c. 1,500 BCE
Exploration
Oceania
Lapita voyaging into the Pacific
Lapita seafarers crossed open ocean to Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa with crops and livestock.
Why it mattered
Began the greatest maritime expansion before the age of sail.
Bronze Age
1,500 BCE
3 recorded milestones at this point in the record.
c. 1,500 BCE
Medicine
South Asia
Ayurvedic and Vedic medical tradition
South Asian texts codified diagnosis, diet, surgery and pharmacology from plants.
Why it mattered
One of the world's oldest continuous medical systems.
c. 1,500 BCE
Exploration
Mediterranean
Glass ingot trade of the Uluburun
A single shipwreck carried copper, tin, glass and ivory across the Mediterranean.
Why it mattered
Reveals a dense Bronze Age trading world.
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Nearby in the record
1,650 BCEScience
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
Egypt
c. 1,600 BCECommunication
Alphabetic writing
Sinai and Levant
c. 1,600 BCECommunication
Shang oracle bone script
China
c. 1,400 BCETechnology
Hittite iron working
Anatolia
c. 1,350 BCESociety
Nubian pyramid kingdoms of Kush
Nubia
c. 1,250 BCEAgriculture
Water-lifting shaduf in the Nile fields
Egypt