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| Fertile Crescent | Northeastern Africa | Ancient India | Ancient China | Ancient Peru | Mesoamerica | |
| 2000 | US-led invasion of Iraq (2003); Syrian civil war (2011–2024); the rise and fall of ISIS | Arab Spring topples Mubarak (2011); South Sudan secedes (2011); war in Sudan (2023–) | Rapid growth; India becomes the most populous country (2023); Chandrayaan-3 lands near the Moon's south pole | China becomes the world's largest manufacturer; Beijing Olympics (2008); the Tiangong space station | Commodity-led growth; repeated presidential crises since 2016 | Mexico's first non-PRI president (2000); the drug war (2006–); Claudia Sheinbaum, first woman president (2024) |
| 1900 | British and French mandates after World War I; Iraq (1932), Syria (1946) and Israel (1948) independent; repeated wars | Egypt independent (1922); Nasser's revolution (1952) and the Aswan High Dam; Sudan independent (1956) | Gandhi and the independence movement; Partition and independence of India and Pakistan (1947); Bangladesh (1971) | Republic (1912); civil war and Japanese invasion; People's Republic (1949); reform and opening (1978) | Machu Picchu made famous (1911); military governments; the Shining Path conflict (1980–2000) | The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920); oil nationalized (1938); Guatemala's civil war (1960–1996); NAFTA (1994) |
| 1800 | Ottoman direct rule restored in Baghdad (1831); Tanzimat reforms; steamers on the Tigris | Muhammad Ali modernizes Egypt and conquers Sudan; Suez Canal (1869); British occupation (1882); the Mahdist state | East India Company conquers most of India; the Rebellion of 1857; the British Raj (1858) | Opium Wars; the Taiping Rebellion; treaty ports and unequal treaties | Independence (1821–1824); the guano boom; the War of the Pacific with Chile (1879–1884) | Independence (1810–1821); the north lost to the United States (1848); Benito Juárez; Porfirio Díaz |
| 1700 | Mamluk pashas govern Ottoman Iraq almost independently; Damascus under the Azm governors | Mamluk beys such as Ali Bey al-Kabir defy the Ottomans; Napoleon invades (1798) | Mughal decline; the Maratha Confederacy; the British win at Plassey (1757) and take Bengal | High Qing under Qianlong; population passes 300 million; the Canton trade system | Bourbon reforms; Túpac Amaru II's rebellion (1780) | Bourbon reforms; Mexico City the largest city in the Americas |
| 1600 | Safavid Persia holds Baghdad from 1624 until the Ottomans retake it (1638) | Ottoman Egypt governed through Mamluk beys; the coffee trade passes through Cairo | Mughal height: Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal; Aurangzeb; English and Dutch East India Companies | Ming falls; the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644); the Kangxi Emperor | Colonial Peru: Potosí silver and the mita labour draft; Lima, a viceregal capital | Colonial New Spain: silver mines, Mexico City's cathedral, Sor Juana; the last Maya kingdom, Nojpetén, falls (1697) |
| 1500 | Ottomans take Syria (1516) and Baghdad (1534); Ottoman–Safavid wars over Iraq | Ottomans conquer Egypt (1517); the Funj Sultanate of Sennar rules Sudan | Babur founds the Mughal Empire (1526); Akbar; Portuguese Goa; Vijayanagara falls (1565) | Ming silver economy; the Portuguese at Macau; Matteo Ricci arrives | Inca civil war; Pizarro seizes Atahualpa (1532); Lima founded (1535); Viceroyalty of Peru; Vilcabamba falls (1572) | Cortés takes Tenochtitlan (1521); New Spain; epidemics kill most of the population |
| 1400 | Turkmen confederations, Kara Koyunlu then Ak Koyunlu, rule Iraq; Mamluks hold Syria | Late Mamluk sultans; Christian Nubia gives way to Muslim kingdoms | Delhi Sultanate shrinks; Vijayanagara flourishes; Guru Nanak; Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut (1498) | The Forbidden City; Zheng He's voyages (1405–1433); the Great Wall rebuilt in stone | Pachacuti defeats the Chancas (1438) and builds the Inca Empire; Machu Picchu; Chimú conquered (c. 1470) | The Triple Alliance (1428) builds the Aztec Empire; the Templo Mayor; K'iche' kingdom in Guatemala |
| 1300 | Mongol Ilkhanate breaks up; the Black Death; Timur sacks Baghdad (1393) | Mamluk Cairo, the largest city west of China; the Black Death (1347); Makuria declines | Khalji and Tughlaq sultans reach the far south; Vijayanagara and the Bahmani kingdom; Timur sacks Delhi (1398) | Yuan collapses; Zhu Yuanzhang founds the Ming dynasty (1368) | Chimú conquers the north coast, Chan Chan the largest adobe city; the Inca a minor highland state | Tenochtitlan founded (1325) on an island in Lake Texcoco |
| 1200 | Mongols sack Baghdad (1258) and end the Abbasid Caliphate; the Mamluks stop them at Ain Jalut (1260) | Mamluk Sultanate (1250); Baybars defeats the Mongols and the last Crusaders | Delhi Sultanate (1206); the Qutb Minar; Mongol raids repelled | Mongols conquer China; Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty (1271); Marco Polo | The Kingdom of Cusco founded by the Inca (Manco Cápac, traditionally c. 1230) | Mayapán leads Yucatán; the Mexica arrive in the Valley of Mexico; the Tarascan state forms |
| 1100 | Crusader states; Nur ad-Din and Saladin unite Syria; Jerusalem retaken (1187) | Saladin ends the Fatimids (1171), founds the Ayyubid dynasty and builds the Cairo Citadel | Rajput kingdoms; Muhammad of Ghor defeats Prithviraj Chauhan (1192) | Jurchen Jin take the north (1127); Southern Song in Hangzhou; Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism | Chimú, Chancay, Ychsma and Chincha on the coast; Kuélap fortress of the Chachapoyas | Tula falls (c. 1150); Chichén Itzá declines; Chichimec migrations from the north |
| 1000 | Seljuk Turks take Baghdad (1055); the First Crusade takes Jerusalem (1099) | Fatimid Cairo at its height; the caliph al-Hakim; Christian Makuria strong in Nubia | Mahmud of Ghazni raids the north; Rajaraja and Rajendra Chola build a maritime empire | Northern Song: gunpowder formulas, Bi Sheng's movable type, Wang Anshi's reforms | Wari and Tiwanaku collapse amid drought; the Late Intermediate Period of regional kingdoms | Toltec Tula at its height; the Mixtec ruler Eight Deer Jaguar Claw |
| 900 | Abbasid caliphs become figureheads under Buyid emirs; Fatimids and Hamdanids divide Syria | Fatimids conquer Egypt (969), found Cairo and al-Azhar | Khajuraho's temples; Chola power grows in the south; Rajput clans in the north | Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms; the Song dynasty reunites the core (960) | Wari weakens; Sicán's gold at Batán Grande; the Chimú kingdom founded at Chan Chan | Chichén Itzá dominates Yucatán; the Toltecs found Tula; the last Long Count date (909) |
| 800 | Islamic Golden Age: the House of Wisdom in Baghdad translates Greek science; al-Khwarizmi's algebra | Ahmad ibn Tulun makes Egypt autonomous (868) and builds his great mosque | The Palas patronize Buddhism in Bengal; Adi Shankara's Advaita; the Cholas revive | Late Tang; the oldest dated printed book, the Diamond Sutra (868); Huang Chao's rebellion | Wari and Tiwanaku still dominant; the Sicán culture rises on the north coast | Classic Maya collapse: southern cities abandoned amid drought and war; Puuc cities such as Uxmal flourish |
| 700 | Abbasid revolution (750); Baghdad founded (762), soon the largest city in the world | Umayyad then Abbasid province; Coptic revolts; Arabic slowly replaces Coptic | Arabs take Sindh (712); Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas fight over Kannauj; Ellora's Kailasa temple | Tang golden age: Li Bai and Du Fu; Chang'an the world's largest city; An Lushan Rebellion (755) | Wari at its height (Pikillacta); Moche comes to an end; Chachapoyas culture in the cloud forest | Maya population at its peak; Bonampak's murals; Copán's Hieroglyphic Stairway; Xochicalco |
| 600 | Arab Muslim conquest (630s); the Umayyad Caliphate rules from Damascus; Battle of Karbala (680) | Persians briefly hold Egypt (619); Arab conquest (641) and Fustat founded; Makuria holds the Arabs off | Harsha rules the north; Xuanzang studies at Nalanda; Pallava temples at Mahabalipuram | Sui digs the Grand Canal; Tang dynasty (618) under Taizong; Xuanzang's journey to India | Middle Horizon: Wari expands with roads and administrative centres; Tiwanaku rules the Titicaca basin | Late Classic Maya: Pakal the Great at Palenque; Tikal–Calakmul wars; Cholula and El Tajín grow |
| 500 | Khosrow I's reforms; long Byzantine–Sasanian wars exhaust both empires | Justinian's Egypt; the Nubian kingdoms of Nobadia, Makuria and Alodia become Christian | Huna invasions break the Guptas; Chalukyas and Pallavas rise in the south | Buddhism flourishes in both north and south; the Sui dynasty reunites China (589) | Droughts and El Niño floods strain the Moche; the Wari state forms in Ayacucho | Calakmul defeats Tikal (562); Teotihuacan's centre burned (c. 550) |
| 400 | Sasanian Ctesiphon at its height; the Church of the East goes its own way | Council of Chalcedon (451) splits the Coptic Church from Constantinople | Gupta golden age: Kalidasa, Aryabhata, place-value numerals with zero; Nalanda founded | Northern and Southern dynasties; Northern Wei carves the Yungang Buddhist grottoes | Nazca's underground aqueducts; Pachacamac becomes a shrine; Tiwanaku's Akapana pyramid | Copán's dynasty founded (426); Teotihuacan dominates central Mexico; Monte Albán at its height |
| 300 | Christianity spreads through Syria and Mesopotamia; Roman–Sasanian wars; the Babylonian Talmud takes shape | Byzantine Egypt; King Ezana makes Aksum Christian and overruns Meroë (c. 350) | Gupta Empire: Chandragupta I and Samudragupta unite northern India | Sixteen Kingdoms in the north; the Jin court flees south (317) | Moche and Nazca at their height; Tiwanaku grows beside Lake Titicaca | Teotihuacan intervenes at Tikal (378) and installs a new dynasty |
| 200 | Sasanian Persia replaces the Parthians (224) and rules from Ctesiphon; Zenobia of Palmyra defies Rome | Coptic Christianity; Antony and the first desert monks; Aksum rises in the Ethiopian highlands | Kushans and Satavahanas decline; regional kingdoms; Buddhist Nagarjunakonda | Han collapses (220); the Three Kingdoms; Jin reunites China briefly (280) | The Lord of Sipán buried in gold (c. 250); Lima culture's adobe pyramids | Early Classic: Tikal and Calakmul rise; Teotihuacan grows toward 100,000 people |
| 100 | Trajan briefly takes Mesopotamia (116); Palmyra grows rich on caravan trade | Alexandria a centre of Greek learning: Ptolemy's Almagest; the Catechetical School | Kanishka's Kushan Empire; Mahayana Buddhism spreads; Satavahanas rule the Deccan | Cai Lun's paper; Zhang Heng's seismoscope; the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184) | Moche builds the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna; Nazca Lines drawn on the desert | Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the Moon and Feathered Serpent temple; El Mirador and the Preclassic Maya collapse |
| 0 | Roman–Parthian frontier on the Euphrates; Jesus of Nazareth; Rome destroys the Temple in Jerusalem (70) | Roman Egypt is the empire's granary; Meroë at its height; Christianity reaches Alexandria | Kushan Empire forms; Roman ships trade at south Indian ports; Gandhara Buddhist art | Wang Mang's interregnum; Eastern Han rules from Luoyang; Buddhism arrives | Early Intermediate Period: Moche on the north coast, Nazca on the south coast | Teotihuacan builds the Pyramid of the Sun; Epi-Olmec Long Count dates; El Mirador at its peak |
| -100 | Rome annexes Syria (64); Parthians defeat Crassus at Carrhae (53); Herod rules Judea for Rome | Cleopatra VII; Rome annexes Egypt (30 BCE) | Indo-Scythians in the northwest; Satavahanas in the Deccan; Sangam poetry in the Tamil south | Western Han at its height; the census of 2 CE counts 57 million people | Chavín's influence ends; regional cultures: Paracas Necrópolis, early Nazca, Salinar, Vicús | Late Preclassic: La Danta at El Mirador, San Bartolo's murals, Izapa's stelae; Teotihuacan begins to grow |
| -200 | Parthians take Mesopotamia (141); Maccabean revolt in Judea; Babylon fades away | Ptolemies weaken; Rosetta Stone decree (196); Meroitic script in Kush | Mauryas fall (185); Shunga dynasty; Indo-Greek kingdoms in the northwest | Han Emperor Wu: a Confucian state; Zhang Qian opens the Silk Road; Sima Qian's history | ||
| -300 | Seleucid Empire: Seleucia on the Tigris replaces Babylon; Antioch founded in Syria | Ptolemaic Egypt: the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria; Kush's Meroë builds its pyramids | Ashoka rules nearly the whole subcontinent, turns to Buddhism and carves his edicts in stone | Qin unifies China (221): one script, the Great Wall, the Terracotta Army; the Han dynasty (202) | Chavín at its height and then waning; Paracas textiles and mummy bundles; Pukara near Lake Titicaca | The Olmec heartland empties; El Mirador's huge Maya pyramids; Monte Albán grows |
| -400 | Alexander the Great defeats Persia at Gaugamela (331) and dies in Babylon (323) | Last native pharaoh Nectanebo II falls to Persia (343); Alexander takes Egypt (332) and founds Alexandria | Nanda Empire; Alexander reaches Punjab (326); Chandragupta Maurya founds the Maurya Empire | Warring States: Shang Yang reforms Qin; Mencius and the Hundred Schools of Thought | ||
| -500 | Achaemenid Persian rule: Babylon a rich satrapy, Aramaic the language of empire | Achaemenid Persian satrapy; Herodotus visits; Egypt revolts; Kush rules from Meroë | Magadha rises under Bimbisara and Ajatashatru; Persia holds Gandhara; Panini's grammar of Sanskrit | Confucius, Laozi and Sunzi; the Warring States period begins (475) | La Venta's Great Pyramid; early writing and calendars; Zapotec Monte Albán founded (c. 500) | |
| -600 | Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds Babylon and exiles Judah; Cyrus the Great takes Babylon (539) | Saite Egypt trades with Greeks at Naukratis; Cambyses of Persia conquers Egypt (525) | Second urbanization: the sixteen Mahajanapadas; the Buddha and Mahavira teach | Spring and Autumn: hegemons of Qi, Jin and Chu; iron tools appear | Early Horizon: Chavín de Huántar becomes a pilgrimage centre, spreading one art style across the Andes | |
| -700 | Sennacherib's Nineveh; Ashurbanipal's library; Babylonians and Medes destroy Assyria (612) | Assyria drives out the Kushites (671–663); Psamtik I's Saite dynasty revives Egypt | The early Upanishads; tribal territories grow into kingdoms | San Lorenzo abandoned; La Venta becomes the Olmec capital; Maya villages build platforms at Nakbe | ||
| -800 | Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II make Assyria the largest empire yet; Israel falls (722) | Kushite pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty conquer Egypt (Piye, c. 744) | Zhou capital sacked (771) and moved east; the Spring and Autumn period begins | |||
| -900 | Neo-Assyrian Empire: Ashurnasirpal II builds Nimrud; Shalmaneser III fights Levantine coalitions | Libyan chiefdoms divide Egypt; the Kingdom of Kush rises at Napata | Painted Grey Ware villages; the Brahmanas; the varna order takes shape | Western Zhou: long bronze inscriptions, a ritual order; songs later gathered in the Book of Songs | ||
| -1000 | Iron Age kingdoms: Israel and Judah, Aramaean Damascus; Phoenician cities spread the alphabet by sea | Libyan dynasties; Shoshenq I campaigns in Canaan | Cupisnique culture on the north coast; the first temple at Chavín de Huántar | San Lorenzo at its height; the Olmec style spreads to Chalcatzingo and San José Mogote | ||
| -1100 | Tiglath-Pileser I briefly revives Assyria; Aramaean kingdoms; Philistine cities on the coast | Third Intermediate Period: kings at Tanis, priests of Amun at Thebes; Nubia breaks away | Later Vedic period: the Kuru kingdom; iron spreads; settlement moves into the Ganges plain | Zhou conquers Shang at Muye (1046); the Mandate of Heaven; fiefs granted to kin | ||
| -1200 | Late Bronze Age collapse: the Hittite Empire falls, Ugarit is destroyed, Sea Peoples raid; Aramaeans move in | Ramesses III repels the Sea Peoples; tomb workers at Deir el-Medina strike; decline sets in | Late Shang at Yin (Anyang): oracle-bone writing, chariots, the tomb of Lady Fu Hao | |||
| -1300 | Middle Assyrian Empire expands; Battle of Kadesh in Syria (1274); Tukulti-Ninurta I sacks Babylon | Ramesses II: Abu Simbel, the Battle of Kadesh and a peace treaty with the Hittites | Early Vedic period: the Rigveda composed in Punjab; pastoral tribes | Cerro Sechín's carved warrior reliefs; Sechín Alto, then the largest building in the Americas | Olmec civilization rises at San Lorenzo: colossal stone heads; rubber balls offered at El Manatí | |
| -1400 | Amarna age: Babylon, Mitanni, Assyria, the Hittites and Egypt write to one another as great powers; Ugarit's alphabet | Amenhotep III; Akhenaten's Aten religion at Amarna; Tutankhamun | Shang moves its capital several times; the Sanxingdui bronze culture in Sichuan | |||
| -1500 | Mitanni dominates northern Mesopotamia; Kassite Babylon; Egyptian armies campaign in Syria | Hatshepsut and Thutmose III; Egypt's empire reaches the Euphrates; Kerma falls and Nubia is annexed | Shang dynasty: walled capital at Zhengzhou (Erligang); bronze cast on a large scale | |||
| -1600 | Hittite king Mursili I sacks Babylon (1595); a Kassite dynasty takes Babylonia | Ahmose expels the Hyksos (c. 1550); the New Kingdom begins | Cemetery H and Ochre Coloured Pottery cultures; Indo-Aryan speakers arrive from the northwest | Initial Period: U-shaped temples in the coastal valleys (Garagay, Cardal); irrigation spreads | ||
| -1700 | Old Babylonian kingdom shrinks; the Hittite kingdom rises in Anatolia | Hyksos kings rule Lower Egypt; the Kingdom of Kerma is at its height in Nubia | Erlitou culture: palaces and bronze ritual vessels, the first state in East Asia | Early Preclassic: Mokaya villages on the Soconusco coast domesticate cacao; a ballcourt at Paso de la Amada | ||
| -1800 | Hammurabi of Babylon unites Mesopotamia and issues his law code; Shamshi-Adad rules Assyria | Second Intermediate Period begins; Canaanite settlers at Avaris in the Delta | Late Harappan: the cities empty, the script falls out of use, villages move east | |||
| -1900 | Isin–Larsa rivalry; Old Assyrian merchants trade tin and textiles with Kanesh in Anatolia | Senusret III conquers Lower Nubia and fortifies the Second Cataract; the Fayum reclaimed | Caral–Supe begins to decline; pottery appears in Peru | |||
| -2000 | Elamites sack Ur (2004); Amorite dynasties rule from Isin and Larsa | Twelfth Dynasty: Amenemhat I founds a new capital; classic Middle Egyptian literature | Late Mature Harappan; a weakening monsoon and shifting rivers strain the cities | The semi-legendary Xia dynasty; Yu the Great tames the floods; bronze spreads | ||
| -2100 | Third Dynasty of Ur: Ur-Nammu's law code and the great ziggurat; a bureaucratic Sumerian revival | Mentuhotep II of Thebes reunites Egypt (c. 2055); the Middle Kingdom begins | Taosi, a walled Longshan city with an observatory; Shimao's stone city; Liangzhu collapses | Kotosh religious tradition in the highlands, Temple of the Crossed Hands; the Staff God on a gourd (c. 2250) | The first pottery; fully settled farming villages | |
| -2200 | Akkad collapses amid a centuries-long drought; Gutian rule; Gudea of Lagash builds temples | First Intermediate Period: low Nile floods and famine; rival kings at Herakleopolis and Thebes | Indus traders, Meluhha to the Sumerians, reach Mesopotamia; the largest civilization of its day by area | |||
| -2300 | Sargon of Akkad founds the first lasting empire; Naram-Sin calls himself king of the four quarters | Pepi II's very long reign; caravans into Nubia | ||||
| -2400 | Urukagina's reforms at Lagash; Lugalzagesi of Umma unites Sumer | Pyramid Texts carved at Saqqara; provincial governors grow powerful | Indus script on seals; the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro; Dholavira and Lothal's dock | Liangzhu city with dams and palace platforms; walled Longshan towns multiply | Caral–Supe at its height: dozens of sites with monumental architecture, cotton and anchovy trade, no pottery | |
| -2500 | Eannatum of Lagash conquers his neighbours, the first verifiable empire; Stele of the Vultures | Menkaure's pyramid; Fifth Dynasty sun temples; expeditions to Punt; Kerma culture in Nubia | ||||
| -2600 | Royal Tombs of Ur; Ebla and Mari flourish in Syria | Sneferu, Khufu and Khafre build the pyramids of Dahshur and Giza | Mature Harappan civilization: planned cities at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, with drains and wells | Maize reaches Guatemala's Pacific coast; first permanent villages | ||
| -2700 | Early Dynastic Sumer: rival city-states ruled by kings; cuneiform writes Sumerian | Old Kingdom begins: Imhotep builds Djoser's Step Pyramid, the first great stone building | Kot Diji phase: walled towns, standard bricks, trade across the Indus plain; citadels appear | Longshan culture begins: black eggshell pottery and rammed-earth walls; Liangzhu jade culture on the Yangtze delta | Caral–Supe (Norte Chico): Caral's pyramids and sunken plazas; fishing town at Aspero | |
| -2800 | Early Dynastic Egypt: Second Dynasty; royal tombs at Abydos and Saqqara | |||||
| -2900 | Early Harappan (Ravi) phase: proto-writing scratched on pottery at Harappa | |||||
| -3000 | Jemdet Nasr period; Uruk, Ur, Kish and Eridu are city-states of tens of thousands | Narmer unites Upper and Lower Egypt; Memphis founded; First Dynasty | ||||
| -3100 | Hongshan's Niuheliang temple; Dawenkou culture; Majiayao's painted pottery and earliest bronze | First monumental platforms at Huaricanga and Sechín Bajo, the earliest urban sites in the Americas | ||||
| -3200 | Late Uruk: the earliest writing, proto-cuneiform accounts on clay. Uruk is the largest city on earth | Naqada III, Dynasty 0: kings buried at Abydos; the earliest hieroglyphs on tomb labels | ||||
| -3300 | Naqada II: chiefdoms at Hierakonpolis, Naqada and Abydos; towns of about 5,000; A-Group in Nubia | |||||
| -3400 | Middle Uruk: Uruk outposts along the Euphrates in Syria and Anatolia; cylinder seals | Rehman Dheri, the earliest fortified town; villages spread onto the Indus plain | ||||
| -3500 | ||||||
| -3600 | Naqada I: growing villages in Upper Egypt; Maadi culture in the north | Late Yangshao: larger settlements; Hongshan jade culture in the northeast | Canals in the Zaña Valley, the oldest irrigation in South America; cotton grown | Coxcatlán Cave in the Tehuacán Valley: maize, beans, squash and chili; early farming in Tabasco | ||
| -3700 | Early Uruk period: Uruk grows from a town into a city; mass-produced bowls hint at rations | |||||
| -3800 | ||||||
| -3900 | ||||||
| -4000 | ||||||
| -4100 | Late Ubaid: towns of several thousand people; copper working; the first signs of chiefs | Badarian culture in Upper Egypt: copper, fine thin pottery, graves with offerings | Copper at Mehrgarh; rice cultivated at Lahuradewa in the Ganges plain | Yangshao culture on the Yellow River: painted pottery, Banpo village; Hemudu's stilt houses on the Yangtze | ||
| -4200 | ||||||
| -4300 | ||||||
| -4400 | ||||||
| -4500 | The Sahara dries and herders move toward the Nile; Nabta Playa's stone circle | |||||
| -4600 | Ubaid culture spreads north; irrigated towns grow around temples | Mehrgarh adds pottery and cotton; farming villages spread along the Indus borderlands | Llama and alpaca herding in the high puna; potato and quinoa domesticated; Chinchorro mummies on the coast | |||
| -4700 | ||||||
| -4800 | ||||||
| -4900 | ||||||
| -5000 | ||||||
| -5100 | Ubaid period begins in the far south; Eridu's first temple on a platform | Fayum A, Egypt's oldest fully developed Neolithic culture; Merimde on the edge of the Delta | Cishan, Houli and Xinglongwa villages; domestic pigs; rice paddies at Chengtoushan | Maize domesticated from teosinte in the Balsas valley of southern Mexico | ||
| -5200 | ||||||
| -5300 | ||||||
| -5400 | ||||||
| -5500 | ||||||
| -5600 | Halaf culture: fine painted pottery and round houses across northern Mesopotamia | Neolithic settlements appear across Egypt; wheat, barley, sheep and goats arrive from the Levant | Mehrgarh in Baluchistan: South Asia's earliest farming, with barley, wheat and humped cattle | |||
| -5700 | ||||||
| -5800 | ||||||
| -5900 | ||||||
| -6000 | ||||||
| -6100 | Hassuna and Samarra cultures; the first irrigation canals along the Tigris (Choga Mami) | Cattle herders gather seasonally at Nabta Playa in the Western Desert | Peiligang and Jiahu cultures: millet, rice, pottery, bone flutes; the Jiahu symbols | Squash, beans and chili first grown at Ñanchoc; Ecuador's Las Vegas culture already farming | ||
| -6200 | ||||||
| -6300 | ||||||
| -6400 | ||||||
| -6500 | ||||||
| -6600 | Pottery comes into use; Çatalhöyük flourishes in Anatolia; farming spreads onto the northern Mesopotamian plain | |||||
| -6700 | ||||||
| -6800 | ||||||
| -6900 | ||||||
| -7000 | ||||||
| -7100 | Pre-Pottery Neolithic B: wheat, barley, lentils, sheep and goats domesticated; large villages such as ʿAin Ghazal | Mesolithic hunter-gatherers; rock shelters painted at Bhimbetka | Rice first cultivated in the lower Yangtze (Shangshan); millet in the north | Archaic foragers; squash domesticated at Guilá Naquitz in Oaxaca | ||
| -7200 | ||||||
| -7300 | ||||||
| -7400 | ||||||
| -7500 | ||||||
| -7600 | African Humid Period: a green Sahara of lakes and grassland; hunters there make some of Africa's first pottery | |||||
| -7700 | ||||||
| -7800 | ||||||
| -7900 | ||||||
| -8000 | ||||||
| -8100 | Foragers along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers gather wild millet and rice; pottery has long been in use | Hunters and foragers in the highlands and on the coast: Guitarrero Cave, Lauricocha, Toquepala's cave paintings | Paleo-Indian hunters of mammoth and horse in the Valley of Mexico (Iztapan) | |||
| -8200 | ||||||
| -8300 | ||||||
| -8400 | ||||||
| -8500 | ||||||
| -8600 | Foragers fish, hunt and grind wild grain along the Nile; the Sahara starts turning green | |||||
| -8700 | ||||||
| -8800 | ||||||
| -8900 | Pre-Pottery Neolithic A: the first farming. Jericho builds its wall and tower; Göbekli Tepe raises carved stone enclosures | |||||
| -9000 | ||||||
| -9100 | ||||||
| -9200 | ||||||
| -9300 | ||||||
| -9400 | ||||||
| -9500 | ||||||
| -9600 | ||||||
| -9700 | Late Natufian foragers live in permanent villages in the Levant and harvest wild cereals; the Younger Dryas cold spell ends | |||||
| -9800 | ||||||
| -9900 | ||||||
| -10000 | ||||||
Copyright © 2026 Vladimir Vacić