From the book ‘Political Philosophy. From Plato to Mao’
Timeline: From Prehistory to Plato
ABOUT 6000-7000 YEARS AGO
Neolithic pottery fragments provide first clues as to early writing and social life.
ABOUT 3400 BC
Construction of Stonehenge begun in Ancient Britain, actually originally made of wood.
ABOUT 3000 BC
Menes, King of Upper Egyptian region, conquers the Nile Delta and becomes Pharaoh in a world previously group only by tribes or cities, of the first nation state. Egypt, at this time, was made up essentially of villages. The first written records on papyrus date from this period.
2500 BC
The first pyramid constructed. Not smooth but stepped like a ziggurat, to conduct the Pharaoh Zoser into the next world.
1700 BC
In China, an early use for writing is for fortune telling by burning bones with names and symbols scratched on them. In the Middle East, another early use is for issuing laws to the general public, greatly increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the law-making process. The 'Eye for an Eye' code is published by Hamurabi setting out precise penalties for all types of wrongdoing.
ABOUT 1500 BC
The first writing systems using alphabets, that is with symbols for combinations of consonants and vowels, are developed in the Middle East.
ABOUT 750 BC
The first true alphabet, with separate signs for consonants and vowels developed by the Greeks, who, together with the Lydians become the first people to use coins. (The first banknotes have to wait until the middle of the seventeenth century, AD 1658, when they are issued in Stockholm.)
ABOUT 500 BC
In China, Confucius teaches the five virtues of humanity, courtesy, honesty, moral wisdom and steadfastness.
ABOUT 420 BC
Another early use for writing is for the cataloguing of doctrine, which yields powerful religious works. The 'Ramayama' becomes main work in Hinduism. The first five books of the Christian Bible, the Hebrew 'Torah', traditionally ascribed to Moses, are written at this time.
399 BC
Socrates, Plato's teacher and inspiration, is executed by the first Athenian democracy, for heretical views.