Has anybody ever noticed...

[Caveman1953]

that the beginning of time in the game corresponds with the Biblical record of the beginning of time rather than the scientific theory? What seems odd about this to me is that there is very little other Biblical reference in the game.

 

[Sharwood]

I think that's because 4000BC is about the beginning of well-known history in the West, nothing to do with the Bible.

 

[Caveman1953]

LOL. I wonder why "well-known history" starts there? Actually our oldest history book is the Torah which was written in 2500 bc.

 

[Mercator]

The history of Egypt, Mesopotamia and India goes back to ~3200BC...

 

[Caveman1953]

I'd like to see how those correspond to the Torah.

 

[Caveman1953]

I concede to that, BTW.

 

[Sub]

Game developers change certain aspects of the games they create so that the games are in line with peoples expectation. It's like Sim City and the Nuclear Power plant: When a nuclear power plant has a fire, it's not going to blow up everything around it, but people expect it to, so it does.

 

[Sharwood]

LOL. I wonder why "well-known history" starts there? Actually our oldest history book is the Torah which was written in 2500 bc.

Several Indian texts pre-date the Torah. I doubt you could call them history books though. And "well-known" doesn't mean written, which is why I didn't say recorded history. Archaeological evidence and books written later about these times - such as Herodotus - give us a valuable insight into what life was like then, whic we simply don't have earlier. There's also the fact that while the game could start in the Ice Age, it would take far longer, be more convoluted and I don't recall there ever being a single Ice Age city found, unless perhaps Jericho dates back that far.

 

[timerover51]

Jericho keeps getting pushed back. I think that the earliest portions are now dated somewhere around 7000 BC. A corollary to that is that as it was a trading center, there were sufficiently developed civilizations to support a trading center. The Minoan ruins on Crete go back to around 3200 BC as well. The key factor is that it is after 4000 BC when we begin to get, through archaealogical data and the beginnings of written records, some idea as to who was were, and what they were doing. As for the Torah/Old Testament, no reputable archaealogist or ancient historian is going to argue the historical accuracy of those texts. Cross-referencing the Torah/Old Testament historical books with the Egyptian Pharoah list pretty much gives you your Ancient Mid East timeline.

 

[Jerrymander]

I think the starting date was arbitrary. I guess 4000 BC was when people had knowledge of Mining, Roads, and Irrigation.