From top left clockwise:Hammurabi, Babylonian king, best known for hiscode of laws; The goldfunerary mask ofTutankhamun has become a symbol of ancient Egyptian civilization and its enduring legacy;Nebra sky disc is considered the oldest concrete representation of astronomical phenomena, such as the sun, moon, and stars; The Lion Gate ofHattusa is a testament to the architectural and artistic skills of theHittites; Hieroglyphs from the tomb ofSeti I;Mask of Agamemnon (Background:Bull-Leaping Fresco ca. 1450-1400 BC).
The2nd millennium BC spanned the years 2000 BC to 1001 BC. In theAncient Near East, it marks the transition from the Middle to the LateBronze Age.The Ancient Near Eastern cultures are well within the historical era:The first half of the millennium is dominated by theMiddle Kingdom of Egypt andBabylonia. Thealphabet develops. At the center of the millennium, a new order emerges withMycenaean Greek dominance of theAegean and the rise of theHittite Empire. The end of the millennium sees theBronze Age collapse and the transition to theIron Age.
See the article onchronology of the ancient Near East for a discussion regarding the accuracy and resolution of dates for events of the 2nd millennium BC in the Near East.
Spending much of their energies in trying to recuperate from the chaotic situation that existed at the turn of the millennium, the most powerful civilizations of the time,Egypt andMesopotamia, turned their attention to more modest goals. ThePharaohs of theMiddle Kingdom of Egypt and their contemporaryKings of Babylon, ofAmorite origin, brought governance that was largely popular and approved of among their subjects, and favoured elegant art and architecture. Farther east, theIndus Valley civilization was in a period of decline, possibly as a result of intense, ruinous flooding.
Egypt and Babylonia's military tactics were still based on foot soldiers transporting their equipment ondonkeys. Combined with a weak economy and difficulty in maintaining order, this was a fragile situation that crumbled under the pressure of external forces they could not oppose.
About a century before the middle of the millennium, bands ofIndo-European invaders came from theCentral Asian plains and swept throughWestern Asia andNortheast Africa. They were riding fast two-wheeledchariots powered byhorses, a system of weaponry developed earlier in the context of plains warfare. This tool of war was unknown among the classical civilizations. Egypt and Babylonia's foot soldiers were unable to defend against the invaders: in1630 BC, theHyksos swept into theNile Delta, and in1595 BC, theHittites swept intoMesopotamia.
The people in place were quick to adapt to the new tactics, and a new international situation resulted from the change. Though during most of the second half of the 2nd millennium BC several regional powers competed relentlessly for hegemony, many developments occurred: there was new emphasis on grandiose architecture, new clothing fashions, vivid diplomatic correspondence onclay tablets, renewed economic exchanges, and theNew Kingdom of Egypt played the role of the mainsuperpower. Among the great states of the time, onlyBabylon refrained from taking part in battles, mainly due to its new position as the world's religious and intellectual capital.
TheBronze Age civilization at its final period of time, displayed all its characteristic social traits: low level of urbanization, small cities centered on temples or royal palaces, strict separation of classes between an illiterate mass of peasants and craftsmen, and a powerful militaryelite, knowledge of writing and education reserved to a tiny minority ofscribes, and pronouncedaristocratic life.
Near the end of the 2nd millennium BC, new waves ofbarbarians, this time riding on horseback, wholly destroyed the Bronze Age world, and were to be followed by waves of social changes that marked the beginning of different times. Also contributing to the changes were theSea Peoples, ship-faring raiders of the Mediterranean.
The desiccation of theSahara is complete. Neolithisation of Sub-Saharan Africa is initiated via expansion from the dried Sahara, reaching West and East Africa. Later in the 2nd millennium, pastoralism andiron metallurgy spread to Central Africa via theBantu migration.
Tumble polishing: Indians invented polishing method in the 10th century BC.
Diamond drills: in the 12th century BC or 7th century BC, Indians not only innovated use of diamond tipped drills but also invented double diamond tipped drills for bead manufacturing.
In the history of theEgyptian language, the early 2nd millennium saw a transition fromOld Egyptian toMiddle Egyptian. As the most used written form of the Ancient Egyptian language, it is frequently (incorrectly) referred to simply as "Hieroglyphics".
The earliest attestedIndo-European language, theHittite language, first appears incuneiform in the 16th century BC (Anitta text), before disappearing from records in the 13th century BC. Hittite is the best known and the most studied language of the extinctAnatolian branch of Indo-European languages.
The firstNorthwest Semitic language,Ugaritic, is attested in the 14th century BC. The first fully phonemic scriptProto-Canaanite developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs, becoming thePhoenician alphabet by 1200 BC. The Phoenician alphabet was spread throughout the Mediterranean by Phoenician maritime traders and became one of the most widely used writing systems in the world, and the parent of virtually all alphabetic writing systems. The Phoenician language is also the firstCanaanite language, the Northwest Semitic languages spoken by the ancient peoples of theCanaan region: theIsraelites,Phoenicians,Amorites,Ammonites,Moabites andEdomites.
^Klein Goldewijk, K., A. Beusen, M. de Vos and G. van Drecht (2011). The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human induced land use change over the past 12,000 years, Global Ecology and Biogeography20(1): 73–86.doi:10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x (pbl.nl).Jean-Noël Biraben, "Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes",Population 34-1 (1979), 13–25 (p. 22) estimates c. 80 million in 2000 BC and c. 100 million at 1200 BC.
^The Kuru kingdom of the late Vedic period was most likely established around 1200 BC, although there are no datable contemporary references.Pletcher, Kenneth (2010),The History of India, The Rosen Publishing Group,ISBN9781615301225
Samuel, Geoffrey (2010),The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press
