Chapter VI: 50,000  to 1000 BCE

by Jesse Potter aka Elkin Vanaeon
 On this ninth day of August in the year of our Lord and Lady 2005 CE

Notice - The time reference BCE (Before the Common Era) is used here in preference to BC (Before Christ). CE refers to Common Era and used in preference to, AD (Anno Domini - Year of our Lord). These abbreviations are used interchangeably in many publications and preferred to follow the year or range of years in this publication. This Chapter will display most of the references with the pertinent data. Later chapters references will be in the bibliographies, all of this material can be found and validated on the Internet on different Websites by using either keyword and phrase search!

5,000,000 to 2,500,000 BCE - Africa; Kenya and Congo Basin - Fossils, rocks, ancient pre-human skeletal remains have been uncovered in the Rift Valley and surrounding areas.

Reference - The International Afar Research Expedition (IARE), under the patronage of Louis and Mary Leakey and the 1975 Rift Valley Research Mission in Ethiopia (RVRME).

600,000 to 200,000 BCE - Widespread propagation of species across Asia, Europe, and Africa. The use of Fire develops. The earliest true human being in Africa, Homo sapiens, dates from more than 200,000 years ago. A hunter-gatherer capable of making crude stone tools, Homo sapiens banded together to form nomadic groups; eventually nomadic San peoples spread throughout the African continent. Reference - See 5,000,000 to 2,500,000 BCE - Africa; Kenya and Congo Basin.

50,000 to15,000 BCE - Siberia - The Bering land bridge is crossed by ancestors of Native Americans! Reference - The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.

Pre 40000 BCE to Present Day CE - Earliest form of Religion - Shamanistic Cultures were being practiced as a form of religious medicine that originated in the Paleolithic hunting cultures of Siberia and Central Asia. Shamanism was a natural result of surviving the Continental climate with its extremes of cold and heat, of the violent burgas and burans, of the hunger and fear, which attend the long winters. Other nomadic tribes that broke away from the Paleo-Siberians and the highly cultivated Neo-Siberians to form their own cultures practiced certain shamanistic traditions.  Many native tribes in the Americas (north and south), Australia (aborigines), Polynesia, and northern Siberia (Russian Creoles), still practice shamanism. Reference - Banzaroff, The Black Faith, pp. 4-5.

40,000 BCE - France - The date of the early Lascaux cave paintings. Reference - The Ministry of Culture and Communication of France and the Website on the Lascaux Cave at http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

ca. 40,000 to 65,000 BCE - North and Central America - The Paleo Indians were the earliest arrivals and their physical and cultural descendants, collectively called "Paleo-Indians" (meaning "ancient" Indians), appear to have occupied the Americas, including what is now the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

References:

• Brian M. Fagan, Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent 2d ed. (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995);
• Philip Kopper, The Smithsonian Book of North American: Before the Coming of the Europeans (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 1986).

30,000 BCE - Britain and France - Earliest evidence of female divinity relics, first "Willendorf" goddess figurines are being made.

References:

• Hahn, Joachim. The Dictionary of Art, V.33. Mcmillan Publishers: (New York, 1996).
• Matthews, Roy T. & F. Dewitt Platt. The Western Humanities. Mayfield publishing company: (Mountain View,California, London, Toronto, 1995).
• Tattersall, Ian. Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory. Gerland Publishing:(New York & London, 1988).
• Witcombe, Christopher L.C.E. Stone Age Women: "The Venus of Willendorf"

28,000 BCE - Japan - The Paleolithic period in which people lived by hunting and gathering, used fire, and made their homes either in pit-type dwellings or in caves. Linguistic evidence suggests that a people speaking a language belonging to the Ural-Altaic family moved eastward across Siberia and entered Japan via Sakhalin Island and Hokkaido. The two cultures established during this time period were the:

• Mesolithic culture - Jomon period of chipped tools to polished tools, the manufacture of pottery, the beginnings of agriculture and pasturage, the development of weaving, and the erection of monuments using massive stones. The Jomon people might be called proto-Japanese, and they were spread throughout the archipelago. Jomon dwelling sites are found in various parts of the country and classified into two types:
1. The Pit-type dwelling, consisted of a shallow pit with a floor of trodden earth and a thatch roof;
2. The Layered Stone-type consisted of stones layered around a circular or oval floor of clay, which was then covered with a thatch roof.

• Neolithic cultures - Yayoi period of northern Kyushu (the southernmost of the four main Japanese islands) about 10,000 BC. The Yayoi period represented a notable advance over the Jomon period, it is believed to have lasted from the 3rd BCE to the 2nd or 3rd century CE.

Reference - 19th-century investigations and expeditions of American zoologist Edward S. Morse and the name of the district in Tokyo in 1884 where Yayoi Pottery was unearthed which was fired at higher temperatures than earlier Jomon Pottery.

25,000 - 10,000 BCE - North and South Africa - Rock paintings are being made along these regions. Reference - Leakey, M. D.: , 72:2, 72:3, 6-10, 722 Africa's vanishing art: the rock paintings of Tanzania, 58:158-9

8,000 BCE - North America - The "Woodland Period" of farming, production of clay pots, and trade provided more control over food supply with permanent year round villages. Island Field and other sites in Delaware were eastern centers for trade routes that extended to the Mississippi River region.

References:

• The Department of Anthropology, University of Memphis. Prehistory and History of Southeastern North America and the Caribbean.
• Adams, J.M., 1997 - North America During the Last 150,000 Years.
• 2001 - The Earliest Americans: Southeast Project Area Historic Context. National Park Service Archeology and Ethnography Program.

8,700 - 3,000 BCE - Scythia - Three regions of the Scythians were at this time:

• North Caucasus;
• Southeastern Europe;
• Crimea;

Differences were of elaborate mixed customs of burials of ochred bodies with grave goods as well as traditional kurgan burial mounds. These Cultures had obtained the technology of metallurgy, firing local ceramics, establishing fortified settlements and a subsistence economy.

References:

• The 1995 Excavations at Pokrovka, Russia by Jeannine Davis-Kimball and Leonid T. Yablonsk
• Warrior Women - An Archaeological Search for History's Hidden Heroines by Jeannine Davis-Kimball.

Pre 7200 BCE - The development of "Agriculture" had a profound and far-reaching effect upon the spiritual development of humanity. Early mankind began to interpret their deities in the physical surroundings of the places where they settled to grow their crops. They began worshipping Gods and Goddesses of agriculture instead of the nomadic lifestyle of the Goddess of the Wild Things and the Lord of the Hunt. Volcanic Mountains, such as those surrounding ancient Persia, gave rise to Fire Gods whose priests evolved a cosmology postulating a universe based upon a struggle between good and evil.

References:

• Science 1998 282: 1446 - Neolithic Agriculture: The Slow Birth of Agriculture by Heather Pringle.
• The Origins of Agriculture as a Natural Experiment in Cultural Evolution by Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd, and Robert L. Bettinger.
• "Agriculture" by John Zerzan.

Pre 7000 BCE - Northern Mesopotamia - The Halafian culture decorated its vessels with religious symbols-bulls' horns and sometimes rams' heads, masculine symbols, as well as ritual images of leopard skins (shared by the somewhat later Catal Huyuk culture of the seventh millennium BCE in western Anatolia). Both cultures developed similarities with the later Transcaucasian peoples in the region embraced by the Kura and the Araks rivers, which includes the region extending from the Greater Caucasus to the Turkish and Iranian frontiers, between the Black Sea (west) and the Caspian Sea (east), eastern Anatolia and northern Iran.

References:

• The Early History of European Languages by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze.
• V. V. Ivanov - Scientific American, March 1990, P.110 under The Terminology for Wheeled Transport and Smelting of Metals.

6500 to 1200 BCE - North America - The Desert Archaic peoples, begin to adapt successively to the onset of a hot dry desert climate, the "Great Drought," would last till 1200 BCE.

References:

• Anthropology 3511 Professor Gibbon - The Great Basin and Western Interior - The Great Basin Environment.
• The Desert Tortoise and Early Peoples of the Western Deserts by Joan S. Schneider, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.

6000 to 4000 BCE - West-Central Africa - The River People emerge along Nile, Niger, and Congo Rivers. The Isonghee of Zaire (Republic of Congo) introduce the abacus and tremendous stone tombs built in the Central African Republic area. The spread of agriculture south of the Sahara Desert supported a growing population, which mastered animal domestication and agriculture, and forced the San groups into the less hospitable areas.

Reference - Chronology of African History, Chronology2, AfricAvenir, Ancient African History.

5500 BCE - The Flooding of the Black Sea was the Great flood of water from the Mediterranean (saltwater) into the Black Sea (freshwater), which occurred around 5550 BCE. The Middle East was just emerging from a long climatic drought, 6200-5700 BCE. The landscape described in the early language of this region lay in the crescent that curves around the southern shores of the Black Sea, south from the Balkan peninsula, east across ancient Anatolia (today the non-European territories of Turkey) and north to the Caucasus Mountains. During this period Indo-Europeans had already migrated over the Eurasian continent and established the agricultural revolution, which created a food surplus allowing nomadic tribes to settle down and found villages and city-states.

The icecaps had been melting since about 13,000 BCE, steadily raising sea levels worldwide until the natural dam across the Bosporus sprang a leak. The resulting waterfall deepened the channel-outlet to 400 feet, which dwarfed what is now known as Niagara Falls in America. Within two years, 20,000 square miles of the freshwater side of the Ukrainian lakefront permanently disappeared under undrinkable saltwater, as deep as 510 feet. Navigation eventually became possible when the water levels equalized, but the land bridge wasn't repaired until 7500 years later.

References:

• John Noble Wilford, "Plumbing Black Sea for Proof of the Deluge," New York Times, January5, 1999, p. D3.
• An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea Shelf  cited  by William B. F. Ryan, Walter C. Pitman III. and Candace O. Major, Lamont - Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA - and further researched and referenced by:
1. Kazimieras Shimkus and Vladamir Moskalenko, Southern Branch of the P.P. Shirshov Oceanology Institute, Gelendzhik-7, 353470, Russia -
2. Glenn A. Jones, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA -
3. Petko Dimitrov, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, 9000 Varna, PO Box 152, Bulgaria -
4. Naci Gorür and Mehmet Sakinç, Î.T.Ü. Maden Fakültesi Jeoloji Bölümü, 80626 Ayazaga, Istanbul, Turkey -
5. Hüseyin Yüce, Seyir, Hidrografi ve Osinografi Dairesi, 81647 Çubuklu, Istanbul, Turkey.

5000 BCE - Sumeria - Inanna is the Sumerian Great Goddess of Love and War. She is of the lineage of Enlil (whom the Semitic people later adopted in the shortened version as El) and known as the Morning and Evening Star and the First Daughter of the Moon known as Nanna (father) and later known as Ishtar or Astarte.

Sumer was located in the Southern half of modern Iraq (Irak) and its civilization deeply influenced the peoples of the Euphrates region, North Mesopotamia and parts of Iran. Community life was organized around the temple estates known as Eridu, Uruk, Larsa, Lagash, Nippur and Kish. By 5,000 BCE - Eridu, the God of Wisdom of the city of Enki, held the power until 4,000 BCE when it shifted to Uruk, the city of Inanna. The temple of Inanna at Nippur, discovered by Zettler in 1992, dated the temple as early as the Jemdet Nasr Period (3200 BCE) and that it flourished as late as the Parthian Period (100 CE), long after Babylonia ceased to exist as an independent state.

References:

• Zettler, R.L. 1992 - The Ur III Temple of Inanna at Nippur: The Operation and Organization of Urban Religious Institutions in Mesopotamia in the Late Third Millennium B.C., Berlin: D. Riemer.
• Inanna in Pictures, Music and Drama based on Wolkenstein and Kramer.

5000 to 3100 BCE - Egypt - Pre-Dynastic Period: This period predates the unification of the northern and southern parts of Egypt. Settlements were established beside the Nile River. Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt was the largest Egyptian settlement, by 3500 BCE, with the busy town spread out along the Nile for over three kilometers. Around 3250 BCE, Hieroglyphs made their first appearance toward the end of this period. Toward the end of this time, around 3250 to 3100 BCE, a period sometimes referred to by Egyptologists as Dynasty 0, there were kings in Upper (Southern) Egypt with Narmer being of particular prominence. The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt is often attributed to a king called Menes or Narmer, who may be the same person. The so-called Narmer Palette shows Narmer in battle and wearing the crown of Upper Egypt on one side and the crown of Lower Egypt on the reverse side.

References:

• The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research international excavation at Tel Ibrahim Awad - directed by Van Haarlem, recorded by Guy Gugliotta, Washington Post, April 17, 2000.
• The Naqada Label and the Identification of Menes, in: Eldamaty, Mamdouh; Trad, Mai [Editors], Egyptian Collections around the World: Studies for the Centennial of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. (Cairo; Supreme Council of Antiquities. Distributed by the American University in Cairo Press; 2002), pages 657-666

4300 BCE - The First Kurgan Wave was possibly the first clash of patriarchal nomad warriors with matriarchal agriculturists.

References:

• Belili Productions of Interview with Marija Gimbutas by author/activist Starhawk and filmmaker Donna Read.
• Current Anthropology - Did Indo-European Languages spread before farming by Jonathan Adams, MS 6335, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA and Marcel Otte, Université de Liège, Service de Préhistoire, place du XX Août 7, Bâtiment A1, 4000 Liège, Belgium.

4000 BCE - Meso-America - Mushroom stones dated at this time indicate the existence of a mushroom religion (Teonanacotyl--Flesh of the Gods Psilocybe sp.)

References:

• Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy by Clark Heinrich First North American Edition of  Strange Fruit, ISBN 0-89281-997-9
• The Transmission of the Eucharist - A Homage to Maria Sabina (Schultes & Hofmann 1979).

4000 BCE - Britain - Stonehenge is being built in what is now known as Wessex-- part of central-southern England on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. The site was little more than a simple circular earthwork, inside of which was a space about 85 meters or some 90 yards in diameter but at the center of which there appeared to have been a simple wooden structure or timber circle. The major causeway opening to the northeast embraces the direction of the most northerly rising of both moon and sun. A ring of 56 pits lies close to the circumference of this open space, every pit formerly held a timber post, thus forming a large-diameter timber circle. The holes left after the decay of the ring of posts are called Aubrey Holes.

The Neolithic people later filled these pits with chalk and re-used them for ritual deposits. Construction of a ring of stones commenced about 2550 BCE, the stones had to be imported since there were no natural stone on this part of the chalk plain. Reference - The Archaeological Report by Richard Atkinson - Stonehenge. London: H. Hamilton, 1956 and Stonehenge and Avebury and neighboring monuments; an illustrated guide. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1959.

4000 BCE to Present Day - It is important to note that from this period onwards the Gods and Goddesses of many civilizations (Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, etc.) had their early beginnings. The Egyptian term Heka not only referred to one of the three creative powers of the Sun-god Re, but also:

Egyptian - masculine term of Heka was the addressing of oneself to Deity to become part of the divine energy or the life force; Life Force in Action. The proper use of Heka was to be neutral in merging oneself with deity and for maintaining Balance within the Cosmic Order of Creation.

References:

• The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts - transl. R.O Faulkner
• The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts  - transl. R.O Foulkner
• The Book of Going Forth By Day - transl: T.G. Allen
• Egyptian Religion - Siegfried Morenz] [Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt - James H. Breasted

Hebrew and Sumerian - The feminine Shekana or Hebrew Shekina (dwelling place of the female soul of God), referred to the Goddess Innana (Astarte, Ishtar), worshipped in Sumeria, and by the early Israelites recorded in the Pentateuch.

References:

• Classical Myth Fourth Edition - Myths of Fertility - Demeter and the Great Goddess, Part II: Divine Myths - Barry B. Powell, ch. 9
• Shepherdess Without Temptation by Frank M.. Pearson, The Rennes Research Group] [Christopher L. C. E. Whitcombe - Eve and the Identity of Women
• Segal, Eliezer. "Looking For Lilith." Calgary, Canada: Calgary Jewish Free Press, 1995.
• Dexter, Miriam Robbins. Whence the Goddesses, p. 27. New York: Teacher's College Press, 1990.
• Zohar I 148a-148b, I 19b, I 19b.
• Patai, Raphael. The Hebrew Goddesses, p. 247. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1978.
• Gustafson, Fred. The Black Madonna, p. 83. Boston: SIGO Press, 1990.
• Greek and Roman - Hekate (Hecate) as being the threefold Goddess of Maiden, Mother and Crone, whom had many shrines built for her worship. References:
• Burkert, W. (1985) Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, Blackwell. p. 171. ISBN 0-631-15624-0
• Gantz, T. (1996) Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Vol. 1, Johns Hopkins. pp. 26-27. ISBN 0-8018-5360-5
• Kerényi, C. (1960) The Gods of the Greeks, Thames & Hudson. pp. 33-41. ISBN 0-500-27048-X

3500 BCE - The Second Kurgan invasion, Bronze Age begins.

References:

• Chapter VII: Bronze Age in Eurasia - Lecture 8 delivered 17 July 1991- Overview by Geraldine Reinhardt
• The chronology of the early Kurgan tradition, Journal of Indo-European Studies, 1977/4, p.339, with reference to a Russian article by N. Merpert, Moscow 1974.

3500 BCE - Africa; Sahara - French archaeologist Henri Lhote discovers rock paintings found 900 miles southeast of Algiers that established that the Sahara was once fertile land.

References:

• Lhote, H., 74:287 - The search for the Tassilifrescoes, 34:76-7.
• Leakey, M. D.: , 72:2, 72:3, 6-10, 722 Africa's vanishing art: the rock paintings of Tanzania, 58:158-9.

3500 BCE - Mesopotamia; Sumeria - The "Use of the Pentagram" dates back to Uruk IV (3500BCE) in ancient Mesopotamia, its meaning elementally directed towards the sense of "heavenly body." It first appeared in the earliest writing of Mesopotamia (pre-cuneiform pictographic writing) around 3000 BCE, as the Sumerian sign UB. Its meaning broadened in the later cuneiform period (2600 BCE) as the power of authority reaching to the ends of the earth (four directions with the fifth direction as above), corresponding the elemental quarters with the Queen of Heaven (Innana). By late 2600 BCE the pentagram (symbol UB) means region, heavenly quarter or direction and is found on potsherds in Uruk and more frequently on Jemdet Nasr, around 3100-2900 BCE, and on Proto-Elamite tablets, 3000-2500 BCE.

References:

• The Divine Proportion, by Herbert E. Huntley
• Cornelia de Vogel in Appendix A of her Pythagoras and Early Pythagoreanism
• Clavicula Salomonis translated and published by S. Lidell MacGregor Mathers in 1889 as The Key of Solomon the King.
• De Vogel and Dr. Jan Schouten's The Pentagram as a Medical Symbol.
• Lynn Thorndike's History of Magic and Experimental Science, Chapter 49.
• Book of Ceremonial Magic by Arthur Edward Waite.
• Websters 1999 International Encyclopedia

3100 to 2686 BCE - Egypt - Early Dynastic Period: Dynasties II and I; Hor-Aha is considered to be the first king of the first Dynasty who later took the royal name Men, which meant "established." He was later referred to as Menes or Manetho, the first king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Hor-Aha king was considered the incarnation of the god Horus and from the 5th Dynasty, the son of Re, the sun god. He made the Lower Egypt City of Memphis as the country's capital where it flourished for thousands of years.

References:

• The Cairo Museum - Masterpiece of Egyptian Art by Francesco Tiraditti (editor) and Mohammed Saleh.
• The Naqada label and the identification of Menes (J. Kinnaer) GM 196, 2003, 23-30
• The Birth of Egyptian Historiography. Fifth dynasty annalists at work and the origins of "Menes" (P. O'Mara) DE 46, 2000, 49-64
• Forbearers of Menes in Nubia : Myth or Reality ? (B. Williams) JNES 46, 1987/ 15-26
• "A collection of hieroglyphs from the monuments of Hor-Aha..." (A. Rowe) ASAE 41, 1942, 342-345

Pre 3000 BCE - The origin of the Battle-Axe people is from the steppe-lands of southern Russia, between the Caucasus and the Carpathian Mountains. They are attributed with the initial spread of the Indo-European group of languages, which encompasses most of present-day Europe.

References:

• Battle Axe culture, 72:505, 74:604
• 1982. "An assessment of the Scanian Battle-Axe tradition: towards a social perspective" by Christopher Tilley; published in Lund: CWK Gleerup.

3000 BCE - Iberia? - The Beaker folks origins are possibly Iberia or Central Europe, they emerge at this time as an independent cultural group known for their pottery bell beakers or drinking vessels. The Beaker folk and Battle-Axe folk eventually join to become one European people as the Bronze Age begins shortly thereafter in Europe.

References:

• The Morning of Mankind: Prehistoric Man in Europe (hc) by Robert Silverberg, 1970 : World's Work.
• Beaker Folk in archaeology of Western Europe, 56:222-4, 74:782

3000 to 1000 BCE - From the end of the third through the first millennium BCE, speakers of ancient European languages spread gradually into Europe. This was demonstrated archaeologically by the arrival of the semi-nomadic "pit grave" culture who buried their dead in shafts, or barrows. The Tocharians were later identified with the Gutians. The Guations are mentioned in Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions (Akkadian, a Semitic language dated from the end of the third millennium BCE), when King Sargon was building the first great Mesopotamian Empire.

Reference - The Early History of Indo-European Languages by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov; Scientific American, March 1990, P.110

3000 -1500 BCE - Pakistan; Indus Valley - The Harrapan (Indus Valley) Civilization lived along the Indus River in what is known today as Pakistan. The peak of the Harappan civilization was around 2500 BCE and declined about 2000 BCE. Both Harappa and the city of Mohenjo-Daro were the greatest achievements of the Indus valley civilization.

The Aryans, warrior nomads, began migrating into the Indus Valley region during the decline of the Harappan Civilization. The nomadic Aryans were breeding cattle and learned how to live as settled agriculturists from the remaining Harappan people. The Aryans slowly merged the remnants of the Harappan Culture into their own culture to form the Vedic culture.

References:

• Ancient India: Land of Mystery, Time-Life Lost Civilizations Series (1994)
• Excavations at Harappa: Being an Account of Archaeological Excavations at Harappa carried out between the Years 1920-1921 and 1933-34 by Madhu Sarup Vats (1997 Reprint of 2 volumes first published in 1940.)

3000 BCE - The Indo-European proto-language began to breakup with the appearance of Hittite and other Anatolian languages in 3000 BCE.

Reference - The Early History of Indo-European Languages by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov; Scientific American, March 1990, P.110

2700 BCE - Sumeria - King Gilgamesh rules the city of Uruk, which has now grown to a population of more than 50,000. Gilgamesh is remembered from the Sumerian epic, "Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Nether World" and the Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh." In the epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar (Inanna) is revered at the temple of Uruk.

References:

• The Epic of Gilgamesh , trans. by Maureen Gallery Kovacs (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990),
• Gilgamesh , translated by John Maier and John Gardner (New York: Vintage, 1981)
• Archaeological Expedition Iraq, May 2002 by Margarite Van Ess sponsored by the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut (German Archaeology Institute) in Berlin.
• Code of Law - Hammurabi

2686-2181 BCE - Egypt; Old Kingdom: Dynasties III-VI - The famous Step Pyramid was constructed for Djoser, one of the kings of the 3rd Dynasty. Khufu's (Cheops), the Great Pyramid at Giza as well as other larger pyramids were built during the 4th Dynasty. Heliopolis, the priesthood of the god Re became powerful and some of the kings of the 5th Dynasty built temples to the solar deity near their pyramids at Abusir near Saqqara. King Unas, the last ruler of the 5th Dynasty, had the burial chamber within his pyramid inscribed with spells for the afterlife. Teti, the first king of the 6th Dynasty was slain by his bodyguard and the dynasty finally ends with the long reign of Pepi II, who lost power and wealth of Egypt during his reign.

References:

• Seton Lloyd, Hans Wolfgang Muller, Roland Martin. Ancient Architecture, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, Greece. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1972.
• Excavations at Saqqara: North-West of Teti's Pyramid by el-Knouli, A., published by Aris & Philips Ltd., 1990
• Saqqara. The Royal Cemetery of Memphis. Excavations and Discoveries Since 1850 by Lauer, Jean-Philippe published by Thames and Hudson, 1976

2500 BCE - The Third Kurgan Invasion.

References:

• M. Gimbutas: “Proto-Indo-European Culture: The Kurgan Culture during the Fifth, Fourth and Third Millennia BC”, in Cardona at al., eds.: Indo-European and Indo-Europeans, p. 178.
• A.J. Ammerman and L.L. Cavalli-Sforza: The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe, Princeton 1984, p.59
• Ward H. Goodenough: “The Evolution of Pastoralism and Indo-European Origins”, in G. Cardona et al., eds.: Indo-European and Indo-Europeans, p.253-265, specially p.255, with reference to V. Gordon Childe: The Aryans. A Study of Indo-European Origins, London 1926.

2500 BCE - The Earliest date for Indo-European conquest of Hurrian copper mines (Mitanni dynasty).

References:

• 1977a "The First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists into Copper Age Europe" by Marija Gimbutas, JIESt 5: 277-338.
• Introduction to Hurrian by E.A. Speiser.- 1941, AASOR 20, New Haven

2500 BCE - Indo-lranian split from Greek-Armenian by the middle of 2000 BCE, as recorded in the Tablets in the Hattusas archives. The Indo-lranian peoples develop a new language different from ancient Indian (Sanskrit) and ancient Iranian. This new language was spoken in the Mitanni kingdom on the southeast frontier of Anatolia. Michael G. F. Ventris and John Chadwick decipher Cretan Mycenaean texts, from the same eras as the Mitanni, around 1950.

References:

• Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times by Donald B. Redford published by Princeton Univercity Press, ISBN: 0-691-00086-7
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East by Eric Meyers (Editor), Oxford University Press; (November 1996) ASIN: 0195065123; LC # DS 56 O9 1997.

2300 BCE - Sumeria - The image of Astarte on an archeological artifact was found in Sumeria, dated around 2300 BCE. She is Simat Hiya, one of the ancient forms of the Nazorean goddess worshipped by the Iranians as Anahita and considered to be a manifestation of the sky goddess Kaladugmo or Ma Namkha ('Mother Sky') in the Tibetan pantheon.

References:

• Anâhitâ, the Mother of Gods - Iran, the Cradle of the Early Gods by M. Sâdeq Nazmi-Afshâr, Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London
• The Order of Nazorean Essenes; Manichean Orthodox Church; Simat Hiya (Miryai Magdalah)
• http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/bon.html - The Bonpo Tradition; This site is maintained and updated by The Office of Tibet, the official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London
• Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen. Commentary by Lopon Tenzin Namdak. By Snow Lion Publications
• Sherab Chamma - The Loving Mother of Wisdom by Dr. Andrea Loseries-Leick, Tibetan Art Calender 1999, June, Wisdom Publication

2300 BCE - The city of Jerusalem is founded by the Arab Jebusites.

References:

• Gen. 10:16; 15:21; Ex. 3:8, 17; 13:5 as the name of the original inhabitants of Jebus, mentioned frequently among the seven nations doomed to destruction.
• Antiquity Volume XXXVI (June 1962) Excavations at Jerusalem - Kathleen Kenyon, Director: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem

2300 to 2100 BCE - Egypt; Cairo - The Heliopolis Creation Narrative of the Kemetic priests of On, papyrus, is the earliest written human accounts of creation that were later carved on a granite slab as the Memphite Declaration of the Deities, at the order of Nubian King Shabaka, ca. 710 BCE.

Reference - African Intellectual Heritage - A Book of Sources edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Abu S. Abarry

Pre 2250 BCE -The City of Erech, Sumerian in origin, was one of the most sacred of Babylonian cities from early times. The two temples of the Goddesses and Nana (Ishtar) and Anunit resided there as:

• E-ulmash, "House of the Oracle," and
• E-Ana, "House of Heaven."

References:

• The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. I: Aachen - Basilians by Philip Schaff, Published: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1952
• Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta by Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G., Oxford 1998-. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford.

2250 BCE - The term Sabbat (Sabbath) is dated to it's earliest use in the Sumerian language between 2250 BCE and 4000 BCE, of which the earliest writing in this language is dated. It was from two Sumerian or pre-Semitic words, sa and bat, which meant respectively 'heart' and 'ceasing.' The Sabbat was recognized as Babylonian festivals and fast-days on the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of each month as the day of rest. It was also translated to Accadian as 'dies nefastus' (day of fasting).

In the Pentateuch book of Genesis the seventh day is referred to as the day in which the creator rested, yet not referred to in the next six books of the bible (500-year period). The Hebrew people were later recorded as accepting the Sabbath within the context of the Hebraic or Semitic language when it was forced upon them as punishment by their god (YHWH), through Nebuchadnezzar.

• Sabbath breaking by the early Jews (in the days of the Jeremiah) was one of the reasons, written by scholars in their holy texts (Scriptures), as to why the city of Jerusalem was invaded and taken captive to Babylon for a period of seventy years (Jeremiah 17:20-27; 25:8-10; Ezekiel 20:23-25).
• Later when earning their release from Babylonian captivity, many Jews still refused to keep the Sabbath, In the book of Nehemiah 13:17, 18 he was quoted in saying, "What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath."

Since the Sabbath always fell on a Saturday, it was called the "Day of Saturnalia" in later Roman times (Douglas, 681-682). In 364 CE, the Sabbath was changed to Sunday, when the Church Council of Laodicea, ordered that all-previous religious observances which had been conducted on Saturday by the Jewish people, were to be conducted on Sunday in order to separate the new Christian teachings from the Jewish teachings. Sunday became the new Sabbath as "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day."

References:

• Sabbath History Through the Ages by John Kiesz, Origin of the Sabbath
• The Apology of Terullian for The Christians - Translated with Introduction, Analysis, and Appendix containing the Letters of Pliny and Trajan respecting the Christians, by T. Herbert Bindley, M. A. Merton College, Oxford. Printed by Parker and Co., Crown Yard, Oxford in 1890.
• Irwin, Keith G. The 365 Days - The Story of Our Calendar. 1964. Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, NY
• Douglas, George William. The American Book of Days. 1948. The H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY.
• Sunday - The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV, 1912 by Robert Appleton Company

2200 BCE - Greece - The Mycenian Civilization emerges when early Indo-European invaders enter the mainland, who later build cities on the peninsula from 1600 to 1200 BCE.

Reference:

• Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete - London and New York: Routledge, 1990.
• Y. Tzedakis and H. Martlew (1999) Minoans and Mycenaeans: flavours of their time. Greek Ministry of Culture,, 287 pp.
• Payne S. (1995) The small mammals. In Shaw J.S., Shaw M.C., Kommos 1: the Kommos region and houses of the Minoan town, Princeton University Press Princeton.
• W.J. Eastwood, J. Tibby, N. Roberts, et al. (2002) The environmental impact of the Minoan eruption of Santorini (the statistical analysis of palaeoecological data from Gölhisar, southwest Turkey. The Holocene 12(4): 431-444

2181 to 2040 BCE - Egypt - First Intermediate Period: Dynasties VII-X. This period saw no major building projects found from this time due to a breakdown of central government where local governors would not answer to any king governed provinces. Scenes on later tomb walls depicted people suffering from malnutrition as famine affected the country. Memphis remained the principal center for much of the First Intermediate period, although the town of Herakleopolis Magna by the 9th Dynasty was producing rulers who came into conflict with the family line from Thebes in the early part of the 11th Dynasty.

Reference - The First Intermediate Period (c.2160-2055 BC) In: Shaw, Ian [Editor], The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, (Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000), pages 118-147 by Seidlmayer, Stephan.

2000 BCE - Mesopotamia, Syria and Old Kingdom of Egypt are invaded by the Ammuru or Amorites (meaning Westerners) from the Sinai desert. They are proto-Arameans whose main political center was located in Mari of northeastern Syria.

2000 BCE - Babylon -The Enuma Elish (Babylonian) story of creation is written,

"When on high the Heavens had not been named,
Firm ground below had not been called by name,
Nothing but 'Primordial Apsu' the Begetter
and 'Mummu Tiamat',
She Who Bore them all.

No reed hut had been matted,
No marsh land had appeared,
Uncalled by name, their destinies undetermined.
Then it was that the Gods were formed within them."

References:

• Ancient Near Eastern Texts translated by N. K. Sandars.
• Enuma Elish Vol 1 & 2: The Seven Tablets of Creation; The Babylonian and Assyrian Legends Concerning the Creation of the World and of Mankind by L.W. King

2000 BCE - Egypt - The priesthood of Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, established a school in Phoenicia, which carried on the hermetic teachings. They were later expelled from Phoenicia and took refuge in the Greek islands of Cos, Thasos, and Delos off the coast of Asia Minor around 1400 BCE. They establish the lineage and teachings of Thoth, which later becomes the Greek school of the Asclepaids.

References:

• Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, Thames & Hudson, pbk 1993.
• Egyptian Myths by George Hart, British Museum Press, 1997.
• A dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses by George Hart, 1986
• The Legend of Asclepius from Myths, Mysteries & Medicine by David Little
• The School of Thoth from Myths, Mysteries and Medicine by David Little
• The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, transl: R.O. Faulkner, Aris & Phillips 1973
• The Book of Going Forth by Day, transl: George Allen, Univ. of Chicago Press 1974
• R A Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science, Inner Traditions International, Rochester, VT, 1982 (pages 187-188)
• The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, transl: R.O. Faulkner, Clarendon Press, 1969
• Egyptian Religion by Siegfried Morenz, Cornell University Press 1992

2000 to 1600 BCE - Eurasia - Sintashta-Arkaim Culture: These were settlements named "Petrovka" and "Sintashta", located in the southern Ural region. The Sintashta settlement site was closed fortification that consisted of ramparts and ditches enforced by a fence or wall built from unfired clay bricks and wooden frames.

Reference - the abstract on the Sintashta-Arkaim Culture from the lecture presented by Dr. Ludmila Koryakova, Ural State University and The Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Division of Russian Academy of Science.

2000 BCE - Britain - The area known later as Glastonbury had various erected earthworks of standing stones built upon the summit of the Tor with lines of single, free-standing menhirs laid out on the surrounding slopes of adjacent hills. The positions of the stones fixed the declination and azimuth of the moon as it rose and set behind the Black Mountains of distant Wales.

References:

• Glastonbury - the Ancient Avalon; Glastonbury's history by Anthony Roberts
• Glastonbury: A Study in Pattems (RILKO, 1969), Professor  Alexander Thom

2040 to 1782 BCE - Egypt - MIDDLE KINGDOM: Dynasties XI and XII:

The 11th Dynasty saw the reunification of Egypt under the rule of Mentuhotep I, the fourth king of that dynasty, whose family was based in Thebes. Mentuhotep I controlled the whole of Egypt by the 39th year of his reign. Itj-tawy became the ruling center of the country.

The 12th Dynasty began when the Theban god Amun began to rise under the prominence of Amenemhet I, who ruled for 29 years after overthrowing King Mentuhotep III. Amenemhet shared his rule with his son Senusret I during the last 10 years of his reign until he was murdered. Senusret III later campaigned beyond Egypt's boundaries into Nubia to the south to protect the southern border and access to trade routes and Nubia's gold resources. Egyptian literature and quality of art were considered the highpoint of the Middle Kingdom. The gods worshipped during this period were:

• Amun-Re - Amun was merged with the royal sun-cult of Re in Heliopolis in the 11th Dynasty, his importance grew and he was imported at Thebes where he became Amun-Re, the Sun-god, or the 'King of the Gods', which title appears for the first time in the 12th Dynasty. Amun was considered the most important of all deities, linked to the king as the divine father of the ruler. Later kings called themselves "Mery-Amun" or "Beloved of Amun."
• Amun, Amon, Amen, Imen - The power of the patriarchal Amen priesthood, which had been long established, grows. In the Pyramid Texts of the 5th Dynasty he is mentioned as the "Primeval Creator God" whose shadow protects the other gods. Amaunet is his female counterpart. He is often called "The Hidden One, with the Power and Glory forever", as well as "He who abides in all things."
• Amun in Kush (Nubia) - the building of temples dedicated to Amun to celebrate him as a god of the Egyptian rulers through the territory enabled safe passage to the gold of Kush. The cult of Amun continued to be worshipped when Egypt lost control to the Kushite rulers. The priesthood endured into the period of the Greeks and Romans when several temples were dedicated to him.

References:

• The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800-1550 B.C by Ryholt, K.S.B., published by the University of Copenhagen, 1997
• Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A, Clayton, 1994
• A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Author Hart, Georges and published by London, New York, 1987
• Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom. Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism, Author Assmann, Jan and published by London, New-York, 1995

2000 to 1500 BCE - Greece; Crete - Knossos is the central power of the Island of Crete of the Minoan Civilization, named after Minos the ruler of Crete. This is a matriarchal culture and more peaceful than other cultures at the time. It has a prosperous economy supported by sea-born commerce and has rich decorative art. Mycenae and other cities in mainland Greece and Asia Minor preserved elements of this culture until 1200 BCE.

References:

• Sir Arthur J. Evans, Palace of Minos (4 vol., 1921-25, repr. 1964);
• J. D. S. Pendlebury, Archaeology of Crete (1939, repr. 1963);
• S. Hood, The Minoans (1971);
• R. H. Simpson, Mycenaean Greece (1982);
• Harding, The Mycenaens and Europe (1984).

1896 BC - Ireland - The Tuatha Dé Danaan (the Tribes of the Goddess Dana) came from the northwest. Their king, Nuada, lost an arm in The First Battle of Moytura with the Fir Bolgs near Cong, Galway.

References:

• Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Gregory (1904)
• The Wurzburg Codex - the Leabhor Laigneach (The Book of Leinster), and the Leabhor Baile an Mhota (The Book of Ballymote) as translated by Michael O’clery, in 1620
• The Religion of the Ancient Celts by J.A. MacCulloch (1911)

1800 BCE - China - This time establishes the beginning of the Neolithic Shang Dynasty. The earliest Chinese written records are inscribed on oracle bones and bronze vessels. By 1523 BCE this Proto-Chinese culture had spread across North and Southeast China when the first large political structure becomes organized. The Shang kings called themselves the 'Sons of Heaven' and presided over religious ceremonies to their ancestors and gods of nature. The Chou dynasty emerges later in 1027 BCE, feudal states exercise most temporal power while the Son of Heaven's dominion expands over larger areas of China. The Manichaean centers of Zhang-Zhung and Tibetan Marriage practices later influence the Shang culture.

References:

• China, a Cultural History by Anton Cotterell, 1988
• The Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol.1, compiled by William de Bary, Chan and Watson, 1960
• The Ageless Chinese by Dun J. Li, 1971
• China: a Macro History by Ray Huang, 1990
• The Rise and Splendor of the Chinese Empire by Rene Grousset

1782 to 1570 BCE - Egypt - Second Intermediate Period: Dynasties XIII-XVII: A period about which not a lot is known and rulers did not last very long. The Hyksos come from Asia and move into the Delta region of the Nile, introducing the Egyptians to the horse-drawn chariot, the composite bow and bronze weapons. This period lasts two centuries until Ahmose (Theban) expelled the Hyksos.

References:

• "Armies of the Pharaohs" by Healy, Mark - published 1992 by Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1 85532 939 5
• "Chronicle of the Pharaohs" (The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt) by Clayton, Peter A. - published 1994 by Thames and Hudson Ltd, ISBN 0-500-05074-0
• "A History of Ancient Egypt" by Grimal, Nicolas - published 1988 by Blackwell.

1700 BCE - Greece; Crete - Knossos is destroyed by an earthquake, the Minoans rebuild the city in 1600 BCE.

Reference - "Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete" published by London and New York: Routledge, 1990.

1570 to 1070 BCE - Egypt - New Dynasty: Dynasties XVIII-XX: Ahmose reunifies Upper and Lower Egypt and Memphis becomes the administrative capital again. The term pharaoh began being applied to the king.

While acting as regent for a young Tuthmosis, Queen Hatshepsut becomes pharaoh by default. He eventually came to power to become the "Pharaoh" of ancient Egypt. Egypt becomes wealthy through trade and foreign conquests, religious orders benefited - especially the state god Amun-Re with its powerful clergy and vast temples and estates.

Biblical reference to Moses of the Exodus is near or around this period. The exact dating through archeological evidence of the Exodus of the Hebrew People from Egypt is still inconclusive, but it was during this period that the earliest historical documentation of ergot poisoning is found in the documentation of this time. The famines in the localized regions of Southern Egypt, due to the aftermath of locust's invasions, which were common in the Middle East, led to attempts to recover the devastated harvests of remaining crops. Contamination of wet grain with locust feces stored in the granaries provided an ideal growth medium for fungus which excreted mycotoxins that, when eaten, caused internal hemorrhaging in the lungs and eventual death without external visible cause. The tradition of giving those "With Child" as well as the "First Born" double rations of whatever available food led to the abortefication of any pregnancies and deaths of the First born that were recorded as two of the plagues during these times.

References:

• Carefoot, G.L. and E.R. Sprott. 1967. Famine on the Wind. Rand McNally & Company. 231 pp.
• Hudler, G. 1998. Magical and Mischievous Molds. Princeton University Press. 248 pp.
• Matossian, M.K. 1989. Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics and History. Yale University Press, New Haven.
• Epidemiologic Analysis of the 10 Plagues of Egypt by authors John S. Marr and Curtis Malloy, published in the 1996 issue of Caduceus: A Humanities Journal for Medicine and the Health Sciences, Spring Issue.

The heretic king, Akhenaten, established the religious order of the sun god Aten. The old temples are abandoned and Akhetaten becomes the new capital. All other existing religious orders are deposed during his reign.

Upon the death of Akhenaten, Tutankhaten becomes pharaoh at the age of nine. The old religious orders rise again and Akhenaten's city is destroyed. Tutankhaten's changes his name to Tutenkhamun, he reigns only for nine years. Horemheb comes to power and eliminates evidence earlier predecessors. His successor was Ramesses I who was the first in a long line of Ramesside kings in the 19th and 20th Dynasties. Ramesses I's grandson, Ramesses II, is referred to as Ramesses the Great who becomes Egypt's greatest builder and signed the first recorded peace treaty in history. By the 20th Dynasty the power of the pharaohs had waned and the Theban priesthood controls Upper Egypt by the end of the New Kingdom, while the pharaoh ruled from the Delta.

References:

• A Bibliography of the Amarna Period and Its Aftermath: The Reigns of Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun and Ay - Author Martin, Geoffrey T. and published by Kegan Paul, 1992
• Akhenaten: King of Egypt by Cyril Aldred
• Akhenaten. The Heretic King, Author Redford, Donald B., and published by Princeton University Press, 1987
• Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign, Author - O'Connor, David B. (ed.) and published by University of Michigan Press, 1998
• Hatshepsut: The Female Pharaoh by Joyce A. Tyldesley
• Nefertiti: Egypt's Sun Queen, Author Tyldesley, Joyce and published by Viking, 1999
• The Kadesh Inscriptions of Ramesses II, Author Gardiner, sir Alan H. and published by Oxford, 1975
• Tutankhamen : The Life and Death of the Boy-King by Christine El Mahdy

1520 BCE - Greece; Thera - The eruption of the volcano on the Greek island of Thera (Santorini) destroys all the people of the Island.

1500 to 1000 BCE - Persia - Zarathustra or Zarthost is also referred to by the name Zoroaster in western texts. He was believed to have lived in Persia, which is the region covered by modern-day Iran and Iraq, between 1500 BCE and 1000 BCE. This makes Zoroastrianism one of the oldest monotheist world religions. The sacred text of the Zoroastrians is called the Avesta-E-Zend or Zend-E-Avesta (Avesta in short). It comprises of five Gathas, which are songs composed by the prophet Zarathustra. The symbol of Faravahar, also known as Farohar, signifies the final goal of a true Zarthosti to live in a manner befitting the progress of the soul towards Ahura Mazda, or the "Wise Lord".

References:

• Zoroastorians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices) by Mary Boyce, March, 2001
• Essays on Zorathustra and Zoroastrianism (Bibliothica Iranica, Zoroastrian Studies Series No. 1) by Jean Kellens, Prods Oktor Skaerv0, et all July, 2000
• The Zoroastrian Faith: Tradition and Modern Research  by Solomon A. Nigosian, December, 1993

1500 BCE - Mitanni (Indo-Iranian) has split from Vedic Sanskrit.

References:

• "On the Antiquity of Vedic Culture", by Jacobi, Hermann G. - JRAS 1909: 721-726.
• Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian. Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 28 (Pt. II), 1953. pp. 171-186.
• KHABARDAR (Ardeshir Framji) New light on the Gathas of holy Zarathushtra. Bombay: The Author, 1949. 844p.

1470 BCE - Greece; Thera and Crete - the Minoan civilization on the Island of Crete is destroyed when the Volcano on the Greek island of Thera erupts again, depositing ash, poisonous vapors, and waves 100 to 160 feet high. The survivors of the Minoan civilization establish Mycenaee as their new cultural center.

References:

• The Minoan eruption of Thera, Santorini: A reassessment of the radiocarbon dates by Aitken, M.J., Archaeometry 30:1, 165-169, 1988.
• The Great Eruption of Thera Volcano and the Ensuing Tsunami in the Greek Archipelago by Antonopoulos, John, Natural Hazards 5:2, 153-168, 1992.
• Irish Tree Rings and an Event in 1628 BC by Baillie, M.G.L., in D.A. Hardy and A.C. Renfrew (eds.), Thera and the Aegean World III. Vol. 3: Chronology. Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 3-9 September 1989. Pg.160-166. London: The Thera Foundation, 1990.

1400 BCE - Iran - The roots of Mithraic belief are found in the worship of the Sky Goddess Mitra in northern Mesopotamia.

Reference - Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas edited by Cornelia Dimmit, translated by J. A. B van Buitenen

1400 BCE - Ireland - The Firbolgs arrive in Ireland, believed to be from the peoples inhabiting the region of Scythia and Greece, establish their capitol on Tara Hill. They are occasionally raided by the seafaring Fomorian people from Tory Island but remain in control of Ireland until the appearance of the Tuatha de Danann.

References:

• Lebor Gabala Erren (Book of Invasions).
• Cath Maige Tuired (Second Battle of Mag Tuired).

1400 BCE - The priesthood of Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, which had established the School of Thoth in Phoenicia around 2000 BCE, was expelled and took refuge in the Greek islands of Cos, Thasos, and Delos of the coast of Asia Minor. The new immigrants established a lineage of Thoth, which later became the Greek school of the Asclepaids. The hermetic teachings of Thoth were also known by the Greeks as the teachings of Hermes, whom was later known as Hermes Trimegestus.

Reference - See References 2000 BCE - Egypt.

1385 BCE - Amenhotep IV - Akhenaten Egypt - Amenhotep IV outwardly kept to the traditional deities while promoting the cult of Aten at the same time. He had several temples built, and his queen Nefertiti, pictured killing the enemies of Egypt in a scene normally reserved for pharaohs and she was shown with her husband awarding gold to royal favorites at the Window of Appearance, held an important position in the new worship of the Aten. The Aten is mentioned as early as the Middle Kingdom, and gained some attention in the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, considered a separate solar deity until the 26th Dynasty.

The worship of Aetna, which Amenophis IV (ca-1352 - 1354) tried to impose on Egypt, was based on the life-giving energy inherent in the sun, which was not the same as the earlier beliefs from the Old Kingdom. The priesthood of Re had never demanded that Re should take precedence over other deities. Akhenaten:

• Founded a new residence at Amarna,
• Created resistance from both the army and the priesthood of Amen with his new religion and complacency in ruling the kingdom,
• Suppressed all other religions (especially the worship of Amen)

Aten - Atum; The cult of Aten was only for the royal family and members of the court with the king as the sole intermediate to the deity, there was no direct relationship between common man and the god. The cult of Aten was an effort by Akhenaten to counteract the powerful position of the priesthood to Amen. However, upon leaving no heir to ascend the throne upon his death, the religion of Akhenaten became a short-lived period of only 18 years in the nearly 4000 year long history of ancient Egypt. The new religion was of One God in two aspectss:

• Aten - who made himself and rose each day, standing on the primeval mound, the Benben, a pyramid shaped stone regarded as the dwelling place of the sun god. The creator god who created the universe, the Supreme Being and master of the forces and elements of the universe.
• Atum - who is depicted as aged, the setting of the sun in its long journey. Atum embraces Totality and of The Perfect State, therefore both male and female in one. Atum was a protective deity to the king, and even called the father of the king. It was he who lifted the dead king from his pyramid to the heavens so that he could become a god, and later protected him during his journey in the Underworld.

After his death, the death of Nefertiti and the poisoning of his six daughters, the traditional ways of worshipping a multitude of gods were once again resumed and temples and monuments to Amen as well as the Priesthood of Amen were restored. Akhenaten was declared a heretic, his face and name removed from all records, and not included in the List of Kings. Akhenaten and Nefertiti were the first references to Adam and Eve in the later Hebrew Texts as being cast out of Paradise for their transgressions.

References:

• See References 1570 to 1070 BCE - Egypt - New Dynasty: Dynasties XVIII-XX.
• Akhenaten - The Heretic King. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
• Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten - King of Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.

1375 BCE - India and Iran - The Aryan tribes swept down from the Russian steppes bring their gods with them. Between 2000 and 1500 BCE, the Mitanni enter India and Iran bringing with them Mitra. The first written reference to Mitra is in a treaty between themselves and the Hittites, which called on divine witnesses of the gods to pledge the terms of the Treaty before it was signed in 1375 BCE.

The Iranians had worshipped Mitra when Zarathustra (Zoroaster) founded the first revealed religion in this region. Zarathustra announced the primacy of Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord who was served by the Amentas Spenta (bounteous immortals), who declared that Mithra was "as worthy of worship as myself." The worship of Zorastor gradually changed to Mithra within the Iranian Pantheon of deities.

Reference - See References 1500 to 1000 BCE - Persia and 1500 BCE - Mitanni.

1358 BCE - Tutankhamen

• Pressured by the Amen priests he returns to Thebes and begins the restoration of the worship of Amen and the "Children of Amen".
• All references to Aten and Akhenaten removed from Egypt

By 1355 CE, Horemheb stopped the advance of the Hittites in Syria and the orthodox cult of the state god Amen was restored.

Reference - See References 1570 to 1070 BCE - Egypt - New Dynasty: Dynasties XVIII-XX.

1350 BCE - Horemheb

• the Murder of Tutankhamen
• From a papyrus (at Leiden) : All gods are three , Amen, Re and Ptah, and there is none equal to them. "Hidden" is his name as Amen, his face is Re's and his body Ptah.

Reference - See References 1570 to 1070 BCE - Egypt - New Dynasty: Dynasties XVIII-XX.

1340 BCE - The earliest teachings of Vedism lead to the writing of the Vedic transcripts in 1280 BCE. These teachings become the basis of almost all the creation myths, which other religions copied and survive to this day.

1220 BCE - The Ùnêtice Culture of Central Europe (Bohemian Valley) begins to breakdown. The Teutonic and Umbrian tribes begin to expand towards the Illyrians, the Phrygians of Asia Minor of central Italy and later towards the Armenians people of Veneti of North Italy. The early people comprising the Doric Culture invade Thrace and Macedonia.

Reference - St. Casson. "Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria", Oxford 1926.

1200 BCE to 700 CE - North America - The Anasazi (Ancestral to Modern Pueblos) began to turn away from the nomadism of following the seasonal movement of game and the ripening of wild plants. They began living in small hamlets, taking up agriculture and tilling the land, though they still-hunted game as well as cultivate corn, beans, squash and other crops. The Anasazi distinguished themselves through the means to store food over time, the artistry of their basketry, and the construction of rock-face communities.

References:

• G. R. Willey’s An Introduction to American Archaeology, Volume One, North and Middle America
• Anasazi Site Planning: Historic Precedents, Modern Constructs, and Multi-cultural Dynamics by Jon Bryan Burley, Landscape Architecture, Department of Geography, College of Social Sciences at Michigan State University
• S. Lyman Tyler, "The Earliest Peoples," and "The Indians of Utah Territory, in Utah's History, ed. by Richard Poll, et al. (1989)
• Pamela Bunte and Robert J. Franklin, From the Sands to the Mountain: A Study of Change and Persistence in a Southern Paiute Community (1986);

1180 BCE - Thrace - The Trojans and their allies were forcing tribute from many ships passing through the Dardenelles. The Mycenians reestablish control of trade going into and from the Black Sea and Asia Minor after the Trojan War and the fall of Troy.

Reference - The South-Eastern Aegean in the Mycenaean Period Islands, landscape, death and ancestors by Mercourios Georgiadis. ISBN 1841715611.

1,150 BCE - China - The I-Ching appeared in its present form with 64 hexagrams during the reign of King Wen.

References:

• Lynn, Richard John, trans., The Columbia I-ching on CD-ROM. N.Y. Columbia University Press, 1997.
• Shchutskii, Iulian, Researches on the I-ching. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.
• Pelliot, Paul, "Le Chou King en characteres anciens et le Chang Chou Che Wen." Memoires concernant l'Asie Orientale, L'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Vol. II, pp. 123-176. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1916.

1100 BCE - Greece - The Dorians migrate into the area on the coast of southwest Asia Minor (modern Bodrum, Turkey) and establish the city-state of Greece. Their settlements included Argos, Corinth, and Sparta and later include Halicarnassus, (birthplace of Herodotos and the site of the Tomb of Mausolus), and Syracuse.

References:

• “Ancient Greek Civilizations.” 1998.
• Herodotus, The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley).
• A History of Ancient Greece - The Glory That Was Greece by Author Robert A. Guisepi, 2001.

1070 to 525 BCE - Egypt - Third Intermediate Period: Dynasties XXI-XXVI: The pharaohs of the 21st Dynasty were buried with considerable wealth in the valley of King, yet Egypt was virtually bankrupt by the end of the New Kingdom.

• Smendes, the first king of the 21st Dynasty, ruled from Tanis while Pinudjem, the high priest of the god Amun, ruled from Thebes in the south. Pharaohs of Libyan descent came to power in the Delta by the 22nd Dynasty. The Theban rulers weakened to the extent that intermarriage between the two family lines was used to help soothe the poor relations between them.
• By the 800 BCE, Nubian expansion was being felt on Egypt's southern border, the cult of Amun was re-established in Thebes when the Nubians invaded and conquered the region, becoming rulers of Egypt in the 25th Dynasty.
• Taharqa ruled the country in the early 7th century BCE, during which he began having problems with the expansion of the Assyrians.
• In 671 BCE - Esarhaddon, from Assyria, pushed into Egypt and captured the Memphis and most of the royal family, Taharqa fled south to Thebes. Taharqa regained control two years later, but Esarhaddon's son Ashurbanipal attacked and recaptured Memphis.
• Tanutamun, Taharqa's successor, regained control of the country, but was eventually overthrown when Ashurbanipal returned and moved to Thebes. The temples of Amen were raided of their treasures and Nubia never ruled again in Egypt.
• In 664 BCE the country began to enjoy peace for about the next 140 years under the leadership of Psamtik (Psammetichus), whom was recognized by the Assyrians as the king of Egypt. By 653 BCE, Psamtik seceded from Assyria and Egypt regained its independence to become a power in the region.

References:

• C. N. Reeves, The Valley of the Kings; the Decline of a Royal Necropolis (Kegan Paul International, 1990.)
• M. Ciccarello, The Graffito of Pinutem I in the Tomb of Ramesses XI (San Francisco, 1979.)
• G. E. Smith, The Royal Mummies (Cairo, 1912.)
• Davies, W.V., ed., Egypt and Africa. Nubia from Prehistory to Islam (London 1991).
• K. A. Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period (1100-650 B.C.) (Warminster, 1973.)
• Kitchen, K.A, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 B.C.), 2nd ed. with suppl. (Warminster 1986).
• O’Connor, D., Ancient Nubia. Egypt’s Rival in Africa (Philadelphia 1993).
• Taylor, J.H., Egypt and Nubia (Cambridge, MA 1991).
• Török, L, The Kingdom of Kush. Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. HdO I, 31 (Leiden 1997).

1060 BCE - The Temple was begun by Solomon as well as the walls around Jerusalem.

References:

• Gutmann, Joseph. (1976) The Temple of Solomon: Archaeological Fact and Medieval Tradition in Christian, Islamic and Jewish Art. (Scholars Press, Missoula, MO).
• Haran, Menahem. (1978) Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel. (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
• Parrot, Andre’. (1955) The Temple of Jerusalem. (Philosophical Library, INC., NY).
• Rowley, H.H. (1976) Worship in Ancient Israel: Its Forms and Meaning. (S.P.C.K., London).
• Vilnay, Zev. (1973) Legends of Jerusalem. (The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia).

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