- c. 3000 BCEAsia
Byblos trades cedar with Egypt
Byblos flourishes as a port exporting Lebanese cedar to Egypt, beginning a record of urban habitation that makes it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Era: Phoenicia: Byblos, Sidon and Tyre
Sources: Byblos · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Byblos, Ancient Phoenician City · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- c. 3000 BCEAsia
Canaanite city-states of the Bronze Age
Walled Canaanite towns flourished across the southern Levant, trading with Egypt and Mesopotamia and forming the region's earliest urban civilisation.
Era: Ancient Palestine: Canaan, the Philistines, and the Empires
Sources: Palestine - region, history · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Canaan · Wikipedia
- c. 3000-1800 BCESouth America
The Sacred City of Caral-Supe
On the central coast the monumental city of Caral rises, with pyramids and sunken plazas, among the oldest urban centres of the Americas and the heart of the Norte Chico tradition.
Era: Caral and the Great Andean Civilisations
Sources: Sacred City of Caral-Supe · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Peru: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- c. 2879 BCE (traditional)Asia
Legendary founding of Van Lang
Vietnamese tradition dates the kingdom of Van Lang and its line of Hung kings to 2879 BCE; the historical Bronze Age Dong Son culture of the Red River delta flourished in the first millennium BCE.
Era: Legendary Origins and a Thousand Years of Chinese Rule
Sources: Hung Vuong · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vietnam · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- c. 2600 BCEAsia
Mature urban phase of the Indus cities
Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and hundreds of other settlements reach their peak, with grid-planned streets, advanced drainage and standardised weights across a vast trading network.
Era: The Indus Valley Civilisation
Sources: Indus Valley Civilization · World History Encyclopedia, Indus Valley Civilisation · Wikipedia
- c. 2600 BCEAsia
Mature phase of the Indus cities
Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and hundreds of other settlements reach their peak, with grid-planned streets, advanced drainage and standardised weights across a vast trading network.
Era: The Indus Valley Civilisation
Sources: Indus civilization · Encyclopædia Britannica, Mohenjo-daro · Encyclopædia Britannica
- c. 2500–1500 BCEAfrica
The Kerma culture
The city-state of Kerma dominates the middle Nile, one of the earliest urban civilisations in sub-Saharan Africa and a rival of pharaonic Egypt.
Era: Nubia, Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush
Sources: Kingdom of Kush · Wikipedia, The Kingdom of Kush · World History Encyclopedia
- c. 2600–2240 BCEAsia
The kingdom of Ebla
Ebla dominates northern Syria, trading and corresponding with Egypt, Sumer and Mesopotamia; its cuneiform royal archives, rediscovered in the 20th century, reveal a literate Bronze Age state.
Era: Ebla, Mari, Ugarit and the First Alphabet
Sources: Ebla — ancient city, Syria · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- c. 2334 BCEAsia
Sargon founds the Akkadian Empire
Sargon of Akkad unites the Sumerian city-states under one ruler, creating what is often called history's first empire, with its capital at Akkad and a Semitic-speaking dynasty.
Era: Sumer, Akkad and Babylon — the First Cities
Sources: Sargon — king of Akkad · Encyclopædia Britannica, History of Mesopotamia · Encyclopædia Britannica
- 2333 BCE (legendary)Asia
Legendary founding of Gojoseon
According to the Samguk yusa, the mythical Dangun establishes Gojoseon, traditionally regarded as the first Korean kingdom and a shared origin point for both Koreas.
Era: Shared Korean Heritage
Sources: Korea (history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gojoseon · World History Encyclopedia
- 2333 BCE (legendary)Asia
Legendary founding of Gojoseon
According to the Samguk yusa, the mythical Dangun establishes Gojoseon, traditionally regarded as the first Korean kingdom; the date is commemorated as National Foundation Day.
Era: Gojoseon and the Three Kingdoms
Sources: Korea (history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gojoseon · World History Encyclopedia
- c. 2300 BCEAsia
The Margiana oasis civilisation (BMAC)
The Bronze Age Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex flourished in the southern Karakum oases, its Margiana centre at Gonur Depe — monumental architecture, irrigation farming and fine metalwork later excavated by Viktor Sarianidi.
Era: Ancient Oases: Margiana and Parthian Nisa
Sources: Turkmenistan · Encyclopædia Britannica, Turkmenistan: A Country Study (in 'Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies') · Library of Congress, Federal Research Division
FormationThe 3rd millennium BCE
Formation in the 3rd millennium BCE
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged formation — origins, unifications and the founding of states as each nation's archive records them, narrowed to the 3rd millennium BCE — 12 of them, drawn from 12 nations, running from 3000 BCE to 2300 BCE. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 12
- Nations
- 12
- Earliest
- 3000 BCE
- Latest
- 2300 BCE
- Asia
- 10
- Africa
- 1
- South America
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.