Welcome to Everything Antiquity
Welcome to my new blog, Everything Antiquity! This is the byproduct of my lifelong passion for all things history. In this, I will explore ancient civilizations from all across the world to better understand how they lived and interacted with each other.
Why History?
My love for history, specifically Classical Antiquity, has been for as early as I can remember.
Looking back at my childhood, I’d say my earliest inspiration was the plethora of Discovery Kids cartoons, with Time Warp Trio and Tutenstein being among my favorites. Not to mention, my endless collections of Playmobils and Legos enacting different scenes from Roman and Egyptian history.
Finally, my dad’s love for history, albeit a different focus than mine, has been one of the primary driving forces behind my lifelong interest in better understanding where we, humanity, came from.
Why Ancient History?
While other areas of history might interest me, I find ancient history to be the most engaging.
One of my favorite things about history is the universal themes we see in all of humanity; I find it so unifying how similar yet varied we all are. While science and culture might separate us from the people of ancient times, the human experience is something that connects us all. This dichotomy is best represented by the civilizations of Classical Antiquity. Despite being so different from us, we see the people of those times doing and feeling the same things as us.
What is Considered Ancient History?
I’ve probably said “Ancient History” about a thousand times by now, so I think it’s about time I give it a proper definition.
Ancient history, as a whole, is hard to define just within a timeframe. Colloquially, “ancient” is used as a descriptor for things that might feel distant to our modern society.
To be more exact, I will define ancient history with, for lack of a better term, defining events. Many historians cite roughly 500 CE as the cut-off of ancient history, referencing the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE; this will be my general guideline for evaluating what is ancient history.
For non-Western history (or rather, areas not influenced by Roman colonialism), the idea of what is ancient can be more liberally interpreted.
For instance, I would consider the cut-off for ancient history to be closer to 1500 CE when looking at the civilizations of the New World. I admit that the 1000-year difference might make the use for an ancient criteria feel insignificant.
However, the arrival of the Spanish was a defining event that ushered the New World into a period of change that would closer resemble its modern history.
What to Expect?
My main issue with the traditional ways of teaching history is the endless pages of text that all go over your head. In many of my history classes, I would be required to read dozens of pages each day and fail to retain much of the information by the end of the course.
I think this is what pushes so many people away from history. History should be fun and exciting, not an agonizing chore. I want to make history a more fun and exciting thing for other people.
Instead of spending hours reading dense pages, I want to make quick articles that you can read on your daily commute or before going to bed.
My main goal is to make history more thorough, engaging, and digestible. It’s important that we all put in an effort to better understand our past and how people have worked together to create the civilizations and cultures we all still admire today.
Until next time…
