A work in progress, this timeline is based on the following guiding principles:

C14 dating produces an overly long chronology for the early periods and is not accurate enough to be of much use for the more recent periods.
Classification and division tends to produce overly long chronologies. Variation may be the product of regional differences or even different workshops rather than separation in time. Long gaps in the archaeological record are to be avoided whenever possible.
A view of early man which sees him as still evolving results in a static view of the stone ages (palaeolithic to chalcolithic). A bias towards long ages has tended to inflate the amount of time needed for technologies to develop and city layers to accumulate.

Sources

The following is a list of major works relied upon to produce the timeline (by region). I will continue to update this list as the project continues. You may also click the plus button next to an event on the timeline for chronological information and sources.

The Bible

I am using the data from Henry Smith and Jeremy Sexton for the Genesis 5 and 11 genealogies.

For the chronology of the patriarchs:

Merril, Eugene H. Kingdom of Priests. Grand Rapids: Michigan, 1996.

For the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah:

Thiele, Edwin. The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1983.

Mesopotamia

Ararat uses the “ultra-short” chronology for Mesopotamia.

Gasche, H, J. A. Armstrong, S. W. Cole, V. G. Gurzadyan. “Dating the Fall of Babylon, A Reappraisal of Second-Millennium Chronology (A Joint Ghent-Chicago-Harvard Project),” in Mesopotamian History and Envrionment, edited by L. De Meyer, H. Gasche. Series II, Memoirs IV vols. : University of Ghent and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1998. Link

I follow Jacobsen’s general organization for the Sumerian King List but not his absolute chronology.

Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Sumerian King List. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939. Link

Egypt

I’ve mostly relied upon Baines and Malek for the chronology of Egypt. However, my dates do not precisely match theirs since I have allowed for greater overlap between the 13th and 15th dynasties, so as to make Khyan and Sobekhotep IV contemporaries.

Baines, John, Jaromir Malek. Atlas of Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1980.

I utilize the shorter chronology proposed by William Albright for the Early Dynastic period in Egypt although I do not subscribe to his proposed synchronisms between Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Albright, William F. “Menes and Narâm-Sin.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 6, no. 2 (1920): 89-98.

China

Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Asia Center, 2013.

Register New Account