THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Early Iron Age

Out of the Collapse

The world in 1000 BCE

Around 1000 BCE the world is recovering from the Late Bronze Age collapse, when around 1200–1150 BCE the Hittite empire and the Mycenaean palaces fell, many cities were burned, and Egypt was weakened by the Sea Peoples. The great empires are gone, and smaller kingdoms fill the gap.

In the Levant, King David, according to the Bible, rules a new kingdom of Israel from Jerusalem, the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon have developed the alphabet their traders will later carry across the Mediterranean, and Aramaean tribes settle much of Syria. Egypt is divided, with pharaohs at Tanis and priests of Amun at Thebes. Assyria is small but survives, waiting to rise again. Iron, cheaper than bronze, is spreading. In China, the Zhou dynasty has overthrown the Shang and claims the Mandate of Heaven. In India, the Kuru kingdom leads the Later Vedic age. In the Americas, the Olmec flourish in Mexico and the Chavín cult is rising in Peru, while Lapita sailors are settling the islands of the western Pacific.

Open the map in 1000 BCE

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Khoisan hunter-gatherers live across southern Africa. Bantu-speaking farmers continue moving east and south through the Congo rainforest toward the Great Lakes. There are still no towns or metal-working in the region.

Northern Africa

Egypt is in its Third Intermediate Period: Twenty-first Dynasty pharaohs such as Amenemope rule the north from Tanis, while the High Priests of Amun control Thebes. After Egypt's withdrawal from Nubia, local Kushite chiefs around Napata are building power. Saharan nomads, Berbers and Sahel farmers live much as before.

Europe

Greece is in its Dark Age after the fall of the Mycenaean palaces, with small villages and little writing. Urnfield cultures, who cremate their dead and bury the ashes in urns, cover central Europe, and the Villanovan culture is emerging in Italy. Cimmerian horsemen live north of the Black Sea, and Nordic Bronze Age chiefs rule Scandinavia.

Middle East & South Asia

King David rules Israel from Jerusalem; the Bible says that under him and his son Solomon it became a regional power, though archaeologists debate how large their kingdom really was. Phoenician city-states such as Tyre and Byblos trade across the sea, Aramaean and Neo-Hittite kingdoms divide Syria and southern Anatolia, Assyria under Ashur-rabi II is reduced to its heartland, and Babylonia is weak. In India, the Kuru kingdom in the upper Ganges plain leads the Later Vedic age, while Dravidian peoples farm the south.

Northern & Central Asia

The Karasuk culture flourishes in southern Siberia and the steppe, known for its bronze knives and horse herds. Iranian-speaking pastoralists, among them the ancestors of the Medes, Persians and Scythians, live across Central Asia. Hunters and fishers inhabit the northern forests.

East Asia

The Western Zhou dynasty, which overthrew the Shang at the Battle of Muye around 1046 BCE, rules northern China from its capital Haojing near present-day Xi'an, granting land to relatives and allies in a feudal system. Kings such as King Kang govern a realm stretching from the Wei valley to the coast. Korea's Bronze Age has begun, and Final Jōmon culture continues in Japan.

Southeast Asia

Austro-Asiatic rice farmers and bronze-workers live in villages across mainland Southeast Asia, such as Ban Chiang in Thailand. Austronesian peoples inhabit the Philippines and Indonesia, trading by outrigger canoe. Burmese and Tai ancestors live in the uplands to the north.

Northern North America

Paleo-Eskimo peoples hunt seals and caribou across Arctic Canada and Greenland, and the Norton tradition is developing in Alaska. Subarctic forest hunters roam inland Canada, and the peoples of the Pacific Northwest live richly from salmon and cedar.

Southern North America

The Olmec of Mexico's Gulf Coast rule from San Lorenzo, famed for colossal stone heads of its rulers, though its heyday is ending as La Venta rises. Poverty Point in Louisiana is being abandoned. Bison hunters live on the Plains, and Archaic hunter-gatherers fill the eastern woodlands.

Northern South America

In the Peruvian Andes, the temple of Chavín de Huántar is becoming a religious centre whose art and beliefs will spread across Peru. Chorrera potters live in coastal Ecuador, and manioc farmers and foragers inhabit the Amazon basin.

Southern Cone

Hunter-gatherers live across the Pampas, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, hunting guanaco, rhea and marine mammals. Fishing communities on the Atacama coast continue the old Chinchorro way of life without its elaborate mummies.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians and Papuan farmers live as before. In the western Pacific, the Lapita people, known for their stamped pottery, have sailed from the Bismarck Archipelago to Vanuatu and New Caledonia and are about to reach Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, the first people ever to live there.

Events

  1. Ramesses III repels the Sea Peoples amid the Late Bronze Age collapse (c. 1177 BCE)
  2. Egypt's New Kingdom ends and the country splits (c. 1070 BCE)
  3. The Phoenician alphabet comes into use (c. 1050 BCE)
  4. Battle of Muye: the Zhou overthrow the Shang dynasty (c. 1046 BCE)
  5. David becomes king of Israel (c. 1010 BCE)
  6. Iron tools and weapons spread across the Near East and India (c. 1000 BCE)

Moments of this period

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Sources