All Events

The massive architecture of Mycenaean cities such as Tiryns is said in Greek legend to have been built by one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes

The so-called Treasury of Atreus, at Mycenae, is the most spectacular of the beehive tombs of this period

Wine features prominently in the Mycenaean society of this time, as remembered and depicted in Homer

The clepsydra, or water clock, is developed in Egypt

The Great City Shang, on a site later known as An-yang, develops as the capital of China's first dynasty

Chopsticks are in use in China, with bronze versions featuring in Shang tombs

Ancestor worship, a central theme of Chinese history, is practised by the royal family and high nobility in Shang times

China produces superb bronzes, in the ritual vessels for sacrifices to the ancestors

All the separate regions of Mesopotamia are by now ruled by aristocracies of warriors fighting from light chariots

The pharaoh Amenhotep III commissions the great temple to Amen-Re at Luxor

The Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV adopts a new deity, Aten, and changes his name to Akhenaten

The pharaoh Akhenaten creates a new capital city on the Nile at Tell el Amarna

The Amarna letters, an invaluable collection of cuneiform tablets, are written at the court of the pharaoh Akhenaten

The Amarna tablets contain extensive correspondence between the Akhenaten government in Egypt and subject princes in Phoenicia

One of the regular sitters to the court sculptor Thutmose is the pharaoh's wife, Nefertiti

With the return to favour of the god Amen, the young Tutankhaten's name is changed to Tutankhamun

The young Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun, dies and is buried in a suitable tomb

Chinese priests record on oracle bones the result of their divination, thus providing the earliest examples of Chinese characters

Mycenae prevails as the dominant power throughout the Peloponnese and the entire Aegean

Seafarers reach and colonize Fiji, lying between Melanesia and Polynesia

Mycenaean merchants trade as far west as Spain and have links with neolithic societies far away in the interior of Europe

Ramses II, perhaps the greatest of Egypt's pharaohs, begins a reign of sixty-six years

An indecisve battle between the Hittites and the Egyptians, at Kadesh, stabilizes the frontier between the two empires

Moses is with the Hebrew tribes in Sinai, after the exodus from Egypt

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