Upper Palaeolithic people paint hundreds of animal figures on the walls of the Lascaux cave in south-western France, among the best-known works of prehistoric art.
Approximate date.
The earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles appears around the mid-4th millennium BCE in Mesopotamia, the northern Caucasus and Central Europe.
Great palaces such as Knossos are built on Crete, marking the height of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization.
Mycenaean civilization, the first advanced civilization of mainland Greece, develops fortified palace centres and Linear B writing.
Many Eastern Mediterranean states, including the Hittite Empire, collapse or decline sharply during a prolonged period of upheaval.
Ancient Greek tradition placed the war between the Greeks and Troy around the 12th century BCE; its historicity remains debated.
Traditionally, the first Olympic Games were held at Olympia in 776 BCE, a date later Greeks used for reckoning time.