The 1st millennium BC, also known as the last millennium BC, was the period of time lasting from the years 1000 BC to 1 BC (10th to 1st centuries BC; in astronomy: JD – ). It encompasses the Iron Age in the Old World and sees the transition from the Ancient Near East to classical antiquity.

World population roughly doubled over the course of the millennium, from about 100 million to about 200–250 million after the birth of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Julio-Claudian dynasty led by its founder Octavian.Klein Goldewijk, K., A. Beusen, M. de Vos and G. van Drecht (2011). The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human induced land use change over the past 12,000 years, Global Ecology and Biogeography20(1): 73–86. (pbl.nl). Goldewijk et al. (2011) estimate 188 million as of AD 1, citing a literature range of 170 million (low) to 300 million (high). Out of the estimated 188M, 116M are estimated for Asia (East, South/Southeast and Central Asia, excluding Western Asia), 44M for Europe and the Near East, 15M for Africa (including Egypt and Roman North Africa), 12M for Mesoamerica and South America. North America and Oceania were at or below one million. Jean-Noël Biraben, "Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes", Population 34-1 (1979), 13–25 (p. 22) estimates c. 100 million at 1200 BC and c. 250 million at AD 1.

Overview

The Neo-Assyrian Empire dominates the Near East in the early centuries of the millennium, supplanted by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century. Ancient Egypt is in decline, and falls to the Achaemenids in 525 BC.

In Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the conquest of the Achaemenids and the subsequent flourishing of Hellenistic civilization (4th to 2nd centuries).

The Roman Republic supplants the Etruscans and then the Carthaginians (5th to 3rd centuries). The close of the millennium sees the rise of the Roman Empire. The early Celtic culture dominate Central Europe while Northern Europe is in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. In East Africa, the Nubian Empire and Aksum arise.

In South Asia, the Vedic civilization gives rise to the Maurya Empire. The Scythians dominate Central Asia. In China, the Zhou dynasty rules the Chinese heartland at the beginning of the millennium. The decline of the Zhou dynasty during Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period sees the rise of such philosophical and spiritual traditions as Confucianism and Taoism. Towards the close of the millennium, the Han dynasty extends Chinese power towards Central Asia, where it borders on Indo-Greek and Iranian states. Japan is in the Yayoi period.

The Olmec civilization declines, and the Maya and Zapotec civilizations emerge in Mesoamerica. The Chavín culture flourishes in Peru.

The first millennium BC is the formative period of the classical world religions, with the development of early Judaism and Zoroastrianism in the Near East, and Vedic religion and Vedanta, Jainism and Buddhism in India. Early literature develops in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Tamil and Chinese. The term Axial Age, coined by Karl Jaspers, is intended to express the crucial importance of the period of c. the 8th to 2nd centuries BC in world history.

World population more than doubled over the course of the millennium, from about an estimated 50–100 million to an estimated 170–300 million. Close to 90% of world population at the end of the first millennium BC lived in the Iron Age civilizations of the Old World (Roman Empire, Parthian Empire, Graeco-Indo-Scythian and Hindu kingdoms, Han China). The population of the Americas was below 20 million, concentrated in Mesoamerica (Epi-Olmec culture); that of Sub-Saharan Africa was likely below 10 million. The population of Oceania was likely less than one million people.

Ancient history

Timeline

10th century BC Near East: Neo-Assyrian Empire Near East: Shoshenq I invades Canaan Aegean: Helladic period ends Sub-Saharan Africa West: Nok Culture slowly diffuse discernible ceramic sculpting, iron metallurgy and cereal farming cultures through the inland Niger Delta region, though debatable possible settling period and or foundation of proto Ile-Ife 9th century BC Chavín culture in Peru Egypt: 872 BC: Nile floods the Temple of Luxor Egypt: 836 BC: Civil war in Egypt South Asia: 872 BC: Jainism re-organized by Parshvanatha North Africa: 814 BC: Carthage founded China: 841 BC–828 BC Gonghe Regency 8th century BC 727 BC: Egypt: Kushite invasion (25th Dynasty) 771 BC: China: Spring and Autumn period Near East: 727 BC: Death of Tiglath-Pileser III, Babylonia secedes from Assyria Near East: 722 BC: Sargon II takes Samaria; Assyrian captivity of the Israelites. Greece: Archaic Greece, Greek alphabet Greece: Homer 776 BC: Greece: First Olympiad 753 BC: Europe: foundation of Rome 7th century BC 671 BC: Assyrian conquest of Egypt Near East: 631 BC: Death of Ashurbanipal, decline of the Assyrian Empire 6th century BC Egypt: 592 BC: Psamtik II sacks Napata Sudan: Aspelta moves the Kushite capital to Meroe Near East: 539 BC: Achaemenid conquest of Babylon under Cyrus the Great South Asia: Śramaṇa movement and "second urbanisation" South Asia: Early Buddhism Europe: 509 BC: Roman Republic 5th century BC China: 479 BC: death of Confucius China: 476 BC: Warring States period China: 486 BC: Grand Canal construction begins Near East: Second Temple Judaism, redaction of the Hebrew Bible Greece: beginning of the classical period (Greece in the 5th century BC). Greece: Greco-Persian Wars (Battle of Marathon, Battle of Thermopylae) Greece: 440 BC: Herodotus' Histories Greece: 431 BC: Peloponnesian War Oceania: Austronesian expansion reaches Western Polynesia 4th century BC Greece: 395 BC: Corinthian War Egypt: 343 BC: Achaemenid conquest Greece/Asia/Egypt: 330s BC: conquests of Alexander the Great, end of the Achaemenid Empire, Macedonian Empire, beginning of the Hellenistic period South Asia: Mauryan Empire 3rd century BC China: Qin Unified China China: 206 BC: Han dynasty South Asia: 261 BC: Kalinga war Rome: Roman expansion in Italy Rome/Carthage: Punic Wars 264 BC: First Punic War 218 BC Second Punic War 2nd century BC Rome/Carthage: 149 BC Third Punic War, Roman province of Africa Rome/Greece: 146 BC Battle of Corinth, beginning of the Roman era South Asia: 185 BC: Fall of the Maurya Empire China: Confucianism became the state ideology of China 1st century BC   China: 91 BC: Records of the Grand Historian finished Rome/Europe: 58–50 BC Gallic Wars Rome: 32/30 BC: Final War of the Roman Republic (Battle of Actium) Rome/Egypt: 31 BC: Roman conquest of Egypt Rome/Europe/West Asia/Africa: 27 BC: Roman Empire

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

8th century BC Greek alphabet, the first alphabet with vowels. 7th century BC Trireme 6th century BC Paved trackway Pythagorean theorem MonotheismAlthough disputed, some scholars see the emergence of monotheism proper in the context of the Babylonian exile, during which the Israelites adopted aspects of Babylonian religion, resulting in Second Temple Judaism by 515 BC. No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel Also credited with early monotheism is Zoroastrianism, founded at roughly the same time. Zoroastrianism 5th century BC Blast furnace China Atomism Crossbow Siege engine 4th century BC formal grammar Kyrenia ship 3rd century BC Lighthouse of Alexandria Malleable Cast iron China Archimedes' principle Spherical Earth Water clock Qin built and unified various sections of the Great Wall of China. Qin built Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army. 2nd century BC Antikythera mechanism

Literature

Greco-Roman literature

Archaic period Homer (late 8th or early 7th c.), Iliad, Odyssey Hesiod (8th to 7th c.), Theogony and Works and Days Archilochus (7th century), Greek poet Sappho, (late 7th to early 6th c.), Greek poet Ibycus Alcaeus of Mytilene Aesop's Fables Classical period Aeschylus (c. 525–455 BC), Greek playwright Herodotus (484–425 BC), Histories Euripides (c. 480–406 BC), Greek playwright Xenophon: Anabasis, Cyropaedia Aristotle (384–322 BC), corpus Aristotelicum Hellenistic to Roman period Septuagint Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica Callimachus (310/305-240 B.C.), lyric poet Manetho: Aegyptiaca Theocritus, lyric poet Euclid: Elements Menander: Dyskolos Theophrastus: Enquiry into Plants Old Latin Livius Andronicus, Gnaeus Naevius, Plautus, Quintus Fabius Pictor, Lucius Cincius Alimentus Classical Latin: Cicero, Julius Caesar, Virgil, Lucretius, Livy, Catullus

Chinese literature

I Ching (date unknown, between the 10th and 4th centuries BC) Classic of Poetry (Shījīng), Classic of Documents (Shūjīng) (authentic portions), Classic of Changes (I Ching) Spring and Autumn Annals (Chūnqiū) (722–481 BC, chronicles of the state of Lu) Confucius: Analects (Lúnyǔ) Classic of Rites (Lǐjì) Commentaries of Zuo (Zuǒzhuàn) Laozi (or Lao Tzu): Tao Te Ching Zhuangzi: Zhuangzi (book) Mencius: Mencius

Sanskrit literature

Vedic Sanskrit: Vedas, Brahmanas Vedanga Mukhya Upanishads Early layers of the Sanskrit epics (c. 3rd century BC to 4th century AD)

Hebrew

c. 8th to 7th c.: the Book of Nahum, Book of Hosea, Book of Amos, Book of Isaiah c. 6th c.: Psalms c. 5th century: redaction of the Torah 3rd century: Ecclesiastes 2nd century: Book of Wisdom

Avestan Yasht, Avesta, Vendidad

Other (2nd to 1st century BC)

Pali literature: Tipitaka Tamil:Sangam literature Aramaic: Book of Daniel

Archaeology

Culture Region Period NotesUrnfield cultureEurope, Central1300–750 BCBronze Age EuropeAtlantic Bronze AgeEurope, Western1300–700 BCBronze Age EuropePainted Grey Ware cultureSouth Asia1200–600 BCBronze Age India, Indo-Aryan migrationLate Nordic Bronze Age Europe, North1100–550 BCBronze Age EuropeVillanovan cultureEurope, Italy1100–700 BCIron Age EuropeGreek Dark Ages Greece1100–800 BCDorian invasionIron Age II Near East1000–586 BCAncient Near East, List of archaeological periods (Levant)Sa Huỳnh cultureSoutheast Asia, Vietnam1000 BC–AD 200Woodland periodNorth America1000 BC – AD 1000 List of archaeological periods (North America)Bantu expansion Sub-Saharan Africa1000 BC–AD 500 Middle Nok Period Sub-Saharan Africa, West900–300 BCIron metallurgy in AfricaNovocherkassk cultureEurope, Eastern900–650 BC Chavín de HuántarSouth America, Peru 1200–500 BCPoverty Point earthworks North America, Louisiana 1650–700 BCOlmecs Mesoamerica 1500–400 BCAdena cultureNorth America, Ohio 1000–200 BCLiaoning bronze dagger cultureEast Asia800–600 BCMiddle Mumun East Asia, Korea800–300 BC Etruscan civilization Europe, Italy800–264 BC Paracas culture South America, Peru800–100 BC Hallstatt culture Europe, Central 800 BC–500 BCIron Age Europe, Thraco-Cimmerian, CeltsBritish Iron AgeEurope, Britain 700–50 BC Insular CeltsZapotec civilization Mesoamerica700 BC – AD 700Pazyryk culture Central Asia600–300 BCScythians, Saka, Pazyryk burialsAldy-Bel culture Central Asia600–300 BCScythians, SakaLa Tène culture Europe, Central/Western 500–50 BCGaulsPre-Roman Iron Age Europe, North500–50 BC Proto-GermanicNorthern Black Polished WareSouth Asia500–300 BC Vedic periodLate Mumun East Asia, Korea 550–300 BCUrewe Sub-Saharan Africa 400 BC–AD 500 Iron metallurgy in Africa Late Nok Period Sub-Saharan Africa, West300–1 BCIron metallurgy in AfricaNasca culture South America, Peru100 BC–800 ADCalima cultureSouth America, Colombia200 BC–400 ADHopewell tradition North America100 BC–AD 400TeotihuacanMesoamerica100 BC –AD 550Ipiutak siteNorth America, Alaska100 BC –AD 800

Astronomy

Historical solar eclipses Year (BC)DateEclipse TypeSaros SeriesEclipse MagnitudeGammaEcliptic Conjunction

(UT)Greatest Eclipse

(UT)Duration