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Age 3 of 6 1200 BCE – 500 CE

Antiquity, 1200 BCE – 500 CE

1,700 years · 779 records · 236 dated moments

Rome and Han China, finally in the same view.

Open the canvas here The atlas at 323 BCE

The band where the timeline starts doing the thing a map cannot: putting the Roman Republic, the Achaemenids, Maurya India and Han China side by side and letting you read across them. Conflicts here carry real dates and belligerents, so the war lane fills in while the polity lanes are still drawn in century steps.

The states the atlas drew most often

The polities the canvas draws first in this age, when it has room for only a few.

All 305 polities

Middle East

Meroe

Attested 500 BCE – 400 CE

South Asia

Hindu kingdoms

Attested 500 BCE – 1715 CE

Middle East

Egypt

Attested 3000 BCE – 2026 CE

South Asia

Simhala

Attested 500 BCE – 700 CE

Middle East

Persia

Attested 400 CE – 1914 CE

Americas

Maya chiefdoms and states

2000 BCE – 1521 CE

Americas

Chorrera

Attested 1500 BCE – 100 BCE

Europe

Byzantine Empire

395 CE – 1453 CE

Best-evidenced conflicts

Ranked the way the war lane ranks them: the ones the canvas draws first.

All 88 conflicts

Middle East

Conquests of Cyrus the Great

559 BCE – 530 BCE

Cyrus the Great overthrew the Median Empire, conquered Lydia and Neo-Babylonia, and united the ancient Near East under the Achaemenid Persian Empire — the largest empire the world had yet seen.

Europe

Greco-Persian Wars

499 BCE – 449 BCE

A series of conflicts between Greek city-states and the Achaemenid Persian Empire — from Marathon to Thermopylae to Salamis — that shaped the course of Western civilisation.

East Asia

Warring States Period

475 BCE – 221 BCE

Seven major Chinese states fought for supremacy over 250 years of escalating warfare, ending when the State of Qin conquered all rivals and unified China under the first imperial dynasty in 221 BC.

Europe

Conquests of Alexander the Great

334 BCE – 323 BCE

Alexander's relentless campaign from Greece to India — toppling the Persian Empire and creating the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen.

East Asia

Qin Wars of Unification

230 BCE – 221 BCE

Qin Shi Huang systematically conquered all six rival Warring States kingdoms to unify China for the first time. He then standardised weights, measures, currency, and writing — creating the template for all subsequent Chinese empires.

Europe

Cimbrian War

113 BCE – 101 BCE

Migrating Germanic tribes — the Cimbri and Teutones — inflicted devastating defeats on Roman armies before being annihilated by Gaius Marius. The crisis accelerated Marius's military reforms and intensified Roman fears of 'barbarian' invasion.

East Asia

Three Kingdoms (China)

220 CE – 280 CE

After the collapse of the Han Dynasty, China split into three rival kingdoms — Wei, Shu, and Wu — whose wars killed an estimated 36–40 million people, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.

Europe

Fall of the Western Roman Empire

376 CE – 476 CE

A century of invasions, civil wars, and collapse — from the Gothic crossing of the Danube to the deposition of the last Western emperor in 476 AD.

Still standing, and who was alive

Landmarks standing during this age, and people who lived in it.

All 343 landmarks All 22 figures

Landmark · Americas

Grand Canyon

3000 BCE – still standing

Immense gorge carved by the Colorado River over millions of years

Landmark · Oceania

Great Barrier Reef

3000 BCE – still standing

World's largest coral reef system, visible from space

Landmark · Europe

Plitvice Lakes

3000 BCE – still standing

Cascading chain of sixteen turquoise lakes connected by waterfalls in the Croatian highlands

Landmark · Europe

Giant's Causeway

3000 BCE – still standing

40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by ancient volcanic eruptions on the Northern Irish coast

Figure · Israel / Judah

King David

1040 BCE – 970 BCE

The shepherd boy who killed a giant, survived a king's jealousy, and built a kingdom that shaped three world religions — told in his own words.

Figure · Israel / Judah

King Solomon

990 BCE – 931 BCE

The son of David who built the Temple, amassed legendary wealth, and wrote the wisdom literature that shaped three civilisations — then watched it all slip away.

Figure · Northern India / Nepal

Buddha

563 BCE – 483 BCE

The life of Siddhartha Gautama — a prince who abandoned a palace for a forest, starved himself to the edge of death, and emerged with a diagnosis of human suffering that has shaped the lives of half a billion people.

Figure · State of Lu, China

Confucius

551 BCE – 479 BCE

The fatherless son who became the most influential teacher in human history — how a keeper of granaries from the state of Lu shaped the moral foundations of East Asian civilisation.

Dated moments

16 of 236, spread evenly across the age.

All 236 dated moments
1200 BCE Ha'amonga 'a Maui Americas 900 BCE Ancient Corinth Europe 710 BCE Lelantine War Europe 600 BCE Caracol Americas 500 BCE Roman Forum Europe 447 BCE Parthenon Europe 333 BCE Battle of Issus Europe 300 BCE Somnath Temple South Asia 250 BCE Jenne-Jeno Africa 200 BCE Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove Africa 113 BCE Cimbrian War Europe 31 BCE Battle of Actium Europe 80 CE Colosseum Europe 229 CE Nanjing East Asia 335 CE Church of the Holy Sepulchre Middle East 495 CE Shaolin Temple East Asia
Image credits22 pictures from Wikimedia Commons