1st millennium BC

Encyclopedia

The 1st millennium BC was the period of time between from the year 1000 BC to 1 BC (10th to 1st centuries BC; in astronomy: JD 1356182.5 – 1721425.5). It encompasses the Iron Age in the Old World and sees the transition from the Ancient Near East to classical antiquity.

World population roughly doubled over the course of the millennium, from about 100 million to about 200–250 million.

Overview

Further information: Ancient history and World history

The Neo-Assyrian Empire dominates the Near East in the early centuries of the millennium, supplanted by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century. Ancient Egypt is in decline, and falls to the Achaemenids in 525 BC.

In Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the conquest of the Achaemenids and the subsequent flourishing of Hellenistic civilization (4th to 2nd centuries).

The Roman Republic supplants the Etruscans and then the Carthaginians (5th to 3rd centuries). The close of the millennium sees the rise of the Roman Empire. The early Celts dominate Central Europe while Northern Europe is in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. In East Africa, the Nubian Empireand Aksum arise.

In South Asia, the Vedic civilization blends into the Maurya Empire. The Scythians dominate Central Asia. In China, the Spring and Autumn periodsees the rise of Confucianism. Towards the close of the millennium, the Han Dynasty extends Chinese power towards Central Asia, where it borders on Indo-Greek and Iranian states. Japan is in the Yayoi period. The Maya civilization rises in Mesoamerica.

The first millennium BC is the formative period of the classical world religions, with the development of early Judaism and Zoroastrianism in the Near East, and Vedic religion and Vedanta, Jainism and Buddhism in India. Early literature develops in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Tamil and Chinese. The term Axial Age, coined by Karl Jaspers, is intended to express the crucial importance of the period of c. the 8th to 2nd centuries BC in world history.

World population more than doubled over the course of the millennium, from about an estimated 50–100 million to an estimated 170–300 million. Close to 90% of world population at the end of the first millennium BC lived in the Iron Age civilizations of the Old World (Roman Empire, Parthian Empire, Graeco-Indo-Scythian and Hindu kingdoms, Han China). The population of the Americas was below 20 million, concentrated in Mesoamerica (Epi-Olmec culture); that of Sub-Saharan Africa was likely below 10 million. The population of Oceania was likely less than one million people.

Ancient history

Main article: Ancient history
Further information: Iron Age, Classical Antiquity, and Axial Age

Timeline

  • 10th century BC
    • Near East: Neo-Assyrian Empire
    • Near East: Shoshenq I invades Canaan
    • Aegean: Helladic period ends
  • 9th century BC
    • Egypt: 872 BC: Nile floods the Temple of Luxor
    • Egypt: 836 BC: Civil war in Egypt
    • North Africa: 814 BC: Carthage founded
    • China: 841 BC–828 BC Gonghe Regency
  • 8th century BC
    • 727 BC: Egypt: Kushite invasion (25th dynasty)
    • 771 BC: China: Spring and Autumn period
    • Near East: 727 BC: Death of Tiglath-Pileser III, Babylonia secedes from Assyria
    • Near East: 722 BC: Sargon II takes Samaria; Assyrian captivity of the Israelites.
    • Greece: Archaic Greece, Greek alphabet
    • Greece: Homer
    • 776 BC: Greece: First Olympiad
    • 753 BC: Europe: foundation of Rome
  • 7th century BC
    • 671 BC: Assyrian conquest of Egypt
    • Near East: 631 BC: Death of Ashurbanipal, decline of the Assyrian Empire
  • 6th century BC
    • Egypt: 592 BC: Psamtik II sacks Napata
    • Sudan: Aspelta moves the Kushite capital to Meroe
    • Near East: 539 BC: Achaemenid conquest of Babylon under Cyrus the Great
    • South Asia: Śramaṇa movement and “second urbanisation”
    • South Asia: Early Buddhism
    • Europe: 509 BC: Roman Republic
  • 5th century BC
    • China: 479 BC: death of Confucius
    • China: 476 BC: Warring States period
    • China: 486 BC: Grand Canal construction begins
    • Near East: Second Temple Judaism, redaction of the Hebrew Bible
    • Greece: beginning of the classical period (Greece in the 5th century BC).
    • Greece: Greco-Persian Wars (Battle of Marathon, Battle of Thermopylae)
    • Greece: 440 BC: Herodotus’ Histories
    • Greece: 431 BC: Peloponnesian War
    • Oceania: Austronesian expansion reaches Western Polynesia
  • 4th century BC
    • Greece: 395 BC: Corinthian War
    • Egypt: 343 BC: Achaemenid conquest
    • Greece/Asia/Egypt: 330s BC: conquests of Alexander the Great, end of the Achaemenid Empire, Macedonian Empire, beginning of the Hellenistic period
    • South Asia: Mauryan Empire
  • 3rd century BC
    • China: Qin Unified China
    • China: 206 BC: Han Dynasty
    • South Asia: 261 BC: Kalinga war
    • Rome: Roman expansion in Italy
    • Rome/Carthage: Punic Wars
      • 264 BC: First Punic War
      • 218 BC Second Punic War
  • 2nd century BC
    • Rome/Carthage: 149 BC Third Punic War, Roman province of Africa
    • Rome/Greece: 146 BC Battle of Corinth, beginning of the Roman era
    • South Asia: 185 BC: Fall of the Maurya Empire
    • China: Confucianism became the state ideology of China
  • 1st century BC
    • China: 91 BC: Records of the Grand Historian finished
    • Rome/Europe: 58–50 BC Gallic Wars
    • Rome: 32/30 BC: Final War of the Roman Republic (Battle of Actium)
    • Rome/Egypt: 31 BC: Roman conquest of Egypt
    • Rome/Europe/West Asia/Africa: 27 BC: Roman Empire

Significant people

Some of the central figures of the Axial Age are legendary or semi-legendary, with no contemporary written records available (e.g. Solomon, Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha etc.)

Rulers
  • China: Dynasties in Chinese history, List of Chinese monarchs
  • Egypt: Third Intermediate Period of Egypt (1069–664 BC)
  • Carthage: List of monarchs of Carthage
  • Assyrian Empire: List of Assyrian kings
  • Babylonia: Neo-Babylonian dynasty
  • Canaan/Israel: Kings of Israel and Judah
  • Achaemenid Persia: List of monarchs of Persia
  • Kingdom of Kush: List of monarchs of Kush
  • Classical Greece:
    • Monarchs: List of kings of Sparta, Thirty Tyrants
    • Athenian democracy: Pericles (495 – 429 BC)
  • Macedon: List of ancient Macedonians, Argead dynasty
  • Hellenistic period: Ptolemaic Dynasty, Antigonid dynasty, Seleucids, Hasmonean dynasty
  • Rome: kings of Rome, List of Roman consuls
  • Parthian Empire: List of Parthian kings
  • India: List of Indian monarchs
  • Japan: List of Japanese monarchs
Religion, philosophy, scholarship
  • Elijah, 9th century BC (historicity uncertain)
  • Isaiah, 8th century BC
  • Parshvanatha, second-to-last of the mostly legendary Tirthankaras of Jainism, mostly accepted as a historical figure who may have lived in the 8th or 7th century BC.
  • Jeremiah, fl. 628 BC
  • Thales of Miletus (c. 624 BC–545 BC)
  • Solon (c. 638–558 BC)
  • Zoroaster (historicity and date disputed)
  • Mahavira, final Tirthankara of Jainism, c. 6th century BC
  • Pythagoras, 6th century BC
  • Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BC)
  • Confucius, 6th to 5th century BC
  • Laozi, date uncertain (6th or 4th century BC)
  • Parmenides, late 6th or early 5th century BC
  • Gautama Buddha, mostly accepted as a historical figure of the 5th century BC
  • Socrates (469 –399 BC)
  • Thucydides (c. 460–400 BC)
  • Aristophanes (446–386 BC)
  • Plato (428 BC–348 BC)
  • Aristotle (384–322 BC)
  • Zhuang Zhou, fl. 4th century BC
  • Panini, fl. 4th century BC
  • Mencius (372–289 BC)
  • Pingala, fl. 3rd century BC
  • Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC)
  • Euclid, fl. 300 BC
  • Archimedes (287–212 BC)
  • Sima Qian, fl. 2nd century BC
  • Varro (116–27 BC)
  • Cicero (106–43 BC)

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Further information: Ancient technology

Scythian gold plaque with panther (late 7th century BC)

The Parthenon, Athens (5th century BC)

The Victorious Youth (c. 310 BC), a preserved bronze statue of a Greek athlete in Contrapposto pose

The Wrestler, an Olmecera statuette, dated roughly 1400–400 BC

Lamassu facing forward. Bas-relief from the king Sargon II’s palace at Dur Sharrukin in Assyria (now Khorsabad in Iraq), c. 713–716 BC. From Paul-Émile Botta’s excavations in 1843–1844.

  • 8th century BC
    • Greek alphabet, the first alphabet with vowels.
  • 7th century BC
    • Trireme
  • 6th century BC
    • paved trackway
    • Pythagorean theorem
    • Monotheism
  • 5th century BC
    • Blast furnace China
    • Atomism
    • crossbow
    • siege engine
  • 4th century BC
    • formal grammar
    • Kyrenia ship
  • 3rd century BC
    • Lighthouse of Alexandria
    • Malleable Cast iron China
    • buoyancy (Archimedes)
    • Spherical earth
    • water clock
    • Qin built and unified various sections of the Great Wall of China.
    • Qin built Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army.
  • 2nd century BC
    • Antikythera mechanism

Literature

Main article: Ancient literature
Further information: List_of_languages_by_first_written_accounts § First_millennium_BC
Greco-Roman literature
Main articles: Greek literature and Latin literature

Archaic period

  • Homer (late 8th or early 7th c.), Iliad, Odyssey
  • Hesiod (8th to 7th c.), Theogony and Works and Days
  • Archilochus (7th century), Greek poet
  • Sappho, (late 7th to early 6th c.), Greek poet
  • Ibycus
  • Alcaeus of Mytilene
  • Aesop’s Fables

Classical period

  • Aeschylus (c. 525–455 BC), Greek playwright
  • Herodotus (484–425 BC), Histories
  • Euripides (c. 480–406 BC), Greek playwright
  • Xenophon: Anabasis, Cyropaedia
  • Aristotle (384–322 BC), corpus Aristotelicum

Hellenistic to Roman period

  • Septuagint
  • Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica
  • Callimachus (310/305-240 B.C.), lyric poet
  • Manetho: Aegyptiaca
  • Theocritus, lyric poet
  • Euclid: Elements
  • Menander: Dyskolos
  • Theophrastus: Enquiry into Plants
  • Old Latin Livius Andronicus, Gnaeus Naevius, Plautus, Quintus Fabius Pictor, Lucius Cincius Alimentus
  • Classical Latin: Cicero, Julius Caesar, Virgil, Lucretius, Livy, Catullus
Chinese literature
Main article: Chinese literature
  • I Ching (date unknown, between the 10th and 4th centuries BC)
  • Classic of Poetry (Shījīng), Classic of Documents (Shūjīng) (authentic portions), Classic of Changes (I Ching)
  • Spring and Autumn Annals (Chūnqiū) (722–481 BC, chronicles of the state of Lu)
  • Confucius: Analects (Lúnyǔ)
  • Classic of Rites (Lǐjì)
  • Commentaries of Zuo (Zuǒzhuàn)
  • Laozi (or Lao Tzu): Tao Te Ching
  • Zhuangzi: Zhuangzi (book)
  • Mencius: Mencius
Sanskrit literature
Main article: Sanskrit literature
  • Vedic Sanskrit: Vedas, Brahmanas
  • Vedanga
  • Mukhya Upanishads
  • early layers of the Sanskrit epics (c. 3rd century BC to 4th century AD)
Hebrew
Main articles: Ancient Hebrew writings and Hebrew Bible
  • c. 8th to 7th c.: the Book of Nahum, Book of Hosea, Book of Amos, Book of Isaiah
  • c. 6th c.: Psalms
  • c. 5th century: redaction of the Torah
  • 3rd century: Ecclesiastes
  • 2nd century: Book of Wisdom
Avestan
  • Yasht, Avesta, Vendidad
Other (2nd to 1st century BC)
  • Pali literature: Tipitaka
  • Tamil :Sangam literature
  • Aramaic: Book of Daniel

Archaeology

Further information: Iron Age and Pre-Columbian Americas
Culture Region Period Notes
Urnfield culture Europe, Central 1300–750 BC Bronze Age Europe
Atlantic Bronze Age Europe, Western 1300–700 BC Bronze Age Europe
Painted Grey Ware culture South Asia 1200–600 BC Bronze Age India, Indo-Aryan migration
Late Nordic Bronze Age Europe, North 1100–550 BC Bronze Age Europe
Villanovan culture Europe, Italy 1100–700 BC Iron Age Europe
Greek Dark Ages Greece 1100–800 BC Dorian invasion
Iron Age II Near East 1000–586 BC Ancient Near East, List of archaeological periods (Levant)
Sa Huỳnh culture Southeast Asia, Vietnam 1000 BC–AD 200
Woodland period North America 1000 BC – AD 1000 List of archaeological periods (North America)
Bantu expansion Sub-Saharan Africa 1000 BC–AD 500
Middle Nok Period Sub-Saharan Africa, West 900–300 BC Iron metallurgy in Africa
Novocherkassk culture Europe, Eastern 900–650 BC
Chavín de Huántar South America, Peru 1200–500 BC
Poverty Point earthworks North America, Louisiana 1650–700 BC
Olmecs Mesoamerica 1500–400 BC
Adena culture North America, Ohio 1000–200 BC
Liaoning bronze dagger culture East Asia 800–600 BC
Middle Mumun East Asia, Korea 800–300 BC
Etruscan civilization Europe, Italy 800–264 BC
Paracas culture South America, Peru 800–100 BC
Hallstatt culture Europe, Central 800 BC–500 BC Iron Age Europe, Thraco-Cimmerian, Celts
British Iron Age Europe, Britain 700–50 BC Insular Celts
Zapotec civilization Mesoamerica 700 BC – AD 700
Pazyryk culture Central Asia 600–300 BC Scythians, Saka, Pazyryk burials
Aldy-Bel culture Central Asia 600–300 BC Scythians, Saka
La Tène culture Europe, Central/Western 500–50 BC Gauls
Pre-Roman Iron Age Europe, North 500–50 BC Proto-Germanic
Northern Black Polished Ware South Asia 500–300 BC Vedic period
Late Mumun East Asia, Korea 550–300 BC
Urewe Sub-Saharan Africa 400 BC–AD 500 Iron metallurgy in Africa
Late Nok Period Sub-Saharan Africa, West 300–1 BC Iron metallurgy in Africa
Nasca culture South America, Peru 100 BC–800 AD
Calima culture South America, Colombia 200 BC–400 AD
Hopewell tradition North America 100 BC–AD 400
Teotihuacan Mesoamerica 100 BC –AD 550
Ipiutak Site North America, Alaska 100 BC –AD 800

Astronomy

Further information: List of solar eclipses in antiquity
Historical solar eclipses
Year(BC) Date EclipseType SarosSeries EclipseMagnitude Gamma EclipticConjunction

(UT)

 GeatestEclipse

(UT)

 Duration(Min & Sec) Description
899 21 Apr Annular 53 0.9591 0.8964 22:32:15 22:21:56 00:03:04 China’s ‘Double-Dawn’ Eclipse
763 15 Jun Total 44 1.0596 0.2715 08:11:13 08:14:01 00:05:00 Assyrian Eclipse
648 6 Apr Total 38 1.0689 0.6898 08:24:05 08:31:03 00:05:02 Archilochus’ Eclipse
585 28 May Total 57 1.0798 0.3201 14:25:41 14:22:26 00:06:04 Thales Eclipse (Medes vs. Lydians), firstly recorded in Herodotus History.
557 19 May Total 48 1.0258 0.3145 12:49:02 12:52:26 00:02:22 The Siege of Larisa, firstly recorded by Xenophon.
480 2 Oct Annular 65 0.9324 0.4951 11:56:54 11:51:01 00:07:57 Xerxes’ Eclipse. recorded by Herodotus History.
431 3 Aug Annular 48 0.9843 0.8388 14:45:34 14:54:52 00:01:05 Peloponnesian War.
424 21 Mar Annular 42 0.9430 0.9433 07:43:30 07:54:29 00:04:39 8th Year of Peloponnesian War.

Centuries and decades

10th century BC 990s BC 980s BC 970s BC 960s BC 950s BC 940s BC 930s BC 920s BC 910s BC 900s BC
9th century BC 890s BC 880s BC 870s BC 860s BC 850s BC 840s BC 830s BC 820s BC 810s BC 800s BC
8th century BC 790s BC 780s BC 770s BC 760s BC 750s BC 740s BC 730s BC 720s BC 710s BC 700s BC
7th century BC 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC 650s BC 640s BC 630s BC 620s BC 610s BC 600s BC
6th century BC 590s BC 580s BC 570s BC 560s BC 550s BC 540s BC 530s BC 520s BC 510s BC 500s BC
5th century BC 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC
4th century BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC
3rd century BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC
2nd century BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC 140s BC 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC
1st century BC 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC