30th century BC

Archaeology

Semimythical ruler Menes of Upper Egypt succeeds in uniting his kingdom with Lower Egypt. See also 3500 bce Archaeology; 2575 bce Construction.

The Babylonians learn to predict eclipses. See also 2136 bce Astronomy.

Constellations of stars, such as Leo the Lion, are recognized. See also 1600 bce Astronomy.

Cuneiform writing is developed by the Sumerians as an outgrowth of their method of recording numbers. Clay tablets being used for pictographic writing in Sumer are turned on their sides to produce a "page" that is in what modern computer users call "portrait" format instead of the horizontal "landscape" format. See also 1800 bce Communication.

Farmers settled at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands off Great Britain build stone houses with rounded corners, about 6 m (20 ft) square, with corbeled roofs completed with whalebone rafters. Because of a lack of wood on the islands, furniture is also of stone, including beds with stone slabs, stone two-shelved dressers, and built-in stone storage cupboards. The beds also feature stone posts and a canopy of leather. See also 4500 bce Construction.

The first recorded architectural work of ancient Egypt is built under the orders of Pharaoh Menes, a wall around his capital of Memphis. Originally brick coated with gypsum plaster, it is replaced in later times with stone. See also 8000 bce Construction.

In Egypt and the Middle East (Jordan), dams are built to create reservoirs. See also 2500 bce Construction.

The height of the annual flood of the Nile begins to be measured so that crop quotas can be based on the availability of water. Seeds and cattle (on loan) for plowing are provided to farmers by the pharaoh. See also 1850 bce Food & agriculture.

Cotton is cultivated and elephants are domesticated (India). See also 1800 bce Food & agriculture.

Camels are domesticated (Iran and Arabia). See also 3500 bce Food & agriculture; 2500 bce Food & agriculture.

Sanskrit sources refer to domestic cats in India. See also 18,000 bce Food & agriculture.

Plows in Mesopotamia are made with a piece of pointed timber formed into a share that cuts the soil and a sole that pushes soil aside, creating a deeper, wider furrow. See also 4000 bce Food & agriculture.

The bag press for extracting oil from olives, juice from grapes, and so forth, is invented in Egypt. Essentially, it is a fabric bag with two sticks arranged so that, as the sticks are turned in opposite directions by four people, any substance in the bag is squeezed so that the liquid part runs out. See also 1500 bce Food & agriculture

"Egyptian faïence" is found in the lower Nile valley for the first time. Probably it was imported at this time from Mesopotamia, although Egypt eventually was to develop a thriving faïence industry of its own. See also 4500 bce Materials; 2000 bce Materials.

The rich deposits of copper ore on Cyprus are discovered and from this date forward become the main source of copper for the ancient world. See also 3500 bce Materials; 2500 bce Materials.

Metallurgists in the Near East (Syria or eastern Turkey) discover shortly before this time that addition of tin ore to copper ore before smelting produces bronze, a harder and more useful metal than copper that is also easier to cast. The new metal's utility is such that the whole subsequent era is known as the Bronze Age. See also 3700 bce Materials; 2500 bce Materials.

In Mesopotamia, bitumen (asphalt) is used as an adhesive, to hold bricks together. See also 2400 bce Materials.

Sumerians use pins made from bone to hold clothes together. See also 13,000 bce Materials; 2200 bce Materials.

An early form of abacus consisting of beads strung on wires is used in the Orient. See also 1000 bce Mathematics.

Tooth filling occurs in Sumeria. See also 1000 bce Medicine & health.

Axes in Mesopotamia are made with bronze or copper heads that have a hole in them where a shaft can be inserted.

People in early civilizations begin to grind lenses of rock crystal, a practice continued by the Greeks and Romans. See also 300 bce Tools.

Ruins from this period in Mesopotamia sometimes include seashells and minerals from India and Ceylon, suggesting that trade by boat may have taken place between the people of Mesopotamia and the people of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro (Pakistan). See also 4500 bce Transportation; 2600 bce Transportation.

Egyptian boats are essentially papyrus rafts, although shaped with upturned ends (that is, not rectangular, like log rafts). Both Egyptian and Mesopotamian boats are propelled by either humans using paddles or the wind pushing a simple single square sail. Rowing has not been discovered. See also 3500 bce Transportation; 2500 bce Transportation.

Wheels used with vehicles are strengthened by nailing a wooden rim around the outside. See also 3500 bce Transportation; 2000 bce Transportation.