Wiktionary
n. 1 (context idiomatic English) That which happened a long time ago and not worth discussing any more. 2 A period of history generally seen as occurring before the Middle Ages, that is, before the fall of the Roman Empire. Includes Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
WordNet
n. a history of the ancient world
knowledge of some recent fact or event that has become so commonly known that it has lost its original pertinence
Wikipedia
Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC.
The term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC (First Olympiad). This roughly coincides with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome, and the beginning of the Archaic period in Ancient Greece. Although the ending date of ancient history is disputed, some Western scholars use the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD (the most used), the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529 AD, the death of the emperor Justinian I in 565 AD, the coming of Islam or the rise of Charlemagne as the end of ancient and Classical European history.
In India, ancient history includes the early period of the Middle Kingdoms, and, in China, the time up to the Qin Dynasty.
Ancient History is a one-act play written by American playwright David Ives.
Ancient History: A Paraphase is Joseph McElroy's third novel, published in 1971. It presents itself as a hastily written essay/memoir/confession. The character Dom is sometimes described as a fictionalized Norman Mailer.
The title "Ancient History" refers to classical Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Persian history, which Cy, the narrator, is something of an amateur expert in. It was the name for the course Cy took at Poly Prep. But it also the narrator's frequent dismissive phrase regarding his own obsessive retelling of trivial details from his own personal past.
The word "paraphase", used in the subtitle and a few times in the text, is Cy's neologism, never actually defined.
In March 2014, Dzanc Books published a paperback edition, with an introduction by Jonathan Lethem.
"Ancient History" is a song recorded by Canadian country music group Prairie Oyster. It was released in 1995 as the sixth single from their fourth studio album, Only One Moon. It peaked at number 5 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in January 1996.
It was originally recorded by Pam Tillis on her 1991 album Put Yourself in My Place. Tillis's version was the B-side of the album's last single, "Blue Rose Is".
Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era.
Ancient History may also refer to:
- Ancient History (novel), a novel by Joseph McElroy
- Ancient History (play), a one-act play by David Ives
- "Ancient History" (song), a song by Prairie Oyster
Usage examples of "ancient history".
But his views of ancient history are strangely darkened by ignorance and error.
I am aware that he was a Greek of the tenth century, and that his accounts of ancient history are frequently confused and fabulous.
This, perhaps, will not be less useful than a knowledge of ancient history.
But that was ancient history now, and over most of the Hellenized world the estate system and slavegangs had spread.
They mark three events in the most ancient history of the world, events which have determined the whole fate of the human race, and of which we ourselves still feel the consequences in our language, in our thoughts, and in our religion.
That is a chapter of ancient history which it might be good to recall.
Still other series include The Cambridge Ancient History, The Cambridge Medieval History, The Cambridge Modern History, The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, and The Cambridge Economic History of India.
For if some one, famishing for want and pressed with hunger, use human flesh as food,-an extremity not unknown, as both ancient history and the unhappy experience of our own days have taught us,-can it be contended, with any show of reason, that all the flesh eaten has been evacuated, and that none of it has been assimilated to the substance of the eater though the very emaciation which existed before, and has now disappeared, sufficiently indicates what large deficiencies have been filled up with this food?