4500-2000 B.C. Movements of Indo-European peoples into Europe

4000-3000 B.C. Sumerian Civilization in Mesopotamia, presently Iraq

2000 B.C. Assyrian and Babylonian Civilizations in Mesopotamia

3000-1250 B.C. Minoan Culture on Crete

1600-1500 B.C. Shaft graves at Mycenae

1400 B.C. Earliest Mycenaean palaces

1300-1200 B.C. High point of Mycenaean Culture

1370 B.C. Fall of Knossos on Crete

1180 B.C. Sack of Troy VIIA; Homer's Troy possibly Troy VI


1200-900 The Dark Ages: Disturbances across the Aegean region; Mycenaeans become wanderers; dispossessed of their homes, their civilization destroyed, they settle on the mainland of Greece and Asia Minor (Turkey), preserving remnants of their culture.

800-500 B.C. Development of city-states

750-700 B.C.Composition of Iliad and Odyssey; Homeric poetry recorded in writing after Greeks learn to write again, using Phoenician alphabet modified with vowels.