Region

Middle East

Hittite Sack of Babylon (1595 BC): End of Hammurabi's Dynasty

Babylon was plundered and the First Dynasty of Babylon ended; the Hittites withdrew and a Kassite dynasty later took control of the city.

c. 1595 BC · 7 min read

Established a fixed order of royal succession and gave the assembly (panku) power to judge murders within the royal family.

c. 1525 BC · 5 min read

Murex purple became the most prestigious dye of the ancient Mediterranean and a lasting symbol of royal and imperial power.

From c. 1500 BC · 6 min read

Egyptian victory; after a siege of about seven months Megiddo surrendered and Egypt gained control of Canaan.

c. 1457 BC · 6 min read

Ugarit was destroyed around 1185 BC and never reoccupied as a city, but its buried archives transformed the study of the ancient Levant.

c. 1400-1185 BC · 6 min read

The earliest large diplomatic archive known, revealing the Late Bronze Age system of great powers and their vassals.

c. 1360-1332 BC · 6 min read

The Hittite kingdom became an empire controlling northern Syria and rivalling Egypt, while Mitanni was reduced to a Hittite client state.

c. 1344-1322 BC · 6 min read

Prince Zannanza died before he could marry the queen, and the episode led to Hittite attacks on Egyptian territory in Syria.

c. 1323 BC · 4 min read

The excavation recovered the richest Bronze Age cargo ever found at sea, transforming understanding of Late Bronze Age long-distance trade.

c. 1305 BC · 6 min read

Tactically inconclusive; Ramesses escaped defeat, but Kadesh and Amurru stayed under Hittite control.

c. 1274 BC · 8 min read

Egypt and the Hittites agreed lasting peace, mutual defence and the return of fugitives, ending their long war over Syria.

c. 1259 BC · 6 min read

A religious city and ziggurat of the Middle Elamite kingdom, listed by UNESCO in 1979 as one of Iran's first World Heritage Sites.

c. 1250 BC · 6 min read