7th Century BC

Events in the 7th Century BC 8

• 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.
• 1500 BC – 500 BC Vedic period — the Vedas composed Sanskrit hymns and the roots of Hinduism Following the Indus decline, the Vedic period saw the composition of the Vedas — the oldest scriptures of Hinduism — in archaic Sanskrit. This era shaped Indian religion, the caste system, and the philosophical traditions later expressed in the Upanishads.
• 1200 BC – 550 BC Zoroaster and the rise of Zoroastrianism One of the world's earliest monotheistic faiths The prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra) taught a dualist vision of a single supreme god, Ahura Mazda, locked in cosmic struggle with evil. Zoroastrianism became the dominant religion of the Persian empires for over a thousand years and influenced ideas of heaven, hell and judgement in later faiths.
• 753 BC – 476 The Roman Civilisation The Roman civilisation — kingdom, republic and empire — shaped Western law, language, architecture, religion and governance more profoundly than any other ancient civilisation. From the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus in 753 BC to the deposition of the last western emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD, Rome endured for over twelve centuries, governing at its peak an empire of 70 million people stretching from Scotland to Mesopotamia.
• 715 BC – 672 BC Numa Pompilius — second King Numa Pompilius, a Sabine chosen by the Senate, transforms Rome from a warrior settlement into a functioning state. He establishes the Roman religious calendar, the Vestal Virgins, the College of Pontiffs, and the flamines (priests). Credited with 43 years of peace — an extraordinary reign. The Roman religious institutions he creates will survive, with modifications, for over a millennium.
• 678 BC – 550 BC Median Empire The Medes unify the Iranian peoples The Medes were the first to unify the Iranian tribes into a single state, overthrowing Assyrian dominance and forging an empire across the plateau. Their kingdom was absorbed by Cyrus the Great when he founded the Achaemenid empire, but it laid the groundwork for a unified Iran.
• 660 BC Emperor Jimmu founds the empire (legendary) The mythical first emperor, descendant of the sun goddess By tradition, Jimmu — a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu — founded the Japanese imperial line in 660 BC, making it the world's longest continuous hereditary monarchy. Jimmu is a legendary figure recorded in the 8th-century chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki rather than a historically verified ruler, but the date remains foundational to Japanese national identity.
• 616 BC – 578 BC Tarquinius Priscus — Etruscan influence begins Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, is the first of the Etruscan dynasty. Under him Rome begins its transformation from a village into a city: the Forum is drained, the Circus Maximus laid out, the Capitoline temple begun. Etruscan engineering, art and religious practice flood into Rome. The triumphal procession, the fasces, the toga — all are Etruscan borrowings that become permanently Roman.