Egyptian Chronology

3,000 B.C.

Egypt unified under a single pharaoh; beginning of Old Kingdom; appearance of writing

2,700 B.C.

Copper in common use in gypt; pictures used in graves as part of funerary arrangements

2,600 B.C.

Egyptian conquest of Nubia; the pyramids begun (IV dynasty); the potter's wheel in common use

2,130 B.C.

Beginning of the Middle Kingdom (XI-XIV dynasties)

1,825 B.C.

Egyptian influence dominant in Byblos

1,750 - 1,550 B.C.

Hyksos in Egypt (XV and XVI dynasties)

1,550 - 1,200 B.C.

The New Kingdom (XVIII-XIX dynasties); wheeled vehicles become common, as does the use of bronze and labor-saving devices (bellows for blacksmiths, the shadoof for watering gardens); chickens introduced

1,375 - 1,358 B.C.

The Armana Age; Ikhnaton's religious reforms

reprinted from The Columbia History of the World, 1972, published by Harper & Row, edited by John A. Garraty & Peter Gay