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The 4th millennium BC saw major changes in human culture. It marked the beginning of the Bronze Age and of writing. The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt were established and grew to prominence. Agriculture spread widely across Eurasia. World population in the course of the millennium doubled, approximately from 7 to 14 million people in the area surrounding them.
Events - Mesopotamia is in the Uruk period, with emerging Sumerian hegemony and development of "proto-cuneiform" writing; base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, potter's wheel and wheel; the Chalcolithic proceeds into the Early Bronze Age.
- c. 4000 BC First neolithic settlers in the island of Thera (Santorini), Greece, migrating probably from Minoan Crete.
- c. 4000 BC Beaker from Susa (modern Shush, Iran) is made. It is now at Mus e du Louvre, Paris.
- c. 4000 2000 BC People and animals, a detail of rock-shelter painting in Cogul, Lleida, Spain, are painted. It is now at Museo Arqueol gico, Barcelona.
- c. 3900 BC 5.9 kiloyear event, one of the most intense aridification events during the Holocene. It ended the Neolithic Subpluvial and likely initiated the most recent desiccation of the Sahara desert, triggering migration to river valleys, such as from central North Africa to the Nile valley.
- Babylonian influence predominant in Mediterranean regions of Asia (to 2000 BC)
- In Colombia, circa 3600 BC, first rupestrian art Chiribiquete (Caquet ).
- 3600 BC Construction of the gantija megalithic temple complex on the Island of Gozo, Malta: the world's oldest extant unburied free-standing structures, and the world's oldest religious structures. (See G bekli Tepe for older, buried religious structures.)
- 3600 3200 BC Construction of the first temple within the Mnajdra solar temple complex on Malta, containing "furniture" such as stone benches and tables, that set it apart from other European megalith constructions.
- 3600 3000 BC Construction of the Ta' a rat and Kordin III temples on Malta.
- 3500 Metalcasting began in the Mohenjodaro area.
- c. 3500 BC Figures of a man and a woman, from Cernavod , Romania, are made. They are now at National Historical Museum, Bucharest.
- 3500 3400 BC Jar with boat designs, from Hierakonpolis (today in the Brooklyn Museum) is created. Predynastic Egypt.
- 3500 2340 BC First cities developed in Southern Mesopotamia. Inhabitants migrated from north.
- The cuneiform script proper emerges out of pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries. The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century, found at Jemdet Nasr.
- 3300 2900 BC Construction of the Newgrange solar observatory/passage tomb in Ireland.
- 3300 Bronze Age starts in Indus Valley (Harappa)
- c. 3300 BC tzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in a glacier of the tztal Alps. His cause of death is believed to be homicide.
- 3250 3000 BC Construction of three megalithic temples at Tarxien, Malta.
- 3200 2500 BC Construction of the a ar Qim megalithic temple complex on Malta, featuring both solar and lunar alignments.
- c. 3150 BC Predynastic period ended in Ancient Egypt. Early Dynastic (Archaic) period started (according to French Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal. The period include 1st and 2nd Dynasties.
- c. 3150 BC a lesser Tollmann's hypothetical bolide event may have occurred.
- August 11, 3114 BC start date of the Mayan calendar.
- c. 3100 BC According to the legend, Menes unifies Upper and Lower Egypt, and a new capital is erected at Memphis.
- c. 3100 BC Narmer Palette
- c. 3100 2600 BC Neolithic settlement at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, is inhabited.
- 3079 BC Ancient Vietnamese nation of V n Lang is established by the first H ng V ng.
- First to Fourth dynasty of Kish in Mesopotamia.
- Discovery of silver.
- The beginnings of Iberian civilizations, arrival to the peninsula dating as far back as 4000 BC.
- c. 3000 BC First pottery in Colombia at Puerto Hormiga (Magdalena), considered one of the first attempts of pottery of the New World. First settlement at Puerto Badel (Bol var).
- Sumerian temple of Janna at Eridu erected.
- Temple at Al-Ubaid and tome of Mes-Kalam-Dug built near Ur, Chaldea.
Cultures - Mesopotamia
- Neolithic Europe and Western Eurasia
- Europe
- The Trypillian culture has cities with 15,000 citizens, eastern Europe, 5500 2750 BC.
- The Funnelbeaker culture, Scandinavia, 4000 2700 BC, originated in southern parts of Europe and slowly advanced up through today's Uppland.
- Indian subcontinent
- Africa
- Naqada culture on the Nile, 4000 3000 BC. First hieroglyphs appear thus far around 3500 BC as found on labels in a ruler's tomb at Abydos.
- Asia
- Neolithic Chinese settlements. They produced silk and pottery (chiefly the Yangshao and the Lungshan cultures), wore hemp clothing, and domesticated pigs and dogs.
- Vietnamese Bronze Age culture. The ng u Culture, 4000 2500 BC, produced many wealthy bronze objects.
- c. 4000 3000 BC Austronesian peoples reach Formosa (Taiwan) having crossed 150 km from China using advanced maritime technology.
Environmental changes Based on studies by glaciologist Lonnie Thompson, professor at Ohio State University and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center, a number of indicators shows there was a global change in climate 5,200 years ago, probably due to a drop in solar energy output as hypothesized by Ohio State University.[1] - Plants buried in the Quelccaya Ice Cap in the Peruvian Andes demonstrate the climate had shifted suddenly and severely to capture the plants and preserve them until now.[2]
- A man trapped in an Alpine glacier (" tzi the Iceman") is frozen until his discovery in 1991.[3]
- Tree rings from Ireland and England show this was their driest period.[3]
- Ice core records showing the ratio of two oxygen isotopes retrieved from the ice fields atop Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro, a proxy for atmospheric temperature at the time snow fell.[3]
- Major changes in plant pollen uncovered from lakebed cores in South America.[3]
- Record lowest levels of methane retrieved from ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica.[3]
- End of the Neolithic Subpluvial, start of desertification of Sahara (35th century BC). North Africa shifts from a habitable region to a barren desert.[3]
Significant persons Inventions, discoveries, introductions  Sumerian Cuneiform Script - c. 4000 BC potter's wheel in Sumer.[4]
- 4000 BC Susa is a center of pottery production.
- c. 4000 BC Horses are domesticated in Ukraine.
- 3500 BC 2340 BC; Sumer: wheeled carts, potter's wheel, White Temple ziggurat, bronze tools and weapons.
- c. 3250 BC potter's wheel appears in Ancient Near East.
- 3000 BC Tin is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time.[5]
- Beginnings of urbanisation in Mesopotamia in Sumer and Egypt.
- First writings in the cities of Uruk and Susa (cuneiform writings). Hieroglyphs in Egypt.
- Kurgan culture of what is now Southern Russia and Ukraine; possibly the first domestication of the horse.
- Sails used in the Nile.
- Construction in England of the Sweet Track, the World's first known engineered roadway.
- Drainage and Sewage collection and disposal created in the Indus Valley civilization.
- Dams, canals, stone sculptures using inclined plane and lever in Sumer.
- Copper was in use, both as tools and weapons.
- Bronze was in use, specifically by the Maykop culture.
- Mastabas, the predecessors of the Egyptian pyramids.
- The earliest phase of the Stonehenge monument (a circular earth bank and ditch) dates to c. 3100 BC.
- The C ide Fields in Ireland, arguably the oldest field system in world, are developed.
- Sumerian writing, done on clay tablets, shows about 2,000 pictographic signs
- White painted pottery in Egypt and southeastern Europe
- Harps and flutes played in Egypt
- Copper alloys used by Egyptians and Sumerians; smelting of gold and silver known.
- Lyres and double clarinets (arghul, mijwiz) played in Egypt
- Earliest known numerals in Egypt
- Linen is produced in the Middle East
Religion Calendars and chronology Centuries References - ↑
- ↑
- ↑ a b c d e f
- ↑ Federico Lara Peinado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid: "La Civilizaci n Suemria.". Historia 16, 1999.
- ↑ Roberts, J: "History of the World.". Penguin, 1994.
- ↑ See horoscope number 1 in
- ↑ Arun K. Bansal's research published in Outlook India, September 13, 2004.
- ↑ Annals of the World, as well as the above sources
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