25 Main Civilizations of Human History Quiz

Answer: Iraq

The Sumerian civilization thrived from 3600-1738 BC. The Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia built the world's earliest known cities, the oldest of which is Eridu.

Answer: Egyptian

Dynastic history began in ancient Egypt in approximately 3100 BC, when Pharaoh Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt. This is some disagreement as to when exactly dynastic history ended; some sources say that Alexander the Great's invasion in 332 BC brought it to an end, while others name Cleopatra as the last pharaoh of the last dynasty to rule ancient Egypt.

Answer: Aryans

The Indus Valley empire centered around the capitals of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, remains of which were unearthed in 1922.

Answer: Snake

The Minoans were a seafaring people who mainly lived on the island of Crete. Their palace at Knossos was the home of the legendary King Minos. The Minoans, who practiced goddess worship, were quite sophisticated for their time; ruins indicate paved streets, piped water, and, most important to scholars, evidence of early forms of writing known as Linear A and Linear B.

Answer: Hattusas

Excavations of this ancient city, located in what is now Anatolia in Turkey, have unearthed an archive of 10,000 cuneiform tablets dating to 1350-1300 BC. The Hittites are believed to have been the first to have used weapons made of iron.

Answer: Taoism

Taoism, which is still popular all over the world today, is both a philosophy and religion which advocates preserving and restoring the Tao in the body and the cosmos.

Answer: Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the western Pacific Ocean, near New Guinea. They were discovered by Europeans in 1560 and, much later, were divided between Germany and Great Britain. Today, the southern islands are an independent nation, while the northern ones are part of Papua New Guinea.

Answer: Cyrus the Great

It is believed that the Babylonians were the first to develop an early railroad, which consisted of wheeled vehicles ran along parallel tracks. Evidence of these ancient railways dating to 2250 BC has been found in modern-day Iraq.

Answer: human being

The native Inuit people worshipped a pantheon of gods, including Sedna, the seal goddess, and the iceberg spirit. Their dominant state was the Thule empire, which lasted from around AD 1150 to 1850.

Answer: Augustus

Augustus Caesar, adoptive son and heir of his great-uncle Julius Caesar, became sole ruler of the Roman Empire in BC 31. Ruling until 14 AD, he instituted numerous changes in Roman society and government, including building roads and encouraging the arts.

Answer: Tlaxcala

Tlaxcala, in Mexico, was an Aztec city. Tikal is located in what in now northern Guatemala. First occupied as a small village, it became an important ceremonial center, with pyramids and plazas. Copan, a Honduran city near the border of Guatemala, was an important center of Mayan art and astronomy. Uxmal, on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, was the chief city of the later Maya empire.

Answer: Zoroastrianism

The major dynasty of the Ancient Persian civilization was the Achaemenian dynasty, founded by Achaemenes, around 600 BC. Its greatest rulers were Cyrus II (r. 559-529? BC), who actually established the Persian empire and from whose reign it is dated; Darius I, who secured the borders from external threats; and Xerxes I, who completed many of Darius' public works.

At its height, the Achaemenian empire reached from Macedonia to northern India and from the Caucasus Mountains to the Persian Gulf.

Answer: Peloponnesian

Sparta was an ancient Greek city-state, capital of Laconia and chief city of the Peloponnese. It was best known for its militarism; Spartan boys began their military training at the age of seven. In 146 BC, it became part of the Roman province of Achaea, later to be destroyed by the Visigoths.

Answer: Genghis Khan

Temujin took the name Genghis Khan, meaning "universal ruler"- and he came close to being that, at least in Eurasia. His empire, stretching from the Pacific to the Black Sea, was the largest the world had ever known. From 1260 to 1294, Genghis' grandson, Kublai Khan, ruled the empire for its last 34 years. Kublai became the first emperor of the Yuan dynasty of China, but after his death in 1294, the Mongols broke away form China.

Answer: Cambodia

The Angkor kingdom, which survived from 802 to 1432, and the state of Yashodharapura flourished along the coast of what is now Cambodia in southeast Asia.

Answer: Submission

"Islam" means submission to the will of one God, called Allah in Arabic. The sacred scripture of Islam is the Koran (or Quran), which contains God's revelations to Muhammad.

Answer: shogun

In feudal Japan, the shogun was the title for the absolute ruler of society; the shoguns were in power from 1192 to 1867.

Answer: Holy

The tiny tidal island of Lindisfarne is in the North Sea, in the northeast corner of England near Berwick-upon-Tweed. It is rarely called Lindisfarne, but more commonly known as "the Holy Island", a name acquired after a violent attack on the monastery by the Vikings in AD 793. "Lindisfarne - baptised in the blood of so many good men - truly a 'Holy Island'", observed the monks.

Answer: Cyrillic

The Cyrillic alphabet, devised around AD 863, is a 43-letter alphabet based on the Greek and Hebrew scripts. It was named for St. Cyril, a Greek who translated the Bible into Old Church Slavonic. The Cyrillic alphabet is still used in Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia and some countries in Central Asia.

Answer: Guru Nanak

Sikhism, today ranked as one of the major religions in the world, preaches a message of devotion and remembrance of God at all times, truthful living, and equality of mankind. Sikhism has a history of ten Gurus, beginning with Guru Nanak, and ending with today's Living Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

Answer: Ivan III Vasilevich (the Great)

Ivan III (1440-1505) overthrew the Tatars in 1480, making Russia a sovereign nation once again, with Moscow as its capital. Ivan IV, "the Terrible", was the first to have himself officially crowned Tsar.

Answer: Shona

The Shona, a Bantu-speaking people, make up about 70 percent of Zimbabwe's population today. Their traditional culture, known for its music and pottery, is slowly vanishing due to Western influences.

Answer: A republic was established

On October 29, 1923, the people of Turkey declared themselves the Turkish Republic, thereby officially putting an end to Ottoman rule. The first president of the republic was Mustafa Kemal, who took the name Ataturk.

Answer: Cuzco, Peru

The city of Cuzco, high in the Andes of Peru, was founded in the fifteenth centry and served as the capital of the Incan empire. This "City of the Sun" was taken and destroyed by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizzaro in 1533.

Answer: Engels

Friedrich Engels was a German socialist philosopher who became interested in the philosophy of Hegel. In 1844 he published "The Condition of the Working Class in England", and completed volumes 2 and 3 of "Das Kapital" after Marx's death in 1883.
Note: I personally question the terming of Communism as a civilization, but apparently Norris McWhirter, a British writer, did. He lists Marxist-Leninism and Maoism as the religions or philosophies that correspond with the "civilization" of Communism.