world history timeline



I'm very interested in human prehistory and ancient history, especially regarding the story of the Bible. But I've had trouble keeping the relative developments in my mind. So when I saw Jorn's timeline, I wanted something like it. I started with it. I edited out his comments regarding the events documented in the Old Testament. In their place, I have substituted the dates from The New Chronology Timeline (these dates appear in red below). They are also written by a nonChristian, but better represent my view of the history recorded in Scripture. For more about me, check out my weblog.


all dates BC


11000: wheat and rye cultivated in Syria
>10000: The Indo-European family was the most successful of the Nostratic language groups, growing up somewhere around the Black Sea.

10,000-4000 BC:
Agriculture changed the nomadic, small-tribal pattern by encouraging much larger groups living very close, all year round. (A popular intermediate adaptation was semi-nomadic herding of sheep and goats.)
The Fertile Crescent pioneered almost all the cultural innovations of this period: irrigation, pottery, wheat, barley, pigs.
Catal Hoyuk (before 5000 BC) and later Hamoukar were the biggest cities, and may have spoken an Indo-European ancestor-language. [SciAm] There may have been some traffic with southeast Europe by boat (or fording the Bosporus during dry phases). Agriculture seems to have crossed, and then headed up the Danube, possibly accompanied by an Indo-European ancestor-language.
IE words: barley, wheat, flax, apples, cherries, mulberries, grapes, wine, agricultural implements, mountainous landscape, oak, birch, beech, hornbeam, ash, willow, yew, pine, heather, moss, leopard, snow leopard, lion, monkey, elephant, wheel, axle, yoke, horse, foal
domestication of horse

9000: pigs domesticated in Turkey
8000: goats domesticated in Iraq
6200: a century of cooler temps due to glacial melt?
6000: hunting nomads descend from high grasslands worldwide
5550: Black Sea suffers catastrophic salt flood from Mediterranean
5500: farming villages in Mesopotamia; potters' wheels
5000: Euphrates irrigation; Nile settlers harness the cycle of floods

4000: plowing with oxen, irrigation by Nile earthworks
4000: sheep favored for wool
3500: Uruk's cities reach 10k population; cylinder seals; the wheel
3500? Greek-Armenian-Indo-lranian splits from Anatolian
3400: first writing in Egypt
3300: numerical notation tablets; Iceman mummified in Alps
3000: sea level reaches present level, temps 2 degrees warmer than current
3000: bureaucracy, surplus, warehousing, taxes, accounting, gold mines
3000? Tocharians - Gutians?
2900? Danube culture invades Aegean via Troy

c3000: hypothetical date of Indo-European entry into Aegean region. [info] Tripolie culture north of Black Sea
2800: Gilgamesh; Pyramid of Djoser near Cairo
2700: Ur graves show fine arts, distant trade for gold, gems, spices
2500: walled cities in Egypt and Mesopotamia suggest insecurity
2500: Indo-lranian splits from Greek-Armenian
2500: Kartvelian in Caucasus [info]
c2500: early date for Indo-European conquest of Hurrian copper mines (Mitanni dynasty). [info] [map] Tripolie replaced by nomadic (horse-riding) Pit Grave (Kurgan) culture

2200: hypothetical Egyptian contacts with Indo-European sailors via Troy [info]
2480: Great Pyramind at Giza begun?
2300: Sargon unites Mesopotamia around capital Akkad
2200: serious drought in Middle East
2050: Seahenge built
2000: Uruk reaches 60k pop
2000: Hittite kingdom founded, speaking Anatolian Indo-European tongue, written in cuneiform.
c1800: Sumerian King List compiled; first Chinese dynasty

The New Chronology Timeline
Genesis
1775: Abraham migrates
1658: Israel to Egypt

1600: Minoan culture on Crete, eruption of Thera [history]
1500: Mitanni (Indo-Iranian) has split from Vedic Sanskrit
c1550: Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty

1534: birth of Moses
1453: Exodus

1413: Joshua

c1347: Amarna tablets

1388: Judges

1362: end of Akhnaton's 17-year reign (conventional dating)
c1250: The Trojan War
1200: Luwian inscriptions
c1200: migrations caused by drying climate? (deforestation???)

1025: Samuel
1014: King Saul
1012: King David in Hebron
1005: King David in Jerusalem
977: King Solomon
937: Divided Monarchy

c850: age of Greek aristocracy (informal, not specifically hereditary) [tm4.5] value-system depicted in Homeric epics [tm4.6] Iliad depicts warrior-ethic of 'arete' (excellence) [tm4.7] Odyssey explores ethics for women as well [tm4.8] bands led by chiefs [tm4.14]
c750: Homer. Hesiod. emergence of Greek 'polis'

724: Israel defeated

625: Chaldean dynasty
563: The world, when Buddha was born

587: Judah defeated. Destruction of the Temple.

594: Solon's democratic experiment looked foolish to some [tm6.27]
c580: Aesop of Samos [PGut]ditto
563: [world history]
560-486: Persia under Cyrus and Darius conquers most of world from Afghanistan to Egypt; establishes government by local 'satraps' [tm8.2] taxation-policies produce vast wealth for Persian monarch [tm8.2.1] religion was Zoroastrian dualism [tm8.2.2] subject peoples allowed to follow own religion (eg Jews) [tm8.2.3]
c530: Pythagoras emigrates from Samos to s. Italy; teaches that nature is mathematical [tm6.34]
507: Athens send ambassadors to Persia for support against Sparta, misunderstandings eventually result in Persian invasion [tm8.1] embassy launched in naive optimism [tm8.1.1] ambassadors unprepared to refuse making gesture of submission [tm8.1.2]
525: Aeschylus

500-322: Classical Age of Greece[tm7.1][detailed timeline]

500-400: Golden Age of Athens [tm7.0]
499: Ionian revolt against Persian rule supported by Athens, not by Sparta [tm8.3.2] initiates Persian Wars [tm8.3]
494: Ionian rebellion crushed by Persia [tm8.3.2]
490-479: far-richer and more-numerous Persian forces try to conquer Greece [tm8.0]
490: Persian fleet burns Eretria, lands at Marathon [tm8.3.3] Athenians win unexpected victory [tm8.3.4] messenger runs 26 miles to warn Athens about Persian fleet [tm8.3.4.1] victory boosted Athenian confidence [tm8.3.5]
480: Xerxes of Persia leads masive army across Hellespont and successfully invades northern Greece, but 31 city-states vow to resist under Spartan leadership [tm7.1][tm8.4] the Spartans fought heroically at Thermopylae [tm8.4.1] Athenian navy outmaneuvers Persians at Salamis [tm8.4.2]
480: Persians destroy olive-tree sanctuary of Athena on acropolis (left unrepaired for next 30 years, as reminder) [tm9.4.6]
479: after levelling Athens twice, Persians are vanquished [tm8.4.3] victory over common enemy unites Greeks in idealism [tm8.5] Athens would emerge as dominant polis [tm9.0]
c460: Pericles wins popularity by arranging stipends for jurors (promoting democracy) [tm9.3]
447: Pericles launches extravagant public-building program [tm9.4] built Parthenon on the acropolis [tm9.4.4]
440: Herodotus
442: Sophocles
438: Euripides
425: Aristophanes
404: Sparta defeats Athens, end of Athenian golden age [tm7.1]
399: trial and death of Socrates

380: Plato
360: Aristotle

to convey the timescale we might 're-set' 399BC to be 1963AD:

1162: Trojan war (cf Wm the Conqueror)
1612: Homer and Hesiod (cf Shakespeare)
1768: Solon's lawcode, Sappho, Ionian philosophers
(cf Revolutionary War)
1872: Athenian victory at Marathon
1878-1904: 80+ plays of Aeschylus (cf Ibsen)
1883: Persian forces expelled from Greece
1893: birth of Socrates (cf Mao Tse-Tung)
1893: 28yo Sophocles beats 57yo Aeschylus for tragedy 'Oscar'
1893-1956: 120+ plays of Sophocles (cf G Bernard Shaw)
1902-1916: 1st Peloponnesian war (cf WW1)
1924-1957: 90+ plays of Euripides (cf Eugene O'Neill)
1931-1958: 2nd Peloponnesian war (cf WW2)
1935: birth of Plato (cf Elvis, Ralph Nader)
1935-1980: 30+ comedies of Aristophanes (cf Groucho Marx)
1955: 20yo Plato meets 62yo Socrates
1963: death of Socrates (cf JFK assassination)
1977: Plato founds Academy (cf Apple Computer)
1978: birth of Aristotle
2002: Aristotle is 24, Plato is 67
2015: death of Plato
2020: Aristotle tutors Alexander
2026: Alexander becomes king
2040: death of Aristotle


Related pages:
Master timeline: universal
Graphing human history: lifelines
Internet Timelines Project: XML-theory
Genetic 'Eve': 100,000 BC?
Early homo sapiens: 50,000 BC?
Migrations: master timeline
Paleopsychology: 10,000 BC?
Proto-Indo-European: 8,000 BC?
The world, when the Black Sea flooded: 5550 BC
Greece 3000 BC
The world, when the Iceman froze: 3300 BC
The Phaistos disk: 1800 BC?
The world, when Thera erupted: 1628 BC
Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty: c1550 BC
Amarna tablets: c1347 BC
The Trojan War: c1250 BC
Chaldean dynasty 625 BC
The world, when Buddha was born: 563 BC
Historical Jesus FAQ: 30 AD
Ireland: general timeline