This timeline tries to compile dates of important historical events that happened in or that led to the rise of the Middle East. The Middle East is the territory that comprises today's Egypt, the Persian Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Middle East, with its particular characteristics, was not to emerge until the late second millennium AD. To refer to a concept similar to that of today's Middle East but earlier in time, the term ancient Near East is used. This list is intended as a timeline of the history of the Middle East. For more detailed information, see articles on the histories of individual countries. See ancient Near East for ancient history of the Middle East. Paleolithic period 16000 BC – Kebaran period 13050 to 7050 BC – Natufian culture 12500 BC – The world's oldest evidence of bread-making has been found at Shubayqa 1, in Jordan 11000 BC – The oldest known evidence of beer found in Mount Carmel Neolithic period 10000 BC – Pre-Pottery Neolithic A 10000 BC – earliest neolithic sanctuaries at Göbekli Tepe in southern Anatolia 9300 BC – first cultivating of wild emmer wheat in Netiv HaGdud and other sites in Jordan by hunter gatherers 10000 to 8800 BC — Shepherd Neolithic 9th millennium B.C. 8500 BC – first domestication of the cow (taurine line from the aurochs near Çayönü Tepesi in southeastern Anatolia and Dja'de el-Mughara in northern Iraq). 8400 to 8100 BC – first settlements at Nevali Cori in Anatolia 8200 to 7650 BC – first domestication of emmer wheat near Damascus, Syria 8th millennium BC 8000 BC – human settlements at Sagalassos in southwest Anatolia 8000 BC – first domestication of goats from the bezoar ibex in Iran 8000 BC – first domestication of einkorn wheat near Karaca Dağ in southeast Anatolia. 8000 BC – first domestication of Durum wheat near Karaca Dağ in the Levant and the Ethiopian Highlands 7500 BC – Çatalhöyük, very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia 7000 BC – Jarmo, one of the oldest agricultural communities, in northern Iraq 7th millennium BC 7000 to 6500 BC – early undecorated, unglazed and low-fired pottery in Hassuna 7000 BC — settlements in Byblos 7000 BC — Neolithic farmers start to move in to Europe, stimulating the European neolithic for over 3