c. 1,600 BCE
Communication
Sinai and Levant
Alphabetic writing
Proto-Sinaitic script reduces writing to a few dozen sound signs.
Why it mattered
Literacy escaped the scribal class; anyone could learn to read in weeks.
Bronze Age
1,600 BCE
2 recorded milestones at this point in the record.
c. 1,600 BCE
Communication
China
Shang oracle bone script
Diviners inscribed questions on scapulae and turtle plastrons.
Why it mattered
The direct ancestor of Chinese writing.
Sign in to amend this page or add a milestone — every edit is signed and kept in the record.
Nearby in the record
c. 1,800 BCEScience
Babylonian mathematics
Babylonia
1,754 BCESociety
Code of Hammurabi
Babylonia
1,650 BCEScience
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
Egypt
c. 1,500 BCEExploration
Lapita voyaging into the Pacific
Oceania
c. 1,500 BCEMedicine
Ayurvedic and Vedic medical tradition
South Asia
c. 1,500 BCEExploration
Glass ingot trade of the Uluburun
Mediterranean