Archaeology
The recovery and study of the past through excavations, discoveries of manuscripts and physical remains, and the methods used to date and interpret them.
Category: Knowledge
- c. 2100 BCECretan hieroglyphs
From about 2100 BCE the Minoans use a pictographic script on seals and clay documents, at Archanes, Knossos, Malia and elsewhere. It lasts to about 1700, is undeciphered, and its language is unknown. It overlaps with, and may have been a prototype for, Linear A.
- c. 1900 BCEAlphabetic inscriptions at Wadi el-Hol
In 1993 John and Deborah Darnell find two rock inscriptions in Egypt's Wadi el-Hol, published in 1999 and dated by them to c. 1900-1800 BCE. They are among the oldest alphabetic writing known and resemble the Proto-Sinaitic signs, though dating and origin are debated.
- c. 1850 BCEThe Phaistos Disc
Luigi Pernier finds a clay disc stamped with 45 signs (242 in all) at Phaistos on 3 July 1908. Estimates run from c. 1850-1600 BCE to after 1400. It is undeciphered, it is not clear that it is a script, and it is now generally accepted as authentic.
- c. 1850 BCEProto-Sinaitic inscriptions
At Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai, found by Hilda and Flinders Petrie in 1904-05, some 30-40 inscriptions use signs adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphs. They are dated c. 1850-1550 BCE, and whether the alphabet arose in Egypt or Canaan is disputed. Gardiner proposed a reading in 1916.
- c. 1800 BCELinear A
Minoan Crete uses Linear A from about 1800 to 1450 BCE: roughly 1,400 inscriptions, about 7,400 sign tokens. Named by Arthur Evans, it has been known since 1900 and is undeciphered. Linear B was later adapted from it to write Greek.
- c. 1320 BCEThe Uluburun shipwreck
A merchant ship sinks off southern Turkey around 1320 BCE carrying about 10 tons of Cypriot copper, a ton of tin, some 175 glass ingots, ebony, ivory and Canaanite jars. Found in 1982 and excavated 1984-1994, it points to a Levantine crew with two Mycenaeans aboard.
- c. 1300 BCEThe palace at Thebes is sacked and burned
Between about 1300 and 1200 BCE the palace at Boeotian Thebes is sacked repeatedly and finally burned. The city does not regain significant standing until at least the late twelfth century.
- c. 1300 BCETroy VI is destroyed
Troy VI, occupied from about 1750 BCE, ends around 1300 in damage that suggests an earthquake. The city was not burned and no victims were found, so an uprising or foreign attack cannot be excluded. Troy VIIa is built on the same site.
- c. 1250 BCEMycenae extends its citadel and builds the Lion Gate
In the middle of Late Helladic IIIB, around 1250 BCE, Mycenae's Cyclopean wall is extended to enclose Grave Circle A (c. 1550-1500 BCE), and the Lion Gate becomes the main entrance. A last extension of the citadel follows around 1200.
- c. 1200 BCECypriot sites burn or are abandoned
Around 1200 BCE Maa-Palaeokastro on Cyprus is destroyed by an unidentified attacker, while several other sites are abandoned without destruction. Whether Enkomi and Sinda were burned is disputed, and Kition shows continuity.
- c. 1200 BCEAn earthquake damages Tiryns
Around 1200 BCE an earthquake damages Tiryns, including its palace. The city probably remained inhabited afterwards.
- c. 1198 BCETree rings record a drought in Anatolia
Juniper tree rings show severe drought around 1198-1196 BCE, within drier conditions from the 13th into the 12th century. Studies disagree on its effects: plant remains from Syria show little sign of famine.
- c. 1195 BCEMycenae burns
Mycenae is destroyed by fire around 1200-1190 BCE, for reasons not established. It is partly rebuilt but is no longer a centre of literate bureaucracy. A later destruction around 1150 is followed by sparse occupation until Hellenistic times.
- c. 1190 BCEUgarit is destroyed
Ugarit is destroyed around 1190 BCE, dated 1192-1190 by a chancellor's tablet, an eclipse and radiocarbon. Hunger preceded the assault, weapons lay in the streets, and the attackers are unidentified. A sword with Merneptah's name was found in the destruction level.
- c. 1187 BCEEmar is destroyed
Emar, a Hittite-ruled town on the Euphrates, is destroyed in 1187 BCE by one dating (the second year of Meli-Shipak II of Babylon), though the siege is hard to date. A text mentions a siege by Tarwi in a "year of distress" (famine). About 1,100 of its tablets are known.
- c. 1180 BCEThe Palace of Nestor at Pylos burns
The palace at Pylos burns around 1180 BCE (one source gives about 1250). Its Linear B tablets, preserved by the fire, mention hasty defensive preparations against an imminent attack, but no text names the attackers. The palace itself had no walls.
- c. 1180 BCETroy VIIa is destroyed
Troy VIIa, occupied from about 1300 BCE, is destroyed around 1180, with scorch marks and signs of enemy attack. Excavators found arrowheads and burned human remains in early twelfth-century layers. The site is rebuilt at once. The traditional Trojan War is dated 1194-1184.
- c. 1175 BCEPhilistine culture appears on the Canaanite coast
From about 1175 BCE a distinct culture with local versions of Mycenaean Late Helladic IIIC pottery appears at Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gath. A 2019 study at Ashkelon found mostly local ancestry plus a southern European-related component. Origins are debated.
- c. 1174 BCERamesses III's temple at Medinet Habu
Ramesses III's mortuary temple, finished around his twelfth year, carries the main Egyptian pictorial record of the Sea Peoples. Its reliefs show the land and sea battles and name foes such as the Peleset.
- c. 1100 BCEThe al-Khader arrowheads
Inscribed bronze arrowheads from al-Khader, dated c. 1100 BCE, are described as a "missing link" between the Proto-Canaanite and the Phoenician scripts. No Phoenician inscription is securely dated to the 11th century.
- c. 1000 BCEThe Ahiram sarcophagus
Pierre Montet finds the sarcophagus of Ahiram in the royal necropolis of Byblos in 1923. Its 38-word Phoenician inscription is the oldest long one known, c. 1000 BCE. Some scholars date it later, about 850 or the 9th-8th centuries.
- c. 1000 BCEA Greek name on a bronze spit at Palaepaphos
A bronze spit from Tomb 49 at Palaepaphos-Skales, Cyprus, bears the Greek name Opheltas in the genitive, in a syllabic script. Its tomb dates to the late 11th or early 10th century BCE. Scholars disagree on whether the script is Cypro-Minoan or the Cypriot syllabary.
- c. 800 BCEThe earliest alphabetic graffiti at Eretria
About thirty inscriptions of the 8th century BCE are known from Eretria, 26 from the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros, including a graffito in a Semitic script and a clumsy Greek ostrakon. Under 1% of the sanctuary's pottery is inscribed, so writing was still rare.
- c. 740 BCEThe Dipylon inscription
An Athenian jug from the Dipylon cemetery, found in 1871 and dated c. 740 BCE, carries 46 letters scratched right to left, the first 35 forming a hexameter about the best dancer. Either it or Nestor's Cup is the oldest known Greek alphabetic inscription.
- c. 730 BCEEarly alphabetic graffiti at Methone
Graffiti and potters' marks from the northern Aegean port of Methone, mostly on pottery of about 730-700 BCE, are roughly contemporary with those of Pithekoussai. John Papadopoulos proposes Methone as a candidate for where the alphabet began, a claim others contest.
- c. 730 BCENestor's Cup
Giorgio Buchner finds a cup in Tomb 168 at Pithekoussai in 1954, made c. 735-720 BCE on Rhodes or in northern Ionia. Its three-line inscription in the Chalcidian Euboean alphabet, with two hexameters, refers to Nestor's cup; the first line's restoration is disputed.
- c. 475 BCEThe Gortyn Code
A law code of the first half of the 5th century BCE is cut in 12 columns of about 600 lines at Gortyn, Crete, in the Dorian dialect and in boustrophedon. First fragment found 1857, more in 1884. It is the longest surviving Greek inscription apart from Diogenes of Oenoanda's.
- 1855The term "Sea Peoples" is coined
In 1855 Emmanuel de Rougé, working from the Medinet Habu inscriptions, proposes the name "Sea Peoples"; Gaston Maspero develops it in 1895-96. It is a modern term, and most of the groups it covers appear to have travelled by land.
- February 4, 1859Tischendorf secures Codex Sinaiticus at Mount Sinai
On 4 February 1859 Constantin von Tischendorf is shown the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus at Saint Catherine's Monastery. It goes to Russia, and in 1933 the Soviet state sells it to the British Museum.
- 1935The Rylands fragment of John, a very early New Testament papyrus, is published
In 1935 C. H. Roberts publishes in Manchester a small papyrus fragment of John 18, bought in Egypt in 1920. Dated probably to the 2nd century (c. 125 or later, debated), it is among the earliest New Testament manuscripts.
- 1945The Nag Hammadi library is found in Egypt
In late 1945 a cache of twelve papyrus codices, plus loose leaves of a thirteenth, is found near Nag Hammadi. The Coptic texts include Gnostic works and the only complete Gospel of Thomas.
- 1946 – 1956The Dead Sea Scrolls are found at Qumran
From late 1946 Bedouin shepherds and then excavators recover about 15,000 scrolls and fragments from caves near Qumran, until 1956. Dating from c. 3rd century BCE to 1st century CE, they include the oldest biblical manuscripts known.
- July 24, 2008Codex Sinaiticus goes online
From 24 July 2008 the four institutions holding Codex Sinaiticus, including the British Library and Saint Catherine's Monastery, publish it online. Pages reunite what was split across Leipzig, London, Sinai and St Petersburg.