The4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 BC to 3001 BC. Some of the major changes in human culture during this time included the beginning of theBronze Age and the invention ofwriting, which played a major role in startingrecorded history.

Thecity states ofSumer and the (Predynastic) Kingdom ofEgypt were established and grew to prominence.Agriculture spread widely acrossEurasia.

World population growth relaxed after the burst that came about from theNeolithic Revolution. World population was largely stable in this time at roughly 50 million, growing at an average of 0.027% per year.^[1]

Near East

• Mesopotamia
  • 4100–3100 BC – theUruk period, with emergingSumerian hegemony during the Uruk Expansion and development ofProto-cuneiformwriting;base-60mathematics,astronomy andastrology,civil law, complexhydrology, thesailboat,potter's wheel andwheel; theChalcolithic proceeds into theEarly Bronze Age.
  • 3500–2340 BC –Sumer:wheeled carts,potter's wheel, White Templeziggurat, bronzetools andweapons.^[2]
  • First to Fourth dynasty ofKish inMesopotamia.
  • Sumerian temple of Janna atEridu erected.
  • Temple atAl-Ubaid and tomb of Mes-Kalam-Dug built nearUr,Chaldea.
  • 3000 BC –Tin is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time.^{[3][page needed]}
  • Thecuneiform script proper emerges from pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century BC, found at Jemdet Nasr.
  • Kura-Araxes culture expands Southwards towards Sumer.
  • Possible reigns of Lugalbanda and Enmerkar prior to 3250 BC.
  • Long distanced trade with polities in modern-day afghanistan.
  • Dams,canals,stone sculptures usinginclined plane andlever in Sumer.
  • Urkesh (northern Syria) founded during the fourth millennium BC possibly by theHurrians.
  • TheCourtyard is introduced to Mesopotamia.^[4]
• Persian plateau
  • 4000 BC –Susa is a center ofpottery production.
  • c. 4000 BC –Beaker fromSusa (modernShush, Iran) is made. It is now atMusée du Louvre, Paris.
  • Proto-Elamite from 3200 BC.
• Anatolia and Caucasus
  • c. 3700 BC to 3000 BC – TheMaykop culture of theCaucasus, contemporary to the Kurgan culture, is a candidate for the origin ofBronze production and thus theBronze Age.

• • 3400–2000 BC –Kura-Araxes: earliest evidence found on the Ararat plain.

• Egypt
  • 4000–3000 BC –Naqada culture on theNile. First hieroglyphs appear thus far around 3500 BC as found on labels in a ruler's tomb at Abydos.
  • Predynastic pharaohsTiu,Thesh,Hsekiu,Wazner,Ro,Serket,Narmer.
  • 3500–3400 BC –Jar with boat designs, fromHierakonpolis (today in theBrooklyn Museum) is created.Predynastic Egypt.
  • c.3150 BC –Predynastic period ended inAncient Egypt.Early Dynastic (Archaic) period started (according to FrenchEgyptologistNicolas Grimal). The period includes 1st and 2nd Dynasties.
  • c. 3100 BC –Narmer Palette.
  • Sails used in theNile.
  • Mastabas, the predecessors of theEgyptian pyramids.
  • Harps andflutes played in Egypt.
  • Lyres and double clarinets (arghul,mijwiz) played in Egypt.
  • Earliest knownnumerals in Egypt.

Europe

• Crete: Rise ofMinoan civilization.
  • c. 4000 BC – First neolithic settlers in the island ofThera (Santorini), Greece, migrating probably fromMinoanCrete.
• Pontic–Caspian steppe
  • 3500–2300 BC – TheYamna culture ("Kurgan culture"), succeeding theSredny Stog culture on thePontic–Caspian steppe in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This culture is believed to have been the locus of theProto-Indo-Europeans, and thus theUrheimat, or point of origin, of theProto Indo-European language, according to theKurgan hypothesis.
  • 5500–2750 BC – TheCucuteni–Trypillia culture has cities with 15,000 citizens, eastern Europe.
  • Kurgan culture of what is nowSouthern Russia andUkraine; possibly the firstdomestication of the horse.
• Balkans
  • c.3500 BC – Figures of a man and a woman, fromCernavodă,Romania, are made. They are now atNational Historical Museum,Bucharest.
  • c.3138 BCLjubljana Marshes Wheel is a woodenwheel that was found in theLjubljana Marsh inSlovenia.^[6] Radiocarbon dating showed that it is approximately 5,150 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered.
• c. 4000–2000 BC – People and animals, a detail of rock-shelter painting inCogul (Roca dels Moros),Lleida, Spain, are painted. It is now atArchaeology Museum of Catalonia,Barcelona.
• Arzachena &Ozieri cultures.
• Malta

   

  • 3600 BC – Construction of theĠgantija megalithic temple complex on theIsland of Gozo: the world's oldest extant unburied free-standing structures, and the world's oldest religious structures. (SeeGöbekli Tepe for older, buried religious structures.)
  • 3600–3200 BC – Construction of the first temple within theMnajdra solar temple complex, containing "furniture" such as stone benches and tables, that set it apart from other European megalith constructions.
  • Great Neolithic Plague occurs from circa 5450 BC to circa 2700 BC. This ensures for the large scaled expansions of the later early bronze age.
  • 3600–3000 BC – Construction of the Ta' Ħaġrat and Kordin III temples.
  • 3250–3000 BC – Construction of three megalithic temples atTarxien.
  • 3200–2500 BC – Construction of theĦaġar Qim megalithic temple complex, featuring both solar and lunar alignments.
• Northern Europe
• 4000–2700 BC – TheFunnelbeaker culture, Scandinavia, originated in southern parts of Europe and slowly advanced up through today's Uppland.
  • 3300–2900 BC – Construction of theNewgrange solarobservatory/passage tomb in Ireland.

     

  • c.3100–2600 BC –Neolithic settlement atSkara Brae in theOrkney Islands,Scotland, is inhabited.
  • Construction in England of theSweet Track, the world's first known engineered roadway.
  • Garth tsunami in theNorthern Isles.
  • c.3100 BC – The earliest phase of theStonehenge monument (a circular earth bank and ditch).
  • TheCéide Fields are developed, the first signs of the eventual completedeforestation ofIreland.
• c.3300 BC –Ötzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in aglacier of theÖtztal Alps. Hiscause of death is believed to behomicide.

Central Asia

• • 3500–2500 BC –Afanasevo: Siberia, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan—late copper and early Bronze Age.
  • c. 4000 BC –Horses are domesticated in the westernEurasian Steppes in what is now northernKazakhstan (see theBotai culture).
  • Bactria Margiana civilization (circa 3000 BC) alongside trade routes connection with Proto-dynastic Egypt.

East Asia

• Neolithic Chinese settlements. They produced silk and pottery (chiefly theYangshao and theLongshan cultures), wore hemp clothing, and domesticated pigs and dogs.
• 4000–2500 BC – Vietnamese Bronze Age culture. TheĐồng Đậu Culture, produced many wealthy bronze objects.

Indian Subcontinent

• Mehrgarh III–VI
• 3500 BCMetalcasting began in theMohenjodaro area.
• 3300 BC –Bronze Age starts inIndus Valley (Harappa).
  • Drainage andSewage collection and disposal
• Ochre Coloured Pottery culture

Americas

• c.3600 BC – InColombia, first rupestrian artChiribiquete (Caquetá).
• c. 3000 BC – Firstpottery inColombia atPuerto Hormiga (Magdalena), considered one of the first attempts of pottery of theNew World. First settlement atPuerto Badel (Bolívar).
• c.3600 BC – Evidence of maize domestication appear in the Valley ofTehuacán.
• Norte Chico civilization in NorthernPeru starts.

Australia

• c. 3000 BC – TheSydney rock engravings in present-day (Sydney,Australia).^[7]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa remains in thePaleolithic period, except for the earliest neolithization of theSahel following thedesiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BC.^[8][9] As the grasslands of the Sahara began drying after 3900 BC, herders spread into the Nile Valley and into eastern Africa (Eburan 5,Elmenteitan). The desiccation of the Sahara and the associated neolithisation of West Africa is also cited as a possible cause for the dispersal of theNiger-Congo linguistic phylum.^[8][9]

Based on studies byglaciologistLonnie Thompson, professor atOhio State University and researcher with theByrd Polar Research Center, a number of indicators shows there was a global change in climate 5,200 years ago, probably due to a drop in solar energy output.^[10]

• TheOlder Peron transgression was a period identified in 1961^[11] happening between 6,000 and 4,600 yearsBP when sea levels were 3 to 5 metres higher than today.^[12]
• Plants buried in theQuelccaya Ice Cap in the Peruvian Andes demonstrate the climate had shifted suddenly and severely to capture the plants and preserve them until now.^[13]
• c.3750 BC – The last North Americanmammoths, onSaint Paul Island,Alaska, go extinct.
• Tree rings from Ireland and England show this was their driest period.^[14]
• Ice core records showing the ratio of two oxygen isotopes retrieved from the ice fields atop Africa'sMount Kilimanjaro, a proxy for atmospheric temperature at the time snow fell.^[14]
• Major changes in plant pollen uncovered from lakebed cores in South America.^[14]
• Record lowest levels ofmethane retrieved from ice cores fromGreenland andAntarctica.^[14]
• End of theNeolithic Subpluvial, start ofdesertification ofSahara (35th century BC). North Africa shifts from a habitable region to a barren desert.^[14]
• c.3150 BC – a lesserTollmann's hypothetical bolide event may have occurred.
• 3051 BC –The oldest currently (2013) living non-clonal organism germinated in the present-day Grove of the Ancients, Inyo County, California.

• 4000 BC –Epoch of theMasonic calendar'sAnno Lucis era.
• 3929 BC – Creation according toJohn Lightfoot based on the Old Testament of the Bible, and often associated with theUssher chronology.
• 3761 BC – Since the Middle Ages (12th century), theHebrew calendar has been based on rabbinic calculations of the year of creation from the HebrewMasoretic text of the bible. This calendar is used within Jewish communities for religious and other purposes. The calendar's epoch, corresponding to the calculated date of the world's creation, is equivalent to sunset on the Julian proleptic calendar date 6 October 3761 BC.^[15]
• 3114 BC – One version of theMayan calendar, known as theMesoamerican Long Count, uses the epoch of 11 or 13 August 3114 BC. The Maya Long Count calendar was first used approximately 236 BC (seeMesoamerican Long Count calendar#Earliest Long Counts.
• 3102 BC – According to calculations ofAryabhata (6th century), theHinduKali Yuga began at midnight on 18 February 3102 BC.
• 3102 BC –Aryabhata dates the events of theMahabharata to around 3102 BC. Other estimates range from the late 4th to the mid-2nd millennium BC.

• 40th century BC
• 39th century BC
• 38th century BC
• 37th century BC
• 36th century BC
• 35th century BC
• 34th century BC
• 33rd century BC
• 32nd century BC
• 31st century BC