Unless
otherwise indicated, dates
given below are BC = BCE. These dates are designated with reference to
a fixed 0-point that corresponds with an ancient calculation of the
birth of Jesus.
Dates before the 0-point are BC (Before Christ) or BCE (Before Common
Era),
those after AD (Anno Domini, Latin for In the Year of the Lord) or CE (Common Era).
BP = Before Present is used to designate dates so distant that the few
millennia separating the 0-point from the present day are statistically insignificant.
In any case, most of the dates here are approximate and/or speculative, in
particular those before 500 BC/BCE.
Students are NOT responsible for the
specific dates here unless they appear on the Study Guides, but should know the approximate dates discussed in class,
and have a grasp of the relative chronlogy (sequence of events).
EARLY EUROPE
730,000-200,000 BP: Lower Palaeolithic: early hominids
(proto-humans) spread into Europe
4-300,000: first hominids in Greece
(Petralona cranium)
200,000-40,000 BP: Middle Palaeolithic
100-40,000:
emergence of modern humans
40,000-13,000 BP: Upper Palaeolithic: last ice
age
35,000:
earliest art: beads, traded shells, sculpture
13,000BP-10,500 BCE: Lower Mesolithic: beginning
of current interglacial period
10,500-9000 BCE: Upper Mesolithic
10,000:
earliest evidence of bow and arrow
9000: first evidence of burial in
Greece (Franchthi Cave)
9000 (in Near East)-3000 BCE (northwest Europe):
Neolithic-emergence of agricultural societies
c5600: earliest datable pottery
c3000: earliest evidence of ships
with sails
The NEAR EAST (NE): Sumeria, Mesopotamia, Akkad,
Babylon, Assyria, Persia
7000: earliest cities (Catal Huyuk)
3500-3200: Uruk period (state formation)
3400:
earliest known writing (with possible exception of China)
3200-2400: Elamite-Sumerian Early Dynastic period (earliest
evidence of Gilgamesh epic)
2400-2200: Sargonid/Akkadian period
2200-2004: Neo-Sumerian period
2004-1595: Old Babylonian period
1792-1750?:
Hammurabi-law code
1595-1000: Middle Babylonian period
1230-1000: Assyrian control of Babylon
1000-650: Neo-Babylonian period
605-539: Late/Neo Babylonian period
650-443: Persian Empire
334-100: Alexander the Great takes control of Persia =>
rule by Seleucid (Greek) kings
EGYPT
5000: emergence of Neolithic (agricultural) societies
3000: early city-states
2700-2200: Old Kingdom (Dynasties IV-VI: Giza pyramids)
2200-2000: 1st Intermediate period (Dynasties VII-X)
2000-1786: Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI-XII)
1786-1567: 2nd Intermediate period (Dynasties XIII-XVII:
Hyksos invasion)
1567-1069: New Kingdom (Dynasties XVIII-XX: Luxor, Karnak,
Valleys of Kings)
1200-1150:
invasions of Sea-Peoples
1069-332: Late Dynastic Period (Dynasties XXI-XXXI)
525:
Persian takeover of Egypt
332-31: Alexander the Great takes control of Egypt => rule by Ptolemaic (Greek) kings
GREECE
8000: earliest Neolithic communities (Thessaly)
by 7000: humans on Crete
2500-1100: Bronze Age (BA)
2000-1500:
Middle Bronze Age: Minoan palaces on Crete (Linear A: earliest European
writing)
earliest direct evidence of Greek-speakers in
Greece (BA Greeks = Myceneans)
Shaft Graves at Mycenae
1150-750: Early Iron Age (EIA,
aka Dark Ages)
Submycenaean
(1125-1050)
750-479: Archaic period
800-700: Greek Renaissance (return of writing, art, architecture, trade)
Late
Geometric (750-700)
first
post-BA colonies (by 500: in Sicily, Italy, N. Africa, Asia Minor, Black Sea)
earliest
surviving writing in alphabetic Greek
700-550:
Orientalizing period (intense contact with NE)
by
525: Persian empire absorbs Greek cities in Ionia (Asia Minor)
546-511:
Peisistratos and sons tyrants in Athens
550-479:
Late Archaic
479-323: Classical period
460-404:
Peloponnesian War
323-146: Hellenistic Period
30-330: Roman Period
330-1453: Byzantine Empire
ROME & ITALY
7000 BCE first
agricultural communities in Italy
1800-1200 Middle
Bronze Age (Appenine culture)
1200-1000 Late
Bronze Age (contact with Mycenean Greeks)
1000-900 Final
Bronze Age (Villanovan): continuous habitation of Rome begins
900-800 expansion
of Etruscan sea power
800-600 Greeks
established in south Italy; Greek pottery in Italian communities (Late Villanovan)
800 Etruscan
alphabetic inscriptions (script derived from Greek)
753 traditional
founding of Rome
600 earliest
writing in Latin (derived from Etruscan script)
600-475 Etruscan
domination
575-530 Servian
period: major public works (Cloaca Maxima; Forum)
509 traditional
end of Etruscan rule and establishment of the Roman Republic
475-300 Conflict
of the Orders: gradual, partial expansion of political rights beyond ruling
families
375-250 extension of Roman
power through Italy
264-146 Punic Wars (Rome vs.
Carthage)
206-133 Roman
conquest of Spain
215-146 Rome
assumes control of Greece
111-105 Jugurthine
War: extension of Roman control of north Africa
91-89 Social
War: federation of Italy under Roman leadership
49-45 Caesar
defeats Pompey in civil war
44 assassination
of Caesar and renewal of civil war
42 Octavian
& Antony defeat anti-Caesareans at battles of Philippi
32-30 Octavian
eliminates Antony
27 Octavian
consolidates control of the Roman state and assumes title Augustus
14 CE death
of Augustus and accession of Tiberius
34 traditional
date of death of Jesus
37 death
of Tiberius, succession of Caligula
ca. 40
conversion
of apostle Paul
41-44 Herod
Agrippa I rules Judea
41 Caligula
ousted, Claudius installed
54 Nero
succeeds Claudius
ca. 63
Paul
executed in Rome
68 Nero
assassinated
70 Roman
destruction of Jerusalem
95 persecution
of Christians by Domitian
112 persecution
of Christians by Trajan