Ancient history covers the human past from the first written records to the end of antiquity, a period conventionally dated from the invention of writing in Mesopotamia around the late fourth millennium BCE to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century CE. It includes the first cities and states in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus valley and China, and the empires of Persia, Greece, Rome, India and others. The boundary between prehistory and history is drawn at the arrival of writing, since written sources allow historians to name rulers, follow events and read the voices of ancient people. In the Mediterranean world the end of antiquity is usually linked with the collapse of Roman authority in the West, while other regions have different divisions.
Before and after
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 1,100 BCEMinoan civilization
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 2,600 BCEYamnaya culture
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 1982Origins of Qatna
- from c. 3,250 BCE to 400 CEEgyptian hieroglyphs
- from 4th millennium BCE to 1st millenniumAncient history
- c. 3,201 BCENewgrange passage tomb is built
- from c. 3,200 BCE to 1,050 BCECycladic civilization
- from c. 3,200 BCE to 3,060 BCENaqada III
- from c. 3,180 BCE to 2,500 BCEOrigins of Skara Brae
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- c. 7,350s BCEConstruction of Cueva de las Manos
- 8th millennium BCEOrigins of Athens
- from c. 7,000 BCE to 586 BCEConstruction of Tel Megiddo
- from 56th century BCE to 35th century BCEUbaid period
- 5th millennium BCEOrigins of Jerusalem
- c. 3,600 BCEConstruction of Ġgantija
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.