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Prehistoric3500-1BCE1-1099 CE1100-13991400-15991600s1700s

1800s'10-'19'20-'29'30-'39'40-'49'50-'59'60-'69'70-'79'80-'89'90-'99

1900s'10-'19'20-'29'30-'39'40-'49'50-'59'60-'69'70-'79'80-'89'90-'99

2000s

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The Centuries Before the Common Era

Gallery
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Cuneiform
Cuneiform

Egyptian Book of the Dead
Egyptian Book
of the Dead

Phoenician Script
Phoenician Script
3500-1 B.C.E.

Most early dates are approximate

3500 - 3000
 
3500: In Sumer and Elam, the start of pictographic writing.
3000: Sumerians write wedge-shaped cuneiform numerals and ideographic symbols.
3000: In Near East, writing direction on clay changes from columns to rows.
3000: Egypt develops hieroglyphic writing.
3000: People light the night with candles.
3000: In Sumer, the first known written legend, Gilgamesh, a Noah's ark tale.
 
2999 - 2000
 
2784: Estimated date of the first Egyptian civil year of 12 months, 365 days.
2640: China produces silk. It will serve as a writing surface.
2500: Earliest known glass.
2600: In Egypt, scribes employ hieratic writing, a condensed, cursive hieroglyphic.
2350: Mesopotamian king uses homing pigeons.
2060: Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, in Sumeria, creates first known code of law.
2500: Across Near East, animal hides serve as scrolls.
2400: In India, engraved seals identify the writer.
2300: Mesopotamian Semites use cuneiform and base-10 numbering.
2300: Akkadian is the diplomatic language of the Near East.
2300: In the Indus Valley (modern Pakistan), Proto-Indian writing.
2300: Early Britons move from stone age to bronze age.
2200: Oldest existing document written on papyrus.
2000: Egypt runs a government courier system.
2000: Chinese develop a pictographic-based written language.
2000: In the Fertile Crescent, sundials.
2000: Enheduanna, a woman in Mesopotamia, writes first signed text, a hymn.
2000: Nine Greek muses, responsible for poetry, history, comedy, song, dance.
 
1999 - 1000
 
1900: Place value numeration in Babylonia.
1800: Writing in the Minoan civilization of Crete.
1700: The written law code of Hammurabi, in Babylonia, carved on a stone pillar.
1700: First known alphabetic symbols, a few written by Semites in Canaan.
1500: Decimal system spreads through the Near East.
1500: In Crete, the Phaistos disc; symbols carved in relief are pressed into soft clay.
1500: The Book of the Dead guides wealthy Egyptians into the afterlife.
1500: On Crete, Phaistos clay disc is carved with symbols, then baked hard.
1400: Oldest record of writing in China, on bones and tortoise shells.
1350: In Egypt, pharaoh Akhnaton introduces monotheism, but it doesn't survive him.
1300: First entirely alphabetic writing, 30 Ugaritic cuneiform symbols on tablets.
1300: In modern-day Syria, musical notation.
1300: Drum beat codes sound alarms during Shang Dynasty in China.
1259: BCE Egyptians and Hittites sign first written peace treaty.
1250: Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Papyrus of Ani.
1250: Moses brings the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments.
1200: The Phoenician alphabet, 22 letters, all consonants.
1200: Egyptians use pigeons for military communication.
1100: Egyptian army uses homing pigeons for messages.
1000: Alphabetic writing appears in various parts of the Near East.
 
999 - 700
 
950: The oldest books of the Bible are written.
920: Early version of the Hundu epic, the Mahabharata.
900: China's Zhou Dynasty has an organized postal service for government use.
900: Phonetic alphabet spreads across the Mediterranean.
900: Beacon fires and smoke signals are used in China.
900: Start of the writing of the Hindu Upanishads.
850: The Iliad and the Odyssey, 300 years after the Trojan War, ascribed to Homer.
800: In the Near East leather is a writing surface; rolled as scrolls.
800: Moabite stone bears Phoenician alphabet.
800: Greeks improve Phoenician alphabet by adding vowels; capital letters only.
776: Carrier pigeons bear news of the Olympic games.
775: Chinese astronomers record a solar eclipse, first Chinese proven date.
753: Estimated founding of Rome; start of the Roman calendar.
750: Egyptian demotic writing, a cursive derived from hieratic, hieroglyphs.
750: The book of Amos. .
750: Greek poet Hesiod writes Works and Days, an epic of Greek rural life.
710: In the Egyptian city of Memphis, an account of creation carved in stone.
 
699 - 600
 
650: Egyptian papyrus arrives in Greek cities.
650: Assyrian royal library boasts 20,000 clay tablets.
650: Greeks write on papyrus shipped from Nile River origin.
650: Dionysian festivals among Greeks will lead to drama.
650: Olmecs, a pre-Mayan people, invent first writing system in Americas.
640: A king of Ninevah collects a library, 22,000 clay tablets.
640: Coins are circulated.
621: Manuscript of Deuteronomy is discovered in Jerusalem.
620: Draco gives Athens a written code of laws, "draconian" in its harshness.
610: Anaximander writes first known book of philosophy.
600: First appearance of Latin.
600: In Ninevah, a map of the known world, carved on clay tablet.
600: From Lesbos, Sappho's poetry; it will lead to the term "lesbian."
600: Mediterranean cultures agree on left-to-right writing.
600: The Near East has coins, clocks, calendars.
 
599 - 500
 
585: Thales of Miletus develops physical science, geometry, and a rational worldview.
575: In Babylonian exile, Jewish scholars begin to compile the books of the Bible.
575: Zarathrustra (Zoroaster) preaches and starts a new religion in the Middle East.
550: Across much of Mediterranean world, writing now runs left to right.
530: In Athens, a public library.
528: Buddhism begins as Siddhartha Gautama finds enlightenment.
526: In China, a written code of laws.
500: In China, Lao Tze manages imperial archives.
500: Chinese government officials use established, speedy courier service.
500: Chinese philosopher Lao Tze, Taoist founder, is curator of royal archives.
500: Greek telegraph: trumpets, drums, shouting, beacon fires, smoke, mirrors.
500: Persia has a form of pony express.
500: Unknown prophet, "second Isaiah," writes, preaches of Yahweh's universality.
500: In India the writing of the Vedic hymns is completed.
500: In present-day Nigeria, the Nok people produce terra cotta art.
500: The Analects of Confucius.
500: Chinese scholars write on bamboo with reeds dipped in pigment.
500: Greeks build theaters as drama emerges.
 
499 - 400
 
497: Death of Pythagoras, philosopher and mathematician.
490: Pheidippides dies after bringing to Athens the news of victory at Marathon.
480: Aesop, possibly a freed slave, writes his Fables.
475: Parmenides, Greek philosopher, argues that reality is an unchanging substance.
475: Philosopher Heraclitis posits opposite view that the world is constantly changing.
469: Birth of Socrates, inventor of the art of philosophical dialogue.
458: From Aeschylus, the "father of tragedy," Oresteia.
450: Anaxagoras is first Western philosopher to distinguish mind from matter.
449: Rome's written Laws of the Twelve Tables cover both civil and criminal matters.
443: Sophocles' Antigone.
438: Death of Pindar, arguably the greatest of the Greek lyric poets.
435: In China, a solar calendar.
435: Phidias sculpts the Zeus, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.
432: Greek astronomer Meton adjusts the lunar calendar to a solar year.
431: Euripedes' Medea.
431: The Athenian ruler, Pericles, delivers the Funeral Oration.
430: Euripides' The Trojans.
428: Sophocles, Oedipus Rex.
427: Birth of Plato, author of the Socratic Dialogues and The Republic.
423: Aristophanes' satire, The Clouds, caricatures Socrates.
420: Herodotus' History of the Persian War.
420: Writings by Hippocrates begin the scientific study of medicine.
415: Euripides, The Trojan Women.
415: Lysistrata, comedy by Aristophanes.
415: Protagoras teaches that human beings are "the measure of all things."
409: Sophocles, Electra.
405: Euripides' Bacchae.
405: Aristophanes, The Frogs.
401: Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus.
400: The golden age of Greek culture produces unmatched writings.
400: Chinese write on silk as well as wood, bamboo.
400: Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.
400: In Central America, Zapotec writing.
400: Democritus originates theory that matter consists of colliding atoms.
400: First illustrated manuscripts.
400: Xenophon's Anabasis tells dramatic tale of Greek army fighting their way home.
 
399 - 300
 
399: Socrates drinks poison. Nothing written by famed philosopher survives.
396: Plato's Apologia defends Socrates.
390: Gauls sack Rome, destroying all records. Only legends remain.
387: Plato's Symposium uses Socratic logic.
386: Plato founds the Academy
384: Birth of Aristotle.
350: From the Greek author Archestratus, a cookbook.
350: In Organon, Aristotle explains logical reasoning.
350: Diogenes preaches the simple, self-sufficient life.
347: Death of Plato, who leaves an unparalleled mark on Western thought.
340: Aristotle's logic; it will be a source of knowledge for more than 2,000 years.
340: Praxiteles sculpts Hermes with the Infant Dionysus.
335: Aristotle founds his academy, the Lyceum.
322: Death of Aristotle, the great collector of human knowledge.
320: Greek sculpture spreads across Near East.
312: Start of the ancient Greek calendar, the Seleucid Era.
300: Epicurus starts philosophical school based on simple life that avoids pain.
300: Euclid's Elements explain geometry.
300: Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata, attains much of its modern form.
 
299 - 200
 
295: The great library at Alexandria is founded. Euclid teaches there.
275: Manetho, Egyptian priest, writes history of Egypt.
250: Diophantus' Arithmetica explains algebra.
250: Brahmi, the first strictly Indian writing, in King Asoka's edicts.
250: In Near East city of Pergamum, parchment is made as a writing surface.
250: The zero appears for the first time, in Babylonian place-value system.
250: The Hebrew Torah, the Septuagint, is translated into Greek.
240: Latin literature starts to emerge.
230: Aristarchus of Samos: first scientist to realize that Earth circles the Sun.
220: Archimedes, Sicilian geometrician, leaves records of his many inventions.
213: China's Ch'in emperor, Shihuang, orders destruction of all books.
200: Greek scientist Eratosthenes accurately measures size of the Earth.
200: Greeks, Romans use wax-on-wood tablets for note taking.
200: Tipao gazettes are circulated to Chinese officials.
 
199 - 100
 
196: Cutting of the Rosetta Stone in hieroglyphics, hieratic, and Greek.
185: In Rome, Plautus and Terence write comedies.
170: Books are written on parchment and vellum, treated animal skins.
150: Hipparchus, astronomer, invents trigonometry, calculates length of the year.
150: Dead Sea Scrolls written between 150 BCE and 40 CE.
150: The modern Hebrew alphabet, derived from Aramaic cursive letters.
150: The book of Ecclesiastes.
150: Paper, made from soaked, macerated hemp, is placed in Chinese tombs.
150: Alexandria is the greatest center of Hellenistic and Hebrew culture.
146: Polybius completes 40 volumes of early Roman history.
146: Polybius describes complex torch signaling system in use by Greeks.
118: Codification of the Roman constitution is completed.
105: In Alexandria, the first college of technology is founded.
100: Extant copy of the Ten Commandments is written in Hebrew. s
 
99 - 0
 
80: In China, a collection of biographies of famous women.
63: Marcus Tullius Tiro, ex-slave of Cicero, invents a shorthand system.
59: Julius Caesar orders postings of the Acta Diurna.
57: Lucretius' 6-volume De Rerum Natura extols Epicurean philosophy.
55: Marcus Tullius Cicero writes on rhetoric, De Oratore.
54: Cicero on politics, De Republica.
51: Caesar's account of the Gallic war; will be read by centuries of pupils.
50: An early oboe.
47: Alexandrian Library survives fire set by Julius Caesar's troops; many books lost.
46: Julius Caesar develops the solar Julian calendar, with leap years.
44: Caesar killed. Remarkable life includes writing Commentaries and Civil War.
39: In Rome, the first public library, at the Libertas Temple.
37: Virgil (or Vergil) writes the Bucolics, or Eclogues.
35: The Satires of Horace.
30: Virgil writes more poetry of farm life, the Georgics.
28: Rome establishes two large libraries, the Octavian and the Palatine.
19: Virgil dies; the Aeneid, one of the greatest of the epic poems, is unfinished.
13: Some of the finest lyrical poems of the mature Horace appear.
8: Horace, greatest of Latin lyric poets, dies after writing Satires, Odes, Epistles.
4: Likely birth of Jesus, according to modern calculations.
 


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Copyright © Irving Fang and Kristina Ross, 1995-1996. All rights reserved.