Timeline of Ancient history

Timeline of Ancient history is the historical events in time of the documented ancient past from the beginning of recorded history until the Early Middle Ages.

Timeline

Prehistory

*Early human migrations from the cradle of humanity and beginning cradle of civilization
**Lower Paleolithic: Homo erectus spreads across Eurasia. Controlled use of fire from ca. 800 kya.
**c. 250 kya: Homo sapiens evolves in Africa
**c. 70–60 kya: Modern humans migrate out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reach Australia
**c. 50 kya: Modern humans spread from Asia to the Near East
**c. 40 kya: Europe first reached by modern humans
**c. 15 kya: Americas first reached by humans
*10th millennium BC: Invention of agriculture is the earliest given date for the beginning of the ancient era
*7th millennium BC: Jiahu culture began in China
*5th millennium BC: late Neolithic civilizations, invention of the wheel and spread of proto-writing.
*4th millennium BC: Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the Ukraine
*4th millennium BC: Sumerian cuneiform, history's oldest writing system. [Harvnb|Diamond|1999|p=218]

History

Some important events:

Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

The Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper ores, and then smelting those ores to cast bronze. These naturally-occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in western Asia before 3,000 B.C. In some parts of the world, a Copper Age follows the Neolithic and precedes the Bronze Age

The Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in some past societies often including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles, although this was not always the case.
*3300 BC: Bronze Age begins in the Near East [Harvnb|Kristiansen|Larsson|2005]
*3300 BC: Newgrange Ireland
*3300 BC: Hakra Phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins
*3200 BC: Cycladic civilization in Greece
*3200 BC: Rise of Proto-Elamite Civilization in Iran
*3100 BC: Skara Brae Scotland
*3100 BC: First dynasty of Egypt
*3000 BC: Jiroft civilization Begins in Iran
*3000 BC: Rise of the Nile Valley civilization
*3000 BC: First known use of papyrus by Egyptians
*2200 BC: Yayoi culture of Japan, introduction of agriculture and brass
*2800 BC: Kot Diji phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins
*2800 BC: Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period in China
*2700 BC: Minoan Civilization ancient palace city Knossos reach 80.000 inhabitants
*2700 BC: Rise of Elam in Iran
*2600 BC: Mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley civilization (in present-day Pakistan and India) begins
*26th century BC: Completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza
*2070 BC: Yu the Great established the Xia Dynasty in China
*2000 BC: Domestication of the horse
*1700 BC: Indus Valley Civilization comes to an end but is continued by the Cemetery H culture; The beginning of Poverty Point Civilization in North America
*1600 BC: Mycenaean Greece
*1600 BC: The beginning of Shang Dynasty in China, evidence of a fully developed Chinese writing system
*1600 BC: Beginning of Hittite dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean region
*1500 BC: Composition of the Rigveda is completed
*1200 BC: The Hallstatt culture
*c. 1200 BC: Theorized time of the Trojan War [ Strauss, Barry S. (2006) The Trojan War: A New History. Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-7432-6441-9 ]
*c. 1180 BC: Disintegration of Hittite Empire
*1046 BC: The Zhou force (led by King Wu of Zhou) overthrow the last king of Shang Dynasty; Zhou Dynasty established in China
*1000 BC: Mannaeans Kingdom Begins
*800 BC: Rise of Greek city-states
*776 BC: First recorded Olympic Games. The history of the Games is believed to reach as far back as the 13th century BC but no older written record survives.Fact|date=February 2007

Classical Antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. It refers to the timeframe of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. [It is used to refer to various other periods of ancient history, like Ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia (such as, Assyria, Babylonia and Sumer) or other early civilizations of the Near East. It is less commonly used in reference to civilizations of the Far East.] [William Smith, [http://books.google.com/books?id=3uYtAAAAIAAJ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities] . J. Murray, 1891] Ancient history include the recorded Greek history beginning in about 776 BC (First Olympiad). This coincides roughly with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC and the beginning of the history of Rome. [Chris Scarre, "The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome" (London: Penguin Books, 1995).] [Adkins, Lesley; Roy Adkins (1998). Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512332-8. page 3.]

*753 BC: Founding of Rome (traditional date)
*745 BC: Tiglath-Pileser III becomes the new king of Assyria. With time he conquers neighboring countries and turns Assyria into an empire
*728 BC: Rise of the Median Empire
*722 BC: Spring and Autumn Period begins in China; Zhou Dynasty's power is diminishing; the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought
*700 BC: the construction of Marib Dam in Arabia Felix
*653 BC: Rise of Persian Empire
*612 BC: Attributed date of the destruction of Nineveh and subsequent fall of Assyria.
*600 BC: Sixteen Maha Janapadas ("Great Realms" or "Great Kingdoms") emerge. A number of these Maha Janapadas are semi-democratic republics.
*c. 600 BC: Pandyan kingdom in South India
*563 BC: Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), founder of Buddhism is born as a prince of the Shakya tribe, which ruled parts of Magadha, one of the Maha Janapadas
*551 BC: Confucius, founder of Confucianism, is born
*550 BC: Foundation of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great
*549 BC: Mahavira, founder of Jainism is born
*546 BC: Cyrus the Great overthrows Croesus King of Lydia
*544 BC: Rise of Magadha as the dominant power under Bimbisara.
*539 BC: The Fall of the Babylonian Empire and liberation of the Jews by Cyrus the Great
*529 BC: Death of Cyrus
*525 BC: Cambyses II of Persia conquers Egypt
*c. 512 BC: Darius I (Darius the Great) of Persia, subjugates eastern Thrace, Macedonia submits voluntarily, and annexes Libya, Persian Empire at largest extent
*509 BC: Expulsion of the last King of Rome, founding of Roman Republic (traditional date)
*508 BC: Democracy instituted at Athens
*500 BC: Panini standardizes the grammar and morphology of Sanskrit in the text Ashtadhyayi. Panini's standardized Sanskrit is known as Classical Sanskrit
*500 BC: Pingala uses zero and binary numeral system
*490 BC: Greek city-states defeat Persian invasion at Battle of Marathon
*480 BC: Invasion of Greece by Xerxes; Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis
*475 BC: Warring States Period begins in China as the Zhou king became a mere figurehead; China is annexed by regional warlords
*469 BC: Birth of Socrates
*465 BC: Murder of Xerxes
*460 BC: First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta
*447 BC: Building of the Parthenon at Athens started
*424 BC: Nanda dynasty comes to power.
*404 BC: End of Peloponnesian War between the Greek city-states
*331 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela
*326 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Indian king Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes River.
*323 BC: Death of Alexander the Great at Babylon
*321 BC: Chandragupta Maurya overthrows the Nanda Dynasty of Magadha.
*305 BC: Chandragupta Maurya seizes the satrapies of Paropanisadai (Kabul), Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Qanadahar) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan)from Seleucus I Nicator, the Macedonian satrap of Babylonia, in return for 500 elephants.
*273 BC: Ashoka the Great becomes the emperor of the Mauryan Empire
*257 BC: Thục Dynasty takes over Việt Nam (then Kingdom of Âu Lạc)
*250 BC: Rise of Parthia (Ashkâniân), the second native dynasty of ancient Persia
*232 BC: Death of Emperor Ashoka the Great; Decline of the Mauryan Empire
*230 BC: Emergence of Satavahanas in South India
*221 BC: Qin Shi Huang unifies China, end of Warring States Period; marking the beginning of Imperial rule in China which lasts until 1912. Construction of the Great Wall by the Qin Dynasty begins.
*207 BC: Kingdom of Nan Yueh extends from North Việt Nam to Canton
*202 BC: Han Dynasty established in China, after the death of Qin Shi Huang; China in this period officially becomes a Confucian state and opens trading connections with the West, i.e. the Silk Road
*202 BC: Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal at Battle of Zama
*c. 200 BC: Chera dynasty in South India
*185 BC: Sunga Empire founded.
*149 BC–146: Third and final Punic War; destruction of Carthage by Rome
*146 BC: Roman conquest of Greece," see Roman Greece"
*111 BC: First Chinese domination of Việt Nam in the form of the Nanyue Kingdom.
*c. 100 BC: Chola dynasty rises in prominence.
*49 BC: Roman Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great
*44 BC: Julius Caesar murdered by Marcus Brutus and others; End of Roman Republic; beginning of Roman Empire
*6 BC: Earliest theorized date for birth of Jesus of Nazareth
*4 BC: Widely accepted date (Ussher) for birth of Jesus Christ
*9: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Imperial Roman Army's bloodiest defeat
*14: Death of Emperor Augustus (Octavian), ascension of his adopted son Tiberius to the throne
*29: Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
*68: Year of the four emperors in Rome
*70: Destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Titus.
*117: Roman Empire at largest extent under Emperor Trajan
*192: Kingdom of Champa in Central Việt Nam
*200s: The Buddhist Srivijaya Empire established in the Malay Archipelago.
*220: Three Kingdoms period begins in China after the fall of Han Dynasty.
*226: Fall of the Parthian Empire and Rise of the Sassanian Empire
*238: Defeat of Gordian III (238–244), Philip the Arab (244–249), and Valerian (253–260), by Shapur I of Persia, (Valerian was captured by the Persians).
*280: Emperor Wu established Jin Dynasty providing a temporary unity of China after the devastating Three Kingdoms period.
*285: Emperor Diocletian splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western Empires
*313: Edict of Milan declared that the Roman Empire would be neutral toward religious worship
*335: Samudragupta becomes the emperor of the Gupta empire
*378: Battle of Adrianople, Roman army is defeated by the Germanic tribes
*395: Roman Emperor Theodosius I outlaws all pagan religions in favour of Christianity
*410: Alaric I sacks Rome for the first time since 390 BC
*c. 455: Skandagupta repels an Indo-Hephthalite attack on India.
*476: Romulus Augustus, last Western Roman Emperor is forced to abdicate by Odoacer, a half Hunnish and half Scirian chieftain of the Germanic Heruli; Odoacer returns the imperial regalia to Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno in Constantinople in return for the title of "dux" of Italy; most frequently cited date for the end of ancient history

End of ancient history in Europe

The date used as the end of the ancient era is entirely arbitrary. The transition period from Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages is known as Late Antiquity. Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century (c. AD 284) to the Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under Heraclius. The Early Middle Ages are a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 to 1000.

Some key dates marking this transition are:
*293: reforms of Roman Emperor Diocletian
*395: the division of Roman Empire into the Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire
*476: the fall of Western Roman Empire
*529: closure of Platon Academy in Athens by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I

Not all historians agree on the ending dates of ancient history, which frequently falls somewhere in the 5th, 6th, or 7th century. Western scholars usually date the end of ancient history with the fall of Rome in 476 AD, the death of the emperor Justinian I in 565 AD, or the coming of Islam in 632 AD as the end of ancient European history.

References

General information

* Thorndike 1923, Becker 1931, MacMullen 1966, MacMullen 1990, Thomas & Wick 1993, Loftus 1996.
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Citations and notes