Ancient World
Code of Ur-Nammu: The Oldest Surviving Law Code in History
The oldest surviving collection of laws, issued by the Third Dynasty of Ur and later identified on tablets in Istanbul and the British Museum.
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.
Ancient World
Ziggurat of Ur: Ur-Nammu's Great Temple Tower in Sumer
The best-preserved ziggurat of Sumer, restored in antiquity by Nabonidus, excavated by Woolley and partly reconstructed in the 20th century.
Ancient World
Epic of Gilgamesh: The World's Oldest Great Work of Literature
The epic was copied across the Near East for some 1,500 years, was forgotten, and was rediscovered in the 19th century as one of the world's oldest great works of literature.
Ancient World
Shulgi of Ur: The Runner King of Sumer's Third Dynasty
Shulgi turned the kingdom founded by his father into a centralised state with standard measures, a vast bureaucracy and a deified king.
Ancient World
Mentuhotep II and the Reunification of Egypt (c. 2055 BC)
Mentuhotep II defeated the Herakleopolitan kingdom, reunited Egypt under Theban rule and is regarded as the founder of the Middle Kingdom.
Ancient World
Fall of Ur (2004 BC): Elamite Sack and the Lament for Ur
Ur was sacked by an Elamite-led army, Ibbi-Sin was taken to Elam, and the Third Dynasty of Ur came to an end.
Ancient World
Karnak Temple Complex: Two Thousand Years of Building at Thebes
Karnak became the largest temple complex of ancient Egypt and the religious centre of the state god Amun-Ra for some two thousand years.
Ancient World
Old Assyrian Merchants of Kanesh: The Trade Network of Ashur
Ashur's merchants built one of the best-documented long-distance trade systems of the ancient world, linking Mesopotamia with Anatolia for about two centuries.
Ancient World
Story of Sinuhe: Masterpiece of Ancient Egyptian Literature
The tale became a classic of Egyptian literature, copied by scribes for centuries, and is now regarded as one of the finest works to survive from ancient Egypt.
Ancient World
Decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation: Causes and Debate
The large Harappan cities were gradually abandoned and the civilisation broke up into smaller regional village cultures, without writing or long-distance trade.
Ancient World
Erlitou Culture and the Xia Dynasty: China's First State?
Erlitou is recognised as the earliest large urban centre with palaces and bronze casting in the Central Plains of China, but whether it was the Xia capital remains unproven.
Ancient World
Palace of Knossos (c. 1900 BC): The Minoan Labyrinth of Crete
The largest Minoan palace, centre of Bronze Age Crete for some five centuries, later an administrative seat of Mycenaean Greeks and the source of the Labyrinth legend.