Ancient civilizations timeline
This chart puts 18 ancient civilizations on one timeline in order, from Early Dynastic Egypt, Sumerians and Minoan civilization (all from c. 3100 BCE) to Carthage (c. 814 to 146 BCE).
See it on the interactive chart
- Early Dynastic Egyptc. 3100 to 2686 BCE
- Sumeriansc. 3100 to 2000 BCE
- Minoan civilizationc. 3100 to 1450 BCE
- Caral-Supe (Norte Chico)c. 3000 to 1800 BCE
- Old Kingdom of Egyptc. 2686 to 2181 BCE
- Indus Valley Civilization (Mature Harappan)c. 2600 to 1900 BCE
- Akkadian Empirec. 2334 to 2154 BCE
- Old Babylonian Empirec. 1894 to 1595 BCE
- Mycenaean Greecec. 1600 to 1050 BCE
- Shang dynastyc. 1600 to 1046 BCE
- Olmec civilizationc. 1600 to 400 BCE
- New Kingdom of Egyptc. 1550 to 1069 BCE
- Hittite Empire (New Kingdom)c. 1400 to 1190 BCE
- Neo-Assyrian Empire911 to 609 BCE
- Chavín culturec. 900 to 250 BCE
- Carthagec. 814 to 146 BCE
- Greek city-statesc. 800 to 338 BCE
- Achaemenid Empire550 to 330 BCE
- Egyptian
- Semitic
- Greek
- Chinese
- Anatolian
- Iranian
- People or culture without a state
In order
Early Dynastic Egypt
The First and Second Dynasties, beginning with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, often credited to Narmer. Many kings were buried at Abydos and the royal administration took shape.
Sumerians
Speakers of Sumerian, a language isolate written from at least 3100 BCE, in the city-states of southern Mesopotamia. Akkadian replaced it as the everyday language around 2000 BCE (the date is debated), but it lived on in temples and schools for two millennia.
Minoan civilization
A Bronze Age civilization on Crete, often regarded as Europe's first, known for frescoes and palace complexes at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia. Its Linear A script is undeciphered and its language unknown. Mycenaean Greeks dominated Crete after about 1450 BCE.
Caral-Supe (Norte Chico)
The oldest known civilization in the Americas, with as many as 30 centers in the Supe, Pativilca and Fortaleza valleys. They built large platform mounds and sunken circular plazas without pottery. Caral itself was inhabited from about 2600 BCE.
Old Kingdom of Egypt
The age of the pyramids. Djoser's step pyramid and the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza were built under its pharaohs. Drought and powerful provincial governors brought it down.
Indus Valley Civilization (Mature Harappan)
Spread over an area larger than ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia combined, with planned grid cities, covered drains, uniform weights and an undeciphered script. Its language is unknown. Sumerian texts name a trading partner, Meluhha, that most scholars identify with it.
Akkadian Empire
Sargon of Akkad united Sumer and northern Mesopotamia in what is often seen as the first empire, and his grandson Naram-Sin declared himself a living god. Revolts, a major drought and Gutian, Amorite and Elamite pressure brought it down.
Old Babylonian Empire
Amorite dynasty that Hammurabi made master of Mesopotamia, carving his law code on a stone stele. The Hittite king Mursili I sacked Babylon in 1595 BCE.
Mycenaean Greece
Greek-speaking palace kingdoms that wrote in Linear B, built the walls of Mycenae and Tiryns and traded across the Mediterranean. The palaces were destroyed in the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE.
Shang dynasty
The earliest traditional Chinese dynasty firmly supported by archaeology, whose oracle bones carry the earliest known Chinese writing. It cast bronze ritual items and made human sacrifices in state rituals until the Zhou overthrew it.
Olmec civilization
Generally regarded as the first civilization of Mesoamerica, in the lowlands of Veracruz and Tabasco. The Olmec carved colossal basalt heads, worked jade and made rubber balls for the ball game. Their language is unknown; an early Mixe-Zoquean language is a leading hypothesis.
New Kingdom of Egypt
Egypt's imperial age, ruling Nubia and Canaan under pharaohs such as Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. It faded after the Sea Peoples and the loss of its empire.
Hittite Empire (New Kingdom)
Suppiluliuma I broke Mitanni and took northern Syria, making the Hittites Egypt's great rival. After Kadesh they signed one of the oldest surviving treaties, then Hattusa was gradually abandoned around 1190 BCE.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
Largest empire of its time, ruling all of Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt with a standing army and mass resettlement of conquered peoples. Ashurbanipal gathered a great library at Nineveh, which the Medes and Babylonians captured in 612 BCE.
Chavín culture
Religious tradition centered on the temple of Chavín de Huántar, whose stone galleries hold the Lanzón. Its feline and serpent art, the first widespread style in the Andes, reached from Piura and Paracas on the coast to Pukara.
Carthage
Phoenician colony from Tyre that became the leading sea power of the western Mediterranean, ruling Sardinia, western Sicily and southern Spain. After three Punic Wars Rome razed the city in 146 BCE.
Greek city-states
About 1,500 known city-states, which founded colonies around the Mediterranean and Black Sea and defeated the Persian invasions at Marathon and Salamis. Philip II of Macedon beat Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea in 338 BCE.
Achaemenid Empire
Cyrus the Great and his successors built the largest empire of its time, from Egypt and Thrace to the Indus, joined by the Royal Road and run by satraps. Alexander conquered it by 330 BCE after Gaugamela.
Major events
- Early writing appears at Uruk. Scribes at Uruk record goods on clay tablets in proto-cuneiform, which emerged around 3350 to 3200 BCE. Over the following centuries it grows into cuneiform, a writing system used until the 1st century BCE.
- Unification of Egypt. Narmer, seen by many scholars as the first king of a united Egypt, brings the Nile valley and the Delta under one crown, as the Narmer Palette may show. The capital moves to Memphis.
- Great Pyramid of Giza. Khufu's pyramid at Giza is built over about 26 years, 146.6 metres high and the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,700 years.
- Indus cities reach their height. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa grow into planned cities of perhaps 30,000 to 60,000 people, with baked brick houses, drainage systems and standardised weights used across a huge area.
- Rise of Caral, considered the oldest city in the Americas. Platform mounds and sunken plazas rise at Caral in the Supe valley, part of a network of towns that traded cotton and fish between coast and valley.
- Sargon founds the Akkadian Empire. Sargon of Akkad, whose reign is often dated 2334 to 2279 BCE, defeats Lugalzagesi of Uruk and unites Sumer and Akkad in what is often seen as the first empire in history.
- Indus cities decline. From around 1900 BCE, as the monsoon weakened and rivers dried up, the Indus cities declined. Most were abandoned by 1700 BCE, and people moved east toward the Ganges basin.
- Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi of Babylon has his laws inscribed on a basalt stele, covering criminal, family, property and commercial cases and resting on the principle of an eye for an eye.
- Thera eruption. The volcano on Santorini buries the Minoan town of Akrotiri under metres of ash in one of the largest volcanic events in human history.
- Hittites sack Babylon. Mursili I leads a 2,000 km march into Mesopotamia and sacks Babylon, ending Hammurabi's dynasty and opening the way for the Kassites.
- Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt. Queen Hatshepsut sends a five-ship expedition down the Red Sea to Punt. Reliefs in her temple at Deir el-Bahari record the voyage and the goods brought back.
- Akhenaten founds Amarna. Pharaoh Akhenaten moves the capital to a new city at Amarna devoted to the sun disc Aten, a religious revolution reversed after his death.
- Battle of Kadesh. Ramesses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II fight one of the largest chariot battles in history in Syria. Both claim victory, and a peace treaty follows in 1259 BCE.
- Oracle bone writing at Anyang. Diviners of the Shang king Wu Ding carve questions to the ancestors on turtle shells and ox bones, the earliest known significant body of Chinese writing.
- Late Bronze Age collapse. Palace centres such as Mycenae are destroyed and Linear B writing falls out of use as trade across the eastern Mediterranean breaks down. Scholars debate how widespread the destruction was.
- Late Bronze Age collapse. Over a few decades around 1200 BCE, Hattusa is burned or abandoned, Ugarit is sacked and Sea Peoples raid the coasts. The Hittite Empire and the palace states of the Aegean collapse.
- San Lorenzo rises as a major Olmec center. San Lorenzo becomes the largest city in Mesoamerica, from about 1200 to 900 BCE. Its rulers have colossal heads carved from basalt brought from the Tuxtla Mountains.
- Battle of Muye. King Wu of Zhou defeats the last Shang king, Di Xin, ending the Shang. Later Zhou histories present the conquest as a transfer of the Mandate of Heaven.
- Chavín de Huántar becomes a pilgrimage center. The temple at Chavín becomes a pan-regional center where pilgrims come for rituals and an oracle, and Chavín art becomes the first widespread, recognizable artistic style in the Andes.
- Battle of Qarqar. Shalmaneser III of Assyria fights a coalition of eleven kings led by Hadadezer of Damascus and Ahab of Israel. His record lists Gindibu the Arab with 1,000 camels, the first mention of Arabs.
- Founding of Carthage. Phoenician settlers from Tyre found Carthage on the Gulf of Tunis, according to tradition under Queen Dido. It becomes the leading city of the western Mediterranean.
- First Olympic Games. By tradition the first Olympic festival is held at Olympia in honour of Zeus. Greeks later counted years in four-year Olympiads from this date.
- Assyria conquers Samaria. Assyria takes Samaria after a three-year siege, ends the Kingdom of Israel and deports tens of thousands of Israelites, who are remembered as the Ten Lost Tribes.
- Fall of Nineveh. Babylonians and Medes capture the Assyrian capital after a two-month siege and loot it. Within three years the Neo-Assyrian Empire is gone.
- Cyrus takes Babylon. After defeating the Babylonians at Opis, Cyrus the Great enters Babylon, which Persian-era texts say fell without battle. He lets deported peoples, including the Judeans, return home.
- Battle of Marathon. Athenians aided by Plataea defeat a larger Persian force sent by Darius I, a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus records 6,400 Persian bodies counted on the field and 192 Athenian dead.
- Battle of Salamis. The Greek fleet, led by the Athenian Themistocles, defeats Xerxes' navy in the straits off Salamis, a turning point in the Persian invasion of Greece.
- Battle of Gaugamela. Alexander defeats Darius III near Erbil. Babylon, Susa and Persepolis fall within months, and the Achaemenid Empire is finished.
- Battle of Zama. Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal in what is now Tunisia. The defeat is so severe that Carthage capitulates and Hannibal is forced into exile.
- Destruction of Carthage. Roman forces under Scipio Aemilianus storm and destroy Carthage after a siege of nearly three years, ending the Third Punic War. Its territory becomes the province of Africa.
Questions
What is the order of ancient civilizations?
By start date: Early Dynastic Egypt, Sumerians, Minoan civilization, Caral-Supe (Norte Chico), Old Kingdom of Egypt, Indus Valley Civilization (Mature Harappan), Akkadian Empire, Old Babylonian Empire, Mycenaean Greece, Shang dynasty, Olmec civilization, New Kingdom of Egypt, Hittite Empire (New Kingdom), Neo-Assyrian Empire, Chavín culture, Carthage, Greek city-states and Achaemenid Empire.
How many ancient civilizations were there?
This timeline shows 18. Other lists count differently, depending on how they treat rival states and periods of division.
Which came first?
Early Dynastic Egypt, Sumerians and Minoan civilization all start around the same date on this timeline, c. 3100 BCE.
Where do these dates come from?
Each row's dates were checked against the sources listed on that row's own page, mostly English Wikipedia articles, which cite the underlying scholarship. Dates that are uncertain are marked c.