For many its the Roman empire or the Greeks. Similarly ancient Egypt. Or the British empire. Maybe the Japanese, Chinese and Norse as the next 3.
I have deliberately not mentioned time periods there.
These are the most commonly beloved. What are your favourites and why?
Ancient Mesopotamia, hands down. You’ve got the Sumerians, the Babylonian empire, the Akkadian empire. There’s creation myths, flood myths, myths about great battles between the elder gods. Gilgamesh, Sargon, Hammurabi. Such cool artwork and artifacts were left behind for us to find. Friggin ziggurats. And they figured out writing, which has proven useful. Also they had cultural overlap with other notable societies like the ancient Israelites/Canaanites and Egyptians, which allowed for borrowing and retelling of stories, myths, and legends among the people of the time. Pieces of the story of Moses are apparent in Sargon’s personal account of his history. You can see lots of the Noah story in Gilgamesh, and also in Atrahasis. An elder, primordial god named Tiamat is an embodiment of sea water and its associated chaotic nature that existed in the void before creation, and is probably cognate with the Hebrew word “tehom” meaning “the abyss”.
Man if not for the damn abrahamic religions I wonder what the culture of the world would be like now with the old gods.
Say we keep Judaism and remove Christianity plus Islam, I think the world would be more interesting.
With what’s happening at Gaza I wouldn’t miss Judaism too.