16th century BC

"1500s BC" redirects here. For the decade, see 1500s BC (decade).

The 16th century BC is a century which lasted from 1600 BC to 1501 BC.

Events

The royal Grave Circle in Mycenae, Greece (left) and the 'Mask of Agamemnon' (right) found in one of the graves.

• 1700 BC – 1500 BC: Hurrian conquests.
• 1601 BC: Sharma-Adad II became the King of Assyria.
• c. 1600 BC: 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): Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa.
• c. 1600 BC: The date of the earliest discovered rubber balls.
• c. 1600 BC: Early Mycenaean culture: weapons, Cyclopean walls, and chariots.
• c. 1600 BC: Unetice culture ends in Czech Republic, eastern Europe
• Development of the windmill in Persia.
• Unetice culture.
• 1595 BC: Sack of Babylon by the Hittite king Mursilis I.
• c. 1595 BC: The overthrow of the ruling Amorite dynasty in Aleppo, Syria.
• 1570 BC: Cretan palaces at Knossos and other centres flourish despite disasters.
• 1567 BC: Egypt: End of Fifteenth Dynasty, end of Sixteenth Dynasty, end of Seventeenth Dynasty, start of Eighteenth Dynasty.
• 1558 BC: Shang Dynasty of China established (according to the Bamboo Annals).
• 1556 BC: Cecrops I builds or rebuilds Athens following the great flood of Deucalion and the end of the Golden age. He becomes the first of several Kings of Athens whose life account is considered part of Greek mythology.
• c. 1550 BC: The city of Mycenae, located in the northeast Peloponnesus, comes to dominate the rest of Achaea, giving its name to Mycenaean civilization.
• 1550 BC: End of Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt, start of the Eighteenth Dynasty upon the coronation of Ahmose I (Low Chronology).
• 1530 BC: End of the First Dynasty of Babylon and the start of the Kassite Dynasty—see History of Iraq.
• 1525 BC: End of Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt.
• c. 1512 BC: The flood of Deucalion, according to O'Flaherty, Augustine, Eusebius, and Isidore (bishop of Seville).
• 1506 BC: Cecrops I, legendary King of Athens, dies after a reign of 50 years. Having survived his own son, he is succeeded by Cranaus.
• 1504 BC: Egypt started to conquer Nubia and the Levant.
• c. 1500 BC: Many scholars date early parts of the Rig Veda to roughly the 16th century.
• c. 1500 BC: Queen Hatsheput in Egypt (18th Dynasty).
• c. 1500 BC: The element Mercury has been discovered in Egyptian tombs dating from this decade.
• c. 1500 BC: Settlers from Crete, Greece move to Miletus, Turkey.
• c. 1500 BC: Early traces of Maya civilization developing in Belize.
• c. 1500 BC: The Phoenicians develop an alphabet—see Timeline of communication technology.
• c. 1500 BC: Indo-Aryan migration is often dated to the 17th to 16th centuries.

Significant persons

Although many human societies were literate in this period, some individual persons mentioned in this article ought to be considered legendary rather than historical.

• Tang of Shang, first ruler of Shang Dynasty, ruled China for 29 years since 1600 BC according to the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project.
• Kamose, last Pharaoh of the 17th Dynasty of Egypt (1575 BC or 1573 BC–1550 BC).
• Ahmose I, Pharaoh and founder of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt (1550 BC–1525 BC).
• Hatshepsut, second female Pharaoh of Egypt c.1473 BC (the first one was Sobekneferu)

Sovereign states

See: List of sovereign states in the 16th century BC.