"Do you use a calendar? Have you ever played basketball? These things were important to the ancient Mayans too. About four thousand years ago, they invented tools and treasures that still shape our lives. Find out where and how the Mayans lived, and learn about their mysterious disappearance. Discover how they changed the world!"--

Have you ever watched the Olympic Games? Voted in a class election? Used an alphabet with twenty-six letters? All these things came from ancient Greece. More than two thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks invented tools and treasures that still shape our lives. Find out where the ancient Greeks lived, what their lives were like, and what happened to them. Discover how they changed the world! --

Examines the civilization of the ancient Chinese, providing information about such topics as farming, social classes, and religion.

Describes life and culture of the Aztec Indians who lived in Mexico before the Spanish conquistadors arrived.

The earliest civilizations developed in fertile river valleys, where the conditions were right to support large, settled populations. This book tracks how social hierarchies, religion, culture, written language, technology, and more developed first in Mesopotamia and then independently in the Nile, Indus, and Yellow River Valleys. A timeline helps readers get a better grasp of what developments were happening simultaneously in different parts of the...