THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Middle Bronze Age

Cities of Bronze

The world in 2000 BCE

By 2000 BCE, cities and kingdoms stretch from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Egypt has been reunited after a period of breakdown, and the Theban Eleventh Dynasty is about to give way to the Twelfth, founded by Amenemhat I, which will lead Egypt's classical Middle Kingdom.

In Mesopotamia, the great Third Dynasty of Ur has just fallen: in 2004 BCE the Elamites sacked Ur and carried off its last king, and power is now shared among cities such as Isin and Larsa, many ruled by Amorite chiefs. The Indus civilization, with its planned cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, is at its height but about to decline. On Crete, the Minoans are building their first palaces, and on the Eurasian steppe the Sintashta people are pioneering the light, spoked-wheel chariot. In China, the Xia, remembered as the first dynasty, is traditionally ruling the Yellow River plain, while most of the world's people still live as farmers, herders and foragers.

Open the map in 2000 BCE

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is home to Khoisan-speaking hunter-gatherers. Bantu-speaking farmers, growing yams and oil palms, are slowly beginning to move out of their homeland in Cameroon into the equatorial rainforest. Metal-working has not yet reached the region.

Northern Africa

Egypt has been reunited by Mentuhotep II of Thebes, whose Eleventh Dynasty successors still rule; Amenemhat I will found the Twelfth Dynasty around 1991 BCE. Upriver in Nubia the kingdom of Kerma is growing rich on trade in gold, ivory and ebony. The drying Sahara is home to cattle-herding nomads, and Berber-speaking peoples live along the Maghreb coast.

Europe

Europe is entering the Bronze Age. The Únětice culture of central Europe works bronze and trades amber, the Beaker people have spread from Iberia to Britain, and Stonehenge stands complete with its great sarsens. On Crete, the Minoans are building their first palace at Knossos, while the Catacomb culture herders live on the Pontic steppe.

Middle East & South Asia

After the fall of Ur in 2004 BCE, southern Mesopotamia is split among rival cities, chiefly Isin under Ishbi-Erra and Larsa, while Amorite peoples settle across Mesopotamia and Syria. Elam, under its Shimashki kings, is at a peak of power, and Assur is a small trading city about to set up merchant colonies in Anatolia. The Indus civilization is at its height with cities such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, and the Bactria-Margiana (Oxus) culture builds fortified towns in Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.

Northern & Central Asia

On the steppe east of the Urals, the Sintashta people build fortified settlements, smelt copper and bury warriors with the earliest true chariots. The wider Andronovo culture of horse-riding, cattle-herding peoples is beginning to spread across Kazakhstan toward Siberia. In the northern forests, Finno-Ugric and Paleo-Siberian peoples live by hunting and fishing.

East Asia

China's first dynasty, the Xia, is traditionally said to rule the middle Yellow River at this time, though its history is still debated; the Erlitou culture that may represent it emerges around 1900 BCE. Late Longshan towns with rammed-earth walls dot the northern plain. Korea is home to Neolithic farming and fishing villages, and Japan to the Jōmon foragers.

Southeast Asia

Rice-farming peoples speaking Austro-Asiatic languages are spreading from southern China into Vietnam and Thailand, where villages such as Ban Non Wat will be founded within a few centuries. Austronesian seafarers have reached the Philippines and are moving into Indonesia. Tai- and Tibeto-Burman-speaking peoples live in the hills to the north.

Northern North America

Paleo-Eskimo peoples of the Arctic Small Tool tradition have recently spread east from Alaska across the Canadian Arctic to Greenland, where the Saqqaq culture hunts seals and caribou. Further south, Archaic peoples hunt and fish across the forests and plains of Canada.

Southern North America

Across North America, Archaic peoples hunt and gather, and some coastal groups in Georgia and South Carolina build great rings of shell. In Mesoamerica, farmers growing maize are settling into the first permanent villages, and pottery appears on the Pacific coast of Chiapas around 1900 BCE.

Northern South America

The Norte Chico civilization of coastal Peru, with its pyramid city at Caral, is in its last centuries before decline, while highland temples like Kotosh flourish. Valdivia villagers farm coastal Ecuador, and the Amazon is home to foragers and early cultivators.

Southern Cone

The Chinchorro fishing people of the Atacama coast still practise their elaborate mummification. Elsewhere, hunter-gatherers hunt guanaco on the Pampas and in Patagonia, and canoe peoples gather shellfish in the channels of the far south.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians live across the continent as hunter-gatherers, and the dingo will arrive from Southeast Asia within the next few centuries. Papuan farmers cultivate the New Guinea highlands. Tasmanians live in isolation, and the remote Pacific islands remain unsettled.

Events

  1. Ur-Nammu founds the Third Dynasty of Ur and issues one of the earliest law codes (c. 2112 BCE)
  2. Mentuhotep II reunites Egypt, beginning the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040 BCE)
  3. Elamites sack Ur and capture its last king, Ibbi-Sin (c. 2004 BCE)
  4. Earliest spoked-wheel chariots buried at Sintashta sites (c. 2000 BCE)
  5. First palaces built at Knossos and other sites on Crete (c. 2000–1900 BCE)
  6. Amenemhat I founds Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty (c. 1991 BCE)

Moments of this period

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