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4th millennium BC

 
Sci & Tech Chronology: In the year 4000 bce

Archaeology

Uruk (Erech in the Old Testament and Warka to Arabs), perhaps the first great city, is founded in Mesopotamia (Iraq) on the banks of the Euphrates River. See also 3500 bce Archaeology. (See essay.)

Communication

People in the Near East begin to use seals to identify property by stamping the seal into wet clay. See also 3000 bce Communication.

Food & agriculture

Olives are cultivated in Crete.

Rice is cultivated in Indochina (Thailand), probably having spread from a center in the Yangtze Delta. See also 5000 bce Food & agriculture; 2000 bce Food & agriculture.

The ard, a primitive form of plow, is in use in China. Plows pulled by cattle are known in northern Mesopotamia. See also 6000 bce Food & agriculture.

Maize, called corn in the United States, is domesticated in what is now the Tehuacán valley or nearby Oaxaca, Mexico. See also 7000 bce Food & agriculture.

Materials

The Egyptians and Sumerians smelt silver (make the metal from an ore). See also 4200 bce Materials.

A standard kiln is developed in Mesopotamia. The fire is in a hearth below a perforated separation from the kiln chamber where the pottery is held while it is being fired. See also 7000 bce Materials.

Iron beads are used in what is now Cairo, Egypt, as evidenced by oxidized remains of a string of them. This is the earliest direct proof of human use of iron. See also 3500 bce Materials.

Mathematics

The simple tokens that have been used for keeping numerical records since about 8000 bce are first supplemented by complex tokens that have marks on them or that are in new and varied shapes (the earlier, unmarked tokens were almost all simple geometric shapes or representations of jars or animals). See also 8000 bce Mathematics; 3700 bce Mathematics.

A system of numeration begins to be used in Egypt. (See essay.)

Transportation

Egyptians build boats made from planks joined together. Previously, boats were dugout canoes and possibly rafts of reeds bound together or skins stretched over a framework. See also 4300 bce Transportation.

Horses are being ridden in what is now Ukraine. See also 5000 bce Food & agriculture.


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Wikipedia: 4th millennium BC
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Millennia: 5th millennium BC · 4th millennium BC · 3rd millennium BC
Centuries: 40th century BC · 39th century BC · 38th century BC · 37th century BC · 36th century BC · 35th century BC · 34th century BC · 33rd century BC · 32nd century BC · 31st century BC

The 4th millennium BC saw major changes in human culture. It marks the beginning of the Bronze Age and of writing.

The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt are established and grow to prominence. Agriculture spreads widely across Eurasia. World population in the course of the millennium doubles, approximately from 7 to 14 million people.

Contents

Events

Cultures

Neolithic Historical Epoch
Mesolithic
Europe
Linear Pottery
Vinča culture
Varna culture
Vučedol culture
Malta Temples
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture
China
South Asia
Mehrgarh
Americas

Chalcolithic

Uruk period
Pit Grave culture
Corded Ware
Europe
Mesoamerica

farming, animal husbandry
pottery, metallurgy, wheel
circular ditches, henges, megaliths
Neolithic religion

Bronze Age

Environmental changes

Holocene epoch
Pleistocene
Holocene
Preboreal (10.3 ka – 9 ka),
Boreal (9 ka – 7.5 ka),
Atlantic (7.5 ka5 ka),
Subboreal (5 ka2.5 ka)
Subatlantic (2.5 ka – present)

Based on studies by glaciologist Lonnie Thompson (professor at Ohio State University and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center) [1] a number of indicators shows there was a global change in climate 5,200 years ago, Which was most probably due to a drop in Solar energy output as hypothesized by Ohio State University[2]

Significant persons

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Mythology

Centuries

References

  1. ^ Federico Lara Peinado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid: "La Civilización Suemria.". Historia 16, 1999.
  2. ^ a b Roberts, J: "History of the World.". Penguin, 1994.

 
 

 

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Sci & Tech Chronology. History of Science and Technology, edited by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "4th millennium BC" Read more

 

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