Life was vastly different for people in ancient times, and we must understand our ancestors’ conditions to appreciate their lives, comprehend their thinking, and learn from them. How did life vary between the ancient and modern worlds?
In a time without cell phones, computers, telephones, automobiles, refrigerators, and all the beeps, buzzes, and noises of modern life, silence, except for the sounds of nature, was the norm. In 1000 BC, when the world’s population was around fifty million, solitude was common.[1] In a time when populations lived or died according to the size of their local annual harvest, austerity was expected. This article will mention a few differences between the ancient and modern worlds.
Sensation
By design, man has always received information from the world outside of himself through his senses. However, in ancient times, the senses of man were limited in what they could experience in the local environment. Today, such limitations are far fewer.
Sight
Ancient – Without photographs and with drawings and paintings rare, man’s visual input was limited to the sights of his immediate surroundings. Few people had seen snow, jungles, mountains, forests, and oceans because they rarely traveled more than a few dozen miles from home, and those features are rarely co-located. Travelers could describe features to friends back home, but the direct experience of varied sights was uncommon. With few written documents and little literacy, reading and analyzing documents were unusual.
The amount of sunlight impacted each individual’s experience. The Middle East and North Africa enjoyed large amounts of sunlight.[2] However, they also faced blindness from cataracts produced by that same sun.[3] Those in northern Europe had less light and a more varied length of days, but probably had fewer complications of sunlight.
People in Canaan had an advantage over many other ancient peoples in their visual experiences for two reasons. First, Canaan has snow and mountains (Mt. Hermon and vicinity), forests (Lebanon, Galilee, Jordan River basin), deserts (around the Dead Sea, Beersheva, and the Negev in the south), fresh water (the Sea of Galilee), and the Mediterranean Sea. As nations go, Canaan is small (comparable in land mass to modern Slovenia or El Salvador). Residents of the land took only a few weeks to travel from the mountains in the north to the deserts in the south as Mount Hermon to Beersheba is only about over two hundred miles by ancient routes. The distance from the Jordan River to the east, and Mediterranean Sea to the west is only sixty miles.
Second, Canaan was a crossroads of trade between Mesopotamia, Arabia, Africa, Asia, and Europe. People could see traders from India bringing peacocks and elephants, those from Sheba (modern Yemen) bringing gold and spices, and those from Europe trading furs and slaves. Assyria and Egypt were mighty empires compared to puny Israel, but while average Assyrians may never have seen an ocean and average Egyptians may never have seen snow or mountains, ordinary Israelites could easily have experienced both. Few places in the world can boast of such geographic and climatic diversity in so small an area.
Modern – Technology allows almost anyone to have almost any type of visual input, regardless of their environment. With millions of documents on every conceivable subject available to most people in an instant, people can spend large percentages of their time on them.
Hearing
Ancient – The sounds of nature, the human voice, and the noises of a few manmade things, such as the creak and groan of the oxcart and the clash of swords, comprised the sounds available to be heard. The overall noise level, except near inherently noisy places such as waterfalls, was low. Conversation occurs at about sixty decibels (dB) and the sound of a large waterfall, such as Niagara, might tip one hundred decibels. A human shout, such as what people might have heard in war, tops out at about ninety dB. Our ancestors would rarely have heard anything louder. Colosseums and amphitheaters were specially constructed to amplify sound and focus it so that everyone could here what was being said or sung.[4]
Modern – The only limit of sounds to which one can be exposed is the ability of the human ear. One can listen to sounds from the deep sea or high atmosphere, sounds never experienced in person by anyone.
The overall noise level is relatively high in the cities, with traffic hovering around eighty dB and a jet takeoff hitting 140 dB. Since over 50% of humanity lives in cities, most people experience more sounds than their ancestors did
Smell
Ancient – The smells accessible to man were those of the natural world immediately around them. Abraham, for example, probably never experienced the scent of cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves. Due to an increase in trade, the apostles (first century AD) may have. In a land in which bathing was intermittent, perfumes were useful to cover offensive body odor. Religious ceremonies such as sacrifices used incenses. Ill-scented food provided a clue of spoilage.
Modern – Smells are more limited than sights or sounds because it is more difficult to transmit chemicals over the internet than electrons. Nonetheless, foods, flowers, and other fragrant items can be transported across the globe in a matter of hours.
Taste
Ancient – As with smells, food could not travel far, so people experienced only what was local or regional. Because Canaan was a land bridge for trade between the continents, the Israelites would have had the chance to experience much more variety than those at the end of trade routes, such as the Ethiopians.
Roman diets, like all diets, were limited by what grew near or could be transported efficiently. Wealthy Romans could feast on spelt (wheat), barley, millet, and rye to make bread and porridge. Potatoes, found only in the New World, were out of reach. Plums, pomegranates, pears, figs, and apples abounded, but tomatoes, also a New World plant, were absent. Sesame and fennel spiced Roman palates, but only occasionally cinnamon, and not likely nutmeg or cloves.
Vegetables included carrots, rutabagas, cabbage, asparagus, beets, leeks, mushrooms, and chickpeas, but no eggplant. Corn and coffee were nowhere to be found. Romans enjoyed a variety of meats such as duck, deer, pigeon, fish, pork, chicken, goat, and delicacies such as flamingo, camel heel, oak grubs, sow’s womb, and nightingale tongue.[5]
Date palms, common in the Indus River valley as early as the sixth millennium BC, were widespread in the ancient Near East. Date palms produce an abundance of sweet fruit and resist spoilage. People eat the celery-like heart and drink wine fermented from the sap.[6]
The questions of food storage and spoilage vexed contemporary leaders, especially in the military. Even in Egypt. Which boasts a hot and dry climate, at least 10% of the food in storage degraded and was wasted.[7]
Stachybotys alternans is a fungus that can cause nasopharyngeal irritation in humans and animals. Egyptian soldiers in the 12th century BC complained of moldy bread, probably caused by aflatoxin. Meat was salted, pickled, or dried. Wheat was parched or roasted. Fruit and fish were eaten fresh or dried, and milk could be made into cheese.[8] Aflatoxin levels in stored cereals were probably considerably higher in antiquity than at the present day.
Modern – As with smells, the only limit to tastes one can experience today is the limitations of logistics (roads, ports, airports) and of the human body.
Touch
Ancient – Tactile stimuli are the same throughout the world. The hard nomadic or agricultural life occasioned by then-current technology and social security likely resulted in more scarring and chronic injuries. Touch sensation would diminish.
Modern – Ancient man was far less protected from hot, cold, rough, smooth, and other such stimuli than we are today. Many of us spend our days in climate-controlled houses, buildings, and vehicles.
It is important to note that while the ancients had a smaller variety of stimuli to observe, they may have observed more deeply than we do today. We do not know.
Schedule
In antiquity, man was governed by the realities of nature in a way that few people living today can even imagine. Sundials, water clocks and other devices were used to tell time in the ancient world, but mechanical clocks were not invented until the early Renaissance. The rhythms of the seasons dictated schedules.
Day
Ancient – Artificial light, usually candles or lamps lit with olive oil, was expensive. Most people had little. When the sun went down, they went to bed. Combat larger than small unit actions could not occur at night because commanders could not control bodies of troops. Land navigation depended upon the stars and landmarks because roads, until the famous Assyrian roads, with their regular waypoints, were generally narrow and could be easily missed.
Commoners and slaves usually did hard physical labor, farming, hunting, gathering, or construction, and were exhausted when evening came. David spent hours alone in the countryside with his sheep, and Lincoln spent hours alone in the forest splitting wood.
Modern – Today, artificial light is cheap, and work is less often hard physical labor. Instead of being awake 12-14 hours per day like the ancients were, we are awake 16-18 hours per day, most of it filled with activity and sensation.
Fortnight
Ancient – The phases of the moon and the movement of the stars were important for religious observances and for long-distance navigation, especially nautical.
Modern – Navigation is done with timepieces, maps, charts, and radio and satellite navigation aids. Celestial navigation is a vanishing art.
Year
Ancient – As largely agricultural people, the seasons dictated man’s activities. Wars could not occur during the harvest until there were enough people to do both at the same time. The Gezer calendar of the thirteenth century BC illustrates the agricultural focus of the ancient Israelites.[9]
His two months are (olive) harvest
His two months are planting (grain)
His two months are late planting
His month is hoeing flax
His month is harvest of barley
His month is harvest and feasting
His two months are vine-tending
His month is summer fruit
Modern – Few in developed countries are one poor harvest away from starvation, so the seasons have far less impact on the lives of people.
The greatest force available to man in the ancient world was the pulling force of an ox or horse and the pushing force of the wind or water. Thus man’s ability to lift and move was limited (although as the builders of the pyramids demonstrated, impressive).
Transportation
Man can walk about three to four miles per hour over moderate terrain, and camel and donkey caravans averaged about the same speed. The typical day’s journey was twenty-five to thirty miles although it was possible to go faster if the roads were good. With Roman roads, for example, horse-drawn mail carts could travel up to fifty miles per day.[10] Relay teams could carry a most urgent message up to 170 miles per day.
Augustus Caesar developed the first Roman mail service, including the cursus publicus for official communication such as military orders and political instructions. The two branches of the cursus publicus included the cursus velox (faster shipping, up to 1500 lbs, usually by cart), and the cursus clabularis (open wagon course) which used oxen to transport heavier loads.[11] Rome built 47,000 miles of post roads and maintained relay stations to facilitate movement. Each station had a stationmaster, a veterinarian, an accountant, grooms, and mail carriers. Relay station duties included quartering animals, transferring cargo, providing resupply, and offering shelter.
Private letters were excluded from the cursus publicus and carried by servants or by travelers such as merchantmen. Phoebe appears to have carried Paul’s letter to Rome (Romans 16:1), Epaphroditus to Philippi (Philippians 2:25), and Tychichus and Onesimus to Colossae (Colossians 4:7-9).
Roads were made of dirt until the Roman era and trouble from highwaymen was common. Camels needed to spend up to two months in between long journeys to recuperate. Caravan routes followed established trails or roads between water points. Fodder had to be brought along, with roughly 30 loads of fodder for every one hundred loads of merchandise. Each camel would carry loads of up to 300 lbs. Typical cargos were wool, cotton, tea, spices, precious stones, and manufactured goods. A caravan might include 150 camels, roughly eight files of eighteen camels per file, for a total of 22.5 tons (45,000 lbs).
Water transportation was by rowing or sailing ships. Depending upon the winds and the current, triremes (ancient Greek ships with rows and sails) typically traveled six to seven miles per hour and travel up to sixty miles per day. Most ships would stay close to the shore and anchor at night to avoid running aground unless they were in very familiar seas. By 240 BC, the Greeks were using cargo ships which were each capable of carrying five hundred tons (1,000,000 lbs). It is little wonder that sea trade was far cheaper than land trade.
Early navigation was primarily on lakes and rivers. Early seafarers stayed within sight of the coastline. The Indo-Pacific peoples (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) used open water navigation. The magnetic compass pointed north, and for Arab navigators, for example, the kamal determined latitude. Viking longships also practiced advanced and early navigation.
By contrast, modern trucks can travel four hundred miles in one day while carrying twenty-four tons (48,000 lbs). Modern ultra-large container vessels (ULCV) can carry up to 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Each TEU represents approximately twenty-four tons (48,000 lbs). Thus, one modern ULCV can carry roughly 360,000 lbs. of load.
Health
Health was one of the greatest differences between ancient and modern times. As late as England in the 18th century, twenty-five women died for every 1000 babies born. According to estimates using data from the Roman Empire, about three hundred of every 1000 newborns died before completing their first year. Abortion and infanticide, common practices, artificially elevate that number, but modern non-industrial societies sometimes have infant mortality rates of up to 200/1000. Average life expectancy was twenty-five years, but people who lived into adulthood probably made it to their sixties or seventies.
By contrast, modern life expectancy at birth is 75 to 80 years in the Western world and infant mortality is roughly three to five deaths per 1,000 births. Maternal mortality is roughly ten deaths per 100,000 live births.
Social Organization
Societies in the ancient Near East, and really in the entire ancient world, were based on families and lineage. The most basic level was bet ab or “house of the father.” The bet ab included the nuclear and extended family, up to three generations, with the oldest male (who was still capable) being the paterfamilias. He was the leader of the family, which in Israel could include sons, grandsons, unmarried daughters, wives, children, daughters-in-law, aunts, uncles, widows, orphans, servants, geurim (non-kin included in the family protective network), and sometimes Levites who worked for the family as a priest (Judges 17-18).[12] The paterfamilias was responsible for the protection and well-being of the family, and the family in turn owed loyalty and obedience to him.
Family relationships in the Bet Ab were organized around agrarian activities, and 98% of ancient peoples engaged in or at least were familiar with such activities. Work lasted from sunup to sundown, and everyone had chores to do.
The second level was the level of the king, often known as the tribal chieftain. He was the leader of the entire ethnic group, which included those who, by birth (Israel, 12 tribes), marriage (Ruth) and allegiance (the proselytes of the New Testament), considered themselves to be a part of it. Similar to the father in the household group, the king owed his position to his family connections. Wise kings took pains to cultivate such connections, as they conferred legitimacy and loyalty. One reason that Solomon married so many women is that he wished to establish family links to the surrounding nations to enhance trade and security in Israel. In exchange for allegiance to the king, members of society expected the king to protect them. The house of David or the house of Omri were examples of the bet ab referring to a kingdom rather than a single family.
The third level was that of the deity. In Israel, YHWH was the ultimate patriarchal figure. In Assyria, Babylon, and Canaan, Asher, Marduk, and Baal took on that role. Ancient religions were affiliated with ancient people, and proselytizing would have been seen as pointless, if not disloyal to one’s kin group. God intended the ancient Hebrew faith to be missionary, but the Israelites themselves largely rejected it. The experiences of the Prophet Jonah are a good example. People performed religious duties to honor their god, and in return expected fertility, protection, and an overall good life.
In the modern day, the State has taken over many of the functions of the family in society. To some extent, this is inevitable, as no family has the range of resources necessary to cope with modern complexities. Also to an extent, it has always been that way, as even in the Bronze Age only governments had the resources to build cities and fortresses. Today, however, the State has assumed power hitherto reserved almost exclusively to the family. Care for elders was once a family affair, as was the training of children. Individual economic prosperity was achieved by hard work, and often with the help of kinsmen, rather than being a government duty.
Conclusion
Libraries have been written on this topic, but students of history and historical documents such as the Bible should be aware of these important facts. A clearer understanding of the lives of our ancestors will help us better understand their thoughts, actions, and lives. It will also help us better identify the lessons of history and apply them to our world today.
Related Articles
- Calendars of the Ancient Near East
- Some Differences Between Oral Societies in the Ancient Near East and Modern Literary Societies
- Timekeeping in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
References
[1] Historical Estimates of World Population, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/international-programs/historical-est-worldpop.html.
[2] Global Solar Atlas, https://globalsolaratlas.info/map?c=19.642588,-58.710938,3.
[3] The history of cataract surgery: from couching to phacoemulsification, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7729313/.
[4] The acoustics of archaeological architecture in the Near Eastern Neolithic, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26160231?seq=10.
[5] Philip J. King, Lawrence E. Stager, Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society, and Daily Practice, Biblical Archeological Society, Washington DC, 2013
[6] Outside the kitchen, date palm fronds were lashed together to make the walls of ancient huts. Dates were used as wages and as trade goods. Plants reach full productivity after thirty years and produce fruit until they are well over a century old.
[7] Problems over Storing Food in the Ancient Near East, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25683170.pdf.
[8] Problems over Storing Food in the Ancient Near East, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25683170.pdf.
[9] Philip J. King, Lawrence E. Stager, Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society, and Daily Practice, Biblical Archeological Society, Washington DC, 2013
[10] Philip J. King, Lawrence E. Stager, Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society, and Daily Practice, Biblical Archeological Society, Washington DC, 2013
[11] Philip J. King, Lawrence E. Stager, Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society, and Daily Practice, Biblical Archeological Society, Washington DC, 2013
[12] Philip J. King, Lawrence E. Stager, Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society, and Daily Practice, Biblical Archeological Society, Washington DC, 2013
