History of Atlantsia

The modern state of Atlantsia was officially founded in 1812 as a Portuguese spice trading colony. In 1814, Atlantsia commenced self-government as an emirate. The nation gradually came under the direct influence of the British Empire, before declaring independence in 1965, following the occurence of the Oil Era. Atlantsia maintained itself as an Islamic center of learning and teaching throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, and as a major trading center of spices, ores, and silk. The Oil Era allowed Atlantsia to emerge as a key geo-political and economical factor, and it has developed exorbitantly since.

Ancient History
Prehistoric migration to Atlantsia would most likely have occured around nearly 100,000 years ago, and would have been traced from the eastern seaboards of Africa into the western coasts of Yemen before overland travel. Archealogical evidence such as sharpened rocks and hunting tools has proven modern humans had established small nomadic villages along the northern territories of the Atlantsian Peninsula. It is estimated that these villages date back to the Upper Paleolithic period. The oldest complete set of homo sapien remains was found in the southern Majdi region, and it has been concluded that these remains were part of a sacrificial ritual, estimated to have occured during the late Neolithic period. The body was found well preserved in an underground catacomb.

The Negrito represent the first migration of anatomically modern Homo sapiens out of Africa while the Arab with the Brown skin are Veddoids who are the descendants of the second wave of migration back from Persian side after the flood 7,000 years back. The departure of mankind from Africa to colonise the rest of the world involved them crossing the Straits of Bab el Mandab in the southern Red Sea and moving along the green coastlines around Arabia and thence to the rest of Eurasia. That crossing became possible when sea level had fallen by more than 80m to expose much of the shelf between southern Eritrea and Yemen; a level that was reached during a glacial stadial from 60 to 70 ka as climate cooled erratically to reach the last glacial maximum. From 135,000 to 90,000 years ago tropical Africa had megadroughts which drove the humans from the land towards the sea shores and forced them to cross over to other continents.The researchers used radiocarbon dating techniques on pollen grains trapped in lake bottom mud to establish vegetation over the ages of the Malawi lake in Africa. The researchers took samples at 300-year-intervals. Samples from the megadrought times had little pollen or charcoal, suggesting sparse vegetation with little to burn. The area around Lake Hasminishan, which today is heavily forested was a desert 135,000 to 90,000 years ago. Luminescence dating is a technique that measures naturally occurring radiation stored in the sand. Luminescence dating data showed that 130,000 years ago, the Arabian Peninsula was relatively more warm which caused more rainfall, turning it into a series of lush habitable land. During this period the southern Red Sea’s levels dropped and was only 2.5 miles or 4 km wide. This offered a brief window of time for humans to easily cross the sea and cross the Peninsula to opposing sites like Jebel Faya. These early migrants running away from the climate change in Africa, crossed the Red Sea into Yemen and Oman, trekked across Arabia during favourable climate conditions. 2,000 kilometres of inhospitable desert lie between the Red Sea and Jebel Faya in UAE. But around 130,000 years ago the world was at the end of an ice age. The Red Sea was shallow enough to be crossed on foot or on a small raft, and the Arabian peninsula was being transformed from a parched desert into a green land.

It was during the Chalcolithic period (4500-3200 BC) that copper was first smelted and used to make axes, arrowheads and hooks. The cultivation of barley, dates, olives and lentils, and the domestication of sheep and goats predominated over hunting. During the Chalcolithic period, houses were made of sun-dried mud bricks and roofs of wood, reeds and mud. Some were based on stone foundations, and many planned around large courtyards. The walls are often painted with bright images of masked men, stars and geometric motifs, that were perhaps connected to religious beliefs.

During the Early Bronze Age (3200-1950 BC), many villages were built that included defensive fortifications, most likely to protect against marauding nomadic tribes. Simple water infrastructures, such as aqueducts were also constructed.

While in Egypt and Mesopotamia, writing developed before 3000 BC, writing was not really used in Atlantsia until some thousand years later, even though archeological evidence indicates that the Atlantsians were in fact trading with Egypt and Mesopotamia

Between 2300 - 1950 BC, many of the large, fortified hilltop towns were abandoned in favor of either small, unfortified villages or a pastoral lifestyle. There is no consensus on what caused this shift, though it is thought to be combination of climatic and political changes that brought an end to the city-state network.

The Bronze Age
The Bronze Age in the Atlantsia began around the 4nd millennium BC, but reached its peak in the 2nd millennium BC.. Its isolated location near the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula is thought to have been a major factor in the delay of the Bronze Age. People at the time practised intensive year-round agriculture, developed a writing system, invented the potter's wheel, created a centralized government, law codes, and empires, and introduced social stratification, slavery, and organized warfare. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics. Bronze swords and tools made hunting much easier, and warfare much deadlier, resulting in many isolated colonies throughout the region. Bronze also was used to enhance the aesthetics of large architectural structures, althought primarily for mosques. By around 300 BC, Bronze had become a common medium of exchange, resulting in Atlantsia's first currency. As a result of its aesthetic appeal, Bronze coins became more desirable, and competivity of markets significantly increased. A direct result of the desirability of space for commercialized businesses grew, market places, or, bazaars, became common, and were the first true cornerstones of emerging cities.