4th millennium BC

The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 through 3001 BC. Some of the major changes in human culture during this time included the beginning of the Bronze Age and the invention of writing, which played a major role in starting recorded history.

Monte d'Accoddi is an archaeological site in northern Sardinia, Italy, located in the territory of Sassari near Porto Torres. 4th millennium BC.
Millennia:
Centuries:

The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt were established and grew to prominence. Agriculture spread widely across Eurasia.

World population growth relaxes after the burst due to the Neolithic Revolution. World population is largely stable, at roughly 50 million, with a slow overall growth rate at roughly 0.03% p.a.[1]

Culture

The Neolithic
Mesolithic
Fertile Crescent
Heavy Neolithic
Shepherd Neolithic
Trihedral Neolithic
Pre-Pottery (A, B)
Qaraoun culture
Tahunian culture
Yarmukian culture
Halaf culture
Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period
Ubaid culture
Nile valley
Faiyum A culture
Tasian culture
Merimde culture
El Omari culture
Maadi culture
Badarian culture
Amratian culture
Europe
Arzachena culture
Boian culture
Butmir culture
Cardium pottery culture
Cernavodă culture
Coțofeni culture
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
Dudești culture
Gorneşti culture
Gumelnița–Karanovo culture
Hamangia culture
Khirokitia
Linear Pottery culture
Malta Temples
Ozieri culture
Petreşti culture
San Ciriaco culture
Shulaveri-Shomu culture
Sesklo culture
Tisza culture
Tiszapolgár culture
Usatovo culture
Varna culture
Vinča culture
Vučedol culture
Neolithic Transylvania
Neolithic Southeastern Europe
China
Peiligang culture
Pengtoushan culture
Beixin culture
Cishan culture
Dadiwan culture
Houli culture
Xinglongwa culture
Xinle culture
Zhaobaogou culture
Hemudu culture
Daxi culture
Majiabang culture
Yangshao culture
Hongshan culture
Dawenkou culture
Songze culture
Liangzhu culture
Majiayao culture
Qujialing culture
Longshan culture
Baodun culture
Shijiahe culture
Yueshi culture
Neolithic Tibet
South Asia
Lahuradewa
Mehrgarh
Rakhigarhi
Kalibangan
Chopani Mando
Jhukar
Daimabad
Chirand
Koldihwa
Burzahom
Mundigak
Brahmagiri
Other locations
Jeulmun pottery period
Jōmon period
Philippine jade culture
Capsian culture
Savanna Pastoral Neolithic

farming, animal husbandry
pottery, metallurgy, wheel
circular ditches, henges, megaliths
Neolithic religion
Neolithic decline

Chalcolithic
Near East
Europe
Central Asia
East Asia
  • Neolithic Chinese settlements. They produced silk and pottery (chiefly the Yangshao and the Longshan cultures), wore hemp clothing, and domesticated pigs and dogs.
  • Vietnamese Bronze Age culture. The Đồng Đậu Culture, 4000–2500 BC, produced many wealthy bronze objects.
South Asia
Americas
Australia
Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa remains in the Paleolithic period, except for the earliest neolithization of the Sahel following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BC.[7][8] 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 the Niger-Congo linguistic phylum.[7][8]

Environment

Based on studies by glaciologist Lonnie Thompson, professor at Ohio State University and researcher with the Byrd 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.[9]

Calendars and chronology

  • 4000 BCEpoch of the Masonic calendar's Anno Lucis era.
  • 3929 BC – Creation according to John Lightfoot based on the Old Testament of the Bible, and often associated with the Ussher chronology.
  • 3761 BC – Since the Middle Ages (12th century), the Hebrew calendar has been based on rabbinic calculations of the year of creation from the Hebrew Masoretic 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.[14]
  • 3114 BC – One version of the Mayan calendar, known as the Mesoamerican Long Count, uses the epoch of 11 or 13 August 3114 BC. The Maya Long Count calendar was first used approximately 236 BC (see Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar#Earliest_Long_Counts.
  • 3102 BC – According to calculations of Aryabhata (6th century), the Hindu Kali Yuga began at midnight on 18 February 3102 BC.
  • 3102 BCAryabhata dates the events of the Mahabharata to around 3102 BC. Other estimates range from the late 4th to the mid-2nd millennium BC.

Centuries

References

  1. Jean-Noël Biraben, "Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes", Population 34-1 (1979), 13–25, estimates 40 million at 5000 BC and 100 million at 1600 BC, for an average growth rate of 0.027% p.a. over the Chalcolithic to Middle Bronze Age.
  2. Federico Lara Peinado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid: "La Civilización Sumeria". Historia 16, 1999.
  3. Roberts, J: History of the World. Penguin, 1994.
  4. Dictionary of the Ancient Near East.
  5. Gasser, Aleksander (March 2003). "World's Oldest Wheel Found in Slovenia". Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia. Archived from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  6. Australia's top 7 Aboriginal rock art sites by Australian Geographic
  7. Manning, Katie; Timpson, Adrian (2014). "The demographic response to Holocene climate change in the Sahara" (PDF). Quaternary Science Reviews. 101: 28–35. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.07.003.
  8. Igor Kopytoff, The African Frontier: The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies (1989), 910 (cited afer Igbo Language Roots and (Pre)-History, A Mighty Tree, 2011).
  9. "Major Climate Change Occurred 5,200 Years Ago: Evidence Suggests That History Could Repeat Itself". Archived from the original on 2008-01-15. Retrieved 2004-12-17.
  10. Fairbridge, Rhodes W. (1961). "Eustatic Changes in Sea Level". Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. 4: 99–185. Bibcode:1961PCE.....4...99F. doi:10.1016/0079-1946(61)90004-0.
  11. Murray-Wallace, Colin; Woodroffe, Colin (2014). Quaternary Sea-Level Changes: A Global Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 338. ISBN 9781139867153.
  12. Thompson, L. G.; Mosley-Thompson, E.; Brecher, H.; Davis, M.; León, B.; Les, D.; Lin, P. -N.; Mashiotta, T.; Mountain, K. (2006). "Inaugural Article: Abrupt tropical climate change: Past and present". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (28): 10536–10543. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10310536T. doi:10.1073/pnas.0603900103. PMC 1484420. PMID 16815970.
  13. "Major Climate Change Occurred 5,200 Years Ago: Evidence Suggests That History Could Repeat Itself". Science Daily. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  14. Dershowitz, Nachum; Reingold, Edward M. (1997), Calendrical Calculations (1st ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 11, ISBN 978-0-521-56474-8
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