When we think of early civilizations, we assume that humans were more primitive than what is seen today. While that was the case during the early stages, humans roamed the earth in search of food and focused on establishing agriculture, securing their access to food. As a result, they started focusing more on elevating their settlements into small towns by constructing houses, temples, and many more that were a symbol of ancient times.
Many civilizations have come and gone that were more or less advanced cultures that we underestimate were, in fact, they were ahead of their time in terms of scientific developments and social values. Let’s look into some societies that were more advanced than you thought.
The Ancient Maya
The people of the ancient Maya civilization started building settlements in what is now southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. They achieved great scientific discovery due to their profound interest in astrology. Not only that, they created one of the first systems of writing that incorporated visual and phonetic letters. Through this use of an advanced writing system, they constructed large observatories and methodically recorded planetary movements.
Ancient Israel
Ancient Israel had shown advanced social cultures, if not technology, compared to other ancient societies. The Israelites had a variety of customs that set them far apart from their neighbors because of the rigorous social laws spelled down in the Pentateuch, their sacred text. For instance, the people of ancient Israel were obsessed with bathing and keeping clean and were the ones to make washing hands before and after eating mandatory. They promoted highly ethical systems of maintaining kindness and fairness among all genders and foreigners.
The societies had their drawbacks and eventually disappeared into another civilization. However, their scientific achievements and social values were more advanced than we give them credit for.