2000 BCE – What happened?

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mattpegher

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2006
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Mutual protection.
As humans began to group into larger populations, from small family clans. People accepted the concept that if you wouldnt want someone to do X to you then dont do X to them. You both agree that X is bad, and accept that anyone that does X is undesirable in your community. As groups got larger, tribal leader needed to reaffirm these concepts. This was done through mythologic stories, religious doctrines and eventually by recording sets of laws.
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
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Several very advanced civilizations existed at this time, such as the Egyptians, Olmecs of central America, and the Xia dynasty in China. Hammurabi codified law in Babylon around this period, as did the Sumarians. Advanced civilization goes back to at least the 4th millennium BC.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,095
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The Old Empire of Egypt was ~3000 BCE.

There was plenty of language, history, culture, text, and, yes: medicine.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,908
2,141
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Villages were few and far between, and the groups of people usually looked to the elders for wisdom. Villages often made their own laws. Outsiders were not welcome without scrutiny.

Medicine around that time wasn't as primitive as you think. They had an understanding of herbs, bone mending, and some effective treatments for many illnesses.
 

RavenSEAL

Diamond Member
Jan 4, 2010
8,661
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Just an amateur historian, but I have to wonder what happened around 2000 BCE. I wonder because this is before Jesus, around the time of Abraham. How did people live? There were no doctors, schools or government. Heck, for that matter no books, pens, or pencils. What rules did they follow? It certainly had to be acceptable to steal your neighbors harvest, wife, kids, and possessions, as there was no police, no prisons, and no courts. About the only thing that would prevent you from doing this is the possibility of revenge. If you killed someone, who was going to punish you? Was killing even a crime? A crime according to who? Without sounding sacrilegious, is this how religion came about? As a means to govern the people? Thou Shall Not Kill. Ok, good rule, but since there was no government to enforce this rule, the consequence had to be something scary and unimaginable like ‘Hell’. If there is a concept of something happening when you are bad, then obviously you must have an opposite to the spectrum of Heaven. Since most all the religions have similar stories and concepts, could the people back then have taken one religion and then just tweaked it to fit their environment? Was the old testament, new testament, Koran and other religious doctrines used to govern the people like our present day constitution?

Obviously without any books or documents from that era, perhaps only a few cave graphics, we can only theorize what happened.

hurr-durr-derp-face-i-dont-know-therefore-aliens.jpg