The Lapita people discover and settle modern-day Samoa
Samoa was discovered and settled by their Lapita ancestors (Austronesian people speaking Oceanic languages), with New Zealand scientists dating remains in Samoa to about 2900–3500 years ago.
Early humans
Andronovo culture flourishes in western Siberia and the Steppe
The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Bronze Age cultures that flourished c. 2000-900 B.C.E. in western Siberia and the central Eurasian Steppe.
Austronesian peoples migrate to modern-day Indonesia from Taiwan
Austronesian people form the majority of the modern population. They may have arrived in Indonesia around 2000 B.C.E. and are thought to have originated in Taiwan.
Humans from the Andronovo culture of the central Eurasian steppe invent the chariot (~2,000 B.C.E. ???)
The earliest fully developed spoke-wheeled horse chariots are from the chariot burials of the Andronovo (Timber-Grave) sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka Proto-Indo-Iranian culture in modern Russia and Kazakhstan from around 2000 B.C.E.
Zoroastrianism – perhaps the world’s first monotheistic religion – emerges in modern-day Iran
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of three Persian dynasties, until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century C.E.
Monagrillo culture emerges in modern-day Panama
Monagrillo is an archaeological site in south-central Panama. It provides the earliest example of ceramics in Central America along with one of the earliest examples of maize agriculture in the region.
Jade culture thrives in modern-day Philippines
Tens of thousands of exquisitely crafted jade artifacts found at a site in Batangas province have led scholars to conclude that the Philippines had a significant “jade culture” before the archipelago’s metal age.
The Charrúa peoples emerge in modern-day Uruguay
About 4,000 years ago Charrúa and Guarani people arrived here. During pre-colonial times Uruguayan territory was inhabited by small tribes of nomadic Charrúa, Chaná, Arachán and Guarani peoples who survived by hunting and fishing and probably never reached more than 10,000 to 20,000 people.
The Poverty Point culture in modern-day southern United States flourishes
Poverty Point culture is an archaeological culture that corresponds to an ancient group of indigenous peoples who inhabited the area of the lower Mississippi Valley and surrounding Gulf coast from about 2200 B.C.E. – 700 B.C.E.
Sargon the Great forms the world’s first empire in Mesopotamia, the Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire eventually also stretched across modern day Turkey, Iran, and Lebanon.