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The Vascones were a pre- Roman tribe who, on the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century, inhabited a territory that spanned between the upper course of the Ebro river and the southern basin of the western Pyrenees , a region that coincides with present-day Navarre , western Aragon and northeastern La Rioja , in the Iberian Peninsula . The Vascones are often considered ancestors of the present-day Basques to whom they left their name.

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113-515: The description of the territory which the Vascones inhabited during ancient times appears in texts of classical authors, between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, such as Livy , Strabo , Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy . Although these texts have been studied as sources of reference, some authors have pointed out the apparent lack of uniformity and also the existence of contradictions within

226-477: A communication knot between northern Hispania and southwestern Gallia , who took good care to station detachments in different spots of the main communication lines. The Vasconian area presents indications of upheaval (burnt villas, an abundance of mints to pay the garrisons) during the 4th and 5th centuries that have been linked by many historians to the Bagaudae rebellions against feudalization , but also to

339-479: A half millennia . It began with the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3100 BC, traditionally under Menes . The civilisation of ancient Egypt was characterised primarily by intensive agricultural use of the fertile Nile Valley; the use of the Nile itself for transportation; the development of writing systems – first hieroglyphs and then later hieratic and other derived scripts – and literature ;

452-496: A large kingdom at three different times in history. These are called the Old (20th to 18th centuries BC), Middle (14th to 11th centuries BC), and Neo-Assyrian (9th to 7th centuries BC) kingdoms, or periods. Mitanni was a Hurrian empire in northern Mesopotamia founded around 1500 BC. The Mitanians conquered and controlled Assyria until the 14th century BC while contending with Egypt for control of parts of modern Syria. Its capital

565-589: A later emperor, Darius the Great , expanded the empire to the Indus River , creating the largest empire in the world to that date. But Darius and his son Xerxes I failed to expand into Greece , with expeditions in 490 and 480 BC eventually failing. The Achaemenid dynasty and empire fell to Alexander the Great by 330 BC, and after Alexander's death, much of the area previously ruled by the Cyrus and his successors

678-658: A much larger territory, from Álava in the west to the Loire in the north. The island of Oléron , along with the Île de Ré , formed the Vacetae Insulae "Vacetian Islands" according to the Cosmographia , where Vaceti are Vascones by another name. The concept underlying the medieval name points to a much wider reality than Strabo's former tribal definition, this time encompassing all Basque-speaking tribes. The independent Vascones stabilised their first polity under

791-451: A number of dynasties that peaked in power under the reign of Ashoka Maurya, one of India's most legendary and famous emperors. During the reign of Ashoka, the four dynasties of Chola , Chera , and Pandya were ruling in the South, while Devanampiya Tissa (250–210 BC) controlled Anuradhapura (now Sri Lanka ). These kingdoms, while not part of Ashoka's empire, were in friendly terms with

904-522: A period often known as the Vedic period . Between 1500 and 500 BC these peoples spread throughout most of India and had begun to found small cities. Vedic society was characterized by the varna system which divided society into four broad castes, which were later elaborated. By the end of the Vedic period, this way of organizing society had become central to Indian society. Religion in the late Vedic period

1017-456: A tradition of bronze production and the manufacture of evermore refined bronze and iron objects, such as plows, axes and sickles with shaft holes, socketed arrows and spearheads and small ornamented items. By about 500 BCE, large and delicately decorated bronze drums of remarkable quality, weighing more than 70 kg (150 lb), were produced in the laborious lost-wax casting process. This industry of highly sophisticated metal processing

1130-528: Is Harappan, after the first of its cities to be excavated, Harappa in the Pakistani province of Punjab . Harappan civilization grew out of the earlier agricultural communities as they evolved into cities. These communities created and traded jewelry, figurines, and seals that appear widely scattered throughout Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, and Iran. Chickens were domesticated in addition to the earlier crops and animals. They developed their own writing system,

1243-444: Is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity . The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BC – AD 500, ending with the expansion of Islam in late antiquity. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into

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1356-573: Is deduced that this border was located to the west, while the southern neighbors of the Vascones were the Celtiberians , with their city, Contrebia Leucade . Pliny the Elder , on his work Natural History , mentioned a text prior to 50 BC that located the Vascones at the western end of the Pyrenees , neighbors of the Varduli and extended to the mountains of Oiarso and into the coasts of

1469-466: Is still cited as a Vascon town. During the fifth and sixth centuries, the gap between town and the rural milieu widened, with the former falling much in decay. Between 581-7, chronicles start to mention the Vascones again, this time hailing from the wilderness, as opposed to the towns, which remained attached to Roman culture or were under Germanic influence. By the seventh to eighth centuries, Vascones were not confined to their ancient boundaries, but covered

1582-586: Is the western region of the Basque Country . Their historical territory corresponds with the current Basque area; however, it is not entirely clear whether the Varduli were actually Aquitanians , related to the Vascones , or Celtized tribes, related to Cantabri or Celtiberians which later underwent Basquisation . It seems probable the group shared the proto-Basque cultural-ethnic identity of

1695-520: Is yet to be confirmed with extensive survey work. With the help of archaeological excavations mainly by Susan and Roderick McIntosh , the site is known to have been occupied from 250 BC to AD 900. The city is believed to have been abandoned and moved where the current city is located due to the spread of Islam and the building of the Great Mosque of Djenné . Previously, it was assumed that advanced trade networks and complex societies did not exist in

1808-596: The Bagaudae was to give Gallia Aquitania and Hispania Tarraconensis to the Visigoths in return for their services as allies by treaty ( foederati ). The Visigoths soon managed to expel the Vandals to Africa. After chronicler Hydatius´s death in 469, no contemporary source exists reporting on the social and political situation in the Vasconias , as put by himself. At the beginning of the fourth century, Calagurris

1921-585: The Bay of Biscay , in an area he called Vasconum saltus . The Greek geographer Strabo , in the times of Augustus (63 BC – AD 14) refers to the Vascones (in Ancient Greek : Ούασκώνων ) placing their main city, or polis , in Pompaelo and as well Callagurris . Both cities, Kalágouris, one of the main cities of the ouáskones ,... This same region is crossed by the road that comes from Terrakon and goes to

2034-581: The Caristii , not a single toponym related to the Aquitanian - Basque languages has been found, further supporting the theory of their Celtic origin and possible late Basquisation . However, apart from a few exceptions ( Deba , Zegama , Arakama ) present-day place-names show a clear prevalence of the Basque linguistic element (sometimes mixed with Latin/Romance lexical roots). The last reference to

2147-569: The Chaldeans in 614 BC. The Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great , who first became king of the Persians, then conquered the Medes, Lydia , and Babylon by 539 BC. The empire built on earlier Mesopotamian systems of government to govern their large empire. By building roads, they improved both the ability to send governmental instructions throughout their lands as well as improving

2260-763: The Congo River and into the Great Lakes area. By AD 1000 these groups had spread throughout all of southern Africa south of the equator. Iron metallurgy and agriculture spread along with these peoples, with the cultivation of millet, oil palms, sorghum, and yams as well as the use of domesticated cattle, pigs, and sheep. These technologies helped increase population, and settled communities became common in sub-Saharan Africa except in deserts or heavy forests. Paleolithic tools have been discovered in India dating to 200,000 years ago, and Neolithic sites are known from near

2373-681: The Indus Valley dating to around 8000 BC. Agriculture began in the Indus Valley around 7000 BC, and reached the Ganges Valley by 3000 BC. Barley , cotton , and wheat were grown and the population had domesticated cattle, goats, and sheep. The Indus Valley Civilisation developed around 3000 BC in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys of eastern Afghanistan , Pakistan, and western India. Another name for this civilisation

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2486-495: The Indus Valley script , which is still mostly undeciphered. The exact structure of society and the way the cities were governed is not known. By about 1600 BC, the Indus Valley culture had abandoned many of their cities, including Mohenjo-Daro . The exact reason for this decline is not known. Indo-European speaking peoples began to spread into India about 1500 BC. The Rigveda , in Sanskrit , dates to this period and begins

2599-587: The Maccabean revolt led to independence during Hellenistic period until Roman conquest . Phoenicia was an ancient civilisation centered in the north of ancient Canaan , with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern-day Lebanon , Syria and Israel. Phoenician civilisation was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean between the period of 1550 to 300 BC. One Phoenician colony, Carthage , ruled an empire in

2712-802: The Maritime Jade Road , a jade trade network, in Southeast Asia which existed in Taiwan and the Philippines for 3,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. The trade was established by links between the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and the Philippines, and later included parts of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other areas in Southeast Asia (known as the Sa Huynh - Kalanay Interaction Sphere). Lingling-o artifacts are one of

2825-603: The Maurya Empire . An alliance existed between Devanampiya Tissa and Ashoka of India, who sent Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka. Most of North India was reunited under the Gupta Empire beginning under Chandragupta I around AD 320. Under his successors the empire spread to include much of India except for the Deccan Plateau and the very south of the peninsula. This was a period of relative peace, and

2938-778: The Nile Delta in the north, as far south as Jebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. Extensions to the geographical range of ancient Egyptian civilisation included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant , the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula , and the Western Desert (focused on the several oases ). Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and

3051-688: The Old Kingdom , which saw pyramid building on a large scale. After 2100 BC, the Old Kingdom dissolved into smaller states during the First Intermediate Period , which lasted about 100 years. The Middle Kingdom began around 2000 BC with the reunification of Egypt under pharoes ruling from Thebes . The Middle Kingdom ended with the conquest of northern Egypt by the Hyksos around 1650 BC. The Hyksos were expelled from Egypt and

3164-827: The Pitcairns , the Kermadec Islands , and the Norfolk Islands were also formerly settled by Austronesians but later abandoned. There is also putative evidence, based in the spread of the sweet potato , that Austronesians may have reached South America from Polynesia, where they might have traded with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas . Austronesians established prehistoric maritime trade networks in Island Southeast Asia, including

3277-460: The Pyrenees and composed a united society. The defeat of the Cantabri by Augustus did not have any effect on the Varduli, as they had not joined the wars. The Varduli served in cohorts in the invasion of Britannia : Varduli are mentioned in an inscription on a Roman altar at Rochester, (Roman Bremenium) and at Milecastle 19 along Hadrian's Wall , where an altar inscription made by members of

3390-586: The Roman Empire . In the Sertorian War , Pompey established his headquarters in their territory, founding Pompaelo . Romanization was rather intense in the area known as Ager Vasconum (the Ebro valley) but limited in the mountainous Saltus , where evidence of Roman civilization appears only in mining places, harbours, roads, and milestones, e.g. Oiasso . The territory was also important for Romans as

3503-845: The Seleucid Empire . Parthia had many wars with the Romans, but it was rebellions within the empire that ended it in the 3rd century AD. The Sasanian Empire began when the Parthian Empire ended in AD 224. Their rulers claimed the Achaemenids as ancestors and set up their capital at Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. Their period of greatest military expansion occurred under Shapur I , who by the time of his death in AD 272 had defeated Roman imperial armies and set up buffer states between

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3616-713: The Stone Age , the Bronze Age , and the Iron Age , with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages vary between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During

3729-692: The Vardulii , the Caristii and the Autrigones , tribes who, later Roman sources, grouped under the name Varduli; this would explain later events in this region, for example, why, once the Caristii and Varduli were moved out of their original territories by the Vascones in the Early Middle Ages, these groups lost their names and were grouped together with the Varduli in the territory of

3842-496: The Zapotec civilization . The ancient Near East is considered the cradle of civilization . It was the first to practice intensive year-round agriculture; created one of the first coherent writing systems , invented the potter's wheel and then the vehicular wheel , created the first centralized governments , law codes and empires, as well as displaying social stratification , slavery, and organized warfare. It began

3955-622: The ouáskones , in the border of the Ocean, to Pompélon and Oiáson, city built above the very same Ocean. This information is found again in the works of Ptolemy , who lived during the 1st and 2nd Century AD. In his book, Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis , chapter 6, he relates the names of 15 cities inside the territory of the Vascones, besides Oiarso : Iturissa , Pompaelo , Bituris , Andelos , Nemanturissa , Curnonium , Iacca , Graccurris , Calagurris , Cascantum , Ercavica , Tarraga , Muscaria , Seguia and Alavona . The territory of

4068-575: The Assyrians, who conquered Israel in 722 BC. The Neo-Babylonian Empire did the same to Judah in 586. After both conquests, the conquering forces deported many of the inhabitants to other regions of their respective empires. Following the fall of Babylon to the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great allowed the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem , and some of the exiles from Judah returned to Judea , where they remained under Persian rule until

4181-721: The Autrigones. The tribes took refuge in their coastal areas behind the mountains from the Islamic military depredations of the new powers down the Ebro in Al-andalus. Eventually, after a century of resettlement, this area, along with the Meseta plains, became a frontier march or county of the Kingdom of Asturias in the middle years of the 8th century, the original core of the territory which would become Castile. The union, whatever

4294-537: The Basque linguistic Koldo Mitxelena argues that an "in-situ" origin is the most likely, and thus explains the current dialectical classification while other theories advocate for a proposed kinship between the Basque language and other language families, like the languages of the Caucasus or a relation between Basque and the extinct Iberian language . So far, possible connections between Basque and other languages have remained unproven. Another problem that arises in

4407-650: The Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony , but an ethnic group rather than an organised state. Israel had emerged by the middle of the 9th century BC, when the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III named " Ahab the Israelite" among his enemies at the battle of Qarqar (853). Judah emerged somewhat later than Israel, probably during the 9th century BC, but the subject is one of considerable controversy. Israel came into conflict with

4520-451: The Fertile Crescent, alongside the first evidence for agriculture. Other animals, such as pigs and poultry , were later domesticated and used as food sources. Cattle and water buffalo were domesticated around 7000 BC and horses , donkeys , and camels were domesticated by about 4000 BC. All of these animals were used not only for food, but to carry and pull people and loads, greatly increasing human ability to do work. The invention of

4633-416: The First Cohort of Varduli cavalrymen is one of the few dedications to the Matres , or mother goddesses , found in Roman Britain. The First Cohort of the Varduli are also mentioned in inscriptions at the Antonine Wall , Longovicium in Durham, Bremenium and Corstopitum in Northumberland and on the Dere Street in Cappuck in the Scottish Borders. As with the Caristii , it is not totally clear whether

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4746-492: The Goths and the Franks of the Vascones (the most dynamic tribe) with all Basque speaking, Basque-related, or non-Romanized tribes. Starting in the 7th century, historians differentiate between Spagnovasconia , located southwestern of the Pyrenees , inside the Iberian Peninsula and Guasconia , northwestern of the Pyrenees, in Aquitaine . Schulten interprets that by this time the Vascones had already retreated from their territories in Roman times and started occupying lands in

4859-439: The Gupta rulers generally left administration in local rulers. The Gupta Empire was weakened and ultimately ruined by the raids of Hunas (a branch of the Hephthalites emanating from Central Asia), and the empire broke up into smaller regional kingdoms by the end of the fifth century AD. India would remain fragmented into smaller states until the rise of the Mughal Empire in the 1500s. The Neolithic period of Southeast Asia

4972-543: The Malayan-Indonesian " thalassian " zone shared these characteristics with Indochinese polities like the Pyu city-states in the Irrawaddy River valley, the Văn Lang kingdom in the Red River Delta and Funan around the lower Mekong . Văn Lang, founded in the 7th century BCE, endured until 258 BCE under the Hồng Bàng dynasty , as part of the Đông Sơn culture that sustained a dense and organised population that produced an elaborate Bronze Age industry. Intensive wet-rice cultivation in an ideal climate enabled

5085-453: The Merovingian Franks: the Duchy of Vasconia , whose borders to the south remained unclear. This duchy would eventually become Gascony . During the reincorporation of Vasconia into Francia after 769, Charlemagne destroyed the walls of Pamplona after a failed attempt to conquer Zaragoza, the Vascones annihilated his rearguard in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778—referred as " wasconicam perfidiam " by Frankish chroniclers. Pamplona

5198-399: The Middle East. Egypt developed its own system of hieroglyphs by about 3200 BC. By 2800 BC the Indus Valley Civilization had developed its Indus script , which remains undeciphered. Chinese Characters were independently developed in China during the Shang dynasty in the form of the Oracle Bone Script dating to the period 1600 to 1100 BC. Writing in Mesoamerica dates to 600 BC with

5311-408: The Nubians had created a new kingdom further south, known as the Kingdom of Kush , centred on the upper Nile with a capital at Kerma . In the Egyptian New Kingdom period, Kush once more was conquered by Egypt. However, by 1100 BC a new kingdom of Kush had formed, with a capital at Napata . Nubian rulers conquered Egypt around 760 BC and retained control for about a century. The Kingdom of Aksum

5424-472: The Pacific Islands to successfully retain rice cultivation. Palau and Yap were settled by separate voyages by 1000 BCE. Another important migration branch was by the Lapita culture , which rapidly spread into the islands off the coast of northern New Guinea and into the Solomon Islands and other parts of coastal New Guinea and Island Melanesia by 1200 BCE. They reached the islands of Fiji , Samoa , and Tonga by around 900 to 800 BCE. This remained

5537-446: The Roman arrival and alike other peoples that inhabited the near region, the Vascones spoke a language that linguists identify as the precursor of the modern Basque language , sometimes referred to as Proto-Basque language or Aquitanian language . However, as pointed out by Henrike Knörr (1947-2008) the origin and kinship of the Basque language is still a mystery and an object of research. There are several theories about its origin;

5650-401: The Sasanians and Roman Empires. After Shapur, the Sasanians were under more pressure from the Kushans to their east as well as the Roman then Byzantine Empire to its west. However, the Sasanians rebuilt and founded numerous cities and their merchants traveled widely and introduced crops such as sugar, rice, and cotton into the Iranian plateau. But in AD 651, the last Sassanid emperor was killed by

5763-427: The Varduli appears on a chronicle from Hydatius , in which he narrates the devastations that the Heruli suffered when, in the year 400, they attacked the Cantabrian coast and again in 456 after attacking Bardulia . Ad sedes propias redeuntes, Cantabriarum et Vardaliarum loca maritima crudelissime deproedatio sunt. Later in the next century, Saxons established on the Bordeaux estuary also were known to raid along

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5876-513: The Varduli were an Aquitanian tribe or a Celtized one, related to the Cantabri and Celtiberians . Some of their Toponyms were clearly of Indo-European origin (probably in the Proto-Celtic language ), as Uxama (comes from Upsama , meaning "the highest"), Deobriga (comes from Deiuo-Briga , meaning "holy hill"), Tullonium (comes from Tullo , meaning "valley"), among others. Hydronyms , such as Deva ( Deua or Deba for "Goddess") were also considered of Indo-European etymology . As with

5989-472: The Vascones ( al-Baskunisi ). However, the 824 Carolingian expedition itself included two different columns made up of Frankish and Vascones (Gascons). After the 9th century, the Vascones ( Wascones , Guascones ) come to be more closely identified in the records with the current territory of Gascony, at the time still a Basque-speaking territory but progressively being replaced by the new rising Romance language, Gascon . Several authors point out that prior to

6102-401: The Vascones during the Roman republic and Roman empire corresponded with present-day Navarre , the northeast extreme of Gipuzkoa , and parts of La Rioja , Zaragoza and Huesca , including the city of Calagurris . During this period, after the time of Ptolemy and contemporary to the times of instability caused by the Germanic invasions , the documents about the Vascones and other tribes of

6215-411: The Western Mediterranean until being defeated by Rome in the Punic Wars . The Phoenicians invented the Phoenician alphabet , the forerunner of the modern alphabet still in use today. The history of Pre-Islamic Arabia before the rise of Islam in the AD 630s is not known in great detail. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian Peninsula has been sparse; indigenous written sources are limited to

6328-492: The ability of their military forces to be deployed rapidly. Increased trade and upgraded farming techniques increased wealth, but also exacerbated inequalities between social classes. The empire's location at the centre of trading networks spread its intellectual and philosophical ideas throughout a wide area, and its religion, while not itself spreading far, had an impact on later religions such as Christianity , Islam , and Judaism . Cyrus' son Cambyses II conquered Egypt, while

6441-433: The archipelago of the Philippines , intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands since about 23,000 years earlier. Over the next thousand years, Austronesian peoples migrated southeast to the rest of the Philippines, and into the islands of the Celebes Sea and Borneo. From southwestern Borneo, Austronesians spread further west in a single migration event to both Sumatra and

6554-406: The capital of the Akkadian Empire. Despite an extensive search, the precise site has never been found. Akkad reached the height of its power between about 2330 and 2150 BC, following the conquests of King Sargon of Akkad . Through the spread of Sargon's empire, the language of Akkad, known as Akkadian from the city, spread and replaced the Sumerian language in Mesopotamia and eventually by 1450 BC

6667-407: The casting of iron with molds and then hammering it which enabled weapons and tools to be made stronger and also cheaper. Although chariots had been used previously, the use of spoked wheels allowed the chariots to be much lighter and more maneuverable. In 1274 BC the Hittites clashed with the Egyptians at the Battle of Kadesh , where both sides claimed victory. In 1207 the Hittite capital of Hattusa

6780-447: The coast. Some studies theorize that the Varduli underwent a late Basquisation process, as a result of the continuous presence of the Vascones on their territory. They are mentioned again in the Early Middle Ages in the area considered to be the precursors of the modern Basque province of Gipuzkoa . Other authors guessed, following Classical references, the existence of some degree of ethnic, cultural or political affinity between

6893-423: The coastal regions of southern Vietnam, becoming the ancestors of the speakers of the Malayic and Chamic branches of the Austronesian language family. Soon after reaching the Philippines, Austronesians colonized the Northern Mariana Islands by 1500 BCE or even earlier, becoming the first humans to reach Remote Oceania . The Chamorro migration was also unique in that it was the only Austronesian migration to

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7006-442: The depredations of migrating Germanic and Asian tribes—Vandals, Alans, Sueves, Visigoths, possibly Heruls—into Hispania. In AD 407 Vascon troops fought on the orders of Roman commanders Didimus and Verinianus , repelling an attack by Vandals , Alans and Suebi . In 409, the passage of the Germanic peoples and Sarmatians toward Hispania went unhindered. The Roman reaction to this invasion and unrest related to

7119-484: The empire was Aksum , now in northern Ethiopia. The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000 BC and mysteriously vanished around AD 200. The civilisation's social system is thought to have been highly advanced. The Nok civilisation was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta which have been discovered by archaeologists. The Nok also used iron smelting that may have been independently developed. The civilisation of Djenné-Djenno

7232-438: The entire territory. Among large, thin-walled terracotta jars, ornamented and colorized cooking pots, glass items, jade earrings and metal objects were deposited near the rivers and along the coast. Around 3000 to 1500 BCE, a large-scale migration of Austronesians , known as the Austronesian expansion began from Taiwan . Population growth primarily fueled this migration. These first settlers settled in northern Luzon , in

7345-486: The expanding Islamic Arabs. The Hittites first came to Anatolia about 1900 BC and during the period 1600-1500 they expanded into Mesopotamia where they adopted the cuneiform script to their Indo-European language. By 1200 their empire stretched to Phoenicia and eastern Anatolia . They improved two earlier technologies from Mesopotamia and spread these new techniques widely – improved iron working and light chariots with spoked wheels in warfare. The Hittites introduced

7458-461: The farming communities to produce a regular crop surplus that was used by the ruling elite to raise, command and pay work forces for public construction and maintenance projects such as canals and fortifications. The earliest known evidence of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia was found at Ban Chiang in north-east Thailand and among the Phùng Nguyên culture of northern Vietnam around 2000 BCE. The Đông Sơn culture established

7571-440: The first time during Roman times, by Strabo , who called them Bardyetai , and placed them on the Basque coast, between the Cantabri and Vascones ; they are also mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy , who placed them roughly in present-day Gipuzkoa , and by Roman historians, notably Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia , where he reported that Amanum Portus (Roman name: Flaviobriga ), present-day Castro Urdiales ,

7684-512: The furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into Polynesia until around 700 CE, when there was another surge of island colonization. It reached the Cook Islands , Tahiti , and the Marquesas by 700 CE; Hawaii by 900 CE; Rapa Nui by 1000 CE; and New Zealand by 1200 CE. For a few centuries, the Polynesian islands were connected by bidirectional long-distance sailing, with the exception of Rapa Nui, which had limited further contact due to its isolated geographical location. Island groups like

7797-431: The interior; while Tritium Tuboricum , a little west of the Deba river ( Deva , Deua or Deba = Goddess), Menosca and Morogi or Morosgi , were on the Atlantic coast (on the south coast of the Bay of Biscay ). In 114 BC, Gaius Marius had a personal guard composed of Varduli people, (who were called Barduaioí ) as slaves in Rome . By the year 44, according to Pomponius Mela, the Varduli inhabited lands close to

7910-416: The introduction of writing among the Vascones in the 2nd century. Among them, the oldest are the numismatic evidence coming from both Vasconic mints and others located nearby. A great importance is given to a funerary stele found in the Hermitage of Santa Bárbara in Lerga , which was considered to be the oldest known written testimony of the Proto-Basque language until an inscription from the 1st century BC

8023-445: The land was reunited in the New Kingdom around 1550 BC. This period lasted until about 1000 BC, and saw Egypt expand its borders into Palestine and Syria. The Third Intermediate Period was marked by the rule of priests as well as the conquest of Egypt by Nubian kings and then later Assyria, Persia, and Macedonians. The Ta-Seti kingdom in Nubia to the south of Egypt was conquered by Egyptian rulers around 3100 BC, but by 2500 BC

8136-467: The many inscriptions and coins from southern Arabia. Existing material consists primarily of written sources from other traditions (such as Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, etc.) and oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars. A number of small kingdoms existed in Arabia from around AD 100 to perhaps about AD 400. Carthage was founded around 814 BC by Phoenician settlers. Ancient Carthage

8249-456: The neighboring tribes absent in the historiography, Adolf Schulten (1870–1960) proposed the theory according to which, at some point between the mid-2nd century and late 4th century, an enlargement of the territory of the Vascones took place, first in the west, occupying the lands of the Caristii , Varduli and Autrigones , and later in the north in Aquitaine . Schulten considers this to be

8362-605: The north, what in the future would make the Southern Basque Country and northern Navarre . Schulten also quotes the chronicle from Einhard , Vita Karoli Magni , dated in 810, where for the first time is used the term navarrese to define the people living in the former territories of the Vascones near the Ebro . Unlike the Aquitanians or Cantabrians , the Vascones seemed to have negotiated their status in

8475-493: The northern Iberian Peninsula are scarce, and as a result there is little information about the Vascones during this time. The chronicler John of Biclaro (c. 540 – after 621) mentions the Vascones in a story about the foundation of the city of Victoriacum by the Visigoth king Liuvigild and Gregory of Tours (538–594) mentions the incursions of Wascones in Aquitaine during the year 587. From these extracts and being

8588-604: The notable archeological finds originating from the Maritime Jade Road. During the operation of the Maritime Jade Road, the Austronesian spice trade networks were also established by Islander Southeast Asians with Sri Lanka and Southern India by around 1000 to 600 BCE. Varduli The Varduli were a pre- Roman tribe settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula , in what today

8701-754: The orders of Augustus . According to Pliny the Elder , the main Vardulian settlement was Tullonium , that was in the present-day Zadorra river basin, on a main Roman road from Virovesca (capital of the Autrigones ), to Pompaelo ( Pamplona or Iruña ) in Vasconian land. According to several authors in Classical antiquity , such as Ptolemy , Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela other Vardulian cities were Alba and Gebala (today's Gebara ), in

8814-442: The organisation of collective projects such as the pyramids ; trade with surrounding regions; and a polytheistic religious tradition that included elaborate funeral customs including mummification . Overseeing these activities were a socio-political and economic elite under the figure of a (semi)-divine ruler from a succession of ruling dynasties . Ancient Egyptian history is divided across various periods, beginning with

8927-492: The people of this region. Their ethnonym Varduli is connected with an area that is referred to in documents from the early Middle Ages as Bardulia , which is mentioned as the cradle of Old Castile , following the decline of the Navarrese Kingdom . Julio Caro Baroja , a Basque anthropologist and linguist asserted in his works that the term Varduli was not of Basque origin. The Varduli are mentioned for

9040-472: The population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and herds. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labour force and division of labour. This organization led to the necessity of record keeping and the development of writing. Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq ), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of

9153-462: The possibility of an expansion northwards (J. J. Larrea). The inroad of the Vascones onto the plains of Aquitaine in 587 seems to be short-lived—they make their way back to the mountains—and archaeological findings in Eauze or Auch do not reveal instability or destruction during the alleged expanding period up to the mid-7th century. Another theory suggests a contemporary identification made by

9266-464: The reason for the adoption of the name Gascony , which derives from Gascon , which comes from Vascon , and used to denominate a region that includes the present-day Northern Basque Country . Claudio Sánchez Albornoz , Spanish historian (1893–1984), on his work "Los vascones vasconizan la depresión vasca" ( The Vascones "basquize" the Basque depression ) published in 1972 expanded upon this hypothesis, relying on linguistic analysis: when invading

9379-567: The region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found that the Soninke of the Mandé peoples were responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC, the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. From the type of architecture and pottery, it is believed that Tichit was related to

9492-634: The region until the arrival of traders from Southwest Asia . However, sites such as Djenné-Djenno disprove this, as these traditions in West Africa flourished long before. Towns similar to that at Djenne-Jeno also developed at the site of Dia, also in Mali along the Niger River , from around 900 BC. Dhar Tichitt and Oualata were prominent among the early urban centres, dated to 2000 BC, in present-day Mauritania. About 500 stone settlements littered

9605-483: The religious practices that were present among the Vascones since the Roman arrival and the introduction of writing. According to research done on this topic, religious syncretism lasted until the 1st Century; from that moment onwards and until the adoption of Christianity between the 4th and 5th centuries, Roman mythology was predominant. Vasconic theonyms have been found on tombstones and altars, which further proves

9718-588: The same time period. Cultivation of millet, rice , and legumes began around 7000 BC in China . Taro cultivation in New Guinea dates to about 7000 BC also with squash cultivation in Mesoamerica perhaps sharing that date. Animal domestication began with the domestication of dogs , which dates to at least 15,000 years ago, and perhaps even earlier. Sheep and goats were domesticated around 9000 BC in

9831-684: The same time, southeastern Europe and Siberia around 40,000 years ago, and Japan about 30,000 years ago. Humans migrated to the Americas about 15,000 years ago. Evidence for agriculture emerges in about 9000 BC in what is now eastern Turkey and spread through the Fertile Crescent . Settlement at Göbekli Tepe began around 9500 BC and may have the world's oldest temple. The Nile River Valley has evidence of sorghum and millet cultivation starting around 8000 BC and agricultural use of yams in Western Africa perhaps dates to

9944-471: The simple plough by 6000 BC further increased agricultural efficiency. Metal use in the form of hammered copper items predates the discovery of smelting of copper ores , which happened around 6000 BC in western Asia and independently in eastern Asia before 2000 BC. Gold and silver use dates to between 6000 and 5000 BC. Alloy metallurgy began with bronze in about 3500 BC in Mesopotamia and

10057-472: The study of the language of the Vascones is the lack of direct classic records regarding the language spoken by this people, with the exception of a vague description by Strabo and Pomponius Mela , or the description made by Julius Caesar on the language of the Aquitanians in his work Commentarii de Bello Gallico . The study of epigraphic documents has been of greater interest, as some of them date

10170-736: The study of the stars and the sciences of astronomy and mathematics. Mesopotamia is the site of some of the earliest known civilisations in the world. Agricultural communities emerged in the area with the Halaf culture around 8000 BC and continued to expand through the Ubaid period around 6000 BC. Cities began in the Uruk period (4000–3100 BC) and expanded during the Jemdet Nasr (3100–2900 BC) and Early Dynastic (2900–2350 BC) periods. The surplus of storable foodstuffs created by this economy allowed

10283-439: The subsequent Ghana Empire. Old Jenne (Djenne) began to be settled around 300 BC, producing iron and with sizeable population, evidenced in crowded cemeteries. The inhabitants and creators of these settlements during these periods are thought to have been ancestors of the Soninke people. Peoples speaking precursors to the modern-day Bantu languages began to spread throughout southern Africa, and by 2000 BC they were expanding past

10396-608: The syncretism between the pre-Christian Roman systems of beliefs and the Vasconic religions. Two altars have been found in Ujué , one dedicated to Lacubegi , identified as the God of the lower world and another one dedicated to Jupiter , although it has not been possible to date them. In Lerate and Barbarin two tombstones have been found, both dedicated to Stelaitse and dated in the 1st century. Ancient history Ancient history

10509-524: The territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad . The Neo-Babylonian Empire , or Chaldea , was Babylonia from the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II , it conquered Jerusalem . This empire also created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the still-surviving Ishtar Gate as architectural embellishments of its capital at Babylon. Akkad was a city and its surrounding region near Babylon. Akkad also became

10622-471: The territories of what today is Biscay , Gipuzkoa and Álava displaced to Castile part of the Caristii , Varduli and Autrigones , who took refuge in the mountains; the ones who had not been displaced were " Basquized " , while perhaps the Caristii, Varduli and Autrigones already spoke languages similar or related to the Basque language . However, research during last decades has called into question

10735-482: The texts, in particular with Strabo. The oldest document corresponds to Livy (59 BC – AD 17), who in a brief passage of his work about the 76 BC Sertorian War relates how after crossing the Ebro and the city of Calagurris Nasica , they crossed the flatlands of the Vascones, or Vasconum agrum until reaching the border of their immediate neighbors, the Berones . Comparing other sections of this same document, it

10848-517: The time period of ancient history, the world population was already exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution , which was in full progress. While in 10,000 BC, the world population stood at 2 million, it rose to 45 million by 3000 BC. By the Iron Age in 1000 BC, the population had risen to 72 million. By the end of the ancient period in AD 500, the world population is thought to have stood at 209 million. In 10,500 years,

10961-568: The use of fire has been dated as early as 1.8 million years ago, a date which is contested, with generally accepted evidence for the controlled use of fire dating to 780,000 years ago. Actual use of hearths first appears 400,000 years ago. Dates for the emergence of Homo sapiens (modern humans) range from 250,000 to 160,000 years ago, with the varying dates being based on DNA studies and fossils respectively. Some 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa . They reached Australia about 45,000 years ago, southwestern Europe about

11074-569: The world population increased by 100 times. Prehistory is the period before written history. Most of our knowledge of that period comes from the work of archaeologists. Prehistory is often known as the Stone Age , and is divided into the Paleolithic (earliest), Mesolithic , and Neolithic . The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago. Evidence for

11187-540: Was Washukanni , whose precise location has not been determined by archaeologists. The Medes and Persians were peoples who had appeared in the Iranian plateau around 1500 BC. Both peoples spoke Indo-European languages and were mostly pastoralists with a tradition of horse archery. The Medes established their own Median Empire by the 6th century BC, having defeated the Neo-Assyrian Empire with

11300-463: Was a Varduli settlement. The Roman geographer Pomponius Mela located them also on the coast, but west of the Vascones and east of the Caristii . This lack of agreement about their exact position may have been caused by the continuous movement of the tribes of the northern Iberian Peninsula during events such as the Cantabrian Wars . The first census of the Varduli population took place under

11413-535: Was a city-state that ruled an empire through alliances and trade influence that stretched throughout North Africa and modern Spain . At the height of the city's influence, its empire included most of the western Mediterranean. The empire was in a constant state of struggle with the Roman Republic , which led to a series of conflicts known as the Punic Wars . After the third and final Punic War , Carthage

11526-492: Was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa centered in present-day Eritrea and northern Ethiopia , it existed from approximately AD 100 to 940, growing from the Iron Age proto-Aksumite period around the 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. The Kingdom of Aksum at its height by the early 6th-century AD extended through much of modern Ethiopia and across the Red Sea to Arabia. The capital city of

11639-445: Was characterized by several migrations into Mainland and Island Southeast Asia from southern China by Austronesian , Austroasiatic , Kra-Dai and Hmong-Mien -speakers. Territorial principalities in both Insular and Mainland Southeast Asia, characterized as "agrarian kingdoms", developed an economy by around 500 BCE based on surplus crop cultivation and moderate coastal trade of domestic natural products. Several states of

11752-541: Was destroyed and then occupied by Roman forces. Nearly all of the territory held by Carthage fell into Roman hands. Ancient Egypt was a long-lived civilisation geographically located in north-eastern Africa. It was concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River, reaching its greatest extent during the 2nd millennium BC, which is referred to as the New Kingdom period. It reached broadly from

11865-455: Was developed independent of Chinese or Indian influence. Historians relate these achievements to the presence of organized, centralized and hierarchical communities and a large population. Between 1000 BCE and 100 CE, the Sa Huỳnh culture flourished along the south-central coast of Vietnam . Ceramic jar burial sites that included grave goods have been discovered at various sites along

11978-772: Was developed independently in China by 2000 BC. Pottery developed independently throughout the world, with fired pots appearing first among the Jomon of Japan and in West Africa at Mali . Sometime between 5000 and 4000 BC the potter's wheel was invented. By 3000 BC, the pottery wheel was adapted into wheeled vehicles which could be used to carry loads further and easier than with human or animal power alone. Writing developed separately in five different locations in human history: Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and Mesoamerica. By 3400 BC, "proto-literate" cuneiform spread in

12091-421: Was evolving into Hinduism , which spread throughout Southeast Asia. Siddhartha Gautama , born around 560 BC in northern India, went on to found a new religion based on his ascetic life – Buddhism . This faith also spread throughout Eastern and Southeastern Asia after his death. This period also saw the composition of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata . The kingdom of Magadha rose to prominence under

12204-465: Was found in 2022. It is also believed that the Iberian language has left some traces on the Basque language, as with the Iberian term ili , adopted in Basque as hiri with the meaning of town or city, and present in the Vasconic name for the city of Pompaelo : "Iruña", as well as in other names of cities and towns. The epigraphic and archaeological testimonies have allowed experts to determine some of

12317-616: Was later captured by the Cordovan emir 'Abd al-Rahman I (781), but taken over by the Franks in 806, who assigned its government to a pro-Frankish local Belasko ("al-Galashki"), probably a Basque hailing from present-day Gascony. Some decades later, in 824, a second battle of Roncevaux took place that led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Pamplona , founded with Eneko Arista as head of the new polity, presented by Arab sources as leader of

12430-524: Was located in the Niger River Valley in the country of Mali and is considered to be among the oldest urbanized centers and the best-known archaeology site in sub-Saharan Africa . This archaeological site is located about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away from the modern town and is believed to have been involved in long-distance trade and possibly the domestication of African rice. The site is believed to exceed 33 hectares (82 acres); however, this

12543-512: Was ruled by the Seleucid dynasty . Parthia was an Iranian civilisation situated in the northeastern part of modern Iran. Their power was based on a combination of military power based on heavy cavalry with a decentralised governing structure based on a federated system . The Parthian Empire was led by the Arsacid dynasty , which by around 155 BC under Mithradates I had mostly conquered

12656-682: Was sacked, ending the Hittite Empire . Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms of the ancient Levant and had existed during the Iron Ages and the Neo-Babylonian, Persian and Hellenistic periods. The name Israel first appears in the stele of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah around 1209 BC. This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by

12769-701: Was the main language of diplomacy in the Near East. Assyria was originally a region on the Upper Tigris , where a small state was created in the 19th century BC. The capital was at Assur , which gave the state its name. Later, as a nation and empire that came to control all of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and much of Anatolia , the term "Assyria proper" referred to roughly the northern half of Mesopotamia (the southern half being Babylonia), with Nineveh as its capital. The Assyrian kings controlled

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