Which country traces its roots back to the oldest civilization?

Question

Which country is recognized or documented as having the first prominent civilization? After reading so many articles, I couldn't determine which country should be acknowledged as having the oldest civilization. According to Puranas of India, it seems to be the oldest country with a prominent civilization. However, while searching Google, I found that Egyptians existed at the same time as the earliest Indian civilization. Can anybody clarify this?

Answer 1

The Sumerians are widely credited with being the first real civilisation on Earth, beginning in around the 5th millennium BC. Cities and agricultural communities existed before this time, but are generally not considered to have constituted a civilisation. The Sumerians, who were situated in modern-day lower Iraq and Kuwait, are widely believed to have invented the wheel, writing, government, law, systematic agriculture, and irrigation, among various other early innovations and marks of civilisation.

Although the dates of the start of these civilisations are generally not well-defined, the order of the appearance of "civilisations" is often accepted as the following:

• Ancient Sumerians

• Ancient Egyptians

• Akkadians -- arguable since they largely took over everything from the Sumerians in the same region

• Ancient Indians / Indus Valley Civilisation

• Ancient Chinese

• Ancient Greeks (Minoans and then Myceneans) -- arguably older than the above

• Phoenicians/Caananites

• Ancient Romans

• Ancient Persians/Iranians

Answer 2

If you use the term civilization with the connotations of culture than the first pieces of art were found in South Africa from more than 60,000 years ago. In an even broader sense apes are now known to possess culture, by teaching technological tricks to their siblings and newcomers in their group.