4th millennium BC
millennium between 4000 BC and 3001 BC
The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 BC to 3001 BC. It marked a critical turning point in human history, characterized by the transition from late Neolithic agricultural societies into urban, state-level civilizations.
This millennium witnessed the invention of writing, the initial spread of bronze metallurgy, the adoption of the wheeled vehicle, and the rise of the first primary states in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, effectively initiating recorded history.
The city states of Sumer and the (Predynastic) Kingdom of Egypt were established and grew to prominence. Agriculture spread widely across Eurasia.
World population growth relaxed after the burst that came about from the Neolithic Revolution. World population was largely stable in this time at roughly 50 million, growing at an average of 0.027% per year.
Culture
Near East
c. 3250 BC – Potter's wheel in use in Ancient Near East
Mesopotamia
4100–3100 BC – the Uruk period, with emerging Sumerian hegemony during the Uruk Expansion and development of Proto-cuneiform writing; base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, potter's wheel and wheel; the Chalcolithic proceeds into the Early Bronze Age. Dams, canals, stone sculptures using inclined plane and lever in Sumer and the Tigris–Euphrates Valley
c. 3100 BC?: The Anu Ziggurat and White Temple are built in Uruk.
“4th millennium BC” enters the record as millennium between 4000 BC and 3001 BC. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what millennium and between can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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