THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Late Bronze Age

Chariots and Empires

The world in 1500 BCE

Around 1500 BCE the Near East is entering an age of great powers and chariot warfare. Egypt, having expelled the Hyksos rulers of the Delta, is building its New Kingdom empire: Pharaoh Thutmose I has marched as far as the Euphrates and deep into Nubia.

Its rivals are the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in northern Syria and the Hittites of central Anatolia, who sacked Babylon in 1595 BCE; Babylonia is now ruled by the Kassites. In the Aegean, Minoan Crete still flourishes while warlike Mycenaean Greeks rise on the mainland. In India, the old Indus cities have been abandoned, and Indo-Aryan peoples in the Punjab are composing the earliest hymns of the Rigveda. In China, the Shang dynasty rules the Yellow River plain, soon to produce China's first writing. Across the Americas, the first Olmec settlements appear on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, and Austronesian sailors are about to strike out into the open Pacific.

Open the map in 1500 BCE

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Africa south of the equator is home to hunter-gatherers and Khoisan-speaking peoples. Bantu-speaking farmers are slowly spreading through the Congo rainforest from the north-west. There are no states or towns in the region.

Northern Africa

Egypt's New Kingdom is expanding under Thutmose I, who rules from Thebes and has campaigned up the Nile to defeat the Nubian kingdom of Kerma (Kush), Egypt's great southern rival. Across the Sahara, pastoral nomads herd cattle and goats, while West African farmers cultivate millet and sorghum in the Sahel, and Berbers live in the Maghreb.

Europe

On Crete, the Minoan palace civilization at Knossos is in its final great century, while mainland Mycenaean Greeks, whose kings are buried with gold masks, grow powerful. Central Europe's Bronze Age peoples trade amber, tin and copper over long distances, and Nordic Bronze Age cultures flourish in Scandinavia. The steppe north of the Black Sea is home to horse-riding herders.

Middle East & South Asia

The Hittite kingdom, ruled from Hattusa in central Anatolia, is recovering under King Telipinu after a period of turmoil. The Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni dominates northern Syria and Mesopotamia, with Assyria under its shadow, while Kassite kings rule Babylonia and Elam controls south-west Iran. In India the Indus cities have been abandoned; Indo-Aryan herders in the Punjab, the Vedic Aryans, are composing the Rigveda, and Dravidian-speaking peoples live across the south.

Northern & Central Asia

The Andronovo culture of horse-riding, chariot-using herders spreads across the Kazakh steppe, and the Karasuk culture later grows from it in southern Siberia. Iranian-speaking pastoralists move south toward Iran and Central Asia. The northern taiga belongs to Finno-Ugric and Paleo-Siberian hunters and fishers.

East Asia

The Shang dynasty rules the middle Yellow River from a walled capital at Zhengzhou, casting fine bronze ritual vessels in the Erligang style. Beyond the Shang, Neolithic and early Bronze Age peoples live across southern China and Korea. In Japan, Late Jōmon foragers live in settled villages, and the Ainu ancestors inhabit Hokkaido.

Southeast Asia

Austro-Asiatic rice farmers live in villages across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and bronze-working is beginning to spread south from China. Austronesian peoples are established in the Philippines and Indonesia, and their descendants, the Lapita people, will soon sail into the open Pacific.

Northern North America

Paleo-Eskimo hunters of the Pre-Dorset and Saqqaq traditions live in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, hunting seals, muskox and caribou. Subarctic forest hunters roam inland Canada, and Pacific coast peoples fish for salmon.

Southern North America

At Poverty Point in Louisiana, hunter-gatherers are building huge semicircular earthworks, the largest in North America at this time. Bison hunters live on the Great Plains. In Mexico, maize farmers live in permanent villages, and on the Gulf Coast the first Olmec communities are taking shape.

Northern South America

In Peru, the Initial Period has begun: villages build U-shaped temple complexes and start to make pottery and irrigate their fields. The Chorrera culture is emerging in coastal Ecuador, and manioc farmers and foragers live along the rivers of the Amazon basin.

Southern Cone

The Chinchorro mummy-making tradition on the Atacama coast is coming to an end after some 3,500 years. Hunter-gatherers live across the Pampas, while in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego peoples hunt guanaco and marine mammals.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians live across the continent, and the dingo is arriving from Southeast Asia around this time. Papuan farmers cultivate New Guinea. In the Bismarck Archipelago, Austronesian newcomers are about to develop the Lapita culture, whose sailors will settle the islands of the western Pacific.

Events

  1. Tang founds the Shang dynasty in China (traditional date c. 1600 BCE)
  2. Volcanic eruption of Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean (c. 1600 BCE, date debated)
  3. Hittite king Mursili I sacks Babylon (c. 1595 BCE)
  4. Ahmose I expels the Hyksos and founds Egypt's New Kingdom (c. 1550 BCE)
  5. Telipinu issues his edict setting rules for the Hittite royal succession (c. 1525 BCE)
  6. Thutmose I campaigns to the Euphrates and conquers Kerma (c. 1500 BCE)
  7. Earliest hymns of the Rigveda composed in the Punjab (c. 1500–1200 BCE)

Moments of this period

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