Axial Age (according to philosopher Karl Jasper). Different cultures, completely geographically separated, witness the flourishing of philosophical-religious movements that promote introspection and promise spiritual transcendence: Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and classical Greek philosophy. During the Axial Age (8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, and 4th centuries BC), the spread of agriculture allowed for a surplus that enabled this kind of philosophical-religious development. Thanks to 20,000 calories per person in food, fuel, and raw materials, cities and the class of priests/clerics arose.

Rome: Monarchic Period Legend (with some truth) has it that the Kings of Rome in this period were seven: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Ancus Marcius, Tullus Hostilius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius Superbus

Founding of Rome. According to legend, on April 21, 753 BC, twins Romulus and Remus founded Rome on the site where they had been suckled by a she-wolf after being abandoned as infants. The two soon became divided by disagreements, and when Remus climbed over a wall Romulus was building, his brother killed him. Romulus assumed command of the settlement, which was named Rome in his honor. Over the next 1,000 years, the city of Rome grew from a small center of local importance to the heart of the great Roman Empire. In 330 AD, after centuries of dominance in the classical world, Emperor Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople, and great Rome fell prey to the barbarian invasions. Although the papacy remained in Rome until the Middle Ages, Rome returned to its ancient glories only in the 15th century, under Pope Nicholas V.

Romulus’s Roman Calendar: 10 lunar months: 304 days. The months of Martis, Aprilis, Maius, and Junius are born. New Roman calendar reference: the founding of Rome.

Egypt: XXV Dynasty (Nubian OR Kushite): Kasuta (760-747), Pianxhy (747-716), Shabaka (716-695), Shebitku (695-690), Taharqa (689-664), Tanuatamun (664-656)

Supposed period of conception of the Odyssey and the Iliad, perhaps by a poet called Homer

In India, arak is distilled. The Egyptians use distillation to produce cosmetics.

India, drafting of the Brahman religious texts

Traditional date for the foundation of Carthage.

Egypt: XXIII Dynasty (Bubastite-Libyan): Petubasti (818-793), Osorkon IV (787-757), Takelot III (764-757), Rudamon (757-754), Osorkon V (730)

Irresistible rise of the Assyrians and their territorial expansion.

The Scythian people were a flourishing civilization that prospered from Central Asia to the Black Sea to Eastern and Central Europe; they had contacts with the Greeks and purchased and manufactured numerous gold objects.

Reign of Solomon, son of David: The Jewish kingdom reaches its cultural, political, and economic peak; the Temple of Jerusalem is built. Thanks to the presence of the Ark (conjecture), it was to serve as the national sanctuary of all Israel.

Beginning of the Olmec (Amerindians) civilization in Mexico (followed by the Maya, Toltecs, and Aztecs)

China. Domestication of fruit trees, which require the elaborate technique of grafting, such as apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees. This requires elaborate, lengthy, and deliberate pseudo-scientific experimentation.

Andes and Mesoamerica (present-day Mexico). First evidence of organization into chiefdoms rather than bands. These were groups of villages that accepted the authority of a single powerful man. It was generally an intermediate stage between tribe and kingdom. In Mesopotamia, this stage occurred 4,500 years earlier.

Writing was also invented in Central America, independently of Eurasia.

David, Saul’s successor, unites the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. He is thus acclaimed King of Israel in 1010 BC. The era of the tribes of Israel ends, and a unified kingdom is established, with its capital in Jerusalem.

Egypt: XXI Dynasty (Tanite): Smendes (1078-1043), Psusennes I (1043-997), Amenemnesu (997-993), Amenemope (993-984), Osorkon I (984-978), Slamon (978-959), Psusennes II (959-945)

Egypt: The Third Intermediate Period

In Puerto Escondido in Central America, cocoa-based beverages (Theobroma cacao) were already being consumed; John Henderson discovered this in 2007 by examining pottery from the period using gas chromatography, chromatography and mass spectrometry. It is a low-alcohol product derived from the fermentation of the fruit’s sweet pulp.

Egypt: XX Dynasty: Setnakhte (1184-1182), Ramesses III (1182-1151), Ramesses IV (1151-1145), Ramesses V (1145-1141), Ramesses VI (1141-1134), Ramesses VII (1134-1128), Ramesses VIII (1127), Ramesses IX (1126-1108), Ramesses X (i 108-1106), Ramesses XI (1105-1078)

Traditional date of the destruction of Troy.

Thanks to the technology of three-hulled canoes, the islands of Polynesia and Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean were reached and populated by the Austronesians, first coming from the island of Formosa, now Taiwan (3500 BC), then gradually moving to the Philippines, then Borneo, then the other islands of Indonesia and finally Polynesia and Micronesia.

Writing was also invented in China, perhaps an idea copied from the Sumerians.

China. The earliest identified royal dynasty: the Shang rulers.

Egypt. Pharaoh Merenpath lists his military victories in several monumental inscriptions, on a wall at Karnak, and on various stelae. One of these, the Merenpath Stele, contains the first known mention of the “people of Israel.”

Battle of Tollense, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, present-day Germany. At least 4,000 warriors fought in this ancient battle. Given that the population density at the time was about five people per square kilometer, this would have been the most significant Bronze Age battle in Central Europe known to date, making the Tollense Valley currently the largest excavated and archaeologically verifiable battle site from that period in the world.

Battle of Kadesh, in Syria north of Damascus, between the Egyptian army of Ramesses II and the Hittites; the Egyptians extend their dominion up to the Euphrates, in present-day southeastern Turkey

The Jewish people wrote the first books that would make up the Old Testament of the Bible.

Presumed period to which the events of the Iliad refer and presumed beginning of the oral transmission of history

The Polynesian Lapita civilization of the Pacific Ocean, masters of boat building, stargazing, and nautical charting, explored much of the Pacific Ocean, sailing from island to island, even reaching as far as Tonga, 6,000 kilometers away. This was just one of many waves of exploration of the Pacific archipelagos.

Upon Tutankhamun’s death, almonds were placed in his tomb to nourish him after his earthly life. Almonds had been domesticated by 8000 BC in Greece and by 3000 BC in the rest of the eastern Mediterranean.

Death of the Egyptian ruler Tutankhamen.

The Chinese use decimals

Battle of Megiddo, Israel between Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which sees the victory of Thutmose III

First rudimentary printing press in China: characters engraved on metal seals

The Hindu text Rigveda (ऋग्वेद), the first religious-spiritual-philosophical text, is compiled.

Native to Central Asia, garlic (Allium sativum) has been known since ancient times for its healing properties: in Egypt, the Ebers Papyrus, dating back to 1550 BC, lists 22 therapeutic uses for garlic; finally, in the Book of Exodus, it is mentioned as “the most precious possession left by the Hebrews during the flight from Egypt.” The beneficial effects of garlic are also attested by the Greek historian Herodotus, who narrates that the Egyptian pyramids were built by “slaves fed on a piece of bread, a clove of garlic, and half an onion.” In Roman times, this bulb was cited in the works of numerous authors, including Terentius Varro, Ovid, and Pliny, as a remedy against poisons, leprosy, asthma, and coughs.

Egypt: The New Kingdom

Poverty Point, Louisiana, North America. Native Americans build massive earthworks that testify to the existence of an advanced civilization on the lower Mississippi River, capable of long-distance trade, given the discovery of metal artifacts in an area devoid of metal deposits. There is a monumental enclosure covering an area of about 200 hectares with two enormous mounds and a sunken amphitheater. A million cubic meters of earth have been moved. People came here from the Great Lakes and Mexico. Some mounds form enormous bird figures. But they are not farmers, nor do they even use writing. They are hunters, fishermen, and foragers. It is a Stone Age site in a place where there are no stones. But people came here from thousands of kilometers away. Why? For knowledge. For the intellectual property of rituals, visions, songs, dances, and images: the exchange of complex information. The lack of an agricultural base doesn’t seem to have prevented the creation of small towns or something similar to them. Today, Poverty Point is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Egyptian blacksmiths of the emperor Antef V, XVII dynasty, devised an effective lock, laboriously made by hand and opened by keys one meter long.

Egypt. First documented smallpox epidemic. Evidence found on an Egyptian mummy. The disease likely originated in livestock, such as cows. It will wreak havoc first in Eurasia, and then, much later, be transported by Europeans to America and Oceania.

Central and South America. First balls made of vegetable rubber. When Christopher Columbus first saw them on the island of Hispaniola in 1492 AD, he judged them to be much superior to the air-filled ones used in Spain for ball games. Columbus brought back samples of rubber balls to Europe, but they remained a curiosity for a long time. They were made of latex, produced, for example, by the Ficus elastica (rubber tree) or Hevea brasiliensis. Natural rubber is a polymer of the isoprene molecule. The first chemical experiments on isoprene were conducted by Michael Faraday, and in 1826 the chemical formula for rubber was established: a multiple of C5H8. Another form was gutta-percha from the Palaquium tree of Malaysia, used to coat submarine cables and also for golf balls (a gutta-percha core wrapped in a layer of rubber and covered with more gutta-percha).

Permanent settlements in the Modena area: the “terramare”, 150,000-200,000 people living in thousands of stilt houses spread across a vast territory from Modena to Verona.

Egypt: XV Dynasty (Hyksos): Khyan, Apopi (1585-1545),