Atlas - World History Timeline

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History

WORLD HISTORY TIMELINE

All Dates BC

c.9,000-8,000
Domestication of animals and crops; first permanent settlements (Near East).

c.8,350-7,350
Jericho founded -- first walled town in the world.

c.7,000
Early experiments with copper ores (Anatolia).

c.6,000
First known pottery and woollen textiles (Anatolia).

c.5,000
Colonisation of Mesopotamian alluvial plains by groups practicing irrigation.

c.5,000-4,000
Egyptians invent calendar with 360 days/year (12 months with 30 days each).

c.4,000
Bronze casting begins (Near East).

c.4,000-3,500
Disastrous floods in Mesopotamia. The Great Flood?

3,760
First year of Jewish calendar.

c.3,500
Invention of wheel and plough in Mesopotamia.
Invention of sail in Egypt.

c.3,100
Pictographic writing invented in Sumeria.
King Menes unites Egypt; dynastic period begins.

c.3,000
Major cities appear in Sumeria.

c.3,000-2,500
Egyptians make glass beads and metal mirrors.
Sumerians make beer, bake bread & use oil-burning lamps; begin using metal coins (instead of barley) for money.
Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians & Chinese begin systematic astronomical observations.

c.2,750
Growth of civilizations in the Indus valley.

c.2,590
Cheops builds great pyramid at Giza.

c.2,500-2,000
Egyptians use papyrus for paper; build libraries; write literature featuring lamentations
and skepticism about meaning of life.
Potter's wheels and kilns used in Mesopotamia.
Chickens domesticated in Babylon.

c.2,371-2,230
Sargon I of Agade founds first empire in world history.

c.2,000
First use of sail on seagoing vessels (Aegean).
Stonehenge is built.

c.2,000-1,500
Decimal system developed in Crete; bathrooms in Minoan palace have water supply.
"The Story of Sinuhe," oldest form of a novel, written in Egypt.
Egyptians use contraceptives.

c.1,800-1,700
When Abraham lived?

c.1,792-1,749
Reign of Hammurabi in Babylon.
First legal system (Hammurabi's code) -- major influence on the laws of the Torah.

c.1,600
Beginnings of Mycenaean civilization in Greece.
First urban civilization in China (Shang Dynasty).

c.1,500-1,000
Chinese develop 40,000-character dictionary.
Phoenicians import tin from mines in England.
Egyptians used obelisks as sun dials.

c.1,350-1,334
Reign of Akhenaton in Egypt.
When Joseph lived?

c.1,279-1,212
Reign of Ramses II in Egypt.
When the exodus from Egypt occurred?

c.1207
Egyptian stela celebrates victory over Israelites (earliest contemporary record of Israelites' existence).

c.1,300-1,100
Israelites conquer Canaan.