3000 BC

Events in 3000 BC 6

• 3200 BC – 3000 BC Hieroglyphic writing invented -- c.3200 BC Egyptian hieroglyphic writing develops c.3200-3100 BC -- roughly contemporaneously with Sumerian cuneiform and independently of it. The earliest examples are administrative labels found at Abydos in the tomb of a predynastic ruler (U-j, c.3200 BC). Hieroglyphs are a mixed system combining logograms, phonograms and determinatives comprising over 700 signs. Hieratic (a cursive form) is used for everyday writing on papyrus; demotic (a further simplification) in the Late Period. The script is deciphered by Champollion in 1822 using the Rosetta Stone.
• 3000 BC – 30 BC Egyptian art -- 3,000 years of a single style Egyptian art is one of the most immediately recognisable visual traditions in history -- characterised by frontality, hierarchical scale, composite perspective and registers (horizontal narrative bands). These conventions are established in the Early Dynastic period and maintained with remarkable consistency for 3,000 years -- the longest-lasting artistic tradition in human history. Egyptian art is not made for aesthetic pleasure but for magical function: tomb paintings and statues ensure the continued existence of the depicted person in the afterlife.
• 3000 BC – 30 BC Egyptian religion -- Maat, gods and the afterlife Egyptian religion is one of the most elaborate and enduring in human history -- a polytheistic system maintained for 3,000 years. Its central concern is Ma'at (cosmic order, truth, justice). The pharaoh is the living Horus and the dead Osiris. The afterlife -- accessed through mummification, the Book of the Dead and tomb provision -- is the central preoccupation. Major gods: Ra/Amun (sun), Osiris (resurrection), Isis (magic), Horus (kingship), Thoth (wisdom), Anubis (embalming), Seth (chaos).
• 3000 BC – 30 BC The Nile -- the source of everything Egypt is, in Herodotus's phrase, 'the gift of the Nile.' The annual flood (inundation) deposits rich black silt creating some of the most fertile agricultural land on earth in a desert landscape. Egyptian civilisation is entirely organised around the flood: the agricultural calendar, tax system (measured in grain), administrative divisions (nomes) and religious calendar all follow the Nile's rhythm. The predictability of the flood gives Egyptian civilisation its characteristic stability and optimism.
• 3000 BC The Plow Agricultural Revolution The invention that enabled large-scale farming and the rise of civilization.
• 3000 BC – 2007 Wonders of the World From the Great Pyramid to the New Seven Wonders A journey through the greatest structures ever built by human hands, from the Great Pyramid of Giza — the only ancient wonder still standing — to the New Seven Wonders chosen by a global vote in 2007. The original list of Seven Wonders was compiled by the Greek writer Philo of Byzantium around 225 BC, celebrating the most extraordinary achievements of the ancient Mediterranean world. Most were destroyed by earthquakes, fire or human hands. The New Seven Wonders span four continents and over 4,500 years of human civilisation, joined here by honourable mentions that rival any of them in scale and mystery.