Classic Period Sparknotes Timeline

By M&L
  • Period: 2040 BCE to 1782 BCE

    Egyptian Civilization

    The Middle KIngdom is considered Egypt's 'Classical Age'. Art and agriculture reached great heights. Thebes became the most important and wealthiest city in the country.
  • Period: 2000 BCE to 500

    Nubian Kingdom

    Region along the Nile River. "Ta-Seti" or "Land of the Bow". Tensions led to frequent violence between Egypt and Nubia. By 1100 BCE Egyptian forces were in full retreat; after they vacated the region, Nubian leaders organized a new kingdom of Kush with a capital at Napata.
  • Period: 1600 BCE to 1046 BCE

    Shang Dynasty

    Succeeded the Xia Dynasty. The stability of the country during the Shang Dynasty led to numerous cultural advances. King Tang ruled the kingdom of Shang. The Shang initiated the technique of hangtu (stamped-earth) in constructing cities.
  • Period: 1200 BCE to 100 BCE

    Olmec Society

    The term Olmec means "rubber people." Olmec sites featured an elaborate complex of temples, pyramids, alters, stone sculptures, and tombs for rulers. The most distinctive artistic creations of the Olmecs were colossal human heads.
  • Period: 1122 BCE to 256 BCE

    Zhou Dynasty

    The Zhou Dynasty ruled by proclamation or decree, trusting their military forces and political allies to enforce their will. The Zhou Dynasty succeeded the Shang as the preeminent political authority in northern China.
  • Period: 1000 BCE to

    Bantu Migrations

    Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from Western Africa southward and eastward. Political organization was normally local, although large kingdoms later developed in western and central Africa.
  • Period: 911 BCE to 612 BCE

    Neo-Assyrian Empire

    An Iron Age Mesopotamian Empire. Perfected early techniques of imperial rule. Aramaic was also made an official language of the empire, alongside the Akkadian language.
  • Period: 900 BCE to 192 BCE

    Spartan Society

    Spartan citizens were equal in status. Simple, frugal, and austere lifestyle. Distinction came by prowess, discipline, and military talent. Spartan society basically stood on the foundation of military discipline. Sparta sought to maintain public order by creating a military state that could crush any threat.
  • Period: 626 BCE to 539 BCE

    Neo-Babylonian Empire

    Also known as the Chaldean Empire. Capital of Babylon. For Southern Mesopotamia, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was a renaissance. Urban life flourished.
  • Period: 558 BCE to 330 BCE

    Achaemenid Empire

    The First Persian Empire, based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. Darius reigned after Cryus.
  • Period: 323 BCE to 83 BCE

    Seleucid Empire

    The Seleucids founded new cities throughout the realm and attracted Greek colonists to occupy them. They continued to rule a truncated empire until 83 BCE when Roman conquerors put an end to their empire.
  • Period: 322 BCE to 185 BCE

    Mauryan Empire

    Founded by Chandragupta Maurya. Internal and external trade, agriculture and economic activities, all thrived and expanded across India thanks to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration, and security.
  • Period: 312 BCE to 63 BCE

    Seleucid Empire

    Greatly reached by Greek influence. Founded by Seleucus. The Seleucid Empire was a major center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated.
  • Period: 247 BCE to 224

    Parthian Empire

    The Parthians established themselves as lords of a powerful empire based in Iran that they extended to wealthy Mesopotamia. They did not have a centralized government, but they organized themselves politically through a federation of leaders who met in councils and jointly determined policy for all allied groups.
  • Period: 221 BCE to 202 BCE

    Qin Dynasty

    During the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, the Qin state underwent a remarkable round of economic, political, and military development.LIke the Achaemenid Empire in Persia, the Qin dynasty established a tradition of centralized imperial rule that provided large scale of political organization.
  • Period: 202 BCE to 220

    Han Dynasty

    The Han Dynasty turned out to be one of the longest and most influential in all of Chinese history. The Han Dynasty consolidated their tradition of centralized imperial rule that the Qin Dynasty had pioneered.
  • Period: 100 BCE to 550

    Teotihuacan

    Colossal pyramids of the sun and the moon. At it's high point (400 to 600 CE), Teotihuacan was home to almost two hundred thousand inhabitants, a thriving metropolis with scores of temples, several palatial residences, neighborhoods with small apartments for the masses, busy markets, and hundreds of workshops for artisans and craftsmen.
  • Period: 100 BCE to 400

    Roman Empire

    The Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time.The longevity and vast extent of the empire ensured the lasting influence of Latin and Greek language, culture, religion, inventions, architecture, philosophy, law and forms of government on the empire's descendants.
  • Period: 300 to Nov 13, 1100

    Maya Society

    The earliest Heirs of the Olmecs were the Maya who created a remarkable society in the region now occupied by southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. The Mayan kingdoms fought constantly with each other. Victors generally destroyed the peoples they defeated and took over their ceremonial centers, but the purpose of Maya warfare was not so much to kill enemies as to capture them in hand to hand combat.
  • Period: 320 to 550

    Gupta Dynasty

    The Gupta Empire was founded by Sri Gupta. They based their state in Magadha. Smaller in size than the Mauryan, and differed considerably in organization.