12,000-7,500
Mesolithic Age -- food gathering and hunting culture; clear presence of religious ideas; predominant cult is that of Mother Goddess of Earth and animals; evidence of matrifocal culture

7,500-4,000
Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone) Age

4,000-3,500
Neolithic Age -- Domesticated animals, growing food, fired pottery, polished tools, need for irrigation provides an impetus for social organization; "fertility cult" predominates; developing understanding of role of male in fertilization provides ground for worship of Gods; rise of patriarchy

3,500-2,200
Early Bronze Age -- specialists appear, villages lose self-sufficiency, therefore trade develops; inventions: wheel, yoke, plow; Mesopotamia (Sumer, 3500) and then Egypt (2800) break through with civilization: cities, social control, calendars, temples, priesthoods (experts); shift from Mother Goddess to Sky God as chief deity, divine king as representative; Temples are first perpetual corporataions

3,200
Sumerians invent cuneiform writing and mathematics (base 6), cart wheel, potter's wheel, systematic law codes, collections of proverbs and wisdom sayings, and formal schools

2,800-2,200
Egyptian Old Kingdom; highly centralized culture develops, focussed around the Nile and control of this resource, thus one Pharaoh; widespread use of irrigation

2,200-1,550
Middle Bronze Age

2,000-1,750
Egyptian Middle Kingdom; Patriarchal period of the First Testament

1,750-1,550
Hyksos domination of Egypt

1,550-1,200 BCE
Late Bronze Age; Phoenicians (Semites) develop worldwide sea-trade, found colonies as far west as Spain and Sardinia, develop alphabet, thus, "democratization" of writing

1,550-1,150
Egyptian New Kingdom: under Thutmoses III (1490-1436), Egypt reaches the greatest power it ever attained; Queen Hatshepsut rules as Pharonic King (1486-1468); Amenhotep IV (alias Akenaten I) began a radical (and unpopular) reform of Egyptian religion in 1378 by attempting to replace the hundreds of Egyptian deities with a monotheistic cult of the sun-disc, the "Aton;" his successor, Tutankhamen, the boy king, restored the old faith.

Israelite Exodus about 1,250 BCE under Ramesses II (1290-1235).

1,200-1,000
Period of the Philistines or "Sea Peoples"
Also, period of Israelite "conquest" and Judges; rise of Israelite nation; founding of United Monarchy of Israel under David (ca. 1020)

1,000-586
Iron Age -- another revolution, this one provided a chance for commoners to share in it: wider cultivation, arms for all, introduces a "dark age" in Mesopotamia; Indo-Europeans developed chariot, but Iranian development of cavalry killed the chariot; use of money rather than bartering in trade; Greeks borrow Phoenician alphabet

ca. 950
Building of first Israelite Temple in Jerusalem

930
Death of Solomon; division of Israel into two Kindgoms, North (Israel) and South (Judah)

825
Carthage is a colony of the Phoenician sea-traders

753
Founding of Rome; under Etruscan domination until ca. 510 BCE

722/1
Assyrians (under Shalmaneser V and Sargon II) destroy the Northern Kingdom (Israel)

700-491
Archaic period of Greece

587/6
Neo-Babylonians (under Nebuchadnezzar) capture Southern Kingdom (Judah), destroy the first Temple; beginning of Babylonian Exile

586-332 BCE
Persian Period (Achaemenid dynasty)

539
Cyrus of Persia defeats the Neo-Babylonians; exiles returned from Babylon ("post-exilic period" = 539-332). Building of Second Temple; birth of "Judaism."

509
Founding of the Roman Republic; slow growth in Italy

early VI c.
Zoroaster founds dualistic Persian religion based on worship of one deity, Ahura Mazda, and belief in a vast system of good and evil forces which control human life; Mithra was the chief of the forces of good

491-323
Classical period of Greece

V c. BCE
Carthaginian wars with Greeks in Sicily
?Division between Samaritan and Judean Jews

490
Battle of the Maritime (Persians vs. Greeks)

404
Defeat of Athens; end of the "Golden Age" of Greece

336-322
Alexander the Great's conquest: defeat of Persian Empire, extension into India

321-37 BCE
Hellenistic Period (ends with the Roman Conquest)

After Alexander's death, his (captain-successors) divided Alexander's Empire into four kingdoms: the Seleucid kingdom (312-63; Antiochus, Seleucus) covered Syria & the East; the Ptolemaic kingdom (320-27; Ptolemy, Cleopatra) covered Egypt & much of the Mediterranean; the Antigonid dynasty (283-168; Philip, Alexander, Antigonus, et al.) included Macedonia and part of Greece; and the Attalids (263-133) controlled Pergamon in Asia Minor, modern Turkey (Attalus, Eumenes). At this point, Palestine was under the Ptolemaic kingdom (under Ptolemy I in Egypt). These successors continue Alexander's process of hellenization.

Rome conquers Italy, dominates the Western Mediterranean

264-241 BCE
First Punic War (Rome v. Carthage)

218-201
Second Punic War

201
Palestine under the Seleucid kingdom (in Syria)

II c. BCE
Rise of the Pharisees? and initiation of synagogues

164-63 BCE
Jewish Hasmonean Dynasty: Jews revolt against Seleucid King Antiochus IV Ephiphanes and win independence under the Maccabees; rise of the Essenes who leave for the desert

150
Rome enlarging to the east, dominates Eastern Mediterranean; conquers Carthage (146) and North Africa become Roman Province, Africa Proconsularis; Rome destroys Corinth (146); Persians (Parthians) pick up strength

133-30 BCE
Period of Roman Civil War

74
Rome takes over Seleucid Kingdom

63
Roman General Pompey takes over Jerusalem; beginning of Roman rule in Palestine.

48-44
Julius Caesar dictator of Rome

46
After a century of dereliction, Corinth re-founded as Roman colony Laus Iulia Corinthus

44
Rome, still bigger, takes over Egypt; assassination of Julius Caesar

42 BCE
Octavius and Marcus Antonius defeat army of Brutus and Cassius (Caesar's assasins) at Philippi; Philippi made Roman Colony (first named Colonia Iulia; after 31 BCE amplified to Colonia Augusta Iulia Philippensis)

37BCE -CE 565
Roman Period

37-4 BCE
Herod the Great, Roman client King of Judea

31 BCE
Battle of Actium: Octavian defeats Antony (& Cleopatra); end of the Roman Republic; beginning of the Roman Imperial Period.

27 BCE
Octavian named princeps, acclaimed Caesar Augustus, first Emperor of Rome (Imperator Caesar divi filius Augustus); he became pontifex maximus in 12 BCE.

Religions of salvation blossomed in the Imperial period. Traditional cults, including civic cults, persisted through III CE. Most ancient religions were not "personal," i.e., they did not dispense salvation or involve intense personal emotion, etc.

6-4? BCE
Birth of Jesus

4 BCE
Death of Herod the Great; Roman appointment of Tetrarchs (who ruled until 6 CE, some later)

CE 6
Judea becomes a Roman Province, under direct rule of Roman Governors (Quirinius, Legate of Syria + Pontius Pilatus, Prefect of Judea) and garrisoned by auxiliary Roman troops; high priest (presiding over the Sanhedrin) administers internal affairs of Judea

14
Death of Augustus & accession of Tiberius; cult of the dead Roman ruler fits in with the regular Greek and Roman pattern of heroization.

Basically Roman world against the Parthians

30?
Jesus executed by Roman Prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilatus

37-41
Principate of Gaius Caligula, first emperor to claim divine honors during his own lifetime; Gaius tries to install a statue of himself in the Jerusalem Temple, but is assassinated before the order can be executed

41-44
Agrippa I is Roman client King in Galilee

44-66
Palestine under direct rule of Roman Governors (Legate of Syria + Procurator of Judea); Agrippa I rules all of territory of Herod the Great

41-54
Principate of Claudius; ca. 50, he expels Jews from Rome as a result of uprising concerning one "Chrestus"

54-68
Principate of Tiberius Claudius Nero, last of the Julio-Claudian emperors; Nero revokes Claudian edict against the Jews; Rome burns, Christians blamed; Nero assassinated

66-73
First Jewish War against Rome

68-69
Year of the three emperors: Otho, Galba, & Vitellius

69-79
Principate of T. Flavius Vespasianus (first of the Flavian emperors)

70
Roman Destruction of Jerusalem and Second Temple under the General Titus; Jews banned from Jerusalem except for that one day of the year; Judea becomes a Roman Province, Jerusalem becomes Jupiter Capitolinus

79-81
Principate of Titus

81-96
Principate of Domitian, the last of the Flavian emperors, who allowed temples to be built for his cult during his own lifetime. Many Christians suffered martyrdom during his reign, and some in his own family were exiled. Domitian was assassinated, and was censured with the damnatio memoriae after his death. Rome takes over England

96-98
Principate of Nerva

98-117
Principate of Trajan

118-138
Principate of Hadrian

132-135
The Bar Kochba Revolt (second Jewish War against Rome); Jerusalem is made a Roman Colony

230
Sassenid Persian Empire begins (not Parthian any longer); is a real enemy to Rome

300
Emperor Diocletian developed mobile field forces

362
Huns expand, push other groups west

410
Sack of Rome by the Vandals

475
End of Roman Empire in the West (mostly); survives in the East as the Byzantine Empire (565-1453 CE)

639 CE
Arab Conquest of Palestine

This page has been accessed  times since 12/09/99  Sheila E. McGinn, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Religious Studies John Carroll University Last page update: 19 January 2000 This site designed and maintained by Sheila E. McGinn, Ph.D. copyright © 1999, 2000 Sheila E. McGinn

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