1st millennium BC

↑ Bronze Age

Bronze Age collapse

Ancient Near East (1300–600 BC)

Aegean, Anatolia, Assyria, Caucasus, Egypt, Levant, Persia

India (1200–200 BC)

Painted Grey Ware Northern Black Polished Ware Mauryan period

Europe (1000 BC–400 AD)

Novocherkassk Hallstatt C Villanovan culture British Iron Age Greece, Rome, Celts Scandinavia

China (600–200 BC)

Warring States Period

Japan (500 BC–300 AD)

Yayoi period

Korea (400–60 BC)

Nigeria (400 BC–200 AD)

Axial Age
Classical Antiquity
Zhou Dynasty
Vedic period
alphabetic writing, metallurgy

↓Historiography Greek, Roman, Chinese, Islamic

The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of successive empires.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire, followed by the Achaemenids. In Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the rise of Hellenism. The close of the millennium sees the rise of the Roman Empire. In South Asia, the Vedic civilization blends into the Maurya Empire. The early Celts dominate Central Europe while Northern Europe is in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The Scythians dominate Central Asia. In China, the Spring and Autumn Period sees the rise of Confucianism. Towards the close of the millennium, the Han Dynasty extends Chinese power towards Central Asia, where it borders on Indo-Greek and Iranian states. The Maya civilization rises in Central America, while in Africa, Ancient Egypt begins its decline and Ethiopian civilization its rise. The religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism (Vedic religion and Vedanta), Jainism and Buddhism develop. Graeco-Roman Europe, India and China see the rise of literature. World population greatly increases in the course of the millennium, reaching some 170 to 400 million people at its close depending on the estimates used.

Events

• c. 1000 BC — Helladic period ended in Ancient Greece.
• The Iron Age spreads to Western Europe.
• Egypt declined as a major power.
• Rise and fall of Assyrian Kingdom. Ashurbanipal, the literate emperor extends his Kingdom.
• The Tanakh was written.
• The Roman Republic is established (6th century BC).
• Buddhism was founded by Siddharta Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (6th century BC).
• Jainism was preached by Mahavira (6th century BC). He was the last Tirthankar[24th](Preacher) of Jainism.
• Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and created the Persian Empire (6th century BC)
• Sparta and Athens fought the Peloponnesian War.
• Darius the Great expanded the Persian Empire to its greatest reach, which extended from Greece, down towards Egypt, and east towards Pakistan (5th century BC).
• Alexander the Great conquers the Persian Empire (4th century BC).
• Hellenic Greek culture spread through the Mediterranean.
• Chandragupta Maurya founded the Mauryan Empire (4th century BC).
• Ashoka the Great expanded the Mauryan Empire to its greatest extent, after conquering most of the Indian subcontinent along with Afghanistan (3rd century BC).
• Gojoseon ruling over northern Korean peninsula and southern Manchuria first appears on record of Qi state of China as their trade opponent. (7th century BC).
• China was unified under the Qin Dynasty (3rd century BC).
• Celts invaded Western Europe.
• Rome and Carthage fought the Punic wars.
• The Maya civilization began.
• Rome invaded Ancient Greece
• Austronesian Peoples reached Micronesia and began settlement of Western Polynesia by 500BC

Significant persons

• David, Israelite king
• Zoroaster, founder of Zoroastrianism (circa 1200 BC, give or take six centuries)
• Mahavira, preacher of Jainism (6th century BC)
• Gautama Buddha, Hindu prince, founder of Buddhism (6th century BC)
• Lao Zi, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism (6th century BC)
• Confucius, Chinese philosopher (6th century BC)
• Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire (6th century BC)
• Darius the Great, ruler of the Persian Empire (5th century BC)
• Pānini, Indian Sanskrit grammarian, world's first known linguist, considered the father of computing machines (7th–4th century BC)
• Homer, Greek poet (6th–3rd century BC)
• Isaiah, Hebrew prophet
• Jeremiah, Hebrew prophet
• Ezekiel, Hebrew prophet
• Pericles, Athenian statesman
• Socrates, Greek philosopher
• Plato, Greek philosopher
• Aristotle, Greek philosopher
• Alexander the Great, Greek conqueror (4th century BC)
• Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan empire (4th century BC).
• Ashoka the Great, ruler of the Mauryan empire (3rd century BC)
• Pingala, Indian mathematician, inventor of the binary number system and the concept of zero
• Qin Shihuang, first emperor of China (3rd century BC)
• Euclid, Alexandrian mathematician
• Archimedes, Greek scientist
• Cicero, Latin orator and philosopher
• Julius Caesar, Roman conqueror and dictator (c. 100 BC–44 BC)
• Virgil, Latin poet
• Leonidas, king of Sparta until the Battle of Thermopylae
• Tiruvallur, a celebrated Tamil language poet who wrote the Thirukkural, a well known ethical work in Tamil literature.

Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

• Iron use becomes widespread
• Buoyancy principle is discovered
• Geometry is developed
• Pythagorean theorem proved
• Eratosthenes proves that the earth is a sphere and estimates its diameter.
• The Phoenicians propagate the phonetic alphabet in the Mediterranean
• Many major religious and philosophical viewpoints are created, further explored or codified

Cultural landmarks

• The Axial Age (8th century BC — 2nd century BC), according to the theory of Karl Jaspers.
• Late 3rd century BC or 2nd century BC — Veiled and masked dancer is made. It is now kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Centuries and Decades

10th century BC 990s BC 980s BC 970s BC 960s BC 950s BC 940s BC 930s BC 920s BC 910s BC 900s BC
9th century BC 890s BC 880s BC 870s BC 860s BC 850s BC 840s BC 830s BC 820s BC 810s BC 800s BC
8th century BC 790s BC 780s BC 770s BC 760s BC 750s BC 740s BC 730s BC 720s BC 710s BC 700s BC
7th century BC 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC 650s BC 640s BC 630s BC 620s BC 610s BC 600s BC
6th century BC 590s BC 580s BC 570s BC 560s BC 550s BC 540s BC 530s BC 520s BC 510s BC 500s BC
5th century BC 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC
4th century BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC
3rd century BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC
2nd century BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC 140s BC 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC
1st century BC 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC