Millennium:	3rd millennium BC
Centuries:	26th century BC · 25th century BC · 24th century BC
Decades:	2490s BC 2480s BC 2470s BC 2460s BC 2450s BC 2440s BC 2430s BC 2420s BC 2410s BC 2400s BC
Categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments

Contents 1 Events 2 Significant persons 3 Deaths 4 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 5 Decades and years

Events

The ruined pyramid of Userkaf at Saqqara. He was the founder of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt

• c. 2900 BC–2334 BC — Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period.
• c. 2500 BC — Scribal schools flourish throughout Sumer.
• c. 2500 BC — Cylinder seal from Sumer and its impression are made. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• c. 2500 BC — Excavation and development of the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni at Paola, Malta, a subterranean templex complex subsequently used as a necropolis.
• c. 2500 BC — Valley Temple of Khafra, Giza, is built.
• c. 2500 BC - People in Peru rely on fish and mussels for food.
• c. 2494 BC — End of Fourth Dynasty, start of Fifth Dynasty in Egypt. Construction of the Pyramids begins.
• c. 2494 BC – 2345 BC: "Sculptors at work", relief from Saqqara, Fifth Dynasty. It is now at Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt.
• c. 2494 BC – 2345 BC: "Seated Scribe" from tomb of vizier Kai, Saqqara, sculpture, Fifth dynasty of Egypt is made. It is now in Musée du Louvre, Paris.
• 2492 BC — Traditional date for the legendary foundation of the Armenian nation (see Haik).
• 2467 BC — According to Chinese tradition, in this year Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) risen from the tribes of Zhongyuan. Traditionally regarded as the starting point of Chinese Civilization.
• c. 2450 BC — End of the Early Dynastic IIIa Period and beginning of the Early Dynastic IIIb Period in Sumer.
• c. 2450 BC — Kish is lost to Khamazi tribesmen of the Kurdistan mountains; Elamites from Awan occupy parts of Sumer. (Roux 1980)
• c. 2410 BC — By this time, kings in Sumer have ceased to be automatically high priests of the city deity. (Roux 1980) Semitic infiltration and conquest of Mesopotamia begins. (1968 RD Almanac)
• Megalithic culture comes to Ireland from Spain, spreading also through Europe and the western Mediterranean. (1968 RD Almanac)
• Celts begin invading Europe from the east. (1968 RD Almanac)
• Earliest signs of Battle Axe Culture from the Caucasus. (Encyc. Americana)
• Southeastern Spain is settled from the Mediterranean, by people using Predynastic Egyptian-style pottery. (Encyc. Americana)
• Amorites and Canaanites occupy Syria and Lebanon. (Encyc. Americana)

Significant persons

• 2491 — Mythical Chinese Emperor Huang-Ti (Hirth)
• 2490 — Menkaura is Pharaoh. (Atlas of Egypt 1989)
• 2475 — Shepseskaf is Pharaoh. (Atlas of Egypt 1989)
• 2465 — Fifth dynasty of Egypt; Userkaf is Pharaoh (Atlas of Egypt 1989)
• 2458 — Sahure is Pharaoh (Atlas of Egypt 1989)
• 2446 — Neferirkare Kakai is Pharaoh (Atlas of Egypt 1989)
• 2426 — Shepseskare Isi is Pharaoh (Atlas of Egypt 1989)
• c. 2425 — Death of Eannatum of Lagash; succeeded by his nephew, Entemena, whose ally, Lugal-kinishe-dudu, unites Uruk and Ur (Roux 1980)
• 2419 — Ra'neferef is Pharaoh (Atlas of Egypt 1989)
• 2416 — Nyuserre Ini is Pharaoh (Atlas of Egypt 1989)

Deaths

• Mahalalel, son of Kenan, (3365 BC–2470 BC) according to the Hebrew Calendar

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• Harappan civilisation, at its peak, covered an area of around 480,000 km². Its heartland lay in the Indus river valley in Pakistan, but settlements spread as far as the Makran coast, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, eastern Punjab, Kutch and Saurashtra. They included cities like Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Kalibangan, Dholavira, ports like Lothal, Sutkagen-dor and Sotka-koh and numerous villages as well. They used irrigation to farm and constructed cities. The two main cities had sewage systems, bronze, trade tokens (early coins), and hieroglyphs. There were even baths at one of the villages, besides the great baths of brick in each city. Geometry of shrines and altars tends to identify these with the cities of the Yajur Veda: they might easily be a thousand years older than this conservative date.
• Cycladic marble figures depict the use of both the musical pipe and the kithara form of lyre. (Archaeology of the Olympics 1988)
• Earliest surviving ski is left in a peat bog at Hoting, Sweden, about this time. (Encyc. Americana)
• Sumerians use domestic asses on war chariots (Standard of Ur), not onagers as early interpreters claimed. (Clutton-Brock)
• Agriculture at Prieta Huaca includes cotton and bottle-gourds. (Bailey 1973)

Decades and years