Ancient World
Hattusa: Capital of the Hittite Empire in Central Anatolia
Seat of the Hittite kings for some 450 years; its archives of about 30,000 tablets made the rediscovery of Hittite history possible.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Lapita Culture: Pottery and the First Settlers of Remote Oceania
Lapita voyagers became the first people to settle Remote Oceania, reaching Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, where their descendants became the ancestors of the Polynesians.
Ancient World
Shang Dynasty Oracle Bones: The Earliest Chinese Writing
The inscriptions confirmed the existence of the Shang kings and are the earliest substantial body of Chinese writing, ancestral to the modern script.
Ancient World
Harappa: The Indus City That Gave a Civilisation Its Name
Harappa became the first Indus city to be excavated, gave the Harappan civilisation its name and remains one of the best-studied Bronze Age cities in South Asia.
Ancient World
Founding of the Roman Republic (509 BC): End of the Kings
The monarchy was abolished and power passed to two annually elected consuls, beginning the Roman Republic that lasted until the late 1st century BC.
Ancient World
Minoan Eruption of Thera (c. 1600 BC): Santorini's Great Blast
The island of Thera was buried in pumice and ash, its caldera enlarged and the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri entombed; Minoan Crete was affected but survived.
Ancient World
Merneith: First Dynasty Queen and Possible Early Female Ruler
Merneith probably governed Egypt as regent for the young king Den and received a royal-scale tomb at Abydos.
Ancient World
Shahr-i Sokhta: The Bronze Age Burnt City of Eastern Iran
A large Bronze Age city of the Helmand delta that flourished through crafts and long-distance trade, later abandoned; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014.
Prehistory
Tassili n'Ajjer Rock Art: Prehistoric Paintings of a Green Sahara
One of the world's largest groups of prehistoric rock art, recording thousands of years of climate change in the Sahara; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.
Prehistory
Neolithic Revolution: How Farming Began in the Fertile Crescent
Farming and herding replaced foraging as the main way of life in the Near East and spread from there to Europe, North Africa and South Asia.
Prehistory
Acheulean Hand Axes: The Longest-Used Tool in Human History
The Acheulean hand axe became the most long-lived tool design in human history, made by several human species over more than 1.5 million years before giving way to Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic technologies.
Prehistory
Little Foot: The Most Complete Australopithecus Skeleton
StW 573 became the most complete Australopithecus skeleton known, unveiled in 2017 after two decades of excavation, though its age and species remain debated.