Literature Timeline
20,000 b.c.e. — 1399

c. 20,000-8,000 B.C.E. Nomadic migrations cross Bering Land Bridge and populate the Americas

c. 7500-7000 B.C.E. Nomadic migrations from Bering Land Bridge reach tip of South America

c. 3000-1500 B.C.E. Stonehenge and other megaliths appear in Britain, France, Scandinavia, and the Mediterranean Islands

c. 3000 B.C.E. Cuneiform (Sumerian) and hieroglyphics (Eygptian) developed

2700 B.C.E. Epic of Gilgamesh (Babylon)

c. 2500 B.C.E. Great Pyramid of Cheops built in Egypt

c. 2000 B.C.E.-500 C.E. Early Southwestern Native American cultures

c. 1580 B.C.E. Book of the Dead (Egypt)

c.1500-1200 B.C.E. Vedas (India)

c. 1200 B.C.E. Chinese develop writing

c. 800-700 B.C.E. Rise of Greek city-states; Homer's Iliad and Odyssey

753 B.C.E. Founding of Rome

c. 750-700 B.C.E. Greek Poet, Hesiod's Theogony

00 B.C.E. Upanishads (India)

563-483 B.C.E. Life of Buddha (India)

551-479 B.C.E. Life of Confucius (China)

c. 550 B.C.E. Aesop's Fables (Greece)

525-456 B.C.E. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and the tradition of Greek dramatic tragedy

509 B.C.E. Beginning of Roman Republic

439-399 B.C.E. Life of Socrates (Greek philosopher)

427-347 B.C.E. Life of Plato (Greek philosopher)

c. 400 B.C.E. Pentateuch established (Hebrew scripture, based on older oral tradition)

c. 300 B.C.E.-900 C.E. Mayan civilization flourishes in what is now Mexico and Guatemala

146-133 B.C.E. Decline of Roman Republic

58-51 B.C.E. Peak of Julius Caesar's power in Rome

c. 4 B.C.E.-30 C.E. Life of Jesus

29 C.E. Virgil's Aeneid (Latin)

413-426 Augustine of Hippo's City of God (theological synthesis of Platonism and the New Testament)

475 Fall of Rome

570-632 Life of Mohammed (b. Mecca)

656 Koran (Islam) written

850-900 Viking expansion throughout Europe

c. 1000 Beowulf, "The Dream of the Rood," "The Battle of Maldon," "The Wanderer" (Anglo-Saxon)

1000 Formation of Iroquoian Confederacy (North America)

1066 Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror

1095-1270 Crusades

1100-1500 Inca civilization in Cuzco region

1215 Magna Carta signed by England's King John (limits power of crown)

1273 Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica (systematizes Christian theology using Aristotelean concepts of reason)

1265 First English Parliament established

c. 1280 Moses de Leon's The Zohar (Jewish cabalistic text)

1300s-1500s Aztec culture flourishes in Mexico

1300 Beginning of classical revival in Europe

1310 Dante's Comedy written (Italian)

1338-1453 Hundred Years War between England and France

1348-1375 Black Death (bubonic plague) kills one-third of Europe's population.

1375 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English)

1386 Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales