Timeline

Ancient World

1,000 BCE – 500 CE · 4 events

The Iron Age saw the rise of the classical civilisations — Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, Chinese — and the first truly intercontinental networks of trade and diaspora. Phoenician and Greek colonists carried urban culture across the Mediterranean; the Babylonian exile and later Roman dispersal scattered Jewish communities across three continents; Celtic Iron Age cultures spread from Central Europe to the British Isles and Iberia; and Austronesian seafarers completed the colonisation of the Pacific and reached Madagascar.

Dates are approximate. Ranges reflect current scientific consensus and are subject to revision as new evidence emerges.