840s BC
decade
This article concerns the period 849 BC – 840 BC.
Events and trends
842 BC—Shalmaneser III devastates the territory of Damascus; Israel and the Phoenician cities send tribute.
841 BC—The Compatriots Rebellion in Western Zhou dynasty. The Chinese people riot against King Li of Zhou, who is then sent to exile at a place called Zhi. The Gonghe Regency, begins. Records of the Grand Historian (compiled by historian Sima Qian by 91 BC) regards this year as the first year of consecutive annual dating of Chinese history. Any earlier events in Chinese history cannot be confidently dated by historians.
841 BC—The First Assyrian Invasion of Israel.
Deaths
849 BC—Elijah, ascends to heaven in a whirlwind.
845 BC—Pherecles, King of Athens, dies after a reign of 19 years and is succeeded by his son Ariphron.
841 BC—Marquis Jing of Jin, the sixth ruler of the state of Jin.
“840s BC” enters the record as decade. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what 840s and decade can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“840s BC” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, 840s and decade provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1450665. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow 840s BC primary sources, 840s BC archive and 840s research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “840s BC” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.