What happened in the ancient world? (10,000–500 BC)
Farming, cities, writing, pyramids and the first empires: the ancient world laid the foundations for everything that followed.
63 events, oldest first.
Timeline of The ancient world
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c. 10,000 years ago
Sabre-toothed cats die out
Smilodon's canine teeth could be more than 25 cm long.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 9500 BC
Göbekli Tepe is built
This monumental site in Turkey predates Stonehenge by about 6,000 years.
Ancient history
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c. 8500 BC
Cattle are domesticated
All modern cattle may descend from as few as 80 wild aurochs tamed in the Near East.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 8000 BC
The walls of Jericho are built
It is often called one of the oldest walled towns in the world.
Ancient history
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c. 7500 BC
The oldest known pet cat is buried with its owner
The burial in Cyprus shows cats lived alongside people about 9,500 years ago.
Ancient history
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c. 7100 BC
Çatalhöyük is settled
Its houses had no doors; people climbed in through holes in the roof.
Ancient history
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c. 6500 BC
Rising seas make Britain an island
People once walked from Britain to Europe across land that is now the North Sea.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 6200 BC
The Storegga Slide triggers a huge tsunami
An underwater landslide off Norway sent waves crashing onto Scotland.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 6000 BC
Wine is first made in Georgia
Residue in 8,000-year-old clay jars shows people in Georgia made wine in the Stone Age.
Food & brand history
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c. 5700 BC
Mount Mazama erupts, forming Crater Lake
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 3500 BC
The oldest known leather shoe is made
The shoe, found in an Armenian cave, is roughly a modern women's size 37.
Ancient history
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c. 3500 BC
The Sahara begins turning to desert
Rock art shows giraffes, hippos and cattle in what is now desert.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 3500 BC
The wheel is invented
The wheel was used for making pottery before it was used for transport.
Ancient history
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c. 3200 BC
Newgrange passage tomb is built in Ireland
At the winter solstice, sunlight shines straight down its passage into the inner chamber.
Ancient history
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c. 3200 BC
Writing is invented in Sumer
The earliest cuneiform tablets are mostly accounts of grain, beer and livestock.
Ancient history
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c. 3180 BC
Skara Brae village is inhabited in Orkney
Its stone houses still have their stone beds and dressers.
Ancient history
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c. 3100 BC
Egypt is united under its first pharaoh
Egypt then lasted as one kingdom for around 3,000 years.
Ancient history
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c. 2800 BC
Methuselah, the oldest known living tree, sprouts
The bristlecone pine in California is still alive today.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 2650 BC
The Step Pyramid of Djoser is built
It is the oldest of Egypt's great pyramids.
Ancient history
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c. 2600 BC
The Royal Game of Ur is played
It is the oldest playable board game; its rules were worked out from a clay tablet.
Ancient history
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c. 2560 BC
The Great Pyramid of Giza is completed
It was the tallest human-made structure in the world for nearly 4,000 years.
Ancient history
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c. 2500 BC
Mohenjo-daro thrives in the Indus Valley
The city had covered drains and a 'Great Bath' around 4,500 years ago.
Ancient history
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c. 2500 BC
Stonehenge's great sarsen stones are raised
Its smaller bluestones were dragged from Wales, about 150 miles away.
Ancient history
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c. 2500 BC
The Great Sphinx of Giza is carved
Its nose was missing long before Napoleon's soldiers arrived in Egypt.
Ancient history
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c. 2334 BC
Sargon of Akkad founds the first empire
Legend says he was set adrift as a baby in a basket on a river.
Ancient history
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c. 2100 BC
The Epic of Gilgamesh is written down
It includes a great flood story strikingly similar to Noah's Ark.
Pop culture history
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c. 2100 BC
The Great Ziggurat of Ur is built
Its lower levels survive and were partly reconstructed in the 1980s.
Ancient history
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c. 2000 BC
Millet noodles are made in China
A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles was found preserved at Lajia in China.
Food & brand history
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c. 2000 BC
The last woolly mammoths die out
A small population survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, centuries after the Great Pyramid was built.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 1900 BC
The palace at Knossos is built on Crete
Its maze-like layout may have inspired the legend of the Labyrinth.
Ancient history
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c. 1800 BC
The first alphabet is created
It was devised by Semitic-speaking workers in Egypt, adapting hieroglyphs.
Ancient history
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c. 1754 BC
The Code of Hammurabi is carved
Its 282 Babylonian laws include the famous principle of 'an eye for an eye'.
Ancient history
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c. 1600 BC
The Thera volcano erupts
The huge eruption may have inspired the legend of Atlantis.
Natural history & deep time
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c. 1479 BC
Hatshepsut becomes pharaoh
She was often shown in statues wearing a pharaoh's false beard.
Ancient history
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c. 1450 BC
Cleopatra's Needle is carved in Egypt
It has nothing to do with Cleopatra; it was made for Pharaoh Thutmose III.
Ancient history
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c. 1346 BC
Akhenaten builds a new capital at Amarna
He tried to make Egypt worship a single sun god, the Aten.
Ancient history
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c. 1332 BC
Tutankhamun becomes pharaoh
He was only about nine years old when he took the throne.
Ancient history
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c. 1279 BC
Ramesses II becomes pharaoh
He reigned for about 66 years and fathered over 100 children.
Ancient history
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c. 1274 BC
The Battle of Kadesh
It led to one of the earliest known peace treaties.
Ancient history
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c. 1250 BC
Mycenae's Lion Gate is built
Its two carved lions are the oldest monumental sculpture in Europe.
Ancient history
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c. 1200 BC
The Iron Age begins in the Near East
Iron tools and weapons slowly replaced bronze ones.
Ancient history
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c. 1200 BC
The Olmec carve colossal stone heads
Some of the heads are nearly 3 metres tall and weigh many tonnes.
Ancient history
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c. 1046 BC
The Zhou dynasty begins in China
It lasted around 800 years, longer than any other Chinese dynasty.
Ancient history
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c. 1000 BC
The Uffington White Horse is carved
The chalk figure is about 110 metres long.
Ancient history
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c. 814 BC
Carthage is founded, according to tradition
Legend says Queen Dido founded it.
Ancient history
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776 BC
The first recorded ancient Olympic Games
The only event was a sprint of about 192 metres, won by a cook named Coroebus.
History of sport
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753 BC
Rome is founded, according to legend
Tradition dates it to 21 April, still celebrated as Rome's birthday - after the first Olympics.
Ancient history
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c. 750 BC
Homer's Iliad is composed
It covers just a few weeks of the ten-year Trojan War.
Art & literature history
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c. 650 BC
The Library of Ashurbanipal is assembled
Its clay tablets survived because the palace burned down, baking them hard.
Ancient history
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c. 621 BC
Draco gives Athens its harsh laws
His laws were so severe that 'draconian' still means harsh.
Ancient history
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612 BC
Nineveh falls to the Babylonians and Medes
The great Assyrian capital was never rebuilt.
Ancient history
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c. 600 BC
Sappho writes her poems on Lesbos
Only one of her poems survives complete.
Art & literature history
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c. 600 BC
The first coins are minted in Lydia
They were made from electrum, a natural mix of gold and silver.
Ancient history
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594 BC
Solon reforms the laws of Athens
He cancelled debts and freed Athenians who had been enslaved for debt.
Ancient history
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587 BC
Nebuchadnezzar captures Jerusalem
The fall of the city began the Babylonian exile of the Jews.
Ancient history
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585 BC
Thales predicts a solar eclipse
The eclipse halted a battle between the Medes and the Lydians.
Ancient history
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c. 575 BC
Babylon's Ishtar Gate is built
Its blue glazed bricks show lions, bulls and dragons; it now stands in a Berlin museum.
Ancient history
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551 BC
Confucius is born
His teachings shaped Chinese government and society for over 2,000 years.
Ancient history
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539 BC
Cyrus the Great captures Babylon
The Cyrus Cylinder records the event and is sometimes called an early charter of rights.
Ancient history
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c. 530 BC
Pythagoras founds his school in Croton
His followers reportedly refused to eat beans.
Ancient history
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c. 518 BC
Darius I begins building Persepolis
Its staircases are carved with delegations bringing gifts from across the empire.
Ancient history
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509 BC
The Roman Republic is founded
Romans were so wary of kings that the word 'king' stayed taboo for centuries.
Ancient history
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508 BC
Cleisthenes makes Athens a democracy
His reforms gave power to every male citizen, not just the rich.
Ancient history
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