600 bce

Archaeology

Massalia (Marseilles, France) is founded by the Phoenicians.

Babylon under the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar II [b. 630 bce, d. 562 bce] becomes the largest city on Earth with an area of 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres). See also 1000 bce Communication.

The Chaldean king Nabopolassar [ruled 626-605 bce] builds the oldest stone bridge over a major river for which there is a record. Spanning the Euphrates, it is a drawbridge 116 m (380 ft) long that rests on seven pillars of stone, brick, and wood, with a wooden frame that has a section drawn up at night to keep people from crossing it. See also 512 bce Construction.

The Chinese develop the art of fumigating houses to rid them of pests. See also 100 ce Food & agriculture.

Greek potters make several improvements. The potter's wheel is enlarged and made heavier, so that it acts as a flywheel. Pottery is shaved on the wheel after the pot has dried to give a finer surface. Kilns are improved. An elaborate sequence of firing at specific temperatures and with various masks produces the characteristic black-and-red ware of the time. See also 700 bce Tools.

Greek sculptors begin to use marble from the islands of Paros and Naxos in carving statues. See also 450 bce Materials.

The Chinese text Arithmetic Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven, written about this time, contains the first known proof of a version of the Pythagorean theorem. See also 1200 bce Mathematics.

Indian physician Susruta may have lived about this time, although some Indian scholars think he lived 400 years earlier. Some Western scholars say he was born c. 380 ce and died c. 450 ce. Perhaps several physicians shared a traditional name. Susruta performs the first cataract operations and plastic surgery. His writings describe diseases that come to be called malaria, tuberculosis, and diabetes. He mentions the use of hemp (Cannabis) in inducing anesthesia and is claimed to have observed the relationship of malaria to mosquitoes and of bubonic plague to rats. See also 1550 bce Medicine & health; 500 bce Medicine & health.

According to ancient sources, Anacharis the Scythian invents the anchor.

Periander, ruler of Corinth [627-585 bce], has a road of 7.4 km (4.6 mi) built across the Isthmus of Corinth to transport ships across land on wheeled platforms that travel in limestone tracks. Periander orders this rail transport in lieu of digging a canal, which would have been too expensive. The ships, probably pulled by oxen, are mainly lightweight warships and perhaps small merchant ships. See also 2000 bce Transportation.

Pharaoh Necho II [ruled 609-595 bce] begins to dredge the Wadi Tumilat to connect the Nile with the Red Sea, but does not complete the canal (completed about 100 years later by the Persian King Darius or around 285 by Ptolemy II). See also 2000 bce Transportation; 500 bce Transportation.

Pharaoh Necho II abandons a plan to dig a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea in favor of sending a group of Phoenician ships around Africa from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. According to Herodotus, the only source for this tale, the ships take three years, planting and harvesting crops along the way, but succeed in making the circumnavigation. Many today remain skeptical about the account. See also 800 bce Transportation. (See essay.)

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