Beginning of the Phoenician civilization in the Middle East (Palestine, Lebanon, Syria) (Bronze Age)

Beginning of the Ancient Empire in Egypt (Bronze Age)

Eastern forests of North America: Seed crops were already present in 3000 BC, but serious agriculture did not arrive until 4000 years later, in 1000 AD. In Mexico, around 7000 BC, maize and squash were domesticated by humans through agriculture. However, they would not become staples of the local diet until 5000 years later. China followed a similar path: millet cultivation began on a small scale in 8000 BC on the northern plains as a seasonal supplement to foraging and hunting, but it did not become a staple food until 3000 years later. These examples provide evidence that the path to agriculture was neither obvious nor linear and inexorable as one might think. On the contrary, Neolithic agriculture was an experiment that could and sometimes did fail.

An asteroid impacts the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, creating a 30-kilometer-diameter crater on the ocean floor. This likely results in megatsunamis with waves up to 200 meters high.

Current Great Mayan Cycle begins (13 batkun*20katuns(144000gg)*20tuns(7200gg)*18minals(360gg)*20kins(20gg))

Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Native to the mountainous regions of Turkey, Iran, and India, the onion (Allium cepa) has been known since ancient times: in fact, the Egyptians were already regularly eating it in 3200 BC. It was first introduced to the Mediterranean basin by the Babylonians and Assyrians, and later by the Greeks.

England. Local populations abandon cereal cultivation. The people who built Stonehenge in 3000 BC were not an agricultural society. They had been farmers before, but had abandoned cereal cultivation and returned, from around 3300 BC, to hazelnut harvesting and livestock farming as their main sources of sustenance. They consciously valued cereal cultivation and consciously decided to prefer another lifestyle. Stonehenge, moreover, indicates some kind of coordination across large areas of the British Isles, without finding evidence of specific kings or queens.

Ebla Civilization in Syria (South of Aleppo, North of present-day Syria)

The Sumerians and Egyptians began using characters to write, which within a thousand years would lead to cuneiform and hieroglyphics, respectively. The Sumerians appear to have been the first, followed by the Egyptians and the Chinese. The Sumerians used a base-6 system, which is still the basis of our 24-hour clock and the 360 degrees of a circle. The first surviving written message (somewhat disappointingly) reads: “29,086 measures of barley 37 months Kushim,” which likely translates to “Received 29,086 measures of barley over a period of 37 months. Signed Kushim.” Other equally ancient writings are simply lists of identical words repeated dozens of times, probably by apprentice students.

First enamelled objects.

China. Domestication of the buffalo.

Egypt. Domestication of the donkey.

Ukraine. Domestication of the horse.

City-based cultures flourish

Rice cultivation appears in an area between China and Thailand

In Switzerland they already bake biscuits (biscotum panem)

Domestication of the horse in Western Eurasia.

Northern shore of the Black Sea (present-day Moldova and Ukraine). Villages and small towns were founded and flourish, discovered in the 1970s AD. These are Taljanky, Maidanetske, and Nebelivka, and are called “mega-sites” due to their truly enormous size for the time. These black soils (chernozem) are legendary for their fertility. They are therefore agricultural communities. Each settlement covers approximately 300 hectares. They contain no traces of central administration or communal storage areas. They have an oval layout with concentric settlements and a hollow center. All pulp and no stone. There are a thousand or more houses per mega-site, measuring 5m by 10m, made of reeds, clay, mud, and stone, and with an adjoining vegetable garden. They have up to 10,000 inhabitants per mega-site, but they are seasonal: they are only inhabited for part of the year. It is therefore still a question of agriculture for fun: not a serious and structured system for subsistence throughout the year, but rather of vegetable gardens and experiments in complete freedom.

Cava Fornace Carani, Fiorano (Modena): first evidence of a village in the Modena area, discovered by Fernando Malavolti, who also found a square-mouthed vase of Apulian origin, evidence of extensive trade.

At 12:00 on January 1st, the Julian calendar invented by Scaliger in 1583 AD begins, still used, for convenience, in astronomy; on this date begin the 28-year cycle of the solar calendar (after 28 years the calendar repeats itself), the lunar Metonic cycle (19 years) and the cycle of the Roman Indiction (15 years) (a cycle linked to medieval tradition).

In China, the first villages arose along the Huang Ho River.

The advent of agriculture in Europe led to permanent settlements, which consequently led to a higher birth rate and thus to an increase in the population. This, in turn, enabled the storage of large quantities of food supplies, thus supporting non-productive social classes such as priests, bureaucrats, kings, soldiers, and artisans. The birth rate of nomadic hunter-gatherer groups could not exceed one birth every four years per family, and was limited by sexual abstinence, infanticide, and abortion. In a settled group, not limited by the need to transport children, they could have as many children as they could feed, thus reaching one birth every two years.

Neolithic: first use of fire for clearing forests

There are 20 million people in the world

“Miyake event,” a very strong solar storm that directly impacts Earth, occurs. The event is recorded in the rings of ancient trees, which will be analyzed in 2022 in a paper published in Royal Society Publishing. Annually resolved measurements of the radiocarbon content of tree rings have revealed rare, sharp increases in carbon-14 production. These “Miyake events” are likely caused by rare increases in cosmic radiation from the Sun or other astrophysical energy sources. The paper, “Modeling cosmic radiation events in the tree-ring radiocarbon record,” is by Qingyuan Zhang, Utkarsh Sharma, Jordan A. Dennis, Andrea Scifo, Margot Kuitems, Ulf Büntgen, Mathew J. Owens, Michael W. Dee, and Benjamin J.S. Pope.

“Miyake event,” a very strong solar storm that directly impacts Earth, occurs. The event is recorded in the rings of ancient trees, which will be analyzed in 2022 in a paper published in Royal Society Publishing. Annually resolved measurements of the radiocarbon content of tree rings have revealed rare, sharp increases in carbon-14 production. These “Miyake events” are likely caused by rare increases in cosmic radiation from the Sun or other astrophysical energy sources. The paper, “Modeling cosmic radiation events in the tree-ring radiocarbon record,” is by Qingyuan Zhang, Utkarsh Sharma, Jordan A. Dennis, Andrea Scifo, Margot Kuitems, Ulf Büntgen, Mathew J. Owens, Michael W. Dee, and Benjamin J.S. Pope.

Austria and Germany. The Neolithic villages of Kilianstadten, Talheim, Schletz, and Herxheim are founded. This is the “Linear Pottery” culture. These were the first European farmers. But after an initial period, a turbulent period followed, after which they ceased to exist. Mass graves are discovered, testifying to the annihilation, or attempted annihilation, of an entire community. The bones found in the mass graves reveal torture, violent deaths, mutilations, scalps, and cannibalism. In Kilianstadten, all the young women are missing, meaning they were likely taken captive. Grain cultivation will only re-establish itself in Europe after a thousand-year hiatus. This, too, demonstrates that the path to agriculture is by no means straightforward, linear, and monotonous, but rather hesitant and fraught with obstacles and perhaps social inconveniences.

In just a few centuries, the Sahara transformed from a prairie with monsoons to a sandy desert (the monsoons disappeared due to the shift in perihelion).

First widespread cultivation of the wine grape in Armenia and Georgia

In central equatorial Africa, someone carved four sets of notches arranged in three rows on a bone. One row contains 11, 13, 17, and 19 notches, representing all the prime numbers between 10 and 20. The other rows also appear to be mathematical in nature. It’s unclear whether they were intentional, but it’s possible this is the first evidence of human interest in number theory. The Ishango Bone was discovered in 1950.

In Lonche, Istria, a 24-30-year-old hunter-gatherer is treating a cavity in a canine tooth with beeswax. The jawbone will be found in 2012 AD. The discovery will be made after analyses using various techniques, including X-ray microtomography, at the Elettra-Sincrotrone Syrmep line at the Trieste Synchrotron.

Anthroposophy has its own concept of history: according to Rudolf Steiner, our current era falls within the post-Atlantean period, since in his view, the disaster that is said to have struck Atlantis in 7227 BC was a significant turning point in human history. Steiner divides this post-Atlantean period into seven epochs, the current one being the European-American Epoch, which Steiner said would last until the year 3573.

Following the end of the Wurz glaciation, the waters of the Mediterranean rose to the point of overcoming the natural barrier of the Bosphorus and flowing into the freshwater lake represented by the Black Sea basin; the cascade of water continued for about a century and perhaps gave rise to the myth of the Great Flood.

China. Domestication begins, also understood as the selection of the most suitable species and therefore the involuntary genetic modification of the species, of plants like rice and millet, and animals like pigs and silkworms. All this allows human groups to form villages, have surpluses to support non-productive jobs, larger populations, sustain complex organizations, have writing, technology, armies, and religion. So it makes a difference.

China. Dating of the earliest Chinese remains of agricultural crop consumption, domestic animal bones, pottery, stone tools, and weapons.

First stone settlement in Petra (Jordan)

In Palestine, the first city with a wall flourishes in Jericho.