2000 bce

Archaeology

The Aryans from the Eurasian steppes and the Iranian plateau region cross the Hindu Kush mountains and settle in what is now northern India and Pakistan.

The first zoo in China, called the Park of Intelligence, is founded.

A postal system for royal and administrative messages exists in Egypt. Messages are relayed from one messenger to another.

The Cretan palace of Minos contains sewage systems and interior bathrooms with a water supply. See also 2300 bce Construction.

Pygmy mammoths living on Wrangell Island off the north coast of Siberia (Russia) become extinct. See also 9000 bce Food & agriculture.

Domestic cats are kept by the Lake Dwellers of Switzerland. It is probable that various species of wild cats were domesticated separately in different parts of the world. See also 3000 bce Food & agriculture.

In both Egypt and Mesopotamia the shaduf is introduced for watering fields. Essentially, a shaduf is a long pole on a pivot with a bucket suspended from one end of the pole and a counterweight at the other end, making lifting a heavy bucket of water from a river or a canal a fairly easy task. The shaduf is still used today in Egypt and in Asia. See also 2400 bce Food & agriculture.

The first seed drills are made by adding a funnel that directs seed into a hole in a wooden plow. Seeds poured into the funnel are deposited right into the plowed furrow. See also 3000 bce Food & agriculture; 1500 bce Food & agriculture.

Paddy culture of rice occurs in southeastern Asia. See also 4000 bce Food & agriculture.

Alfalfa is cultivated (Iran).

Sandals, probably in use long before this, are buried in an Egyptian tomb; they are made from braided papyrus. See also 3300 bce Communication.

Metalworkers on the Khorat Plateau (northeast Thailand) become experts in casting tools and ornaments of bronze, aided by a plentiful supply of tin ore in close proximity to copper ore (this development may have started as much as 500 years earlier). See also 2500 bce Materials.

Sometime before this date a manufacturer of "Egyptian" faïence overheats his core of quartz sand and sodium carbonate (naturally occurring as natron), melting the whole mass. This is the first production of glass by humans. Glassmakers soon find that lime -- usually found in natron or in the sand they used -- is needed for glass and that lead makes it brighter, but it is a long time before they realize that glass can be molded while hot. Instead, early glassmakers allow it to cool and then work it as they would obsidian (naturally occurring volcanic glass), cutting and polishing the glass to make useful or attractive objects. See also 3000 bce Materials; 1600 bce Materials.

Two Mesopotamian women, Tapputi-Belatekallim and (...) ninu (first part of name is lost) develop perfumes; (...)-ninu writes a text on perfumery.

By this date Mesopotamians learn to solve quadratic equations; that is, equations in which the highest power is 2. See also 1850 bce Mathematics.

The system of measures used in Mesopotamia includes, besides the shekel and mina, units of capacity -- the log (541 ml or 33 cu in.) and the homer, equal to 720 logs -- as well as length: the cubit and the foot, which is two-thirds of a cubit. See also 2100 bce Mathematics; 1950 bce Mathematics.

Physicians form an important professional group in Mesopotamia. Their medical practice is strongly based on astrology and belief in demons. See also 2100 bce Medicine & health.

Contraceptives are in use in Egypt -- an illustration shows a man wearing a condom. Herbal preparations to prevent conception or to induce abortion are even older. See also 2500 bce Medicine & health. (See essay.)

In Egypt people use a drill turned by a bow (the string is wrapped around the drill and the bow is moved back and forth) to drill holes in stone. See also 3500 bce Tools.

Looms are depicted in Assyrian and Egyptian murals. See also 6000 bce Materials; 1500 bce Tools.

The bellows is invented shortly after this date.

Balance scales are known from Egypt and Mesopotamia, although the evidence for such balances -- consisting of drawings and paintings -- is not sufficiently detailed to see how the scales are pivoted or whether they could be adjusted. See also 2400 bce Mathematics; 1450 bce Tools.

The oldest known lock-and-key arrangement, carved from wood, is made in Mesopotamia. See also 400 bce Tools.

In Egypt the tools of war include a pointed battering ram that can be operated from a portable hut, for use in breaching walls of sun-dried brick while protecting the people operating the ram. See also 2500 bce Tools.

Some roads in Crete are paved with stone. See also 600 bce Transportation.

Rims around wooden wheels are frequently made from copper instead of a strip of wood as had been used previously. See also 3000 bce Transportation.

According to Strabo, the Egyptians under Sesostris (known to the Greeks as Senusret I) build a canal from Lake Timsaeh (the Nile) to the Red Sea. It is not certain that this canal is completed, but if so it will later be sanded in. This precedes several versions of a canal begun by Pharaoh Necho and eventually completed by either Darius the Persian or Ptolemy II. See also 600 bce Transportation.

People of the Sintashta-Petrokva culture living on the Russian steppes near the border with present-day Kazakhstan develop the first spoked wheels. The wheels have 8 to 12 spokes and are used on one-person chariots. See also 3000 bce Transportation; 1800 bce Transportation.

The Egyptian fortress at Buhen in Nubia (southern Egypt and northern Sudan) has a drawbridge that moves on rollers. See also 850 bce Transportation.

A picture from about this time shows 172 men moving a statue known to weigh 60 tons on a sled, with a man pouring liquid in front of the sled to make it slide more easily. See also 6500 bce Transportation.

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Millennium:	2nd millennium BC
Centuries:	21st century BC - 20th century BC - 19th century BC
Decades:	1990s BC 1980s BC 1970s BC 1960s BC 1950s BC 1940s BC 1930s BC 1920s BC 1910s BC 1900s BC
Categories:	Births - Deaths Establishments - Disestablishments

Map of the world in 2000 BC

Events

The pyramid ruin of Amenemhet I at Lisht. He was the founder of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt

• 2000 BC — Arrival of the ancestors of the Latins in Italy.
• 2000 BC — Town of Mantua is presumably founded.
• 2000 BC — Stonehenge is believed to have been completed.
• 2000 BC — Farmers and herders travel south from Ethiopia and settle in Kenya.
• 2000 BC — Horses are tamed and used for transport.
• c. 2000 BC — Decline of Harappan civilization starts.
• c. 2000 BC - Bronze Age starts in north Ancient China.
• 2000–1000 BC — Shang Dynasty in China, Olmec civilization (Mesoamerica).
• 2064–1986 BC — Twin Dynasty wars in Egypt.
• 1991 BC — Egypt: Pharaoh Mentuhotep IV died. End of Eleventh Dynasty. Pharaoh Amenemhat I started to rule. Start of Twelfth Dynasty.
• c. 1985 BC–1795 BC — Rock-cut tombs at Beni Hasan were made. Twelfth Dynasty.
• c. 1985 BC–1795 BC — "Hippopotamus", from the tomb of Senbi (governor) (Tomb B.3) at Meir was made. Twelfth Dynasty. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• 1953 BC, February 27 - A very close alignment of the naked-eye planets takes place in which these planets are together in a span of 4.3 degrees.
• 1932 BC — Amorite conquest of Ur.
• c. 1928–1895 BC — "Harvest scene", tempera fascimile by Nina de Garis Davies of wall painting in the tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan. Twelfth Dynasty.
• 1913–1903 BC — Egyptian-Nubian war.

Births

• 1973 BC — Reu, son of Peleg, according to the Hebrew Calendar
• 1941 BC — Serug, son of Reu, according to the Hebrew Calendar
• 1911 BC — Nahor, son of Serug, according to the Hebrew Calendar

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• 2000 BC — First written accounts of Schizophrenia
• 1950 BC — The copper bar cubit of Nippur defines the Sumerian cubit as 51.72 cm^{[citation needed]}

Decades and Years

Decades and Years

20th century BC
22nd century BC←21st century BC← ↔ →19th century BC→18th century BC

2000s BC	2009 BC	2008 BC	2007 BC	2006 BC	2005 BC	2004 BC	2003 BC	2002 BC	2001 BC	2000 BC
1990s BC	1999 BC	1998 BC	1997 BC	1996 BC	1995 BC	1994 BC	1993 BC	1992 BC	1991 BC	1990 BC
1980s BC	1989 BC	1988 BC	1987 BC	1986 BC	1985 BC	1984 BC	1983 BC	1982 BC	1981 BC	1980 BC
1970s BC	1979 BC	1978 BC	1977 BC	1976 BC	1975 BC	1974 BC	1973 BC	1972 BC	1971 BC	1970 BC
1960s BC	1969 BC	1968 BC	1967 BC	1966 BC	1965 BC	1964 BC	1963 BC	1962 BC	1961 BC	1960 BC
1950s BC	1959 BC	1958 BC	1957 BC	1956 BC	1955 BC	1954 BC	1953 BC	1952 BC	1951 BC	1950 BC
1940s BC	1949 BC	1948 BC	1947 BC	1946 BC	1945 BC	1944 BC	1943 BC	1942 BC	1941 BC	1940 BC
1930s BC	1939 BC	1938 BC	1937 BC	1936 BC	1935 BC	1934 BC	1933 BC	1932 BC	1931 BC	1930 BC
1920s BC	1929 BC	1928 BC	1927 BC	1926 BC	1925 BC	1924 BC	1923 BC	1922 BC	1921 BC	1920 BC
1910s BC	1919 BC	1918 BC	1917 BC	1916 BC	1915 BC	1914 BC	1913 BC	1912 BC	1911 BC	1910 BC
1900s BC	1909 BC	1908 BC	1907 BC	1906 BC	1905 BC	1904 BC	1903 BC	1902 BC	1901 BC	1900 BC
1890s BC	1899 BC	1898 BC	1897 BC	1896 BC	1895 BC	1894 BC	1893 BC	1892 BC	1891 BC	1890 BC

Centuries and Millennia

Millennium	Century
Before Christ / Before Common Era (BC/BCE)
4th:	40th	39th	38th	37th	36th	35th	34th	33rd	32nd	31st
3rd:	30th	29th	28th	27th	26th	25th	24th	23rd	22nd	21st
2nd:	20th	19th	18th	17th	16th	15th	14th	13th	12th	11th
1st:	10th	9th	8th	7th	6th	5th	4th	3rd	2nd	1st
Anno Domini / Common Era (AD/CE)
1st:	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
2nd:	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th
3rd:	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th
4th:	31st

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