The Narmer Palette
, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archaeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, belonging, at least nominally, to the category of cosmetic palettes. It contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. The tablet is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer.
Bushel with geometrical decor and reeds. Terracotta, Susa I (4200–3800 BC), found in the necropolis of the Tell of the Acropolis.
Dish with geometrical decor. Terracotta, Susa I (4200–3800 BC), found in the necropolis of the Tell of the Acropolis.
Goblet and cup, Iran, Susa I style, 4th millennium BC – Ubaid period; goblet height c. 12 cm
-4500–3300
Invention of the potter's wheel
Earliest solid wooden wheels (disks with a hole for the axle); earliest wheeled vehicles; domestication of the horse.
In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping (known as throwing) of clay into round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess clay from leather-hard dried ware that is stiff but malleable, and for applying incised decoration or rings of colour. Use of the potter's wheel became widespread throughout the Old World but was unknown in the Pre-Columbian New World, where pottery was handmade by methods that included coiling and beating.
A potter's wheel may occasionally be referred to as a "potter's lathe". However, that term is better used for another kind of machine that is used for a different shaping process, turning, similar to that used for shaping of metal and wooden articles. The pottery wheel is an important component to create arts and craft products.[1]
The techniques of jiggering and jolleying can be seen as extensions of the potter's wheel: in jiggering, a shaped tool is slowly brought down onto the plastic clay body that has been placed on top of the rotating plaster mould. The jigger tool shapes one face, the mould the other. The term is specific to the shaping of flat ware, such as plates, whilst a similar technique, jolleying, refers to the production of hollow ware, such as cups.
Prisoners, Susa II
Susa III/ Proto-Elamite cylinder seal 3150–2800 BC Mythological being on a boat
Susa III/ Proto-Elamite cylinder seal 3150–2800 BC
Susa III/ Proto-Elamite cylinder seal, 3150–2800 BC
King-priest with bow fighting enemies, with horned temple in the center. Susa II or Uruk period (3800–3100 BC)
-4400
Susa
Was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km (160 mi) east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers in Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital of Elam and the Achaemenid Empire, and remained a strategic centre during the Parthian and Sasanian periods.
The site currently consists of three archaeological mounds, covering an area of around one square kilometre. The modern Iranian town of Shush is located on the site of ancient Susa. Shush is identified as Shushan, mentioned in the Book of Esther and other Biblical books.
-4000
Uruk
Also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.
Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC. By the final phase of the Uruk period around 3100 BC, the city may have had 40,000 residents, with 80,000-90,000 people living in its environs, making it the largest urban area in the world at the time. The legendary king Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian King List (henceforth SKL), ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. The city lost its prime importance around 2000 BC in the context of the struggle of Babylonia against Elam, but it remained inhabited throughout the Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227 BC to 224 AD) periods until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of 633–638.
Clay impression of a cylinder seal with monstrous lions and lion-headed eagles, Mesopotamia, Uruk Period (4000 BC–3000 BC)
Anu/ White Temple ziggurat at Uruk. The original pyramidal structure, the "Anu Ziggurat" dates to around 4000 BC, and the White Temple was built on top of it circa 3500 BC.
Tablet from Uruk III (c. 3200–3000 BC)
An Uruk period cylinder-seal and its impression, c.3100 BC
Reconstructed Sumerian headgear and necklaces found in the tomb of Puabi in the "Royal tombs" of Ur.
The Standard of Ur mosaic, from the royal tombs of Ur, is made of red limestone, bitumen, lapis lazuli, and shell. The "peace" side shows comfort, music, and prosperity.The "war" side of the Standard of Ur shows the king, his armies, and chariots trampling on enemies.
Gold helmet of King of Ur I Meskalamdug, c. 2600–2500 BC
Enthroned King Ur-Nammu (c. 2047–2030 BC)
The ziggurat was built by King Ur-Nammu, who dedicated it in honour of Nanna/Sîn in approximately the 21st century BC
-3800
Ur
Was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar (Arabic: تل ٱلْمُقَيَّر) in south Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate in the Arabian Peninsula. Although Ur was once a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, the coastline has shifted and the city is now well inland, on the south bank of the Euphrates, 16 kilometres (9.9 miles) from Nasiriyah in modern-day Iraq. The city dates from the Ubaid period circa 3800 BC, and is recorded in written history as a city-state from the 26th century BC, its first recorded king being Mesannepada.
-3500
Cuneiform
Writing began after pottery was invented, during the Neolithic, when clay tokens were used to record specific amounts of livestock or commodities. In recent years a contrarian view has arisen on the tokens being the precursor of writing. These tokens were initially impressed on the surface of round clay envelopes (clay bullae) and then stored in them. The tokens were then progressively replaced by flat tablets, on which signs were recorded with a stylus. Writing is first recorded in Uruk, at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and soon after in various parts of the Near-East.
Evolution of the cuneiform sign SAG "head", 3000–1000 BC
The Kish tablet, a limestone tablet from Kish with pictographic, early cuneiform, writing, 3500 BC. Possibly the earliest known example of writing. Ashmolean Museum.
Tablet with proto-cuneiform pictographic characters (end of 4th millennium BC), Uruk III. This is thought to be a list of slaves' names, the hand in the upper left corner representing the owner.
A large cuneiform inscription found on the south side of the Van Castle hill, four kilometres west of modern-day Van, in eastern Turkey. It's several metres tall and wide, 25 centuries old and the message comes from the Persian king Xerxes. In Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite, it says (roughly): "Ahuramazda is the great god, the greatest god who created the sky and created the land and created humans Who gave prosperity to the humans Who made Xerxes king King of many kings, being the only ruler of the totality of all lands “I am Xerxes, the great king, the king of kings, the king of the lands, king of all the languages, king of the great and large land, the son of king Darius the Achaemenian” The king Xerxes says: “the king Darius, my father, praised be Ahuramazda, made a lot of good, and this mountain, he ordered to work its cliff and he wrote nothing on it so, me, I ordered to write here. May Ahuramazda protect me, with all the gods and so my kingdom and what I have done."
Table illustrating the progressive simplification of cuneiform signs from archaic (vertical) script to Assyrian
-3300
Proto-Cuneiform
Emerged in the Uruk IV period, circa 3300 BC and continued though the Uruk III times. The script slowly evolved over time with signs changing and merging. It was initially used in Uruk, later spreading to a few additional sites like Jemdet Nasr.
Hieroglyphs from the tomb of Seti I , 13th century BC
-3200
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters. Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts were derived from hieroglyphic writing, as was the Proto-Sinaitic script that later evolved into the Phoenician alphabet. Through the Phoenician alphabet's major child systems (the Greek and Aramaic scripts), the Egyptian hieroglyphic script is ancestral to the majority of scripts in modern use, most prominently the Latin and Cyrillic scripts (through Greek) and the Arabic script, and possibly the Brahmic family of scripts (through Aramaic, Phoenician, and Greek).[citation needed]
The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age, around the 32nd century BC (Naqada III), with the first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dating to the Second Dynasty (28th century BC).
-3000
Egyptian papyrus
Papyrus was first known to have been used in Egypt (at least as far back as the First Dynasty), as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region. Apart from a writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts, such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets.
Men splitting papyrus, Tomb of Puyemré; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Papyrus plants near Syracuse, Sicily
A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus
Limestone Ka statue of Djoser from his pyramid serdab
West colonnade of the Djoser necropolis.
Step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, Egypt
The Famine Stela, mentioning Djoser.
-2600
The first pyramid
Was built by Imhotep, the architect of Djoser (3rd dynasty) around -2600 at Saqqara . An Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate,that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara contains numerous pyramids, including the Pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb, and a number of mastaba tombs. , Egypt.
-2570
Great Pyramid of Giza
Biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu / Khéops / Cheops .
-2500
Great Sphinx of Giza
The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognizable statues in the world. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BC) , the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza.
-2334
Sargon of Akkad
the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire,
known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC.He is sometimes identified as the first person in recorded history to rule over an empire.
He was the founder of the "Sargonic" or "Old Akkadian" dynasty, which ruled for about a century after his death until the Gutian conquest of Sumer. The Sumerian king list makes him the cup-bearer to king Ur-Zababa of Kish.
His empire is thought to have included most of Mesopotamia, parts of the Levant, besides incursions into Hurrian and Elamite territory, ruling from his (archaeologically as yet unidentified) capital, Akkad (also Agade).
Sargon appears as a legendary figure in Neo-Assyrian literature of the 8th to 7th centuries BC. Tablets with fragments of a Sargon Birth Legend were found in the Library of Ashurbanipal.
Hammurabi (-1810 -1750)
-1810
Hammurabi
Was the sixth Amorite king of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning from c. 1792 to c. 1750 BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered Elam and the city-states of Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari. He ousted Ishme-Dagan I, the king of Assyria, and forced his son Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute, bringing almost all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule.
The Lion Gate flanked by two towers, located at the southwest of the city, the lions were put at the entrance of the city to ward off evil, Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire
Sphinx Gate entrance of the city.
Hattusa city walls reconstructed, Hattusa, Turkey.
Twelve Hittite gods of the Underworld in the nearby Yazılıkaya, a sanctuary of Hattusa
Large pottery at the excavation site.
Hattusa Green Stone monument believed to have religious origins
An artifact from the site of Hattusa is presented at Hattusa Museum
Hyksos Art
-1650
Avaris capital of the Hyksos
Stonehenge -1600/1200
-1500
Invention of the Alphabet by the Phoenicians
Seal inscribed in the Phoenician script (also known as Paleo-Hebrew)
-1353
Akhenaten
Also spelled Echnaton ,was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning 1353–1336 or 1351–1334 BC,the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the fifth year of his reign, he was known as Amenhotep IV
-1303
Ramesses II
( c. 1303 BC – 1213 BC), was an Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty.
-1274
The Battle of kadesh
Took place between the forces of the New Kingdom of Egypt under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, just upstream of Lake Homs near the modern Lebanon–Syria border
-1200
OLMECS civilisation
By no later than 1200 BCE, San Lorenzo had emerged as the most prominent Olmec center. ( Mesoamerican civilization. )
-1070
nubians civilisation
Emergence of the kingdom of kush
-1046
Zhou dynasty (China)
-884
Assurnasirpal
(Empire Assyrien,cap Kalhu/Nimroud)
-8th
Etruscan civilization
The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians, was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod, in his work, the Theogony.
-800
Kingdom of Saba
The 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, Mahavira, who was born in Magadha to a royal family
Cyclopean Wall of Rajgir which encircled the former capital of Magadha, Rajgir. Amongst the oldest pieces of cyclopean masonry in the world
-800
Kingdom of Magadha ( India)
Magadha was a region[2] and one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, 'Great Kingdoms' of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was ruled by Brihadratha dynasty, Pradyota dynasty (682–544 BCE), Haryanka dynasty (544–413 BCE), the Shaishunaga dynasty (413–345 BCE) and the Mauryan dynasty by the end of it. Villages had their own assemblies under their local chiefs called Gramakas. Their administrations were divided into executive, judicial, and military functions.[3][4]
Magadha played an important role in the development of Jainism and Buddhism.[5] It was succeeded by four of northern India's greatest empires, the Nanda Empire (c. 345–322 BCE), Maurya Empire (c. 322–185 BCE), Shunga Empire (c. 185–78 BCE) and Gupta Empire (c. 319–550 CE). The Pala Empire also ruled over Magadha and maintained a royal camp in Pataliputra.[6][7]
The Pithipatis of Bodh Gaya referred to themselves as Magadhādipati and ruled in parts of Magadha until the 13th century.[8]
-776
Olympic games
The first written records of the ancient Olympic Games date to 776 B.C., when a cook named Coroebus won the only event—a 192-meter footrace called the stade (the origin of the modern “stadium”)to become the first Olympic champion.
Palaestra at Olympia
View of the Palestra, a center for wrestling
Crypt (arched way to the stadium)
Ruins of the Temple of Hera
The archaeological site showing the stadium, the temple of Hera, the temple of Zeus.
-753
Romulus and Remus
In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus (Latin: [ˈroːmʊlʊs], [ˈrɛmʊs]) are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his fratricide of Remus. The image of a she-wolf suckling the twins in their infancy has been a symbol of the city of Rome and the ancient Romans since at least the 3rd century BC. Although the tale takes place before the founding of Rome around 750 BC
-750
Homer
Was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history
-750
Cyrene or Kyrene (Libya)
It was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities, known as the pentapoleis, in the region. The traditional founder of the city was Battus the Lacedemonian, It became the seat of the Cyrenaics, a famous school of philosophy in the fourth century BC, founded by Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates.
-705
Sennacherib
The king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705 BC to his own death in 681 BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous Assyrian kings for the role he plays in the Hebrew Bible, which describes his campaign in the Levant. Other events of his reign include his destruction of the city of Babylon in 689 BC and his renovation and expansion of the last great Assyrian capital, Nineveh.
Sennacherib's father Sargon II (left) facing a high-ranking official, possibly his crown prince Sennacherib
The Flight of Adrammelech, illustration from Dalziel's Bible Gallery (1881), depicting Arda-Mulissu and Nabu-shar-usur escaping after murdering their father Sennacherib
Sennacherib's father Sargon II (left) facing a high-ranking official, possibly his crown prince Sennacherib
Prism of Sennacherib, containing records of his military campaigns, culminating with Babylon's destruction
19th-century reconstruction of Nineveh by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard
Reliefs from Sennacherib's time depicting an Assyrian warship (top) and a number of his soldiers along with their prisoners and war trophies (bottom)
Sennacherib (enthroned at the far right) at Lachish, interacting with his officials and reviewing prisoners
-690
Taharqa
Also spelled Taharka or Taharqo , was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of Kush (present day Sudan), from 690 to 664 BC. He was one of the "Kushite Pharaohs" who ruled over Egypt for nearly a century
-669
Ashurbanipal
King of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BCE to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria.
Ashurbanipal depicted in the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal reliefs
Relief depicting Ashurbanipal's army attacking an Egyptian settlement, possibly Memphis, during the Assyrian conquest of Egypt.
The Rassam cylinder of Ashurbanipal, the most complete of chronicle of his reign, includes a description of the campaign of Egypt. Nineveh, 643 BCE.
Portion of the "Garden Party" relief, depicting Ashurbanipal (right) and his queen Libbali-sharrat (left)
Relief depicting Ashurbanipal in a chariot, inspecting booty and prisoners from Babylon
Relief depicting tongue removal and live flaying of Elamite chiefs after the Battle of Ulai
Ashurbanipal, a bronze statue by Fred Parhad in the Civic Center of San Francisco
