Era · c. 3000 BC – AD 500
The first cities, empires and written records, from the pyramids of Egypt to Greece and the Roman Empire.
Cimmerian raids ended Phrygian power, killed King Gyges of Lydia and devastated Ionian cities, until Lydia expelled the nomads around 600 BC and became the leading power of western Anatolia.
Disputed: Sennacherib claimed a crushing victory, while a Babylonian chronicle records an Assyrian retreat; Babylon fell to Assyria two years later.
Taharqa's long reign was a high point of Kushite rule in Egypt, but Assyrian invasions drove him from Lower Egypt and Kushite control ended soon after his death.
Babylon was sacked, its temples wrecked and the statue of Marduk taken to Assyria; Esarhaddon began rebuilding the city from 680 BC.
Qi became the dominant state of the early Spring and Autumn period, and Duke Huan was recognised as the first ba, or hegemon, leading the Zhou states.
Assyria captured Memphis and drove Taharqa south, but its hold on Egypt proved short-lived and ended within about 15 years.
The largest surviving collection of Mesopotamian texts, whose rediscovery made it possible to read cuneiform literature and revealed works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Nuri served as the main royal cemetery of Kush for about three centuries and is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Assyrian victory; Teumman was killed and Assyria installed its own candidates on the thrones of Elam.
A body of systematic observations spanning about 600 years that underpins much of our knowledge of ancient astronomy and late Babylonian history.
Susa was plundered and its sanctuaries and royal tombs desecrated; Elam never again rivalled Assyria or Babylon.
A celebrated cycle of Assyrian reliefs presenting the king as protector of his land, now among the best-known works of ancient art.
