antiquity

n., pl., -ties.

1. Ancient times, especially the times preceding the Middle Ages.
2. The people, especially the writers and artisans, of ancient times: inventions unknown to antiquity.
3. The quality of being old or ancient; considerable age: a carving of great antiquity.
4. Something, such as an object or a relic, belonging to or dating from ancient times. Often used in the plural.

Contents: 3300 B.C.–2501 B.C. 2500 B.C.–2001 B.C. 2000 B.C.–1501 B.C. 1500 B.C.–1001 B.C. 1000 B.C.–701 B.C.

3300 B.C.: religion

The yang and yin philosophy of nature originated by the Chinese scholar Fu Xi says that health and tranquility require perfect equilibrium—an harmonious relationship among the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water), which correspond to the five planets, the five seasons, and the five colors, sounds, senses, viscera, and tastes. The yang (male element) is always dominant, says Fu Xi (whose existence will not be recorded by any contemporary written language but supported rather by oral tradition) (see medicine, 2700 B.C.).

3300 B.C.: communications, media

A proto-cuneiform alphabet developed by Sumerian priests facilitates communication. The priests administer the country and use the cuneiform characters to keep records on clay tablets for their colleagues, using pictorial and abstract symbols for the names of people, places, and things to help them in commerce and in governing as they become increasingly urbanized (year approximate). The priests have imitated hieroglyphics used in Egypt since before the 17th century B.C., adding two letters to designate vowels which supplement what is otherwise comprised entirely of consonants. Few can read the script, and although it will spread quickly and be used in commerce by Aramaeans, Canaanites, Hebrews, and (most especially) Phoenicians, at least 5 centuries will probably elapse before it comes to represent spoken language (see 2500 B.C.; Gilgamesh, 3000 B.C.).

The Chinese begin to use pictographs in place of rope knots as a means of recording events (year approximate; see 2697 B.C.).

3300 B.C.: art

The Chinese invent a musical instrument with 35 strings (year approximate).

3300 B.C.: marine resources

The Chinese use nets for fishing.

3227 B.C.: political events

The Chinese emperor Shen Nong assumes power (year approximate), beginning a reign that will continue until 2697 B.C. He is the first emperor to be selected on merit rather than gaining the throne because of royal birth. (Absent any written language, the existence of Shen Nong will be recorded only by oral tradition, so many historians will call him a "legendary" or "mythical" emperor, using the same term for rulers whose names will be remembered variously as You Cao, Sui Ren, and Pen Gu.)

3114 B.C.: science

August 11: first day of the Mayan era in the Western Hemisphere (see 3641 B.C.). Based on the transit of the planet Venus, the Mayan year will have 584 days; the Maya will calculate that the world will last until December 21, 2021 A.D.

3000 B.C.: technology

Cotton fabric is woven in the Indus Valley (see 4000 B.C.; 1224 A.D.).

3000 B.C.: literature

Gilgamesh in Sumerian cuneiform script is the first known written legend and tells of a great flood that has seen mankind saved by building an ark (see environment, 5600 B.C.; communications, 3300 B.C.; science [Smith], 1872 A.D.).

3000 B.C.: environment

The Sahara Desert has its beginnings in North Africa, where overworking of the soil and overgrazing are in some places exhausting the land in a region that is largely green with crops and trees (see Lhote, 1956 A.D.).

3000 B.C.: marine resources

Dolphins are killed in the Euxine (Black) Sea, but in some parts of the world the mammal is considered sacred and left unmolested.

3000 B.C.: agriculture

Potatoes are cultivated in the Andes Mountains of the Western Hemisphere (see 1536 A.D.).

3000 B.C.: food and drink

Sumerian foods mentioned in Gilgamesh include caper buds, wild cucumbers, ripe figs, grapes, several edible leaves and stems, honey, meat seasoned with herbs, and bread—a kind of pancake made of barley flour mixed with sesame seed flour and onions.

3000 B.C.: population

The world's population reaches 100 million.

2920 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 1st dynasty (Thinite dynasty) in the next 150 years will unite northern and southern kingdoms under Menes, who has founded a city that will be called Memphis.

2800 B.C.: agriculture

The sickle invented by Sumerian farmers of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys is a curved instrument of wood or horn fitted with flint teeth. It will remain the dominant tool for harvesting grain until it is superseded by tools with tempered metal blades.

2750 B.C.: political events

Tyre begins its rise as a great Phoenician seapower, having been founded by mariners on the east coast of the Mediterranean (the Greek historian Herodotus will say in 450 B.C. that Tyre was founded "2,300 years ago").

2700 B.C.: medicine

Principles of herbal medicine and acupuncture originated in what later will be China are based, in part, on the basic principles of yang and yin proposed a century ago by the scholar Fu Xi. According to these principles, the body has 12 canals related to the vital organs. They circulate the two principles of yang and yin; puncturing the canals with small needles permits the escape of bad secretions or obstructions and restores the body's overall equilibrium.

2697 B.C.: political events

The Chinese emperor Huang Di (Huang Ti) ascends the throne, succeeding Shen Nong to continue a dynasty that will rule for 492 years (Di is Chinese for emperor.)

2697 B.C.: technology

Silk manufacture will be pioneered by the Chinese emperor Huang Di's wife, Lei Zu. Silkworms (the caterpillars of moths belonging to the genus Bombyx) produce cocoons whose filaments can be woven into a luxurious fabric. These moths and other insects will be domesticated in Huang Di's long reign, but the Chinese will guard the secret of sericulture for millennia and will not even export silk for about 2,000 years.

2697 B.C.: medicine

Nei Ching by the emperor Huang Di will survive as the most ancient of medical texts. Chinese medicine will contribute to the pharmacopoeia such substances as camphor, chaulmoogra, ephedrine, opium, and sodium sulfate.

2697 B.C.: communications, media

Pictographs carved onto animal bones and turtle shells by the Chinese court historian Cang Jie in the reign of emperor Huang Di will mark the start of an official written language in China.

2697 B.C.: everyday life

The Chinese calendar system will originate during the reign of Huang Di, with the first year of an emperor's reign beginning a 12-year cycle, starting with the year of the Rat. Court scholar Da Nao will invent the Jia Zi cycle that will use 60 names based on the five basic elements (wood, fire, soil, metal, water) and 12 animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, pig).

2697 B.C.: agriculture

The Chinese have long since domesticated dogs, goats, pigs, oxen, and sheep, some of them used to provide clothing, some to provide energy, all of them for food.

2649 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 3rd dynasty is founded by Zoser (Djoser, or Tosorthros), who will rule for 30 years with help from his counselor-physician Imhotep.

2649 B.C.: medicine

The Egyptian physician Imhotep will make the first efforts to find medical as well as religious methods for treating disease.

2649 B.C.: architecture, real estate

The pyramid of Zoser that Imhotep will erect on the West Bank of the Nile at Sakkara (Step Pyramid) will be the world's first high-rise stone structure. Built by slave labor without wheels or pulleys, the six-step pyramid will be a 200-foot-high tomb copied in stonework from earlier brickwork piles.

2640 B.C.: agriculture

Chinese farmers cultivate five kinds of grain, including wheat and rice.

2600 B.C.: agriculture

Oxen harnessed to plows in the Near East make it possible to plow deeper and to keep the soil productive longer.

Annual Nile floods permit the Egyptian peasant to produce enough barley and Emmer wheat to feed three with the surplus going to the builders of flood control projects, public buildings, and pyramid tombs.

2600 B.C.: food and drink

The Egyptians preserve fish and poultry by sun-drying.

2585 B.C.: commerce

The Egyptian king Snefru (or Snofru) develops copper mines in Sinai, increases sea trade by using large ships, and raises his country to new heights of prosperity. He will be the last king of the Memphite 3rd dynasty.

2575 B.C.: political events

Egypt's king Snefru dies after a 24-year reign in which he has led an extensive raid into Nubia, captured large amounts of booty, made a smaller raid against the Libyans, and conquered Sinai. He is succeeded by his son, who founds the 4th dynasty and will reign for 23 years as Cheops (Khufu). (Dates for all early rulers are approximate and controversial.)

2575 B.C.: architecture, real estate

The two pyramids of Dahshur that will memorialize Snefru will each rise more than 310 feet high, commemorating a reign that has vanquished the Nubians and Libyans and has seen the development of sea trade in cedar with Byblos.

2500 B.C.: technology

The Iron Age dawns in the Middle East, where artisans produce a new metal much harder than the bronze employed since 3600 B.C. The men use temperatures of 1500° C., much higher than the heats needed to smelt copper, but the new metal will not come into wide use for another 1,000 years.

Egypt and Mesopotamia are well into the Bronze Age that began in 3600 B.C. (Mesopotamia is a Greek word meaning between the rivers, i.e. the Tigris and Euphrates), but central Europe and what later will be called the British Isles are only entering the Stone Age that began in about 9000 B.C.

2500 B.C.: communications, media

The Sumerians develop a cuneiform script alphabet of some 600 simplified signs (see 3300 B.C.). They have earlier developed a written language using thousands of picture-signs, or ideograms, as in the Gilgamesh legend of 3000 B.C., and the new alphabet is based on those ideograms plus abstract shapes, although almost no one can read the clay tablets inscribed with the signs (see 1300 B.C.; science [Grotefend], 1837 A.D.).

2485 B.C.: political events

Khafra (Khafre, or Chephren) rules as the third Egyptian king of the 4th dynasty.

2485 B.C.: art

The Great Sphinx carved from rock at Giza by order of Khafre is a wingless symbol of the god Harmachis, in whose image the 69-foot-high, 189-foot-long monument is fashioned.

2485 B.C.: architecture, real estate

Khafre erects a second pyramid at Giza.

2478 B.C.: architecture, real estate

The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) is completed on the Giza Plateau, a necropolis of Egypt's city of Memphis that will later be part of Cairo (year approximate). Built by as many as 4,000 stonemasons and more than 20,000 laborers (who have been given rations consisting in large part of onions and garlic), it contains some 2 million stones weighing two to five tons each, moved into place with primitive equipment (no wheels, no rollers) and put together with virtually no space between them. (Variance from absolute accuracy of the work is so small that the four sides of the base have a mean error of only 0.6 inches in length and 12 inches in angle from a perfect square.) Each side is oriented to have one of the cardinal points of the compass. Rising to a height of 481.14 feet (145.75 meters, or 50 stories), sheathed with limestone, and covering upwards of 13 acres, its sides sloping at an angle of 51° 51 minutes, the Great Pyramid is intended to serve as the tomb of the king (whose red granite sarcophagus is in its heart). It is the first of what will be called the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and it will survive long after the other such "wonders" have disappeared, remaining the world's tallest structure for more than 43 centuries (although it will lose 30 feet [10 km] off its top over the ages).

2475 B.C.: agriculture

Maize is domesticated in primitive form in the isthmus that links the two continents of the Western Hemisphere, while potatoes and sweet potatoes are cultivated in the southern continent.

Olive trees are cultivated in Crete, whose traders grow rich by exporting olive oil and timber.

2470 B.C.: architecture, real estate

A third pyramid erected at Giza by Egypt's 4th dynasty (Memphite) king Menkure is the smallest but most perfect of the pyramids at Giza. Menkure's reign marks the beginning of his dynasty's decline.

2465 B.C.: political events

Egypt's pious 4th dynasty king Menkure dies after a reign of 18 (or 28) years in which he has been married to his sister Khamernebti; Menkure is succeeded by Shepsekaf (or Userkaf), who begins a 5th dynasty that will continue until 2323 (or 2325 B.C.).

2465 B.C.: architecture, real estate

The new Egyptian king Shepsekaf will complete the stonework of his predecessor's mortuary temple in brick.

2334 B.C.: political events

Sargon of Akkad ascends the throne to begin the Akkadian Empire that will rule Mesopotamia for the next 2 centuries (year approximate). Evidently a man of humble origin who has risen to become cupbearer to the ruler of Kish, he has defeated the Sumerian Lugalzaggisi of Uruk, who had gained power by conquering one by one each of the city-states of Sumer and has extended his control as far west as the Mediterranean. The Sumerian city-state civilization will reach its zenith under Sargon I, who rules from the city of Akkad on the Euprhates River and will conquer cities as far south as southern Anatolia, trade with countries as far away as the Indus Valley, the Persian Gulf, Crete (and perhaps Greece), and reign until about 2279 B.C. Sargon's Semitic (as opposed to Sumerian) empire will incorporate the advances made by the Sumerians, giving them wide currency.

The Chinese emperor Yao Di ascends the throne as the sixth ruler in the dynasty begun by Huang Di in 2697 B.C. The infant emperor travels in horse-drawn vehicles (see Sumerians, 3500 B.C.), he is dressed in silk robes (see 2700 B.C.), and he will reign until 2255 B.C.

2323 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 5th dynasty ends after 142 years and a 6th dynasty begins (year approximate; maybe 2325 B.C.). The new dynasty will continue until 2150 B.C.

2300 B.C.: agriculture

Rice (Oryza sativa) from the Indus Valley reaches northern China, where a civilization flourishes on a level comparable to any at Mohenjo-Daro or Harappa.

2279 B.C.: political events

The Mesopotamian ruler Sargon I dies after a 56-year reign (year approximate); he has conquered all of southern Mesopotamia plus parts of what later will be Syria, Anatolia, and western Persia (Elam), establishing the first Semitic dynasty in the region. Sargon's successors will continue his dynasty, and later generations will regard him as perhaps the greatest leader in their history.

2279 B.C.: communications, media

The proto-cuneiform alphabetical script used by the Sumerians since the last millennium has been adapted to the Akkadian language during the long reign of Sargon I (see 2500 B.C.; 1300 B.C.).

2255 B.C.: political events

The Chinese emperor Yao Di dies after a 95-year reign and is succeeded by Shun Di, a descendant of the late emperor Huang Di but not a close relative of Yao Di. He will reign until 2205 B.C.

2205 B.C.: political events

The Xia (Hsia) dynasty that will rule much of China for 439 years is inaugurated by the emperor Yu, who will be the first Chinese ruler to have any success in diverting the floods that have devastated the country since time immemorial. He is the second emperor to be selected on merit (the first was Shen Nong) rather than gaining the throne by revolution or blood line, and he will be the last.

2205 B.C.: food and drink

The Chinese demonstrate the first knowledge of milling grain.

2180 B.C.: agriculture

A drought in northeast Africa reduces the Nile to almost a trickle, forcing farmers to plant their crops on sand banks. Egypt's aging king Pepi II is unable to feed his people and there are riots.

2154 B.C.: political events

The Akkadian dynasty that has ruled Mesopotamia since about 2334 B.C. ends.

2134 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 9th and 10th dynasties will rule the country until 2040 B.C.

2040 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 11th dynasty comes to power and will rule the country until 1991 B.C.

2000 B.C.: commerce

Bylbos on the Levant Coast exports Lebanese timber to Egypt, having grown into a great port.

Phylakopi on the Aegean island of Milos attracts growing numbers of merchants desirous of trading in the volcanic glass obsidian that has been found on the island for at least 5,000 years.

2000 B.C.: transportation

Square sails on two and even three masts assist Phoenician and Cretan oarsmen, but their ships have no keels so they must sometimes wait weeks for favorable winds.

2000 B.C.: technology

Europe remains in the Stone Age as the Bronze Age proceeds in the Near East.

2000 B.C.: science

Decimal notation appears in Babylon, which has replaced Sumer as the dominant power in the Middle East (see Eudoxus of Cnidus, 367 B.C.).

2000 B.C.: agriculture

Farmers in the Near East raise some cattle for meat, some for milk.

The Egyptians abandon efforts to domesticate antelope, gazelle, and oryx, devoting more effort instead to hunting, fowling, fishing, and gathering wild celery, papyrus stalks, lotus roots, and other plant foods to supplement the grain and vegetables they grow on their Nile flood plains.

Watermelon is cultivated in Africa, figs in Arabia, tea and bananas in India, apples in the Indus Valley; agriculture is well established in most of the central isthmus of the Western Hemisphere.

1991 B.C.: political events

The Egyptian king Amenemhet I begins a 30-year reign, founding the 12th dynasty that will rule until 1783 B.C. He will move the royal residence from Thebes to Memphis.

1962 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Amenemhet I is murdered while campaigning in Libya; he is succeeded by his son, who has served as co-regent since 1971 B.C. and will reign alone until 1926 B.C. as Sesostris (Senwosret) I. The new ruler hears of his father's death while returning from a victorious campaign against the Libyans in the Western Desert; he will extend Egypt's frontier south to the second cataract of the Nile.

1959 B.C.: religion

Egypt's Sesostris I rebuilds a major sanctuary at Heliopolis; he will build the temple complex of Karnak at Thebes for the cult of Amon.

1944 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Sesostris I establishes an operational base at Elephantine (later Aswan), subjugates Nubia, and establishes garrisoned forts at strategic points.

1926 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Sesostris (Senwosret) I dies after a 36-year reign in which he has raised the kingdom to its greatest heights of prosperity; working the granite quarries of Heliopolis and the gold mines and quarries in the Wadi Hammammat in Upper Egypt. Sesosistris is succeeded by his son, who has served as co-regent and will reign alone until 1903 B.C. as Amenemhet I. The new king will increase trade with Punt.

1903 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Amenemhet II dies after a 32-year reign. He is succeeded by his son, who has served as co-regent since 1906 B.C. and will reign until 1878 B.C. as Sesostris (Senwosret) II.

1900 B.C.: technology

The wheel finally reaches Egypt after nearly 2,000 years in which it has been used in the Middle East while Egyptians made do without wheeled vehicles or pulleys (year approximate); (see Sumerians, 3500 B.C.).

Stonehenge will be erected sometime in the next 3 centuries by Bronze Age Celts on the Salisbury Plain of what later will be called the British Isles, possibly as a monumental calculator to chart the movements of the sun, moon, and planets (although the purpose of the many circular stone monuments and huge earthen mounds will remain a mystery). The islands have been occupied for several thousand years by Indo-European people who came across the land bridge that connected what later will be Dover to the European continent. Archaeologists will find some 40,000 stone circles in what later will be England, Wales, and neighboring islands; Stonehenge will show the most sophistication.

1900 B.C.: religion

Religious significance will be ascribed to Stonehenge, but modern dating methods will show that its stones were erected (without wheels or pulleys) after the disappearance of Druids, a priestly class whose members may have built other stone circles, such as those at Avebury, but whose animist rituals of worship were held mostly in oak groves and other natural settings.

1894 B.C.: political events

Babylon's first dynasty comes to power in the person of Sumu-abum (or Samuabum), who will reign until 1881 B.C.

1881 B.C.: political events

Babylon's first dynasty Amorite king Sumu-abum (Sumuabum) dies after a 14-year reign and is succeeded by Sumu-la-el, who will reign until 1845 B.C.

1878 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Sesostris (Senwosret) II dies after a 16-year reign. He is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1841 B.C. as Sesostris (Senwosret) III, keeping a large standing army, stripping provincial governors of their power, and making Egypt a great power that holds sway over 1,000 miles along the Nile.

1878 B.C.: transportation

Egyptians will dig a canal through the Nile's first cataract during the reign of Sesostris III.

1845 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Sumu-la-el dies after a 36-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign from 1844 B.C. until 1831 B.C. as Sabium.

1841 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Sesostris (Senwosret) III dies after a 38-year reign in which he has invaded Judea and Syria to maintain Egyptian trade routes. He is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1797 B.C. as Amenemhet III, developing mines in the Sinai region to keep the nation prosperous.

1834 B.C.: political events

The 12th king of a dynasty who has ruled the city of Larsa on the Euphrates River is deposed after one year by the Elamite Kutur-Mabuk, who installs his son on the throne. The son will rule until 1823 B.C. as Warad-Sin.

1831 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Sabium dies after a 14-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign from 1830 B.C. until 1813 B.C. as Abil-Sin (Apil-Sin).

1823 B.C.: political events

The Elamite king Warad-Sin of Larsa on the Euphrates River dies after an 11-year reign in which agriculture and stock breeding have flourished with help from irrigation projects. Trade in hides, wool, ivory, and vegetable oils has enriched his city, and he will be succeeded next year by his son Rim-Sin, who will reign until 1763 B.C., warring at times with his Mesopotamian neighbor Babylon (see 1792 B.C.).

1813 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Abil-Sin (Apil-Sin) dies after an 18-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign from 1812 B.C. to 1792 B.C. as Sin-muballit.

1800 B.C.: food and drink

Taboos against eating pork appear among some peoples of the Near East, possibly because they are sheepherding peoples and the pig is the domesticated animal of their farmer enemies (see 621 B.C.; Shariah, 628 A.D.; exploration, colonization [Cook], 1779 A.D.).

1797 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Amenemhet III dies and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1783 B.C. as Amenemhet IV.

1797 B.C.: agriculture

Egyptians have developed a vast irrigation system in the reign of Amenemhet III.

1792 B.C.: political events

Babylon's fifth Amorite king Sin-muballit dies and is succeeded by his eldest son, who will reign until 1750 B.C. as Hammurabi. The Elamite king Rim-Sin of Larsa rules the southern part of Babylon and this year conquers the city of Isin, which has served as a buffer between Babylon and Larsa (see 1823 B.C.); Rim-Sin will become Hammurabi's major rival in a struggle for control over the waters of the Euphrates River on which agriculture in the region depends (see 1787 B.C.).

1787 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Hammurabi conquers the cities of Uruk and Isin from his Elamite neighbor Rim-Sin of Larsa, but hostilities will soon subside in a stalemate (see 1768 B.C.).

1783 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 12th (Theban) dynasty ends after 208 years with the death of Amenemhet IV, and the power of Egyptian kings begins to decline. The country will have at least 70 kings in the next 140 years but viziers will exercise more control than kings.

1768 B.C.: political events

Hostilities resume in Mesopotamia between the Elamite king Rin-Sin of Larsa and Babylon's Hammurabi, who has fortified several cities on his northern borders while trying to make alliances with some of his neighbors.

1764 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Hammurabi attacks the Elamite king Rin-Sin of Larsa, who launches a counterattack. Rin-Sin has ruled his city-state since 1822 B.C. in a reign marked by prosperity through trade with the Indus Valley, and he has encouraged the old Sumerian scribal schools.

1763 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Hammurabi defeats the Elamite king Rim-Sin of Larsa and gains sway throughout all of Mesopotamia. Hammurabi carries out extensive public works and imposes an exemplary code of laws. One of his laws states: "If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out."

1763 B.C.: commerce

The Hammurabian Code has 282 clauses devoted to the subject of "bottomry"—the loan or mortgage taken out by a ship's owner to finance her voyage. If the ship is lost, the loan need not be repaid.

1750 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Hammurabi dies after a 42-year reign in which he has promulgated a set of laws (the Code of Hammurabi) that are carved on a great stela and will survive as some of the oldest in history (year approximate). Having made Babylon the dominant city of Mesopotomia, he is survived by his first-born son, who will reign beginning next year as Samsuiluna (Samsu-iluna) but lose much of the territory gained by Hammurabi as the south rises in revolt against Babylonian rule.

1750 B.C.: agriculture

The great Indus Valley cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa collapse as the soil of the region becomes too saline to support extensive crop growth after centuries of crude irrigation (see 4000 B.C.).

1726 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Samsuiluna builds a fort on the Diyala River near its confluence with the Tigris to protect his realm against Kassite warriors. The Kassites come from the mountains northwest of Elam (see 1460 B.C.).

1712 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Samsuiluna dies after a 37-year reign in which neighboring city-states have regained the independence that they lost to the late Hammurabi. Samusuiluna (Samsu-iluna) is succeeded by his son, who will reign from 1711 B.C. to 1684 B.C. as Abi-eshuh.

1700 B.C.: energy

Babylonians employ windmills to pump water for irrigation.

1700 B.C.: medicine

An Egyptian papyrus shows that people of the Nile delta suffer from tooth decay and ophthalmic troubles. A German Egyptologist will discover the document in 1872 A.D. and it will be called the Ebers papyrus.

1700 B.C.: religion

Judaism is founded according to biblical accounts by Abraham, a prince of Ur in Mesopotamia who moves to Canaan, replaces human sacrifice with the sacrifice of rams, and begins a religion that will attract many followers in the Middle East. Future archaeologists will suggest that Abraham never existed and will question the historical accuracy of other biblical stories, but three "Abrahamic" religions will eventually trade their origins to the prince of Ur (see Jacob, 1650 B.C.).

1700 B.C.: environment

Knossós on the island of Crete is destroyed either by earthquake or by troops from the rival city of Phaistos, but the Minoans (an archaeologist will give them that name in the 19th century A.D. based on a legendary King Minos) will rebuild the city (see 1600 B.C.).

1700 B.C.: agriculture

Eastern Europeans cultivate rye (Secale cereale). It will soon become the major bread grain of the Slavs, Celts, and Teutons in northern areas, where the growing season is too short for dependable wheat production (see ergotism, 857 A.D.).

1684 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Abi-eshuh dies after a 28-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign from 1683 B.C. to 1647 B.C. as Ammi-ditana.

1680 B.C.: political events

Hyksos tribesmen invade Egypt from Palestine, Syria, and farther north. The sandals they wear enable them to outfight the Egyptians on the hot sands, and they introduce horses that will help them dominate the Egyptians for the next century.

1680 B.C.: food and drink

Leavened (raised) bread is invented in Egypt (time approximate).

1650 B.C.: religion

The religion begun half a century ago by Abraham and carried on by his son Isaac is propagated by his Israelite grandson Jacob, whose 12 sons will come to head 12 tribes of Israel (see 933 B.C.).

1647 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Amorite king Ammi-ditana dies after a 37-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign from 1646 B.C. to 1626 B.C. as Sammi-saduqa (Ammi-Zaduga).

1645 B.C.: environment

The volcano Thera in the Aegean Sea erupts in a violent explosion that destroys all life on the island that will come to be known as Santorini (see 1470 B.C.).

1640 B.C.: political events

The 15th dynasty that will rule Egypt from now until 1532 B.C. is a Hyksos dynasty, but the nearly concurrent 17th dynasty, based in Thebes, will begin to expel the Hyksos (see 1550 B.C.).

1626 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Sammi-saduqa (Ammi-Zaduga) dies after a 21-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign from 1625 B.C. to 1595 B.C. as Samsu-ditana.

1600 B.C.: political events

Knossós on the island of Crete is rebuilt within a century after its destruction in 1700 B.C. A brilliant civilization flourishes at Knossós and at Phaistos, Tylissos, Hagia, Triada, and Gornia (but see 1470 B.C.).

1595 B.C.: political events

Hittite warriors capture Babylon, whose first dynasty ends after about 300 years with the death of the Amorite king Samsu-ditana, who has reigned since 1625 B.C. A warlike people of unknown origin, the Hittites have invented iron and use it to forge weapons, they have developed siege tactics, and they will dominate much of Mesopotamia for centuries (see Kassites, 1460 B.C.).

1550 B.C.: political events

The New Kingdom that will rule Egypt until 1070 B.C. is inaugurated at Thebes by the Diospolite (18th dynasty) king Amasis (Ahmose), who renews efforts to drive out the Hyksos who invaded Egypt in 1680 B.C. and to reunite Upper and Lower Egypt, making his country the dominant power in the Near East.

1550 B.C.: technology

Egypt will catch up with her more technologically advanced neighbors during the 18th dynasty, importing improved potters' wheels, vertical looms, ironworking (see Iron Age, 1400 B.C.), new weapons, and horses and chariots.

1550 B.C.: agriculture

Egypt will import hump-backed cattle during the 18th dynasty along with new varieties of fruits and vegetables.

1525 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Amasis (Ahmose) I dies after a 25-year reign in which he has invaded Palestine and dealt with a rebellion at home. His son will reign until 1504 B.C. as Amenhotep (Amenophis) I, invading Nubia and warring with the Libyans and Syrians.

1504 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Amenhotep (Amenophis) I dies after a 21-year reign that has secured the nation's borders. His successor is not of royal blood but a relative by marriage; he will reign until 1492 B.C. as Thutmose (Tuthmosis) I, conquering Nubia. He reaches the Euphrates in his first year and fights there with the Mitanni.

1504 B.C.: religion

The nine gods worshiped by Egyptians are Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.

1504 B.C.: architecture, real estate

Thutmose (Tuthmosis) I will restore the temple of Osiris at Abydos, build hypostyle halls at Karnak, and erect two pylons and two obelisks. He will have a record of his deeds preserved in rock inscriptions near the third cataract of the Nile.

1500 B.C.: political events

The Xia dynasty that has ruled China since 2205 B.C. ends, and the Yin dynasty begins as commoners overthrow the last Xia dynasty emperor and install the emperor Tang in his place; called the Shang in its later years, the new dynasty rules from Anyang on the Huanghe (Yellow River) and will retain power until 1154 B.C.

1500 B.C.: exploration, colonization

Aryan nomads from the Eurasian steppe push into the Indian subcontinent, bringing with them flocks of sheep and herds of cattle.

Highly mobile Polynesian peoples have settled on Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and other Pacific islands.

1500 B.C.: technology

The Chinese wear silk clothing (see 2700 B.C.) and use potters' wheels.

1500 B.C.: science

Geometry helps the Egyptians survey boundaries of fields whose dividing lines are effaced by the annual floods of the Nile (see Euclid, 300 B.C.).

1500 B.C.: agriculture

Water buffalo are domesticated in China, where several species of fowl have been domesticated, and poultry is introduced from the Malayan Peninsula, where the jungle fowl Gallus bankiva has been domesticated.

1500 B.C.: food and drink

India's Aryan invaders introduce a diet heavily dependent on dairy products, using ghee (clarified butter) rather than whole butter, which is too perishable for India's climate.

1492 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Thutmose (Tuthmosis) I is deposed after a 13-year reign in which he has led successful expeditions as far as the Euphrates. His illegitimate son will reign until 1479 B.C. as Thutmose (Tuthmosis) II with his half sister (and wife), Hatshepsut, as regent.

1485 B.C.: architecture, real estate

The Egyptian regent Hatshepsut has two obelisks erected at Karnak. She has built a magnificent temple on the west side of the Nile near Thebes and had its walls decorated with pictorial representations of an expedition to the land of Punt.

1479 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Thutmose (Tuthmosis) II dies at a young age after successful military campaigns against the Nubians and Syrians. His half sister (and wife), Hatshepsut, rules as regent for her infant nephew and will assume the title of king next year.

1470 B.C.: environment

A volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini that is far more violent than the eruption of 1645 B.C. deposits ashes on Crete and emits poisonous vapors that destroy the Minoan civilization developed since 1600 B.C. Seismic waves 100 to 160 feet high, created by the eruption of Thera, rush in to fill the void, temporarily dropping water levels on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

1470 B.C.: food availability

Seismic waves and ash from the eruption of Thera engulf Egyptian croplands with seawater, making the land uncultivatable. Famine ensues, and the Hittite king Mursulis of Hattussas sets out from Anatolia to raid grain stores in Syria and Babylon to the south and east.

1460 B.C.: political events

Kassite tribesmen overrun Babylon and oust the Hittite regime that has held power since 1595 B.C. (see 1726 B.C.). The Kassites found a dynasty that will continue for just over 576 years.

1458 B.C.: political events

The 18th dynasty Egyptian king Thutmose (Tuthmosis) III comes of age and begins a 33-year reign in which Egypt will reach the height of her power, extending hegemony from below the fourth cataract of the Nile in the south to the Euphrates in the east. The title pharaoh that will come into use in his reign means literally Great House.

1458 B.C.: architecture, real estate

Thutmose III will build walls around his aunt (and stepmother) Hatshepsut's obelisks at Karnak and try to destroy all evidence of her existence, replacing her images with images of himself and his two predecessors.

1450 B.C.: political events

Mycenaean warriors invade Crete, ending what later will be called the Minoan era. Survivors of the Minoan civilization establish Mycenae as a new cultural center in the Greek Peloponnesus.

1450 B.C.: human rights, social justice

Mesopotamian men exercise absolute power over their wives but are less brutal than Assyrian men, who may beat their wives and even cut off their noses or ears if they disobey. A Mesopotamian woman is subject first to the will of her father, then of her husband and father-in-law, and finally of her sons. A man may endow his wife with paternal powers in anticipation of his death, but a widow may neither sell nor give away any part of her inheritance, and if she exceeds her rights, her sons are permitted to chase her naked from the house.

1425 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Thutmose (Tuthmosis) III dies after a splendid 33-year reign. His son has ruled jointly for the past year and will reign alone until 1401 B.C. as Amenhotep (Amenophis) II, with successful campaigns in Judea and on the Euphrates.

Israelites under the command of their prophet Joshua destroy the city of Jericho, which has stood since prehistoric times (year approximate; see science, 1952 A.D.).

1401 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Amenhotep (Amenophis) II dies after a 24-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1391 B.C. as Thutmose (Tuthmosis) IV. The new king will marry a Mitannian princess, form alliances with Babylon and the Mitanni, lead military expeditions into Phoenicia and Nubia, and complete the last obelisk of his grandfather, Thutmose II.

1400 B.C.: technology

The Iron Age begins in Asia Minor as an economical method is found for smelting iron on an industrial scale (see 2500 B.C.).

1391 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Thutmose (Tuthmosis) IV dies and is succeeded by his brilliant son, who will reign in luxury and peace until 1353 B.C. as Amenhotep (Amenophis) III, the last great ruler of the New Kingdom.

1380 B.C.: transportation

A canal completed by slaves of Egypt's 18th dynasty king Amenhotep (Amenophis) III connects the Nile with the Red Sea and will remain in use for centuries (see 609 B.C.).

1353 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Amenhotep (Amenophis) III dies after a 38-year reign in which Babylon has recognized Egyptian supremacy. The king has led a successful expedition into Upper Nubia above the second cataract of the Nile, developed his capital of Thebes into a monumental city of great temples, pylons, and colossi, erected hypostyle halls at Karnak, built the Temple of Amun in Luxor, and reigned in an era of prosperity and magnificence.

Egypt's Amenhotep III is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1335 B.C. as Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton), but the Hittite king Suppiluliumas will take advantage of Egypt's weakness in the next 35 years to build an empire that will extend south from Anatolia to the borders of Lebanon.

1352 B.C.: religion

Monotheism is introduced by the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who changes his name to Ikhnaton (Akhenaten or Akhnaton), meaning "Aten is satisfied" (or "beneficial to the disk"). The king establishes a new cult that worships the sun god (or solar disk) Aten, and he opposes the priests of Amen, possibly due to the influence of his beautiful wife, Nefertiti.

1350 B.C.: medicine

The first recorded epidemic of smallpox breaks out during an Egyptian-Hittite war. Outbreaks of the disease have occurred sporadically since 10,000 B.C. among agricultural settlements in northeastern Africa (see 49 A.D.).

1335 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ikhnaton (Akhenaten) dies after a 17-year reign. He has sired six daughters but no son and is succeeded by his son-in-law, a boy of 9 who will rule until 1323 B.C. The new pharaoh Tutankhamen (originally Tutankhaten) has accepted the sun-worship faith of his wife and her father but will return to the religion of the priests of Amen and move Egypt's capital back to Memphis. His father's chief official, Aya, and general, Haremhab, hold the real power.

1323 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Tutankhamen dies (he will be buried at Thebes with a tomb containing a vast treasure of decorative art objects) and is succeeded by his father's official, Aya, who will rule until 1319 B.C.

1319 B.C.: political events

The Egyptian throne is seized by the soldier Haremhab, who will reorganize the country's administration and reign until 1307 B.C.

1319 B.C.: religion

The new Egyptian king Haremhab begins to restore worship according to the traditional tenets of the Amen priests, dismantling the temples built at Karnak by Ikhnaton (Akhenaten) and replacing them.

1312 B.C.: religion

The Jewish prophet Moses and his brother Aaron lead their Israelite people out of Egypt after 3 centuries of oppression, or so it will say in biblical accounts. The Jews will by these accounts wander in the desert for 40 years with their flocks of sheep before arriving in Canaan, but later archaeologists will find no evidence to support biblical accounts of the Exodus (see 1272 B.C.).

1307 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Haremhab dies, ending the 18th dynasty that has ruled since 1550. He is succeeded by the aged Ramses, whose reign begins the 19th dynasty that will rule until 1196 B.C. Ramses I will plan a great hypostyle hall at Karnak and begin construction.

1305 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Rameses I dies and is succeeded by his son, who has served since last year as co-regent. The son will reign until 1290 B.C. as Seti (Sethos) I.

1300 B.C.: communications, media

Alphabetic script developed in Mesopotamia is a refinement of the simplified proto-cuneiform alphabet of 2500 B.C.

1290 B.C.: political events

Egypt's pharaoh Seti (Sethos) I dies after a reign in which he has defeated the Libyans west of the Nile Delta and made peace with the Hittites in Syria. Seti's son has shared the throne with him for a few years and will reign until 1224 B.C. as Ramses II.

1290 B.C.: architecture, real estate

The pharaoh Seti has completed the colonnaded hall at Karnak begun by his father, Rameses I, and has also built a magnificent sanctuary at Abydos dedicated to the great Egyptian gods.

1286 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ramses II tries to end Hittite control of Syria. Hearing that the Hittites are preparing to attack the city of Amurru somewhere between his own realm and Hittite territory in Naharina, he makes plans to defeat the Hittite king Hattusil III and conquer Syria himself (see 1274 B.C.).

1274 B.C.: political events

The Battle of Kadesh on the Orontes River ends in defeat for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, who has invaded Syria with four divisions of 5,000 men each and an auxiliary force to recapture the Hittite-held city of Kadesh (see 1286 B.C.). The Hittites pull back on the first day but then join with vassal forces under the command of King Muwatalis to ambush the Egyptian army of infantrymen and charioteers, killing or wound an estimated 5,000. Muwatalis advances south to the area of Damascus, stemming the Egyptian move into Syria and keeping the country under Hittite control, but Ramses will recover from the setback at Kadesh and penetrate deeper into Hittite-held areas of northern Syria (see 1269 B.C.).

1272 B.C.: religion

The Israelite migration from Egypt that began in 1312 B.C. ends by biblical accounts at the Dead Sea in Canaan after the prophet Moses and his brother Aaron have led tribesmen and their flocks of sheep out of Egypt on a roundabout journey that has taken them through the Sinai Peninsula, Kadesh, Aelana, and Petra.

The Ten Commandments that Moses has allegedly received on Mount Sinai during his long journey consists of two stone tablets bearing the engraved words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guileless who takes his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in there, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

You shall not kill.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.

1272 B.C.: food availability

The wandering Israelites have by biblical accounts survived starvation at one point by eating "manna," possibly a white substance exuded by tamarisk trees when insects puncture their branches or perhaps a kind of mushroom.

1269 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ramses II makes peace with the Hittites (see 1274 B.C.). Each side agrees to let the other have half of Syria, to respect each other's sovereignty, and to be allies in the event of war with any other power; Ramses has the terms engraved in stone (see 1268 B.C.)

1268 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ramses II marries the Hittite princess Matnefrure, making her one of his official queens in order to cement a permanent peace with his powerful enemy (see 1269 B.C.). He will devote the rest of his long, peaceful reign to such projects as the completion of Seti's temple at Abydos, additions to the temples at Karnak and Luxor, construction of a great mortuary temple at Thebes with colossal statues of himself, and construction of a rock-cut temple at Abu-Simbel in Nubia along with at least five other Nubian temples. No other Egyptian monarch will erect so many buildings and statues or any so large.

1266 B.C.: political events

Persia's fourth Anzanite king Khumbannumena dies after a 19-year reign in which he expanded his Elamite realm (he has assumed the title "Expander of the Empire") (year approximate). Khumbannumena's son Untash-Gal (or Untash-Huban) succeeds to the throne and will found the city of Dur Untash (later Chogha Zanbil).

1240 B.C.: political events

King Priam's city of Troy at the gateway to the Hellespont in Asia Minor falls to Achaean forces under Agamemnon after a 10-year siege in the Trojan War (year approximate). Greek legend will say that Priam's son Paris ran off with Helen, wife of Sparta's king Menelaus, whose brother Agamemnon thereupon led an Achaean expedition to recover Helen, and that the Achaeans prevailed by building a large wooden horse, pretending to withdraw by sailing to the nearby island of Tenedos, but concealing a raiding party within the hollow horse. When the Trojans ignored the warnings of Laocoön and Cassandra and rolled the horse into their city, the raiding party came out at night and opened Troy's gates to their comrades, who sacked the city, killed its men, and carried off its women. The two sides have probably been contesting control of trade in the Dardanelles (see literature [Homer], 850 B.C.; Byzantium, 658 B.C.).

1234 B.C.: political events

The Assyrian king Shalmaneser I dies after a reign of about 29 years in which he has invaded Cappadocia in eastern Asia Minor, defeated Shattuara of Hani and his Hittite allies, reopened his country's chief northwestern trade routes, built a palace at his capital of Ashur and restored one of its temples, and founded the town of Calah (later Nimrud).

1224 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ramses II (the Great) dies after a reign of 66 years and 2 months in which he has worn a false beard, jewel-bidizened golden crowns and jewelry (braces and necklaces), costly raiment, and used forced Israelite labor to build the treasure town of Per-Atum (Pithom) while he completed such monuments as the rock-hewn temple of Abu Simbel, the great hypostyle hall in the Temple of Amon at Karnak (Thebes), and the mortuary temple (Ramesseum) at Thebes. Third ruler of the 19th dynasty, Ramses has sired about 110 children, some of them by palace maids, and his wives have included three of his own daughters. His body is interred in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings that will be looted many times before archaeologists discover the body in 1881 A.D. in the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari); his 13th son Merneptah (one of four sons born to his wife Isinofre) will reign until 1214 B.C.

1214 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Merneptah dies after a 10-year reign in which he has defeated invading Libyans. He is succeeded by Seti (Sethos) II, the first in a series of pharaohs who will rule until 1204 B.C., ending the 19th dynasty founded in 1307 B.C.

1208 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Anzanite king Tukulti-Ninurta I dies after a 36-year reign in which he has campaigned against the Elamite king Kidin-Khutran in the mountains north of Elam (year approximate). Kidin-Khutran has raided Babylon with devastating results, Tukulti-Ninurta has expanded his realm well to the south of Mesopotamia, but his death brings the Anzanite dynasty to an end (see 1160 B.C.).

1200 B.C.: human rights, social justice

Lower Egypt expels her remaining Israelites in the confusion following the end of the 19th dynasty. Despite hostility against them (the late Ramses II once issued an order saying, "Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves" [but still produce the same number of bricks]), the Israelites have been active in the country's administration, arts, and trade.

1200 B.C.: transportation

Assyrians use the 1,500-mile road between Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean to travel between Susa and western Anatolia (year approximate). First used in about 3500 B.C., it is still more a track than a built-up road, but the Assyrians employ it in an organized manner (see Darius, 520 B.C.).

1200 B.C.: everyday life

Rich Egyptians wear fine linen that they have learned to make from flax stalks (see flax, 6000 B.C.); their high priests wear only linen, used also to wrap embalmed bodies.

1194 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 20th dynasty entrenches itself as its second king begins a 31-year reign as Ramses III. He will rally the Egyptians against a confederation of Libyans, Philistines, and sea peoples who include Sardinians and Greek Danaoi.

1170 B.C.: commerce

The first recorded strike by laboring men occurs at the Egyptian necropolis of Thebes, where acute inflation brings an organized protest by men working on a new pyramid. When the payroll is delayed, the men refuse to work.

1157 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ramses V dies at a young age. His mummified remains will show that the pharaoh had smallpox.

1150 B.C.: medicine

Egyptian medicine splits into two basic schools. Empirico-rational medicine rests on the premise that fever, pain, or tumor is a disease rather than a symptom, but practitioners of this school charge such high fees that only the very rich can afford them. The magico-religious school of medicine relies basically on expelling demons or spirits and is popular because it is inexpensive.

1150 B.C.: food and drink

Egyptian aristocrats enjoy leavened bread and drink some wine but mostly beer as they dine at tables and sit on chairs they have developed, but in the bread stalls of village streets only flat breads are commonly available.

1145 B.C.: political events

Ramses VI begins an 8-year reign as king of Egypt. Probably a grandson of Ramses III, he overturns descendants of Ramses V, who come from a different branch of the royal family, but the high priest of Amon and his associates retain power.

1144 B.C.: political events

China's Yin (Shang) dynasty ruler Chou captures Wenwang (Xi Bo), ruler of the semibarbaric state on his western frontier. Wenwang has assumed the title Xi Bo (Hsi Po), meaning king of the West; he will be imprisoned until 1141 B.C.

1141 B.C.: political events

The western Chinese ruler Wenwang (Xi Bo) gains release from imprisonment following payment by his people of a ransom that includes a beautiful young woman, a fine horse, and four chariots (see 1144 B.C.; 1122 B.C.).

Israelite forces lose 4,000 in a battle against the Philistines and then lose another 30,000.

1141 B.C.: medicine

The Israelites' sacred Ark of the Covenant is carried off to Ashdod by the Philistines, and by biblical accounts a plague breaks out among the Philistines, spreading with the Ark to Gathen and then to Ekron. The Philistines return the Ark to Joshua the Bethshemite in order to end the plague, but 70 Bethshemite men peer into the Ark and die of the plague that then spreads throughout Israel, killing some 50,000.

1141 B.C.: literature

Nonfiction: The I Ching written (according to tradition) by the western Chinese ruler Wenwang (Xi Bo) during his imprisonment will survive as a Confucian classic.

1137 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ramses VI dies after an 8-year reign in which he has annexed his predecessor's tomb and done little building himself. The last king to work the copper mines of Sinai, he is succeeded by his son, who will reign as Ramses VII.

1122 B.C.: political events

China's Yin (Shang) dynasty ends after 644 years of rule, giving way to the Zhou (Chou) dynasty that will rule until 255 B.C. Wuwang (Wu-wang) has succeeded his father, Wenwang (Xi Bo) as head of the state of Zhou on China's western border (see 1141 A.D.). Having formed a coalition with eight other border states, Wu overthrows the cruel emperor Zhou Xin (Chou Hsin), now 42, who in his 7-year reign has levied taxes to build the elaborate Deer Tower Palace and allegedly built a lake of wine and forced naked men and women to chase each other around it to amuse his concubine. Zhou Xin sets fire to his palace and leaps into the flames; Wuwang ascends the imperial throne and will reign until 1104 B.C., establishing a feudal government that will parcel out territory to relatives and vassals who acknowledge Zhou suzerainty but permit descendants of the Yin dynasty to rule over parts of their former realm.

1119 B.C.: political events

Nebuchadnezzar I (Nebuchadrezzar) begins a 21-year reign as king of Babylon (year approximate). A member of the city of Isin's 2nd dynasty, he will defeat the Elamites who have humiliated the Babylonians. He will capture their capital of Susa, bring back the cult statue of Marduk that they stole, and end their domination of the region.

1116 B.C.: political events

Tiglath-pileser I begins a ruthless 38-year reign that will bring the Middle Assyrian empire to its zenith, conquering invaders from Anatolia and elsewhere (year approximate). The Assyrians use horses acquired from the Mongolian steppe, where horsemen fight and hunt with composite bows acquired from the Assyrians.

1110 B.C.: exploration, colonization

The North African city of Utica has its beginnings in a settlement of Tyrian colonists at the mouth of the Bagradas River, close to some mines (see Carthage, 823 B.C.).

1100 B.C.: political events

Assyrian forces under Tiglath-pileser I reach the Mediterranean after having conquered the Hittites. The Assyrians encounter the seafaring Phoenicians, who hunt sperm whales and conduct a farflung sea trade (see 2750 B.C.; 878 B.C.).

Egypt's Ramses IX begins a 30-year reign that will mark the end of the 20th dynasty.

1098 B.C.: political events

Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar I (Nebuchadrezzar I) dies after a 21-year reign in which he has defeated the Elamites but done less well in his raids against the Assyrians (year approximate).

1077 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Tilglath-pilaser I dies after 38-year reign that has made his armies feared throughout the Middle East (year approximate).

1070 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Ramses IX dies and a 21st dynasty begins that will rule until 945 B.C. with its center of power at Tanis in the northeast Nile delta, but the zenith of Egyptian prominence in the world has long passed.

1025 B.C.: religion

The prophet Samuel anoints Saul, who by biblical accounts will reign until 1012 B.C. as king of Hebron.

1012 B.C.: political events

The Battle of Mount Gilboa ends by biblical accounts in defeat and death for Hebron's Saul and his eldest son, Jonathan, at the hands of the Philistines. Jonathan's friend David succeeds Saul by such accounts and will reign until 1005 B.C. as king of Hebron.

1005 B.C.: political events

Jerusalem falls by biblical accounts to David of Hebron, who is anointed king of Judea by the prophet Samuel and will reign until 961 B.C., breaking the power of the Philistines and defeating also the Moabites, Ammonites, Aramaeans, and Edomites. David will by biblical accounts fight for the freedom of the northern tribes from the Philistines and make Jerusalem the capital of a united kingdom, but archaeologists millenia hence will suggest that David was actually a provincial leader whose reputation was exaggerated to provide Jews with the basis of a nationalist creed.

1000 B.C.: technology

The Iron Age that began 400 years ago in the Near East moves to Europe in the Hallstatt region of what will become Austria. Iron tools and weapons begin to spread throughout Europe.

1000 B.C.: environment

Chinese farmers cut down forests to create more agricultural land. The deforestation will lead to soil erosion, floods, and drought in millennia to come.

1000 B.C.: agriculture

Land sown with grain in Egypt yields crops as bountiful as any the Egyptians will reap in the 20th century A.D.

1000 B.C.: food and drink

The Chinese cut ice and store it for refrigeration.

990 B.C.: political events

Absalom by biblical accounts kills his half brother David's eldest son, Amnon, in revenge for the rape of his full sister Tamar. Third (and favorite) son of Judea's King David, Absalom is banished by David from Israel (date approximate).

978 B.C.: political events

Absalom by biblical accounts regains King David's favor through the offices of David's nephew Joab, but Absalom leads a rebellion against David on the advice of the king's counselor Ahithophel. Joab will suppress the rebellion and kill the fleeing Absalom and his captain Amasa (Joab's cousin), and the counselor Ahithophel will commit suicide.

961 B.C.: political events

Judea's king David dies by biblical accounts and is succeeded by his son Solomon, who will reign until 922, making alliances with Egypt's ruling priests and with the Phoenician king Hiram of Tyre. Solomon is David's son by his second wife, Bathsheba, whose first husband David sent on a suicidal mission in order that he himself could marry her.

Solomon executes David's former army commander Joab by biblical accounts for having killed David's son Absalom in violation of David's orders and for having killed his rival Amasa.

961 B.C.: commerce

Solomon's fleet sails the Red Sea, trading products of Judea at Tyre and Sidon and in Africa and Arabia, where Solomon begins mining gold.

961 B.C.: architecture, real estate

The Great Temple of Jerusalem goes up to house the sacred ark of Yahweh in the onetime Jebusite stronghold captured by David (see 1141 B.C.). David had by biblical accounts proposed construction of the temple earlier, but the prophet Nathan had thwarted him (see 586 B.C.).

The new Judean king Solomon will by biblical accounts build a new royal palace and city wall at Jerusalem, using forced labor to erect buildings throughout his realm and introducing taxation to finance his projects.

950 B.C.: food and drink

The household of Judea's king Solomon includes by biblical accounts 700 wives and 300 concubines and consumes 10 oxen on an ordinary day, along with the meat of harts, gazelles, and hartebeests.

945 B.C.: political events

Egypt's throne is usurped by the Libyan Sheshonk (Shosheng) I, who ends the 21st dynasty and founds the 22nd (Bubastite) dynasty that will rule until 712 B.C. He will reign until 924 B.C., campaigning in Palestine and building extensively at Karnak (Thebes).

926 B.C.: political events

Egypt's pharaoh Sheshonk (Shosheng) I invades Palestine, plundering Jerusalem and many other Judean cities.

922 B.C.: political events

Judea's king Solomon dies by biblical accounts and is succeeded at Jerusalem by his son Rehoboam, but 10 northern tribes secede when Rehoboam refuses their demands for relief from taxation. They establish the kingdom of Israel with Jeroboam as king.

900 B.C.: exploration, colonization

The first Italian towns are established by Etruscans, who have emigrated from Lydia in Anatolia after an 18-year famine. Lydia's king Atys rules the Asian country opposite the Greek islands of Chios and Samos, he has commanded half his subjects to emigrate, and they have journeyed to Smyrna in western Anatolia under the leadership of Atys' son Tyrsanus, loaded their belongings onto ships, and come to the Italian peninsula, where their towns are built mostly on hillside terraces and enclosed within massive timbered walls (see 396 B.C.; Rome, 753 B.C.)

884 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Assurnasirapli II begins a 24-year reign in which he will defeat Babylon and revive the empire.

878 B.C.: political events

The Assyrian emperor Assurnasirapli II annexes Phoenicia as he takes over the entire eastern Mediterranean coast.

860 B.C.: political events

Egypt's 22nd dynasty pharaoh Takelot II begins a 25-year reign.

858 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Assurnasirapli II dies after a 24-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until his death in 824 B.C. as Shalmaneser III.

853 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Shalmaneser III engages a coalition organized by the kings of Hamath and Damascus with Ahab, king of Israel, who joins with his allies to defeat Assyrian forces at the rather indecisive Battle of Karkar. Ruling from his capital at Samaria, Ahab has extended his alliances to the north by marrying Jezebel, the Phoenician princess whose father, Ethbaal, is king of Tyre and Sidon.

853 B.C.: religion

Jezebel has introduced Phoenician idol worship into Samaria, antagonizing the Israelite prophet Elijah.

850 B.C.: political events

Ahab, king of Israel, is killed by biblical accounts at Ramoth Gilead in a battle with Ben-hadad I (Adad-idri I), king of Damascus. Ahab's widow, Jezebel, serves as regent for her son Jehoram and will be the power behind the throne until her death in 842 B.C.

850 B.C.: literature

The Iliad and the Odyssey by the blind Greek poet and singer Homer are inscribed in what will survive as the first works written in the Greek language, so the historian Herodotus will write some 4 centuries hence, but the date may be as much as a century earlier, and while references to "the deathless laughter of the blessed gods" appear in both works, they may have been written by different people employing earlier lays handed down orally before articulation in the "winged words" of Homer (see Nonfiction [Wolf], 1795 A.D.).

The Iliad is an epic poem of Ilium (Troy) and its siege by the Greeks from 1250 B.C. to 1240 B.C. (years approximate), a poem mixing gods and mortals in its history of Priam, Helen, Paris, Menelaus, Hector, Achilles, Aphrodite, Agamemnon, and Odysseus (Ulysses) and their struggles in the Trojan War. All the gods except Discord are invited to a wedding party on Mount Olympus; Discord sends a golden apple with the inscription, "To the fairest"; Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite all claim the apple and ask Zeus to decide; he sends them to a shepherd on Mount Ida, and the three contenders bribe him to win his approval, promising him the most beautiful woman on earth; he picks Aphrodite, who sets him up with Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, who runs off with him to Troy, but Menelaus organizes a coalition of Helen's previous suitors to fight for her honor. "The issue is in the laps of the gods" (XVII).

The Odyssey is an epic poem about the wanderings of Odysseus (Ulysses), who is kept as a lover for nearly 8 years by the goddess Calypso while his wife, Penelope, home at Ithaca, is besieged by suitors and unwanted guests and while his son Telemachus is growing to manhood. "And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared" (II); "Day-long she wove at the web but by night she would unravel what she had done" (XXIV, a reference to wife Penelope, who has vowed to accept no second husband until she has completed a winding-sheet for her aged father-in-law, a ruse that she continues until she is betrayed after 3 years by one of her serving maids).

850 B.C.: marine resources

Fish cultivation is discussed in a voluminous treatise by the Chinese author Fan-Li (manuscript in British Museum, London) (see oyster cultivation, 110 B.C.).

843 B.C.: political events

The Israeli soldier Jehu engineers a coup by biblical accounts against the regent Jezebel and her son Jehoram. A military commander under Israel's late king Ahab, Jehu kills Jehoram's son Ahazia and all of his other children except his son Joash. Jehoram's wife, Athaliah, secures the throne of Judah for herself and her son Joash.

843 B.C.: religion

Athaliah comes under attack from Judah's Jewish priests for supporting the worship of idols, notably Baal.

842 B.C.: political events

The usurper Jehu has Israel's regent Jezebel thrown from a window by biblical accounts and crushes her to death beneath his chariot. He will reign until 815 B.C., founding a dynasty that will rule a weakened Israel that must pay tribute to the Assyrians.

841 B.C.: political events

Damascus has a coup d'état as the usurper Hazael murders its king Ben-hadad I (Adad-idri).

837 B.C.: political events

Judah's priests by biblical accounts overthrow Athaliah, put her to death, and make her son Joash king.

835 B.C.: political events

The Egyptian throne intended for his brother is usurped by Sheshonk (Shosheng) III, who will reign until 787 B.C. with the kingdom divided among various claimants.

824 B.C.: political events

The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III dies after a 34-year reign in which he has used military force to conquer northern Syria and expand his realm. Shalmaneser has rebuilt the royal palace and ziggurat at Nimrud, but civil war has broken out between his younger son Ashur-danin-apal and his designated heir, who will reign as Shamshi-Adad V.

823 B.C.: exploration, colonization

Carthage is founded near what later will be called Tunis in North Africa by refugee Phoenician colonists ("Punians") (see 300 B.C.; Utica, 1110 B.C.)

812 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Shamshiadad V dies after a 12-year reign in which he has ended a revolt with Babylonian aid but has lost part of his empire. A son of Shalmaneser, he is succeeded by his brother Adadnirari V, but the queen mother, Sammuramat (Semiramis), will rule for 4 years.

801 B.C.: commerce

Egypt and Greece will begin regular trade relations in the next 100 years.

801 B.C.: religion

Aryan religious epics, or Vedas, will lead in the next 200 years to a veneration of the cow in much of India and to a sanctification of dairy products.

800 B.C.: science

The Book of Changes compiled in China makes what later will be called the first reference to sunspots, using words that mean darkening or obscuration (year approximate; see 1128 A.D.). Imperial astronomers at Chinese and Korean courts will continue to make observations of the sun whenever an emperor demands astrological prognostications.

800 B.C.: food and drink

Rice becomes an important part of Chinese diets (see 2300 B.C.).

783 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Adad-nirari III dies after a 27-year reign in which his northern neighbor Urartu has been the dominant force in the Near East, controlling the Persian plateau and the chief trade routes to the Mediterranean. Adad-nirari is succeeded by his eldest son, who will reign as Ashur-nirari V until his overthrow in 745 B.C.

776 B.C.: political events

Greek city-states call a truce in their unending conflicts during a period set aside for athletic contests.

776 B.C.: sports

The Olympic Games have their beginning in a 200-meter footrace held about 200 miles southeast of Athens where the Alpheus and Cladeus Rivers converge in Elis, although many of the associated religious sacrifices to Zeus in the wooded valley of Olympia date back as much as 500 years, as do some of the temples and statues. Only pure Greeks may compete and only those who have no police records or even any relatives with police records, rules that limit contestants to members of the aristocracy. No women are permitted, even as spectators. Held after the summer solstice at the warmest time of year, the contests will continue with few interruptions for 12 centuries, but competition in the first 13 of the quadrennial Olympiads will be limited to the 200-meter dash, known as the stadium; winners will receive wreaths made of wild olive leaves, be hailed as demigods throughout the land, and have financial rewards heaped upon them, but runners-up will be scorned (see 724 B.C.).

771 B.C.: political events

China's Western Zhou (Chou) dynasty comes to an end as its capital at Hao on the Wei River is destroyed by barbarians from the north, possibly Scythians from the Altai. The capital will be moved in the next year to Luoyang near the Huanghe (Yellow River).

753 B.C.: exploration, colonization

Rome is founded (according to legend) on a wooded Italian hilltop overlooking the Tiber River (see Etruscans, 900 B.C.). Its legendary founders are the infant brothers Romulus and Remus, who are suckled by a "she-wolf," who may actually be the prostitute Acca Laurentia (the Latin word lupa for she-wolf can also mean prostitute), wife of Faustulus, whose death will be commemorated for many years with the February 15 fertility festival, called the Lupercalia, in which girls put love messages into urns and boys draw them out to discover what girls will be their sexual partners for the rest of the year (the festival will give rise in later centuries to St. Valentine's Day) (see religion, 498 A.D.).

745 B.C.: political events

Assyria's weak king Ashur-nirari V is ousted in the spring by a military coup, and the vigorous governor of Calah is installed as ruler: the new king takes the name Tiglath-pileser III and begins an 18-year reign in which he will subdivide the country's larger provinces into 80 smaller units and rearrange territorial governorships, thereby discouraging bids for independence as he builds a strong, professional army.

743 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Tiglath-pileser III advances into Syria and defeats an army sent by Urartu (later Armenia), but the city of Arpad refuses to surrender and it will take a 3-year siege to conquer it.

740 B.C.: political events

Assyrian troops force their way into the Syrian city of Arpad, whose citizens are massacred and whose buildings are destroyed.

738 B.C.: political events

City-states in northern Syria form a new coalition against the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III, who defeats them and forces all the princes from Damascus to eastern Anatolia to pay tribute.

734 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Tiglath-pileser III invades southern Syria and campaigns through Philistine territory to the Egyptian border. Damascus and Israel form an alliance against the Assyrians and try to persuade Judah's king Ahaz to join them (see 733 B.C.).

733 B.C.: political events

Judah's king Ahaz asks the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser for help (see 734 B.C.). He lays waste to Israel and makes it surrender extensive territories to him.

732 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Tiglath-pileser III advances on Damascus, determined to break the city-state's resistance. After devastating the gardens outside its walls, he takes the city by force, kills its king, replaces him with a governor, and obliges Samsil, queen of southern Arabia, to pay tribute, allowing her, in return, to use the harbor of Gaza.

Babylon's Nabonassar dies, leaving his country in chaos; the Aramaean Ukin-zer makes himself king.

731 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Tiglath-pileser III defeats the new Babylonian king Ukin-zer and his allies in battle.

728 B.C.: political events

The kingdom of the Medes has its beginnings by some accounts in the person of the northern Persian ruler Deioces, who will found the city of Ecbatana (later Hamadan) and reign until 675 B.C. (see 719 B.C.)

727 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Tiglath-pileser III dies after an 18-year reign in which he has used a new intelligence system and more efficient taxation to help him conquer Syria, Judea, Israel, and, finally, Babylon, which he has merged with Assyria, bringing the neo-Assyrian empire to its greatest height.

726 B.C.: political events

The late Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 722 B.C. as Shalmaneser V (Ululai of Babylon).

724 B.C.: political events

Assyria's king Shalmaneser V marches against Israel, whose leader Hosea has rebelled against Assyrian rule.

724 B.C.: sports

Greece's 14th Olympiad is held at Olympia, and a second footrace is added in which competitors run twice around the stadium to cover a distance of nearly half a mile (see 776 B.C.; 720 B.C.).

722 B.C.: political events

Samaria falls to Assyrian forces after a 3-year siege; it has been the capital of Israel since 879 B.C. Assyria's Shalmaneser V either dies or is deposed after a 4-year reign and is succeeded by a man who is probably his brother or half brother and who will reign until 705 B.C. as Sargon II, resuming the conquests of the late Tiglath-pileser III and improving the administration of the empire whose size he will expand. Sargon claims the victory at Samaria and takes 27,290 Israelite prisoners. The kingdom of Israel that was founded in 933 B.C. falls to Sargon, who makes it an Assyrian province, deports Samaria's upper classes, repopulates the city with Syrians and Babylonians, allows Judah to remain independent in return for payment of tribute, but deports the people of Israel's 10 northern tribes to Central Asia; they will disappear from history (they will be remembered as the "lost tribes of Israel").

721 B.C.: political events

A dissident Chaldean chieftain of the Yakin tribe in Babylon's southern marshes enters Babylon amidst the confusion that attends the ascension of Sargon II. Claiming the throne that belonged to his ancestor Eriba-Merodach, he calls himself Merodach-Baladan II (Marduk-apal-iddina), repels an effort by Sargon to regain the city, drives out the Assyrians, and will reign until 710 B.C., repairing temples and carrying out irrigation projects (see 720 B.C.).

720 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sargon II sends an army to put down the revolt of Merodach-Baladan II in Babylon, who has been supported by Egypt; he defeats Hanunu of Gaza and an Egyptian army near the Egyptian border, leaving Egypt too weak to resist invasion (see 719 B.C.), but Sargon will leave the Babylonians alone for the next decade as he wages wars of conquest against more vulnerable neighbors.

Sparta defeats Messenia after a 20-year struggle for control of Greece's Peloponnesian peninsula (year approximate). The war was provoked according to some accounts by the murder of Sparta's king Teleclus; Spartans have developed a society based on physical courage and military strength, practicing a form of eugenics in which many female infants are destroyed at birth along with male infants having even the slightest imperfection. The Messenians have been in the Peloponnesus for centuries, and although their long coastline has no good harbor except for the Bay of Pylos (later Navarino) their plains comprise the most fertile territory in Greece. Messenia's late king Euphaes and his successor Aristodemus have fought bravely, but Sparta has prevailed and takes over a 3,000-square-mile area that is three times the territory of Athens (see helot revolt, 464 B.C.).

Messenians conquered by Sparta become for the most part helots (tenant farmers) and will for centuries be subject to Spartan domination, with as many as seven helots per Spartan.

720 B.C.: exploration, colonization

Achaeans and Troezenians found the city of Sybaris on the Gulf of Tarentum in southern Italy (year approximate). Located in a fertile area, it will quickly become prosperous, and its citizens (Sybarites) will gain a reputation for luxurious living.

720 B.C.: sports

Greece's 16th Olympiad includes a long-distance race of some 2½ miles that by some accounts requires contestants to run 12 times around the stadium (see 719 B.C.; 708 B.C.)

719 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sargon II invades Persia to support his ally, the Azerbaijan state of Mannai. He incorporates parts of Media (the kingdom of the Medes) into his empire as provinces (but see 716 B.C.)

Ethiopian invaders from Cush conquer the declining kingdom of Egypt, whose army was defeated last year by Assyria's Sargon II; the Cushite king Shabaka will rule the country until 703 B.C., adopting the titles of traditional Egyptian pharaohs, restoring ancient customs and beliefs, and establishing the 25th dynasty.

717 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sargon II campaigns to his north, where he will soon make the heretofore independent state of Carchemish an Assyrian province.

716 B.C.: political events

Media (the kingdom of the Medes) rebels against the rule of Assyria's Sargon II, who interrupts his preparations for a major attack on Urartu to wage another war to his north (see 719 B.C.). Armies of agents sent by Sargon's son Sennacherib infiltrate Urartu (later Armenia), whose lands are also threatened by the country's Cimmerian neighbors to the north (see 714 B.C.).

714 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sargon II leaves his home at Kalach to lead armies in support of his allies, who have been threatened by his enemy Rusa I, a king of Urartu (later Armenia). Rusa has closed the narrow pass between Lake Urmia and Sahand Mount in hopes of catching the Assyrians unawares, but Sargon turns the table on him. Skirting well-fortified strong points, he leads a small cavalry force in a surprise charge that turns into a major victory, Rusa flees and soon dies; the Assyrians go through the province of Mannai, attack Median principalities on the eastern side of Lake Urmia, and move into Mesopotamia's highlands, venturing beyond them into the Zagros range in pursuit of their adversaries, destroying fortifications, irrigation works, and most of Urartu's cities (but not her capital at Tushpa). The Assyrians plunder as they go and come away with great amounts of booty.

Cimmerian tribesmen join in the attack on Urartu (later Armenia), having been driven out of southern Russia and into Anatolia by the Scythians (year approximate; see 716 B.C.; 705 B.C.).

710 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sargon II moves south against Babylonia and defeats the Elamites and other allies of Merodach-Baladan II, who has ruled from Babylon since 721 B.C. Merodach-Baladan flees, the city's leading citizens welcome Sargon, there is no opposition, and he is officially made king of Babylonia (see 709 B.C.).

709 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sargon II captures and destroys the city of Dur-Yakin, capital of the former Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan II (see 710 B.C.; 703 B.C.).

708 B.C.: sports

Greece's 18th Olympiad is held at Olympia with the addition of a wrestling competition and a pentathlon event: contestants must compete in broad jumping, a 200-yard dash, wrestling, discus throwing, and javelin throwing. The javelin is a bronze-tipped elderwood spear, the discus a heavy bronze disk (see 720 B.C.; 688 B.C.).

706 B.C.: political events

A great palace for Assyria's Sargon II is dedicated at what later will be called Khorsabad, which has replaced the king's former capital of Kalakh.

705 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sargon II is ambushed and killed while campaigning in southwestern Persia after a 17-year reign in which he has expanded his realms, repulsed its Cimmerian invaders, and employed hundreds of artisans and tens of thousands of workers in efforts over the past 8 years to complete his capital at Nineveh; he is succeeded by his son Sennacherib, who has quarreled with his father and left his unburied corpse to be devoured by birds of prey, believing the priests who tell him that Sargon's death was a punishment by neglected gods of the region's ancient capitals. Sennacherib begins a 24-year reign that will see Nineveh become a city of unmatched splendor. Art and literature will flourish despite numerous wars.

The Phoenician king Luli rebels against the new Assyrian king Sennacherib; Babylonia's Merodach-Baladan II rebels as well (see 703 B.C.).

The Cimmerians spread through much of Anatolia (see 714 B.C.; 652 B.C.).

703 B.C.: political events

The former Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan II tries to regain his throne and secures Elamite support for a tribal rebellion against Assyria's Sennacherib (see 709 B.C.). Sennacherib launches a seaborne attack on Elam, using ships built at Nineveh that are taken down the Tigris by Phoenician sailors, transported overland to a canal of the Euprhates, and thence to the Persian Gulf; he recovers northern Babylonia, appoints a native Babylonian as subking, and lets his army lay waste tribal areas in southern Babylonia, sparing major cities that have remained loyal (see 702 B.C.).

702 B.C.: political events

Assyria's Sennacherib subdues Babylonian rebels and launches a military campaign in western Persia against Elamite vassal kingdoms in the Zagros Mountains (see 703 B.C.; 700 B.C.).

The Phoenician king Luli abandons Tyre and flees to Cyprus, escaping the wrath of Assyria's Sennacherib (see 705 B.C.).

701 B.C.: political events

Egypt's Cushite king supports a rebellion by Palestinians against Assyria, whose king Sennacherib responds with strong measures, raiding both Syria and Palestine, laying siege to Jerusalem, sparing the city upon payment of a heavy indemnity, but showing no mercy to rebel cities as he fights to gain control of the main road between Syria and Egypt.

3300 B.C.–2501 B.C. 2500 B.C.–2001 B.C. 2000 B.C.–1501 B.C. 1500 B.C.–1001 B.C. 1000 B.C.–701 B.C.

n

Definition: distant past
Antonyms: now, present, today

n

Definition: oldness
Antonyms: convention, modernity, newness

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[Le]

In the context of the American Antiquities Act this term is used to refer to historic or prehistoric monuments and ruins, or objects of great age, or objects used in conjunction with ancient rituals or American Indian religious practices.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - antikken, oldtiden

Nederlands (Dutch)
(klassieke) oudheid, hoge leeftijd, mensen/ gebruiken etc. uit de oudheid, overblijfselen uit de oudheid

Français (French)
n. - antiquité, antiquités, monuments antiques, objets d'art antiques

Deutsch (German)
n. - Altertum, Antike, Antiquitäten

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αρχαιότητα, αρχαία εποχή, αρχαίο αντικείμενο

Italiano (Italian)
antichità

idioms:

• classical antiquity    antichità classica

Português (Portuguese)
n. - antiguidade (f)

idioms:

• classical antiquity    antiguidade (f) clássica

Русский (Russian)
древность, древние времена, период, предшествующий средним векам

idioms:

• classical antiquity    античность

Español (Spanish)
n. - antigüedad, antigüedades

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - uråldrighet, Antiken

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
古代, 古代的遗物, 古老

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 古代, 古代的遺物, 古老

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 낡음, 고대[인]

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 古代, 大昔, 古さ, 古代の遺物, 古代人, 太古

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) العصور القديمه وبخاصه العصور السابقه للقرون الوسطى, عتق, قدم, آثار العصور القديمه, شؤون متعلقه بثقافه العصور القدمه أو بالحياه فيها, ابنا العصور القديمه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ימי-קדם, שרידים עתיקים, הקדמונים‬

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