Athens, the capital of Greece, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with evidence of settlement going back several thousand years before the classical period. The rock of the Acropolis offered a natural fortress, and in the Bronze Age it was the site of a Mycenaean citadel. The city grew into a leading Greek polis, and in the fifth century BCE, under Pericles, it reached its cultural peak, with the building of the Parthenon, the development of democracy, and the work of philosophers such as Socrates and Plato. After Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule, Athens became the capital of independent Greece in the nineteenth century.
Before and after
- c. 7,420 BCEEruption of Fisher
- c. 7,350s BCEConstruction of Cueva de las Manos
- from c. 7,101 BCE to 5,701 BCECatalhoyuk grows into a large Neolithic town
- from c. 7,090s BCE to 4,950s BCEOrigins of Jarmo
- 8th millennium BCEOrigins of Athens
- from 8th millennium BCE to 4th millennium BCEOrigins of Khirokitia
- 8th millennium BCEDiscovery of copper
- 71st century BCEMaize is domesticated in Mexico
- 71st century BCERice is domesticated in the Yangtze valley
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- c. 9,501 BCEBuilders raise the first monumental temple at Gobekli Tepe
- from 10th millennium BCE to 3rd millennium BCENeolithic
- from 76th century BCE to 25th century BCEChalcolithic
- from 5th millennium BCE to 1st millennium BCEAncient Egypt
- 34th century BCEWriting is invented in Mesopotamia
- from 4th millennium BCE to 1st millenniumAncient history
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.