c1300-1200BCE Moses: Neither can we be certain even when Moses lived,
except that it was obviously before the Jews settled in Palestine, when
they were still wanderers. The general opinion seems to be that it was
at some time within the period of Ramesses and his son. The father-in-law
of Moses was a Midianite. Moses reportedly died at Mount Nebo. [see 1250]
(L.C.-W.P.p.123)(MT, Spg. '97, p.11)(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A24)
1300-1200 A sprawling Assyrian administrative center was discovered
by Dutch archeologists in 1997 in Rakka, 340 miles north of Damascus. The
site included a 15-foot high 2-story building with 2 bathrooms, 2 toilets
and a tiled floor.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.B3)
1300-1100BCE From the late Shang Dynasty (13th to the 11th century
BCE), a pair of 33-inch-tall ting tripod vessels, will be part of the traveling
exhibit from the National Palace Museum, Taipei. [see 1600-1100]
(WSJ, 12/29/95, p.A-11)
1300-1100BCE A 9-foot-tall bronze standing figure from this time was
found in 1986 at a 'sacrificial pit" at Sanxingdui in Sichuan province.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.E1)
1300-612BCE The Assyrians, a Semitic people, established an empire
that spread out from Assur in northern Mesopotamia.
(eawc, p.4)
1300-300BCE The Omani Iron Age.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.49)
1298BCE Ramesses marched north from Egypt to battle the Hittites. He
left his mark on a cliff face by the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River).
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)
1293-1291 Ramesses I ruled in the beginning of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt.
(R4,1998)
1292BCE An Egyptian scribe documented that a couple of construction
worker twins went off a beer binge. They left their wives at home to chase
available women and didn't show up for work. Their brother-in-law was the
chief engineer on the job and did not fire them.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, Z1 p.5)
1291-1278 Seti I ruled in the 19th Dynasty of Egypt.
(R4,1998)
1290-1279 The period of the 19th Dynasty under Seti I, the father of
Ramses II.
(NG, 9/98, p.17,19)
1290-1224 Ramesses II, Pharaoh of Egypt. (conjectural date of Sir Alan
Gardiner) His colossal statue, removed from Memphis, now greets the visitor
when he leaves Cairo's main railway station. There are huge statues of
Ramesses in the Luxor temple... and most gigantic of all, the seated colossi
at Abu Simbel. He enlarged the Karnak temple on a scale which makes human
beings... look and feel like ants. The tomb of Queen Nefertari, wife of
Ramses II, Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty, was discovered in 1904.
(L.C.-W.P.p.104,113)(V. Sun, 11/3/95, p.A-20)
1286BCE The Hittites fought off the invading Egyptians. This reflected
the power gained from trading metals abundant in Turkey.
(eawc, p.5)
1285BCE Battle of Kadesh, in the fifth year of his reign Ramesses moved
to meet and destroy the forces of the Hittite king, Muwatallis, grandson
of Suppililiumas. Here some 70,000-100,000 armed men clashed in fury...
The battle lasted two days... and was decisive in that the Hittite advanced
no further.
(L.C.-W.P.p.116-119)
1279BCE Jun, Seti I, pharaoh of Egypt, died.
(NG, 9/98, p.22)
1279-1212BCE The recent discovery of a royal burial site from the reign
of Ramses II, who ruled between 1279 and 1212BCE, was the subject of Kent
R. Weeks, an Egyptologist at the American Museum in Cairo, in a talk 3/24/96
at the Amer. Mus. of Nat. Hist. In Jun, 1995, Weeks and his team discovered
a family mausoleum thought to be the burial site for the 48 sons of Ramses
II.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.76)(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A10)
1275-1240BCE The Trojan War is usually dated to this period.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49)
1270BCE At Abu Simbel, Egypt, Ramses II constructed The Great Temple
in his own honor and the Small Temple in honor of his wife Nefertari. Engulfed
by sand over the centuries, the temples lay hidden until discovered by
a Swiss traveler in 1813. The temples are moved under a 4 year UNESCO project
when in 1964 the rising waters behind the Aswan High Dam threaten to drown
them.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.591)
1250BCE By this time the Assyrians committed themselves to conquering
the Kassite Empire to the south.
(eawc, p.4)
1250BCE Under the directions of Moses, the Israelites left Egypt and
headed for the "promised land."
(eawc, p.5)
1250BCE Some scholars believe that the Mycenaeans waged a successful
war with the Trojans of western Asia Minor.
(eawc, p.5)
1250-1200BCE The Hebrew people returned to Canaan from Egypt after wandering
for several years in the Sinai desert and began the conquest of Canaan.
The conquest took some hundred years and after victory they parceled the
land of Canaan into tribal territories under a government known as an amphictyony.
(eawc, p.5)
1250-1000BCE Troy VIIa, another discernible era on the site of the Trojan
War. Evidence shows that Troy V was destroyed by fire and that Troy VI
saw the establishment of an entirely new principality. An earthquake hit
the thriving city of 5-6 thousand people, but after the crisis, the same
people returned and repaired the city. The renovated Troy VIIa lasted some
seventy years and was then destroyed by a conflagration.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49-50)
1225BCE The Assyrian ruler, Tukulti-Ninurta, captured Babylon and the
region of southern Mesopotamia, but their control did not last long.
(eawc, p.5)
1225 BCE Earliest known Illyrian king, Hyllus, died.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1225-1175 Earthquakes during this period toppled some city-states and
centers of trade and scholarship in the Middle East. Jericho, Jerusalem,
Knossos and Troy were all hit.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.A19)
1213BCE Aug, Ramses II, pharaoh of Egypt, died at about 90 years of
age. His rule had lasted 66 years. In 1976 his mummy was shipped to Paris,
where it was treated with radiation and chemicals for protection against
bacteriological damage.
(NG, 9/98, p.16,32)
1213-1204 The period of the 19th Dynasty under Merneptah.
(NG, 9/98, p.17)
1212-1202 Merneptah ruled in the 19th Dynasty of Egypt.
(R4,1998)
1202-1199 Amenmesses ruled in the 19th Dynasty.
(R4,1998)
1200BCE Afghanistan, near Sheberghan at Tillya Tepe, a temple for the
worship of fire was built.
(NG, March 1990,V.I. Sarainidi p.62)
c1200BCE Ramessu III ascended the throne of Egypt. He fought back two
major attacks from the northern countries. Ramses III defended his kingdom
from foreign invasion in three separate wars, reorganized Egyptian society
into classes based on occupation and built a funerary temple based on the
Ramesseum. Ramses, son of Setnakht (1200-1198 BCE), founder of the 20th
dynasty, reigned for 32 years. He twice defended Egypt against invasions
from Libyan tribes and once from a coalition of migrants referred to in
records as the "Sea Peoples." The following period of peace and prosperity
allowed him to reorganize Egyptian society as well as complete a funerary
temple, palace and town center in western Thebes patterned after the Ramesseum,
the funerary temple of Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE). Ramses II greatly admired
the 19th dynasty pharaoh. Ramses survived corruption and assassination
attempts in his later years and was succeeded by his son, the crown prince
Ramses IV.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.21)(HNQ, 8/11/00)
1200BCE "Peoples of the sea" arrived to the Lebanese coast. They came
probably from the Aegean. They toppled the Hittites, destroyed Ugarit on
the Syrian coast and swept south to Egypt where Ramesses III stopped them.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)
1200BCE The first outbreak of human plague may have been the scourge
that struck the Philistines in the 12th century BCE. The Old Testament
account mentions "mice that mar the land."
(NG, 5/88, p.678)
1200BCE The end of Mycenaean civilization.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.73)
1200BCE Homer's Troy dates to around this time.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
1200-1020BCE The Israelites were ruled by the Judges in a period of
relative stability until a Philistine invasion in 1050.
(eawc, p.5)
1200-1000BCE The archeological evidence later confirmed that a collection
of small settlements appeared in the eastern parts of the highlands of
Palestine later known as the West Bank.
(AM, 9/01, p.30)
1200-400BCE The Olmecs built impressive cities and established
trade routes throughout Mesoamerica, that included settlements at La Venta
and Tres Zapotes.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.T12)
c1200-300BCE In Peru a pre-Columbian culture flourished over this time
in the Andes site of Chavin de Huantar.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.A20)
1200-300BCE The Olmec people ruled southern Mexico and northern
Central America.
(WSJ, 7/2/96, p.A12)
1199-1193 Seti II ruled in the 19th Dynasty of Egypt.
(R4,1998)
1195BCE Ramessu III beat back a Libyan invasion in his fifth year, this
invasion was accompanied by war galleys from the northern countries.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.22)
1192BCE Ramessu III beat back a more formidable attack. The inscription
describing this war was engraved on the second pylon of the temple of Medinet
Habu. The inscription describes how the northerners were disturbed, and
proceeded to move eastward and southward, swamping in turn the land of
the Hittites, Carchemish, Arvad, Cyprus, Syria, and other places of the
same region. The Hittites and North Syrians had been so crippled by them
that Ramessu took the opportunity to extend the frontier of Egyptian territory
northward... the twofold ravaging of Syria left it weakened and opened
the door for the colonization of its coast-lands by the beaten remnant
of the invading army.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.23)
1185BCE The Hittite empire fell to the "Sea People," an invading group
coming from the west whose precise identity is unknown.
(eawc, p.5)
1184 BCE Jun 11, Greeks finally captured Troy. [see 1150BCE]
(SC, 6/11/02)
1182-1151BCE Ramesses III, Pharaoh of Egypt. (conjectural date of Sir
Alan Gardiner) The great Battle against the Sea Peoples was captured in
a magnificent picture which Ramesses III caused to be sculpted on the walls
of his great temple at Medinet Habu in Thebes.
(L.C.-W.P.p.104,126)
1175BCE Rameses III built his temple palace at Medinet Habu.
(eawc, p.5)
1167BCE Ramessu III of Egypt died, and was succeeded by a series of
weak ghost-kings.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.24)
1150BCE Troy fell. Estimated date for the beginning of the Aeneid. [see
1275-1240BCE]
(V.D.-H.K.p.60)
c1116BCE In China an imperial decree stated that it was a requirement
of the heavenly powers that people regularly take a moderate amount of
alcoholic drink.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, Z1 p.8)
1115BCE Ramessu XII reigned in Egypt, but the real authority at Thebes
was Hrihor, the high priest of Amon, who was ultimately to usurp the sovereignty
and become founder of the Twenty-first Dynasty. In Lower Egypt, the Tanite
noble Nesubenebded, in Greek Smendes, has control of the Delta.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.29)
1114-1076 Tiglath-Pileser I ruled the Assyrian empire.
(eawc, p.5)
1111-255BCE Chou dynasty in China.
(V.D.-H.K. p.7)
1110BCE The expedition of Wen-Amon from Egypt to Byblos during the rule
of Ramessu XII. This was recorded in the Golenischeff papyrus found in
1891CE at El Khibeh in Upper Egypt. It is the personal report of the adventures
of an Egyptian messenger to Lebanon. Zakar-Baalwas governor of Byblos.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.29,37)
1100BCE The Phoenician alphabet containing only consonants was in use.
(V.D.-H.K.p.25)
1100BCE By this time the Mycenaeans were overtaken by Dorian invaders
who used iron weapons. Greek culture then entered unto a "Dark Age" period
characterized by the disappearance of writing and a decline in architecture
that lasted to about 800BCE.
(eawc, p.5)
c1100BCE The Asuka dynasty first unified Japan.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.72)
c11-1000BCE The first Greek tribes settled on Crete around the 11th
century BCE.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)
c11-1000BCE In Britain Stonehenge Phase IV the path across the henge
ditch was extended into the fields and over the hill to the River Avon.
(HT, 3/97, p.22)
1100-700BCE The Phoenicians traded around the Mediterranean.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
1100-265BCE The Zhou period in China. [see 1027-771]
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)
1087BCE In Egypt the period of the New Kingdom that began in 1560 ended.
(eawc, p.4)
1078BCE In Egypt the beginning of the Late period.
(NG, 9/98, p.16)
1075-656BCE In Egypt the Third Intermediate Period was a time of turmoil
and economic decline. Control split between pharaohs reigning in the Delta
and the priesthood of the temple of Amun at Karnak.
(AM, 9/01, p.23)
1070-946BCE In Egypt the 21st Dynasty ruled.
(AM, 9/01, p.22)
1069-664BCE From Egypt a black-bronze statue of the falcon-faced god
Horus, now in the French Louvre, dates to this time.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)
1050BCE The Philistines invaded Israel from the North. Facing annihilation
the Israelites instituted governmental reform and asked Samuel, the last
of the Judges, to select a king.
(eawc, p.5)
1031BCE The Centennial Stump, a giant sequoia, started its growth, and
was cut down in 1874CE.
(K.I.-365D, p.146)
1027BCE In China the last Shang ruler, Chou Hsin, was conquered by Wu-wang,
and the Chou Dynasty began. It lasted to 221BCE and is typically divided
into three periods.
(eawc, p.5)
1020BCE In Israel Samuel selected Saul to be king and unified the tribes
into a nation. Saul faced many losses against the Philistines and eventually
committed suicide. David in his campaigns against the Philistines proved
victorious.
(eawc, p.6)
1027-771BCE In China this was the Western Chou period.
(eawc, p.5)
c1010-970 King David, the 2nd King of Israel, ruled. He had succeeded
Saul.
(WUD, 1994, p.369)
1005BCE King David's conquest of Jerusalem. In 1995 Israel launched
a 17 month celebration of the event.
(WSJ, 9/25/95, P. A-1)
1004BCE David became the king of Israel. He began to build a centralized
government based in Jerusalem and implemented forced labor, a census and
a mechanism for collecting taxes. In 2000 Jonathan Kirsch authored "King
David: The Real Life of the Man Who ruled Israel."
(eawc, p.6)(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A4)(SFC, 12/31/00, BR p.8)
FIRST MILLENIUM BCE
c1,000BCE Irrigation canals were made in the Tucson basin of the American
Southwest.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
c1000BCE The British Bronze Age site Flag Fen, estimated to about
this time, was accidentally discovered in 1982 by archaeologist Francis
Pryor. Flag Fen is the site of some of the most recent and unusual discoveries
of ancient British culture. In 1982 archaeologist Francis Pryor tripped
over a piece of wood while walking along a dyke in the Fenlands near Peterborough.
Noticing that the wood showed signs of deliberate shaping, he poked around
in the peaty, wet soil and soon discovered a series of posts. The wood
was set deeper into the ground than the surface of a nearby Roman road,
so Pryor knew the wood had to have been placed into the ground well before
the Roman engineers arrived on the scene.
(HNQ, 5/12/01)
c1000BCE The fertile bottom land of the Copan River valley attracted
agriculturists to the region more than 3,000 years ago.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.29)
c1000BCE The Phoenicians and other Semites of Syria and Palestine began
using graphic signs representing letters. Aleph meaning ox was the sign
that represented a sound such as that heard in the pronunciation of the
o in bottle, known as a glottal stop.
(AHD, 1971, p.1)
1000BCE Ahiram, king of Byblos, had inscribed on his sarcophagus: "His
abode in eternity."
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.154)
1,000BCE Chaldians traced their origins to about this time in Babylon.
(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A12)
c1000BCE A brightly colored papyrus of this time depicting a Theban
housewife's life after death was found by Herbert Winlock at Thebes in
1912.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-8)
1000BCE Bone lesions in the mummified body of the priest of Ammon from
a tomb of the Egyptian 21st dynasty, have been recognized as probably caused
by tubercle bacilli.
(WP, 1951, p.5)
1000BCE Israel became a kingdom.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
c1000BCE Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem on
Mar 13, 1935, confirming biblical history.
(HN, 3/13/98)
c1000BCE The Samaritans broke away from the mainstream of Judaism about
this time. They believed that God chose Mount Gerizim as the site for the
Jews to build their temple.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A21)
1000BCE About this time Kush became independent from Egypt.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.167)
c1,000BCE The first typical Baltic culture of brushed pottery
formed at the turn of the last millennium BCE in eastern Lithuania. It
was the time when the first hill forts and barrows appeared and the cremation
of the dead was introduced.
(DrEE, 10/12/96, p.2)(TB-Com, 10/11/00)
c1000BCE In India the Rig Veda, the first Vedic literature was written.
(eawc, p.6)
c1000 The original Hindu calendar in India was based on a lunar
cycle and dated back to this time.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.A18)
c1000BCE In Kyrgyzstan the capital city of Bishkek was founded.
(MT, Spg. '99, p.4)
1000BCE The great Olmec Ceremonial Center, in Tabasco, Mexico, was
built about this time. It continued to be used till about 600BCE.
(RFH-MDHP, p.241)
1000BCE The Olmec kings are thought by some to be responsible for the
invention of the ancient Mayan ballgame that often left the loser dead.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.125)
c1000BCE In Pakistan some of the monuments at the Uch Monument Complex
in the Punjab date to this time.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T4)
1000BCE In Thailand Ban Prasat pottery from the site at Prasat Hin
Phanom Wan dates to this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
c1000BCE The Tocharians, an Indo-European group of people, moved east
to live in what later became Xinjiang province of western China. They left
well-preserved Caucasian mummies of this age and 1,300 year old texts written
in an unknown Indo-European tongue. Some evidence showed that they had
come from the steppes north of the Black and Caspian seas as the area filled
with Iranian immigrants. They settled in the Tarim Basin on the edges of
the Taklimakan Desert. They area has also been named Inner Asia, Chinese
Turkestan and East Turkestan. The Uighers of Xinjiang sometimes show physical
features that reflects Tocharian blood.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A2)
c1000BCE A major earthquake struck along the Carmel-Gilboa fault system
about this time. The Hebrew city of Har Megiddo, located at the strategic
Nahal Iron Pass - the only route where chariots could speed between Egypt
and Syria, was destroyed in the quake. This event is likely one described
by John of Patmos in the Book of Revelations, where a great quake takes
place at Armageddon.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)
c1000BCE In Peru the tomb of a Huayakuntur Indian of this time was
found in Ayabaca province in 1999.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A12)
1000 BCE The Phoenicians inhabited Sardinia.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T4)
c1000BCE Troy at Hissarlik in northwest Turkey was destroyed by fire
and abandoned.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.50)
1000-900BCE The search for the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were dispersed
in the tenth century BCE when the Assyrians conquered part of the Holy
Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative
Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
c1000-800 The kingdom of Habushkia was likely centered on the headwaters
of the Great Zap River in western Turkey.
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
1000-600BCE This was the late Vedic period in India. The Aryans were
integrated into Indian culture and the caste system emerged.
(eawc, p.6)
1000-500BCE Oct 31, The Celts of Ireland, Great Britain and northern
France celebrated Oct. 31 to Nov 2 as their New Year which they called
Samhain. The Druid harvest event incorporated masks to ward off evil ones,
as dead relatives were believed to visit families on the first evening.
The Catholic holiday of All Hallows' Day (aka All Saints' Day) was instituted
around 700 CE to supplant the pagan event and Pope Gregory III made the
Nov 1 date official. In the 9th century Nov 2, the last day of Samhain,
became All Souls' Day. Halloween was transplanted to the US in the
1840s.
(WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 10/29/99, p.W17)
1000-300 Middle preclassic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
1000-1BCE In Thailand a cemetery at the Noen U-Loke site has revealed
jewelry, bronze and iron tools and pottery.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
c1000BCE-1000CE A civilization in Amazonia, called Patiti or Enin by
archeologists, dug channels for an elaborate crop irrigation system.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.T12)
c970BCE King David of Israel died. In 2000 Robert Alter authored "The
David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel."
(WUD, 1994, p.369)(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.10)
965BCE Solomon became king of Israel. He was intent on completing the
plans of David to make Jerusalem stand out and to affirm the religious
commitment of the people. He undertook expensive building projects that
included the building of the temple in Jerusalem and raised taxes with
increased forced labor to his ends.
(eawc, p.6)
955-587 In Israel the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest built by
Moses containing the Ten Commandments, disappeared from Jerusalem during
this period. Legend in Ethiopia holds that the Ark was stolen some 800
years later by Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and taken
to Aksum where Orthodox Christian monks have watched over it ever since.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
950BCE Hiram I, king of Tyre, joined two islands and built an impregnable
city in the sea. He sent to David, king of Israel, and later to Solomon,
the materials to build palaces and the first great temple of Jerusalem.
The building of Solomon's temple is described in the First Book of Kings
in the Bible.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.163)(WH, 1994, p.13)
c950BCE The Queen of Sheba lived about this time. Local legends from
Ethiopia name her Makeda and claim that she was from there. Archeologists
have found inscriptions from the ancient Sabean kingdom but no mention
of Makeda or Bilqis, the local name for Sheba in Yemen. The Koran claims
she ruled from Yemen.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A1)
c950BCE The Kebra Negast, a 14th cent. Ethiopian text, claims that
the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to see Solomon and that he tricked
her into sleeping with him and bearing him a son.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A6)
950BCE Peanuts have been traced back to this time in Brazil and Peru.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, Z1 p.8)
945-730BCE Period of the twenty-second dynasty. Shishak, Pharaoh of
Egypt, captured Jerusalem and took away the treasures of Solomon's temple.
(L.C.-W.P.p.129)
c928BCE In Israel Solomon died. The northerners, unwilling to subsidize
the financial difficulties of Jerusalem and the national court, separated
from the southern people. This created Israel to the north with its capital
in Samaria, and Judah to the south with its capital in Jerusalem. Solomon's
sons ruled the two kingdoms, Jeroboam in the north and Rehoboam in the
south.
(eawc, p.6)
925BCE The Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak (Shoshenq) destroyed many Israelite
cities, including Rehov, Megiddo and Hazor.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A9)
c900BCE Trade between East Africans and Arabs probably began about this
time.
(ATC, p.141)
900BCE The Maya site named Blackman Eddy in Belize was occupied from
this time to about 1000CE.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
c900BCE In Honduras archeologists in 1997 discovered burial caves that
date to this time. A cave from the same period was discovered in 1994 near
the Talgua River, known as the Cave of the Glowing Skulls. The new cave
was called the Cave of the Spiders.
(USAT, 2/12/97, p.9D)
c900BCE A group of people in northern Nigeria produced distinct statuettes
in baked clay. Their culture is called the Nok culture after a village
where the first statuette was found in 1931. The culture may have lasted
to about 900CE.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)
c900BCE The city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka was founded about this
time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.D)
c900BCE The Fossum panel was carved on a rock outcropping in Sweden
about this time and depicted 2 Bronze Age figures with raised axes.
(NH, Jul, p.32)
900-840BCE The Assyrians expanded their empire to the west. By 840 they
conquered Syria and Turkey, territory that had formerly belonged to the
Hittites.
(eawc, p.6)
c900-800 Ahab was king of Israel. Pottery, a 4-entry gate at Megiddo,
and other structures at Hazor and Gezer are similar to others in the time
of Ahab. This kind of data has prompted "the Finkelstein correction," which
pushes archeological evidence attributed to David and Solomon more to the
time of Ahab and Jezebel, his wife from Phoenicia.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)
c900-800BCE Joash was King of Judah in the 9th century. Joash and Ashyahu
are common variations of the same name. The temple priest Zechariah was
a contemporary to Joash and was put to death by Joash after a dispute.
In 1997 a 13 word pottery fragment was dated to this time with the words:
"Pursuant to the order to you of Ashyahu the King to give by the hand of
Zecharyahu silver of Tarshish to the House of Yahweh. Three shekels."
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A8)
900-800BCE Sican and Siculian farmers settled the valleys of central
Sicily.
(WSJ, 6/9/99, p.A24)
900-750BCE Villanovan cultures in Italy. From their hamlets Etruscan
cities grew. The name comes from Villanova, a site near Bologna where the
culture's artifacts were first unearthed more than a century ago.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710, 719)
900-400BCE The Etruscan period of Italian prehistory. For about 500
years the Etruscans dominated most of the country from Rome to the Po Valley.
(NG, 6/1988, p.705)
Apa means father in Etruscan. It means exactly the same in Hungarian.
(NG, 10/1988, member's forum)
883-859 Ashurnasirpal II. This Assyrian ruler established the new capital
city of Kalhu (Nimrud).
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
858-824 Shalmaneser II, Assyrian ruler.
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
841BCE In China a Zhou king died.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D4)
814BCE Carthage was founded by Phoenician traders.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T5)
814-813BCE Elissa-Dido, Princess of Tyre, Jezebel's grandniece, fled
to North Africa after her brother, King Pygmalion, murdered her husband,
Tyre's high priest. She was said to have then founded Carthage on
a hilltop now called Byrsa. Byrsa means Oxhide and it was said that Elissa
could have as much ground as could be covered by the hide of an ox.
She cut the hide into narrow strips and so claimed the whole hill.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.T8)
812-783BCE Hada-Nirari III, Assyrian king enumerated the Philistines
among the Palestinian states conquered by him.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
810-805 Sammuramat ruled Assyria as Queen.
(eawc, p.6)
803BCE Hadad-Nirari, Assyrian king, conquered the Palestinian states
including the Philistines.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
c800BCE Large villages with dome-shaped "pit houses" were constructed
in the American Southwest and the inhabitants made plainware pottery bowls.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
800BCE Nimrud, capital of Assyria, 500 miles east of Byblos, sample
of ivory carving from a piece of furniture depicting a woman in a window
wearing an Egyptian wig.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.171)
c800BCE In Greece increased trade and governmental defense fortifications
allowed for the emergence of city-states to emerge from tribal communities.
These grew up among market places and included Athens, Thebes and Megara
on the mainland.
(eawc, p.6)
c800BCE The Jewish city of Sepphoris was founded about this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
800BCE Kingdom of Kush in northern Sudan near present day Karima; its
monarchs ruled all of Egypt as the pharaohs of the XXV Dynasty.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.607)
800BCE The twenty-fifth dynasty of Manetho consisted of three Ethiopic
kings, the seat of whose empire was originally at Gebel Barkal, or Napata,
and who subsequently conquered the whole of Egypt. The first monarch of
this line was called Sabaco by the Greek writers; the second Sebechos,
or Suechos, his son; the third was Tarkos or Taracus.
(RFH-MDHP, A. Layard, 1853, p.62)
c800BCE A great change in climate overcame Europe around this time.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.T4)
800-750BCE The Iliad epic was set down by Homer in about the first half
of the 8th century, some five centuries after the war it purportedly reports.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.44)
c800-700BCE The period of Homer, reputed author of "The Iliad" and
"The Odyssey."
(WUD, 1994, p.679)
800-700BCE The time of Hesiod, the first Greek poet to name himself.
His work included "The Theogony" and "Works and Days."
(WUD, 1994, p.666)(eawc, p.7)
c800-700BCE The Greeks and the Etruscans occupied different regions
of the Italian peninsula during the 8th century.
(eawc, p.2)
800-700BCE The Languedoc region of France has produced wine since this
time. Langue d'oc refers to the language of Occitan spoken in the region.
Greeks began planting vineyards in Languedoc around 600BCE.
(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(WSJ, 5/30/03, p.A3)
800-600BCE In India the Brahmans, a priestly caste, began to emerge.
(eawc, p.7)
800-500BCE In India the Upanishadic philosophy began with the writing
of the Upanishads. Doctrines of rebirth and the transmigration of souls
began to appear.
(eawc, p.7)
800-500BCE The Archaic period of Greece. It was marked by developments
in literature, the arts, politics, philosophy and science. The Peloponnesian
city of Corinth, Sparta and cities along the coast of the Aegean flourished.
Most of the cities were similar in their political evolution except for
the elite dictatorship in Sparta. Most of the cities began as monarchies,
evolved to oligarchies, were overthrown during the age of tyrants and eventually
established democracies.
(eawc, p.6)
800-500BCE The Celtic Hallstatt Culture spread across Europe. It was
an early iron-using culture named after an Austrian burial site found in
the mid-19th century.
(NGM, 5/77)
800-300BCE The Scythians dominated the vast lands stretching from Siberia
to the Black Sea. Those who roamed what later became Kazakstan and southern
Siberia were known as the Saka.
(AM, 5/01, p.32)
776BCE In Olympia Greece the Olympic Games were born after Iphitos,
king of Elis, asked the Delphic Oracle how to save Greece from civil war
and plagues. The answer was to revive the Olympics from their mythological
roots. Together with Lycourgos of Sparta and Kleosthenes of Pisa a sacred
truce was concluded and the games declared at Olympia. The historian Pausanias
(c150CE) wrote: "The Olympic victor must not win with money but the fleetness
of foot and the strength of body." In the Pankration, a combination of
wrestling and boxing, biting and eye-gouging were forbidden. Adult women
were discouraged from attending the games under the penalty of being hurled
from the cliffs of Mount Typaion, opposite the stadium
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T1)(WSJ, 7/19/96, p.R16)
771BCE In China the Chou Dynasty faced difficulty when King Yu alienated
the noble class who refused to answer his call for help against invading
barbarians. King Yu was killed and the nobles installed a new leader. The
capital was moved eastward to Loyang and the "Western Chou" period ended.
(eawc, p.7)
771-471BCE The Spring and Autumn Period. Jingzhou was the capital of
the Chu Kingdom.
(AMNHDT, 5/98)
771-221 The Eastern Zhou period. The power of the Zhou court waned and
frequent state wars took place.
(AM, 7/01, p.62)
753BCE Apr 21, Rome was founded. The traditional date for founding by
Romulus as a refuge for runaway slaves and murderers who captured the neighboring
Sabine women for wives. Archeological evidence indicates that the founders
of Rome were Italic people who occupied the area south of the Tiber River.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(V.D.-H.K.p.61)(eawc, p.7)(HN, 4/21/98)
750BCE Greeks invent symbols for vowels.
(V.D.-H.K.-p.25)
750BCE The era of the Greek poet Homer.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
750BCE Kashta, ruler of Kush, began a campaign against Egypt. With
the help of his son, Piankhy, he was successful and Piankhy became pharaoh
of Egypt.
(eawc, p.7)
750BCE The Nubian King Piye conquered the weakened and disunited Egypt
and became the first of several Nubian Pharaohs who ruled a unified Egyptian
and Nubian state for the next century.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
c750BCE Two Phoenician ships from Tyre carrying amphorae filled with
wine sank some 30 miles off the coast of Israel. In 1999 a team led by
Robert Ballard discovered the ships at a depth of about 1,500 feet.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A14)
750-600BCE Greek colonies exert strong influence over newly urbanized
Etruscans.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
747BCE Feb 26, Origin of Era of Nabonassar.
(SC, 2/26/02)
745-727BCE Tiglath-Pileser III, Assyrian king.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
742BCE The time of the Hebrew prophet Isaiah.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
738BCE Mittinti, king of Ashkelon revolted, trusting to the support
of Rezon. But the death of Rezon so terrified the king that he fell sick
and died... His son Rukipti, who reigned in his stead, hastened to make
submission.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
734BCE Rezon of Syria, and Pekah of Samaria were in league, whereas
Ahaz of Jerusalem had become a vassal of the king of Assyria. The Philistines
had attached them selves to the Syrian league, so that Tiglath-Pileser
came up with the special purpose of sacking Gaza. Hanunu, the king of Gaza,
fled to Sebako, king of Egypt; but he afterwards returned and, having made
submission, was received with favor.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
729BCE Greek colonists settled in Catania, Sicily.
(SFC, 6/2/03, p.A11)
722BCE The Assyrians conquered Israel and left nothing behind. The Hebrew
kingdom of Judah managed to survive.
(eawc, p.7)
722-705BCE Sargon II, king of Assyria. [see 721BCE]
(WUD, 1994, p.1269)
722-481BCE In China the Ch'un Ch'iu period began. It was characterized
by a deterioration of the feudal system and a collapse of central authority.
(eawc, p.5,7)
721-705BCE Sargon II, king of Assyria. [see 722BCE]
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c720BCE Some Jewish tribes went missing after being sent into exile
by the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pilesar III. In 2002 Hillel Halkin authored
"Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel," an account
of the search for the lost tribes that included the Gadites, Reubenites
and tribe of Manasseh (Menashe) and its possible relationship to the Kuki-Chin-Mizo
people of Burma.
(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.D10)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M2)
715-642 Judah absorbed refugees from the Assyrian conquest an achieved
the attributes of a state.
(AM, 9/01, p.32)
713BCE Azuri, king of the Philistine city of Ashdod, refused to pay
tribute and endeavored to stir up the neighboring princes to revolt. Sargon
[of Assyria] came down and expelled Azuri, and established in his stead
Azuri's brother, Ahimiti.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
710BCE Hanunu of Gaza was in the revolt against the king of Assyria
which led to the battle of Raphia, the first struggle between Egypt and
Assyria.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.71)
705-681BCE Sennacherib, Assyrian king, also had trouble with the Philistines.
Mitinti's son, Rukipti, had been succeeded by his son Sarludari, but it
seems as though this ruler had been deposed, and a person called Zidka
reigned in his stead. Sennacherib found conspiracy in Zidka, and brought
the gods of his father's house, himself, and his family into exile to Assyria,
restoring Sarludari to his former throne.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
705-681BCE At the same time the Ekronites had revolted against the
Assyrian. Their king, Padi, had remained a loyal vassal to his overlord,
but his turbulent subjects had put him in fetters and sent him to Hezekiah,
king of Judah, who cast him into prison. The Ekronites summoned assistance
from North Arabia and Egypt, and met Sennacherib at El-Tekeh. Here they
were defeated, and Sennacherib marched against Ekron, slaying and impaling
the chief officers. Padi was rescued from Jerusalem... Sennacherib then
cut of some of the territory of Judah and divided it among his vassals...
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
705-681BCE Sennacherib ruled the Assyrians and built a new capital
in Ninevah where he began to form a library of Sumerian and Babylonian
tablets. He managed to subdue the entire region of western Asia.
(eawc, p.7)
701BCE The Assyrian King Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.16)
700BCE Homer's time. [see 800-700]
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.172)
c700BCE The White Horse of Uffington, England, a 365-foot long and
130-foot high image scratched into a chalk hillside, was dated to this
time from pottery at the site. The shape is typical of the La Tene art
style that spread across Western Europe between the 5th and 1st centuries
BCE.
(AM, 9/01, p.40,43)
700BCE A three foot tall bust of Pharaoh Shabako of Egypt is on loan
from Cairo at St. Petersburg, Florida.
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-16)
c700BCE In what later became Iraq, the huge bearded head of a large
winged-bull dating from this time was made.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A9)
700BCE Twenty-seven hundred years ago Tarquinia was the cultural capital
of the Etruscans. Around 700BCE, only half a century after the Greeks rediscovered
writing, literacy burst across Etruria. The Etruscans had no g sound, so
they made it a c. That's why we have abc rather than alpha, beta, gamma.
(NG, 6/1988, p.708,726)
700BCE Arabs made earth bricks later know as adobe as early as this
time. The word adobe comes from the Arab word "at-tub."
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8)
c700BCE King Hezekiah constructed a 1,750-foot tunnel to bring water
into Jerusalem. Archeologists in 2003 dated plant fragments in the tunnel's
plaster to this time +/- 100 years.
(SFC, 9/11/03, p.A6)
c700BCE Nomadic Kimmerians attacked Phrygia. Strabo later reported
that Midas committed suicide at the time of the Kimmerian invasion.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c700BCE A Phrygian king, possibly Midas, ruled into his 60s and was
buried in what came to be called the Tumulus Midas Mound at Gordion (later
central Turkey). Midas was linked with the worship of the goddess Matar.
(AM, 7/01, p.27)
700-600BCE The Armenians, an Indo-European people, migrate from the
west to mingle with the people of URARTU. It was ruled by kings of the
Orontid dynasty as a satrapy of the Persian empire until the defeat of
Persia by Alexander the Great.
(CO Enc. / Armenia)
700-600BCE A burial mound at Sutton Hoo, Britain, of this time was
believed to be that of the Anglo-Saxon King Raedwald.
(AM, 7/01, p.16)
700-600 The earliest Chinese records of divination using the I Ching
date from this period.
(NH, 9/97, p.12)
700-600BCE The search for the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were dispersed
in the tenth century BCE when the Assyrians conquered part of the Holy
Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative
Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
690-664BCE The Nubian Pharaoh Taharka rules over the Nubian-Egyptian
state. The 7th century BCE Cushite King Taharqa ruled in the upper
Nile. A sculpture of the king was discovered in the basement of "God's
House Tower," an archeological museum, in England in 2000.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
689BCE Sennacherib of Assyria destroyed Babylon, but his son rebuilt
it.
(eawc, p.7)
687BCE The Lyrid meteor shower was recorded for the first time in Chinese
records. It averages about 10-15 shooting stars per hour and occurs on
4/22 in 1994.
(PacDis, Spring/'94, p. 40)
681-668BCE Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib became monarch of Assyria
after his father was assassinated. "I had monuments made of bronze, lapis
lazuli, alabaster... and white limestone... and inscriptions of baked clay...
I deposited them in the foundations and left them for future times."
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.65)(MofE, 1978, p.1)
671BCE Esarhaddon [of Assyria] recorded a victory over lower Egypt at
the cliff face of the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River), between Beirut and Byblos.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)
668-627BCE Ashurbanipal succeeded Sennacherib as ruler over Assyria.
He continued to develop the library and by the time he finished, there
were more than 22,000 clay tablets collected.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.65)(eawc, p.7)
663BCE The Kingdom of Kush was driven out of Egypt but flourishes in
the Sudan until the 4th century CE.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.607)
660BCE Mythical date of the ascension of Japan's first emperor, Jimmu
Tenno.
(HN, 2/11/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
650BCE Babylon by this time was again prosperous following its destruction
in 689 by Sennacherib of Assyria.
(eawc, p.7)
650 BCE The Transylvanian Dacians are first known from their contacts
with the Greeks about this time.
(WSJ, 6/18/97, p.A20)
c650BCE The time of Archilochus, Greek poet.
(WUD, 1994, p.78)
c650BCE Greece began using the drachma for currency.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F4)
650BCE The Chinese licensed lady lovers. This is considered as the
1st example of legalized prostitution.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.B3)
650-500BCE In Greece it was the age of the tyrants.
(eawc, p.6)
650-550BCE Graves from the Umbrian city of Terni, north of Rome, were
dated to this period. The people were known as the Umbri-Nartes and had
lived in the region from the Bronze Age up to the Roman conquest.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.18)
648BCE Ashurbanipal destroyed the newly rebuilt city of Babylon.
(eawc, p.7)
642BCE The first horse race on record was in the Olympic Games of Greece
and the first prize was a "woman of well-rounded domestic skills."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Z1 p.8)
642BCE Invading Arabs established a military settlement on what later
would become Cairo, Egypt.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.584)
640BCE In Greece the Spartan form of government, adapted from the Dorians,
was heavily influenced by militarism. The Messenian wars initiated Sparta's
fear of change. They remained isolated by banning trade and discouraging
travel outside their territory. Alcaeus, Greek lyric poet, was born in
Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. His lyrics expounded on contemporary
politics, love, hymns to Apollo and Hermes, and some drinking songs.
(eawc, p.8)
c640BCE The 1st coins were minted in Lydia (later part of Turkey), and
featured face to face heads of a bull and lion.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, WB p.2)
639-609BCE King Josiah reigned. The biblical account of Israel's origin
was possibly drafted during this time. The leadership reinstituted the
exclusive worship of the god of the Israelites centered on the Temple in
Jerusalem.
(AM, 9/01, p.30,31)
626BCE The time of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah. He was the last political
prophet and went to Egypt at the end of his life.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
625BCE Thales born in Miletus, (west coast of Anatolia, today Turkey)
considered to be the first philosopher and scientist (of Greece). Said
to have predicted eclipse of 585BCE. Thales proposed a single universal
principle of the material universe. Two remarkable ideas: a)he did not
resort to animistic explanations for what happens in the world
b)he assumed that the world was a thing whose workings the human
mind could understand. He maintained as a first principle that the external
world and the internal mind must have much that is in common, how else
could that external world be intelligible to the internal mind. The name
of this commonality was reason.
(V.D.-H.K.p.31, 33, 216)
625BCE The first Greek coins were stamped with the likeness of a wheat
head to show that wheat had been used for money before the use of coins.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.E4)
616BCE Tarquinius Priscus became the first Etruscan to rule Rome. Legend
has it that he was followed by Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710,735)
614BCE The Babylonians (particularly, the Chaldeans) with the help of
the Medes, who occupied what is today Iran, began a campaign to destroy
the Assyrians.
(eawc, p.8)
612BC Ninevah (Mesopotamia), the cradle of Assyrian kings for
2,500 years, fell to the Babylonians and Medes. The Chaldeans, a Semitic
people, then ruled the entire region thereby issuing in the New Babylonian
period that lasted to 539BC.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.C1)(SFC, 3/31/03, p.W5)
612BCE Sappho, Greek lyric poet of Lesbos, was born. She is the most
famous female poet of the ancient world and is inscribed in the "Palatine
Anthology" among the Muses, rather than among the great lyric poets, in
the 2nd century BCEE. Her poetry explored female sexuality and love in
a male dominated society.
(eawc, p.8)
609-593BCE Pharaoh Necho II ruled Egypt. The biblical king Josiah was
slain on Har (Mt.) Megiddo (root of Armageddon) in the 7th cent. when he
was betrayed by Pharaoh Necho whom he had come to stop from going to war
on the side of the Assyrians against the Babylonians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.180)(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)
606BCE In Cairo the Ben Ezra Synagogue was established.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A1)
605-562BCE Nebuchadnezzar ruled over his empire centered at Babylon.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B5)
604-562BCE Nebuchadnezzar II ruled in Babylon. He undertook some monumental
building projects that included the Hanging Gardens. The New Babylonian
Revival used glazed bricks for building thereby creating a colorful city.
The king was fond of spinach.
(eawc, p.8)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
c604-531BCE Lao-tzu (Laozi), Chinese philosopher, author of the
"Tao Te Ching" (Tao-te-jing) and founder of Taoism (Daoism): He encouraged
people to live simply and according to nature. Taoism is one of the three
major "spiritual ways" of China and has influenced Chinese thought--in
religion, politics, the social system and the arts and sciences--for more
than 2,000 years. The other two "spiritual ways" of China are Buddhism
and Confucianism. "To lead the people, walk behind them." "The greater
the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves and robbers there will
be." [see 570-490]
(eawc, p.8)(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.8)(AP, 5/4/98)(WSJ, 12/26/00,
p.A9)(AM, 7/01, p.62)(HNQ, 11/5/01)
c600 BCE Aesop said: "We hang the petty thieves, but appoint the great
ones to public office."
(SFEC, 3/15/98, Z1 p.8)
c600BCE In Egypt King Psamtik II of the 26th Pharaonic dynasty built
the temple of Hibis in the al-Khargah oasis, 310 miles south of Cairo.
It was built to worship Amun and contained statues of Amun's wife, Mut.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.D3)
c600BCE The Etruscans, believed to be natives of Asia Minor, established
cities that stretched from northern to central Italy. They developed the
arch and the vault, gladiatorial combat for entertainment, and the study
of animals to predict future events.
(eawc, p.8)
c600BCE The Greeks established city-states along the southern coast
of Italy and the island of Sicily. They contributed letters to the Roman
alphabet, religious concepts and artistic talent as well as mythology.
(eawc, p.8)
600BCE The great Olmec Ceremonial Center in Tabasco, Mexico, was abandoned
about this time.
(RFH-MDHP, p.241)
c600BCE The Zapotec city of Monte Alban was founded in the Oaxaca valley.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A24)
c600BCE From about this time the Maya gradually sculpted the land to
channel water to a growing population.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.A)
c600BCE Analysis of pottery from this time indicated that Mayans made
cocoa drinks as early as this time.
(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A4)
c600BCE The Persian prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra) founded the religion
known as Zoroastrianism. The principal beliefs included the existence of
a supreme deity called Ahura Mazda and a cosmic struggle between the spirit
of good, Spenta Mainyu, and the spirit of evil, Angra Mainyu. Later adherents
to Zoroastrianism are represented by the Parsees of India and the Gabars
of Iran.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, Z1 p.3)(WUD, 1994, p.1663)
600 BCE The first polo game was recorded in north Persia about
this time.
(Hem., 7/95, p.87)
c600 BCE Zoroaster introduced a new religion in Bactria (Balkh),
also known as ancient Afghanistan. Zoroastrianism is a Monotheistic religion.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
600BCE Phoenicians in the pay of Pharaoh Necho II circled Africa, according
to Herodotus.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.160)
600-500 The first democratic governments were established in a few Greek
city-states during the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.
(V.D.-H.K.p.299)
600-500BCE Rome by this time was the dominant power in its surrounding
area. The conservative government consisted of a kingship, that resembled
the traditional values of the patriarchal family; an assembly, composed
of male citizens of military age; and a Senate, comprised of elders who
served as the heads of different community sects. The Palatine is one of
the seven hills of Rome
(eawc, p.7)(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)
600-500BCE The nomadic Scythians bordered the Hallstatt Culture in
the East. They introduced to the Celts the custom of wearing trousers.
(NGM, 5/77)
600-200BCE The Sarmatians were a nomadic tribe that occupied a homeland
that stretched from Russia's Don and Volga rivers east to the Ural mountain
foothills. The held a sun-worshipping belief system and buried useful objects
with their dead for the journey in the unknown afterlife.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
600BCE-600CE In 1999 Arthur Cotrell published "From Aristotle
to Zoroaster," an A to Z companion to the classical world over this period.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, Par p.6)
594BCE In Greece Solon, the great elegiac poet, was appointed chief
magistrate of Athens. His reforms included political and economic adjustments
which led to dissatisfaction in the upper and lower classes.
(eawc, p.8)
593BCE The time of the prophet Ezekial. He prophesied the return to
the promised land after the destruction of the temple and exile to Babylon.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
587BCE King Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
586BCE Ezekial, in exile at Babylon, described Tyre as it was before
Nebuchadnezzar's attack in the Bible: (Ezekial 27:1-25) in the Book of
Ezekial. this time is known as the "Babylonian Captivity."
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.162)(eawc, p.8)
586BCE Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of Mesopotamia, destroyed Jerusalem
and recorded his deeds at the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River) cliff face between
Beirut and Byblos. He took the Jewish people into captivity.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A11)
c586BCE The Menashe tribe was lost following the Jewish exile in this
year. Jews dispersed across Europe and North Africa. In the 1990s members
of Shinglung community from the province of Mizuru in India claimed to
be the children of Menashe and began returning to Israel.
(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A13)
585BCE May 25, The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made
[by Thales]. A historically registered eclipse occurred during the savage
war between the Lydians and the Medians. The event caused both sides to
stop military action and sign for peace. The date of the eclipse coincides
with the date in Oppolzer's tables published in 1887.
(SCTS, p.27)(HN, 5/25/98)
585BCE May 28, A solar eclipse, predicted by Thales of Miletus, interrupted
a battle [a Persian-Lydian battle] outside of Sardis in western Turkey
between the Medes and Lydians. The battle ended in a draw. [see May 25]
(HN, 5/28/98)(HN, 5/28/99)
585BCE In Miletus, Greece, the founding city of philosophy, Thales
predicted a total eclipse of the sun. He was the founder of the Milesian
school, and taught that all things are composed of moisture. He was the
first to propose a rational explanation of the cosmos. By the end of the
6th century, philosophers began to inquire into the nature of being, the
metaphysical nature of the cosmos, the meaning of truth, and the relationship
between the divine and the physical world.
(eawc, p.8)
c585BCE The Greeks settled in the area of Varna, later part of Bulgaria,
on the Black Sea and were followed by the Romans, Byzantines and Turks.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T3)
585-572Bc Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon began his 13 year siege of Tyre.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)
580-500BCE Pythagoras was born on Samos. He journeyed to S. Italy, and
was driven out of Croton to the Bay of Taranto where he starved himself
to death. He believed in the transmigration of souls, and is said to have
discovered the mathematical ratios in musical harmonics.
(V.D.-H.K.p.34)
573BCE Nemea, 70 miles from Athens, became the site for the Olympic
games.
(SFC, 9/25/00, p.A6)
570-490BCE Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher: "Quarrel with a friend -- and
you are both wrong." [see 604-531]
(AP, 8/24/99)
c566-c468 Simonides, a Greek poet, was also called Simonides of Ceos.
He created one of the first information spaces with his "memory palaces."
(WUD, 1994, p.1328)(Wired, 2/98, p.101)
565-545BCE The island of Cyprus was under Egyptian control.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.20)
563BCE Apr 8, Buddha (d.483BCE), Siddhartha Gautama, was born in Northern
India. [Nepal] Raja Suddhodana, king of the Sakyas in the 6th century BC,
is best known as the father of Buddha. The kingdom of the Sakyas was on
what is now the border of Nepal and India. Buddha was born in about 563
BC. The birthplace of the Indian prince Siddartha, who became the monk
Buddha, was believed to have been discovered by archeologists in 1996.
Lumbini, Nepal, birthplace of Buddha, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 1997. [see May 15]
(http://eawc.evansville.edu, p.9)(V.D.-H.K.p.21)(WSJ, 2/6/96,
p.A-1)(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.30)(SFC,12/5/97, p.B2)(HN, 4/8/98)(HNQ, 3/30/99)
563BCE May 15, Wesak Day, also known as Buddha's birthday. [see Apr
8]
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A3)
560-546BCE The rule of Croesus. The first coins were produced in Lydia
under the rule of Croesus. It was a kingdom in western Turkey. Croesus
made a treaty with the Spartans and attacked Persia and was defeated.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Parade p.5)(WUD, 1994, p.345)(WSJ, 11/11/99,
p.A24)
551-479BCE K'ung Fu-tzu [K'ung Fu-tse], Confucius, Chinese philosopher,
author of the "Analects," lived. He was an accountant and later taught
the importance of centralized authority and filial piety. Like Aristotle,
he believed the state to be a natural institution. He was the 11th child
of a 70-year-old soldier. "All eminence should be based entirely on merit."
"The way of a superior man is three-fold; virtuous, he is free from anxieties;
wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear." "To see
the right and not do it is cowardice." "Shall I teach you what knowledge
is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you don't
know a thing, to allow that you don't know it. This is knowledge."
(V.D.-H.K. .8)(SFC, 8/10/96, p.E4)(http://eawc.evansville.edu,
p.9)(SFC, 3/28/98, p.D3)(AP, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 2/27/00, Z1 p.2)(SFEC,
7/9/00, Z1 p.2)
550BCE Cyrus the Great ruled over Persia.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)
550BCE The Persian Empire began.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
c550 Emperor Justinian built the St. Catherine monastery in the
Sinai Desert to honor St. Catherine, an Alexandrian martyr who was tortured
to death for converting to Christianity. The site was thought to be the
place where Moses saw the Miracle of the Burning Bush.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T6)
550BCE Cities were founded in the Po Valley and expansion followed
into Campania (by the Etruscans).
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
546BCE In Greece the first of the Athenian tyrants, Peisistratus, replaced
Solon as the ruler.
(eawc, p.9)
543 BCE Colonists from northern India subdued the indigenous Vaddahs
(Veddah) of Sri Lanka, known in the ancient world as Taprobane and later
called Serendip. Descendants of those colonists, the Buddhist Sinhalese,
form most of the population.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A8)(SFC, 9/22/97, p.A10)
540BCE The population of Xanthos in Lycia (later Turkey) committed mass
suicide rather than face slavery under invading armies.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, p.T5)
540-486BCE In India Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, lived. [see 480BCE]
(eawc, p.9)
c540-470BCE The Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "the obscure," of Ephesus
(486BCE) lived about this time. For him reality is flux which originated
out of fire (as opposed to the "stable reality" of Parmenides). Plato credits
him with saying "One cannot step into the same river twice."
(WUD, 1994, p.662)(eawc, p.10)
539BCE Babylon, under Chaldean rule since 612BCE, fell to the Persians.
Cyrus the Persian captured Babylon after the New Babylonian leader, Belshazaar,
failed to read "the handwriting on the wall." The Persian Empire under
Cyrus lasted to 331BCE, when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Cyrus
returned some of the exiled Jews to Palestine, while other Jews preferred
to stay and establish a 2nd Jewish center, the first being in Jerusalem.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(eawc, p.8,9)
c539BCE Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenian Empire which he expanded
into India, Libya and Egypt. Pasargadae was his first capital. Persepolis
was the heart of his empire.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.T4)
537BCE Cyrus the Persian campaigned west of the Indus River.
(eawc, p.9)
535BCE Control of Corsica heralded the greatest extent of Etruscan influence.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
533-330BCE The Achaemenid dynasty ruled over Persia. It stretched from
the time of Cyrus the Great to the death of Darius III.
(AHD, 1971, p.10)
532BCE Polycrates became tyrant of the isle Samos, an Ionian city-state
near Miletus.
(V.D.-H.K.p.34)
530BCE In Greece Pythagorus, mathematician and philosopher, and his
followers founded the city of Croton and combined philosophy and literature
with political activity as the foundation of their community. He is credited
with the Pythagorean theorem and the Pythagorean table of opposites (the
"dualism" that underlies Greek thought.
(eawc, p.9)
529BCE Cyrus the Persian died and left behind the largest empire to
date. His son, Cambyses, succeeded him.
(eawc, p.9)
528BCE May 25, Buddha overcame Mara, and attained the Awakening.
(V.D.-H.K.p.22)
528BCE May, Buddha (563-483) sat cross-legged under the great Bo tree.
The Great Truth consists of the Four Noble Truths:
1)man's existence is full of conflict, sorrow, and suffering.
2)All difficulty and pain is caused by man's selfish desire.
3)There can be found emancipation and freedom-NIRVANA.
4)The Noble Eightfold Path is the way to liberation: The middle
way, known as the Eightfold Path: right view, right thought, right speech,
right action, right mode of living, right endeavor, right mindfulness,
and right of concentration...
(V.D.-H.K.p.22)
525BCE After Cambyses succeeded his father, Cyrus the Persian, he added
to the empire by conquering Egypt.
(L.C.-W.P.p.3)(eawc, p.9)
525BCE On the island of Samos, Greece, castles were built. Samos was
the site of the Temple of Hera, one of the 7 ancient Wonders of the World.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T10)
c525BCE Acroliths, or partial statues, of Olympian deities were later
found in Morgantina in central Sicily that were made by Greeks and dated
to this time.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A13)
525BCE Greek drama grew out of the Dionysian festivals.
(eawc, p.9)
524 B.C.?-456 BCE? Aeschylus, Greek poet and dramatist: "Everyone's
quick to blame the alien."
(AP, 10/12/98)
525-465BCE Aeschylus is credited with being the inventor of drama and
for introducing a second actor into the plays held every year in Athens
in honor of Dionysus. His plays are considered to be the beginning of tragic
drama. His stories were drawn from conflicts between the individual and
the cosmos. Late in his career he wrote his plays in groups of three. These
included the "Oresteia," "Prometheus Bound" and the "Danaides." In the
Danaides only the first play, "The Suppliant Women," has survived. It was
about 50 sisters who fled 50 cousins they were supposed to marry.
(V.D.-H.K.p.51)(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)(eawc, p.9)(WSJ, 12/5/01,
p.A18)
c522BCE Sep 4, Pindar (d.~443), Greek poet, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1094)(MC, 9/4/01)
522BCE The Greek Temple of Apollo was begun on the island of Naxos on
the orders of the tyrant Lygdamis. It was never completed.
(SFEC,12/21/97, p.T6)
c522 BCE Zoroaster died during a nomadic invasion near Balkh [ancient
Afghanistan].
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
522-486 BCE Darius the Great expanded the Achaemenid (Persian)
empire to its peak, when it took most of Afghanistan, including Aria (Herat),
Bactriana (Balk, and present-day Mazar-i-Shariff), Margiana (Merv), Gandhara
(Kabul, Jalalabad and Peshawar), Sattagydia (Ghazni to the Indus river),
Arachosia (Kandahar, and Quetta), and Drangiana (Sistan).
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
The Persian empire was plagued by constant bitter and bloody
tribal revolts from Afghans living in Arachosia (Kandahar, and Quetta).
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
521BCE Darius the Great (558-486), Darius Hystaspes, succeeded Cambyses
as emperor of Persia. He engaged in many large building programs including
a system of roads and instituted the first postal system.
(WUD, 1994, p.367)(eawc, p.9)
521 BC The name Armenian was mentioned for the first time in the
Behistan inscription of the Mede (Persian) Emperor Darius from this year:
"I defeated the Armenians."
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)
521-486BCE The Persians fought the Scythians in a series of battles
during the reign of Darius.
(AM, 5/01, p.33)
520BCE Darius the Great ruled over Persia.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)
520BCE The Hebrew's began to rebuild Solomon's Temple destroyed in
the sack of 586BCE. The Second Temple in Jerusalem was begun. It was remodeled
many times and destroyed in 70CE.
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(eawc, p.10)
518BCE Pindar (d.438BCE), considered by some as the greatest Greek lyric
poet, was born in Cynoscephalae, Boeotia. His odes celebrated the games
held at religious festivals. Athletic victory served as the ground for
his poetic fancy and religious, moral and aesthetic insights.
(eawc, p.10)
517-509BCE Darius the Persian conquered the Indus Valley region.
(eawc, p.10)
516BCE Trilingual texts were chiseled on the cliffs at Behistun by Darius.
515BCE Mar 10, The building of the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem
was completed.
(HN, 3/10/98)
515BCE Parmenides of Elea was born. He founded the Eleatic school in
the Phocaean colony in southern Italy. He was the first to focus attention
on the central problem of Greek metaphysics: the nature of being. For Parmenides
the laws governing the universe are stable and change is merely an illusion.
(eawc, p.10)
510BCE In Greece Hippias, the son of Peisistratus, succeeded his father
and was overthrown by a group of nobles with the help of Sparta.
(eawc, p.10)
510-490BCE During the reign of Darius, the first Persian to occupy Egypt,
the temple of Hibis was rebuilt.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.D3)
509BCE The Fall of the Tarquin dynasty in Rome marked the beginning
of Etruscan Decline.
(NG, 6/1988, p.711)
509BCE Romans overthrew their monarchy and established a republic with
rule by the senate and the people of Rome (SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanus).
(V.D.-H.K.p.61)(eawc, p.10)
508BCE In Greece Cleisthenes, the father of Athenian democracy, ruled
Athens. His reforms granted full rights to all free men of Athens.
(eawc, p.10)
c504BCE The Philistine city of Ekron burned to the ground. Archeologists
in 1996 discovered a stone block inscribed with the city's name and its
kings. The city is referred to in the biblical book of I Samuel, which
tells of the Philistine capture of the Ark of the Covenant and transport
to Ekron. A plague later afflicted the city and the ark was sent back to
Judea.
(SFC, 7/11/96, p.A10)
c500BCE Confucius composed the Analects. 5 things constitute perfect
virtue: gravity, magnanimity, earnestness, sincerity, kindness.
(PC Comp. 12/94, p.278)
c500BCE The El Pilar Maya site in Belize was founded about this time.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.D)
c500BCE The use of characters for writing spread to Greece where vowels
were added and the basis for all Western alphabets was established.
(I&I, Penzias, p.45)
c500BCE The height of Greek sculpture began with the work of Phideas.
His masterpieces include the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, the Parthenon
reliefs, and the statue of Zeus in the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The 2nd
most important sculptor, Myron, is renowned for his statue of the discus
thrower.
(eawc, p.10)
c500BCE The Persians developed a mail system that was later described
by Herodotus for its efficiency.
(ATC, p.34)
c500BCE Monumental ceremonial centers on the Peruvian coast were abandoned
about this time. The period was later found to correspond with an increase
in el Nino frequency,
(AM, 9/01, p.18)
c500BCE Copper concentrations in the Greenland ice core indicate that
twice the normal level was produced at this time.
(PacDis, Fall/'96, p.48)
c500BCE North African people settled in present-day Nigeria and began
making iron tools.
(ATC, p.2)
c500BCE In India the city of Varanasi was also known as Kashi and Benares
and has been a center of civilization for 2,500 years. It is the home of
the Hindu god Shiva.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.T4)
c500BCE The Charsadda site (aka Bala Hisar) in northern Pakistan was
initially occupied during the Achaemenid period.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.C)
c500BCE The city of Hund in northern Pakistan was founded about this
time on the banks of the Indus River.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.C)
500 BCE The Carthaginians inhabited Sardinia.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T4)
500BCE In Thailand black Phimai pottery and bracelets indicate that
the site of Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was occupied at this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
c500BCE Camels from Asia began showing up in North Africa.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, Z1 p.8)
c500BCE A major earthquake occurred in the Middle East.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
c500-400BCE Before the rise of Rome, the Etruscans had the most powerful
nation in ancient Italy. The Etruscans (who called themselves the Rasenna)
inhabited central Italy and greatly influenced the Romans in terms of language,
architecture and even fashion (evidence points to the toga as an Etruscan
invention). Unfortunately, no Etruscan literary works survive, so most
documentation comes from Greek and Roman literary sources as well as archaeological
evidence. Their military and political power was eroded over the course
of the 5th century BCE with Rome rising as the dominant power on the peninsula
in the 4th century BCE.
(HNQ, 2/8/01)
500-400BCE A Byzantine shopping mall was uncovered in 1998 in Jerusalem
at the site of a new mall. One inscription read "For the victory of the
Blues" in Greek. It was a reference to the competing factions of Blues
and Greens at horse races.
(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A8)
c500-400BCE In China the first stretch of the north-south Grand Canal
was built.
(WSJ, 10/25/99, p.A50)
500-300BCE Small groups of Nok people began to search for new land to
settle to the south and east of present day Nigeria.
(ATC, p.136)
c500-200BCE In India the Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad-Gita is
a part, was put into its final form.
(PC Comp. 12/94, p.278)(eawc, p.10)
500-50BCE The Celtic La Tene culture was named after a Swiss site on
Lake Neuchatel where a cache of richly ornamented artifacts were discovered.
(NGM, 5/77)
c500BCE-100CE Qataban flourished in the 5th-1st centuries BCE
in what is now southern Yemen. Qataban had a democratic form of government
and gained rule over a large area, but its influence and dominions shrank
with the emergence of the Himyarites late in the 2nd century BCE. Qataban
was conquered by Saba' in the early centuries CE.
(HNQ, 7/20/00)
500BCE-200CE The Nok people lived in the area of present day Nigeria
and used iron tools. Evidence indicates that the Nok were making iron as
early as 450BCE. Their language became the root of the 300 distinct languages
spoken in central and southern Africa. The legendary "Dinya Head" is a
life sized terra cotta of a woman with plaited hair.
(ATC, p.110,136)(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.A12)
c500BCE-500CE A Tequesta burial site, discovered in Florida in 1998
and known as the Miami Circle, dated to this time.
(AM, 9/01, p.18)