Er... did you just say you're great and thus people hate you? Not to mention insulting Amish at the same time. At least your derogatory isn't undercurrent, it's right out there in the open.... Anyway, I'd say the most influential civilization was Israel. They affected the histories of the Egyptians, Persians, and Seleucids, as well as being a great nation of their own for a while. But probably the most important part was that Judaism is the basis of Christianity (Jesus was Jewish, after all). Christian monks preserved knowledge during the (not quite so) "Dark Ages", Christian scientists like N