1609–1600 BC

Events and trends

• Egypt — End of Fourteenth Dynasty.
• The creation of one of the oldest surviving astronomical documents, a copy of which was found in the Babylonian library of Ashurbanipal: a 21-year record of the appearances of Venus (which the early Babylonians called Nindaranna).
• The end of the Indus Valley civilization.
• The overthrow of the ruling Amorite dynasty in Aleppo, Syria.
• The date of the earliest discovered rubber balls.
• Egypt conquered by Asian tribes known as the Hyksos — see History of ancient Israel and Judah.
• 1600 BC — Shang Dynasty instituted in China.
• 1600 BC — Tumulus culture started.
• c. 1600 BC — Nebra skydisk created.
• c. 1600 BC — The foundations of the Olmec civilization in Southern Mexico.
• c. 1600 BC — Cycladic civilization ends.
• c. 1600 BC–1550 BC — "Mask of Agamemnon" Funerary mask, from the royal tombs at Mycenae, Greece, is made. Grave Circle A. It is now at National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
• c. 1600 BC–1200 BC — Hittite (Anatolia) iron tools and weapons.
• c. 1600 BC – 1200 BC — Tiryns, Ancient Greece, is inhabited.
• c. 1600 BC — Hittites establish capital at Hattushash (near modern Boghazkeui, Turkey).

Significant people

Deaths

• 1602 BC — Shem, son of Noah, according to the Hebrew Calendar