Timeline

c. 9000 BCE - c. 3300 BCE
The Neolithic (or New Stone Age), lasting from the start of agriculture between c. 9000-c. 4000 BCE until the beginning of bronze use c. 3300 BCE.
c. 6200 BCE
First copper smelting in Anatolia.
3800 BCE
Earliest bronze working.
3650 BCE
Invention of the wheel.
3500 BCE
Farming has spread across Europe.
c. 3500 BCE - c. 2000 BCE
Nomads settle the region and initiate agriculture during the Early Bronze Age.
c. 3500 BCE - c. 2100 BCE
An Early Bronze Age settlement is believed to have occupied the northern half of Tel Kabri.
c. 3300 BCE - c. 1200 BCE
The Bronze Age, lasting from c. 3300 BCE- c. 1200 BCE in the Near East and South Asia and c. 600 BCE in Europe.
c. 3200 BCE - 1100 BCE
The Cycladic Civilization in Greece.
c. 3000 BCE
First habitation of Epidaurus site.
3000 BCE - 2550 BCE
Troy I - First stone-walled village settlement
3000 BCE - 2000 BCE
First inhabitation of Mycenae area.
3000 BCE - 2200 BCE
The first archaeological evidence of organised communities in the Cyclades.
3000 BCE - 2000 BCE
Distinctive minimalistic standing marble figurines are produced in the Cyclades.
3000 BCE
First evidence of habitation at Thebes.
c. 3000 BCE
First Bronze Age settlement in Jerusalem.
2800 BCE - 1900 BCE
Bell beaker culture in western Europe.
2550 BCE - 2300 BCE
Troy II - origin of gold 'treasure' found by Schliemann
2500 BCE - 1100 BCE
Bronze Age in Cyprus.
2300 BCE
Bronze is used in the Aegean.
2300 BCE - 1750 BCE
Troy III - Troy V
2200 BCE - 1700 BCE
Evidence of town planning and more sophisticated architecture in the Cylades.
2100 BCE
Ziggurats in use in Sumerian cities of Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Nippur and elsewhere
c. 2000 BCE
Pottery wheel introduced to Minoan civilization on Crete.
2000 BCE
The first examples of the lyre in the Bronze Age Aegean occur in the Cyclades and on Minoan Crete.
2000 BCE - 1450 BCE
Minoan civilization in Crete and the Aegean.
2000 BCE
Early Greeks settle the Peloponnese.
2000 BCE
Domesticated horses introduced in Mesopotamia.
2000 BCE - 1500 BCE
Wessex culture introduces bronze working to Britain.
c. 2000 BCE - c. 1550 BCE
Cities develop and trade expands in the region during the Middle Bronze Age. Palestine becomes important trade hub.
c. 2000 BCE - c. 1400 BCE
Early Bronze Age in Scotland.
c. 2000 BCE
Bronze Age begins in Northern Europe.
c. 2000 BCE
Akrotiri becomes an important Aegean trading centre.
2000 BCE - 1650 BCE
Akrotiri on Thera reaches its peak of prosperity and becomes a flourishing Mediterranean trading centre.
2000 BCE
First shaft graves at Thebes.
c. 1850 BCE - c. 1450 BCE
The Linear A script of the Minoan civilization is in use.
1850 BCE - 1550 BCE
Phaistos disk manufactured on Crete.
1800 BCE
Bronze working introduced to Egypt.
c. 1772 BCE
The Code of Hammurabi: One of the earliest codes of law in the world.
1750 BCE - 1300 BCE
Troy VI - probable Troy of Homer's Iliad. City at its zenith.
1700 BCE - 1400 BCE
The culture in the Cyclades is increasingly influenced by Minoan Crete.
1700 BCE - 1100 BCE
The Mycenaean civilization dominates Greece.
1650 BCE - 1550 BCE
Eruption of Thera and consequent tidal waves, destruction of Akrotiri and other Aegean centres.
c. 1600 BCE
Rhodes has significant contact with Minoan Crete.
c. 1600 BCE - c. 1550 BCE
The palace at Tel Kabri is destroyed and the site is abandoned for the rest of the Bronze Age.
1550 BCE
The Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni is founded.
1504 BCE - 1492 BCE
Egyptian empire reaches greatest extent under Thutmose I.
1500 BCE
Pastoral farming spreads across Eurasian steppes.
1500 BCE
Egyptian empire extends to the Euphrates.
c. 1500 BCE - c. 1200 BCE
The Linear B script of the Mycenaean civilization is in use.
1500 BCE - 1300 BCE
Mycenaean Thebes at its peak of prosperity and influence.
1500 BCE
The site of Delphi is first settled.
1472 BCE
Mittani annexes Assyria.
c. 1450 BCE - c. 1400 BCE
Minoan Palatial period superseded by Mycenaean.
c. 1450 BCE
Mycenaean monumental architecture first appears at Epidaurus.
c. 1450 BCE - 1200 BCE
The city of Ugarit flourishes.
c. 1400 BCE
Rhodes has significant contact with the Mycenaean civilization.
c. 1400 BCE - c. 900 BCE
Middle Bronze Age in Scotland.
1400 BCE - 1100 BCE
Culture in the Cyclades is increasingly influenced by the Mycenaean civilization of mainland Greece.
1330 BCE - 1300 BCE
Sinking of the Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Lycia.
c. 1321 BCE
Western Mittani is conquered by the Hittites.
1300 BCE - 950 BCE
Troy VIIa - VIIb Notable decline in architectural and artisitic standards
c. 1250 BCE - c. 1150 BCE
Bronze Age Collapse during which the major civilizations of the Mediterranean declined or fell.
1250 BCE - 1200 BCE
Mycenaean chamber tombs constructed at Thebes.
c. 1200 BCE - c. 1100 BCE
Mycenaean Epidaurus at its peak of prosperity.
1100 BCE
Hillforts in western Europe.
c. 1100 BCE
Evidence of settlement destruction and abandonment across the Cyclades.
c. 900 BCE - c. 400 BCE
Late Bronze Age in Scotland.
1819 CE
C. J. Thomsen of the Danish National Museum first uses the Three-Age System of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age to organise its collection.