| 1200 B.C.E. |
At
the Royal Palace at Urgarit, a
port city on the coast of Northern Syria, a palace library of clay cuneiform tablets
is established together with two private libraries.
These may be the earliest known private libraries. |
| 1200 B.C.E. |
Chinese script is thought to have developed
independently of cuneiform around this date. |
| Circa 1050 B.C.E. |
Around this time
the twelve tribes of Israel unite to form the Kingdom
of Israel. Saul
is the first King of Israel. He unifies the tribes under a single Israelite
authority, but, according to the Torah, due to his disobedience to God,
he rules for only two years. The second King of Israel, David, establishes
Jerusalem as Israel's national capital. |
| Circa 1037 B.C.E. |
David's second son by Bathsheba, Solomon,
succeeds his father to the throne of the Kingdom of Israel. He reigns for
40 years during which he builds the First Temple, also known as Solomon's
Temple, which preserves the Ark
of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments. |
| 1000 B.C.E. |
The Phoenician alphabet
is derived from the Proto-Canaanite
alphabet. It is used by the Phoenicians to
write the Phoenician language.
Modern alphabets thought to have descended from Phoenician include
Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Cyrillic. |
| Circa 900 B.C.E. |
A stone inscription discovered in Veracruz, Mexico, containing a previously unknown writing system, and characteristics "strikingly similar to to the imagery of Olmec civilization," is thought to date from this time or earlier. It may be the earliest example of writing in the Western Hemisphere. |
| Circa 900 B.C.E. |
The Greek
alphabet originates about
this time. It is the world's oldest alphabet in
use today. |
