Some ancient civilizations you may never have heard of

You've probably heard of ancient civilizations like the Sumerians, the Maya, the Minoans, etc, but are you familiar with these lesser-known ancient civilizations?

• Sanliurfa (9000-1800BCE): Sanliurfa (or Urfa) is still a city today in southern Turkey, near the Euphrates River, and it (and surrounding hilltop villages) was probably one of the first areas where agriculture began. The statue of "Urfa Man" (the oldest naturalistic life-size sculpture of a human) was found nearby, as were the megalithic carved stones of Gobekli Tepe.
• Mehrgarh (7000-2500BCE): There was a highly-developed trading society around Mehrgarh (in modern-day Pakistan) long before the Indus Valley Civilization arrived, including cemeteries and even rudimentary dental surgery. Remains are buried deep in the earth, and tribal troubles in the area make further excavations difficult.
• Ninevah (6000-622 BCE): Ninevah was established on the site of modern-day Mosul in Iraq, and, despite earthquakes, became a centre for the arts, sciences and architecture, including a huge library and possibly the Hanging Gardens of Babylon  It layer became the capital of the Assyrian Empire under King Sennacherib, and was ultimately burned to the ground by invaders in 612 BCE.
• Vinca Civilization (5000-3500BCE): Located in the Danube Valley near Belgrade, Serbia, Vinca may have predated Sumeria and Egypt. They kept animals and grew crops, used copper and gold well before they came into general use, and had a very early writing system of over 700 characters.
• Konar-Sandal (4500-3000BCE): Located in southern Iran, around the lost city of Jiroft, it boasted one of the largest and oldest ziggurats in the world, and possibly the world's oldest written language, although excavation and research are still ongoing, and many of the sites have been badly looted and damaged.
• Norte Chico Culture (3500-1800BCE): This pre-Columbian society in northern Peru is probably the earliest known civilization in the Americas, pre-dating the Mayan and Incan empires of the region, and evidence of huge constructions, pyramids and complex irrigation systems has been found (although, interestingly, no pottery and little art of any kind).
• Indus Valley Civilization (3300-1300BCE): Small farming communities and substantial cities like Haruppa and Mohenjo-Daro onc3 dotted the valley of the Indus River, in modern-day Pakistan, India snd Afghanistan. They had their own writing system, sophisticated underground drainage techniques, and traded with Sumeria, among others.
• Aryan Kingdom (1500-500BCE): Long before the Nazis latched onto the Aryan Race concept, the nomadic Indo-Aryan people moved into northern India and established their own language and settled agricultural civilization, although here is little remaining on which to piece together their lives. Over time, they gradually became assimilated into other north Indian cultures.
• Nubia/Kush (744-656 BCE): In Sudan, to the south of Egypt, lay a civilization that once ruled Egypt, as it conquered Egypt and ruled it as its 25th Dynasty. It had its own pyramids (223 of them!), its own written language, culture and art, and presided over a period of great prosperity and stability. Much earlier, from 2500-1500BCE, the Keema culture ruled there, until they were conquererd by the Egyptians.
• Kingdom of Aksum (100-940CE): Based in northern Ethiopia, the kingdom stretched at one time from the edge of the Sahara as far as the Arabian desert. They had their own written script, and traded with other powers in the eastern Mediterranean, although its kings and nobles later embraced Christianity.

I'vr heard of a few of them in passing, but some I had no idea of. History is way more complicated than we think.