Drake 257 

 

A Broad Swath of Key Ancient Dates Relevant to Our Readings

 

c. 3500-2500 BC

 

 

 

 

 

c. 3500 BC

 

c. 4,000-2700 BC

 

c. 3150-31 BC

 

c.2700 BC

Proto-“Greeks” leave Caucasus and Anatolian Plain to invade the Peloponnese peninsula and islands, what will later become known as "Greece"

 

Beginnings of Minoan culture/empire

 

Invention of writing, Mesopotamia

 

Egyptian Empire

 

Gilgamesh: Historical Events Occur; King Gilgamesh unites Sumeria/Mesopotamia (Iraq)

2150 BC

 

 

 

 

c.2000-1900 BC

Oldest extant copy of Sumerian creation myth; this contains the flood story, retold in The Epic of Gilgamesh

 

The Epic of Gilgamesh: Narration set down in writing on clay tablets

c. 1850 BC

Abraham journeys from Sumeria to Caanan (Israel)

c. 1760

c. 1700 BC

Code of Hammurabi

Children of Israel arrive in Egypt

c.2600-1400 BC

 

c. 1600-1100 BC (Bronze Age)

 

c. 1100-900 BC

Minoan/Crete society flourishes

 

Mycenaen Greek society flourishes

 

Mycenaen Greek society “dark ages”

1438 – 1347 BC

Tutankhamon rules Egypt

 

 

c.1500-1200 BC

Israelites flee Egypt, Moses at Sinai (Egypt)

 

Illiad/Odyssey/Trojan War: Historical Events Occur (N. Turkey)

 

 

1010-970 BC

King David rules United Israel

970-931 BC

King Solomon rules. Stories of what will become the Torah begin to be collected

 

 

 

 

c.800 BC

Illiad/Odyssey/Trojan War:  Narration originally set down in writing by "Homer"

 

 

721 BC

597 BC

 

586 BC

538-539 BC

Northern Judea captured by Assyrians

Nebuchadnezzar captures Jerusalem and sends enslaved Jews to Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar levels temple.

Persian Cyrus defeats Babylon, frees Jews, returns stolen religious artifacts

469-399 BC

427-327 BC

Socrates

Plato

384-322 BC

Aristotle

 

356-323 BC

 

 

 

 

c. 150 - 70 BC

Alexander the Great's Empire; Hellenistic culture spreads

 

Greeks conquer and occupy "Israel"

 

Oldest fragments of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: Dead Sea Scrolls

c. 70 BC

Rome captures Jerusalem

Birth of Jesus

c. 30 AD

Crucifixion of Jesus

c. 70 AD

Rome destroys the second Temple;  Jewish Diaspora

 

 

570 - 632

Mohammed, Mecca (Saudi Arabia): Writing of the Koran

 

 

 c. 500 - 600

Beowulf setting, S. Scandanavia

 c. 700 - 800

Beowulf composed/set down in writing, England