Timeline of Middle Eastern history

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{{Incomplete list|date=August 2008}}

{{Ancient Near East topics}}

This timeline tries to show dates of important historical events that happened in or that led to the rise of the Middle East/ South West Asia .The Middle East is the territory that comprises today's Egypt, the Persian Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Middle East, with its particular characteristics, was not to emerge until the late second millennium AD. To refer to a concept similar to that of today's Middle East but earlier in time, the term ancient Near East is used.

This list is intended as a timeline of the history of the Middle East. For more detailed information, see articles on the histories of individual countries. See ancient Near East for ancient history of the Middle East.

Paleolithic period

  • 16000 BC – Kebaran period
  • 13050 to 7050 BC – Natufian culture
  • 14400 BC – The world's oldest evidence of bread-making has been found at Shubayqa 1, in Jordan.{{Cite journal |last=Arranz-Otaegui |first=Amaia |last2=Carretero |first2=Lara Gonzalez |last3=Ramsey |first3=Monica N. |last4=Fuller |first4=Dorian Q. |last5=Richter |first5=Tobias |date=July 31, 2018 |editor-last=Piperno |editor-first=Dolores R. |title=Archaeobotanical Evidence Reveals the Origins of Bread 14,400 years ago in Northeastern Jordan |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30012614/ |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=115 |issue=31 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1801071115 |pmid=30012614 |via=PubMed|pmc=6077754 }}
  • 11000 BC – The oldest known evidence of beer found in Mount Carmel

Neolithic period

=9th millennium B.C.=

  • 8500 BC – first domestication of the cow (taurine line from the aurochs near Çayönü Tepesi in southeastern Anatolia and Dja'de el-Mughara in northern Iraq).{{cite journal|author=McTavish, E.J., Decker, J.E., Schnabel, R.D., Taylor, J.F. and Hillis, D.M.year=2013|title= New World cattle show ancestry from multiple independent domestication events.|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|year= 2013|volume=110|issue= 15|pages=E1398–406|doi=10.1073/pnas.1303367110|pmid=23530234|pmc=3625352|bibcode= 2013PNAS..110E1398M|doi-access= free}}
  • 8400 to 8100 BC – first settlements at Nevali Cori in Anatolia
  • 8200 to 7650 BC – first domestication of emmer wheat near Damascus, Syria

=8th millennium BC=

=7th millennium BC=

  • 7000 to 6500 BC – early undecorated, unglazed and low-fired pottery in Hassuna
  • 7000 BC — settlements in Byblos
  • 7000 BC — Neolithic farmers start to move in to Europe, stimulating the European neolithic for over 3 thousand years
  • 6000 to 4000 BC – invention of the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia

=6th millennium BC=

=5th millennium BC=

  • 4500 BC – civilization of Susa and Kish in Mesopotamia
  • 4570 to 4250 BC – Merimde culture on the Nile
  • 4400 to 4000 BC – Badari culture on the Nile
  • 4000 BC – first use of light wooden ploughs in Mesopotamia
  • 4000 BC – Egyptians discover how to make bread using yeast

Ancient Near East

{{Main article|Ancient Near East|Chronology of the Ancient Near East|History of Mesopotamia}}

= 4th millennium BC =

File:Ancient Orient.png ]]

  • 4000 to 3000 BC – domestication of the African wild ass in Egypt or Mesopotamia, producing the donkey
  • 4000 BC – city of Ur in Mesopotamia
  • 4000 to 3100 BC – Uruk period
  • 4000 to 3000 BC – Naqada culture on the Nile
  • 3760 BC – date of creation according to some interpretations of Jewish chronology
  • 3650 BC – The foundation of the city of Gaziantep
  • 3600 BC – first civilization in the world: Sumer (city-states) in modern-day southern IraqKing, Leonid W. (2015) "A History of Sumer and Akkad" ({{ISBN|1522847308}})
  • 3500 BC – City of Ebla in Syria is founded
  • 3500 to 3000 BC – one of the first appearances of wheeled vehicles in Mesopotamia
  • 3500 BC – beginning of desertification of the Sahara: the shift from a habitable region to a barren desert
  • 3500 BC – first examples of Sumerian writing in Mesopotamia, in the cities of Uruk and Susa (cuneiform writings)
  • 3500 BC – first cities in Egypt
  • 3300 BC – Earliest Cuneiform writings
  • 3200 BC – Iry-Hor reigns as pharaoh of Upper Egypt, the earliest historical person known by name
  • 3100 BC – King Narmer unifies the Upper and Lower Egyptian Kingdoms, and gives birth to the world's first nation
  • 3100 to 2686 BC – early Dynastic Period (Egypt)
  • 3100 BC – Earliest hieroglyphs
  • 3000 BC – The temple of Haddad in Aleppo
  • 3000 to 2800 BC – Earliest evidence of Taxation found in Egypt

= 3rd millennium BC =

  • 3000 to 2000 BC – First domestication of the dromedaries in Somalia and southern Arabia
  • 3000 to 2300 BC – First Kingdom of Ebla
  • 2900 to 2350 BC – First ziggurats in Sumer
  • 2900 to 2500 BC – First Kingdom of Mari
  • 2800 BC – Beginning of Uruk's decline
  • 2700 to 539 BC – Elam
  • 2600 to 2350 BC – early Dynastic III period in Mesopotamia
  • 2600 to 2300 BC – Kingdom of Nagar
  • 2600 to 2025 BC – Early Assyrian Period
  • 2575 to 2150 BC – Old Kingdom of Egypt
  • 2560 BC – completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza
  • 2500 BC – First use of war wagons as recorded by the Standard of Ur
  • 2500 BC – First domestication of the camel in central Asia and Arabia{{cite book | publisher = International Livestock Centre for Africa | volume = 5 | last = Mukasa-Mugerwa | first = E. | title = The Camel (Camelus Dromedarius): A Bibliographical Review | location = Ethiopia | series = International Livestock Centre for Africa Monograph | year = 1981 |pages=1, 3, 20–21, 65, 67–68}}{{cite book|title=Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World|first=Chris|last=Scarre|date=15 September 1993|isbn=978-1-56458-305-5|page=176|quote=Both the dromedary (the seven-humped camel of Arabia) and the Bactrian camel (the two-humped camel of Central Asia) had been domesticated since before 2000 BC.|publisher=D. Kindersley|location=London}}{{cite book|title=The Camel and the Wheel|first=Richard |last=Bulliet |series=Morningside Book Series |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=20 May 1990 |orig-year=1975 |page=183 |isbn=978-0-231-07235-9|quote=As has already been mentioned, this type of utilization [camels pulling wagons] goes back to the earliest known period of two-humped camel domestication in the third millennium B.C.}}—Note that Bulliet has many more references to early use of camels
  • 2500 BC – Ur-Nina first king of Lagash
  • 2500 to 2290 BC – Second Kingdom of Mari
  • 2340 to 2280 BC – Reign of Sargon of Akkad, founder of the dynasty of the Akkad
  • 2334 to 2154 BC – Akkadian Empire
  • 2300 to 2000 BC – Second Kingdom of Ebla
  • 2266 to 1761 BC – Third Kingdom of Mari
  • 2254 to 2218 BC – Naram-Sin of Akkad, under whom the empire reached its maximum strength and the first taking the title "god of Akkad"
  • 2200 BC – Akkad taken by the Guti
  • 2112 to 2094 BC – Ur-Nammu, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur
  • 2111 to 2004 BC – Third Dynasty of Ur
  • 2052 to 1570 BC – Middle Kingdom in Egypt
  • 2025 to 1378 BC – Old Assyrian Empire
  • 2004 BC – Elamites destroy Ur
  • 2004 to 1763 BC – Rise of the Amorites who established several city-states in Mesopotamia
  • 2000 to 1600 BC – Third Kingdom of Ebla
  • 2000 to 1334 BC – Kingdom of Qatna
  • 2000 BC – First use of the spoke-wheel by the Andronovo culture and soon after used by horse cultures of the Caucasus region in war chariots

= 2nd millennium BC =

File:Median Empire.jpg

=1st millennium BC=

=1st millennium AD=

Islamic Middle East

{{Main article|Islamic Golden Age|Timeline of Islamic history}}

=1st millennium AD=

File:Ottoman empire 1481-1683.jpg, 1481–1683]]

File:Arabic ascendency 1884.jpg in its greatest extent and in yellow the four Christian empires.]]

=2nd millennium AD=

Contemporary Middle East

{{See also|List of modern conflicts in the Middle East}}

=2nd millennium AD=

=3rd millennium AD=

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Middle East}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Middle Eastern History}}

Category:Regional timelines

Category:History of West Asia