Babylonian astronomers create cuneiform star catalogues
The earliest known star catalogues were compiled by the ancient Babylonian astronomers of Mesopotamia in the late 2nd millennium B.C.E., during the Kassite Period (ca. 1531-1155 B.C.E.).
Middle East
Humans in ancient Iraq invent musical notation
The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in Sumer (today’s Iraq), in about 1400 B.C.E.
Oldest known song, “Hurrian Hymn No. 6”, composed in Ancient Sumeria
For the title of oldest extant song, most historians point to Hurrian Hymn No. 6, an ode to the goddess Nikkal that was composed in cuneiform by the ancient Hurrians sometime around the 14th century B.C.
The First Babylonian dynasty comes to power in ancient Mesopotamia
The First Babylonian Empire, or Old Babylonian Empire, is dated to c. 1894 B.C.E. – c. 1595 B.C.E., and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period.
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.
Members of Akkadian Empire make perhaps first-ever written record of composting food waste for agriculture
Though the Akkadians may have been the first to record the use of compost, the practice likely began long before the advent of writing.
The civilization of Elam rises in modern-day Iran
Elam was an ancient Pre-Iranian civilization centered in the far west and southwest of what is now modern-day Iran.
Phoenician civilization flourishes in the eastern Mediterranean
Phoenicia was an ancient civilization composed of independent city-states located along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea stretching through what is now Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel.
The first settlement at Baalbek is founded in modern-day Lebanon
Inhabited as early as 9000 B.C.E., Baalbek grew into an important pilgrimage site in the ancient world for the worship of the Phoenician sky-god Baal and his consort Astarte, the Queen of Heaven.
Humans of ancient Sumer invent belt wrestling
A polished bone implement found at Eva in Tennessee, United States and dated to around 5000 B.C.E. has been construed as a possible sporting device used in a “ring and pin” game.