Era · c. 3000 BC – AD 500

Ancient World

The first cities, empires and written records, from the pyramids of Egypt to Greece and the Roman Empire.

Kuru Kingdom: The First State of Vedic India, c. 1200 BC

The Kurus built the first large polity of Vedic India, where the Vedic hymns were collected and the classic system of public ritual and social order took shape.

c. 1200–500 BC · 4 min read

Ancient World

Tlatilco Culture: Village Figurines of the Valley of Mexico

Tlatilco's burials and figurines became a key source for early village society in central Mexico and its early contacts with the Olmec world.

c. 1200 BC · 5 min read

Ancient World

Chavín de Huántar: The Andean Temple of the Lanzón Oracle

Chavín de Huántar became the leading religious centre of the central Andes and gave its name to the first widespread art style in Peru; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.

c. 1200–500 BC · 6 min read

Ancient World

Olmec Colossal Heads: The Giant Stone Portraits of San Lorenzo

Seventeen colossal heads are known; they are the best-known symbols of Olmec civilisation and among the most remarkable sculptures of the ancient Americas.

c. 1200–900 BC · 6 min read

Ancient World

Tomb of Fu Hao: Shang Queen and General Unearthed in 1976

The only intact Shang royal-family tomb ever found, it revealed the wealth of the Shang court and confirmed a woman's military role recorded in oracle bones.

c. 1200 BC · 6 min read

Ancient World

Sanxingdui: The Mysterious Bronze Masks of Ancient Sichuan

The finds revealed an independent Bronze Age civilisation in the Sichuan Basin, distinct from but in contact with the Shang of the Yellow River valley.

c. 1200–1000 BC · 8 min read

Ancient World

Medinet Habu: Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III at Thebes

Ramesses III built the best-preserved mortuary temple of the New Kingdom, whose reliefs are the main record of his wars against the Sea Peoples.

c. 1186-1155 BC · 4 min read

Ancient World

Trojan War: History, Archaeology and the Legend of Troy

Troy was a real and important Bronze Age city destroyed more than once, but whether a war like Homer's took place remains unproven.

c. 1184 BC (traditional) · 8 min read

Ancient World

Sea Peoples: Raiders of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean

Egypt repelled the Sea Peoples twice, but some groups, notably the Philistines, settled on the coast of Canaan as the Late Bronze Age order collapsed.

c. 1208-1175 BC · 8 min read