Editing 4th millennium BC (section)

==Culture==
{{more citations needed|date=September 2018}}
{{Neolithic}}
[[File:Priest-king from Uruk, Mesopotamia, Iraq, c. 3000 BCE. The Iraq Museum.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Sumer]]ian priest-king from [[Uruk]], Mesopotamia, circa 3300–3000 BC]]
;Near East
{{main|Ancient Near East}}
*[[Mesopotamia]]
**4100–3100 BC – the [[Uruk period]], with emerging [[Sumer]]ian hegemony during the Uruk Expansion and development of [[Proto-cuneiform]] [[history of writing|writing]]; [[base-60]] [[mathematics]], [[astronomy]] and [[astrology]], [[legal system|civil law]], complex [[hydrology]], the [[sailboat]], [[potter's wheel]] and [[wheel]]; the [[Chalcolithic]] proceeds into the [[Early Bronze Age]].
**[[3500 BC|3500]]–[[2340 BC]] – [[Sumer]]: [[carts|wheeled carts]], [[potter's wheel]], White Temple [[ziggurat]], bronze [[tool]]s and [[weapons]].<ref>Federico Lara Peinado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid: "La Civilización Sumeria". ''Historia'' 16, 1999.</ref>
**First to Fourth dynasty of [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]] in [[Mesopotamia]].
**Sumerian temple of Janna at [[Eridu]] erected.
**Temple at [[Al Ubaidi|Al-Ubaid]] and tomb of Mes-Kalam-Dug built near [[Ur]], [[Chaldea]].
**[[3000 BC]] – [[Tin]] is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time.<ref>Roberts, J: ''History of the World''. Penguin, 1994.</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2016}}
**The [[cuneiform]] script proper emerges from pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century BC, found at Jemdet Nasr.
**Kura-Araxes culture expands Southwards towards Sumer. 
**Possible reigns of Lugalbanda and Enmerkar prior to 3250 BC. 
**Long distanced trade with polities in modern-day Afghanistan. 
**[[Dam]]s, [[canal]]s, [[stone sculpture]]s using [[inclined plane]] and [[lever]] in Sumer.
**[[Urkesh]] (northern Syria) founded during the fourth millennium BC possibly by the [[Hurrians]].
**The [[Courtyard]] is introduced to Mesopotamia.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdlhaAfK1sYC&dq=Houses+in+Ancient+Sumeria&pg=PA148 |title=Dictionary of the Ancient Near East |year=2000 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=9780812235579}}</ref>
*Persian plateau
**4000 BC – [[Susa]] is a center of [[pottery]] production.
**{{Circa|4000 BC}} – [[Beaker (archaeology)|Beaker]] from [[Susa]] (modern [[Shush, Iran]]) is made. It is now at [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris.
**[[Proto-Elamite]] from 3200 BC.
*Anatolia and Caucasus
**{{Circa|3700 BC}} to 3000 BC – The [[Maykop culture]] of the [[Caucasus]], contemporary to the Kurgan culture, is a candidate for the origin of [[Bronze]] production and thus the [[Bronze Age]].
[[File:Shengavit Settlement 2.jpg|thumb|[[Shengavit Settlement]], {{Circa|3300 BC}}]]
**3400–2000 BC – [[Kura-Araxes culture|Kura-Araxes]]: earliest evidence found on the Ararat plain.
[[File:Kingscorpion.jpg|thumb|Pharaoh [[Scorpion II]] on the [[Scorpion Macehead]], {{Circa|3200 BC}}]]
*Egypt
** 4000–3000 BC – [[Naqada]] culture on the [[Nile]]. First hieroglyphs appear thus far around 3500 BC as found on labels in a ruler's tomb at Abydos.
** [[Predynastic Egypt|Predynastic pharaoh]]s [[Tiu (pharaoh)|Tiu]], [[Thesh]], [[Hsekiu]], [[Wazner]], [[Ro (pharaoh)|Ro]], [[King Scorpion|Serket]], [[Narmer]].
**[[3500 BC|3500]]–[[3400 BC]] – [[Jar]] with boat designs, from [[Hierakonpolis]] (today in the [[Brooklyn Museum]]) is created. [[Predynastic Egypt]].
**c. [[3150 BC]] – [[Predynastic Egypt|Predynastic]] period ended in [[Ancient Egypt]]. [[Early Dynastic Period of Egypt|Early Dynastic]] ([[Early Dynastic Period of Egypt|Archaic]]) period started (according to French [[Egyptologist]] [[Nicolas Grimal]]). The period includes 1st and 2nd Dynasties.
**{{Circa|3100 BC}} – [[Narmer Palette]].
**[[Sail]]s used in the [[Nile]].
**[[Mastaba]]s, the predecessors of the [[Egyptian pyramids]].
**[[Harp]]s and [[flute]]s played in Egypt.
**[[Lyre]]s and double clarinets ([[arghul]], [[mijwiz]]) played in Egypt.
**Earliest known [[numeral system|numerals]] in Egypt.

;Europe
{{main|Neolithic Europe}}
[[File:Yamnaya Steppe Pastoralists.jpg|thumb|280px|Bronze Age spread of [[Yamnaya culture|Yamnaya]] [[Western Steppe Herders|steppe pastoralist]] ancestry into two subcontinents—Europe and South Asia—from {{Circa|3300}} to 1500 BC.<ref>{{cite news |title=Steppe migrant thugs pacified by Stone Age farming women |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170404084429.htm |work=[[ScienceDaily]] |publisher=Faculty of Science – University of Copenhagen |date=4 April 2017}}</ref>]]
* [[Crete]]: Rise of [[Minoan civilization]].
**{{Circa|4000 BC}} – First neolithic settlers in the island of [[Santorini|Thera]] ([[Santorini]]), Greece, migrating probably from [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Crete]].
*[[Pontic–Caspian steppe]]
** 3500–2300 BC – The [[Yamna culture]] ("Kurgan culture"), succeeding the [[Sredny Stog culture]] on the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This culture is believed to have been the locus of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]], and thus the [[Urheimat]], or point of origin, of the [[Proto Indo-European language]], according to the [[Kurgan hypothesis]].
** 5500–2750 BC – The [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture]] has cities with 15,000 citizens, eastern Europe.
**[[Kurgan culture]] of what is now [[Southern Federal District|Southern Russia]] and [[Ukraine]]; possibly the first [[domestication of the horse]].
*Balkans
**c. [[3500 BC]] – Figures of a man and a woman, from [[Cernavodă]], [[Romania]], are made. They are now at [[National Museum of Romanian History|National Historical Museum]], [[Bucharest]].
**c. [[3138 BC]] [[Ljubljana Marshes Wheel]] is a wooden [[wheel]] that was found in the [[Ljubljana Marsh]] in [[Slovenia]].<ref name="Slovenia">{{cite web |title=World's Oldest Wheel Found in Slovenia |url=http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/media_room/background_information/culture/worlds_oldest_wheel_found_in_slovenia/ |date=March 2003 |publisher=Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia |author=Gasser, Aleksander |access-date=2015-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826021129/http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/media_room/background_information/culture/worlds_oldest_wheel_found_in_slovenia/ |archive-date=2016-08-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Radiocarbon dating showed that it is approximately 5,150 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered.
*c. 4000–2000 BC – People and animals, a detail of rock-shelter painting in [[El Cogul|Cogul]] ([[Roca dels Moros]]), [[Lleida]], Spain, are painted. It is now at [[Archaeology Museum of Catalonia]], [[Barcelona]].
*[[Arzachena culture|Arzachena]] & [[Ozieri culture]]s.
*[[Malta]][[File:Ggantija Temples, Xaghra, Gozo.jpg|thumb|The [[Ġgantija]] temples are the earliest of the [[Megalithic Temples of Malta]] ]]
**[[3600 BC]] – Construction of the [[Ġgantija]] megalithic temple complex on the [[Gozo|Island of Gozo]]: the world's oldest extant unburied free-standing structures, and the world's oldest religious structures. (See [[Göbekli Tepe]] for older, buried religious structures.)
**[[3600 BC|3600]]–[[3200 BC]] – Construction of the first temple within the [[Mnajdra]] solar temple complex, containing "furniture" such as stone benches and tables, that set it apart from other European megalith constructions.
**[[Neolithic decline|Great Neolithic Plague]] occurs from circa 5450 BC to circa 2700 BC. This ensures for the large scaled expansions of the later early bronze age. 
**[[3600 BC|3600]]–[[3000 BC]] – Construction of the Ta' Ħaġrat and Kordin III temples.
**[[3200 BC|3250]]–[[3000 BC]] – Construction of three megalithic temples at [[Tarxien]].
**[[32nd century BC|3200]]–[[2500 BC]] – Construction of the [[Ħaġar Qim]] megalithic temple complex, featuring both solar and lunar alignments.
*Northern Europe
* 4000–2700 BC – The [[Scandinavian prehistory|Funnelbeaker culture]], Scandinavia, originated in southern parts of Europe and slowly advanced up through today's Uppland.
**[[3300 BC|3300]]–[[2900 BC]] – Construction of the [[Newgrange]] solar [[observatory]]/passage tomb in Ireland.[[File:Tustrup gravpladsen (Norddjurs Kommune).Jættestue.Gang.2.47886.ajb.jpg|thumb|Tustrup-dysserne, the largest [[passage grave]] in Eastern [[Jutland]], is an example of [[Funnelbeaker culture]] circa 3200 BC]]
**c. [[3100 BC|3100]]–[[2600 BC]] – [[Neolithic]] settlement at [[Skara Brae]] in the [[Orkney Islands]], [[Scotland]], is inhabited.
**Construction in England of the [[Sweet Track]], the world's first known engineered roadway.
**[[Garth tsunami]] in the [[Northern Isles]].
** c. [[3100 BC]] – The earliest phase of the [[Stonehenge]] monument (a circular earth bank and ditch).
**The [[Céide Fields]] are developed, the first signs of the eventual complete [[deforestation]] of [[Ireland]].
*c. [[3300 BC]] – [[Ötzi the Iceman]] dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in a [[glacier]] of the [[Ötztal Alps]]. His [[cause of death]] is believed to be [[homicide]].

;Central Asia
** 3500–2500 BC – [[Afanasevo culture|Afanasevo]]: Siberia, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan—late copper and early Bronze Age.
**{{Circa|4000 BC}} – [[Domestication of the horse|Horses are domesticated]] in the western [[Eurasian Steppes]] in what is now northern [[Kazakhstan]] (see the [[Botai culture]]).
**Bactria Margiana civilization (circa 3000 BC) alongside trade routes connection with Proto-dynastic Egypt. 

;East Asia
* Neolithic Chinese settlements. They produced silk and pottery (chiefly the [[Yangshao culture|Yangshao]] and the [[Longshan culture]]s), wore hemp clothing, and domesticated pigs and dogs.
* 4000–[[2500 BC]] – Vietnamese Bronze Age culture. The [[Đồng Đậu Culture]], produced many wealthy bronze objects.
[[File:Statuette Mehrgarh.jpg|thumb|190px|Fertility figurine from [[Mehrgarh]], [[Indus Valley]], c. 3000 BC]]
;Indian Subcontinent
*[[Mehrgarh]] III–VI
*[[3500 BC]] [[Lost wax|Metalcasting]] began in the [[Mohenjodaro]] area.
*[[3300 BC]] – [[Bronze Age]] starts in [[Indus Valley civilization|Indus Valley]] ([[Harappa]]).
**[[Drainage]] and [[Sewage collection and disposal]]
*[[Ochre Coloured Pottery culture]]

;Americas
*c. [[3600 BC]] – In [[Colombia]], first rupestrian art [[Chiribiquete National Park#Rock art|Chiribiquete]] ([[Caquetá Department|Caquetá]]).
*c. 3000 BC – First [[pottery]] in [[Colombia]] at [[Puerto Hormiga archaeological site|Puerto Hormiga]] ([[Magdalena Department|Magdalena]]), considered one of the first attempts of pottery of the [[New World]]. First settlement at [[Bolívar Department#History|Puerto Badel]] ([[Bolívar Department|Bolívar]]).
*c. [[3600 BC]] – Evidence of maize domestication appear in the Valley of [[Tehuacán]].
*[[Norte Chico civilization]] in Northern [[Peru]] starts.

;Australia
* c. 3000 BC – The [[Sydney rock engravings]] in present-day ([[Sydney]], [[Australia]]).<ref>[http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2016/03/top-7-aboriginal-rock-art-sites/ Australia's top 7 Aboriginal rock art sites], ''Australian Geographic''</ref>

;Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa remains in the [[Later Stone Age|Paleolithic period]], except for the earliest neolithization of the [[Sahel]] following the [[African humid period#End|desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BC]].<ref name="Manning 2014">{{cite journal |title=The demographic response to Holocene climate change in the Sahara |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=101 |pages=28–35 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.07.003 |year=2014 |last1=Manning |first1=Katie |last2=Timpson |first2=Adrian |bibcode=2014QSRv..101...28M |url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1450029/1/1-s2.0-S0277379114002728-main.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1450029/1/1-s2.0-S0277379114002728-main.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Kopytoff 1989">Igor Kopytoff, ''The African Frontier: The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies'' (1989), 9–10 (cited after [http://amightytree.org/niger-congo-languages-and-history/ Igbo Language Roots and (Pre)-History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717224506/http://amightytree.org/niger-congo-languages-and-history/ |date=2019-07-17 }}, ''A Mighty Tree'', 2011).</ref> As the grasslands of the Sahara began drying after 3900 BC, herders spread into the Nile Valley and into eastern Africa ([[Eburran industry|Eburan 5]], [[Elmenteitan]]). The desiccation of the Sahara and the associated neolithisation of West Africa is also cited as a possible cause for the dispersal of the [[Niger-Congo]] linguistic phylum.<ref name="Manning 2014" /><ref name="Kopytoff 1989" />