1500s BC

Centuries: 17th century BC – 16th century BC – 15th century BC

Decades: 1550s BC 1540s BC 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC – 1500s BC – 1490s BC 1480s BC 1470s BC 1460s BC 1450s BC

Events and trends

• Stonehenge built in Wiltshire, England
• The element Mercury has been discovered in Egyptian tombs dating from this decade
• Settlers from Crete, Greece move to Miletus, Turkey
• Early traces of Maya civilization developing in Belize
• The Phoenicians develop an alphabet – see Timeline of communication technology
• 1506 BC – Cecrops, legendary King of Athens, dies after a reign of 50 years. Having survived his own son, he is succeeded by Cranaus.
• Egypt conquers Nubia and the Levant (1504 BC – 1492 BC)
• Earliest evidence (from archaeological excavations) of a settlement at Aylesbury, England.
• 1500 BC – 100 BC – Indus valley civilization – series of raids or small scale migrations by the Aryans from the North-West of Indian subcontinent.

Significant people

• Thutmose II of Egypt, Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1518 – 1504 BC).
• Thutmose III of Egypt, Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1503 BC – 1450 BC).