Timeline of Ancient History - Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

For earlier events, see Timeline of human prehistory.

The Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper ores, and then smelting those ores to cast bronze. These naturally-occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in western Asia before 3000 BC. In some parts of the world, a Copper Age follows the Neolithic and precedes the Bronze Age.

The Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in some past societies often including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles, although this was not always the case.

• 5200-4000 BC: First farming settlements. Malta.
• 5200-4500 BC: Ghar Dalam phase The Ghar Dalam phase represents the earliest known farming settlements.
• 4100-3800 BC: Żebbuġ phase. Malta.
• 3800-3600 BC: Mġarr phase A short transitional period in Malta's prehistory. It is characterized by pottery consisting of mainly curved lines.
• 3600-3200 BC: Ġgantija phase Characterized by a change in the way the prehistoric inhabitants of Malta lived.
• Circa 3500 BC: Egyptian calendar
• 3300-3000 BC: Saflieni phase
• 3300 BC: Bronze Age begins in the Near East
• 3300 BC: Newgrange Ireland
• 3300 BC: Hakra Phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins in the Indian Sub-continent.
• 3200 BC: Cycladic civilization in Greece
• 3200 BC: Norte Chico civilization begins in Peru
• 3200 BC: Rise of Proto-Elamite Civilization in Iran
• 3100 BC: Skara Brae Scotland
• 3100 BC: First dynasty of Egypt
• c. 3000 BC: Sumerian cuneiform writing system.
• c. 3000 BC: Stonehenge construction begins. In its first version, it consisted of a circular ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts.
• c. 3000 BC: Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in Romania and the Ukraine
• 3000 BC: Jiroft civilization Begins in Iran
• 3000 BC: First known use of papyrus by Egyptians
• 2800 BC: Kot Diji phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins
• 2800 BC: Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period in China
• 2700 BC: Minoan Civilization ancient palace city Knossos reach 80,000 inhabitants
• 2700 BC: Rise of Elam in Iran
• 2700 BC: Pharaonic rule in Egypt begins.
• 2675 BC: King Khufu completes construction of Great Pyramid of Giza.
• 2600 BC: Mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley civilization (in present-day Pakistan and India) begins
• 2600 BC: Emergence of Maya culture in the Yucatán Peninsula
• 2600 BC: Completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
• 2500 BC: The mammoth goes extinct.
• 2200 BC: completion of Stonehenge.
• 2070 BC: Yu the Great established the Xia Dynasty in China
• 2000 BC: Domestication of the horse
• 1800 BC: alphabetic writing emerges
• 1700 BC: Indus Valley Civilization comes to an end but is continued by the Cemetery H culture; The beginning of Poverty Point Civilization in North America
• 1600 BC: Mycenaean Greece
• 1600 BC: The beginning of Shang Dynasty in China, evidence of a fully developed Chinese writing system
• 1600 BC: Beginning of Hittite dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean region
• 1500 BC: Composition of the Rigveda is completed
• 1400-400 BC: Olmec civilization flourishes in Pre-Columbian Mexico, during Mesoamerica's Formative period
• 1200 BC: The Hallstatt culture
• 1100 BC: Use of Iron spreads
• c. 1180 BC: Disintegration of Hittite Empire
• 1046 BC: The Zhou force (led by King Wu of Zhou) overthrow the last king of Shang Dynasty; Zhou Dynasty established in China
• 1020 to 930 BC: The beginning of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) occurred sometime between these dates
• 890 BC: Approximate date for the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey
• 800 BC: Rise of Greek city-states