Timeline

 4 million-1 million years ago: Era of first hominids (Australopithecus)

 2.5 million-200,000 years ago: Era of Homo erectus
 200,000 years ago: First appearance of Homo sapiens (originated in Africa; had larger brains and
greater intelligence than early hominids so could more easily adapt to different climates) 
 60,000 BCE: Human migration to Australia and New Guinea
 40,000 years ago: First appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens
 13,000 BCE: Human migration to North America from Siberia
 10,000-8000 BCE: Early experimentation with agriculture
 8000-7000 BCE Beginnings of agriculture in south Asia
 8000-7000 BCE: Origins of agriculture in Mesoamerica
 7250 BCE-5400 BCE: Çatal Hüyük goes from small village to 5,000 people
o dense populations + labor specialization + complex social relations = Çatal Hüyük was
the world’s first city
 Origins of maize cultivation in Mesoamerica
 4000-3500 BCE: Appearance of cities in southwest Asia
o Sumerians built world’s first cities around 4000 BCE
 ~3500 BCE: Sumerians first invented wheel; had wheeled carts by 3000 BCE
o better than animals; facilitated/promoted long-distance trade; became standard means of
overland transportation
 ~3500 BCE: Sumerians built watercraft that let them go to Persian Gulf and beyond
o by 2300 BCE: trading regularly with merchants of Harappan society
 during Babylonian empire, Mesopotamians traded w/ Anatolia, Lebanon, Arabia,
Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan, & northern India (all directions)
 ~3500 BCE: Mesopotamian metalworkers learned to alloy copper & tin to make bronze (hard and
strong, which pure copper is not), which became the preferred metal for military weaponry
o bronze was more expensive, but over time (long time), farmers used it for knives/bronze-
tipped plows (before used tools made of bone, wood, stone, or obsidian)
 3200-2350 BCE: Era of Sumerian dominance in Mesopotamia (but around for long time before)
o Sumerians built world’s first cities
o By 2500 BCE, Sumer ruled/dominated by city-states ruled by kings
 3100 BCE: Unification of Egypt
 3100-2660 BCE: Archaic Period of Egyptian history
 3000 BCE: Origins of agriculture in South America; Origins of agriculture in New Guinea
 3000 BCE: Austronesian migrations to New Guinea
 3000 BCE-1000 BCE: Era of Indo-European migrations
 2750 BCE: Gilgamesh was fifth king of city or Uruk
o Epic of Gilgamesh shows interests/concerns of Mesopotamia (friendship, loyalty,
ambition, fear of death, and longing for immortality)
 2660-2160 BCE: Egyptian Old Kingdom
 2600-2500 BCE: Era f pyramid building in Egypt
 2500-2000 BCE: High point of Harappan society
 2500-1450 BCE: Early kingdom of Kush with capital at Kerma
 2350-1600 BCE: Era of Babylonian dominance in Mesopotamia
 2334-2315 BCE: Reign of Sargon of Akkad
o took control of trade routes/taxed traded goodsAkkad = wealthiest/most powerful city
in the world
 o empire held all of Mesopotamia at it’s highpoint (all the way to Mediterranean/Black
Sea!), but fell ~2150 BCE b/c of rebellion within and outside invaders
 Sargon influenced/inspired Hammurabi
 2200-1766 BCE: Xia dynasty
 2040-1640 BCE: Egyptian Middle Kingdom
 2000 BCE: Beginnings of Bantu migrations
 1900 BCE: Hittites migrated to Anatolia
 1900 BCE: beginning of Harappan decline
 17th/16th century: Hittites built powerful kingdom and established close relations with
Mesopotamian peoples
o trade w/ Babylonians and Assyrians
 1792-1750 BCE: Reign of Hammurabi
o Hammurabi relied on centralized bureaucratic rule and regular taxation rather than
suppression and plunder; more efficient/predictable government
 1766-1122 BCE: Shang dynasty
 1595 BCE: Babylonian empire falls to Hittite assaults
 1550-1070 BCE: Egyptian New Kingdom
 1500 BCE: Beginning of Aryan migration to India
 1500-700 BCE: Austronesian migrations to Pacific islands
 1500-500 BCE: Vedic age; Lapita society
 1479-1425 BCE: Reign of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III
 1473-1458 BCE: Reign of Queen Hatshepsut (coruler with Tuthmosis III)
 1450-1200 BCE: Era of Hittite dominance in Anatolia
o ~1300 BCE: Hittites in Anatolia developed techniques for making strong iron
tools/weapons (before iron was considered too brittle)
 Assyrians made lots of use of them when building empire
o Less expensive than bronzebecame new metal of choice for weapons/tools
o 8th/7th century BCE was Assyrian highpoint, at which it contained Mesopotamia, Syria,
much Anatolia, and most of Egypt
o unpopular rule + impossible to maintain
o internal unrest/conflicts + external assault = end of Assyrian empire
 1400-900 BCE: Composition of the Rig Veda
 1353-1335 BCE: Reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)
 1200-100 BCE: Olmec society
 1122-256 BCE: Zhou dynasty
 1000 BCE: Early Aryan migrations into the Ganges River valley
 1000 BCE: Emergence of varna distinctions
 1000-970 BCE: Reign of Israelite king David
 1000-500 BCE: Formation of regional kingdoms in northern India
 1000-300 BCE: Chavín cult
 970-930 BCE: Reign of Israelite king Solomon
 900 BCE: Invention of iron metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa
 800-400 BCE : Composition of the principal Upanishads
 760 BCE: Conquest of Egypt by King Kashta of Kush
 750 BCE: Establishment of first Aryan cities in the Ganges valley
 722 BCE: Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel
 605-562 BCE: Reign of Nebuchadnezzar
 600-550 BCE: New Babylonian empire (aka Chaldean empire)
 586 BCE: New Babylonian conquest of the kingdom of Judah
 mid-6th century BCE: Mesopotamians largely lost control of own affairs and foreign conquerors
took over/absorbed them into own empires
o people beyond Mesopotamia also had advanced weapons/were developing techniques for
administering large territories
 558-330 BCE: Achaemenid dynasty
 521-486 BCE: Reign of Darius
 500-479 BCE: Persian Wars
 500 BCE: Aryan migrations to the Deccan Plateau
 403-221 BCE: Period of the Warring States
 334-330 BCE: Invasion and conquest of Achaemenid empire by Alexander of Macedon
(Alexander the Great)
 323-83 BCE: Seleucid dynasty
 247 BCE-224 CE: Parthian dynasty
 200-750 CE: Teotihuacan society
 224-651 CE: Sasanid dynasty
 300-700 CE: Mochica society
 300-1100 CE: Maya society