Qatna is an archaeological site in western Syria, near the modern city of Homs, at a mound known as Tell el-Mishrifeh. People lived there from the Early Bronze Age, and in the second millennium BCE it grew into a powerful city-state, the capital of a kingdom controlling the route between the Mediterranean coast and Mesopotamia, in a period when Egypt, Mitanni and the Hittites competed for the region. Excavations have uncovered a large royal palace and, in 2002, an intact royal tomb with rich burial goods. Qatna was destroyed in the Late Bronze Age, probably during a Hittite campaign, and it was never again a great city.
Before and after
- 34th century BCEWriting is invented in Mesopotamia
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 600 BCEBronze Age
- 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
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- c. 9,501 BCEBuilders raise the first monumental temple at Gobekli Tepe
- from 10th millennium BCE to 3rd millennium BCENeolithic revolution
- 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
- from c. 4,000 BCE to 3,100 BCEUruk period
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.