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Antiquity
3300 BCE
--invention of writing by Sumerians in Mesopotamia, wheel, plows
--Ötzi (Oetzi) the Iceman, frozen corpse in Alpine glacier between Austria and Italy
3250 BCE
--Scorpion King, unification of upper Egypt, earliest known hieroglyphics from his tomb
3200 BCE
--passage grave in New Grange, Ireland
3100 BCE
--Neolithic village of Skara Brae, in Orkney, Scotland
--King Narmer/Menes, unification of upper and lower Egypt
3000 BCE
--beginning of migration into Europe and Asia of Indo-Europeans (Kurgan culture) which had
inhabited the region north of the Black and Caspian seas from about 5000 BCE (the IndoEuropeans were the ancestors of many later peoples including Celtic, Germanic, Latin, Greek,
Hindu, Persian, Balto-Slavic and other cultures)
2800 BCE
--Stonehenge I & II (2800-2000 B.C.)
2700 BCE
--Gilgamesh, Sumerian king of Uruk in Mesopotamia
2600 BCE
--Oldest pyramid, step pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt, tomb of 3rd dynasty king Djoser, built by
priest/architect Imhotep
2500 BCE
--Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt; tombs of 4th dynasty kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.
--Sphinx, monument in honor of Khafre or Khufu
2450 BCE
--Oldest Pyramid Texts; religious inscriptions carved on pyramids of the 5th and 6th dynasties
--cult of Amun-Ra, a composite sun/wind/creator deity combining the attributes of Ra (sun god)
and of Amun (god of the wind, “the breath of life,” the “hidden” < imn, Yamanu)
2100 BCE
--Ur-Nammu, Sumerian king of Ur in Mesopotamia, first law book, step pyramids (ziggurat)
2000 BCE
--oldest written versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh on clay tablets from library at Nippur in
Mesopotamia
1750 BCE
--Hammurabi of Babylon; lex talionis (“an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”)
--Abraham at Ur in Mesopotamia
1650 BCE
--rise of the cult of Osiris and Isis in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom (2000-1650 BCE)
1500 BCE
--Book of the Dead, papyrus scrolls, 1500 BCE and after
--catastrophic eruption of volcano in Thera/Santorini in the Aegean Sea
1420 BCE
--Minoans in Crete conquered by Mycenaean Greeks (c. 1420)
1350 BCE
--Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 BCE); a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty; married Nefertiti; invented
monotheism and established worship of a single god, Aten (the sun); Amarna Period; "Hymn to
the Sun"
--Tutankhamen (r. 1333-1323 BCE), abandoned the cult of Aten; married a daughter of
Akhenaten; his tomb remained untouched and was discovered in 1922
1300 BCE
-- Battle of Kuruksetra (1302 BCE): war between the Pandava and Kaurava clans ( the latter led
by the blind patriarch Dhritarastra of Hastinapura); subject matter of Hindu epic the
Mahabharata (5th-4th c BCE)
1250 BCE
--Ramses II (r. 1279-1213 BCE); pharaoh of the 19th dynasty; engaged in war against the
Hittites and Lybians; commissioned great building projects, including many gigantic statues of
himself; possibly the pharaoh at the time of Moses
--Moses among the Egyptians
1200 BCE
--Trojan War; fall of city of Troy, in Asia Minor, to Mycenaean Greeks; subject matter of
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (8th c BCE)
1100
--Mycenaean Greek culture destroyed by Dorians equipped with iron weapons; end of Bronze
Age
750 BCE
--arrival of Celts to Britain
--Homer active in western Asia Minor, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey
--foundation of Rome (753 BCE) by Romulus and Remus
605
--beginning of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (r. 605-562 BCE); Hanging Gardens
of Babylon
586
--destruction of Jerusalem temple by the Babylonians
522
--begins reign of Darius I the Great, king of the Persians (r. 522-485 BCE)
516 BCE
--Behistun Rock, memorial monument to conquests of Persian King Darius, on the plain of
Kirmanshah (Persia, now Iran) and discovered in 1835 by Henry Creswicke Rawlinson. This
discovery made possible the decipherment of cuneiform writing. The Behistun Rock stands 300
ft high, features sculpted figures in bas relief, and is inscribed with bands of cuneiform writing in
Old Persian, Susan (Elamite), and Assyrian-Babylonian
--completion of reconstructed Jerusalem temple
499
--Persian Wars (499-479 BCE), between Persians and Greeks
490 BCE
--Battle of Marathon, Greek victory over the Persians
480 BCE
--Battle of Thermopylae, Persian victory over the Greeks
454 BCE
--the Athenians move the Delian treasury, a common fund intended for the defense of Greek
cities, to Athens; funds appropriated by the Athenians for construction and other projects in
Athens
432 BCE
--completion of the Parthenon in Athens (447-432 BCE)
430 BCE
--begin Peloponnesian War (Greek civil wars involving the cities of Athens and Sparta) (431-404
BCE)
--Athenian leader Pericles dies of the plague (429 BCE)
410 BCE
--democracy replaced by oligarchy in Athens (411 BCE)
405 BCE
--destruction of Athenian fleet at Aegospotami by combined Spartan/Persian force (405 BCE)
--Athens under siege, capitulation (404 BCE)
399 BCE
--Socrates put to death by the Athenians, accused of corrupting the youth of Athens
350 BCE
--Tollund Man, Scandinavian peat bog body found in Denmark, hanging victim, oldest peat bog
bodies date back to 10,000 years ago (Koelbjerg Woman), some bodies suggest human sacrifice
rituals associated with Celtic cultures
--death of Plato (347 BCE)
330 BCE
--Alexander the Great's invasion of Egypt, 332 BCE, Greek domination of Egypt, death of
Alexander in 323 BCE
325 BCE
--death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE)
--Egypt ruled by Ptolemy I (r. 323–285 BCE), one one of Alexander's generals), and later by his
successors. Capital at Alexandria
--death of Aristotle (322 BCE)
260
--beginnings of the Punic Wars (264-146 BCE), conflict between Rome and Carthage that led to
Roman domination of the Mediterranean
250 BCE
--Septuagint, Greek translation of the Hebrew bible written in Alexandria c. 250 BCE
196 BCE
Rosetta Stone: rock inscribed with three bands of writing in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek--it
made possible the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Discovered in 1799
146 BCE
--fall of Corinth to the Romans; Roman conquest of Greece
71 BCE
--defeat of rebel forces of gladiator Spartacus; over 6000 of his followers crucified along the Via
Appia
55 BCE
Julius Caesar invades Britain
44 BCE
--assassination of Julius Caesar
31 BCE
--Battle of Actium, Octavian (later emperor Augustus) defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra in
naval encounter
30 BCE
--suicides of Mark Antony and Cleopatra
27 BCE
--begins reign of Augustus (27 BCE-14 AD)
8-2 BCE
--birth of Jesus Christ (d. 30-36 AD)
14 AD
--end reign of Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BCE-14 AD), begins reign of Tiberius (r. 14-37)
30-36
--death of Jesus Christ