Ancient World
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: Mathematics in Ancient Egypt
The largest surviving ancient Egyptian mathematical text, and the main source for how Egyptians calculated with fractions, areas and volumes.
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
Ahmose I and the Expulsion of the Hyksos (c. 1550 BC)
The Hyksos capital Avaris fell, Egypt was reunited under Theban rule and the Eighteenth Dynasty began the New Kingdom.
Ancient World
Proclamation of Telepinu: The Hittite Law of Royal Succession
Established a fixed order of royal succession and gave the assembly (panku) power to judge murders within the royal family.
Ancient World
Valley of the Kings: Royal Tombs of New Kingdom Egypt
The burial ground of most New Kingdom kings for about 450 years, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site with more than 60 known tombs.
Ancient World
Deir el-Medina: Village of the Royal Tomb Builders
A state-run village of skilled tomb workers whose ostraca and papyri form the richest record of ordinary life in ancient Egypt.
Ancient World
Rigveda: The Oldest Sanskrit Text and Its Hymns, c. 1500 BC
A collection of 1,028 hymns that became the oldest scripture of Hinduism and the earliest major text in any Indo-Aryan language.
Ancient World
Vedic Period: Ancient India from the Rigveda to the Upanishads
A pastoral tribal society became a world of agricultural kingdoms, producing the Vedas, the varna system and the ritual and philosophical foundations of Hinduism.
Ancient World
Tyrian Purple: The Phoenicians' Royal Murex Shell Dye
Murex purple became the most prestigious dye of the ancient Mediterranean and a lasting symbol of royal and imperial power.
Ancient World
Nok Culture: Terracotta Sculptures and Iron of Ancient Nigeria
The Nok culture produced the earliest large-scale figurative sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa and some of its earliest iron smelting.
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
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari
A terraced temple for the cults of Amun and Hatshepsut, damaged in antiquity and largely restored by modern archaeologists.
Ancient World
Thutmose III: The Pharaoh Who Built Egypt's Empire
Egypt's greatest warrior king of the 18th Dynasty extended Egyptian control from the Fourth Cataract of the Nile to the Euphrates.