Lydia’s King Alyattes mints the first official currency
The coins were made from electrum, a mixture of silver and gold that occurs naturally, and stamped with pictures that acted as denominations.
Early humans
Vaishali in India becomes world’s first republic
An ancient metropolis, the capital of the Republic of the Vaishali state and the capital of the Vajjian Confederacy (Vijji), Vaishali is prominently mentioned in Jain and Buddhist texts which emerged later.
Suśruta of ancient India authors Sushruta Samhita, an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine
The Sushruta Samhita is one of the most important treatises on medicine and herbalism to survive from the ancient world.
The first Scythian kingdom comes to power in Central Eurasia
The early Scythian kingdoms were dominated by inter-ethnic forms of dependency based on subjugation of agricultural populations in eastern South Caucasia, plunder and taxes regular tribute, tribute disguised as gifts, and possibly also payments for military support.
The Medes people of ancient Iran come together to form the Median Kingdom
The Medes were an ancient Iranian people[N 2] who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran.
Humans of the Dorset culture settle on modern-day Greenland
The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from 500 B.C.E. to between 1000 and 1500 C.E., that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Inuit in the Arctic of North America. It is named after Cape Dorset in Nunavut, Canada, where the first evidence of its existence was found.
Iranian nomads build irrigation channels in Central Asia
In the first millennium B.C.E., Iranian nomads established irrigation systems along the rivers of Central Asia and built towns at Bukhara and Samarqand.
The Thamud civilization emerges on the Arabian peninsula
The Thamūd is an ancient civilization in the Hejaz known from the 8th century B.C.E. to near the time of Muhammad.
The Saka peoples thrive in the Eurasian Steppe
The Saka were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who historically inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin. The Saka are attested in historical and archaeological records dating to around the 8th century B.C.E.
The Assyrians build the world’s first long-distance canal systems
The first sophisticated long-distance canal systems were constructed in the Assyrian empire in the 9th century B.C.E. and incorporated tunnels several kilometres in length.