vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptians maintained an elaborate set of burial customs that they believed were necessary to ensure immortality after death . These customs involved preserving the body by mummification , performing burial ceremonies , and interring with the body goods the deceased would use in the afterlife . Before the Old Kingdom , bodies buried in desert pits were naturally preserved by desiccation . The arid , desert conditions were a boon throughout the history of ancient Egypt for burials of the poor , who could not afford the elaborate burial preparations available to the elite . Wealthier Egyptians began to bury their dead in stone tombs and use artificial mummification , which involved removing the internal organs , wrapping the body in linen , and burying it in a rectangular stone sarcophagus or wooden coffin . Beginning in the Fourth Dynasty , some parts were preserved separately in canopic jars . Anubis
Maya civilization
The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco . The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall , and the three - dimensional form was built up using small stones . Finally , this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form ; human body forms were first modelled in stucco , with their costumes added afterwards . The final stucco sculpture was then brightly painted . Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic , and such decoration continued into the Classic period .
Mycenaean Greece
The palatial centers organized their workforce and resources for the construction of large scale projects in the fields of agriculture and industry . The magnitude of some projects indicates that this was the result of combined efforts from multiple palatial centers . Most notable of them are the drainage system of the Kopais basin in Boeotia , the building of a large dam outside Tiryns , and the drainage of the swamp in the Nemea valley . Also noticeable is the construction of harbors , such as the harbor of Pylos , that were capable of accommodating large Bronze Age era vessels like the one found at Uluburun . The Mycenaean economy also featured large - scale manufacturing as testified by the extent of workshop complexes that have been discovered , the largest known to date being the recent ceramic and hydraulic installations found in Euonymeia , next to Athens , that produced tableware , textiles , sails , and ropes for export and shipbuilding .
Ancient Egypt
Major advances in architecture , art , and technology were made during the Old Kingdom , fueled by the increased agricultural productivity and resulting population , made possible by a well - developed central administration . Some of ancient Egypt 's crowning achievements , the Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx , were constructed during the Old Kingdom . Under the direction of the vizier , state officials collected taxes , coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield , drafted peasants to work on construction projects , and established a justice system to maintain peace and order . Khafre
Cradle of civilization
San Lorenzo was all but abandoned around 900 BC at about the same time that La Venta rose to prominence . A wholesale destruction of many San Lorenzo monuments occurred around 950 BC . La Venta continued as the center of Olmec culture until its abandonment around 400 BC ; constructing monumental architectural achievements such as the Great Pyramid of La Venta . The exact cause of the decline of the Olmec culture is uncertain . Between 400 and 350 BC , the population in the eastern half of the Olmec heartland dropped precipitously . This depopulation was probably the result of serious environmental changes that rendered the region unsuited for large groups of farmers , in particular changes to the riverine environment that the Olmec depended upon for agriculture , hunting and gathering , and transportation . These changes may have been triggered by tectonic upheavals or subsidence , or the silting up of rivers due to agricultural practices . Within a few hundred years of the abandonment of the last Olmec cities , successor cultures became firmly established . The Tres Zapotes site , on the western edge of the Olmec heartland , continued to be occupied well past 400 BC , but without the hallmarks of the Olmec culture . This post-Olmec culture , often labeled Epi - Olmec , has features similar to those found at Izapa , some 550 km ( 330 miles ) to the southeast .
History of Native Americans in the United States
Mississippian culture : The Mississippian culture which extended throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and built sites throughout the Southeast , created the largest earthworks in North America north of Mexico , most notably at Cahokia , on a tributary of the Mississippi River in present - day Illinois . The ten - story Monks Mound at Cahokia has a larger circumference than the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan or the Great Pyramid of Egypt . The 6 square miles ( 16 km ) city complex was based on the culture 's cosmology ; it included more than 100 mounds , positioned to support their sophisticated knowledge of astronomy , and built with knowledge of varying soil types . The society began building at this site about 950 CE , and reached its peak population in 1,250 CE of 20,000 -- 30,000 people , which was not equalled by any city in the present - day United States until after 1800 . Cahokia was a major regional chiefdom , with trade and tributary chiefdoms located in a range of areas from bordering the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico . Kincaid c. 1050 -- 1400 CE , is one of the largest settlements of the Mississippian culture , it was located at the southern tip of present - day U.S. state of Illinois . Kincaid Mounds has been notable for both its significant role in native North American prehistory and for the central role the site has played in the development of modern archaeological techniques . The site had at least 11 substructure platform mounds ( ranking fifth for mound - culture pyramids ) . Artifacts from the settlement link its major habitation and the construction of the mounds to the Mississippian period , but it was also occupied earlier during the Woodland period . The Mississippian culture developed the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex , the name which archeologists have given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts , iconography , ceremonies and mythology . The rise of the complex culture was based on the people 's adoption of maize agriculture , development of greater population densities , and chiefdom - level complex social organization from 1200 CE to 1650 CE . The Mississippian pottery are some of the finest and most widely spread ceramics north of Mexico . Cahokian pottery was espically fine , with smooth surfaces , very thin walls and distinctive tempering , slips and coloring . Iroquois
Ancient Greece
Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis in the late 7th century BC , again resulting in civil strife . The Archon ( chief magistrate ) Draco made severe reforms to the law code in 621 BC ( hence `` draconian '' ) , but these failed to quell the conflict . Eventually the moderate reforms of Solon ( 594 BC ) , improving the lot of the poor but firmly entrenching the aristocracy in power , gave Athens some stability .
Maya civilization
The exemplar of Puuc - style architecture is Uxmal . The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán ; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula . Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement , resulting in stronger walls , and also strengthened their corbel arches ; this allowed Puuc - style cities to build freestanding entrance archways . The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic - fashion , erected as facing over the core , forming elaborate compositions of long - nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity . The motifs also included geometric patterns , lattices and spools , possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca , outside the Maya area . In contrast , the lower façades were left undecorated . Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites . Chenes
Solomon's Temple
The fact that it was a wash basin which was too large to enter from above lends to the idea that water would likely have flowed from it down into a subcontainer beneath . The water was originally supplied by the Gibeonites , but was afterwards brought by a conduit from Solomon 's Pools . The molten sea was made of brass or bronze , which Solomon had taken from the captured cities of Hadarezer , the king of Zobah ( 1 Chronicles 18 : 8 ) . Ahaz later removed this laver from the oxen , and placed it on a stone pavement ( 2 Kings 16 : 17 ) . It was destroyed by the Chaldeans ( 2 Kings 25 : 13 ) .
Carthage
The many amphorae with Punic markings subsequently found about ancient Mediterranean coastal settlements testify to Carthaginian trade in locally made olive oil and wine . Carthage 's agricultural production was held in high regard by the ancients , and rivaled that of Rome -- they were once competitors , e.g. , over their olive harvests . Under Roman rule , however , grain production ( ( wheat ) and barley ) for export increased dramatically in ' Africa ' ; yet these later fell with the rise in Roman Egypt 's grain exports . Thereafter olive groves and vineyards were re-established around Carthage . Visitors to the several growing regions that surrounded the city wrote admiringly of the lush green gardens , orchards , fields , irrigation channels , hedgerows ( as boundaries ) , as well as the many prosperous farming towns located across the rural landscape .
Nile
During the late - Miocene Messinian salinity crisis , when the Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated to the point of being empty or nearly so , the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred metres below world ocean level at Aswan and 2,400 m ( 7,900 ft ) below Cairo . This created a very long and deep canyon which was filled with sediment when the Mediterranean was recreated . At some point the sediments raised the riverbed sufficiently for the river to overflow westward into a depression to create Lake Moeris .
Ghaggar-Hakra River
The Hakra is the dried - out channel of a river near Fort Abbas City in Pakistan that is the continuation of the Ghaggar River in India . Several times , but not continuously , it carried the water of the Sutlej and Ghaggar during the Bronze Age period . Many early settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation have been found in this area . Hakra Ware culture is believed to be the earliest pre-Harappan culture of India . Many early settlements are found along the river beds in this area .
Maya civilization
From the Early Preclassic , Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners . As population increased over time , various sectors of society became increasingly specialized , and political organization became increasingly complex . By the Late Classic , when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex web of political hierarchies , the wealthy segment of society multiplied . A middle class may have developed that included artisans , low ranking priests and officials , merchants , and soldiers . Commoners included farmers , servants , labourers , and slaves . According to indigenous histories , land was held communally by noble houses or clans . Such clans held that the land was the property of the clan ancestors , and such ties between the land and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds .
Libya
The plain to the north of Uweinat is dotted with eroded volcanic features . With the discovery of oil in the 1950s also came the discovery of a massive aquifer underneath much of Libya . The water in this aquifer pre-dates the last ice ages and the Sahara Desert itself . This area also contains the Arkenu structures , which were once thought to be two impact craters .
Maya civilization
During the Middle Preclassic Period , small villages began to grow to form cities . Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well - documented city in the Maya lowlands , where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC . The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic . By approximately 400 BC , early Maya rulers were raising stelae . A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC . In the Late Preclassic Period , the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately 16 square kilometres ( 6.2 sq mi ) . Although not as large , Tikal was already a significant city by around 350 BC .
Sahara
People lived on the edge of the desert thousands of years ago since the end of the last glacial period . The Sahara was then a much wetter place than it is today . Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles survive , with half found in the Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria . Fossils of dinosaurs , including Afrovenator , Jobaria and Ouranosaurus , have also been found here . The modern Sahara , though , is not lush in vegetation , except in the Nile Valley , at a few oases , and in the northern highlands , where Mediterranean plants such as the olive tree are found to grow . It was long believed that the region had been this way since about 1600 BCE , after shifts in the Earth 's axis increased temperatures and decreased precipitation , which led to the abrupt desertification of North Africa about 5,400 years ago . However , this theory has recently been called into dispute , when samples taken from several 7 million year old sand deposits led scientists to reconsider the timeline for desertification .
Moai
Based on detailed studies of the statues found along prehistoric roads , archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo have shown that the pattern of breakage , form and position of statues is consistent with an `` upright '' hypothesis for transportation . Hunt and Lipo argue that when the statues were carved at a quarry , the sculptors left their bases wide and curved along the front edge . They showed that statues along the road have a center of mass that causes the statue to lean forward . As the statue tilts forward , it rocks sideways along its curved front edge and takes a `` step . '' Large flakes are seen broken off of the sides of the bases . They argue that once the stature was `` walked '' down the road and installed in the landscape , the wide and curved base was carved down . All of this evidence points to an upright transportation practice .
Carthage
The legend that the city was sown with salt remains widely accepted despite a lack of evidence among ancient historical accounts ; According to R.T. Ridley , the earliest such claim is attributable to B.L. Hallward 's chapter in Cambridge Ancient History , published in 1930 . Ridley contended that Hallward 's claim may have gained traction due to historical evidence of other salted - earth instances such as Abimelech 's salting of Shechem in Judges 9 : 45 . B.H. Warmington admitted he had repeated Hallward 's error , but posited that the legend precedes 1930 and inspired repetitions of the practice . He also suggested that it is useful to understand how subsequent historical narratives have been framed and that the symbolic value of the legend is so great and enduring that it mitigates a deficiency of concrete evidence .
History of agriculture
Early people began altering communities of flora and fauna for their own benefit through means such as fire - stick farming and forest gardening very early . Exact dates are hard to determine , as people collected and ate seeds before domesticating them , and plant characteristics may have changed during this period without human selection . An example is the semi-tough rachis and larger seeds of cereals from just after the Younger Dryas ( about 9,500 BC ) in the early Holocene in the Levant region of the Fertile Crescent . Monophyletic characteristics were attained without any human intervention , implying that apparent domestication of the cereal rachis could have occurred quite naturally . An
Ancient Roman architecture
The Romans made fired clay bricks from about the beginning of the Empire , replacing earlier sun - dried mud - brick . Roman brick was almost invariably of a lesser height than modern brick , but was made in a variety of different shapes and sizes . Shapes included square , rectangular , triangular and round , and the largest bricks found have measured over three feet in length . Ancient Roman bricks had a general size of 11⁄2 Roman feet by 1 Roman foot , but common variations up to 15 inches existed . Other brick sizes in ancient Rome included 24 '' x 12 '' x 4 `` , and 15 '' x 8 '' x 10 `` . Ancient Roman bricks found in France measured 8 '' x 8 '' x 3 `` . The Constantine Basilica in Trier is constructed from Roman bricks 15 '' square by 11⁄2 '' thick . There is often little obvious difference ( particularly when only fragments survive ) between Roman bricks used for walls on the one hand , and tiles used for roofing or flooring on the other , so archaeologists sometimes prefer to employ the generic term ceramic building material ( or CBM ) .
Mesopotamia
Agriculture throughout the region has been supplemented by nomadic pastoralism , where tent - dwelling nomads herded sheep and goats ( and later camels ) from the river pastures in the dry summer months , out into seasonal grazing lands on the desert fringe in the wet winter season . The area is generally lacking in building stone , precious metals and timber , and so historically has relied upon long - distance trade of agricultural products to secure these items from outlying areas . In the marshlands to the south of the area , a complex water - borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times , and has added to the cultural mix .
Ship
By around 3000 BC , Ancient Egyptians knew how to assemble wooden planks into a hull . They used woven straps to lash the planks together , and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams . The Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides had documented ship - faring among the early Egyptians : `` During the prosperous period of the Old Kingdom , between the 30th and 25th centuries B.C. , the river - routes were kept in order , and Egyptian ships sailed the Red Sea as far as the myrrh - country . '' Sneferu 's ancient cedar wood ship Praise of the Two Lands is the first reference recorded ( 2613 BC ) to a ship being referred to by name .
Indo-Roman trade relations
The Ptolemaic dynasty exploited the strategic position of Alexandria to secure trade with the subcontinent . The course of trade with the east then seems to have been first through the harbor of Arsinoe , the present day Suez . The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the three main Roman ports , Arsinoe , Berenice or Myos Hormos . The Romans repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile to harbor center of Arsinoe on the Red Sea . This was one of the many efforts the Roman administration had to undertake to divert as much of the trade to the maritime routes as possible .
Euphrates
The earliest references to the Euphrates come from cuneiform texts found in Shuruppak and pre-Sargonic Nippur in southern Iraq and date to the mid-3rd millennium BCE . In these texts , written in Sumerian , the Euphrates is called Buranuna ( logographic : UD. KIB. NUN ) . The name could also be written KIB. NUN. ( NA ) or KIB. NUN , with the prefix `` '' indicating that the river was a divinity . In Sumerian , the name of the city of Sippar in modern - day Iraq was also written UD. KIB. NUN , indicating a historically strong relationship between the city and the river .
Maya civilization
The Archaic period , prior to 2000 BC , saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages . The Preclassic period ( c. 2000 BC to 250 AD ) saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region , and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet , including maize , beans , squashes , and chili peppers . The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC , and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture , including large temples with elaborate stucco façades . Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC . In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin , and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands . Beginning around 250 AD , the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates . This period saw the Maya civilization develop a large number of city - states linked by a complex trade network . In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals , Tikal and Calakmul , became powerful . The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics . In the 9th century , there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region , resulting in internecine warfare , the abandonment of cities , and a northward shift of population . The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north , and the expansion of the aggressive K'iche ' kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands . In the 16th century , the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region , and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén , the last Maya city , in 1697 .
Siege
The earliest representations of siege warfare have been dated to the Protodynastic Period of Egypt , c. 3000 BC . These show the symbolic destruction of city walls by divine animals using hoes .
Punic Wars
Aware that they could not defeat the Carthaginians in traditional ramming combat , the Romans used the corvus , an assault bridge , to leverage their superior infantry . The hinged bridge would be swung down onto enemy vessels with a sharp spike to secure the two ships together . Roman legionaries could then board and capture Carthaginian ships . This innovative Roman tactic reduced the Carthaginian navy 's advantage in ship - to - ship engagements .
Pre-Columbian era
The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded . It finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago ; climatic conditions were then very similar to today 's . Within this time frame , roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period , numerous archaeological cultures have been identified .
Dasht-e Kavir
The Kavir was a series of vast lakes in the immediate post-glacial time , stretching to about 3,000 years ago . The Asian monsoon rain reached deep into central Iran at the time , bringing heavy summer rain that formed numerous lakes in the closed basins of central Iranian Plateau that form the Kavir and other deserts in the area . There are inscriptions at teppeh Sialk noting a visit by the local queen to the ruler of town , identified as Tell - i Bakun , southeast of Yazd , by `` sailing the sea '' ! Copious shorelines at various elevations still extant in the Kavir are telltales of these post-galacial , monsoonal lakes in central Iran where the deserts now dominate