4th millennium BC
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| Millennia: | 5th millennium BC - 4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC |
The 4th millennium BC saw major changes in human culture. It marks the beginning of the Bronze Age and of writing. The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt are established and grow to prominence. Agriculture spreads widely across Eurasia. World population in the course of the millennium doubles, approximately from 7 to 14 million people.
Contents
Events
- Sumerian city of Ur in Mesopotamia (40th century BC); Sumerian hegemony in Mesopotamia, with the development of writing around the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization, base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, the wheel, and the potter's wheel, 4000–2000 BC.
- 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.
- Epoch of the modern Hebrew Calendar occurred on 7 October 3761 BC.
- Jewish chronology dates Creation to September 25 or March 29 3760 BC.
- First to Fourth dynasty of Kish in Mesopotamia.
- The Yamna culture ("Kurgan culture"), succeeding the Sredny Stog culture is the locus of the Proto-Indo-Europeans according to the Kurgan hypothesis
- The Maykop culture of the Caucasus, contemporary to the Kurgan culture, is a candidate for the origin of bronze production and thus the Bronze Age.
- Ötzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy c. 3300 BC, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in a glacier of the Ötztal Alps. His cause of death is believed to be homicide.
- New Stone Age people in Ireland build the 250,000 ton Newgrange solar observatory c. 3200 BC.
- Crete: Rise of Minoan civilization.
- Neolithic settlement built at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.
- 3000 BC – Menes unifies Upper and Lower Egypt, and a new capital is erected at Memphis.
- Discovery of silver.
- The beginnings of Iberian civilizations, arrival to the peninsula dating as far back as 4000 BC.
Cultures
- Indian Subcontinent
- *Mehrgarh III–VI
- Mesopotamia in Asia
- *Sumer
- *Proto-Elamite
- Neolithic Europe
- *Yamna
- *Vinca culture
- *Minoan civilization
- Africa
- *Naqada culture on the Nile
- *Nok culture, situated at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers
Environmental changes
Based on studies by glaciologist Lonnie Thompson (professor at Ohio State University and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center) [link] a number of indicators shows there were a global change in climate 5,200 years ago:- The climate was altered suddenly with severe impacts.
- 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.
- A man trapped in an Alpine glacier ("Oetzi") is frozen until his discovery in 1991.
- Tree rings from Ireland and England show this was their driest period.
- 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.
- Major changes in plant pollen uncovered from lakebed cores in South America.
- Record lowest levels of methane retrieved from ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica.
- Beginning of desertification of Sahara (35th century BC). The shift by the Sahara Desert from a habitable region to a barren desert.
Significant persons
- Ötzi the Iceman lived c.3300 BC.
- predynastic pharaohs, Tiu, Thesh, Hsekiu, Wazner
- Early Dynastic Period pharaohs, Ro, Serket, Narmer
Inventions, discoveries, introductions
- Beginnings of urbanisation in Mesopotamia with the Sumerians.
- First cities in Egypt (35th century BC).
- First writings in the cities of Uruk and Susa (cuneiform writings). Hieroglyphs in Egypt.
- Kurgan culture of what is now southern Russia and Ukraine domesticates the horse and develops the chariot.
- Potter's wheel used in Middle East.
- Sails used in the Nile.
- Construction in England of the Sweet Track, the World's first known engineered roadway.
- Drainage and sewage system in India
- 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 ca. 3100 BC.
- The Céide Fields in Ireland, arguably the oldest field system in world, are developed.
Fiction and myth
- The Maya calendar dates the Creation of the Earth to August 11 or August 13, 3114 BC (establishing that date as day zero of the Long Count 13.0.0.0.0).
- Korean mythology: According to Silla scholar Bak Jesang (박제상), the state Hwanguk (桓國) collapsed around 3898 BC.
- According to Hindu mythology, the Epoch of the Kali Yuga occurred at midnight (00:00) on 18 February 3102 BC, the traditional death of Krishna.
Centuries
- 40th century BC
- 39th century BC
- 38th century BC
- 37th century BC
- 36th century BC
- 35th century BC
- 34th century BC
- 33rd century BC
- 32nd century BC
- 31st century BC
External references
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