- 315,000 B.C. Early Homo sapiens fossils at Jebel Irhoud (Morocco).
- 300,000 B.C. Homo sapiens, the first modern humans, migrate around Africa.
- 62,000 B.C. Bow and arrows with stone points (arrowheads) are used.
- 50,000–40,000 B.C. Upper Paleolithic “cultural explosion” (art, tools, expansion).
- 40,000 B.C. Neanderthals decline toward extinction (timing varies by region).
- 30,000 B.C. Early modern humans are widespread across Europe; the older term “Cro-Magnon” refers to some of these early European Homo sapiens.
- 25,000–15,000 B.C. Beringia, a broad land region linking northeast Asia and North America, is exposed during lower sea levels. Humans lived in and migrated through the region, although the exact timing and routes into the Americas remain debated.
- c. 14,000–12,000 B.C. Domesticated dogs are clearly present in western Eurasia by this period; genetic evidence suggests the domestication process began earlier.
- c. 18,000 B.C. Some of the earliest known pottery appears in East Asia, made by hunter-gatherer communities long before agriculture became widespread.
- c. 12,800 B.C. Humans are present at Monte Verde in southern Chile, showing that people had reached far into South America by this time.
- c. 11,000 B.C. Evidence from Raqefet Cave in present-day Israel indicates that Natufian hunter-gatherers brewed wheat- or barley-based beer for ritual feasts roughly 13,000 years ago.
- c. 10,000–8,000 B.C. Across the Fertile Crescent, communities increasingly cultivate cereals and herd animals, helping drive the Neolithic transition from mobile foraging toward farming and permanent settlements.
- c. 8,000 B.C. Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan is already a substantial permanent settlement, with monumental features including a wall, ditch, and tower dating to the 9th–8th millennia B.C.
- c. 6,500 B.C. Rising post-glacial seas flood much of Doggerland, severing Britain’s land connection with continental Europe as the North Sea expands.
- 5,500 B.C. First settled societies in the Mesopotamia region.
- c. 5,000–4,700 B.C. Some of the earliest securely dated evidence for animal-drawn ard ploughing appears in Alpine Europe.
- c. 4,500 B.C. Copper smelting and metallurgy are established in parts of Eurasia; the earliest known copper smelting evidence dates to about 5,000 B.C. Bronze alloys become important later.
- c. 4,200 B.C. Predynastic communities along the Nile continue developing farming, craft production, and increasingly complex social organization in early Egypt.
- c. 3,500 B.C. The wheel-and-axle appears in the archaeological record, with early wheeled vehicles and related technologies developing across parts of Europe and western Asia.
- c. 3,300 B.C. The earliest known proto-cuneiform writing develops in southern Mesopotamia, initially for administrative recordkeeping.
- c. 3,300 B.C. The Early Harappan/Ravi phase begins in the Indus region; the mature urban Indus Civilization develops later, around 2,600–1,900 B.C.
- 3,200 B.C. Boats use sails on the Nile river.
- 3,114 B.C. The Maya Long Count uses a mythological creation-era starting date corresponding to August 11, 3114 B.C. in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
- 3,100 B.C. Egypt’s 1st Dynasty created by the joining of the upper and lower kingdoms of Egypt.
- c. 3,000 B.C. The Bronze Age is underway in parts of the Near East, while its chronology varies substantially by region. Urban city-states and monumental building continue expanding in Mesopotamia and neighboring areas.
- 2,900 B.C. Cuneiform writing system developed
- c. 2,600 B.C. Gilgamesh, later the hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh, is listed in the Sumerian King List as a king of Uruk; the historical details of his reign remain uncertain.
- 2,686 B.C. Beginning of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and also known as the “Age of the Pyramids”.
- c. 2,630–2,611 B.C. King Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara is built, representing Egypt’s earliest preserved monumental stone architecture and the first great pyramid complex.
- c. 2,560 B.C. The Great Pyramid of Giza is completed during the reign of Khufu.
- c. 2,500 B.C. The major stone settings at Stonehenge are erected; the site’s first major earthwork dates to about 3,000 B.C.
- c. 2,100 B.C. The Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest surviving law code known today, is written in Sumer.
- 1,792 B.C. Hammurabi begins his rule as king.
- c. 1,600 B.C. The Shang dynasty begins in China; archaeological chronologies generally place it around 1,600–1,046 B.C.
- c. 1,595 B.C. A Hittite army sacks Babylon, ending the Old Babylonian period in the commonly used middle chronology.
- c. 1,550 B.C. The New Kingdom of Egypt begins with the rise of the 18th Dynasty.
- c. 1,500 B.C. Olmec culture develops along the Gulf Coast of present-day Mexico and flourishes for more than a millennium.
- 1,333 B.C. A young boy named Tutankhamun succeeds Akhenaten, he restores the nation to worshiping the old Egyptian gods.
- c. 1,250 B.C. The Chogha Zanbil ziggurat is built in Elam, in present-day Iran.
- c. 13th–12th century B.C. The biblical Exodus narrative describes Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt; its historicity and exact date remain debated.
- c. 1,101 B.C. Ancient writers give this as the traditional founding date of Phoenician Utica in North Africa, although archaeological evidence points to settlement several centuries later.
- 1,126 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar I begins his rule as king of Babylon.
- c. 1,046 B.C. The Zhou dynasty begins after the Zhou conquer the Shang; the Western Zhou period lasts until 771 B.C.
- 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.
- c. 400 B.C. Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) dies, traditionally at Kushinagar; the precise chronology of his life remains debated.
- 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.
- c. 220 B.C. — Under Qin Shi Huang, sections of earlier fortifications are joined and extended into a unified northern defense system; construction and rebuilding of the Great Wall continue under later dynasties for centuries.
- 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.
- 142 B.C. Under Simon Maccabeus, Judea secures political independence from Seleucid rule and the Acra citadel in Jerusalem is captured, a key step in the rise of the Hasmonean state.
- 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. Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul is largely complete; Gaul included most of present-day France and neighboring regions.
- 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.
- c. 6–4 B.C. Jesus is probably born during this period; the exact year is uncertain, and Christian tradition places his birth in Bethlehem.