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Iron Age

1,046 BCE

2 recorded milestones at this point in the record.

c. 1,150 BCE – 800 BCE
Exploration
Levant

Phoenician maritime trade network

City-states such as Tyre, Sidon and Byblos built cedar ships and ran regular routes across the Mediterranean, trading dye, glass, timber and metals.

Why it mattered

Phoenician shipping carried the alphabet west and made the Mediterranean a single commercial world.

1,046 BCE – 771 BCE
Society
China

Zhou dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven

The Zhou overthrew the Shang and justified their rule with the idea that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings.

Why it mattered

It gave East Asia a political theory in which rulers can legitimately be replaced — a template used for three thousand years.

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