Axial Age

The concept of the Axial Age, associated with the work of Karl Jaspers, suggests that the 1st millennium BC saw a particularly intense period of intellectual and religious development which continues to resonate in thought and society.

The flowering of Greek philosophy, the crystallisation of monotheism with Zoroaster and/or his successors, and the founding of Buddhism and Confucianism, for example, date from the Axial Age period.