ian priest-king from
Uruk, Mesopotamia, circa 3300–3000 BC ;Near East •
Mesopotamia • 4100–3100 BC – the
Uruk period, with emerging
Sumerian hegemony during the Uruk Expansion and development of
Proto-cuneiform writing;
base-60 mathematics,
astronomy and
astrology,
civil law, complex
hydrology, the
sailboat,
potter's wheel and
wheel; the
Chalcolithic proceeds into the
Early Bronze Age. •
3500–
2340 BC –
Sumer:
wheeled carts,
potter's wheel, White Temple
ziggurat, bronze
tools and
weapons. • First to Fourth dynasty of
Kish in
Mesopotamia. • Sumerian temple of
Inanna at
Eridu erected. • Temple at
Al-Ubaid and tomb of
Mes-Kalam-Dug built near
Ur,
Chaldea. •
3000 BC –
Tin is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time. • The
cuneiform script proper emerges from pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century BC, found at
Jemdet Nasr. •
Kura-Araxes culture expands Southwards towards Sumer. • Possible reigns of
Lugalbanda and
Enmerkar prior to 3250 BC. • Long distanced trade with polities in modern-day Afghanistan. •
Dams,
canals,
stone sculptures using
inclined plane and
lever in Sumer. •
Urkesh (northern Syria) founded during the fourth millennium BC possibly by the
Hurrians. • The
Courtyard is introduced to Mesopotamia. • Persian plateau • 4000 BC –
Susa is a center of
pottery production. • –
Beaker from
Susa (modern
Shush, Iran) is made. It is now at
Musée du Louvre, Paris. •
Proto-Elamite from 3200 BC. • Anatolia and Caucasus • to 3000 BC – The
Maykop culture of the
Caucasus, contemporary to the
Kurgan culture, is a candidate for the origin of
Bronze production and thus the
Bronze Age. , • 3400–2000 BC –
Kura-Araxes: earliest evidence found on the
Ararat plain. on the
Scorpion Macehead, • Egypt • 4000–3000 BC –
Naqada culture on the
Nile. First hieroglyphs appear thus far around 3500 BC as found on labels in a ruler's tomb at
Abydos. •
Predynastic pharaohs
Tiu,
Thesh,
Hsekiu,
Wazner,
Ro,
Serket,
Narmer. •
3500–
3400 BC –
Jar with boat designs, from
Hierakonpolis (today in the
Brooklyn Museum) is created.
Predynastic Egypt. • c.
3150 BC –
Predynastic period ended in
Ancient Egypt.
Early Dynastic (
Archaic) period started (according to French
Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal). The period includes 1st and 2nd Dynasties. • –
Narmer Palette. •
Sails used in the
Nile. •
Mastabas, the predecessors of the
Egyptian pyramids. •
Harps and
flutes played in Egypt. •
Lyres and double clarinets (
arghul,
mijwiz) played in Egypt. • Earliest known
numerals in Egypt. ;Europe
steppe pastoralist ancestry into two subcontinents—Europe and South Asia—from to 1500 BC. •
Crete: Rise of
Minoan civilization. • – First Neolithic settlers in the island of
Thera (
Santorini), Greece, migrating probably from
Minoan Crete. •
Pontic–Caspian steppe • 3500–2300 BC – The
Yamna culture ("Kurgan culture"), succeeding the
Sredny Stog culture on the
Pontic–Caspian steppe in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This culture is believed to have been the locus of the
Proto-Indo-Europeans, and thus the
Urheimat, or point of origin, of the
Proto Indo-European language, according to the
Kurgan hypothesis. • 5500–2750 BC – The
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture has cities with 15,000 citizens, eastern Europe. •
Kurgan culture of what is now
Southern Russia and
Ukraine; possibly the first
domestication of the horse. • Balkans • c.
3500 BC – Figures of a man and a woman, from
Cernavodă,
Romania, are made. They are now at
National Historical Museum,
Bucharest. • c.
3138 BC Ljubljana Marshes Wheel is a wooden
wheel that was found in the
Ljubljana Marsh in
Slovenia. Radiocarbon dating showed that it is approximately 5,150 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered. • c. 4000–2000 BC – People and animals, a detail of rock-shelter painting in
Cogul (
Roca dels Moros),
Lleida, Spain, are painted. It is now at
Archaeology Museum of Catalonia,
Barcelona. •
Arzachena and
Ozieri cultures. •
Malta temples are the earliest of the
Megalithic Temples of Malta •
3600 BC – Construction of the
Ġgantija megalithic temple complex on the
Island of Gozo: the world's oldest extant unburied free-standing structures, and the world's oldest religious structures. (See
Göbekli Tepe for older, buried religious structures.) •
3600–
3200 BC – Construction of the first temple within the
Mnajdra solar temple complex, containing "furniture" such as stone benches and tables, that set it apart from other European megalith constructions. •
Great Neolithic Plague occurs from circa 5450 BC to circa 2700 BC. This ensures for the large scaled expansions of the later early bronze age. •
3600–
3000 BC – Construction of the
Ta' Ħaġrat and
Kordin III temples. •
3250–
3000 BC – Construction of three megalithic temples at
Tarxien. •
3200–
2500 BC – Construction of the
Ħaġar Qim megalithic temple complex, featuring both solar and lunar alignments. • Northern Europe • 4000–2700 BC – The
Funnelbeaker culture, Scandinavia, originated in southern parts of Europe and slowly advanced up through today's
Uppland. •
3300–
2900 BC – Construction of the
Newgrange solar
observatory/passage tomb in Ireland. in Eastern
Jutland, is an example of
Funnelbeaker culture circa 3200 BC • c.
3100–
2600 BC –
Neolithic settlement at
Skara Brae in the
Orkney Islands,
Scotland, is inhabited. • Construction in England of the
Sweet Track, the world's first known engineered roadway. •
Garth tsunami in the
Northern Isles. • c.
3100 BC – The earliest phase of the
Stonehenge monument (a circular earth bank and ditch). • The
Céide Fields are developed, the first signs of the eventual complete
deforestation of
Ireland. • c.
3300 BC –
Ötzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in a
glacier of the
Ötztal Alps. His
cause of death is believed to be
homicide. ;Central Asia • 3500–2500 BC –
Afanasevo: Siberia, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan—late copper and early Bronze Age. • –
Horses are domesticated in the western
Eurasian Steppes in what is now northern
Kazakhstan (see the
Botai culture). •
Bactria Margiana civilization (circa 3000 BC) alongside trade routes connection with Proto-dynastic Egypt. ;East Asia • Neolithic Chinese settlements. They produced silk and pottery (chiefly the
Yangshao and the
Longshan cultures), wore hemp clothing, and domesticated pigs and dogs. • 4000–
2500 BC – Vietnamese Bronze Age culture. The
Đồng Đậu Culture, produced many wealthy bronze objects. ,
Indus Valley, c. 3000 BC ;Indian Subcontinent •
Mehrgarh III–VI •
3500 BC Metalcasting began in the
Mohenjodaro area. •
3300 BC –
Bronze Age starts in
Indus Valley (
Harappa). •
Drainage and
Sewage collection and disposal ;Americas • c.
3600 BC – In
Colombia, first
rupestrian art
Chiribiquete (
Caquetá). • c. 3000 BC – First
pottery in
Colombia at
Puerto Hormiga (
Magdalena), considered one of the first attempts of pottery of the
New World. First settlement at
Puerto Badel (
Bolívar). • c.
3600 BC – Evidence of maize domestication appear in the Valley of
Tehuacán. •
Norte Chico civilization in Northern
Peru starts. ;Australia • c. 3000 BC – The
Sydney rock engravings in present-day (
Sydney,
Australia). ;Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa remains in the
Paleolithic period, except for the earliest neolithization of the
Sahel following the
desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BC. As the grasslands of the Sahara began drying after 3900 BC, herders spread into the Nile Valley and into eastern Africa (
Eburan 5,
Elmenteitan). The desiccation of the Sahara and the associated neolithisation of West Africa is also cited as a possible cause for the
dispersal of the
Niger-Congo linguistic phylum. ==Environment==