Kerma culture flourishes in modern-day Sudan
The Kerma culture was an early civilization centered in Kerma, Sudan. It flourished from around 2500 B.C.E. to 1500 B.C.E. in ancient Nubia, located in Upper Egypt and northern Sudan.
Civilization (3000 B.C.E. - 500 C.E.)
Kubaba of Sumeria becomes humanity’s first female ruler
The Sumerian King List is unsurprisingly filled with the names of men: Alulim, Hadanish, Zizi, and many others. But alongside its male monarchs, the world’s first known civilization also produced a woman who is often considered the first female monarch: Kubaba, who brewed and sold beer in the ancient city of Kish in Mesopotamia. However, some scholars question Kubaba’s historicity, and it is quite possible that there were earlier female rulers we have no record of.
The Kesh Temple Hymn – oldest known piece of literature – is written in Sumeria
Two of the oldest known literary works are the “Kesh Temple Hymn” and the “Instructions of Shuruppak,” both of which exist in written versions dating to around 2500 B.C.E.
The Ancient Egyptians invent boat docks
The earliest known docks were those discovered in Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor dating from 2500 B.C.E. located on the Red Sea coast.
Use of the now ubiquitous spice black pepper becomes widespread, beginning in modern-day India
Black pepper is native to Kerala in Southwestern India and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropica regions.
The Hồng Bàng dynasty flourishes in modern-day Vietnam
The Hồng Bàng dynasty was a legendary, semimythical period in Vietnamese history spanning from the political union in 2879 B.C.E. of many tribes of the northern Red River Valley to the conquest by An Dương Vương in 258 B.C.E.
Early humans settle on Greenland for the first time
The earliest known cultures in Greenland are the Saqqaq culture (2500–800 B.C.E.) and the Independence I culture in northern Greenland (2400–1300 B.C.E.). The practitioners of these two cultures are thought to have descended from separate groups that came to Greenland from northern Canada.
Ancient Andeans build first city in the Americas, Caral, in modern-day Peru
Caral was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe, Barranca Province, Peru. Caral is the most ancient city of the Americas and a well-studied site of the Norte Chico civilization.
Construction of first Egyptian pyramid begins
The first, and largest, pyramid at Giza was built by the pharaoh Khufu (reign started around 2551 B.C.).
Egyptian physician Imhotep diagnoses cancer, perhaps for the first time in history
Imhotep was an Egyptian chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser, possible architect of Djoser’s step pyramid, and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. Very little is known of Imhotep as a historical figure, but in the 3,000 years following his death, he was gradually glorified and deified. In his Pulitzer-prize winning “biography” of cancer – The Emperor of All Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee cites the oldest identified written diagnosis of cancer to Imhotep.