History of math: Sumerian multiplication table (2700 BC) Cuneiform multiplication table Once people in West Asia figured out how to write down numbers, about 3500 BC, they quickly began to want to use cuneiform to [...]
An Iranian fire sacrifice Zoroaster/Zarathustra himself Around 1000 BC (probably), about the same time that people in India were writing the Rig Veda, a man named Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra) was a priest in a small [...]
Ardashir, the first ruler of the Sassanians Rulers of the Parthian Empire In 211 AD, a group of Iranians called the Sassanians (the descendants of Sassan) took over control of the Parthian Empire from [...]
Coin of the Sassanian king Hormizd V (ca. 593 AD?) The most important part of the Sassanian economy, as in all other states in Late Antiquity, was farming - most people still were farmers, growing [...]
Obsidian tools West Asia is located in the middle of the very wide land mass we call Europe and Asia and Africa, and so it has always played an important part [...]
Testudo formation on the Column of Trajan, Rome What did the Roman army do? The Roman army fought many wars over the long history of the Roman Empire. For hundreds [...]
The Roman emperor Constantius II, son of Constantine Constantine II, Constantius, and Constans The Roman emperor Constantine died in his 60s in 337 AD. His three surviving sons split the Empire [...]
A Nestorian cross on a tombstone from Kazakhstan (1300s AD) In 428 AD, when Pulcheria and Eudocia were running the Roman Empire, a bishop named Nestorius became the Patriarch of Constantinople. That's like being the Pope but for people [...]
Manichaean painting (Turfan, western China, ca. 900s AD) - Who were the Manichaeans? The prophet Mani in the Sassanian Empire In the 300s and 400s AD many Christians turned to believing in [...]
The Roman emperor Diocletian, who organized the Great Persecution of Christians. (This statue would have been painted and not white.) Diocletian's policies The Roman Emperor Diocletian came to power in 284 AD. Diocletian [...]
