20th Century BC

Events in the 20th Century BC 2

• 14000 BC – 300 BC Jomon period World's earliest pottery — hunter-gatherers of the islands The Jomon period is named for the cord-marked (jomon) pottery its people produced — among the oldest pottery in the world. These were sophisticated hunter-gatherers, fishers and foragers who lived a largely sedentary life in the Japanese archipelago for over ten thousand years, long before agriculture arrived.
• 3300 BC – 1300 BC Indus Valley Civilisation One of the world's oldest urban cultures The Indus Valley (Harappan) civilisation flourished along the Indus river from around 3300 BC, with sophisticated planned cities such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro — featuring grid streets, drainage, granaries and standardised weights. Its undeciphered script and sudden decline around 1300 BC remain among archaeology's great mysteries.