The forgotten civilization

Editor's note: When we read history, many people — and I do not exclude myself — fall into the fallacy of "survivor bias," where we focus only on people or things that succeeded or survived, and ignore others; which often leads to flawed selective conclusions. This logical fallacy is taught in the world of entrepreneurship to improve decision-making processes, as studies sometimes only focus on successful institutions in the market and consider them a benchmark sample, ignoring those that went bankrupt or were merged. This fallacy affects our perception of the concept of success, its standards, and even ways to achieve it; for example, some believe that the key to the success of famous entrepreneurs like "Steve Jobs" and "Mark Zuckerberg" is their dropping out of college to establish their companies, without considering other causes. The same applies to civilizations. We have always glorified those whose stories have been told to us, or whose material and immaterial traces still exist among us; whereas there are civilizations we have not heard of — or very little, or even ignored — that had a great matter and an important mark in the development of human history. The reason for that is not their weakness or small size at the time, but objective and subjective circumstances that led to their remaining in obscurity away from the spotlight of history. The Hittites, and their empire which included Anatolia, parts of the Eastern Mediterranean, and Mesopotamia during the Bronze Age, are among those prominent civilizations overlooked by written history. This empire flourished and then mysteriously vanished thousands of years ago, before being rediscovered (by name) on a clay tablet in the late 19th century. So what is the story of these people who fought against ancient Egypt and other neighboring empires, before their star faded forever, paving the way for other civilizations to dominate, which also rose and fell... but without being forgotten by history? I wish you safety from "survivor bias"... In this issue, you will read about: The forgotten civilization that had a great matter among civilizations. Before disappearing... without mention or memories. Secrets of the Hittite Empire. The path of American boats. Australian wild camels.