Bronze Age Timelines

View annals of the key events for the major Bronze Age civilizations

Select a civilization, such as Mycenae, from the Timeline 1 menu below to view the key events for that civilization in short annal form. The timeline focuses on the period 3100BCE through to 1050BCE, but may contain relevant events that come earlier or later. You can a make second choice, eg. Troy, using the Timeline 2 menu to view two cultures’ events side by side.

Dates are presented within ten-year periods, the minimum ± error on a given date, but you should bear in mind that the dating of almost every event presented here is open to question and may be significantly revised by future research. Every decade between 3100BCE through to 1050BCE can be viewed, but check Hide years with no entries for a more compact view.

Sources

The primary chronological framework for the Helladic, Cycladic and Minoan areas is Shelmerdine 2008, but there is some inconsistency even here — between figures 1.1 and 1.2, for instance — let alone the differences between sources, including Shelmerdine 1997 and others. Events from a variety of bibliography sources have been interpolated into this framework, though some of their dates have been adjusted (typically within 50-100 years) to synchronise with other sources for the same event.

The primary source for the Anatolia and the Hittite kingdom is Bryce 2005; for the Near East, Bryce 2014. Additionally, Şahoğlu 2005 has proved very helpful.

Select Timelines from the list below:

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