B.C. Time Period
- 200,000 B.C. Homo sapiens, the first modern humans, appear in Africa.
- 62,000 B.C. Bow and arrows with stone points (arrowheads) are used.
- 30,000 B.C. Cro-Magnon man is flourishing, moving from the Near East into Europe, lives by hunting and gathering. Cro-Magnon’s painted caves with drawings of the animals they killed.
- 25,000 B. C. Bering Strait is crossed by humans, connecting Asia to the Americas.
- 18,000 B.C. Clay pottery ware is created. Humans begin to use raw metals.
- 10,000 B.C. Humans make it to the southern most point of South America.
- 8,000 B.C. The Neolithic Revolution and an agriculture way of life is discovered in the Fertile Crescent/Middle Eastern area. Cows and sheep were domesticated and crops where manipulated and tended. (interesting fact: first domesticated dog ever was found in Idaho, USA 8400 BC).
- 7000 B.C. A great earthquake destroys the city of Jericho.
- 6,500 B.C. The oceans and sea’s rise, England is now cut off from Europe by land.
- 6000 B.C.. First beer is brewed from grain in the Near East.
- 5,500 B.C. First settled societies in the Mesopotamia region.
- 4,500 B.C. Humans learn how to use the plow.
- 4,250 B.C. Development of copper and bronze metallurgy.
- 4,242 B.C. The very first year on the Egyptian calendar.
- 4,000 B.C. The wheel is invented and begins to be used. Rice farming in China is developed.
- 3,400 B.C. Beginning forms of writing. Earliest ziggurats are built.
- 3,300 B.C. Indus Valley Civilization established in South Asia.
- 3,200 B.C. Boats use sails on the Nile river.
- 3,113 B.C. First date in the Mayan calendar.
- 3,100 B.C. Egypt’s 1st Dynasty created by the joining of the upper and lower kingdoms of Egypt.
- 3,000 B.C. Bricks are used widely(and made by a fired process). First city-states are created, palaces are starting to be build. Temples are usually build at the center of the cities. There were large military campaigns by ethnic groups of people.
- 2,750 B.C. Rule of Gilgamesh. King of Uruk.
- 2,686 B.C. Beginning of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and also known as the “Age of the Pyramids”.
- 2,667 B.C. Very first pyramids were built in Egypt.
- 2,500 B.C. First written legal codes.
- 2,400 B.C. The construction of Stonehenge in England starts.
- 1,792 B.C. Hammurabi begins his rule as king.
- 1,766 B.C. Beginning of the Shang dynasty in the Lower Yellow River Valley (China).
- 1,570 B.C. Beginning of the New Kingdom of Egypt.
- 1531 B.C. The Hittites conquer Babylon.
- 1,500 B.C. Earliest known civilization in Mesoamerica, the Olmecs flourish.
- 1,333 B.C. A young boy named Tutankhamun succeeds Akhenaten, he restores the nation to worshiping the old Egyptian gods.
- 1,250 B.C. Ziggurat in Khuzestan, in present day Iran is built. Moses leads the Israelites on an exodus out of Egypt.
- 1,200 B.C. Moses leads his people out of Egypt.
- 1140 B.C. The First North African city of Utica (Tunisia) is established by the Phoenicians.
- 1,126 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar I begins his rule as king of Babylon.
- 1122 B.C. The Chou Dynasty is formed in China by Emperor Wu Wang. The feudal system follows.
- 1077 B.C. The New Kingdom phase in Egypt is over when Rameses XI dies. Smendes ascends to Pharaoh and forms the XXIst Dynasty.
- 1,070 B.C. The Kingdom of Kush in Nubia begins.
- 1050 B.C. Israel is invaded and defeated by the Philistines.
- 1020 B.C. Saul is anointed king of Israel by the one of the last remaining Israelite judges.
- 1000 B.C. In the battle of Gilboa, Saul is killed and David ascends to the throne.
- 961 B.C. David dies and his throne is replaced by his son Solomon.
- 953 B.C. The Dedication of Temple at Jerusalem is built by Solomon.
- 922 B.C. Solomon dies and his throne is replaced by his son Rehoboam who faces a rebellion soon after his ascension.
- 814 B.C. Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians, not far from Utica.
- 800 B.C. The great poet Homer writes “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey“.
- 776 B.C. The very first recorded Olympic Games are established in Greece.
- 770 B.C. The Eastern Chou Dynasty in China begins.
- 483 B.C. Buddha dies in India.
- 460 B.C. Hippocrates is born.
- 431 B.C. Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta begins.
- 404 B.C. The Government of the Thirty Tyrants begins. Spartans defeat the Athenians to end the Peloponnesian War.
- 394 B.C. Spartan forces win the Battle of Coronea.
- 390 B.C. The city of Rome is ransacked by The Gauls from France.
- 386 B.C. Antalcidas of Sparta forms a peace pact with Persia.
- 377 B.C. Hippocrates dies.
- 371 B.C. Sparta and The Athenian League form a peace pact.
- 367 B.C. Rome elects its first plebeian council member.
- 356 B.C. The Third Sacred War begins.
- 339 B.C. The Fourth Sacred War begins.
- 336 B.C. Philip II of Macedonia is assassinated.
- 332 B.C. Alexander the Great invades Egypt and founds the city Alexandria.
- 264 B.C. The First Punic War begins.
- 221 B.C. China is united under the reign of Shi Huangdi, China’s first emperor.
- 218 B.C. The Second Punic War begins – also known as the War Against Hannibal.
- 214 B.C. Construction begins on The Great Wall of China.
- 204 B.C. Construction is completed on The Great Wall of China.
- 180 B.C. Great alter of Zeus and Athena built in Pergamon.
- 168 B.C. Roman forces defeat Perseus at the Battle of Pydna.
- 149 B.C. The Third Punic War begins.
- 141 B.C. Jewish people liberate Jerusalem.
- 140 B.C. Wu (Liu Che) becomes “Martial Emperor” of China.
- 89 B.C. First Mithridatic War.
- 63 B.C. Judea is captured by the Roman empire.
- 53 B.C. The Battle of Carrhae, between Parthian and Roman empires.
- 50 B.C. France is conquered by Julius Caesar.
- 45 B.C. Caesar becomes dictator of Rome.
- 44 B.C. Caesar is assassinated.
- 30 B.C. Egypt is absorbed and becomes a province of the current Roman empire.
- 27 B.C. Augustus begins his rule of the Roman Empire as the first Roman emperor.
- 5 B.C. Jesus is born in Bethlehem.