The 10th century BCE

Africa

1. 🇨🇲CMR

   Cameroon · Peoples & Migration · c. 1000 BCE

   The Bantu expansion begins

   The Grassfields of the Cameroon-Nigeria borderlands are widely held to lie near the homeland of the Bantu languages, whose speakers spread from this region across central and southern Africa.

   The Sao, the Bantu cradle and Cameroon's early peoples

   Sources: History of Cameroon (Wikipedia) · Cameroon (country overview and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇨🇫CAF

   Central African Republic · Peoples & Migration · c. 1st millennium BCE

   Ironworking and migration

   Ubangian, Central Sudanic and Bantu-speaking peoples settled the watershed and ironworking spread, laying down the ethnic patchwork of Gbaya, Banda, Zande, Nzakara and others.

   Megaliths and Early Peoples

   Sources: History of the Central African Republic (Kiddle Encyclopedia) · Central African Republic — History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

3. 🇩🇯DJI

   Djibouti · Economy & Trade · ancient times

   Coast woven into Horn of Africa trade

   The shores of the Bab-el-Mandeb form part of the ancient commercial world of the Horn, exchanging aromatics, ivory and other goods with Egypt and southern Arabia; the wider region is linked to the fabled Land of Punt.

   Ancient Trade and the Coming of Islam

   Sources: Djibouti (country and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · History of Djibouti (Wikipedia)

4. 🇰🇪KEN

   Kenya · Peoples & Migration · c. 1000 BCE

   Bantu expansion reaches western Kenya

   Iron-using Bantu-speaking farmers spread into western Kenya, part of the wider Bantu expansion that reshaped much of eastern and southern Africa.

   Migrations and the Swahili Coast

   Sources: History of Kenya (Wikipedia) · Kenya: People and ethnic groups (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

5. 🇰🇪KEN

   Kenya · Culture & Ideas · c. 1000 BCE

   Olorgesailie tool traditions and the Stone Age

   Sites such as Olorgesailie in the Rift Valley preserve vast accumulations of hand-axes and other tools, documenting hundreds of thousands of years of Stone Age life in Kenya.

   Cradle of Humankind: the Turkana Basin

   Sources: History of Kenya (Wikipedia) · Koobi Fora (National Museums of Kenya)

Asia

1. 🇱🇧LBN

   Lebanon · Culture & Ideas · early 1st millennium BCE

   The Phoenician alphabet at Byblos

   A twenty-two letter alphabetic script comes into use at Byblos; adopted by the Greeks, it becomes the ancestor of the Greek and Latin alphabets and the writing of much of the world.

   Phoenicia: Byblos, Sidon and Tyre

   Sources: Byblos, Ancient Phoenician City (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Phoenicia (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Phoenicia (EBSCO Research Starters)

2. 🇸🇾SYR

   Syria · Peoples & Migration · c. 11th–8th centuries BCE

   The Aramaeans and Aram-Damascus

   Aramaean tribes settle Syria and make Damascus the capital of a powerful kingdom; their Aramaic language becomes the lingua franca of the Near East for over a millennium.

   Aramaeans, Rome and the Glory of Palmyra

   Sources: Aramaean — ancient Middle Eastern people (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Damascus — History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

3. 🇹🇱TLS

   Timor-Leste · Formation · Pre-colonial era

   Society of the liurai

   Timor is organized into numerous small kingdoms ruled by hereditary chiefs, the liurai, whose authority rests on kinship, ritual, and the sacred houses central to Timorese culture.

   The Liurai and the Sandalwood Trade

   Sources: East Timor (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Indonesia: A Country Study (Federal Research Division) (Library of Congress)

4. 🇦🇪ARE

   United Arab Emirates · Economy & Trade · Iron Age

   The aflaj irrigation system at Hili

   Hili preserves one of the oldest known examples of the aflaj, underground channels that carried mountain groundwater to oasis date gardens, sustaining agriculture in an arid land.

   Bronze Age Oases and the Pearling Coast

   Sources: Cultural Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa Bint Saud and Oases Areas) (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Six new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List (2011) (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

5. 🇺🇿UZB

   Uzbekistan · Formation · c. 1000–500 BCE

   Sogdiana settled and under Achaemenid rule

   The Zeravshan valley of Sogdiana, centred on Maracanda (Samarkand), is settled and passes under the Achaemenid Persian Empire; Bukhara grows as a Silk Road trade and crafts centre.

   Sogdiana, Bactria and the Silk Road

   Sources: Sogdiana — Central Asia, Silk Road, Persian Empire (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Samarkand — Uzbekistan, Map, History & Facts (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

North America

1. 🇭🇳HND

   Honduras · Formation · c. 1000 BCE

   Copán settled

   A small farming village on the Copán River grows over centuries into a major Maya centre in what is now western Honduras.

   Copán and the First Peoples

   Sources: Copán (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

South America

1. 🇬🇾GUY

   Guyana · Peoples & Migration · 1st millennium BCE

   Amerindian settlement of the Guianas

   Arawak, Carib and Warrau peoples settle the rivers, coast and highlands of present-day Guyana, developing cassava farming, fishing and riverine trade.

   The First Peoples and the Land of Many Waters

   Sources: Guyana — History (Colonialism, Independence, Culture) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Guyana and Belize: Country Studies (U.S. Library of Congress, Federal Research Division)

2. 🇻🇪VEN

   Venezuela · Peoples & Migration · by c. 1000 BCE

   Indigenous peoples of coast, plains and Andes

   Carib and Arawak peoples settle the Caribbean coast and the Orinoco basin, while the Timoto-Cuica farm the western Andes, long before European contact.

   Indigenous Peoples and the Encounter of 1498

   Sources: Venezuela: A Country Study (U.S. Library of Congress, Federal Research Division) · Venezuela (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Oceania

1. 🇫🇯FJI

   Fiji · Peoples & Migration · c. 1000 BCE

   Lapita settlement of Fiji

   Austronesian Lapita voyagers, master navigators with distinctive pottery, reach Fiji by around 1000 BCE, founding the islands' first societies.

   Lapita Voyagers & the Sea-Going Chiefdoms

   Sources: Lapita culture (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Fiji — History (Melanesian, Colonialism, Independence) (Encyclopædia Britannica)

2. 🇳🇨NCL

   New Caledonia · Peoples & Migration · c. 1000 BCE

   Lapita settlement of New Caledonia

   Austronesian voyagers of the Lapita culture reached the archipelago, establishing the earliest human presence and leaving the dentate-stamped pottery first studied at the New Caledonian site that gives the culture its name.

   The Lapita and the Kanak

   Sources: Lapita culture (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · New Caledonia (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

3. 🇵🇬PNG

   Papua New Guinea · Culture & Ideas · before European contact

   More than 800 languages emerge

   Rugged terrain and long isolation gave rise to over 800 distinct languages and more than a thousand ethnic groups, making New Guinea the most linguistically diverse region in the world.

   Deep past: settlement and the world's first farmers

   Sources: Papua New Guinea — Languages (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Papua New Guinea (Encyclopædia Britannica)

4. 🇸🇧SLB

   Solomon Islands · Peoples & Migration · c. 1000 BCE

   Arrival of the Lapita

   Austronesian-speaking Lapita voyagers, ancestors of much of the later Pacific, settle the islands and mix with existing populations.

   Settlement of a Thousand Tongues

   Sources: History of Solomon Islands (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Lapita Culture and the Arrival of Asians in the Pacific (Facts and Details (Islands & Oceania))

5. 🇻🇺VUT

   Vanuatu · Peoples & Migration · c. 1300–1000 BCE

   Lapita seafarers settle the archipelago

   Austronesian voyagers of the Lapita culture reached northern Vanuatu, carrying their distinctive pottery, crops and animals on one of history's great oceanic migrations.

   Lapita Seafarers and Chief Roi Mata

   Sources: Vanuatu — History (Melanesian, Colonization, Independence) (Encyclopædia Britannica) · The Teouma Lapita site and the early human settlement of the Pacific Islands (Australian National University (Open Research Repository)) · Lapita cemetery in Vanuatu helps solve an ancient mystery (Australian Academy of the Humanities)

6. 🇻🇺VUT

   Vanuatu · Culture & Ideas · c. 1000 BCE

   The Teouma cemetery on Efate

   The burial ground at Teouma on Efate, dated to about 3,000 years ago, is the oldest known cemetery in the Pacific and preserves the remains of the first settlers.

   Lapita Seafarers and Chief Roi Mata

   Sources: The Teouma Lapita site and the early human settlement of the Pacific Islands (Australian National University (Open Research Repository)) · Lapita cemetery in Vanuatu helps solve an ancient mystery (Australian Academy of the Humanities)

Africa

1. 🇪🇹ETH

   Ethiopia · Formation · c. 10th century BCE

   Rise of the kingdom of D'mt

   The kingdom of D'mt emerges in the northern highlands, the region's first organised state, blending indigenous and South Arabian cultural elements with its centre near Yeha.

   Cradle of Humankind and the Kingdom of D'mt

   Sources: Kingdom of Aksum (World History Encyclopedia) · Ethiopia's Enduring Cultural Heritage (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Asia

1. 🇯🇴JOR

   Jordan · Politics & Power · c. 960 BCE

   Ammon regains its independence

   According to the biblical account, the kingdom of Ammon, centred on Rabbath Ammon (modern Amman), reasserted its independence after the death of the Israelite king David.

   The Kingdoms East of the Jordan: Ammon, Moab and Edom

   Sources: Jordan: History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)