Iraqi oil production (2000s AD) In the 1500s AD, a global cooling period known as the Little Ice Age affected people all over the world, from the Navajo and Iroquois in North America to the French in Europe [...]
A man making paper West Asia entered the 1500s AD in a very powerful position in world trade. Iran, together with the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan and the Mughal Empire, dominated the Silk Road, and the Silk Road [...]
Iron Age timeline: Zhou Dynasty swimmers (Sichuan bronze vessel, ca. 750 BC) How did the Iron Age begin? All across Asia, the early Iron Age started out as a time of many [...]
Ancient history timeline: Building at Gobekli Tepe in what is now Turkey (ca. 9000 BC) Beginning of farming Around 10,000 BC, with the end of the last major Ice Age, people all [...]
A pontoon bridge from the Column of Marcus Aurelius, in Rome A pontoon bridge is a temporary bridge that you make by lining up a lot of boats crossways across the river, [...]
Silver mining slaves at Laurion, near Athens Why did people want silver? People first mined silver in the Bronze Age. Like gold, silver is a great way to help people trade. [...]
History of iron: a Greek black-figure vase showing a blacksmith at work (Athens, about 550 BC) Why do people use iron? The history of iron doesn't start until much later [...]
A child with tuberculosis What is tuberculosis? Tuberculosis is a lung disease caused by germs. Today we can usually cure it with antibiotics. But in antiquity there was no cure. Many people died [...]
Opium poppy flower Opium comes from a kind of poppy flower. It evolved around 100 million years ago in West Asia and Central Asia. People probably realized as soon as they got to West Asia, about 60,000 [...]
Phoenician ship A knot is a way to measure how fast a ship is travelling on the ocean or how fast a boat is going on a river. A knot [...]
