Oldest Civilization in the World

If you want to know the record holder for the oldest civilization in the world, then you're in the right place. If writing is taken as a prerequisite for civilization, the oldest civilization or the "cradle" of civilization is Early Dynastic Egypt followed by Sumer. The earliest signs of a transition from nomadic to permanent, year-round settlement process can be traced back to the Mediterranean region to as early as 12000 BC, when the Natufian culture became sedentary and evolved into an agricultural society by 10000 BC. The importance of water to safeguard an abundant and stable food supply, due to favourable conditions for hunting, fishing and gathering resources including cereals, provided an initial wide spectrum economy that triggered the creation of permanent villages.

The ancient city states of Mesopotamia in the fertile crescent are most cited by Western and Middle Eastern scholars as the cradle of civilization. The convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation. The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are among the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies. Because Ubaid, Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylon civilizations all emerged around the Tigris-Euphrates, the theory that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization has enjoyed some credence.

The rise of dynastic Egypt in the Nile Valley occurred with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in approximately 3200 BC, and ended at around 343 BC, at the start of the Achaemenid dynasty's control of Egypt. It is one of the three oldest civilizations in the world. Anthropological and archaeological evidence both indicate that the Kubbaniya culture was a grain-grinding culture farming along the Nile before the 10th millennium BC using sickle blades. But another culture of hunters, fishers and gathering peoples using stone tools replaced them. Evidence also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC.

The earliest-known farming cultures in the Indian Subcontinent emerged in Ancient India in the hills of Balochistan, on the border between modern-day Pakistan and Iran, which was once part of Ancient India. These semi-nomadic peoples domesticated wheat, barley, sheep, goat and cattle. Pottery was in use by the 6th millennium BC. The oldest granary yet found in this region was the Mehrgarh in the Indus Valley.

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