Civilizations from history you find interesting -

[Compound Buster]

I hope I've not missed an already existent thread on this subject, but I'm not sure in which other sub forum this would fit.
Do you have a historical civilization you find interesting? It could be encapsulating aesthetically, politically or just because you feel it had a certain amount of knowledge which later civilizations did not possess.
Mine would have to be the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. Even though I'm not in any way related to the isles, the concept of a semi-isolated geographical region developing a separate identity from the continental Europe intrigues me. Also the Sutton Hoo helmet is a beauty to behold.

 

[DumbDude42]

imperial japan
the combination of rapid industrialisation and modernism on the one hand and strict traditionalism on the other hand is very intriguing

 

[I Love Beef]

The complete European sphere during the Grecian Golden Age. Heck, many of the "golden ages" of countries and the massive divide of societal and civil progress between them and the "outsiders". It interests me greatly of the psychology and cultural divides that contributed to the ways of life of both the Grecians and the Tribalis, the Thracians, the Gothics, and so on. There's just something so primal and vital to the history of man in these ages.

Pre organized tribal societies of great civilizations, and the mythologies and folklore of these tribal societies before they came to be kingdoms and empires. Back then, it was just them versus nature. We didn't exactly showcase our presence to nature as something fearsome and beyond the powers of apex predators, so it was a precarious balance we had back then of one village against another against potential invaders against wolves against the weather.

Easter Island. I don't know why, but recently it's just so interesting to read up on an island society that essentially survived without outside help with bare minimum resources. Granted, they did resort to cannibalism, but it's quite amazing to see one of the world's oldest microcosms of ecology and the civilization that thrived in that island.

 

[LordofCringe7206]

I always enjoyed reading up on the history of the Mongol Empire.

 

[oldTireWater]

I've always enjoyed post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa. Watching artificial civilizations revert to their natural state in real time is interesting.

the Sutton Hoo helmet is a beauty to behold.

The asymmetry of the rivets at the inner corners of the eyes is maddening to me. This must have been B-Stock.

 

[Y2K Baby]

China. All of it. Those crazy chinks!

 

[Where Do You Find Them?]

Kinda all of them, more accurately the thread that runs through them. Things like the Egyptian gods becoming the template for the Greek gods that became the template for the Romans. It's amazing how much of the way that we talk and think and approach things can be traced back thousands of years to people we imagine as being totally different from us. For instance if I say "He's a bit wet" you'd understand I really mean "He's emotional" and that association between wet and emotion has been with us for at least 2 millennia. It can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, but it didn't stay in Europe. It was bounced around the world with various regions, often through the influence of a single man, importing the knowledge and adding to it before suffering some form of ruin and having someone else pick up the torch.

I've always enjoyed post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa. Watching artificial civilizations revert to their natural state in real time is interesting.

I really have no idea what you mean by this. Sub-Saharan Africa was the center of learning in the world during the medieval period. The university at Timbuktu was the best at the time and the library the biggest since Alexandria. They haven't exactly reverted to that so I'm really not sure what you mean?

 

[Marco Fucko]

I specifically want to look into the history of Switzerland and the "Romantic" period of Islamic/Zoroastrian lands. Particularly the Ottoman Empire with regard to the latter, since it survived up until WW1 and technically a bit longer (official year is 1922), which really feeds my basic bitch observation of the World Wars being the death knell for traditionalism.

 

[oldTireWater]

I really have no idea what you mean by this. Sub-Saharan Africa was the center of learning in the world during the medieval period. The university at Timbuktu was the best at the time and the library the biggest since Alexandria. They haven't exactly reverted to that so I'm really not sure what you mean?

I mean European civics and structures seem not to be their cup of tea.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Feudal Japan, Medieval Europe.

 

[HeyItsHarveyMacClout]

The complete European sphere during the Grecian Golden Age. Heck, many of the "golden ages" of countries and the massive divide of societal and civil progress between them and the "outsiders". It interests me greatly of the psychology and cultural divides that contributed to the ways of life of both the Grecians and the Tribalis, the Thracians, the Gothics, and so on. There's just something so primal and vital to the history of man in these ages.

Pre organized tribal societies of great civilizations, and the mythologies and folklore of these tribal societies before they came to be kingdoms and empires. Back then, it was just them versus nature. We didn't exactly showcase our presence to nature as something fearsome and beyond the powers of apex predators, so it was a precarious balance we had back then of one village against another against potential invaders against wolves against the weather.

Easter Island. I don't know why, but recently it's just so interesting to read up on an island society that essentially survived without outside help with bare minimum resources. Granted, they did resort to cannibalism, but it's quite amazing to see one of the world's oldest microcosms of ecology and the civilization that thrived in that island.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the correct term is "Hellenistic"

 

[Feline Supremacist]

The Pre-Classic and early Classic Maya. The Maya of Southern Mexico and Central America collapsed before the Spanish Conquest. They left behind huge cities, complex politics, art and stele. There were vast numbers of codices which were burned by the Spanish, to the dismay of the brothers, friars tasked with converting the Maya. Very few survived the Spanish and the elements destroyed the remainder. Maya script is the only Mesoamerican writing to have been deciphered but not entirely. No one knows why the Maya abandoned their cities and temples or why the Maya civilization collapsed. I read human sacrifice was not initially practiced by the Maya but was introduced from the north when Teotihuacan deposed the ruler of the Maya city Tikal. This was a vast civilization that was suddenly invaded and began to fall apart and simply disappeared. No one knows why.

 

[post]

WILD WEST YEEEEEEEEEEHAW

is that a civilization? manifest destiny?

i like conquistadors too

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

Mesoamerican cultures like the Aztecs and Mayans are fucking badass. I had a history professor who was obsessed with Ancient Mexico and would find ways to squeeze it into classes where it was even sort of relevant and I'm glad he did, I got obsessed too. The art and architecture and religious iconography is fascinating. I'm a sperg about art history so I could gush for paragraphs about what specifically I like.

The Greeks and Romans were my favorite people to study for a while, especially in high school when I was taking Latin. I always got really excited about whatever time period/ culture I was currently learning about in school, whether I was accurate or not. Reading Beowulf in 12th grade resulted in a lot of viking art and listening to Amon Amarth.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

Mesoamerican cultures like the Aztecs and Mayans are fucking badass. I had a history professor who was obsessed with Ancient Mexico and would find ways to squeeze it into classes where it was even sort of relevant and I'm glad he did, I got obsessed too. The art and architecture and religious iconography is fascinating. I'm a sperg about art history so I could gush for paragraphs about what specifically I like.

The Greeks and Romans were my favorite people to study for a while, especially in high school when I was taking Latin. I always got really excited about whatever time period/ culture I was currently learning about in school, whether I was accurate or not. Reading Beowulf in 12th grade resulted in a lot of viking art and listening to Amon Amarth.

There's so much we don't know about them, Teotihuacan is still being excavated and new chambers are still being found. DNA shows there were Mayans there so we now know there was travel between them. I've been to Mayan ruins, they are absolutely astounding.

edited because eating and fending off cats is bad for typing

 

[JambledUpWords]

• Colonial era Americas
• Late medieval Europe
• Ancient Chinese civilization
• Plantagenet England
• Revolution era France
• Russia prior to 1917
• 12th-15th century Holy Roman Empire

 

[millais]

I've recently been reading a book about African urban development before the arrival of the European colonial ventures. It was no "Wakanda", but apparently they did develop some higher concentrations of people in urban-type agglomerations, though most of the impressive ones were not purely African, ie Arabs, Berbers, Islamics, etc had an influential role.

The interesting one to me was the warlike Bantu "cities" of Southern Africa. More like massive, temporary bivouacs or staging grounds that only stayed in one place for as long as the surrounding territory still had surviving foreign tribes that could be plundered for cattle and slaves. I had always seen old English and Boer explorers' paintings and accounts of Bantu "cities" like the Zulu capitals of Shaka, Dingaan, and Mpanda or the Matabele capital of Silkaats, showing them like permanent settlements. But then when they got sacked by the Boer Voortrekkers or English colonial armies, it always puzzled me that the Bantu could uproot and establish a new capital within months, bringing along a huge amount of movable property despite their lack of draft animals and wheeled transport. Now it makes more sense to me, knowing that their entire concept of the town was no more than a military staging ground, so it is basically mobile in nature. Not unlike the semi-nomadic laager encampments of the Voortrekkers themselves, just on a way bigger scale.

 

[AgriDrThunder]

The Carolingian Empire and its successor states - France up to about 1300 and the HRE up to about 1700 - are my favorites. I also enjoy the Normans and France's spinoff Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Would like to get in to Byzantine and Ottoman history as well, lots of interesting things going on there.

 

[Compound Buster]

I've recently been reading a book about African urban development before the arrival of the European colonial ventures. It was no "Wakanda", but apparently they did develop some higher concentrations of people in urban-type agglomerations, though most of the impressive ones were not purely African, ie Arabs, Berbers, Islamics, etc had an influential role.

The interesting one to me was the warlike Bantu "cities" of Southern Africa. More like massive, temporary bivouacs or staging grounds that only stayed in one place for as long as the surrounding territory still had surviving foreign tribes that could be plundered for cattle and slaves. I had always seen old English and Boer explorers' paintings and accounts of Bantu "cities" like the Zulu capitals of Shaka, Dingaan, and Mpanda or the Matabele capital of Silkaats, showing them like permanent settlements. But then when they got sacked by the Boer Voortrekkers or English colonial armies, it always puzzled me that the Bantu could uproot and establish a new capital within months, bringing along a huge amount of movable property despite their lack of draft animals and wheeled transport. Now it makes more sense to me, knowing that their entire concept of the town was no more than a military staging ground, so it is basically mobile in nature. Not unlike the semi-nomadic laager encampments of the Voortrekkers themselves, just on a way bigger scale.

Interesting read! I hardly know anything about Africa in the period preceding prolonged contact with Europeans apart from the one extremely wealthy West-African ruler and the Arab slave trade in Africa. I did read McNeill & McNeills book "The Human Web" which covers European and African interaction and it's extremely interesting to read how guns and horses from Europe drove African chiefdoms to expand in order to get more POWs to sell to the Europeans.

 

[Karl der Grosse]

I love the mid to late Roman Republic. The political and military maneuverings are fascinating.