Part 3 (1/2)

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN.

1550 BCE BCE.

Volcanic explosion of the island Thera devastates Mediterranean.

1500 BCE BCE.

The Jews leave Canaan for Egypt.

1300 BCE BCE.

Olmec civilization begins.

1235 BCE BCE.

Athens founded.

1200 BCE BCE.

Sea Peoples attack Hitt.i.te kingdom and Egypt; Dorians invade Greece; Jews flee Egypt.

1122 BCE BCE.

China's Zhou Dynasty founded.

1000 BCE BCE.

Kingdom of the Jews divided. Zoroaster is born (probably). Bantu expansion begins.

900 BCE BCE.

Olmecs begin building pyramids.

783 BCE BCE.

a.s.syrians conquer Jewish kingdom of Israel (Canaan).

771 BCE BCE.

Western Zhou Dynasty ends.

750 BCE BCE.

Dorian kingdom of Sparta founded.

729 BCE BCE.

a.s.syrians conquer Babylon.

671 BCE BCE.

a.s.syrians conquer Egypt.

625 BCE BCE.

a.s.syrian empire collapses.

607 BCE BCE.

Babylonians burn Jerusalem, kidnap the Jews.

554 BCE BCE.

Cyrus the Great seizes power in Persia and Medea.

539 BCE BCE.

Cyrus occupies Babylon and frees the Jews.

SPINNING THE GLOBE.

The Sea Peoples:

Somewhere in the Mediterranean...

The trouble started with a bang: the eruption around 1550 BCE of a Greek island in the Aegean Sea called Thera. The island was blown out of existence by an explosion that threw more than 16 cubic miles of debris into the air and sea, triggering a ma.s.sive tidal wave. At least 120 feet tall, the wave ripped across the Mediterranean, probably killing hundreds of thousands of people. This catastrophe may be the basis for the legend of Atlantis.