Moonlit Spires

historyfilia:

This post is an appreciation to those cultures who are not usually taught at school, or even study at academic levels. It is intended to cause curiosity overall, rather than give many details. What are those civilizations we know little (or anything) about? There are dozens, but here you have only five, as a fresh start.

Urartu (860–590 BCE)

Let’s start with this iron age kingdom. Urartu occupied much of what today is Armenia and part of southern Georgia. For a considerable time, these people were able to confront the great Assyrian Empire, which is a lot to say. After they were finally conquered, it still caused may problems to their rival. We know that a single dynasty ruled the kingdom through its history. The capital city was Tushpa (also, Van). It was a fortress, that assured regional control and defense from the enemies (photo)

According to our sources, Urartu was famous for its metalworks, which were highly appreciated at that time.

Kingdom of Aksum (100– c. 940 CE)

Covering parts of what is now northern Ethiopia and southern and eastern Eritrea, Aksum was deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean (Rome, later Byzantium), exporting ivory, tortoiseshell, gold, and emeralds, and importing silk and spices. Aksum remained a strong, though weakened, empire and trading power until the rise of Islam in the 7th century.

We can count many achievements from this culture. They developed their own alphabet (Ge’ez script) which was used to write a vast ecclesiastical literature. Aksum is also famous for the enormous obelisks, used to indicate the presence of underground tombs (see picture). To this day, the Aksumite stelae still stand in the deserts.

Moche (100–700 CE)

This civilization flourished in northern Peru many centuries before the well-know Incas arose. The technical and economic advances surpass those others from the region, and many scholars think that the Inca Empire owes a lot to this previous culture. A highly complex irrigation system, a central religion role in the zone and an amazing development of ceramics, textiles, and metalworks, all that reveals us an extraordinary ability to organize society. By the way, they weren’t an empire or a single state. On the contrary, it is believed that elite culture was formed by many cities that shared a common ideology and religion.

If there is something I must insist on is the quality of their art. Just look at these beautiful gold earrings.

Bosporan Kingdom (438 BCE–c. 370 CE)

This was probably the first “Hellenistic state”, as long as we understand Hellenistic as a mixture of Greek culture and another one (in this case, Scythes). During the 7th and 6th the first Greek colonies were settled in the south of today’s Ukraine, and after some centuries of convivence with the tribes of the steppes, Satyrus (431 – 387 BC) established his rule over the whole region and created a true kingdom. This State survived for a long time, and finally, it became a client state of the Roman Empire, protected by Roman garrisons.

The citizens appear to have lived in a culturally diverse society with free mixing and mingling and cross-fertilization, opposite to the opinion of outposts of Hellenism in a hostile, uncivilized region. Despite this, little is known about this kingdom, situated just in the limits between the classical world and the northern nomads. (Picture: Plaque ‘Head of Medusa Gorgon’)

Chavín culture (900–250 BCE)

Finally, Chavín de Huantar culture. It is not properly a state or any political entity. More probably, we are talking about a number of peoples gathered around a religious center because of a shared ideology. And so, even when its origin is the northern Andean highlands of Peru, it extended its influence on other civilizations along the coast.

Warfare does not seem to have been a significant element in Chavín culture. The archaeological evidence shows a lack of basic defensive structures in Chavín centers, and warriors are not depicted in art. In fact, effective social control may have been exercised by religious pressure, and the ability to exclude dissidents from managed water resources.

Religion was central in Chavín culture, so we found its presence in every single aspect of this civilization, from a sacerdotal elite controlling the whole society to the exclusivity of religious figures in gold-works. (Picture: a gold figure of a condor)