1st millennium BC

{{see|Ancient history|Human 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 Celtic culture dominate Central Europe while Northern Europe is in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. In East Africa, the Nubian Empire and Aksum arise.

In South Asia, the Vedic civilization gives rise to the Maurya Empire. The Scythians dominate Central Asia. In China, the Zhou dynasty rules the Chinese heartland at the beginning of the millennium. The decline of the Zhou dynasty during Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period sees the rise of such philosophical and spiritual traditions as Confucianism and Taoism. 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 Olmec civilization declines, and the Maya and Zapotec civilizations emerge in Mesoamerica. The Chavín culture flourishes in Peru.

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.

{{main|Ancient history}}

{{see|Iron Age|Classical Antiquity|Axial Age}}

Image:East-Hem 1000bc.jpg

File:World in 1 CE.png

• 10th century BC
• Near East: Neo-Assyrian Empire
• Near East: Shoshenq I invades Canaan
• Aegean: Helladic period ends
• Sub-Saharan Africa West: Nok Culture slowly diffuse discernible ceramic sculpting, iron metallurgy and cereal farming cultures through the Niger Delta region, though debatable possible settling period and or foundation of proto Ile-Ife
• 9th century BC
• Chavín culture in Peru
• Egypt: 872 BC: Nile floods the Temple of Luxor
• Egypt: 836 BC: Civil war in Egypt
• South Asia: 872 BC: Jainism re-organized by Parshvanatha
• 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 BCFile:Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal - king riding killing lion.jpg of Assyria hunting a Mesopotamian lion, from the Northern Palace in Nineveh, {{Circa|645}}-635 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 conquestFile:World in 323 BCE.png
• 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 AfricaFile:Statue-Augustus (cropped).jpg, the first emperor of the Roman Empire]]
• 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

{{see|Ancient technology}}

File:Placca pantera, da regione di krasnodar, kurgan chertomlyk, oro a sbalzo e cesellato, fine VII sec ac..JPG gold plaque with panther (late 7th century BC)]]

File:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg, Athens (5th century BC)]]

File:Arte greca, giovane vittorioso, 300-100 ac. 02.JPG (c. 310 BC), a preserved bronze statue of a Greek athlete in Contrapposto pose]]

File:The Wrestler (Olmec) by DeLange.jpg", an Olmec era statuette, dated roughly 1400–400 BC]]

File:Human headed winged bull facing.jpg 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{{cite web |title=Who Built it First |work=Ancient Discoveries |publisher=A&E Television Networks |year=2008 |url=http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&display_order=5&content_type_id=60600&mini_id=52979 |access-date=2009-07-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429202316/http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&display_order=5&content_type_id=60600&mini_id=52979 |archive-date=2009-04-29 |url-status=live }}
• Pythagorean theorem
• MonotheismAlthough disputed, some scholars see the emergence of monotheism proper in the context of the Babylonian exile, during which the Israelites adopted aspects of Babylonian religion, resulting in Second Temple Judaism by 515 BC.

[https://books.google.com/books?id=pBSJNDndGjwC&pg=PA225 No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel]

Also credited with early monotheism is Zoroastrianism, founded at roughly the same time. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism]

• 5th century BC
• Blast furnace China{{Harvnb|Temple|1986|pp=}}
• Atomism
• Crossbow
• Siege engine
• 4th century BC
• formal grammar
• Kyrenia ship
• 3rd century BC
• Lighthouse of Alexandria
• Malleable Cast iron China{{Harvnb|Temple|1986|pp=15}}
• Archimedes' principle
• 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

{{main|Ancient literature}}

{{see|List_of_languages_by_first_written_accounts#First_millennium_BC}}

;Greco-Roman literature

{{main|Greek literature|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|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|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|Ancient Hebrew writings|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

{{see|Iron Age|Pre-Columbian Americas}}{{Iron Age}}

class="wikitable sortable" !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{{cite web | title = World Timeline of the Americas 1000 BC – AD 200 | publisher = The British Museum | year = 2005 | url = http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/americas/1000-200BC | access-date = 2009-07-25 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090227042132/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/americas/1000-200BC | archive-date = 2009-02-27 | url-status = dead }}	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{{cite web | title = World Timeline of the Americas 200 BC – AD 600 | publisher = The British Museum | year = 2005 | url = http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/americas/200BC-AD600 | access-date = 2009-07-25 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090227042137/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/americas/200BC-AD600 | archive-date = 2009-02-27 | url-status = dead }}

{{see|List of solar eclipses in antiquity}}

;Historical solar eclipses

class="wikitable" !Year (BC) !Date !Eclipse Type !Saros Series !Eclipse Magnitude !Gamma !Ecliptic Conjunction (UT) !Greatest Eclipse (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 [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html] [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0898Apr21A.pdf]

763 |15 Jun |Total |44 |1.0596 |0.2715 |08:11:13 |08:14:01 |00:05:00 |Assyrian Eclipse [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html#-0762] [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0762Jun15T.pdf]

648 |6 Apr |Total |38 |1.0689 |0.6898 |08:24:05 |08:31:03 |00:05:02 |Archilochus' Eclipse [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html#-0647] [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0647Apr06T.pdf]

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. [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html#-0584] [https://www.wired.com/2008/05/may-28-585-bc-predicted-solar-eclipse-stops-battle/] [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0584May28T.pdf]

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. [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0556May19T.pdf]

480 |2 Oct |Annular |65 |0.9324 |0.4951 |11:56:54 |11:51:01 |00:07:57 |Xerxes' Eclipse. recorded by Herodotus History. [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0479Oct02A.pdf]

431 |3 Aug |Annular |48 |0.9843 |0.8388 |14:45:34 |14:54:52 |00:01:05 |Peloponnesian War. [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html#-0430] [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0430Aug03A.pdf]

424 |21 Mar |Annular |42 |0.9430 |0.9433 |07:43:30 |07:54:29 |00:04:39 |8th Year of Peloponnesian War. [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0423Mar21A.pdf]

{{commons category}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book

|title=The Genius of China: 3000 years of science, discovery and invention

|last=Temple

|first= Robert

|year= 1986|publisher = Simon and Schuster

|location=New York

}} Based on the works of Joseph Needham

• {{citation |last=Zimmer |first=Heinrich |author-link=Heinrich Zimmer |title=Philosophy of India |date=1952 |editor=Joseph Campbell |editor-link=Joseph Campbell |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/Philosophy.of.India.by.Heinrich.Zimmer |quote=Not in copyright }}

{{Millennia}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1st Millennium Bc}}

-99