1600s BC
Events and trends
- Egypt — End of Fourteenth Dynasty.
- 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).
- The end of the Indus Valley civilization.
- The overthrow of the ruling Amorite dynasty in Aleppo, Syria.
- The date of the earliest discovered rubber balls.
- Egypt conquered by Asian tribes known as the Hyksos — see History of ancient Israel and Judah.
- 1600 BC — Shang Dynasty instituted in China.
- 1600 BC — Tumulus culture started.
- c. 1600 BC — Nebra skydisk created.
- c. 1600 BC — The foundations of the Olmec civilization in Southern Mexico.
- c. 1600 BC — Cycladic civilization ends.
- c. 1600 BC–1550 BC — Funerary mask, from the royal tombs at Mycenae, Greece, was made. It is now at National Archeological Museum, Athens.
- c. 1600 BC-1200 BC — Hittite (Anatolia) iron tools and weapons.
- c. 1600 BC — Hittites establish capital at Hattushash (near modern Boghazkeui, Turkey).
Deaths
- 1602 BC — Shem, son of Noah, according to the Hebrew Calendar.