Second millennium BCE

Millennia:	3rd millennium BC 2nd millennium BC 1st millennium BC
Centuries:	20th century BC 19th century BC 18th century BC 17th century BC 16th century BC 15th century BC 14th century BC 13th century BC 12th century BC 11th century BC

Bronze Age This box:
↑ Chalcolithic
Near East (c. 3300–1200 BC) Anatolia, Caucasus, Elam, Egypt, Levant, Mesopotamia, Sistan, Canaan Bronze Age collapse South Asia (c. 3000–1200 BC) Ochre Coloured Pottery Cemetery H Europe (c. 3200–600 BC) Aegean, Caucasus, Catacomb culture, Minoan, Srubna culture, Beaker culture, Unetice culture, Tumulus culture, Urnfield culture, Hallstatt culture, Apennine culture, Canegrate culture, Golasecca culture, Atlantic Bronze Age, Bronze Age Britain, Nordic Bronze Age China (c. 2000–700 BC) Erlitou, Erligang
arsenical bronze writing, literature sword, chariot
↓Iron Age

Holocene Epoch This box:
↑
Holocene
Preboreal (10.3–9 ka) Boreal (9–7.5 ka) Atlantic (7.5–5 ka) Subboreal (5–2.5 ka) Subatlantic (2.5 ka–present)

The 2nd millennium BC spans the years 2000 through 1000 BC. It marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.

Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. The alphabet develops. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot. Chariot warfare and population movements lead to violent changes at the center of the millennium, a new order emerges with Greek dominance of the Aegean and the rise of the Hittite Empire. The end of the millennium sees the transition to the Iron Age. World population begins to rise steadily, reaching some 50 million towards 1000 BC.

Near East (c. 3300–1200 BC)

South Asia (c. 3000–1200 BC)

Europe (c. 3200–600 BC)

China (c. 2000–700 BC)

arsenical bronze
writing, literature
sword, chariot

Spending much of their energies in trying to recuperate from the chaotic situation that existed at the turn of the millennium, the most powerful civilizations of the time, Egypt and Mesopotamia, turned their attention to more modest goals. The Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and their contemporary Kings of Babylon, of Amorite origin, brought good governance without much tyranny, and favoured elegant art and architecture. Farther east, the Indus Valley civilization was in a period of decline, possibly as a result of intense, ruinous flooding.

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