thousand years 6000 to 4000 BC – invention of the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia 6th millennium BC 6000 BC – first irrigation and flood control in Mesopotamia and Egypt 6000 to 4300 BC – first sail boats in Mesopotamia 6000 to 3000 BC — Pre-dynastic Egypt 5600 BC – Black Sea floods according to the Black Sea deluge theory 5509 BC – date of creation according to the Byzantine calendar 5500 BC – first large scale agriculture by the Sumerians and in the valley of the Nile 5403 BC – expulsion from the Garden of Eden according to the Genealogies of Genesis 5100 BC – first Temples in South Mesopotamia 5000 BC — Byblos is named a city 5000 BC — Aleppo is settled 5th millennium BC 4500 BC – civilization of Susa and Kish in Mesopotamia 4570 to 4250 BC – Merimde culture on the Nile 4400 to 4000 BC – Badari culture on the Nile 4000 BC – first use of light wooden ploughs in Mesopotamia 4000 BC – Egyptians discover how to make bread using yeast Ancient Near East 4th millennium BC 4000 to 3000 BC – domestication of the African wild ass in Egypt or Mesopotamia, producing the donkey 4000 BC – city of Ur in Mesopotamia 4000 to 3100 BC – Uruk period 4000 to 3000 BC – Naqada culture on the Nile 3760 BC – date of creation according to some interpretations of Jewish chronology 3650 BC – The foundation of the city of Gaziantep 3600 BC – first civilization in the world: Sumer (city-states) in modern-day southern Iraq 3500 BC – City of Ebla in Syria is founded 3500 to 3000 BC – one of the first appearances of wheeled vehicles in Mesopotamia 3500 BC – beginning of desertification of the Sahara: the shift from a habitable region to a barren desert 3500 BC – first examples of Sumerian writing in Mesopotamia, in the cities of Uruk and Susa (cuneiform writings) 3500 BC – first cities in Egypt 3300 BC – Earliest Cuneiform writings 3200 BC – Iry-Hor reigns as pharaoh of Upper Egypt, the earliest historical person known by name 3100 BC – King Narmer unifies the Upper and Lower Egyptian Kingdoms, and gives birth to the world's first nation 3100 to 2686 BC – early Dynastic Period (Egypt) 3100 BC – Earliest hieroglyphs 3000 BC – The temple of Haddad in