The world in the 16th century BCE

In the 16th century BCE (1600 to 1501 BCE), the timeline shows 23 states, empires and colonies and 129 peoples across 12 regions. The most significant include Minoan civilization, Shang dynasty, New Kingdom of Egypt, Old Babylonian Empire and Ebla.

Previous: 17th century BCE Next: 15th century BCE

Events

• 1600 BCE Thera eruption, Europe. The volcano on Santorini buries the Minoan town of Akrotiri under metres of ash in one of the largest eruptions of the last 10,000 years.
• 1600 BCE Poverty Point earthworks built, North America. Foragers in Louisiana raise six concentric ridges and Mound A, one of the largest earthworks in North America, without farming.
• 1595 BCE Hittites sack Babylon, Middle East. Mursili I marches 2,000 km down the Euphrates and sacks Babylon, ending Hammurabi's dynasty and opening the way for the Kassites.

Central and Southern Africa

• Central African forest foragers c. 3200 BCE to the present
• San hunter-gatherers c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Khoisan hunter-gatherers c. 3200 BCE to 1100 CE
• Pastoral Neolithic herders c. 3000 BCE to 700 CE
• East African hunter-gatherers c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Lower Congo hunter-gatherers c. 3200 BCE to 500 CE
• Great Lakes hunter-gatherers c. 3200 BCE to 500 CE
• Pre-settlement Madagascar c. 3200 BCE to 400 CE

North and West Africa

• New Kingdom of Egypt c. 1550 to 1069 BCE
• Kingdom of Kerma c. 2500 to 1500 BCE
• Amazigh (Berber) tribes c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Cushitic-speaking pastoralists c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Medjay, Blemmyes and Beja nomads c. 2300 BCE to the present
• Middle Nile herders and farmers c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Saharan cattle pastoralists c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Tropical forest hunter-gatherers c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Ethiopian highland farmers c. 3000 to 980 BCE
• Tichitt culture c. 2200 to 400 BCE
• Land of Punt c. 2500 to 980 BCE
• Kintampo culture c. 2500 to 1400 BCE
• Gajiganna culture c. 1800 to 800 BCE
• C-Group culture c. 2400 to 1550 BCE
• Second Intermediate Period c. 1650 to 1550 BCE
• Hyksos (Fifteenth Dynasty) c. 1650 to 1550 BCE

Europe

• Minoan civilization c. 3100 to 1450 BCE
• Nuragic civilization c. 1800 to 238 BCE
• Nordic Bronze Age c. 1700 to 500 BCE
• Unetice culture c. 2300 to 1600 BCE
• El Argar culture c. 2200 to 1550 BCE
• Mycenaean Greece c. 1600 to 1100 BCE
• Volga Finnic peoples c. 1800 BCE to 1100 CE
• Early and Middle Helladic Greece c. 3200 to 1600 BCE
• Beaker and Early Bronze Age Britain c. 2500 to 1500 BCE
• Bronze Age Gaul c. 1800 to 800 BCE
• Srubnaya culture c. 1800 to 1200 BCE
• Wessex culture c. 2000 to 1400 BCE
• Armorican Tumulus culture c. 2000 to 1400 BCE
• Cogotas I culture c. 1700 to 1100 BCE
• Polada culture c. 2200 to 1600 BCE
• Terramare culture c. 1700 to 1150 BCE
• Apennine culture c. 1600 to 1150 BCE
• Tumulus culture c. 1600 to 1200 BCE

Middle East

• Old Babylonian Empire 1894 to 1595 BCE
• Ebla c. 3000 to 1600 BCE
• Old Elamite period c. 2700 to 1500 BCE
• Kassite Babylonia c. 1595 to 1155 BCE
• Yamhad c. 1810 to 1517 BCE
• Mitanni c. 1550 to 1260 BCE
• Hittite Old Kingdom c. 1650 to 1400 BCE
• Zagros highland peoples c. 3200 to 800 BCE
• Arabian pastoral nomads c. 3200 to 900 BCE
• Dilmun c. 2800 to 544 BCE
• South Semitic peoples of Yemen c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Canaanites c. 3200 to 1150 BCE
• Troy c. 3000 to 1180 BCE
• Byblos c. 2800 to 1200 BCE
• Hurrians c. 2500 to 1000 BCE
• Luwians c. 2000 to 700 BCE
• Colchian culture c. 1700 to 600 BCE
• Amorites c. 2400 to 1600 BCE
• Trialeti culture c. 2200 to 1500 BCE
• Wadi Suq culture c. 2000 to 1300 BCE
• Qatna c. 2000 to 1340 BCE
• Old Assyrian city-state c. 2025 to 1365 BCE
• Ugarit c. 1800 to 1185 BCE
• Egyptian Canaan c. 1550 to 1130 BCE
• Sealand dynasty c. 1732 to 1460 BCE

South Asia

• Late Harappan phase c. 1900 to 1300 BCE
• Balangoda culture c. 3200 to 900 BCE
• Microlithic hunter-gatherers c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Neolithic and Chalcolithic farmers of the Ganges c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Early Dravidian-speaking peoples c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Neolithic farmers of Bengal and Assam c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Deccan hunter-gatherers c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Southern Neolithic c. 3000 to 1200 BCE
• Ahar-Banas culture c. 3000 to 1500 BCE
• Gandhara grave culture c. 1600 to 500 BCE
• Pandu Rajar Dhibi culture c. 1600 to 750 BCE
• Ochre Coloured Pottery culture c. 2000 to 1500 BCE
• Malwa culture c. 1700 to 1300 BCE

Central and North Asia

• Andronovo culture c. 2000 to 900 BCE
• Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex c. 2300 to 1600 BCE
• Uralic hunter-fishers of western Siberia c. 3200 BCE to 1000 CE
• Baikal hunter-fishers c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Early foragers and herders of Mongolia c. 3200 to 1400 BCE
• Andronovo herders of Dzungaria c. 1800 to 900 BCE
• Ymyyakhtakh culture c. 2200 to 1300 BCE
• Xiaohe culture c. 2000 to 1300 BCE

East Asia

• Shang dynasty c. 1600 to 1046 BCE
• Jomon culture c. 3200 to 300 BCE
• Sanxingdui culture c. 1700 to 1150 BCE
• Xia dynasty (traditional) c. 2070 to 1600 BCE
• Erlitou culture c. 1900 to 1500 BCE
• Formosan Austronesian peoples c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Neolithic farmers of the Tibetan plateau c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Amur and Ussuri foragers c. 3200 to 1100 BCE
• Jeulmun pottery period c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Maqiao culture c. 1900 to 1200 BCE
• Qijia culture c. 2200 to 1600 BCE
• Lower Xiajiadian culture c. 2200 to 1600 BCE

Southeast Asia

• Austronesian peoples c. 2200 BCE to 900 CE
• Austroasiatic rice farmers c. 2000 BCE to 500 CE
• Ban Chiang culture c. 2000 BCE to 200 CE
• Austroasiatic rice farmers of the Mekong c. 2000 BCE to 100 CE
• Philippine Negrito foragers c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Orang Asli (Semang and Senoi) c. 2000 BCE to the present
• Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers of Burma c. 2000 to 200 BCE
• Pre-Austronesian foragers c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Phung Nguyen and Dong Dau cultures c. 2000 to 1000 BCE

North America

• Arctic Small Tool tradition c. 2500 to 800 BCE
• Poverty Point culture c. 1700 to 1100 BCE
• Unangan (Aleut) peoples c. 2500 BCE to the present
• California Archaic hunter-gatherers c. 3200 BCE to 500 CE
• Shield Archaic c. 3200 to 500 BCE
• Plains Archaic hunters c. 3200 to 500 BCE
• Maritime Archaic c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Eastern Archaic hunter-gatherers c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Locarno Beach and Marpole cultures c. 1800 BCE to 500 CE
• Early Agricultural period farmers c. 2100 BCE to 50 CE
• Pre-Dorset c. 2500 to 500 BCE
• Southwestern Archaic foragers c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Saqqaq culture c. 2500 to 800 BCE

Mesoamerica and Caribbean

• Olmec civilization c. 1600 to 400 BCE
• Casimiroid culture c. 3200 to 200 BCE
• Ortoiroid culture c. 3200 to 400 BCE
• Desert Archaic foragers c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Archaic foragers and gardeners of the isthmus c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Archaic maize farmers c. 3200 to 1200 BCE
• Archaic peoples of the Maya region c. 3200 to 1200 BCE
• Archaic foragers of Oaxaca and the Gulf c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Monagrillo culture c. 2500 to 1200 BCE
• Mokaya culture c. 1900 to 1000 BCE

South America

• Chinchorro culture c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Fuegian canoe peoples (Yaghan, Kawésqar) c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Sambaqui shell-mound builders c. 3200 BCE to 1000 CE
• Interior Archaic hunter-gatherers c. 3200 to 500 BCE
• Pampas and Patagonian Archaic hunters c. 3200 to 500 BCE
• Mayo-Chinchipe culture c. 3200 to 500 BCE
• Amazonian Archaic foragers c. 3200 to 1000 BCE
• Northern Andean Archaic peoples c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Andean Archaic hunters and herders c. 3200 to 1500 BCE
• Kotosh religious tradition c. 2300 to 1200 BCE
• Casma valley centers (Sechín) c. 1800 to 900 BCE
• Machalilla culture c. 1800 to 1100 BCE

Oceania

• Aboriginal Australian peoples c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Lapita culture c. 1600 to 500 BCE
• Papuan farmers and foragers c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Kuk Swamp agriculture c. 3200 to 500 BCE
• Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples c. 3200 BCE to the present
• Uninhabited c. 3200 BCE to 1280 CE
• Uninhabited c. 3200 BCE to 1000 CE
• Uninhabited c. 3200 to 100 BCE