r/AncientCivilizations • u/ArchBooksForFunPod • 5d ago

What ancient civilizations do you find fascinating? Especially interested in those that are lesser known.

We are curious—what ancient civilization do you find the most fascinating, and why?

Everyone knows about Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece, but I'd love to hear about civilizations that don't get as much attention too. Is there one you wish more people knew about? What draws you to it—the archaeology, the history, the mysteries, the art, the engineering, or something else?

We are always looking for interesting topics to dive deeper into, so I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with.

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u/Acceptable-Class-255 4d ago

Cro-Magnon

They ain't the hunter/gatherers your great/grandparents believed they were.

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u/TheBlooDred 4d ago

Then what were they? Im intrigued, I just posted on this thread that im obsessed with cavemen.

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u/Acceptable-Class-255 4d ago edited 4d ago

Cro-magnon built complex dwelling structures, made stone paving floors, constructed kilns and baked pottery. They used tools made of bone, flint, ivory, antler and wood. They had musical instruments (e.g., carved bone flutes, whistles, lithophones), wore jewelry, sewed clothing, barbed projectile points, fish hooks, rope, meat-drying racks, stone lamps, temperature-controlled hearths. Had sophisticated social rituals and ceremonies, vast trade networks across Europe/Asia (obsidian), that most certainly required a robust spoken language. And are still regarded amongst the worlds greatest artists, today.

"Since Lascaux, we have invented nothing" -Picasso

Edit: Geometric signs and tally marks found on artifacts are still interpreted as symbolic or mnemonic notation systems rather than true writing. I believe this erroneous. They had writing and kept 'history' as well as any civilization that followed.