The 8th century BCE

Asia

1. 🇾🇪YEM

   Yemen · Formation · c. 8th century BCE

   The kingdom of Saba flourishes at Marib

   Saba, the biblical Sheba, emerged as the dominant South Arabian kingdom, with its capital at Marib controlling the lucrative caravan trade in frankincense and myrrh.

   Ancient South Arabia: The Incense Kingdoms

   Sources: Saba (ancient kingdom, Arabia) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Marib: Yemen, Dam, and History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇦🇱ALB

   Albania · Formation · from c. 8th c. BCE

   Illyrian and Greek Butrint

   Illyrian tribes inhabited the eastern Adriatic coast, where Greek colonists from about the eighth century BCE helped develop the settlement of Buthrotum (Butrint) into a flourishing city.

   Illyrians, Greeks, Rome and Byzantium

   Sources: Butrint (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Albania: Medieval Culture and Illyrian Tribes (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

North America

1. 🇬🇱GRL

   Greenland · Peoples & Migration · c. 800 BCE

   The Dorset (Tuniit) culture

   The Dorset Paleo-Inuit, expert sea-mammal hunters known for their carved art, followed the Saqqaq and occupied Greenland's coasts through the long pre-Thule centuries.

   The First Peoples: Saqqaq, Dorset and Thule

   Sources: Aasivissuit–Nipisat. Inuit Hunting Ground between Ice and Sea (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Greenland: History (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇦🇲ARM

   Armenia · Formation

   Founding of Erebuni

   The Urartian king Argishti I founded the fortress of Erebuni on the site of present-day Yerevan, one of the oldest continuously inhabited city sites in the world.

   Urartu and the Armenian Kingdom

   Sources: Urartu (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Yerevan (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇬🇷GRC

   Greece · Culture & Ideas · 776 BCE (traditional)

   Traditional first Olympic Games

   Greek tradition dated the first Olympic Games to 776 BCE at Olympia, a panhellenic religious festival that became a shared marker of Greek identity and a basis for dating.

   Archaic and Classical Greece

   Sources: Ancient Greece (World History Encyclopedia)

Asia

1. 🇨🇳CHN

   China · War & Rupture

   Western Zhou collapses; Eastern Zhou begins

   Nomadic invasions force the Zhou court to flee east to Luoyang in 771 BCE, beginning the Eastern Zhou and a long decline of royal authority into the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

   Bronze Age Kingdoms and the Hundred Schools

   Sources: Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050-221 BCE), Teaching China with the Smithsonian (Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art) · Zhou Dynasty (World History Encyclopedia)

Europe

1. 🇮🇹ITA

   Italy · Formation · 753 BCE (traditional)

   Legendary foundation of Rome

   Roman tradition, fixed by the scholar Varro, dates the founding of the city to 753 BCE, with Romulus as first king. The date is legendary, but it long anchored Rome's sense of its own origins.

   Italic Peoples and the Rise of Rome

   Sources: Ancient Rome (World History Encyclopedia) · Italy (country overview and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇮🇹ITA

   Italy · Peoples & Migration · c. 8th century BCE

   Greek colonies of Magna Graecia

   From around the 8th century BCE Greek city-states founded colonies across southern Italy and Sicily, from Cumae to Tarentum, creating the prosperous Hellenic world of Magna Graecia.

   Italic Peoples and the Rise of Rome

   Sources: Magna Graecia (World History Encyclopedia) · Ancient Italic people (Etruscans, Latins, Samnites) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇸🇩SDN

   Sudan · War & Rupture · c. 727 BCE

   Piye conquers Egypt — the 25th Dynasty

   The Kushite king Piye (Piankhi) brings Egypt under Nubian rule, founding the 25th Dynasty of "Black Pharaohs"; Taharqa later reigns at its height.

   Nubia, Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush

   Sources: Kingdom of Kush (Wikipedia) · The Kingdom of Kush (World History Encyclopedia)

Asia

1. 🇦🇲ARM

   Armenia · Politics & Power · 8th century BCE

   Urartu at its height

   In the 9th and 8th centuries BCE the kingdom of Urartu, centred on Lake Van, became a major power of the Middle East before being succeeded in the region by the Armenians.

   Urartu and the Armenian Kingdom

   Sources: Urartu (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇨🇾CYP

   Cyprus · War & Rupture · 8th–6th c. BCE

   Assyrian, Egyptian and Persian overlordship

   The Cypriot kingdoms paid tribute successively to the Assyrian, Egyptian and Persian empires, sharing in the wider Greek world's long struggle against Persian domination.

   Neolithic Settlers, Greek City-Kingdoms and the Cult of Aphrodite

   Sources: Cyprus: History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)