What is the place of ancient middle eastern civilizations in the development of modern culture?

Question

you know, the West have been always thought to be the base for everything that is modern and "good".

sumerians, egyptians, babylonians, hitites etc. deserved to be forgotten or just to be often known by the academics.

Answer 1

Actually Egypt had a profound influence on Early Western culture and it in a n odd way is what the west was mimicking and trying to accomplish. Ancient Greeks were huge admirers of Egyptian culture. What I don't understand is how Indus Valley is being down played it's signifigance in influencing Middle Eastern Cultures. Abydos was an Indus Valley Tribe settlement before Egypt was united into one kingdom.

Answer 2

I am glad you said "ancient middle eastern civilizations" cause the modern ones have given nothing.

Answer 3

You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've already been.

Answer 4

This is a question that requires conjecture.  "Good" eh?  How do you define that?

Answer 5

You'd cause a riot in that part of the world if you even mentioned great pre-islamic civilizations.

Answer 6

It is believed that the first settlements of humans in the Neolithic Period were probably the Black Sea area, when it was still a huge glacial lake, [before the  flood aprox. 7,500 BCE which began to empty much of the Sea into the Med.], and Sumer, which is now southern Iraq, along with southern Egypt. But there are many places where humans first settled. Ancient occupation areas can be found in many places in Europe and the Mid East. As far as those which include Neolithic evidence of change from nomadic hunting/gathering to agriculture, one would have to say...possibly Sumer...or perhaps the Harappan/Indus.

This is still controversial and new evidence is being found every day.

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Answer 7

egyptians and hittites are not part of the middle east. hittites belong to anatolia and the indo-european language family. i will say that these cultures such as the hittites and the sumerians had some of the prettiest sounding languages ever. too bad they are extinct.

Answer 8

When I studied world history in secondary school, the ancient middle eastern cultures were definitely stressed...agriculture of the Sumerians, geometry of the Egyptians, astronomy, calendar, and measurements of the Babylonians, the Phoenicians giving us the alphabet, the concept of "zero" and algebra from the Moors.  We were taught that the foundations of Western civilization are in the Middle East.