20th century BC

"2000 B.C." redirects here. For the music album, see 2000 B.C. (Before Can-I-Bus).

The 20th century BC was a century which lasted from the year 2000 BC to 1901 BC.

Events

The pyramid ruin of Amenemhet I at Lisht. He was the founder of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt

c. 2000 BC:

• Farmers and herders traveled south from Ethiopia and settled in Kenya.
• Dawn of the Capacha Culture in modern-day Colima, Mexico.
• Humans settle in Matanchén, modern day Nayarit, Mexico
• Arrival of the ancestors of the Latins in Italy.
• Town of Mantua was founded.
• First of the Minoan palaces on Crete. Site of palace complex Knossos started to become occupied.
• Bronze Age began in north Ancient China.
• Middle Jōmon period ended in Japan.
• Decline of Harappan civilization began.
• The Harappa Torso was sculpted by a member of the Indus Valley culture.
• Vessel, from Asahi Mound, Toyama Prefecture, was made. Jōmon period. It is now kept at Collection of Tokyo University.
• Dogū, from Kurokoma, Yamanashi Prefecture, was made. Jōmon period. It is now kept at Tokyo National Museum.
• Stonehenge construction largely completed.
• Dawn of the Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens pilings in the Philippines
• Horses were tamed and used for transport.
• The last woolly mammoth goes extinct on Wrangel island.
• c. 2000 BC - 1900 BC: the "Priest-king torso" was sculpted at Mohenjo-Daro, part of the Indus Valley civilization.
• c. 1995 BC: Pharaoh Mentuhotep II, Eleventh dynasty of Egypt dies.
• c. 1995 BC: Egypt: Pharaoh Mentuhotep IV died. End of Eleventh Dynasty. Pharaoh Amenemhat I started to rule. Start of Twelfth Dynasty.
• c. 1985 BC: Political authority became less centralized in Ancient Egypt.
• c. 1985 BC – 1795 BC:
• Rock-cut tombs at Beni Hasan were made. Twelfth Dynasty.
• "Hippopotamus", from the tomb of Senbi (governor) (Tomb B.3) at Meir was made. Twelfth Dynasty. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• February 27, 1953 BC: A very close alignment of the naked-eye planets took place in which these planets are together in a span of 4.3 degrees.
• 1974 BC – Erishum I became the thirty-third ruler of Assyria.
• c. 1942 BC: The so-called king of Leubingen (today part of Sömmerda) was buried in a large barrow within a 66-foot-wide (20 m) stone cairn inside a ring ditch.
• 1932 BC: Amorite conquest of Ur.
• c. 1928 BC – 1895 BC: "Harvest scene", tempera facsimile by Nina de Garis Davies of wall painting in the tomb of Khnumhotep II, Beni Hasan. Twelfth Dynasty.
• c. 1920 BC Jishi Gorge flood. It may have sparked the beginning of the first Chinese dynasty (Xia, Erlitou culture)
• 1913 BC – 1903 BC: Egyptian-Nubian war.
• c. 1900 BC – Shalim-ahum and his son Ilu-shuma began to rule the city of Assur at around this time.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• c. 2000 BC – Glass appears.
• 2000 BC – In the Old Assyrian Empire, the Sumerian cuneiform had evolved into Old Assyrian cuneiform, with many modifications to Sumerian orthography.
• 1950 BC—The copper bar cubit of Nippur defines the Sumerian cubit (approximately 51.72 cm).
• c. 1900 BC - Cacao is domesticated by the Mokaya in Guatemala.

Sovereign states

See: List of sovereign states in the 20th century BC.