
Archaeological site in Co. Meath, associated with kingship rituals		Hill of Tara
Valley of the Kings: across the Nile from (modern Luxor)		Thebes
Historical name for the region that includes European Turkey, also north–eastern Greece and much of modern Bulgaria; ruled at different times by Persia, Greece and Rome; Spartacus is said by some to have been its king		Thrace
Precursors of the Aztecs in Mexico		Toltecs
Founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC; also the modern name for Oea, in modern Lebanon, where they came from		Tripoli
Greek name for the city known to the Romans as Ilium		Troy
Stone that the Easter Island statues are made from		Tufa
The Etruscans lived in (and gave their name to)		Tuscany
Ancient Sumerian city near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, in southern Iraq: dating from approximately 3800 BC, considered to be the world's earliest known civilisation; some believe it to be the city named in the Book of Genesis as the birthplace of Abraham; its site is marked by the partially restored ruins of a 20–metre–high ziggurat, which was built in the 21st century BC, reconstructed in the 6th century BC, and excavated in the 1930s		Ur
UNESCO World Heritage Site on the West Bank of the Nile in Egypt, opposite Luxor (ancient Thebes): location of the tombs of many pharaohs, including Tutankhamun and Rameses II		Valley of the Kings
Measured by a Nileometer (especially in ancient Egypt)		Water level (in the River Nile!)
Pyramidal temple–tower in Babylon or Sumer		Ziggurat

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24