Our Earth's History

Timeline: Ancient world

3500 BC – 800 BC · 45 articles, earliest first. Browse this era by continent.

  1. 3500 BC · Central AsiaA gold necklace, a lead ingot: Sarazm on the Zeravshan, 1976 or 1979
  2. 3300 BC · West AsiaWhat Was the World's First City? The Story of Uruk
  3. 3000 BC · East AsiaTen dams and a levee before the walls: Liangzhu, 5,100 years ago
  4. 2600 BC · The AmericasHow did the Americas' oldest city rise on cotton, fish and no pottery?
  5. 2560 BC · AfricaHow Did the Great Pyramid's Four Sides Point True North Without a Compass?
  6. 2560 BC · AfricaWere the Pyramids Really Built by Slaves?
  7. 2560 BC · AfricaWho Really Built the Pyramids, and How?
  8. 2500 BC · EuropeHow do we know Stonehenge's Altar Stone came from Scotland?
  9. 2500 BC · South AsiaSixty-one samples, one genome: the Rakhigarhi woman I6113
  10. 2500 BC · South AsiaTen Indus signs, one signboard: Dholavira and its excavator
  11. 2500 BC · South AsiaWhere Did Almost Every House Have a Drain 4,500 Years Ago?
  12. 2500 BC · South AsiaWhy Does the Indus Civilization Show No Sign of a King?
  13. 2500 BC · South AsiaWhy can't anyone read the Indus script?
  14. 2300 BC · West AsiaWho Was the First Author in History? Enheduanna
  15. 2300 BC · West AsiaWhy Wasn't 'Sargon,' the King Who Built the First Empire, His Real Name?
  16. 2279 BC · West AsiaHow Was the World's First Empire Born? Sargon of Akkad
  17. 2250 BC · West AsiaWhich King of the First Empire Declared Himself a Living God?
  18. 2100 BC · West AsiaWhat Did a King Who Had Everything Walk to the End of the World to Find?
  19. 2100 BC · West AsiaWhat Is Humanity's Oldest Story?
  20. 2000 BC · Central AsiaA reservoir that was never filled: Arkaim, southern Urals, 1987–1991
  21. 2000 BC · OceaniaBananas at 1,550 meters: the drained gardens of Kuk Swamp, New Guinea
  22. 2000 BC · Central AsiaGonur Depe: the Bronze Age city the Karakum desert hid until 1974
  23. 2000 BC · The AmericasTwo crossed-hands reliefs at Kotosh: University of Tokyo digs, 1960
  24. 1900 BC · Central AsiaOnly a local ancestry: the Xiaohe mummies and the 2021 genome study
  25. 1800 BC · West AsiaWas a Great-Flood Story Carved in Clay Before the Bible?
  26. 1700 BC · EuropeA real godsend, and controversial: Evans's concrete at Knossos
  27. 1700 BC · East AsiaIs Erlitou China's first dynasty, or a city no one can name?
  28. 1600 BC · EuropeAkrotiri: a town under the ash of Thera, and a date no one agrees on
  29. 1600 BC · EuropeDug up July 4, 1999, seized in Basel in 2002: the Nebra Sky Disc
  30. 1500 BC · OceaniaMore than 2,000 km of open sea: the Mariana Islands, about 1500 BC
  31. 1500 BC · The AmericasNearly 2 million cubic yards by the basketful: Poverty Point, 1700 BC
  32. 1323 BC · AfricaWhy Did Only the Least Important Boy-King's Tomb Survive?
  33. 1323 BC · AfricaWhy Did an Ancient Egyptian Boy King's Tomb Hold More Than a Hundred Walking Sticks?
  34. 1300 BC · EuropeCopper, tin and glass off Uluburun: a Bronze Age cargo, 1982
  35. 1300 BC · OceaniaStilt posts in a lagoon: the Lapita village at Talepakemalai, Mussau
  36. 1200 BC · East AsiaA name on the bronzes: the unlooted tomb of Fu Hao, Anyang, 1976
  37. 1200 BC · East AsiaWho made the bronze giants of Sanxingdui, and why bury them?
  38. 1200 BC · East AsiaWhy were China's oldest records sold as medicine in 1899?
  39. 1000 BC · OceaniaA skull in Pot 2: the Teouma Lapita cemetery, Vanuatu, 2004 to 2020
  40. 1000 BC · The AmericasSeventeen heads, five to fifty tons: the Olmec portraits in basalt
  41. 1000 BC · OceaniaWho reached the remote Pacific first, and how did they get there?
  42. 800 BC · The AmericasTwenty shell trumpets in a gallery: Chavín de Huántar, 2001 to 2025
  43. 650 BC · Central AsiaArzhan 2 in Tuva: a man, a woman, 14 horses and 40 pounds of gold
  44. 1872 · West AsiaHow a Clay Tablet Shook Victorian Britain
  45. 1922 · AfricaWhat Did Howard Carter See by Candlelight in Tutankhamun's Tomb?