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CONTEXTS |
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ca.
3000 B.C. Mesopotamia: Sumerian cuneiform writing
on clay tablets • Egypt: writing in hieroglyphic
script |
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2700 Gilgamesh is king in Uruk
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ca. 2575–2130
Old Kingdom (Egypt) • Great Pyramids; Sphinx |
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ca. 2130–1540 Middle Kingdom (Egypt)
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ca. 2000 B.C. Legends about King Gilgamesh appear on clay
tablets
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ca. 1900 Hebrew migration from Mesopotamia begins
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18th century Hammurabi's Code of Law written in Babylon
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1600 The epic of Gilgamesh begins to take shape
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1500 Egyptian Book of the Dead
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ca. 1539–1200 New Kingdom (Egypt)
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1375–1358 Akhenaten's "Hymn to the Sun" composed
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1375–1354 King Akhenaten dedicates his capital to Aten, the sun
god
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1300 The epic of Gilgamesh written down
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1300–1100 Love lyrics of the New Kingdom composed
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1238 The Leiden Hymns written down
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ca. 1200 Moses leads the Jews in Exodus from Egypt to Palestine
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| 1000
The Torah text assembled • Psalms |
1000–925 David, then Solomon, king in Israel
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6th century Aesop's Fables
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586 Jerusalem captured by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar; many
Jews taken to exile in Babylon
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539 The Persian shah, Cyrus the Great, conquers Babylon and
allows the Jews to return to Israel. He founds the Iranian empire,
which later envelops most of the Middle East and Central Asia
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525 Cambyses, king of Persia, conquers Egypt
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ca. 450 Herodotus, History
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331–330 Alexander the Great conquers Syria, Mesopotamia, and
Iran; defeats the last Persian army at Sungamela and occupies Babylon
and Persopolis
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330–323 Alexander conquers Central Asia and the Indus Valley,
but dies in Babylon (323). His generals divide up the empire. Seleucus
becomes king of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran, Ptolemy of Egypt
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202–198
Palestine falls to Antiochus III, king of a land empire
stretching east from Asia Minor • Rome defeats Antiochus
III in 190 • Successful Jewish revolt against Antiochus
IV between 173 and 167 |
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40–4
Herod is king of Judea |
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30 Rome conquers Egypt
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