Advanced History

Era guide, c. 3000 BCE to 500 CE

The ancient world: timeline and study guide

The ancient world saw the first cities, writing systems, law codes and large empires. Most dates before about 700 BCE are approximate.

Timeline of the ancient world

The ancient world, 3000 BCE to 500 CE
  1. Cuneiform writing in Sumerc. 3200 BCE
  2. Old Kingdom Egyptc. 2700 BCE to 2200 BCE
  3. Indus Valley citiesc. 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE
  4. Code of Hammurabic. 1750 BCE
  5. Shang dynastyc. 1600 BCE to 1046 BCE
  6. New Kingdom Egyptc. 1550 BCE to 1070 BCE
  7. Zhou dynasty1046 BCE to 256 BCE
  8. Achaemenid Persia550 BCE to 330 BCE
  9. Roman Republic509 BCE to 27 BCE
  10. Peloponnesian War431 BCE to 404 BCE
  11. Maurya Empirec. 322 BCE to 185 BCE
  12. Qin unifies China221 BCE
  13. Han dynasty206 BCE to 220 CE
  14. Gupta Empirec. 320 CE to 550 CE
  15. Roman Empire27 BCE to 476 CE

On a small screen, swipe the timeline sideways to see all of it.

What makes the ancient world distinct

Farming had spread across several regions long before 3000 BCE. What changed in the ancient period was scale. River valleys in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus region and northern China supported dense populations, cities, specialist workers, temples and rulers who claimed divine favor. Writing appeared in Mesopotamia around 3200 BCE, first to record goods and taxes. Over the next three thousand years, states grew from city-states into empires that ruled many peoples.

Major regions to know

  • Mesopotamia: Sumerian city-states, then Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. The law code of Hammurabi of Babylon dates from about 1750 BCE.
  • Egypt: a kingdom unified along the Nile, with the Old Kingdom (the age of the great pyramids at Giza) and the later New Kingdom.
  • The Indus Valley: planned cities such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Their script has not been deciphered.
  • China: the Shang and Zhou dynasties, then unification under the Qin in 221 BCE and four centuries of Han rule.
  • Persia: the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, which stretched from Egypt to the Indus until Alexander the Great conquered it.
  • Greece: rival city-states, Athenian democracy from the late sixth century BCE, and the wars against Persia and between Athens and Sparta.
  • Rome: a republic from the traditional date of 509 BCE, an empire from 27 BCE when Augustus took power, and the end of imperial rule in the west in 476 CE.

Themes that run through the era

Empire and its tools. Large states relied on roads, standard coins, written law and officials. Compare how the Han and Roman empires governed vast territories, a classic world history comparison.

Belief systems. Several traditions that still matter took shape in this period, including Confucianism, Buddhism, Judaism and early Christianity. Study how each spread along trade routes and through rulers' support.

Trade and exchange. Overland routes later called the Silk Roads linked China with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean. Indian Ocean sea routes carried goods and ideas between East Africa, Arabia, India and Southeast Asia.

Sources and how we know

Much of what we know comes from archaeology, inscriptions, coins and a small number of surviving texts copied many times over centuries. Ask what kind of people produced the surviving evidence. Rulers and priests left monuments; farmers and enslaved people mostly did not. Ancient historians such as Herodotus and Sima Qian are valuable, and they also had their own aims, which the historiography guide discusses.

Practice questions

  • Compare the methods the Han and Roman empires used to hold their territory together.
  • To what extent did writing change how early states were governed?
  • Explain why the Western Roman Empire fell while the Eastern Empire survived.

Next era: the medieval world, 500 to 1500.