Ancient World
Hallstatt Culture: Salt, Iron and Early Celtic Europe
The Hallstatt culture spread iron working and a wealthy elite society across central Europe and was followed by the La Tène culture.
Region
Europe
Ancient World
Greek Alphabet (c. 800 BC): Adapting the Phoenician Script
The Greeks created the first alphabet with regular signs for vowels, which became the ancestor of the Latin, Cyrillic and many other scripts.
Ancient World
Lycurgus and the Spartan Constitution: How Sparta Was Ruled
Sparta acquired a mixed constitution of two kings, a council of elders, an assembly and five ephors, later credited to Lycurgus, which lasted with changes for centuries.
Ancient World
Oracle of Delphi: The Pythia and the Sanctuary of Apollo
For about a thousand years the Pythia's answers guided Greek cities and rulers; the sanctuary declined under Christian rule and was excavated by French archaeologists from 1892.
Ancient World
Olympia: The Sanctuary of Zeus and Home of the Ancient Games
The most important sanctuary of Zeus in Greece and site of the Olympic Games, rediscovered in 1766 and excavated by German archaeologists from 1875.
Ancient World
First Olympic Games (776 BC): Origins of the Ancient Olympics
A religious festival with athletic contests for Zeus that was held every four years for over a thousand years and gave the Greeks a shared calendar.
Ancient World
Founding of Rome (753 BC): Romulus, Remus and the Evidence
According to legend Romulus founded Rome on the Palatine; archaeology shows villages on Rome's hills merging into a city over the 10th to 6th centuries BC.
Ancient World
Greek Colonization (c. 750 BC): Cities Around the Mediterranean
Hundreds of Greek settlements spread Greek language, religion and city life across the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts.
Ancient World
Homer and the Iliad and Odyssey: Origins of the Greek Epics
Two epic poems that became the foundation of Greek education and of the Western literary tradition.
Ancient World
Messenian Wars (c. 743 BC): Sparta's Conquest and the Helots
Sparta annexed Messenia and reduced most of its population to helots, a subjugation that lasted until 369 BC.
Ancient World
Founding of Syracuse (733 BC): Corinth's Great Colony in Sicily
Corinthian colonists founded Syracuse, which grew into the largest and most powerful Greek city in Sicily and the western Mediterranean.
Ancient World
Lydian Coins: The Invention of Coinage in Ancient Anatolia
Lydia and its Ionian Greek neighbours created standardised stamped metal coins, an invention that spread across the Greek world and Persia and became the basis of later Western money.