Timeline of Human History I: Prehistory to 1499

Timeline of Human History I: Prehistory to1499

NOTE: Many of the dates given below are approximate and some are the subject of intense debate.6.5 million years ago (mya) Possible human ancestor Sahelanthropus tchadensis, which lives in trees but may be bipedal,appears in Africa (Chad).

A reconstruction of what Sahelanthropus tchadensis may have looked like.

6.0 mya Possible human ancestorOrrorin tugenensis, which lives in trees but isprobablybipedal,appears in Africa (Kenya).

An artists depiction of Orrorin tugenensis.

5.6 mya Hominid Ardipithecus kadabba, which lives in trees but may be bipedal, appears in Africa (Ethiopia).

4.4 mya Bipedal, tree-living hominid Ardipithecus ramidusappears in Africa (Ethiopia).

A artists depictions of Ardipithecus ramidus.

4.0 mya Bipedal hominid Australopithecus anamensis appears in Africa (Ethiopia; Kenya).

3.85 mya Bipedal hominid Australopithecus afarensis appears in Africa (Ethiopia; Kenya; Tanzania).

A reconstruction of a young female Australopithecus afarensis, based on Lucy, the fossil skeleton found by Donald Johanson in Ethiopia.

3.5 mya Bipedal hominid Kenyanthropus platyops (possibly an Australopithecine) appears in Africa (Kenya; Ethiopia).

3.3 mya Bipedal hominid Australopithecus africanus appears in Africa (South Africa).

An artists imagining of Australopithecus africanus.

2.95 mya Australopithecus afarensis becomes extinct.

2.7 mya Bipedal hominid Paranthropus aethiopicus appears in Africa (Kenya; Ethiopia).

An artists reconstruction of Paranthropus aethiopicus.

2.6 mya The Quarternary glaciation period begins.

Hominids begin making Oldowan-type stone tools (Ethiopia).

A stone tool from the Olduvan period.

2.5 mya Bipedal hominid Australopithecus garhi appears in Africa (Ethiopia).

2.3 mya Homo habilis, thefirst member of the genus Homo, appears in Africa (Kenya; Tanzania).

An artists reconstruction of Homo habilis.

Bipedal hominid Paranthropus boisei appears in Africa (Tanzania; Kenya).

Paranthropus aethiopicus becomes extinct.

2.1 mya Australopithecus africanus becomes extinct.

2.0 mya Bipedal hominid Paranthropus robustus appears in Africa (South Africa).

1.9 mya Homo ergasterand Homo erectus appear in Africa (Kenya).

A reconstruction of Homo erectus.

Homo erectusbegins to migrate out of Africa.

1.8 mya Earliest fossil evidence of hominids (Homo erectus) outside Africa, from Dmanisi, Georgia.

Computer-reconstructed images of five Homo erectus skulls from Dmanisi, showing wide variation.

1.7 mya Earliest evidence of hominids (Homo erectus) in China. Hominids begin to make Acheulean-type hand axes and stone tools carved on both sides (Kenya).

This Acheulean hand axe was found in Kenya and dates to 1.76 mya.

1.5 mya Possibleevidence of control of fire, by Homo erectus, at Koobi Fora (Kenya).

1.4 mya Homo habilis becomes extinct.

1.3 mya Homo heidelbergensisappears in Africa (Zambia).

An artists depiction of Homo heidelbergensis.

1.2 mya Homo antecessor, which may practice cannibalism, is the first hominid to appear in Europe.

Artist Mauricio Antns imagining of Homo antecessor at Atapuerca in Spain.

Paranthropus boisei and Paranthropus robustus become extinct.

790,000 BCE Definitive evidence of controlled use of fire by Homo erectus at Bnot Yaakov Bridge site (Israel).

700,000 mya Homo antecessor has become extinct (Europe).

600,000 BCE Homo heidelbergensisbegins to migrate out of Africa.

The Denisovans, a species of Homo, appear in Europe.

300,000 BCE Homo neanderthalensis appears in Eurasia.

Artist John Gurches impression of an adult male Homo neanderthalensis.

Hominids in Europe are making sharp knife-like tools and scrapers using the Levallois technique.

Spoken language may begin at this time.

250,000 BCE Hominids are cooking food by this date (and possibly much earlier).

200,000 BCE Homo heidelbergensis becomes extinct.

195,000 BCE First evidence of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) (Ethiopia).

Reconstruction of Homo sapiens idaltu, which was discovered in 1997 in Ethiopia.

170,000 BCE Based on studies of body lice genes, humans in Africa begin to wear clothing.

143,000 BCE Homo erectus becomes extinct.

120,000 BCE Homo sapiensbegins migrating out of Africa to Eurasia.

A map showing Homo sapiens migration out of Africa, with prior Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalis expansions for reference.

80,000 BCE Perforated seashell beads are the first evidence of personal adornment (Morocco).

Perforated seashell beads found at the Grotte des Pigeons in Morocco.

73,000 BCE Start of the Lower Pleniglacial Ice Age.70,000 BCE Eruption of the Toba supervolcano (Indonesia).

Engraved cross-hatch patterns on pieces of ochre in Blombos Cave may be the first abstract representations, symbols or art(South Africa).

Etchings on an ochre stone found in Blombos Cave in South Africa.

58,000 BCE End of the Pleniglacial Ice Age.

55,000 BCE Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens may be interbreeding in western Asia.

46,000 BCE Homo sapiens has probably reached Australia.

43,000 BCE Homo sapiens arrives in Europe.

Human tool-makers in the Aurignacian culture are creating long blades (Europe).

Three views of an Aurignacian blade.

41,000 BCE Flutes made from animal bones may be the first known musical instruments (Germany; Slovenia).

The Divje Babe Flute is a portion of a cave bear femur with holes in it, found in a Slovenian cave.

38,000 BCE The first humans arrive in New Guinea. Homo neanderthalensis is probably extinct.

The Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian culture carves the Venus of Hohle Fels and the Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadelfrom mammoth tusks (Germany).

The Venus of Hohle Fels is the earliest known representation of a human being.

33,000 BCE Earliest evidence of the domestication of the dog (Russia).

30,000 BCE First evidence of hand woven cloth, made from flax fibers (Georgia).

The paintings in Chauvet Cave are made (France).

Paintings of horses and a rhino in the Chauvet Cave.

28,000 BCE The Venus of Willendorf figurine is made by the Upper Paleolithic Gravettian culture (Austria).

The Venus of Willendorf figurine.

25,000 BCE Humans bury a dog with a mammoth bone placed in its mouth(Czech Republic).

Archaeologists discovered the remains of this dog buried with a mammoth bone in its mouth.

24,000 BCE The Upper Paleolithic Gravettian culture carves theVenus of Brassempouy figurine, the first known depiction of a human face(France).

Venus of Brassempouy.

23,000 BCE Beginning of the most recent Ice Age.

The earliest known permanent human settlement, at Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic).

The Upper Paleolithic Gravettian culture carves theVenus of Laussel(France).

The Venus of Kostenki figurine is made by the Upper Paleolithic Gravettian culture. (Ukraine).

The Venus of Kostenki figurine.

20,000 BCE Greatest extent of glaciation during the most recent Ice Age.

Extent of glaciation and exposed land during the last Ice Age.

Earliest known pottery vessels (China).

18,000 BCE Possible start of human migration into North America across the Bering Land Bridge.

The Upper Paleolithic Magdalenean culture carves a likeness of a bison onto a spear thrower made out of a reindeer antler (France).

The partial spear thrower known as Bison Licking Insect Bite.

15,000 BCE Humans begin making composite tools, such as blades fastened to a stone or wooden shaft.

An artist sculpts two bison out of clay in Le Tuc dAudoubert cave (France).

Paintings in Lascaux Caves (France).

A painting from the Lascaux Caves.

13,000 BCE End of the most recent Ice Age.

The Altamira Cave paintings (Spain).

A painted bison from Altamira Cave.

11,000 BCE Humans living in Franchthi Cave are eating lentils, vetch and pistachios (Greece).

At Abu Hureyra, humans arecultivating rye (Syria).

9600 BCE Founding of a permanent settlement at Jericho (Palestine).

9500 BCE Humansare cultivating emmer and einkorn wheat,barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax at various locations in the Levant (Syria, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus andTurkey).

A hunter-gatherer community constructs the temple-shrine atGbekli Tepe (Turkey).

The excavation site at Gbekli Tepe, in Turkey.

9400 BCE Jericho now consists of70 dwellings, a stone wall and a tower (Palestine).

A view of the remains of the earliest wall/tower at Jericho.

9100 BCE Farmersat Klimonas build a permanent agrarian settlement with mud-brick buildings for agricultural storage (Cyprus).

9000 BCE Oldest survivingwooden bows (Denmark).

A German bow used by the Holmegaard culture that dates to 9000 BCE.

Domestication of sheep in several locations in central and southwest Asia.

8820 BCE A permanent settlement begins at Amesbury (UK: England).

8700 BCE A copper pendant made at this time is the first evidence of metalworking (Iraq).

8000 BCE Agriculture is well-established along the banks of the Nile (Egypt).

Domestication of goats (Iran).

Domestication of pigs (Near East; China; Germany).

Domestication of squash (Mexico).

7500 BCE Domestication of cats (Cyprus; Near East).

7000 BCE Agriculture is well-established in Mesopotamia (Iraq).

Franchthi Cave dwellers have domesticated emmer wheat, barley, sheep and goats (Greece).

Between 5,000 and 7,000 people live in the settlement at atal Hyk(Turkey).

A view of the archaeological excavations at atalhyk.

Woven linen cloth is being made in atal Hyk(Turkey).

Domestication of cattle in North Africa, India and Mesopotamia.

6500 BCE Agriculture using irrigation begins in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

6000 BCE A fortified settlement is established at Erbil in Mesopotamia (Iraq).

Earliest evidence of winemaking (Georgia).

Domestication of chickens (India; Southeast Asia).

Domestication of llamas (Peru).

The Seated Woman of atal Hyk figurine is made (Turkey).

The Seated Woman of atal Hyk (the head and right arm rest are restorations).

5500 BCE First evidence of sailing boats (Kuwait).

First evidence of copper smelting (Serbia).

First evidence of agricultural field systems and stone walls (Ireland).

5000 BCE A permanent settlement is founded at Argos (Greece).

Invention of the ard plow in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (Iraq; Pakistan).

Oldest traces of beer brewing (Iran).

Oldest evidence of rowing oars (China).

Domestication of maize (Mexico).

Woven flax cloth is made at Fayum (Egypt).

Rice and sorghum are domesticated in Africas Sahel region.

The Sitting Woman and Thinker of Cernavoda figurinesare made by the Hamangia culture (Romania).

The Sitting Woman and the Thinker of Cernavoda, figurines made by the Hamangia culture.

4500 BCE First evidence of bronze making, usingcopper and tin (Serbia).

4400 BCE Invention of the two-beamed horizontal loom (Egypt).

4000 BCE The first wheeled vehicles appear in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and the Northern Caucasus.

Domestication of thehorse (Ukraine; Kazakhstan).

3800 BCE The Sumerians found the city of Ur (Iraq).

The ruins of the City of Ur.

3761 BCE The earliest datein the Jewish calendar, representing the year before the creation of the world (Anno Mundi).

3650 BCE The Minoan culture begins on Crete.

3500 BCE The potters wheel is invented in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (Iraq; Pakistan).

Glassmaking beginsin Mesopotamia and Egypt.

3400 BCE The first forgedbronze nails (Egypt).

3300 BCE The Bronze Age begins in the Near East.

3200 BCE Neolithic farmers construct the Newgrange monument with stone tools (Ireland).

An aerial view of Newgrange.

The first writing systems appear inMesopotamia (cuneiform), Egypt (hieroglyphics) and the Indus Valley (Indus Script).

A Sumerian cuneiform tablet from about 2600 BCE.

3100 BCE Menes or Narmer (possibly the same person) unites Upper and Lower Egypt.

3000 BCE First evidence of ox-drawn plows (Egypt).

Smelting of iron ore to make wrought iron begins (Middle East).

The Jomon culturebegins making flame-style vessels (Japan).

A flame-style vessel made by the Jomon culture in about 2500 BCE.

2700 BCE The Old Kingdom begins in Egypt.

The Sumerians invent the first abacus counting machine (Iraq).

The Indus Valley culture is using seals carved with pictographic symbols in commercial transactions (Pakistan; India).

Seals found at the Indus Valley city of Mohenjo-Daro.

2650 BCE Egyptian architect, engineer and physician Imhotep is born.

2630 BCE Imhotep begins constructing the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqquara (Egypt).

The Step Pyramid of Djoser.

2609 BCE Khufu is born in Egypt.

2600 BCE Dwellings in the Indus Valleycities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa have flush toilets connected to a sophisticated sewage system (Pakistan).

The Sumerians create the earliest known works of literature (Iraq).

The mosaic-decorated Standard of Uris made in Sumeria (Iraq).

The Standard of Ur.

Construction of thestone circle at Stonehenge begins (UK: England).

Stonehenge from the air.

Death of Imhotep.2589 BCE Khufu becomes the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty in the Old Kingdom (Egypt).

Building of the Great Pyramid of Giza begins (Egypt).

The Pyramids at Giza, Egypt.

2566 BCE Death of Pharaoh Khufu (Egypt).

2558 BCE The life-sized Statue of Khafre (Khafre Enthroned), the fourth Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty in the Old Kingdom, is carved (Egypt).

Khafre Enthroned.

2532 BCE The Great Sphinx of Giza is completed (Egypt).

The Great Sphinx of Giza.

2400 BCE Earliest surviving parchment documents, made of leather (Egypt).

Abronze head that mayrepresent Sargon or his grandson Naram-Sin is made in the Akkadian Empire (Iraq).

An carved Akkadian head, possibly of Sargon.

2350 BCE The Victory Stele of Akkadian Emperor Naram-Sinis carved (Iraq).

The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin.

2300 BCE Invention of the iron plow (China).

2100 BCE Sumerian King Ur-Nammu issues the earliest known law code (the Code of Ur-Nammu) and builds the Ziggurat of Ur(Iraq).

2000 BCE Oldest known steel artifact (Turkey).

First wooden pin lock (Egypt).

The first spoke-wheeled chariots appear (Russia; Kazakhstan).

Work begins on Karnak Temple Complex at Luxor (Egypt).

A portion of the Karnak Temple complex in Luxor, Egypt.

Frescoes are painted in the Minoan city of Akrotiri on the island of Thera (Greece).

The Spring fresco at Akroktiri.

The oldest known version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Sumerian cuneiform (Iraq).

1900 BCE The Myceneans arrive in Greece from the north.

1792 BCE Hammurabi becomes king of the Babylonian Empire (Iraq).

1754 BCE Babylonian King Hammurabi issues his code of 282 laws (Iraq).

The Code of Hammurabi is engraved on an eight-foot tall diorite stele, with a portrait of the king receiving the laws from Shamash, the sun god.

1750 BCE Death of Hammurabi, king of Babylon (Iraq).

1720 BCE The Hyksos invade Egypt and rule for 150 years.

1700 BCE Minoan palaceson Crete aredestroyed.

1600 BCE The Hittite civilization based in Anatolia is the dominant force in the eastern Mediterranean region (Turkey).

The Chinese writing system is fully developed.

Making of you vessels begins (China).

A you vessel in the shape of a feline.

1595 BCE The Hittites and Kassites attack and defeat Babylonia (Iraq).

1580 BCE Pharaoh Ahmose drives the Hyksos out of Egypt and establishes the New Kingdom.

1540 BCE Egypt under Ahmose subjugates the Nubians (Sudan).

1500 BCE The Aryans of Central Asia invade and overcome the weakened Indus Valley civilization (Pakistan).

The Olmecs begin to carve sculptures of colossal heads (Mexico).

Two Olmec colossal heads.

1400 BCE The Olmecs dominate Mesoamerica (Mexico).

The Ugarits invent the first alphabet (Syria).

1375 BCE Akhenaten IV becomes Egyptian pharaoh and imposes monotheism (Egypt).

1353 BCE Relief sculpture of Ahkenaten and his Family(Egypt).

Relief sculpture of Akhenaten, his queen Nefertiti, and their children, sitting under the rays of the one god, Ra.

1350 BCE The tomb of the scribe Nebamun is built and decorated in Thebes (Egypt).

Nebamun Hunting Fowl was painted on the wall of his tomb.

1345 BCE The Bust of Queen Nefertiti is made in Thutmoses Amarna workshop (Egypt).

Bust of Queen Nefertiti.

1323 BCE The 18-year-old Pharaoh Tutankhamun, wearing his funerary mask, is buried inside three coffins in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt).

The Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun was intended to help his ka or spirit reunite with his body in the afterlife.

1303 BCE Birth of Ramesses II in Egypt.

1279 BCE Ramesses II the Great becomes the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty in the New Kingdom (Egypt).

Four giant statues of Ramesses II greet visitors to the temple built by the pharaoh at Abu Simbel.

1274 BCE The Egyptians under Ramesses II defeat the Hittites under Muwatalli II in the Battle of Kadesh (Syria).

1258 BCE Ramesses II and Hattusili III sign a peace treaty between Egypt and the Hittites in Kadesh (Syria).

1213 BCE Death of Ramesses II (Egypt).

1200 BCE The Hallstatt culture dominates central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland).

A map of the Hallstatt culture in Central Europe.

End of the Bronze Age in South Asia and the Near East.

The Iron Age begins in the Near East, India and Europe.

1184 BCE The Greeks capture Troy, marking the end of the Trojan War (Turkey).

1180 BCE End of the Hittite empire (Turkey).

1175 BCE Egyptian forces led by Pharaoh Ramesses III defeat the invading Sea Peoples on land (at the Battle of Djahy) and at sea (at the Battle of the Delta) (Egypt).

A relief sculpture from the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III in Luxor depicts a warship of the Sea Peoples during the Battle of the Delta.

1130 BCE The destruction of Mycenae signals the end of the Mycenaean Greek civilization (Greece).

1100 BCE Date of legendary Dorian invasion of Greece (Greece).

1090 BCE The Nubian Kingdom of Kushachieves independence from Egypt (Sudan).

1050 BCE The Phoenician alphabet the basis for most later alphabets is established (Lebanon, Syria).

The Phoenician alphabet and the alphabets derived from it.

1046 BCE King Wu defeats the Shang Dynasty and establishes the Zhou Dynasty (China).

1010BCE According to the Bible, David, king of Israel and Judah, captures the Jebusite fortress of Jerusalem and makes it his new capital (Israel; Palestine).

1000 BCE The I Chingis written in Early Old Chinese(China).

962 BCE According to the Bible, King Solomon builds the FirstTemplein Jerusalem (Israel; Palestine).

900 BCE The Chavn civilization is established in the northern Andean highlands of Peru.

The Cascajal Block, possible evidence of an Olmec writing system, is inscribed (Mexico).

The Cascajal Block (left) and a graphic depiction of the signs carved on it.

814 BCE The Phoenicians establish a settlement at Carthage (Tunisia).

776 BCE The first Olympic Games are held at Olympia (Greece).

753 BCE Legendary date of founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus (Italy).

745 BCE Tiglath-Pileser III establishesthe Assyrian Empire (Iraq).

This relief sculpture of Tiglath-Pileser III from the walls of his palace is now in the British Museum in London.

725 BCE The Iliad, an epic poem attributed to Homer, is written down in Ancient Greek(Greece).

722 BCE The Assyrians conquerIsrael and take thousands of Israelites into slavery (Israel).

710 BCE Assyrian King Sargon II begins building a new capital at Dur-Sharrukin, with entrances protected bywinged human-headed bulls or lamassu (Iraq).

One of Sargons lamassu, now at the Louvre in Paris.

700 BCE Shintoism develops in Japan.

First lock and key that requires a keyhole (Greece).

The first umbrellas are used to provide shade from the sun (Assyria).

This bas relief from 700 BCE depicts Assyrian King Ashurbanipal under an umbrella.

Archimedes Screw is invented, long before Archimedes is born(Greece).

The Odyssey,an epic poem attributed to Homer, is written down in Ancient Greek(Greece).

668 BCE The Assyrians under King Ashurbanipal conquer Egypt.

660 BCE Accession of Jimmu, legendary first Japanese Emperor (Japan).

650 BCE A Babylonian revolt against Assyria results in the Assyrian destruction of Babylon (Iraq).

645 BCE The Lion Frieze of Assyrian King Ashurbanipal is carved on the walls of the North Palace in Nineveh (Iraq).

King Ashurbanipal engages a lion in hand-to-paw combat.

630 BCE Sparta puts down the 20-year revolt of the Messinians, led by Aristomenes (Greece).

624 BCE Lao Tzu (Laozi) writes the Tao Te Ching, the founding document of Taoism (China).

A Song Dynasty stone sculpture of Laozi at the foot of Mount Qingyuan, which dates from 960-1279 CE.

621 BCE Draco drafts the first Athenian constitution (Greece).

621 BCE Lyric poet Sappho is born on the island of Lesbos, Greece.

612 BCE The conquest of Nineveh by an alliance of Babylonians, Medes and Scythians leads to the fall of the Assyrian Empire. The Medes begin to establish an empire (Iran).

609 BCE The Kingdom of Judah, under Josiah, defeats the Egyptians, under Necho II, at the Battle of Megiddo, but Josiah is killed in battle (Israel; Palestine).

605 BCE The Babylonians, under Nebuchadnezzar II, defeat the Egyptians, under Necho II, at the Battle of Carchemish (Turkey; Syria).

604 BCE Sappho is exiled to the Greek colony on Sicily for 10 years during political disturbances on Lesbos (Italy).

The marble bust of Sappho in the Musei Capitolini is a Roman copy of a 5th Century BCE Greek original.

600 BCE The 16 Maha Janapadas (great kingdoms) arise in India.

Zoroastrianism becomes formalized as a monotheistic religion (Iran).

Thecrossbow is invented (China).

The Zapotec culture develops a writing system (Mexico).

Greek sculptors begin carving large free-standing nude statues of kouros (boys) in a semi-realistic style.

Kouros Boy sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

The Classic of Poetry (Book of Odes), an anthology, is published(China).

Aesops Fables are written down in Ancient Greek (Greece).

Birth of Cyrus the Great in Persia (now Iran).

594 BCE Solon begins legal reforms in Athens (Greece).

586 BCE The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II take Jerusalem, destroy Solomons Temple and force many Jews into exile in Babylon (Israel; Iraq).

575 BCE Nebuchadnezzar II builds the Ishtar Gate in Babylon (Iraq).

The reconstructed and reduced-scale Ishtar Gate at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

570 BCE Death of Sappho (Greece).

Pythagoras is born in Samos, Greece.

563 BCE Birth of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) in Nepal.

559 BCE Cyrus the Great becomes Achaemenid King of Anshan, a Persian vassal state under the Medes (Iran).

A bust of Cyrus the Great.

The Avesta, the central text of Zoroastrianism, is written down in Avestan(Iran).

558 BCE Birth of Darius the Great in Persia (now Iran).

551 BCE Birth of Confucius in China.

550 BCE After four years of rebellion, Cyrus the Great overthrows the Medes and establishes the Persian Empire (Iran).

539 BCE Cyrus the Great of Persia conquers the Babylonian Empire and frees the Jews, who return to Jerusalem (Iraq).

535 BCE According to legend, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus becomes the seventh and final King of Rome (Italy).

534 BCE According to legend, Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) abandons his life as a prince to lead the life of a mendicant (Nepal).

532 BCE Earliest reference totheater in Athens, which would have included the choros, a circular dance, and frenzied Dionysian dances (Greece).

530 BCE Pythagoras establishes a religious sect in the Greek colony at Croton that pursues his philosophical, mathematical and musical theories (Italy).

The marble bust of Pythagoras in the Musei Capitolini is a Roman copy of a 5th Century BCE Greek original.

Death of Cyrus the Great of Persia (Iran).

525 BCE The Persians under Cambyses II conquer Egypt.

521 BCE Darius I becomes leader of the Persian Empire (Iran).

515 BCE The Euphronios Krater, a terracotta bowl depicting the death of Sarpedon in the Trojan War, is made by potter Euxitheos and painted by Euphronios (Greece).

The Euphronios krater.

Darius begins building the city of Persepolis, which will serve as the Persian capital during the Achaemenid Dynasty. (Iran).

The ruins of Persepolis.

512 BCE The Persian Empire reaches its greatest extent (Iran).

509 BCE According to legend, the rape of noblewoman Lucretia by the son of Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and her subsequent suicide leads to a popular uprising, the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic (Italy).

508 BCE Athens adopts democratic government under Cleisthenes (Greece).

500 BCE The Nok culture thrives (Nigeria).

Terracotta sculpture of a Seated Dignitary, make by the Nok culture.

The Jains proposethat all matter is made of tiny particles (atomism) (India).

The temples at the Greek colony at Paestum (now Campania) are completed (Italy).

The ruins ofGreek temples at Paestum in what is now Italy.

Invention of the moldboard plow (China).

The Chinese discover a method for making cast iron. Traditional date of Sun Tzus Art of War (China).

499 BCE The Greek Ionian city-states in Asia Minor, led by Aristagoras of Miletus, rebel against Persian rule (Turkey).

498 BCE Pindar begins writing his Victory Odes in Ancient Greek (Greece).

The marble bust of Pindar in the Museo Archeologica Nazionale in Naples is a Roman copy of a 5th Century BCE Greek original.

495 BCE Pythagoras dies.

Birth of Pericles in Athens, Greece.

490 BCE The Greek city-states stop the Persian invasion at the Battle of Marathon (Greece).

486 BCE Death of Darius the Great (Iran).

483 BCE Death of the Buddha (India).

480 BCE After losing to the Persians under Xerxes at Thermopylae, the Greeks defeat the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis (Greece).

Greek sculpture enters the Early Classical phase with the Kritios Boy.

The Kritos Boy.

Birth of Athenian playwright Euripides in Salamis, Greece.

479 BCE The Greeks defeat the Persians at the Battle of Plataea (Greece).

The Analects of Confucius, the basis of Confucianism, is written(China).

A Tang Dynasty painting of Confucius by Wu Daozi.

Death of Confucius.475 BCE The Zhou Dynasty wanes and the Warring States period begins (China).

470 BCE Birth of Socrates in Athens, Greece.

461 BCE After the expulsion of Cimon and the murder of Ephialtes by the oligarchs, Pericles becomes the unchallenged leader of Athens (Greece).

The marble bust of Pericles in the Museo Pio Clementino is a Roman copy of a Greek original by Cresilas from 430 BCE.

460 BCE A bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon (the Artemision Bronze) is created (Greece).

The Artemision Bronze.

Greek sculptor Myron creates the bronze original ofThe Discus Thrower.

The Riace Bronzes, two bronze statues of warriors, are created (Greece).

A pair ofbronzestatues of warriorswas found near Riace, Italy.

Hippocrates is born in Kos, Greece.

Democritus is born in Abdera, Greece.

458 BCE The Oresteia Trilogy, plays by Athenian playwright Aeschylus,is written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

450 BCE Hallstatt culture evolves into La Tne culture, which thenspreads through much of Europe (Belgium,France, Switzerland, Austria,Germany,Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania).

Celtic artisans create the Basse-Yutz flagons (France).

The top portion of one of a pair of fllagons found at Basse-Yutz.

Oedipus the King, a play by Athenian playwright Sophocles, is written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

447 BCE Phidias creates a 38-foot-tall statue of Athena for the Parthenon in Athens (Greece).

Phidias.

441 BCE Antigone, a play by Sophocles, is written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

The Histories, by Herodotus, is written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

440 BCE Leucippus and Democritus develop a theory of atomism (Greece).

435 BCE Phidias creates a 42-foot-tallStatue of Zeus at the Temple of Zeus in Olympia; a sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels over awooden framework, it shows the god sitting on a cedarwood throne decorated with ebony, ivory, gold and precious stones. It was one of the Seven Wonders of theAncient World (Greece).

432 BCE The Parthenon is built on the Acropolis in Athens. Sculptor Phidias oversees the artwork, including the Parthenon Frieze(Greece).

The Parthenon was a temple to Athena, the patron goddess of Athens, and is a prime example of the Doric architectural order.

431 BCE Start of the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens (Greece).

Medea, a play by Euripides, is written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

429 BCE Death ofAthenian leaderPericles (Greece).

427 BCE Birth of Plato in Athens, Greece.

425 BCE Invention of the catapult (Greece).

411 BCE Lysistrata, a comic play by Athenian playwright Aristophanes,is written inAncient Greek(Greece).

410 BCE Several of the medical treatises that make up the Hippocratic Corpus are written (in Ancient Greek), possibly by Hippocrates of Kos.(Greece).

A Roman copy of a Greek bust of Hippocrates from about 150 CE.

406 BCE Death of Euripides (Greece).

405 BCE The Erechtheion, dedicated to Athena and Poseidon, is built on the Acropolis in Athens (Greece).

The ruins of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis.

First performance of The Bacchae, a play by Euripides, written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

404 BCE Sparta captures Athens, ending the Peloponnesian War (Greece).

400 BCE The Birds, a play by Aristophanes, is written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

The Peloponnesian War, by Athenian historian Thucydides, is written in Ancient Greek(Greece).

The Bhagavad-Gita is written in Sanskrit (India).

399 BCE Plato writes theApology and the Crito in Ancient Greek(Greece).

A marble bust of Plato.

The trial and execution of Socrates in Athens for impiety and corrupting the minds of the youth (Greece).

387 BCE The Celts sack Rome (Italy).

Plato founds the Academy in Athens and writes the Meno in Ancient Greek(Greece).

384 BCE Aristotle is born in Chalkidiki, Greece.

380 BCE Plato writes his philosophical dialoguesThe Republic,The Symposium and the Phaedo in Ancient Greek(Greece).

371 BCE Thebes, led by Epanimondas, defeats Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra (Greece).

370 BCE Lysippos creates a bronze statue of Heracles, a marble copy of which by Glykon is called the Farnese Hercules (Greece).

The Farnese Hercules.

Hippocrates dies. Democritus dies.356 BCE Birth of Alexander the Great in Macedonia (now Greece).

350 BCE The Mausoleum of Helicarnassus the tomb ofMausolus, a satrap in the Persian Empire, and Artemisia II of Caria, his wife-sister is completed.(Turkey).

Detail of the Amazonomachy, a frieze carved on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

A Greek sculptor, possibly Praxiteles, carves the marblestatuesHermes and the Infant Dionysusand Aphrodite of Cnidus, both of which are lost and known only from Roman copies (Greece).

The Venus Colonna, in the Vatican Museums, is considered the most faithful Roman copy of the lost Greek Aphrodite of Cnidus.

Leochares carves a bronze statue of Apollo, a Roman marble copy of which is the Apollo Belvedere (Greece).

The Apollo Belvedere, a Roman marble copy of the bronze Greek statue by Leochares.

The Recognition of Sakuntala,a play by Kalidasa,is written in Sanskrit (India).

347 BCE Aristotle founds the Lyceum in Athens (Greece).

Death of Athenian philosopher Plato (Greece).

345 BCE Mahapadma Nanda founds the Nanda Dynasty and begins building the Nanda Empire (India).

343 BCE Aristotle begins a three-year position tutoring Alexander (the Great), son of King Philip of Macedonia (Greece).

340 BCE The bronze Marathon Boyiscreated (Greece).

The bronze Marathon Boy was found in the Bay of Marathon in the Aegean Sea in 1925.

338 BCE Philip II of Macedon defeats an alliance of Greek city-states, including Athens and Thebes, at the Battle of Chaeronea, resulting in Macedonian hegemony in Greece.

336 BCE Alexander the Great becomes King of Macedonia (Greece).

335 BCE Between 335 and 322 BCE, Aristotle writesPoetics, Nicomachean Ethics, Physics, Politics, Rhetoric, Metaphysics and On the Soulin Ancient Greek(Greece).

This marble bust of Aristotle is a Roman copy of a bronze Greek original by Lysippos, c. 330 BCE. The alabaster mantle is more recent.

333 BCE Alexander the Great defeats the Persians under Darius III at the Battle of Issus (Turkey).

331 BCE Alexander the Great defeats Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela and occupies Persia (Iraq).

326 BCE Alexander the Great defeats King Porus of the Punjab in the Battle of the Hydaspes (India).

325 BCE The Nanda Empire reachesits greatest extent, under Dhana Nanda (India).

A map of the Nanda Empire at its greatest extent.

323 BCE Death of Alexander the Great in Babylon (Iraq).

322 BCE Chandragupta Maurya overthrows the Nanda Dynasty and founds the Mauryan Empire (India).

Aristotle dies.

304 BCE Birth of Ashoka Maurya in Pataliputra, Patna (now India).

300 BCE Earliest known inscription in the Mayan language (Mexico).

Construction begins on the Great Pyramid of Cholula (Mexico).

The remains of the Great Pyramid of Cholula.

First known watermill (Greece).

Euclids Elements, a 13-volume work on geometry, is written in Ancient Greek(Egypt).

The epic Sanskrit poem theMahabharata reaches its modern form (India).

Vishnu Sharmas work of fiction and poetryPanchatantrais written in Sanskrit(India).

287 BCE Archimedes is born in Syracuse, Sicily,Magna Graecia (now Italy).

285 BCE The first true lock is built in the Canal of the Pharoahs between the Nile and the Red Sea (Egypt).

280 BCE Chares of Lindos creates the 98-foot-tall Colossus of Rhodes, a statue of the god Helios and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which is erected on the island of Rhodes (Greece).

At 393-450 feet tall, the Lighthouse of Alexandria isthe tallest man-made structure and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Egypt).

273 BCE Ashoka the Great becomes leader of the Mauryan Empire (India).

A relief sculpture of Ashoka the Great (left) found at the Gulbarga stupa in southern India and dating from 1-200 CE.

265 BCE The Mauryan Empire reaches its greatest extent (India; Pakistan; Bangladesh).

A map of the Mauryan Empire at its greatest extent.

259 BCE Birth of Qin Shi Huang in Handan, China.

250 BCE Archimedes publishes On the Equilibrium of Planes (explaining the law of the lever), On the Measurement of a Circle (estimating pi), andOn Floating Bodies (explaining the principle of buoyancy), written in Ancient Greek(Italy).

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,is completed (Turkey).

Visitors to Miniatrk, aTurkish miniature park, can see a1/25th scale model of what the Temple of Artemis may have looked like before it was destroyed in 401 CE.

Ashoka the Great begins erecting stone pillars, some with carved animal capitals, at important Buddhist sites (India).

The Lion Capital of Ashoka.

238 BCE The Roman Republic annexes Sardinia and Corsica.

232 BCE Death of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great (India).

230 BCE Dying Gaul, a bronze sculpture, is created in Greece.

A Roman marble copy of the original bronze Dying Gaul. (Photo courtesy of Jean Pol Gradmont.)

221 BCE Emperor Qin Shi Huang defeats the other Warring States and unites China for the first time under the Qin Dynasty.

A painting of Qin Shi Huang.

216 BCE The Carthaginians, led by Hannibal, defeat the Romans, led by Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, at the Battle of Cannae (Italy).

212 BCE Archimedes dies.210 BCE Death of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.208 BCE The Terracotta Army is buried with Emperor Qin Shi Huang (China).

A portion of the life-sized warriors of the Terracotta Army.

206 BCE The Han Dynasty begins (China).

The first Great Wall of China is completed.

202 BCE The Romans under Scipio Africanus defeat Carthage, led by Hannibal, at the Battle of Zama (Tunisia).

200 BCE The City of Petra is founded (Jordan).

The Treasury building (Al Khazneh) in Petra was built about 1 CE.

Apollonius of Perga writesOn Conic Sections, a mathematical treatise, in Ancient Greek(Greece).

Invention of paper (China).

Invention of the treed saddle (China).

Winged Victory of Samothraceand The Three Graces are carved in Greece.

The damaged statue of Winged Victory, also known as Nike of Samothrace.

The Nazca culture begins to draw huge figures of animals, plants, geometric figures and straight lines in the Nazca desert (Peru).

The Nazca people created enormous drawings in the desert, including this spider.

190 BCE Hipparchus of Nicaea is born in Iznik, Bithynia (now Turkey).

180 BCE The Pergamon Altar is built by King Eumenes II in Asia Minor (Turkey).

The Pergamon Altar as it has been reconstructed at the Pergamon Museum in Berliin.

168 BCE The third Macedonian War ends when the Romans under Consul Aemilius defeat the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna (Greece).

160 BCE The Kingdom of Judea, led by Judas Maccabeus, achieves independence from the Seleucid Persians (Israel; Palestine).

150 BCE The astrolabe is invented, possibly by Hipparchus of Nicaea (Greece).

146 BCE Roman armies conquer Greece. Rome captures and destroys Carthage after a three-year siege (Tunisia).

133 BCE The Roman conquest of Iberia is complete (Spain; Portugal).

A map of the conquests of the Roman Republic by 100 BCE.

120 BCE Hipparchus of Nicaea dies.109 BCE Sima Qian publishes Records of the Grand Historian, a historical chronicle (China).

100 BCE Mesoamericans establish the city of Teotihuacan (Mexico).

The Romans invent the warded lock (Italy).

Glassblowing is invented (Syria, Lebanon, Israel).

The silver Gundestrup Cauldron is made, possibly by the Thracians(Denmark).

The Gundestrup Cauldron.

Alexandros of Antioch sculpts the marbleVenus de Milo.(Greece).

Venus de Milo.

The most recent books of the Old Testament are written (Palestine, Israel).

Birth of Julius Caesar in Rome (Italy).

82 BCE Sulla is elected dictator of Rome and begins a brutal repression of his opponents (Italy).

73 BCE Spartacus, a Thracian-born gladiator, leads a slave revolt against Rome(Italy).

An 1830 marble sculpture of Spartacus by Denis Foyatier, now at the Louvre in Paris.

71 BCE A Roman army led by Praetor Crassus puts down the Spartacus-led slave revolt (Italy).

70 BCE Birth of Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil) in Andes, Cisalpine Gaul, Roman Republic(now Italy).

69 BCE Birth of Cleopatra in Alexandria, Egypt.

65 BCE The Romans, under Pompey, defeat Mithridates VI of Pontus in Anatolia (Turkey),

63 BCE Pompey conquers Jerusalem and makes Judea a Roman province (Israel; Palestine).

Birth of Gaius Octavius (Octavian, later Augustus) in Rome (Italy).

60 BCE Pompey, Marcus Crassus and Julius Caesar form the FirstTriumvirate to rule the Roman Republic (Italy).

Frescoes are painted in the Villa of the Mysteries near Pompeii (Italy).

57 BCE The Temple of Horus at Edfu is completed (Egypt).

The ruins of the Temple of Horus at Edfu.

54 BCE The Romans, under Julius Caesar, conquer parts of England and establish Roman rule (UK).

51 BCE Peace treaty between the Han Dynasty and the Hsiung-nu of Central Asia (China).

Cleopatra VII Philopator begins a 21-year reign as the last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (Egypt).

Julius Caesar crushes the revolt of the Celtic Gauls, led by Vercingetorix (France).

50 BCE The founding of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Koguryo, Silla and Pakche (Korea).

The Romans build the aqueduct of Segovia (Spain).

The Roman aqueduct in Segovia, Spain.

The Battersea Shield, a bronze sheet withLa Tne styledecorations thatcovered a wooden shield, is made by the Celts (UK).

The Battersea Shield.

Lucretius publishes his Latin philosophical poem,On the Nature of Things(Italy).

49 BCE Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, starting a Roman civil war (Italy)

48 BCE Julius Caesardefeats Pompey the Great at the Battle of Pharsalus (Greece).

45 BCE Julius Caesar defeats Pompeys sons at theBattle of Munda, ending the civil war (Spain).

Julius Caesar is declared dictator for life (Italy).

The marble bust of Julius Caesar in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples is a 110 CE copy of a 50 BCE original.

Sosigenes of Alexandria develops a 365-day, 12-month calendar with leap years, which Caesar adopts as the Julian Calendar (Italy).

44 BCE Brutus, Cassius and others assassinate Julius Caesar in Rome (Italy).

43 BCE Octavian, Marcus Lepidus and Mark Antony form the Second Triumvirate andrule Rome as dictators (Italy).

Assassination of Cicero (Italy).

42 BCE Forces of the Second Triumvirate defeat the armies of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi in Macedonia (Greece).

40 BCE Rome conquers Egypt.31 BCE Octavians fleet, led by Agrippa, defeats the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium (Greece).

30 BCE According to legend, Cleopatra commits suicide with an asp (Egypt).

27 BCE Octavian, now Augustus, becomes the first leader of the Roman Empire and brings Pax Romana during his 41-year reign (Italy).

The 1st Century CE statue of Augustus known as the Augustus of Prima Porta is now in the Chiaramonti Museum in Rome.

Livy publishes the first books of his History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita Libri), written in Latin (Italy).

19 BCE Agesander, Athenodoros & Polydorus of Rhodes create the marble sculptureLaoconand His Sons(Greece).

Laocoon and his Sons.

Virgil completes the Aeneid, anepic Latin poem about the founding of Rome (Italy).

Death of Virgil (Italy).

13 BCE The Ara Pacis Augustae, a gift of the Roman Senate to Augustus, is completed (Italy).

The Ara Pacis Augustae (altar of Augustan peace) in Rome.

11 BCE The frescoes in the Villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase are painted (Italy).

Detail of fresco from Villa of Agrippa Postumus.

10 BCE Herod the Great of Judea builds the city of Caesaria on the Mediterranean coast, with the first artificial harbor built inthe open sea (Israel).

4 BCE Likely date for birth of Jesus of Nazareth (Israel; Palestine).

5 CE Birth of Saul of Tarsus in Cilicia, Asia Minor (now Turkey).

8 CE Metamorphoses, a Latin poem by Roman poet Ovid (Italy).

A statue of Ovid in Constanta, Romania.

9 CE Germanic tribes led by Ariminius defeat three Roman legions under Quinctilius Varnus, leading to German independence.

25 CE The bronze Flying Horseof Gansu is created (China).

The Flying Horse of Gansu is a bronze sculpture of a horse treading on a flying sparrow with one foot.

27 CE A wooden amphitheater built by Atilius at Fidenae collapses, killing 20,000 spectators (Italy).

Satyricon, a work of fiction, is written in Latin by Petronius (Italy).

29 CE Jesus of Nazareth is crucified by the Romans (Israel; Palestine).

41 CE Assassination of Roman Emperor Caligula (Italy).

50 CE The population of the Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan is now 125,000, making it the sixth largest city on Earth (Mexico).

52 CE Paul the Apostle (formerly Saul of Tarsus) writes the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, the oldest document in the Christian New Testament, in Greek(Greece).

The 1482 portrait of Paul the Apostle by Bartolomeo Montagna is now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan.

54 CE Roman Emperor Claudius is murdered by his wife Agrippina so that her son Nero can become emperor (Italy).

60 CE Boudica, queen of the Celtic Iceni tribe, leads a British rebellion against the Romans, destroying three cities and killing 80,000 before being defeated at the Battle of Watling (UK).

An 1850 statue of Boudica by Thomas Thornycroft located at the Westminster Bridge in London.

66 CE The province of Judea rebels against Roman rule (Israel; Palestine).

67 CE Death of Paul the Apostle in Rome, possibly by execution (Italy).

68 CE The Year of the Four Emperors in the Roman Empire (Italy).

Assassination of Roman Emperor Nero (Italy).

70 CE Roman armies under Titus crush therebellion in Judea and destroy the Temple inJerusalem (Israel; Palestine).

77 CE First evidence of metal-backed glass mirrors (Lebanon).

79 CE The Mt. Vesuvius volcano erupts, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum (Italy).

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius killed the population of Pompeii and then buried them in ash, allowing excavators to create plaster casts of their bodies in the exact positions they held at death.

80 CE The Colosseum (also known as the Flavian Amphitheater) is built in Rome (Italy).

An aerial view of the Colosseum in Rome.

90 CE Claudius Ptolemy is born in Alexandria, Egypt.

98 CE Trajan becomes Roman Emperor (Italy).

100 CE The Moche culture is thriving (Peru).

A Moche portrait vessel.

First glass windows (Egypt).

Sumo wrestling is invented (Japan).

The modernversion of the epic Sanskrit poem the Ramayanaappears (India).

110 CE Tacitus publishes the Histories, a Latin history of Rome from 69-96 CE (Italy).

113 CE Trajans Column is erected in Rome (Italy).

Detail of Trajans Column.

116 CE Tacitus is writing the Annals, a Latin history of Rome from 14-68 CE (Italy).

117 CE The Roman Empire reaches its greatest extent (Italy).

A map of the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan.

121 CE Birth of Marcus Aurelius in Ucubi, Hispanica Baetica (now Spain).

122 CE The Romans build Hadrians Wall in northern Englandasa defensive fortification; the gates becomecustomsposts for control of trade(UK).

A remaining section of Hadrians Wall at Greenhead Lough in northern England.

125 CE Plutarchs historical biography,Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, is written in Attic Greek(Greece).

126 CE The Pantheon is built in Rome (Italy).

A temple for Roman gods, the Pantheon survived destruction because it was converted to a Christian church.

129 CE Galen is born in Pergamon, Asia Minor, Roman Empire (now Turkey).

132 CE A Jewish revolt, led by Simon bar Kokhba, begins in the Roman province of Judea and leads to the creation of a short-lived independent state of Israel (Israel; Palestine).

135 CE Roman troops crush the Bar Kokhba revolt; as punishment, Emperor Hadrianbans the practice ofJudaism, forbids Jews from entering Jerusalem and replaces Judea with Syria Palestine (Israel; Palestine).

150 CE The Almagest, a mathematical and astronomical treatise written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy (Egypt).

A depiction of Claudius Ptolemy.

161 CE Marcus Aurelius becomes Roman Emperor (Italy).

168 CE Claudius Ptolemy dies.

170 CE On the Natural Faculties, a medical treatise written in Greek by Galen of Pergamon (Italy).

180 CE Meditations, a philosophic memoir written in Greek by Marcus Aurelius (Serbia; Italy).

Death of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Bust of Marcus Aurelius from the Glyptothek in Munich, probably from the 2nd Century CE.

184 CE Start of the Revolt of the Yellow Turbans, apeasant uprising led by Taoist Zhang Jiao (China).

200 CE The Mayan city of Tikal becomes a regional power (Guatemala).

205 CE By this date, troops of the Han Dynasty have successfully put down the Revolt of the Yellow Turbans (China).

206 CE Porcelain ceramics are invented (China).

The magnetic compass is invented (China).

The first Chinese compasses used a spoon on a flat board.

216 CE Galen dies.

224 CE Persian Shah Ardashir defeats Artabanus IV, the last king of the Parthian Empire, at the Battle of Hormizdagan and begins the Sassanid Empire(Iran).

250 CE Roman Emperor Decius requires all subjects to sacrifice to the Roman gods, or face death, leading to the death of Pope Fabian and other Christians (Italy).

Beginning of the Classic Period of Mayan civilization, marked by increased urbanization and building projects (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador).

The Ludovisi Sarcophagus is made (Italy).

Relief sculptures on the Ludovisi Sarcophagus depict a battle between the Romans and the Goths.

The Buddhist Amaravati Stupa in Andhra Pradesh is completed (India).

A relief sculpture from the Amaravati Stupa showing a stupa. So meta.

257 CE Pope Sixtus II and other Christians are executed during persecution by Roman Emperor Valerian (Italy).

272 CE Birth of Flavius Valerius Constantinus (Constantine the Great) in Dardania, Moesia (now Serbia).

285 CE Roman Emperor Diocletian names Maximian co-emperor and divides the Roman Empire into western (based at Rome) and eastern (based at Nicomedia) empires (Italy; Turkey).

A map of Diocletians division of the Roman Empire.

Emperor Diocletian begins the systematic persecution of Christians (Italy).

287 CE Aurelius Carausius rebels against Roman rule and establishes an independent kingdom in England(UK).

296 CE Romans led by Constantius Chlorus invade Britain, defeat the rebelsandreassert sovereignty (UK).

300 CE The Kingdom of Axum erects the 79-foot-tall Obelisk of Axum (Ethiopia).

The Axum Stele.

304 CE Beginning of the 12-year-long Wu Hu uprising, in which five nomadic tribes overthrow the Western Jin dynasty (China).

306 CE Constantine becomes Emperor over part of the Western Roman Empire (Italy).

312 CE According to legend, Constantine the Great converts to Christianity prior to defeating his rival, Maxentius, at the Battle of Milvian Bridge (Italy).

Constantine becomes Emperor of the entire Western Roman Empire (Italy).

313 CE Emperor Constantine issues the Edict of Milan, which recognizes Christianity and proclaims religious tolerance in the Western Roman Empire (Italy).

315 CE The Arch of Constantine is built in Rome (Italy).

Arch of Constantine.

320 CE Chandragupta I founds the Gupta Dynasty (India).

324 CE After defeating Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople, Constantine becomes Emperor of both Eastern and Western Roman empires (Turkey).

A bust of Constantine the Great from the 4th Century CE. It is now in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City.

325 CE Constantine convenes the First Council of Nicaea, which resolves questions about the Christian faith and rejects Arianism(Turkey).

330 CE Byzantium (to be renamed Constantinople) becomes the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (Turkey).

337 CE The death of Constantine the Great leads to the redivision of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western empires (Italy; Turkey).

354 CE Birth of Augustine of Hippo in Thagaste, Roman Africa (now Algeria).

357 CE The Romans under Julian drive the Franks out of Gaul at the Battle of Argentoratum (France).

376 CE The Huns invade the Balkans; many Ostrogoths flee; the Huns subjugate those who remain (Serbia; Croatia; Bosnia & Herzegovina).

378 CE A heavily-armed band of Visigoths rises up against the Romans, defeating them and killing Byzantine Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople (Turkey).

This map summarizes 400 years of outside tribes invading the Roman Empire.

393 CE Roman Emperor Theodosius I bans public non-Christian religious customs (Italy).

395 CE Birth of Attila the Hun.

400 CE Confessions, a religious memoir in Latin by Roman Catholic Bishop Augustine of Hippo (Algeria).

The portrait of St. Augustine by Peter Paul Rubens, from 1636-1638, is in the National Gallery of Prague.

407 CE The Romans withdraw from Britain (UK).

410 CE The Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome (Italy).

426 CE City of God, a book about Christianity by Augustine of Hippo (Algeria).

430 CE Death of Augustine of Hippo (Algeria).

431 CE Debate over the meaning of Jesuss birth and the rejection of Nestorianism at the Council of Ephesus leads to the Roman Catholic Churchs first schism and the formation of the separate Persian Church (Turkey).

439 CE The Vandals under Genseric capture Carthage from the Romans and make it their capital (Tunisia).

450 CE The Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, population 150,000, is at the height of its power and influence in the region (Mexico).

The Avenue of the Dead and, on the left, the Pyramid of the Sun, in the ruins of Teotihuacan.

451 CE At the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, a combined army of Romans and Visigoths defeat Attila the Hun (France).

A debate over the relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus at the Council of Chalcedon leads to the second schism in the Roman Catholic Church and the formation of the separateOriental Orthodox Church in Egypt and Syria (Turkey).

452 CE According to legend, Pope Leo I convinces Attila the Hun not to sack Rome (Italy).

Pope Leo driving Attila from the Gates of Rome, a 1653 relief sculpture by Alessandro Algardi.

453 CE Death of Attila the Hun.

455 CE The Vandals sack Rome (Italy).

The Saxons, led by brothers Hengst and Horsa, defeat the Britons at the Battle of Aylesford (UK: England).

465 CE Buddha Preaching the Law, a sandstone sculpture,is made at Sarnath (India).

Buddha Preaching the Law.

476 CE Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic Heruli tribe, forces Emperor Romulus Augustus to abdicate, marking the end of the Western Roman Empire (Italy).

486 CE Clovis I, King of the Salian Franks, defeats the Roman occupiers of Gaul and establishes the Kingdom of the Franks (France).

488 CE Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great invades Italy and establishes a kingdom there.

500 CE Svealand, the first Swedish state, is established.

The Wari civilization is established in the south-central Andes and the coast of what is nowPeru.

The Vishnu Temple, one of the first stone Hindu temples, is built in Deogarh (India).

A relief sculpture from the Vishnu temple shows Vishnu reclining on the many-headed serpent Ananta.

507 CE The Franks under Clovis defeat the Visigoths under Alaric II at the Battle of Vouille, forcing the Visigoths to retreat into Spain (France).

524 CE The Consolation of Philosophy, a book of religious philosophy written in Latinby Boethius (Italy).

525 CE The Barberini Ivory, a Byzantine leaf from an imperial diptych,is made in Constantinople (Turkey).

The Barberini Ivory.

526 CE An earthquake in Antioch kills 250,000-300,000 people (Turkey; Syria).

529 CE Benedict of Nursia founds the first Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino (Italy).

532 CE Byzantine Emperor Justinians general Belisarius brutally suppresses the populist Nika Revolt in Constantinople (Turkey).

533 CE Byzantine forces led by Belisarius retake North Africa from the Vandals (Tunisia).

534 CE Byzantine Emperor Justinian I completes hisCode of Civil Law (Turkey).

A mosaic depicting Emperor Justinian (center) at San Vitale Church in Ravenna.

537 CE The original Byzantine Hagia Sophia basilica is built in Constantinople by Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles (Turkey).

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

547 CE The Byzantine Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna is completed (Italy).

The Basilica of San Vitale.

550 CE The Greek language Rossano Gospels are illuminatedin Syria or Italy.

A page from the Rossano Gospels.

The Virgin and Child Between Saints Theodore and George, a Byzantine icon,is painted (Egypt).

The icon also known as Virgin and Child with Saints and Angels is located in St. Catherines Monastery in the Sinai Desert.

552 CE The Byzantine army invades Italy and defeats the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Taginae (Italy).

565 CE Death of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I the Great after a 38-year reign (Turkey).

567 CE After three wars, peace is established between the Persians and the Byzantines (Turkey).

568 CE The Lombards, a Germanic tribe, establish a kingdom in Italy.

570 CE Birth of the Muslim prophet Muhammed in Mecca (Saudi Arabia).

577 CE The Saxon conquest of England is nearly complete after the Saxons defeat the Welsh at the Battle of Deorham (UK: England).

A map of the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain, showing the location of the Battle of Deorham.

581 CE The Sui Dynasty under Yang Jian unites China for the first time in nearly 400 years.

A map of the Sui Dynasty in China.

589 CE Earliest reference to use of toilet paper (China).

590 CE Gregorius Anicius becomes Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) (Italy).

600 CE In Cambodia, the Northern Kingdom of Chenla occupies the Kingdom of Funan.

The Tiwanaku culture begins to expand into an empire (Bolivia).

The modern Hindu-Arabic numeral system is developed in India.

This chart shows the changes in numerals from Hindu India, to the Islamic world, and then to Europe.

First use of paper money (China).

Pope Gregory I reorganizes the use of plainchant in Christian services, collecting chants from a variety of sources and establishing a more uniform standard (Italy).

607 CE The Horyu-ji Buddhist Temple is constructed in Ikarauga (Japan).

The Golden Hall and Five-Storied Pagoda of Horyu-ji Buddhist temple.

609 CE The Grand Canal between Beijing and Hangzhou, the longest in the world, is completed (China).

618 CE Li Yuan establishes the Tang Dynasty, which will rule China for 286 years.

A map of the Tang Dynasty in China.

619 CE The toothbrush is invented (China).

622 CE Muhammad flees to Medina from Mecca in the Hejira(Saudi Arabia).

Islamic calendar year 1 AH (anno Hegirae).

627 CE The Byzantines, led by Emperor Heraclius, defeat the Persians under Khosrau II at the Battle of Nineveh (Iran).

630 CE The Muslims, led by Muhammad, take control of Mecca (Saudi Arabia).

632 CE Islams most sacred text, the Quran,is written in Arabic (Saudi Arabia).

Death of Muhammad.

638 CE A mostly Muslim Arab army under Omar conquers Jerusalem (Israel; Palestine).

641 CE The Muslims under Omar complete their conquest of Persia by defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Nehawand (Iran).

642 CE The Muslims conquer Egypt.

A map showing Muslim conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries.

646 CE After the fall of the Soga clan in 645 CE, the Nara period begins (Japan).

650 CE The Slavs complete their occupation of the Balkans.

The Descent of the Gangesis carved in Mahabalipuram (India).

The Descent of the Ganges.

Yan Liben paints the Thirteen Emperors scroll (China).

A portion of the Thirteen Emperors scroll.

656 CE Ali ibn Abi Talib defeats Umayyad rebels at the Battle of the Camels to become leader of the Muslims (Saudi Arabia).

657 CE Jayavarman I begins his reign as king of Chenia (Cambodia).

661 CE Following the assassination of Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muawiyah I becomes Muslim Caliph and establishes the Umayyad Dynasty at Damascus (Syria).

670 BCE Building of the Great Mosque of Kairouan begins (Tunisia).

A view of the Great Mosque of Kairouan.

676 CE Under King Munmu, Silla defeats Goguryeo and Baekje to unite the Korean peninsulafor the first time (Korea).

A map of the Unified Silla Kingdom on the Korean peninsula.

678 CE When the Muslims fail to take Constantinople after a three-year siege, they sign a 30-year peace treaty with the Byzantines (Turkey).

681 CE The Bulgars defeat the Byzantines and establish the First Bulgarian Empire (Bulgaria).

685 CE Malik I becomes Muslim caliph (Syria).

691 CE The Muslims build the Umayyad-style Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (Israel; Palestine).

The Dome of the Rock is built on the spot where it is believed that Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, and Mohammed ascended into heaven.

698 CE An Arab army defeats the Byzantines at Carthage, completing the Muslim takeover of North Africa (Tunisia).

The North South States Period begins in Korea.

700 CE The Srivijaya Empire becomes the dominant power in Indonesia.

Building of major pyramids at Tikal begins (Guatemala).

A panoramic view of Tikal and its pyramids.

Eadfrith of Lindisfarnecreates the illuminated Latin-language Lindisfarne Gospels (UK: England).

A carpet page from the Lindisfarne Gospels.

705 CE Empress Wu Hou of the Tang Dynasty becomes first woman to lead China.

707 CE The Muslims under Musa ibn-Nusayr capture Tangier from the Berbers (Morocco).

711 CE A Muslim army of Arabs and Berbers under Tariq ibn Ziyad invades the Iberian Peninsula and defeats Roderick, last king of the Visigoths, at the Battle of Wadi Bekka (Spain).

715 CE The Umayyad-style Great Mosque of Damascus is completed (Syria).

The Great Mosque of Damascus.

718 CE A Muslim-Arab siege of Constantinople fails after Bulgarian leaderKhan Tervel comes to assist the Byzantines (Turkey).

Muslim armies on the Iberian Peninsula reach the Pyrenees (Spain).

722 CE Mai Thc Loanleads a revolt against the Chineserulers of Vietnam,captures the capitaland becomes Emperor of an independent region before the armies of Tang Dynasty Emperor Xuanzong put down the rebellion (Vietnam).

730 CE The Khazars, led by Barjik, defeat the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of Ardabil (Iran).

731 CE Bede completes the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written inLatin(UK: England).

732 CE The Franks, led by Charles Martel, defeat the advancing Muslim army, led by Adb-el-Rahman, at the Battle of Tours (France).

A map of the Muslim conquest of Spain in the 8th Century CE.

740 CE Beginning of the Great Berber Revolt against Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, which results in the creation of several independent Berber states (Morocco; Algeria).

747 CE Charles the Great (Charlemagne) is born in Germany or Belgium.

750 CE The Abbasids, led by Abu Al-Abbas, overthrow the Umayyad Caliphate under Marwan II, who is defeated at the Battle of the Zab (Iraq).

The pit-treadle loom is in use in Syria, Iran and East Africa.

By this date, the Christian Church has adopted a uniform liturgical sequence of plainchants known as Gregorian chant (Italy).

751 CE The Carolingian Dynasty begins with the reign of Pepin the Short, King of the Franks (France).

An artists depiction of Pepin the Short.

753 CE Dantidurga, king of the Rashtrakutas, defeats the Badami Chalukyas under Kirtivarman II and takes control of the northern regions of the Chalukya Empire (India).

755 CE General An-Lushan rebels against the Tang Dynasty and establishes himself as Emperor of the Yan Dynasty in northern China.

760 CE The Manyshpoetry anthology is published (Japan).

763 CE Muslim Abbasid Caliph Mansur moves his capital to Baghdad (Iraq).

The Tang Dynasty puts down the An Lushan Rebellion (China).

Byzantine Emperor Constantine V defeats the Bulgarians at the Battle of Anchialus (Bulgaria).

780 CE Muammad ibn Ms al-Khwrizmiis born in Khwarezm (now Uzbekhistan).

787 CE Byzantine Empress Irene calls the Second Council of Nicaea, which ends a 57-year period of iconoclasm in the Christian Church (Turkey).

A mosaic portrait of Empress Irene from the Hagia Sophia, dating to 1122.

793 CE The sack of Lindisfarne marks the beginning of Viking raids on Britain (UK: England).

794 CE The new city of Heian-kyo (Kyoto) becomes the seat of Japans imperial court, marking the beginning of theHeian period (Japan).

800 CE Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor (Germany).

First horizontal windmillsare used to mill grain in Persia (Iran).

Gunpowder is invented (China).

The illuminated Latin-language Aachen Gospelsis created (Germany).

The Four Evangelists, from the Aachen Gospels.

The Book of Kells, aLatin-language gospel book,is created (Ireland; UK).

An illuminated initial page from the Book of Kells.

802 CE Jayavarman II unites Cambodia and establishes his capital at Angkor.

813 CE Original construction of the Carolingian-Gothic Aachen Cathedral is completed (Germany).

Aachen Cathedral.

814 CE Death of Charlemagne.

815 CE The Vikings bury two women and numerous objects in a burial ship under a mound of earth in Oseberg (Norway).

A carved animal head post found in the Viking burial ship in Oseberg, Norway.

816 CE The illuminated, Latin-languageEbbo Gospels is made at the Benedictine abbey at Hautvillers, France.

A portrait of St. Matthew from the Ebbo Gospels.

820 CE Muhammad ibn Ms al-KhwrizmsThe Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, written in Arabic,establishes algebra as a separate discipline (Iraq).

823CE Byzantine Emperor Michael II the Amorian executes Thomas the Slav, a Byzantine military commander who led a massive, but ultimately unsuccessful revolt (Turkey).

825 CE Borobudur, a Mahayana Buddhist Temple, is built on Java (Indonesia).

Borobudor temple was built in the Gupta architectural style.

840 CE Weakened by a famine and civil war, the Uyghur Khaganate is overrun by the Kirghiz people (Mongolia).

843 CE The Treaty of Verdun divides the Kingdom of the Franks among Louis II, Lothair I and Charles the Bald (France).

The Council of Orthodoxy under Byzantine Empress Theodora ends the second period of iconoclasm in the Christian Church.

850 CE Muammad ibn Ms al-Khwrizmi dies.851 CE The Vikings sack London and Canterbury before being defeated by Ockley, King of the West Saxons (UK).

The Great Mosque of Samarra is completed (Iraq).

The minaret is all that remains of the Great Mosque of Samarra.

863 CE A Byzantine army led by Petronas defeats Arab forces under Umar al-Aqta at the Battle of Lalakaon in Paphlagonia (Turkey).

868 CE Playing cards are invented (China).

869CE Ali bin Muhammad, a descendant of slaves, leads the 15-year-long Zanj revolt of enslaved Bantus (Zanj) against the Abbasid caliphate (Iraq).

871 CE Alfred the Great becomes king of England (UK: England).

872 CE Harold I unites Norway.

874 CE Norsemen settle Iceland.

875 CE The High Cross of Muiredach is made at the Monasterboice monastery, in County Louth, Ireland.

The west face of the High Cross of Muiredach

878 CE The Saxons under Alfred the Great defeat the Danes at the Battle of Edington (UK: England).

882 CE The Kievan Rus is established (Russia).

883CE Abbasid caliphate armies finally suppress the Zanj Slave Revolt (Iraq).

889 CE The first Muslim fortress is built on the site of theAlhambra in Granada (Spain).

890 CE The Early Cyrillic script is developed in the First Bulgarian Empire (Bulgaria).

895 CE The Latin-language treatise Musica enchiriadis, which contains the earliest known reference to the organum musical style, is published.

900 CE The Srivijaya Empire based in Palembang controls Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, the Straits of Malacca and much of the region (Indonesia; Malaysia).

The southern portion of the Mayan empire collapses(Guatemala, Honduras, Belize).

The fire lance, precursor to modern firearms, is invented (China).

This 10th or 12th Century CE Buddhist illustration from China depicts a demon using a fire lance (upper right).

907 CE The period of the Five Dynasties begins in China.

In the Battle of Pressburg,Hungarian forces under Grand Prince rpd defeat a Bavarian army led by Margrave Luitpold (Hungary).

911 CE After signing the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Vikings led by Rollo settle in the newly-created Kingdom of Normandy (France).

919 CE The Ottonian Dynasty begins with Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony (Germany).

922 CE Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir orders the execution of Mansur al-Hallaj, a Persian Sufi mystic, for heresy (Iraq).

929 CE The caliphate of Crdoba is begun by Abd-ar-Rahman III (Spain).

936 CE Wang Geon of the Koryo Dynasty unifies the Later Three Kingdoms (Korea).

A map of the unified Three Kingdom under Wang Geon.

945 CE Ahmad ibn Buwah enters Baghdad and declares himself caliph, beginning the Buwayhid Dynasty (Iraq).

951 CE Kuya-Shonin, a practicioner of the Jodo, or New Land, form of Buddhism, founds the Rokuharamitsuji temple in Kyoto (Japan).

955 CE Chola Dynasty artists develop the classic iconography of the Hindu god Shiva in the form of Shiva Nataraja,, and create many statues, sometimes called Chola bronzes (India).

Most Chola bronzes are small enough to carry by hand, but the Shiva Nataraja at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (dating to 1100-1200) is five feet tall.

955 CE Otto the Great, King of the Germans, defeats the invading Hungarians, led byBulcs, at the Battle of Lechfeld (Germany).

960 CE Mieszko I, Duke of Polans, founds the Polish state (Poland).

Zhao Kuangyin becomes Emperor Taizu of Song, the first emperor of the Song Dynasty, and reunites most of China.

962 CE Otto the Great is named Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII (Germany).

A statue of Otto the Great in Magdeburg, Germany dating to 1245. Photo by Granger.

963 CE The Byzantines, under Emperor Nikephoros II, recapture Crete from the Muslim Arabs.

965 CE Byzantine armies under Niketas Chalkoutzes retake Cyprus from the Muslim Arabs.

Battles between Byzantines and Muslims.

973 CE Murasaki Shikibu is born in Heian-kyo (Japan).

975 CE The earliest known manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf,written in Old English (UK: England).

977 CE Former slave Abu Mansur Subuktigin becomes leader of the Ghaznavid Empire (Afghanistan).

980 CE Ibn Sina (Avicenna) is born in Afshona in the Samanid Empire (now Uzbekistan).

984 CE Qiao Weiyou designs the first pound lock (China).

985 CE After being exiled from Iceland, Eric the Red begins to colonize Greenland.

987 CE Hugh Capet ascends to the French throne, beginning the reign of the House of Capet, which lasts until 1328.

The Moorish-style Great Mosque ofCrdoba is completed (Spain).

The Golden Niche inside the Great Mosque of Crdoba.

990 CE The Kingdom of Ghana defeats the Lemtunas, a Saharan Berber tribe (Mauritania).

1000 The people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) begin carving giant Moai statues (Chile).

Most of the Moai stood on platforms and faced inland.

The Taos Pueblo is established in New Mexico (US).

Song Dynasty artist Fan Kuan creates the hanging scroll Travellers among Mountains and Streams(China).

Fan Kuans Travellers Among Mountains and Streams.

Persian calligrapher and illustrator Ibn al-Bawwab (Ali ibn Hilal) is making elaborately-decorated copies of the Quran (Iraq).

Pages from a Quran illustrated by Ibn al-Bawwab about 1000.

1001 Norsemen, possibly including Leif Erikson, become the first Europeans to reach North America when they build a settlement in LAnse aux Meadows in Newfoundland (Canada).

Mahmud of Ghazni begins raids into northern India.

1002 Malay prince Suryavarman defeats Khmer Empire King Udayadityavarman I (Cambodia).

The Pillow Book, a diary written in Japanese by Sei Shonagon (Japan).

1005 Following a successful military campaign by Emperor Shengzong of the Liao Empire against the Song Empire, Song Emperor Zhengzong signs the Chanyuan Treaty, establishing peace between the two dynasties (China).

A map of China shortly after the Chanyuan Treaty.

1010 The Book of Kings (Shahnameh), an epic historical poem by Ferdowsi, written in Persian (Iran).

1018 The Byzantines, led by Basil II, conquer the Bulgarians at the Battle of Kleidon (Bulgaria).

1016 Canute II, a Dane, defeats Edmund II at the Battle of Ashington and becomes King of all England (UK: England).

1021 Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) publishes the Book of Optics, a scientific treatise written inArabic(Egypt).

The Tale of Genji,a novel written in Japanese by Shikabu Murasaki (Japan).

Su Song is born near Quanzhou, China.

1025 Ibn Sina (Avicenna) publishes The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia written in Arabic(Iran).

Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna.

Murasaki Shikibu dies.1026 Mahmud of Ghazni destroys Somnath (India).

1027 The Book of Healing, a scientific and philosophical treatise written in Arabic by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (Iran).

1028 Birth of William the Conqueror in Falaise, Normandy (France).

1037 Tughril Beg founds the Seljuk Empire (Turkey; Iran).

A map showing the growth of the Seljuk Empire.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) dies.

1040 Bi Sheng invents movable type printing using first wood, then ceramic characters (China).

1042 Otho de Lagery (Pope Urban II) is born in Lagery, France.

1044 Anawrahta becomes King of Pagan and begins conquests leading to the Empire of Pagan (Burma).

1050 The Kandariya Mahadeva and most of the other Hindu and Jain temples at Khajuraho are completed (India).

Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, one of the temples in the Khajuraho complex.

Shao Yong publishes Huangji Jingshi (Book of Supreme World Ordering Principles), a treatise on cosmogony, in Chinese(China).

1054 The Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches begins (Italy; Turkey).

1055 The Seljuk Turks, under Tughril Beg, capture Baghdad and oust the Buwayhid Dynasty (Iraq).

1065 Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk establishes theAl-Nizamiyya of Baghdad, an institution of higher learning (Iraq).

1057 Anawrath, King of Pagan, unifies Burma after conquering the Kingdom of Thaton.

A map showing the growth of the Pagan Empire.

1066 The Normans, under William the Conqueror, defeat English King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings (UK: England).

William the Conqueror becomes the first Norman King of England (UK: England).

1071 The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantines and capture Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert, blocking access to Anatolia (Turkey).

1072 Followers of King Henry II murder Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Canterbury Cathedral (UK: England).

Northern Song Dynasty artist Guo Xi creates Early Spring (China).

Guo Xis Early Spring.

1075 The Bayeaux Tapestry, which tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England, is made (UK).

A scene from the Bayeaux Tapestry.

1076 According to Arab legend, the Berber Almoravid Dynasty conquers the Ghanaian Empire (Ghana; Mauritania).

1085 Alfonso VI, Christian King of Len and Castile, captures Toledo from the Muslim Almoravids (Spain).

1086 William the Conqueror orders a survey of the land and other property in his kingdom, the results of which are catalogued in Latinin the Domesday Book (UK: England).

A page of the Domesday Book for Warwickshire.

1087 William the Conqueror dies in Normandy (France).

1088 Otho de Lagery is elected Pope Urban II (Italy).

Construction begins on Su Songs 40-foot-tall water-powered astronomical clock tower in Kaifeng (China).

An illustration from a book by Su Song showing his clock tower.

1090 The earlier, Norman Romanesque version of Westminster Abbey is completed in London (UK: England).

1094 El Cid (Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar), a Castilian nobleman, drives the Almoravids out of Valencia and establishes a private fiefdom (Spain).

The Italo-Byzantine St. Marks Basilica is constructed in Venice (Italy).

The facade of St. Marks Basilica, with St. Marks Piazza in the foreground.

1095 Pope Urban II announces the First Crusade to capture the Holy Land and remove the Turks from the Byzantine Empire (Italy).

Al-Ghazali publishes the Arabic bookThe Incoherence of the Philosophers, an attack on the views of Ibn Sina and others (Iran).

1098 Birth of Hildegard of Bingen in Bermersheim vor der Hhe, County Palatine of the Rhine, Holy Roman Empire(now Germany)

1099 The Crusaders take Jerusalem from the Muslims (Israel; Palestine).

Death of Pope Urban II.1100 The White Tower, the original Tower of London, is completed (UK: England).

The White Tower, the original Tower of London.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, an epic poem written in Persian(Iran).

1101 Su Song dies.1102 The kingdoms of Croatia and Hungary unite.

1117 Founding of the University of Oxford (UK: England).

1120 The Tale of Genji Scrollis painted, possibly by Fujiwara no Takayoshi or his workshop (Japan).

A scene from the Tale of Genji scroll.

1125 The Jurchen people, led by Aguda, overthrow the Liao Empire and establish the Jin Dynasty (Mongolia).

1130 The Byzantine religious icon Our Lady of Vladimir is painted in Constantinople (Turkey).

Our Lady of Vladimir has been in Russia since 1131 and is venerated by the Russian Orthodox Church as the protectress of Russia.

1135 Original construction of the Romanesque Durham Cathedral is completed (UK: England).

A view of Durham Cathedral from the south.

Master Hugo creates theilluminated Latin-languageBury Bible at the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds (UK: England).

Scenes from the life of Jesus on an illuminated page in the Bury Bible.

1138 An earthquake in Aleppo, Syria kills 230,000 people.

Birth of Saladin in Tikrit, Mesopotamia (Iraq).

1140 The epic poem The Song of Roland is the oldest known work ofliterature writtenin French(France).

1143 Under the Treaty of Zamora, Spain recognizes Portugals independence. Afonso I Henriques becomes King of Portugal.

A portrait of King Afonso I.

1147 Spanish King Louis VII and German King Conrad III organize the Second Crusade.

The Almohads, a Berber Muslim Dynasty under Abd al-Mumin, conquer Morocco.

1150 According to legend, Eric IX of Sweden leads the First Swedish Crusade against the Finns and forces them to convert to Christianity (Finland).

The Buddhist temple complex at Angkor Wat is completed (Cambodia).

The Angkor Wat temple complex.

Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen founds the Rupertsberg monastery (Germany).

Lonin is composing polyphonic organum (France).

1151 Hildegard of Bingen writes the liturgical drama Ordo Virtutum, containing her earliestknown musical compositions (Germany).

1153 Four Buddhas (two sitting, one standing and one reclining) are carved into a granite rock face at the Gal Vihara temple at Polonnauruwa (Sri Lanka).

The Reclining Buddha at Gal Vihara.

1158 The Hanseatic League, an economic defense treaty, forms in northern Europe.

1162 Birth of Genghis Khan in Mongolia.

1163 Construction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris begins (France).

1167 Stefan Nemanja defeats the Byzantines at the Battle of Pantina and overthrows his older brother to become the first leader of a united Serbia.

1170 The Kurds build a fortress on the future site of Krak des Chevaliers (Syria).

Beginning of the ars antiquastyle in European music composition.

1171 English King Henry II invades Ireland and claims it for England.

The Treaty of Windsor recognizes Henry II as King of England and Ireland.

Ireland in 1171. Map courtesy of www.irelandstory.com.

1174 After England defeats Scotland, Scottish king William I accepts English sovereignty.

Saladin becomes Sultan of Egypt and Syria and founds the Ayyubid Dynasty.

1176 The Lombard League defeats Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa at the Battle of Legano (Italy)

Invention of the first clock using falling weights (France).

1178 In the Mishneh Torah, written in Hebrew, Maimonides determines the date of the creation of the world and establishes the Jewish calendar according to theAnno Mundi (Egypt).

1179 Death of Hildegard of Bingen.1180 Ibn Rushd (Averroes) writes The Incoherence of the Incoherence, a response to Al-Ghazalis The Incoherence of the Philosophers, written in Arabic (Spain).

1181 French goldsmith and enamellist Nicholas of Verdun creates the Verdun Altar (the Klosterneuberg Altarpiece) for the Klosterneuberg Monastery (Austria).

Nicholas Verduns gold and enameled altarpiece.

1185 Minamoto Yoshitsune defeats the Taira at the Battle of Dan no Ura, marking the beginning of the Kamakura period (Japan).

Kamakura period artist Kosho sculpts Kuya Preaching, which commemorates Kuya-Shonin and is located in the temple Kuya founded in Kyoto (Japan).

Kuya Preaching.

Thesandstone Bust of Jayavarman VII, Khmer emperor,is carved in the naturalistic Bayon style (Cambodia).

Abust of Khmer emperor Jayavarman VII.

1186 The Bulgarians successfully throw off Byzantine rule to form the Second Bulgarian Empire.1187 The Muslims, led by Saladin, recapture Jerusalem from the Christians (Israel; Palestine).

Saladin the Victorious, in a 19th Century engraving by Gustave Dor.

1189 The Third Crusade, led by Richard the Lionhearted, occupies Acre but fails to take Jerusalem from the Muslims (Israel; Palestine).

1190 Kamakura period sculptor Jokei creates statues of Ungyo and Agyo, a pair of fearsome guardians, or nio,to protect the entrance of the Kofuku-ji Temple in Nara (Japan).

One of a pair of nio made by Jokei for theentrance tothe Kofuku-ji Temple.

Song Dynasty artist Ma Yuan paints and draws Bare Willows and Distant Mountains on a silk fan (China).

Ma Yuans Bare Willows and Distant Mountains.

Maimonides writesGuide for the Perplexed, a philosophical and religious work, in Judeo-Arabic(Egypt).

1191 Earliest known vertical post mill windmill (UK: England).

1192 Minamoto no Yoritomo becomes the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate (Japan).

The Muslim Ghurids led by Muizz al-Din inflict a decisive defeat on a Chauhan Rajput army led by Prithviraj Chauhan in the Second Battle of Tarain (India).

1193 Death of Saladin in Damascus, Syria.

1200 The hand cannon, the simplest firearm, is invented (China).

A gunpowder-charged Chinese hand cannon from the 14th Century, during the Yuan Dynasty.

First evidence of buttons used to fasten clothing (Germany).

Soccer (known in most of the world as football) is being played in Europe.

Protin, a member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony, is writing organum in three and four parts at this time (France).

1202 Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade agree to sack the town of Zadar in Croatia so that Venice will transport them to Egypt, leading Pope Innocent to excommunicate the Crusaders.

Italian mathematician Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa) introduces Arabic numerals and the Fibonacci sequence to Western Europeans in his bookLiber Abaci (Italy).

1203 Soumaoro Kant, king of the Sosso people, seizes Koumbi Saleh, the capital of the weakened Ghanaian Empire (Mauritania).

1204 The Crusaders sack the Byzantine capital of Constantinople (Turkey).

1206 Genghis Khan establishes the Mongol Empire with a capital at Karakorum (Mongolia).

Genghis Khan as depicted in a 14th Century album of Yuan emperors, now in the National Palace Museum of Taipei.

1207 The epic Poem of the Cid (Cantar de Mio Cid) is written in Old Spanish (Spain).

1209 Founding of the University of Cambridge (UK: England).

Founding of the Franciscan order of friars (Italy).

The Nibelungenlied, an epic poem, is written in Middle High German (Germany).

1212 Christian forces defeat the Muslims in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, a key victory in the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula (Spain).

Nicolas of Cologne leads Christians on a pilgrimage to Italy.

Stephan of Cloyes, age 12, leads a group of 30,000 children and adults on a Crusade, making it to Marseilles (France).

1215 At the insistence of his nobles, King John signs the Magna Carta restricting his own powers (UK: England).

One of the four existing copies of a 1297 version of the Magna Carta.

1217 English victories at the battles of Lincoln and Sandwichstop a French invasion(UK: England).

1219 Roger Bacon is born in Somerset, England (now UK).

1221 Fall of Chichen Itza, a Mayan city that had flourished from 600 CE (Mexico).

The El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza was built between 800 and 1200 CE.

1222 Ken Arok founds the Singhasari Kingdom in east Java (Indonesia).

Snorri Sturlusson writes down the mythological stories in the Prose Edda, written in Icelandic (Iceland)

1225 The Crusading Knights Hospitaller have completed work on Krak des Chevaliers (Syria).

Crusading knights renovated a Kurdish fort into Krak des Chevaliers.

Birth of Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas in Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily(now Italy).

1227 Death of Genghis Khan, probably in battle.

1228 The Sixth Crusade, under Frederick II, obtains Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth through a treaty with Kurdish ruler Malik al-Kamil, the fourth Ayyubid sultan of Egypt (Israel; Palestine).

1232 First known use of rockets as weapons (China).

1235 Sundiata Keita founds the Mali Empire in West Africa.

1236 Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Len takes Crdoba from the Moors (Spain).

A map showing the advance of the Christian Reconquista and the shrinking Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus.

1238 Mohammed I ibn Nasr, founder of the Nasrid Dynasty, begins building the first palace at the Alhambra in Granada (Spain).

1240 The Russians under Alexander Nevsky defeat the invading Swedes at St. Petersburg (Russia).

The Mongols take Kiev, capital of the Kievan Rus, effectively completing their takeover (Russia).

1241 The Mongols defeat an alliance of Polish and Christian troops, led by Henry II the Pious, Duke of Silesia, at the Battle of Legnica, resulting in fragmentation of the Polish state (Poland).

1242 Genghis Khans son Batu leads his Golden Horde to southern Russia and establishes his capital at Sarai near theVolga River (Russia).

1248 Work begins on the Gothic Cologne Cathedral (High Cathedral of St. Peter) (Germany).

The French Gothic cathedral of Sainte-Chapelle is built in Paris (France).

The interior of Sainte-Chapelle.

1250 Castel del Monte, with its unusual octagonal design, is constructed in Apulia by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (I